Fellow Quilters,
Today is a busy day – I am double-blogging. I am the guest blogger over at the McCall’s Quilting blog AND I am blogging here on my own site. If you are visiting through the McCall’s blog, a warm Canadian welcome! If you are visiting just because, please check out my post at McCall’s, and leave a comment there for a chance to win one of 3 fabric prizes compliments of Northcott. I am also giving away fabric prizes, so be sure to leave a comment below. More about that later.
I am a guest on the McCall’s site because my Painted Porcelain quilt is featured in the January/February 2016 issue of McCall’s Quilting, on newsstands now. Here is a picture:
Patti’s Painted Porcelain queen-size quilt
I used Northcott’s Porcelain Blue collection designed by Deborah Edwards. It is a beautiful collection of classic blue and white, reminiscent of Delft blue dinnerware. My quilt is equally traditional. The block looks like the Roman Stripe block, with a half-square triangle on one half of the block, and strips of various fabrics making up the other half-square triangle. My pattern is deceptively simple – I used the STRIP-R fabric from the Porcelain Blue collection for those “pieced” triangles. A STRIP-R (pronounced “stripper”) is a fabric with (21) 2” wide lengthwise strips across the width of the fabric. It looks like this:
Porcelain Blue STRIP-R
I think STRIP-Rs are the greatest thing since… well, rotary cutters. Think of them as jellyrolls already sewn together. If you have visited from the McCall’s blog, you have seen some of the amazing ways that you can use them in quilts. I want to show you another cool use for them. I have the honour (that’s Canadian for “honor”) of being the featured designer in the current issue of The Canadian Quilter, the quarterly newsletter of the Canadian Quilters’ Association (www.canadianquilter.com). Here’s part of the article from the magazine.
Article in the Winter 2015 issue of The Canadian Quilter
I designed a pretty throw-size quilt especially for the issue, made with Beacon Hall, the sister collection to Porcelain Blue. Beacon Hall has the same prints as Porcelain Blue, and is available in black/white and red/white. I used the red/white combination for Beacon Hall Baskets, a vertical strip quilt with 4 columns of baskets and 3 columns of Seminole strips. Guess what? Those Seminole strips are made with the Beacon Hall STRIP-R! How easy is that?!? I cut the STRIP-R into 3 sections:
Cutting the Beacon Hall STRIP-R
Then I cut each section into 2½” wide pieces and made a Seminole strip from each one by aligning the “seams” without the bulk of actual seams.
Piecing the Seminole
I used this same concept in my Ambience Medallion pattern (available at www.quiltwoman.com) using Northcott’s Artisan Spirit – Ambience collection.
Ambience Medallion wall-size
The Seminole corners were made with a STRIP-R. It makes the piecing so efficient that I was able to make this quilt top yesterday afternoon.
I’ve been spending lots of time in my sewing room lately making up quilt top samples for my travelling trunk show. Most of the quilts have STRIP-Rs in them, and I can get these tops done in less than a day. Here’s one that I pieced one evening, a variation of my Shimmering Strata pattern originally designed for Artisan Spirit – Shimmer.
Shimmer Strata pattern made with Ambience STRIP-R
In the original quilt, I strip-pieced the 9 light-to-dark values of 4 different colour palettes of Shimmer, then created my bargello. In this Ambience version, I simply used 3/8yd of 4 different STRIP-Rs from Ambience. The STRIP-R in Ambience has only 7 values, so my quilt is a bit shorter, but it does not impact the design. In my Ambience version, there are only 3 horizontal seams in each bargello column instead of 15 if I had sewn strips together, and there is no bulk from those seams. In the narrow strips in this quilt, eliminating this bulk was the key to making this quilt a breeze to piece. I saved so much time that I was able to whip up a batch of Pecan Toffee Shortbreads, hubby’s favourite Christmas cookie.
Pecan Toffee Shortbreads
Finely chop and toast ¾ cup pecans. Let cool.
Combine 1 lb room-temperature salted butter & 1 cup icing sugar.
Add 4 cups flour, 1 cup at a time (I use all-purpose).
Add cooled chopped toasted pecans & 1 cup Skor toffee bits, and mix until combined.
Roll into 1” balls and place 2” apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets (the parchment paper is a necessity). Flatten slightly with the dimpled end of a meat tenderizer dipped in flour.
Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes or until bottoms are light golden.
Now for the giveaway. I have 3 Beacon Hall fabric packets to give out. For a chance to win one, please visit the McCall’s blog post (http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/?p=11786) and come back here to leave a comment telling me which 2 quilts shown in my McCall’s post are your favourites. Please comment by December 16th to be eligible.
