#mystashmystyle giveaway winner!

Congrats to...Karen! You're the kick-off giveaway winner of the #mystashmystyle contest/challenge!

Wohoo! Now it's time to dive into the stashes and let's get sewing! See Monday's post for all of the contest details and great prizes up for grabs. Hope you'll join us!

You can post your pics using #mystashmystyle, or email them to me at tonyaalexanderdesigns@gmail.com and I'll post them for you. Can't wait to see your style shine through!

Happy stash quilting,
Tonya

My Stash, My Style contest and giveaway!

Have you ever looked at a project in a book or in a magazine and passed it over because you thought, it's just not your style? If you're anything like me, probably about a thousand times! How about changing it and making it your own?

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the lovely and talented Jenifer Gaston, author of Primitive Style. And while you would think at first glance, our styles are from opposite ends of the spectrum, think again! The truth is, you can take any project and change it up as much as you want to make it uniquely your own. So we set out to make some of each other's projects to reflect our own styles and see what we came up with. The opportunities were endless - and the results were great!

We had so much fun playing, we're hosting the My Stash My Style contest and giveaway along with Martingale/That Patchwork Place to give you a chance to stretch your creative muscles, share your projects, and have a chance to win some awesome prizes to boot! Jeni and I will be sharing our own projects in the next few weeks on our blogs and on Facebook and Instagram.

Here's the skinny:

1. Choose a project from the book Stash Lab by Tonya Alexander OR the book Primitive Style by Jenifer Gaston. (The further a project is from your typical style and stash, the better!)

2. Reimagine, redefine, and remake that project in your own style, using your stash, your point of view, and your creativity. Change the colors, change the dimensions—even change the purpose of the project. It’s entirely up to you!

3. Post your finished project to Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #mystashmystyle and share how you changed it up. We can’t wait to see what you  come up with! 

Complete steps 1-3 by May 2nd and you’ll be officially entered into the My Stash, My Style contest! So, what prizes are up for grabs?

Prize pack includes:

 A free one-year subscription to Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine, co-owned by Jeni Gaston, author of Primitive Style

•  A specially curated bundle of fabrics from Tonya Alexander, author of Stash Lab
•  A beautiful bundle of wool from The Woolen Willow
•  A $50 gift certificate from publisher Martingale to spend at their website, ShopMartingale.com

Ready to play? We'll kick off the contest with a giveaway this week of an electronic copy of Jeni Gaston’s book Primitive Style and one of my book Stash Lab.  To be entered for the giveaway, leave a comment below about your stash style or a style you would like to try. We'll draw a winner on Wednesday, March 23rd so you can get started on your projects right away. A winner will also be drawn over on Jeni's blog, so be sure to stop there for a visit for two chances to win!

Follow along anytime on Instagram #mystashmystyle @tonyaalexanderquilts @jenifergaston

We hope you'll join us in MY STASH, MY STYLE! We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Happy Stash quilting,

Tonya

Splash of Color Giveaway Winner!

Thanks everyone for the great comments on Jackie's book, Splash of Color and entering to win the giveaway. I hope you've been inspired to pull out some brights, blacks and whites from your stash and dive in!

Congrats to MsAdventure!...., our giveaway winner! Please email me at eyecandyquiltco@gmail.com with your mailing address so we can send you your copy of Splash of Color signed by Jackie!

If you didn't win this time around, be sure to ask for Jackie's book at your favorite local quilt shop or you can get it from Jackie at Canton Village Quiltworks!

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Book Review and a Giveaway - Splash of Color

One of the best things to come out of my first time author experience has been the chance to meet some really fun folks in my quilting world this past year and today I'm happy to share one of those and her book with you...Splash of Color: A Rainbow of Brilliant Black and White Quilts by the awesome Jackie Kunkel.

You may know of Jackie through Canton Village Quilt Works or through Quiltworx as a Judy Niemeyer certified instructor - she's a really busy gal! I had the pleasure of meeting her at Fall Quilt Market and quickly found we are two peas in a pod when it comes to our love of color and bright, bold fabric. I was thrilled she shared a copy with me :)

All images courtesy of Martingale/That Patchwork Place.

Her book Splash of Color is beautiful! It has 13 different projects that focus on the use of brights with black and white fabrics as the neutral...right up my alley! Here are some of my favorites...

Star Bright, by Jackie Kunkel

Proud Mary, by Jackie Kunkel

Jackie had many of her quilting buddies contribute to the book and do their version of her quilts in different colorways and with their own twist as well. The ideas just keep coming. I love that.

One thing that I really wanted to try was Jackie's technique for curved piecing, something I really haven't done a lot of. A little scary - but not when Jackie shows you how easy it is. She has this great youtube video to show you how.

Let's celebrate that successful curved piecing with a giveaway, shall we? Just share a comment below about Splash of Color, curved piecing, or anything colorful to be entered to win your very own signed copy of Splash of Color. I'll draw a winner on March 5th.

And if that weren't enough, you can hop over to Jackie's blog where she's reviewing my own Stash Lab: Simple Solutions for Scrap Quilts this week for a chance to win a signed copy of that one as well!

