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My New Book! Quilt As-You-Go Made Clever

(Update 9/30/21: Please see this post for a correction to the hexagon pattern in my book. Thank you!)

I am so excited to introduce to you all my new book called Quit As-You-go Made Clever! I have been quietly working on this for the past 2 years, so it’s so refreshing to finally be able to share it with you all!

This book is extra special because I styled and photographed the majority of the projects – I even photographed the book cover on my  dining room table, lol! I still recall the weekend one summer when my husband took our kids camping so that I could have the house to myself. I spent that entire weekend photographing this book, from morning until the sun went down!

If you’ve followed me, you may be aware of my two other books called Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern and Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage. This is a follow up to both and completes the trilogy as I am not one to drag things out. I try to jam pack my books with new techniques/tips and inspiration for you all so that my readers get fulfilling and novel content. I truly feel this third book completes everything you need to know about the quilt as-you-go (QAYG) technique and helps you take it a step further with creative ideas that you may have not realized are a form of QAYG.

The projects in this book are smaller with the option to go bigger once you’re comfortable. I’ve always been a fan of smaller quilts, so i’ve also included an entire chapter on how to display your minis in your home.

And a wonderful thing about this book (along with my other two books) is it’s beginner friendly with lots of how-to images to help walk you through each project. I always make it a point to be crystal clear, because I know how daunting a project can seem as soon as something doesn’t click or make sense right away. I try to avoid that in all my books, with crystal clear instructions and tips along the way. While a beginner could do these projects, it’s also great for a seasoned quilter with creative and new techniques!

As always, I want my books to show how fun quilting is! It doesn’t have to be a daunting hobby all about precision and following things to a T. There’s so much creativity to be had – and you’ll really see that shine through in my first book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern, with improvisational quilting as you go. 🙂

Fun fact: I named each quilt in this book after places near and dear to me in Washington state. At the beginning of each chapter I have a little blurb about the quilt name. So if you’re from around the Pacific Northwest you may recognize some of the places!

You can find my book in stores including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target an so forth. But of course please be sure to check you local quilt shop first.

My heart goes out to all my QAYG readers that have supported my books since my very first. I say this every time but it’s so true – my books would not have been possible without your readership! So with that, I want to thank you all…a true, heartfelt thank you!

I’ve been posting less frequently because i’ve returned to work full time, but I do post often(ish) on Instagram (@QuiltingintheRain) so be sure to follow me there for the latest. Also, I am still designing fabric and i’ve actually just wrapped up my latest collection for Maywood Studio which will debut at quilt market this October! That’s next month – eep! That came up quick. 🙂 I cannot wait to share it with you all!

For now, happy quilting! I hope you enjoy my new book. So much love to you all!

-Jera

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Selvege sneak peak, quilt labels, book signing – bring it on!

Wow, is it really almost February? This seems to be how all my blog posts start nowadays…with me wide-eyed at how fast the days are going by, lol. I seriously can’t keep up! Anyway, my littlest is currently snoozing so I wanted to take this time to share what i’ve been up to.

First, a selvege sneak peak of my 3rd collection for Lecien! This will debut next month, available for stores to order at Spring Quilt market. And I just have to skip ahead and say that i’ve been working away on my 4th collection which will debut at Fall market…!!!!

Do you notice the sparkly umbrellas? I do love me a little bling in my fabrics.

Also, real quick. I am quite excited about these new quilt labels I got from Dutch Label Shop. It’s been years since i’ve sewn labels onto my projects and quilts ever since my logo updated. And it just feels wrong not ‘signing’ my projects. Now I can’t wait to sew these onto my projects for the perfect finishing touch!

Their website (https://www.dutchlabelshop.com) was very easy to navigate and if they don’t have the color you’re looking for, simply email their customer support and they can send a Pantone catalogue of colors for you to choose from. They were very responsive with a quick turnaround. If you want to order some for yourself, here’s a coupon code for 15% off: quiltingintherain15 (valid for 60 days from today). I ordered woven labels.

Also, here’s a fun story! A few weeks ago we were at our local Barnes and Noble when my kids spotted their mama in a Better Homes and Gardens: Quilts and More magazine, Spring 2018 issue! Yes, because my boys love looking through quilt magazines at their leisure. Okay, so maybe I scavenged the aisle and then bribed them to model the magazine for mama 😉

Here’s some close-ups of the article.