Cheers,
Patti
pattispatchwork-blog.com 
That Candied Peel quilt is beautiful as is the Blue Porcelain quilt. I couldn’t choose.
Awesome! I cannot wait to try theses Striper fabrics and patterns!
Hi Patti. I have seen the strip Northcott fabric in the greys and wonder if it would work the same as the porcelain blues. Love the pattern for the porcelain blues.
My two favorites (only two??) are the Bevels quilt and the Strip-Easy Lone Star.
I like painted porcelain and bevels.
patsystitch@gvtc.com
Loving the Porcelain Prism stars and the fluctuations (punctuation) in blues and greens.
I’ve fallen in love! I Love Painted Porcelain. The blues and whites are gorgeous and your design makes this fabric line shine. The whole idea of STRIP-R is wonderful. It’s so easy to have those fabric strips get a little wonky when sewing them together and the STRIP-R is a perfect solution.
painted porcelain and heat wave. thanks Patti. gotta get me some of that STRIP-R fabric.
Porcelain Prism Stars and Heat Wave
Oh, those beautiful porcelain Prism Stars just make me want to run to my studio. Absolutely beautiful.
The Porcelain Stars are great and so is the Lonestar Quilt. Great work.
Patti I love the traditional in the barnraising setting… I have always loved the Porcelain collection. [reminds me of my Bellflower Blues]
Your work [and recipes] alwaysminspires me.
Carole Atterbury
[A. Carole Grant… Wyndhaven Designs]
I loved the fluctuations quilt
Love the idea of this fabric! So much easier than sewing all those strips together! My favorite quilts are the strip-easy lone star and the bevels quilt. They are all gorgeous, though!
Love Love Love the blue and white fabric and the quilt you made with it for McCalls. I also really loved the Bevals quilt as well. What a great idea…the Strip-R….and would save a lot of time. Did you do the quilting on the porcelain quilt? Long arm or on your regular machine? Beautiful!
I love the Painted Porcelain
I like Heat Wave the best.
Betsey Ryan
Love the Prism Stars….but Painted Porcelain is right up there too!! What a great use of that strip fabric!
The two I like best are Bevels and Fluctuations. So gorgeous!
I met Patti at a quilt guild in Cambridge and have loved her ever since. Love the idea of this fabric – so much less complicated. Now all I need is a steady hand. I really enjoyed the black and white lone star…….
They’re all brilliant and look oh so easy. My favourites have to be the Lone Star and Painted Porcelain.
Love this new Stripe-R fabric. You have my creativity up and running. Love your Shimmer Strata pattern, especially. I’d love to win. Thanks for sharing your ideas, and I love Northcutt fabrics.
It was hard to choose! I liked the Porcelain Prism Stars and Bevels.
Hi Patti! What I love most about your quilt designs is the variety! So many designers tend to stay in “one lane” and their quilts look like brothers/sisters of the same family. Not yours! Each has a DNA of their own and all are beautiful! My 2 favorites shown on the McCall’s blog are Bevels and Porcelain Prism Stars The latter one reminds me of snowflakes and it would be so perfect laying across an armchair in my Iowa home! Merry Christmas to you!
My favorites are Fluctuations and Quick Bargello. l love all of these fabrics and will be looking for them, They will shorten my bucket list. Thanks
I can’t wait to try this fabric!
My favorites are Heat Wave and Painted Porcelain.
My two favorites are Bevels and Painted Porcelain.
My two favs are the Prism Stars quilt & the Strip-Easy Lone Star quilt.
My favorites are the Porcelain Blue and the Quick Bargello!
I absolutely love Fluctuations!! Oh my goodness it is so amazingly beautiful. My next choice would have to be Bevels, but there are so many and they all are amazing here and in the McCall’s blog. Thank you for sharing your wonderful talents with all of us aspiring quilters, let the New year begin for everyone with pieces of love bound together by threads of hope creating gifts from the heart for those we love! God bless and Happy New Year to all!!
Blue porcelain is my favourite and in fact I ordered the kit soon as I saw it. Love the colours and the way you designed this
I love the lone star, and the bevels quilt!
Bevels is my favorite, second is Prism Stars – thank you !
Strips are so versatile. I love the Prism Star best.
Love your quilts. Cant wait to try some of these patterns myself
I love BLUE, so the Painted Porcelain quilt is my choice!
I love the Painted Porcelain quilt, beautiful. My absolute favourite color is blue.
Nice block. My favorite colors are blues or reds. My favorite jewelry is my wedding ring.