Rock Star

Looking for my latest blog post? Check it out here on my new site, StashLabQuilts.com.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2017 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Got scrap strips? Perfect! Sounds like it's time for a string quilt and I have just the project for you! This is "Rock Star" and it's currently featured in the new October 2017 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Check out the full blog post at StashLabQuilts.com

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Look Both Ways

Wohoo! Time for a trip down the magazine aisle to hunt up some more copies of the new issue of Quilts and More magazine, Fall 2017. It was just released and it features my project "Look Both Ways".  I'm super excited to share more about it with you. Do you have some low volume scrap strips laying around your sewing room? Perfect! Pull them out, this may be just the project.

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine.

 ©2017 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

When you first look at this quilt do you see the white arrows or the gray arrows? Did you notice there were both at first? Our eyes play funny tricks on us. At first, I naturally see the white I think because they follow the direction of the orange arrows but once I focus on the gray ones going the opposite direction, that's all I can see!

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine.

©2017 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

This project features 1 1/2" wide scrap strips sewn into strip sets. To achieve the contrast between the white and gray arrows, it's important to be selective when sorting your scraps. I tried to be pretty strict about white backgrounds on all the fabrics in the white arrows. With the gray scraps I was more willing to include a wider variety of tones, as long as they were gray (but don't be afraid of little pops of color!) You can choose to mix your scraps up a bit more but your arrows may not be as prominent.

Used with permission from Quilts and More™ magazine.

 ©2017 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

The orange row was my favorite scrap dive into the bins. I had fun picking them all out and many friends contributed their scraps as well so I had a great selection. I highly recommend scrap sharing with friends! Once I had enough orange strips, I arranged them all lightest to darkest and made multiple strip sets to achieve the light to dark affect across the quilt. Not a fan of orange or making it for a special baby with a differently themed nursery? (It's a great size for that, by the way...) Pick your favorite. Any color will work well with the white and gray.

I had fun with the quilting on this one, borrowing a friend's long-arm machine and getting some great tips from my two favorite long-arm professionals, Nikki and Tracey. Squiggles in the gray arrows and a squared off meandering loop in the white and orange with matching thread.

and one more quilt-in-the-wild shot just for fun!

So that's all for now. I have some more projects coming out soon so I'll be sure to share. That and a new website!!! It's my big summer project...stay tuned (and wish me luck!), it's quite a stretch for me :) Until then...

Happy string quilting!

Tonya

Sugar Shack

So excited to have this beautiful book to share with you and thrilled to have my project "Sugar Shack" included in such a fun group of designs. If you love house blocks as much as I do, I'll think you'll love Blockbuster Quilts: I Love House Blocks now available from Martingale/That Patchwork Place and on the shelf at your favorite local quilt shop.

What is a sugar shack you may be wondering?

A sugar shack is also known as sap house, sugar house, or sugar shanty and is primarily found in Eastern Canada and the Northeast in the US. Like the name suggests, sugar shacks are small cabins where sap collected from sugar maple trees is boiled into maple syrup. 

common sugar shack - image courtesy of Wikipedia

My mom has fond memories of her uncle's sugar shack in western Pennsylvania growing up and making maple syrup "candy" or taffy by pouring hot syrup on snowballs. Yum! So the cabins and colors of my house blocks are a nod to those memories.

"Sugar Shack" by Tonya Alexander

The fabrics are a selection of Moda Grunge mixed with a variety of white/gray prints. Over sized 16" x 20" blocks with a simple graphic house design give this project a modern edge. Piecing is a breeze by featuring half square triangles for all of the roof lines.

Along with "Sugar Shack", you'll find 13 other fun and colorful designs from some of my fellow Martingale designers. It's hard to pick a favorite but here's just a sneak peek at a few that I love....all images courtesy of Martingale/That Patchwork Place.