I have to say I was really impressed with the layout and the flow of the interview. The editor, Joanna, did a wonderful job putting this beautiful magazine together.

I made sure my boyz and Paige made it in the article – they’re the cherry on top! The apples of my eyeballs. Ethan was pretty thrilled to see him and his little bro in the magazine.

Also in the magazine is a lunch tote tutorial which uses fabrics from my latest collection, La Conner.

How cute is that tote?! And it gives me an excuse to show off my porcelain strawberries which I scored for $8 while antiquing on my birthday.

Here’s the cover of the magazine – you can find it at your local bookstore, magazine aisle now! 🙂 Go on and get yourself a copy!

On a different note, I had a book signing for my 2nd book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage on Sunday! A huge thanks to Pacific Fabrics for having me! Pacific Fabrics is one of my go-to fabric shops, local to Washington with locations in downtown Seattle, Everett, Bremerton and Northgate. This was their grand opening at their new Bellevue location.

Here’s a few pics from the event. I can’t stop thanking all the fans, friends and family that came to my book signing.

Below i’m standing with Debbie and Jessica from Pacific Fabrics, such lovely, warm and kind people. I did a book signing for them for my first book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern, at the Sewing and Stitchery Expo a few years ago, which is how I ended up meeting Lecien Fabrics whom I now design fabrics for!

Also, thanks again to Pacific Fabrics for letting my two boys run wild in your shop for 2 hours. Ethan was obsessed with the raffle games and even won one! lol. There he is with the winning raffle ticket. And in case you’re wondering what surprise he chose from the prize table…he went with a charm pack, hehe.

Simon enjoyed the raffles as well and yelled out the numbers as they were announced… 😎

There’s always that worry that no one will show to a book signing, so my heart literally swelled with love and gratitude to all that took time out of their day to come out. I truly feel blessed and so thankful.

Thanks to my husband for capturing these photos with a sleeping 2.5 yr old over his shoulder. Dad skillz.

Here’s my family and I ready to take off after a successful event. 🙂

I handed out La Conner embroidery scissors to everyone that got a book signed as a small token of my thanks.

Onto some different news…

Here are two screenshots of how my books are doing on Amazon. My first book is a bestseller in the Quilts and Quilting category on Amazon with 52 reviews already! And my first book is up to 334 reviews! That’s CRAZY!

That being said, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all who have ever taken a moment to leave a helpful book review. My husband and I read each and every one of them. I literally read through each review from my first book and made sure I addressed any issues/complaints in my 2nd book. 🙂 When you support my book, you support me as an artist. Thank you for that!

Some other cool news! And when I say news, this truly just got delivered to my doorstep! I was so excited I snapped a photo just for this post.

My first book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern, has been translated in Spanish! I set off writing my books and starting a blog with the intentions of spreading inspiration and creativity and taking the scariness out of quilting. Thank you C&T Publishing for enabling me to spread creativity, and reach more audiences!

Pretty sweet, huh?

Anyway, thanks for reading this lengthy post. 🙂 The sun made an appearance this morning in Seattle so I whipped out my camera and took a few shots. Can you tell i’m ready for Spring? A gal can never have too many flowers.

I do love the look of strawberries, as I’m sure you’re aware since they’ve been printed on my first two fabric collections 😉 And these ones will never grow bad!

As I wrap up this post I will leave you with photos of my quilting buddy, Paige.

There really is no better way to end a blog post…well…maybe Paige on a quilt would have been better 😉 Hard to believe she’s 13, but she still looks like a puppy.

Thanks for reading me, and happy quilting! Have a wonderful February ahead!

Love,

JerBear

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Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage (my latest book!)

Hi everyone! I did a post about my new book back in March, but now that my book has finally released this month (!!) I thought i’d do another post with some videos and pretty project photos that my publisher sent me from the book.

Below you can find two videos: A quick 2-minute overview of my book, and the second video where I elaborate more and show some actual quilts in hand. When it comes to quilting I can get talking quite a lot, so I thought it’d be good to share both videos to give you the option, and to not talk your ear off.

