Fellow Quilters,

Welcome to August 😊  July was a bit of a blur for me, with golf games, invites to friends’ cottages (my homemade cookies and pies help ensure return visits), gardening and some al fresco dining to take advantage of warm summer evenings.

Magenta is my neutral!

Lots of work-related projects as well, including participating in the Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov double issue of Fons & Porter’s Quick + Easy Quilts with my pretty Cobblestones throw quilt made with Heather Bailey’s gorgeous Wild Abandon (find the issue here).  I’m also in the current (Fall 2024) issue of McCall’s Quilting with my super-fun Twist & Turn lap quilt (find the issue here).

Twist and Treat with Whiskers & Wine

This “tipsy” 9-patch is made with Bonnie Lemaire’s Whiskers & Wine collection and features the adorable border print.  Of course, I use my E-Z Miter/Lone Star tool for perfect mitered borders!

I’ve also been busy writing several new patterns for hot-off-the-press fabric collections:

PC298 Panel Perfection uses one or 2 abstract art panels, fracturing and framing them for a quilt in one of 5 sizes

PC308 Window Panes

is a quick and easy pattern to showcase some of those large-scale prints.  Great for layer cakes

PC312 Cat-tails is for cat lovers everywhere.  This much-requested pattern now includes 5 sizes.

PC133P Festive Frostings is the silver-toned version of my original Festive Frostings and includes 4 sizes

PC311 Christmas Geese uses placemats from Northcott’s Yuletide Traditions, adding interest with flying geese

Watching the Time for August Quilt Block Mania

I also found time to design a block for the August edition of Quilt Block Mania.  Speaking of time, my Watching the Time block fits this month’s theme of accessories.

You can download the free-for-now pattern here.  Call me old school but I am almost never without a wristwatch.  I have had a variety of watches over the years.  I went through a 3-year period where I wore a pendant watch.

A pendant watch similar to mine

A clock handbag by designer Marilyn Brooks

Then I had a handbag shaped like an old clock face – it had a working clock as the face and was quite a conversation piece!

Currently I have 3 watches that I alternate wearing to suit my attire.  What about you?  Do you wear a watch?  What is your go-to accessory?  Maybe one of the accessories shown in the other participating bloggers’ blocks?  Here are links to them:

Santa’s Belt by Carolina Moore
Bracelet Quilt Block by Patchwork Breeze
Boot by Crafty Staci
Seam Rippers by Inquiring Quilter
Bow Tie Quilt Block by Scrapdash
Lipstick by QuiltFabrication
Favorite Bow by Brown Bird Designs
City Bear by Colette Belt Designs
Summer Hat by Tourmaline & Thyme Quilts
Lingerie by Appliques Quilts and More
Necklace by Slightly Biased Quilts
Quilted Tote Bag by Cristy Fincher
Yes, M’Lady by Epida Studio
ZipZip Purse by Oh Kaye Quilting
Nail Your Style by Orange Blossom QDS

I’m off to find time to work on some new designs, and just maybe some time to quilt.  I hope you find some quilting time this week.

Cheers,

Patti

I love color.  No doubt about it.  Can’t get enough of it.  From my fabric stash (of course!) to my wardrobe, shoes, even my cars.  No neutral palette for me!  Turquoise is my go-to blender – I can successfully pair just about any color with turquoise.  It is my happy place, and for good reason.  Who wouldn’t love to find themselves on a white sand beach lapped by warm turquoise water? Ahhhh, tropical bliss!  Picture any beach and, alongside the turquoise water, you’re sure to find a rainbow of color on the beach.  Beach towels and bathing suits of every hue line the sandy shoreline.  The flora and fauna also add bright splashes of color.

One of my favorite pastimes in these tropical beach locales is exploring the colorful world below the surface of the water.  This is easily done with a mask and snorkel and often provides me with hours of entertainment as I marvel at the life in these underwater gardens.

Maui snorkeling tour

The expansive variety of brightly colored fish is surpassed by the even more expansive variety of colorful coral in a healthy reef.  It is truly an inspiring sight.  If given the opportunity, I will don a scuba tank and explore these underwater parks up close – they are teeming with life.  It is exhilarating to swim alongside sea turtles or find yourself surrounded by a school of hundreds of fish.
Last month I mentioned a fun colorful monthly online event in which I’m participating.  Jen of Patterns by Jen (PBJ for short) is hosting her annual Monthly Color Challenge.  The theme this year is tropical fish, and each month Jen picks a fish and uses that fish’s color to make that month’s block.  The pattern for the block is free for the entire month, after which it is $1.  You can sign up here to automatically receive an email each month with a link to the free pattern.  Jen also does a free how-to video showing how to make the block each month.  Here is a link to the Monthly Color Challenge main page listing each month’s color and fish.
I am helping Jen out by blogging about the August block.  This month’s color is purple (which pairs beautifully with turquoise and is also one of my favorite colors), and the fish is a purple dottyback.

A purple dottyback

Yowza!  I love the color of these fish!!

I pulled out the light and dark purple fabrics from my stack of FIGO Stash fabrics (not quite as bright as a dotty) and quickly whipped up a pair of the August block from Jen’s blog post (the blocks are quite easy to do 😊).  If you read my blog last month, you saw the luscious range of colors in Stash that I’m using for my blocks.

My stash of Stash by FIGO

I am making one light/dark block following Jen’s pattern and also one “color”/background block per her instructions.  My background is FIGO’s Serenity gray dot on white – a great blender for my Stash palette.
So far, I’ve completed the blocks for January through August – just 4 more months to go.

January – green tiger barb

February – discus

March – cherry barb

April – electric blue hap

May – electric yellow lab

June – harlequin rasboras

July – silver dollar

Jen will be providing a set of finishing instructions at year end to turn your monthly blocks into a nice-sized lap quilt using the light/dark block from each month.  Because I have 2 blocks each month, my year-end quilt is going to be larger – queen-size in fact.  I hope you’ll follow along with me each month as I post photos of the current month’s blocks.
I’ve also been participating in a couple of magazine issues.  My Cobblestones quilt, featured in the joint Aug/Sept and Oct/Nov issue of Fons & Porter’s Quick + Easy Quilts, showcases the dee-lish and oh-so-colorful Wild Abandon by Heather Bailey for FIGO.

Cobblestones made with Wild Abandon

In this fat ¼ friendly throw-size quilt, I use magenta as my “neutral” – who knew that it could be a neutral?!?

Magenta is my neutral!

You can find a digital copy of the issue here.
I am also featured in the Fall 2024 issue of McCall’s Quilting with my Twist and Treat lap-size quilt made with Bonnie Lemaire’s Whiskers & Wine collection.

Twist and Treat with Whiskers & Wine

The tipsy cats in this adorable collection are a perfect fit for this quilt.

The lengthwise border stripe makes a purr-fect border

Quick + Easy Quilts is hitting newsstands today or you can get a digital copy here.

Stay tuned also for 8 new patterns coming to my Patti’s Patchwork website next week.  There just might be a special discount for my newsletter subscribers (the newsletter sign-up link is at the bottom of this page).
Cheers,
Patti