"Log Cabin Houses" by Natalie Barnes

"My Hometown" by Christa Watson

"Suburbia" by Dana Bolyard

So how about a giveaway to celebrate this fun new release?! Leave a comment - do you have sugar shack memories of your own? Have you made a house block quilt before or is there one in your future? Be sure to include your contact email if you are a no-reply blogger! I'll draw a winner for a free eBook version of I Love House Blocks on Friday, June 30th!

Happy Stash Quilting,

Tonya 

Sew much under construction...

Yeah May , I mean June! Wow, time flies! Only so many hours in a day! After a pretty wet and soggy past few months, we're looking forward to some sunshine and beautiful spring/summer blooms around here. What's under construction these days in my sewing room? Well, lots actually!

On the cutting mat:

Blue Dahlia (take 2!) - this time it's actually a gift for someone else. It's very rare that I make any of my quilts more than once, but I love this pattern. And so does the person I'm making it for, even though it's a surprise!

Blue Dahlia ( the mini RED version) - this one I'm planning to keep for myself! I'm scaling it down in size to use low volume 5" charm squares and I've changed out the color to red to match my kitchen. Also, I'm going for speed and ease this time and using fusible appliqué. The original pattern for the 60"x60" version can be found in Quiltmania's Simply Moderne issue no. 8 and a new individual pattern with size options is in the works!

Last month I had a fun visit with Kitsap Quilters in Poulsbo, WA. Such a warm, vibrant quilting community. I shared my Stash Lab trunk show at their meeting and we had a string workshop the following day which was fun. Later in May, I got a chance to be the student and treated myself to a workshop with the amazing Ann Shaw. Her patterns and techniques are so different than my usual that it was great to step outside my box, challenge myself, and learn something new. A real treat. Here's a glimpse of my work-in-progress from that class, her Boxer pattern.

On the publishing front:

...soon to be released from Martingale, Block Buster Quilts: I Love House Blocks and features my project, "Sugar Shack". It's due out later this month and I promise to share more about my project. Here's a shot of the cover, a close up of Sugar Shack is pictured in the lower right-hand corner.

Upcoming guild visits:

Next up as we head into summer I have guild visits to Vashon Island Quilters in the Seattle area, Westsound Quilters in Issaquah, WA and then an August trip out to Lincoln Quilters Guild in Lincoln, Nebraska! Summer in the Pacific Northwest is pretty hard to beat and I'm looking forward to these trips and meeting and sharing with my fellow quilters.

Happy Stash Quilting,

Tonya

Behind the Blue Dahlia

Parlez vous francais? Unfortunately, I don't much either short of what I can remember from high school, but luckily I think the language of quilts translates. This is my project "Blue Dahlia" which appears in the current issue of Simply Moderne No. 8. Fortunately for me, they also publish an English version!

Blue Dahlia featured in Simply Moderne No. 8, Photo courtesy of Quiltmania

Dahlia inspiration

Dahlias grow better than dandelions here in the Pacific Northwest, so you can probably see where the inspiration for this project came from. They come in so many varieties, shapes and colors, it's hard to pick a favorite. (There's also a film noir movie from 1946 called The Blue Dahlia starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, but the plot is kind of creepy and that's not where I drew my inspiration!)

This is my first time working with the folks at Quiltmania and I have to say, it is a beautiful publication. If magazines are your thing, you will find lots of lovely projects in this issue including a new one from Liza Prior Lucy and Kaffe Fassett, Rana Heredia for Sewn Into the Fabric, Pam Goecke Dinndorf for Aardvark Quilts,  as well as a great technical lesson article series by Kathy Doughty and many more. I am so excited to have the opportunity to share the pages with these wonderful designers. Be sure to look for it at your favorite local quilt shop.

