Quilting in the Rain

With the end of Summer and the start of school for my boys, I  jumped right back to work! I couldn’t ask for better timing.  This month of October i’ve made a total of 3 quilts and it’s only mid-October! This is me panic-quilting to prepare for Fall quilt market which will take place in Houston Texas a couple weeks from today. I will be there at the Lecien Fabrics booth debuting my 4th collection called Loyal Heights, as shown in all of these quilts (if you’re not sure what quilt market is all about, here’s me at Spring market a year ago when my 2nd collection La Conner came out). Loyal Heights will be available in stores Spring 2019. Since that sounds like forever away, i’ll mention that my 3rd collection called Woodland Rose will be in stores next month! Hopefully that collection will tie you over 😉

I’ve been sharing a lot of these photos on my @Qultingintherain instagram and I wanted to share them here too plus extras. If you follow me on instagram, sorry for the repeats!

I’m a total sucker for red and white quilts (& china dishes), so I absolutely had to make one this time around. Usually I try to design quilts that incorporate all the colors from my collection which can be challenging (I did make one though, shown further down in this post). But I love the red in Loyal Heights so much I had to do this one.

And YES! There will be a FREE pattern for this quilt through Lecien Fabrics. You know me, I love to gift a free pattern alongside every new fabric collection I create. Also, it’s my hope that quilt shops might kit up these quilts for you all! 😉 You will need to be patient for the pattern though as it probably won’t come out for a few months. I’ll be sure to share it on my blog.

This print above was inspired by my red and white vintage china dish collection.

The red, blue and peach look lovely together as well, so I whipped up this quilt (above) on a whim one night. No pattern as of yet as I literally sketched it up one night.

Here’s some detail photos of my fabric. Do you see my signature gold sparkles? 🙂 I think I will forever add a little bling to my fabrics.

This collection is named after the neighborhood I live in. In the picture below, that’s actually my house in the bottom left corner! I thought I might as well throw my house in there too because why not?! 😉 To read more about the inspiration behind this fabric collection, check this post out.

You’ll see lots of apples in this fabric because there’s apple trees and crab apple trees scattered all over the Loyal Heights neighborhood.

Crazy to think I cut over 1,400 two inch squares to make 2 of 3 of these quilts. And that’s only the two inch squares – doesn’t include all the rectangles, etc. I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts and audio books. I love a good paranormal sci-fi romance (anything Kresley Cole!). More recently i’ve been listening to the Lore podcast which are non-fiction stories based on historical places and peoples that focus on the darker side of human nature. Perfect for this time of the year and I admit to spooking myself during a late night quilt sesh when listening to this. I may have yelped out loud when I saw a flicker of something in my window…of course it was only my movement reflecting in the window, lol.

Here’s the big quilt top which incorporates all the colors. I should receive the border fabric in 2-days so i’ll add that as soon as I get it.

I’m having Lauren of Bold Notion Quilting and Charlene of The Cotton Farm help quilt these tops via long arm, so you can expect a blog post for each finished quilt in the near future. 🙂 These ladies do AMAZING quilt finishing work, so I can’t wait to see how they’ve chosen to finish them when I get them back!

Here’s some pictures when the quilt tops were in progress…

It’s always satisfying having a growing stack of assembled blocks… 🙂

I have a small sewing space in my attic and no room for a design wall, so I have a design floor 😉

And a few more up close photos of the fabric. It amazes me every time seeing my name printed on the selvage.

This print below with the peach mini fruits may be my favorite two prints/colors from this collection.

I sure love me some red and white!

Anyhoodles, thanks for letting me share Loyal Heights and my market progress with you!

Completely random, but Halloween is in full swing at the Brandvig household. 🙂 My boys are obsessed. I’d share a picture of the outside of our house with our Halloween decor, but our house is currently painted an ombre of green. We’re waiting for the painters to come finish it with our chosen shade of green.

Happy October and if you happen to be at quilt market this Fall, please stop by Lecien’s booth and come say hello to me! I’d love to meet you.

Whew…that was a long post! Thanks for reading me and i’ll see ya after quilt market 😉

xo

jera

Hi All! So I recently shared a photo of my pretty pink iron on instagram and got lots of questions on it. Not only is she pretty, but she’s smart too! 😉 All of the questions spurred me to do an oliso iron review on my instagram stories. It’s an honest review with pros and cons.  I thought i’d share the review on my blog as well because i’m an advocate for quilting tools that’ll make the hobby more efficient. The iTouch technology allows for the iron to retract up and down making it a “smart iron.” It’s pretty neat – see for yourself in my video review below 🙂

I asked oliso if they can give my viewers a discount code because the iron ‘aint cheep! =) They generously made a special Quilting in the Rain code: “Rain15” for 15% off any oliso iron from their website: https://www.oliso.com/smartiron/ This code expires on Halloween (October 31st, 2018) so treat yourself!

I also had lots of questions on the ironing pad seen is the video. I talk about it at the very end but in case you missed that it’s a 17″ x 24″ 100% wool ironing pad by Precision Quilting Tools. You can find this at your local quilt shop or Amazon. The wool absorbs the heat from the iron, essentially pressing your fabric on the front and back for a quicker press. I’m really happy with mine as it saves some pressing time. Plus I like how portable it is. As you can see in the picture above, I keep it to the left of my sewing machine.

Also, I’ll quickly note that I don’t  keep the ironing pad over my cutting mat (contrary to the pic above). I only moved it there for good lighting in my video and photo. The bottom of the ironing pad doesn’t get hot, but it does get slightly, just barely warm. So while it probably won’t warp the cutting mat, to play it safe in the long run I just keep it on my table.

Let me know if you have any questions, but be sure to watch the video as I answer some questions at the end there too.

Anyhoodles, just a quick post to share some quilting tools that make my life sweeter. I love having good tools on hand!

On a completely different note…

Holy crap it’s mid-October already! Fall quilt market is in t-minus 2 weeks. I have so many projects to share….!

For now i’ll share some pictures of my mornings lately. Foggy Fall walks to school. Colorful leaves.

smiling corgis 🙂

I love the saying, “Autumn in my favorite color.” So true for me.

Thanks for stopping by! Aaand back to panic quilting… 😉