Take a look below! 🙂

For a quick ~2 min explanation of my 2nd book, you can watch this video that I filmed for The Fat Quarter Shop back in May. Gotta love where YouTube decided to freeze-frame me. I’m surprised my eyes aren’t closed too x-p

However, for a video where I elaborate on my book and talk more about the 3 different QAYG joining methods, you can check out this homemade video of me in my sewing room, that my husband helped put together for me. 🙂

>>Again I want to reiterate that my 2nd book would not be possible if not for all of you that showed a tremendous amount of support and love for my 1st book. So I wanted to reach out again (i’ll never tire of doing so), to say thank you. This book is for you! <<

By the way, you can read a review on my first book published by Quilter’s Review HERE.

And now for some pretty quilt as you go  project photos that I promised!

The above quilt was made by Deborah Russell. I am truly thankful to have had help by some very talented gals for my 2nd book! I couldn’t have have done it without their help

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The quilt below was made by Faith Essenburg of Sarana Ave.

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This  next quilt I believe I may have mentioned before in a prior post. This is a true vintage quilt. I scored these 1930’s hand-sewn blocks from eBay. They were very delicate and not perfect due to their antique nature, but the quilt-as-you-go technique enabled me to very carefully quilt one block at a time, therefore stabilizing each block. Followed by assembling the blocks together after each delicate block had already been quilted and stabilized. These once delicate blocks are now stabilized enough to put this quilt through the delicate cycle of the washing machine! QAYG is a great way to carefully assemble true, vintage quilt blocks!

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I have a whole chapter dedicated to fabric selection, and how to find inspiration from your surroundings. I love fabric, so it was easy and unique to include that.

This next quilt is the High Tea Sampler quilt (also the first quilt on this blog post). I talk about this quilt in my videos, and how my book includes 51 quilt blocks to choose from, plus 9+ projects to help get your creative juiced flowing, plus THREE quilt as-you-go joining techniques. Furthermore, I have a chapter called “Quilts for Thought” which have even more QAYG ideas. I want my books to be more than just quilt patterns. I want them to inspire! I want it to let your inner artist come out! 🙂

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Here’s a big ol’ pile of quilted blocks ready to be assembled. I took this photo when I was working on the high tea sampler quilt. It sure is a satisfying feeling having a stack of quilted and squared-up blocks. I carefully walk you through this process in my book, with lots of tips and tid bits to help you along the way.

Here’s a photo I took that shows the back of the quilt. It’s a whole other quilt on the other side!

Here’s another lovely project photo taken by the talented C&T Publishing team. they did an excellent job making this book organized and beautiful.

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This next quilt, called Simon’s Quilt,  was a special one that I made for my littlest who is now 2 years old.  It’s a very simple block, but I explain how to use textured fabrics, like this minky cuddle fabric, in your projects. The QAYG technique makes using these types of materials a bit more manageable.  It’s adds so much to a project, and it’s baby approved!!!

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And now for some pretty close ups. 🙂  If you’d like to read more about this High Tea Sampler quilt (shown below), check out this post.

 

I hope you get a chance to watch a video. There’s so much to say that it seemed easier to just film me talking about it, rather than writing a long article. I hope you enjoy the photos, and again, thank you for your support!

You can find my book here. If you get the book and love it, I appreciate any honest reviews. They truly help me as an author, and my husband and I read all of them! Thank you SO much!

buh-bye for now 🙂

xo

jera

p.s. happy quilt-as-you-go!

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La Conner Quilty Box!

This month I had the honor of curating September’s Quilty Box! Quilty Box is an online subscription to boxes filled with quilty fun! Each month is curated by a different designer (you can see a previous post I did exactly one year ago to date…wait, how weird is that?!…by clicking right HERE). It’s so much fun receiving one of these beautiful boxes in the mail each month!

Update: If you’d like a La Conner Quilty Box, you can purchase the September box HERE. They have a few extras for a limited time only 🙂

I wanted to take this time to share what was inside!

Surprise, surprise! 😉 A bundle of my La Conner fabric!

I hope you guys aren’t getting sick of seeing my fabric by now :-p

Here are the 8 fat quarters I chose for the box. It was tougher than it sounds having to narrow it down from 36 to 8!