Simply Moderne No. 8, Photo courtesy of Quiltmania

While this is an applique project, I designed it specifically to be a to-go project. It may look like it's all one big applique, but it's actually not. The multi-directional print of the background fabric (which is Modern Background Paper collection by Zen Chic for Moda) allows it to be divided up and when pieced back together, the block lines blend right in. The petals are appliqued on individual squares so you can prep them and take them with you in smaller project pieces. Most of the fabric for the applique petals are from Cotton + Steel's Bluebird Collection. The scrappy binding is also from Bluebird.

Blue Dahlia, 60" x 60"

As for the three magenta petals, there is no deep meaning, just that they remind me of the random beauty of nature and how occasionally a few petals don't get the memo and decide to do their own thing! The amazing quilting on this was done by Tracey...it was such a joy to even stitch on the binding and enjoy the beautiful detail of the quilting...

up close and personal with Tracey's beautiful quilting detail...

front quilting all crinkly and cozy after it's first wash...

backing fabric after the wash, Tula Pink Free Fall 108" wide - I LOVE this fabric for backing.

Since this post is already a little picture-heavy, I'll wait until next time to share a tutorial with you on the applique method I used on this project. Until then...au revoir!

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Got LVF?

Don't worry, it's not a disease. Well, maybe an addiction. We're talking quilt code for low volume fabrics (LVF's). Call them quiet, call them light, but never call them boring! With lots of white stuff on the ground outside at my house today, I thought this a timely topic!

I love them. Low volume fabrics, the more the better: creams, whites, grays, peaches, doesn't matter. They're the fabrics that are the contrast to your medium and dark fabrics. It's the contrast in your blocks that do the work to pull your eyes across a geometric design. I use them so much I'm always shopping for more to replenish my stash. Here's a sample of a recent haul, both whites and grays.

I tend to use LVF's in a couple of different ways. Option #1, and the favorite of my scrappy-loving heart: use a lot and mix them all together. Like this...

"The Perfect Setting", featured in American Patchwork & Quilting, December 2015. Image courtesy of AP&Q.

Close up on the LVF 60 degree triangles.

Option #2...pick one and use it more exclusively to give each block a more defined identity. Like this...

Here's one block out of my project "Cavanaugh Crossroads".

Here are 9 blocks all together in Cavanaugh Crossroads. Each block uses a different LVF. (I'm sure some of you may be stressing because I mixed true whites and creams together in this project, but I'm not! Do what you love!)

Option #3 is to pick one LVF and use it in the whole project like this...

"Pressed Leaves"

More often than not, I mix them all together, the more the better. For me, the best part about LVF's is that you can pull a whole bunch of them out of your stash and mix with abandon and get great results.

"The Big Spin" from Stash Lab. 

No matter which way you choose to use them, one thing is certain: You can never have enough or too many! I'm always on the lookout for great LVF's when I'm in my favorite local quilt shops.They are so versatile and work beautifully with a variety of scraps. Leave a comment and share your favorite way to use them. It would be reassuring to know I have good company in my love of LVF!

Want to see more and more often? Follow me on Instagram @tonyaalexanderquilts or on Facebook at Tonya Alexander Quilts.

Happy LVF stash quilting,

Tonya

I Love Churn Dashes!

For my first post in the new year, I am very happy to share my first collaborative project with you today with Martingale, Block Buster Series: I Love Churn Dashes. It was fun to be a part of this and I really enjoyed seeing how my fellow 14 designers started with the same traditional Churn Dash block and made such uniquely personal projects. In case you were wondering, we don't see each other's ideas or work before the book comes out either! It's amazing to me that it comes out the way it does, each project so individual and re-imagined by each designer.

Here's my project, "Little Boy Blue", 48 1/2" x 48 1/2"

I know, I know...not my usual color-palette, and it's even flannel! Sometimes you have to go outside your box and learn something new and boy, did I ever have learning opportunities on this one!

"Little Boy Blue" by Tonya Alexander
Quilted by Tracey Fisher

At first, I thought I would just share this project with you like any other, add some pretty pictures, some commentary, etc. etc. I have been dragging my heels on this post because there is so much more behind what started out to be just a simple little baby quilt.  Make no mistake, I love how my project turned out and I really love the book. I can also honestly say at this time last year I had just completed this project in the late night hours before the publisher deadline and truly thought it may be one of my biggest oops!