So two thumbs up! Thanks Jackie for a great addition to my bookshelf and my sewing room.

Happy Splash Quilting,

Tonya

Book Review - Machine Quilting With Style

What do you do when you love quilting but don't actually like to do the quilting part? I have to admit it's not the part of the process I enjoy the most and I'm often stumped on what to do with my completed tops. I like the fabric, design, piecing and even binding! The quilting itself can be a challenge for me and definitely an area with room to grow. So I was very happy to get my hands on fellow-Martingale author Christa Watson's book Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking-Foot Wonders to Free-Motion Favorites.

All photos courtesy of Martingale/That Patchwork Place.

You may know her from on-line as Christa Quilts or the Precut Store. She has so many great ideas for quilting with both the walking foot as well as free motion.

The book includes 12 complete projects that provide not only beautiful projects themselves, but great ideas for some very do-able quilting ideas that you can do on your own domestic machine.

I really appreciated all of the info Christa shares about batting types and thread. Hints for successful basting (often another challenge altogether) as well as some really beautiful designs.

I love this scrappy project called Facets. The best part - she's even doing a quilt-along on this pattern as we speak!

So I was happily inspired to drag out a project I had been procrastinating on and give some of her tips a try. I pulled out my completed top for Cavanaugh Crossroads and decided to give the serpentine stitch on my machine a go for some nice, overall texture.

And success! Super happy with it. The quilt measures 54" x 54" and took me about 7 hours (split into two days.)

The best news yet is that Christa has another book coming out later this Spring with Angela Waters that I can't wait for - The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting....to be continued! Christa is super involved with the Modern Quilt Guild and you can also find her on Instagram @christaquilts .

And guess what? You can find me there too! @tonyaalexanderquilts.

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Behind the quilt - Sunny Side Up

O.k., on to our next project, with a little peek behind this crazy little creative brain of mine! We may be no closer to figuring out how it works, but we'll take a look anyway...

Also from Stash Lab, this quilt is called Sunny Side Up...

Sunny Side Up

I love geometric patterns and I see them everywhere! Hotel carpets, upholstery, tile, a brick walkway - pattern is everywhere! This quilt literally jumped off a bathroom wall! Here's a magazine ad for some hotel that I ripped out of a magazine (I'm sure it was mine!) It was begging me to be made into a quilt. Really, a traditional quarter log cabin block, just made bigger and brighter!

Inspiration on my bulletin board in my sewing room...

That torn out picture lingered on my idea bulletin board for at least a year or so before I got the urge to go shop-hopping while on vacation through sunny California searching high and low for all things yellow. Before this project, my stash had virtually no yellow to speak of so this was a fun fabric hunt. It was addictive!

I have to admit, before I decided to go with the yellow, I considered making it in a bunch of different colorways (red and white, blue and white, etc.) because there was this old quilt color "rule" I had heard someone say that a quilt should never have more than say, 5% yellow or it will be ruined. Well, that was like throwing down the gauntlet for me - it had to be yellow now!

I didn't actually even draw this one out because I really figured on replicating the tile pattern pretty closely. Everything got cut down to 2 1/2" strips and this is what it looked like mid-way through up on my design wall.

Tracey added the most beautiful, modern quilting to it - way too big for me to tackle on my home machine with a deadline. This one is so cuddly and soft, it just begs you to curl up in it for an afternoon nap. I love it, one of my favorites for sure. Simplicity itself.

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Behind the quilt - Pixie Sticks

I thought I would share a little backstory on some of my quilt projects. I always find it interesting to find out where others get their inspiration for their creations and more about their process. It can just as often be very similar to mine - or completely the opposite.

I'll start with one of the projects from my book, Stash Lab - first up, Pixie Sticks, which is the smallest project in the book, a table runner. I have one drawer in my sewing room that has leftovers or orphan blocks from other projects. It also had leftover strip sets from other projects that I just couldn't bear to toss. I just needed to find them a new home. Cut down and paired with a simple steel gray solid with a linen texture, I came up with this...

Pixie Sticks table runner

Quilted straight lines with the walking foot

This one was so fun and easy that I decided to make it a second time - something I almost never do!

Pixie Sticks #2

I started with some beautiful scrap strip sets gifted to me by my friend Tracey - I love her scraps :) These were actually from another project of hers using Sew Kind of Wonderful's Quick Curver Ruler. I decided to work around the curves because the fabrics were just too beautiful to go to waste. Double score - the backing fabric was from her too! Here's where it started...gifted curved strip sets on the left.

Cutting down the curved scraps

1" wide scrap strips needed for the project

These scraps were more coordinated than in the original. The first time, I used leftover strips sets from several different projects to make the "sticks". This time, I paired the sticks with some plain unbleached osnaburg fabric. Have you tried osnaburg? I love it. It gives a nice, simple contrast to bright scraps with a beautiful woven texture. Ask for it at your favorite LQS, they probably have it. It can be a little stretchy because of the looser weave, so starch away!

A little big stitch hand quilting added the perfect touch to this project. Simple, modern and scrappy!

Big stitch hand quilting done with #8 perle cotton thread

Happy scrap quilting,

Tonya