There are hints of gold sparkles in La Conner fabric, but it’s very hard to photograph. You’ll have to see it in person to see the bling.

I chose these prints specifically to go with this exclusive pattern I made just for Quilty Box. This pattern requires exactly 8 fat quarters. However, you can easily customize the size of your quilt my adding or subtracting blocks, as you can make 2 block from one fat quarter.

 

Quilty Box printed the pattern into a beautiful little booklet.

This was something new for me! I had custom La Conner stainless steel embroidery scissors made to include in the box! How fun are these?!

My husband and I, with the help of my mom, packaged each and every one of these scissors right on our dining table, I kid you not. And there were thousands upon thousands of them – fun times! I like to think of it as (forced) bonding time. 😉

These La Conner scissors come in three different colors to match my fabrics! Each box had one of three colors. My only regret is not being able to incorporate the gold metallic shimmer in the scissors, which you can find on my fabric in this print.

Which color is your favorite? 🙂

Also included is one spool of Cosmo Tsu Mu Gi 100% Egyptian cotton thread. Each box had one of the 4 colors shown below, which are custom picked La Conner collection threads by Lecien Fabrics. Any of these colors will blend flawlessly with your La Conner project.

I love pretty notions. These marble-glass-head pins by Clover are super dainty and the colors happen to match La Conner collection. 🙂

I love an organized sewing room (which is rare for me these days). But this mini ruler pal by Pleasant Home will help keep you organized.

A unique thing about Quilty Box is their little catalog which has fun articles and interviews to read about. This month’s catalog has an article on the town of La Conner Washington, which inspired my fabric collection.

There’s also an interview where they ask how I got started in all this quilty fun  and what I did before it.

And a very lovely tid bit about my two books, including my new book Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage which is available now! Thank you Quilty Box for the beautiful write-up.

For those that ordered a box, I hope you are happy with it! <3

Be on the lookout for my next post which will be about my 2nd book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage. I filmed myself *covers eyes* talking about it, and my husband has been working hard to create a nice little You Tube video to share with you all.

As always, thank you for reading me! Enjoy the rest of your week.

Hugs,

Jera

p.s. Reminder that the La Conner blog tour is happening from Sept18-Oct30, 2017. So be sure to check my facebook and Instagram to follow along and see all the lovely La Conner projects.

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Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern – Strip Quilt with Lace tutorial!


I know a lot of you have been waiting for this quilt-as-you-go tutorial, so here you go! You can find a video tutorial below which I had the privilege of filming at The Fat Quarter Shop with Kimberly and their wonderful team.

First, a little about my Quilt As-You-Go joining techniques as I’ve been getting lots of questions…

The quilt in this video tutorial is from the “Solstice Quilt” pattern from my first book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Modern. The main difference (other than the fabric) is in this video I show you how to add lace embellishments to the quilt. My first book has two quilt as-you-go joining techniques, and in this free video tutorial I explain how to use 1 of the 2 techniques.

My first book 🙂

My second book, Quilt As-You-Go Made Vintage,  which comes out later this month (September 2017) has a 3rd and all new joining technique which renders a reversible quilt! You can read more about that in THIS post.

My 2nd book, which comes out later this month!

I pack a ton of helpful tips and tid bits into my books that are in an easy-to-read format, so be sure to check them out 🙂

The lace I used in my video tutorial are from my La Conner lace collection for Lecien fabrics, which can be found at The Fat Quarter Shop, along with all my fabrics and thread. Click here to see it all!

La Conner lace comes in 5 different colors, including: vanilla, peony, sage, blueberry and cranberry.

For this tutorial I used vanilla lace. And of course the fabrics are from my 2nd fabric collection for Lecien, called La Conner.

All right, here is the free video tutorial! I was way too nervous during this filming as it was my first tutorial I did while I was on site.  However,  everything you need to know to make this quilt came across clearly, which is all that matters! x-) I was a lot less nervous by the time I filmed my La Conner tote bag tutorial .

I worked really hard on this one (literally, I worked up a sweat during the filming process, lol!), so I hope you get inspired to try QAYG, or that it sparks some creativity. 🙂

With that, i’ll leave you with a couple more photos of this beautiful quilt! 🙂 The lace really adds so much charm!

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

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