The design was good, the piecing was no problem. It's a nice weekend-sized baby quilt project and would be great in many colorways. I even loved my idea, but along the way, I had so many opportunities to learn from my own process mistakes. Humbling, yes. Discouraging, a little bit along the way. Satisfying in the end, absolutely!

Quilt testing in progress. This is the official quilt-tester in my house, Seamus.

Things I learned on the way to the finish line:

1. Pre-wash flannel in hot water and dry on high heat
This part I at least got right. I had the fabric colors/prints in mind before I actually found them and they turned out to be flannels. I hadn't really worked with flannel a lot before this project so I did some homework. The best advice I found, flannel can shrink a lot and at different rates. Working with flannel is not the time to forego the pre-washing step. You will save yourself a good amount of shrinkage in the end.

2. Baste, baste, and baste some more
Initially, I planned to quilt this with my walking foot on my domestic machine. I was going to do three large spirals that intersected and overlapped. Well, the first one was no problem. The second one started to bunch up and pleat as the circles came together. I pin-basted but not as much as I should have. I didn't take into consideration the give of the flannel under my walking foot and the amount of shifting and distorting the flannel was capable of. An let me tell you, it's capable of a lot, even with high-quality flannel fabric. Lesson here, don't take short cuts in basting. Whether you pin, spray or thread baste, take the time to be thorough and do it right.

3. When something isn't going right - STOP!
Or should I say, stop, re-evaluate and adjust. The quilting was turning into a hot mess on this and I just kept pushing along, thinking is would somehow work itself out. You can see even in the early picture above, the problem was already beginning. See that bunching up at the top? Yeah, well, that got a whole lot worse before I had the good sense to finally stop. I was so discouraged by my own stubbornness in not stopping when I should have, I didn't even take any pictures. You'll have to take my word on this one!

4. When the going gets tough, call in reinforcements
Your quilting peeps are one of your best assets and can serve you up equal parts of advice and encouragement. I called my good friend and long-arm quilter, Tracey. I told her my tale of woe and that I was going to give up and start over, considering my looming deadline, could she quilt it in like 10 minutes? She calmly talked me off the ledge. She said, "No, bring it over and let's see what we can do."

She finally convinced me we could pick out the quilting with a seam ripper and recover. I've known her a long time and she's an amazing quilter, but I did not believe her. Shows you what I know. We spent about an hour together "un-sewing" and then she took it into her capable hands and turned the quilting into something great - this time on the long arm. (So I will only take about 1/8 of the credit for quilting on this project. Let's just say there is more un-quilting to my credit on this one that actual quilting by me in the end!)

Tracey's final touch, beautiful all-over spiral quilting.

The best laid plans...

5. Be flexible and be o.k. with change

Even the final version didn't finish exactly as planned. Originally, I had designed it to be square but was forced into another design decision when it came time to square it up. Because of the shifting during the quilting, there was no way those corners were going to be square no matter how I trimmed them. Tracey suggested lopping off the corners. It solved the corner problem and added to the final design element of the corners mimicking the corners of the Churn Dash block. In this case the outer border is actually the largest Churn Dash and the angled corners made sense! Win-win! 

Quilt-tester comment: "It's o.k. Mom, I still love you..."

Presto, a year later, and I can now say I learned so much on this project and I am happy to share it with you. I share this with you in hopes to encourage you not to give up when things aren't quite going right. The project wasn't the problem - I was! But if you're willing to step back, accept some help, and be flexible and willing to change your plan, it's possible to have a happy ending. I hope you'll check out Block Buster Series: I Love Churn Dashes on the book shelf at your favorite local quilt shop or retailer and enjoy all the great designs.

Happy flannel quilting,

Tonya