The making of this scrappy, delightful quilt in Spring Shimmer.Have you ever made a log cabin quilt? This classic pattern is one of the most iconic blocks in quilting and so easy to make. I give you the PDF for free below, but here are the basic essentials for those of you who have a log cabin or two under your belt: 5" fussy cut center butterfly block. 1 1/2" strips pieced 7 times around center block. Make 16 of them in sets of threes with dark/light sides established and 4 corner light blocks....Add a windowpane bias 5" border and Viola! You're done... at least in concept :). Settle in, this is a longer post but it's fun and full of good information. Keep reading as I give you tips below, some helpful videos about trimming and little stories of life & California. This quilt, I made from my new Spring Shimmer which is in my shop and shipping world wide now in fits and bursts...as with many things in our Covid-19 era world. Butterflies- A lifelong source of inspiration, symbols of nature, beauty, hope and rebirth. I love seeing human's interpretations, like the painted wall above, of one of God's most transformative creatures. My mother gave me a book, Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus when I was a child...She gave me many books she'd find while browsing the Wellesley book store and so many of them are ingrained in my head, heart and soul. They have shaped me- most of them about compassion, love and the incredible potential of the human spirit. Thank you Mom. Fussy cutting the center blocks was so enjoyable. I really wanted to highlight the five gorgeous shimmery butterfly fabrics and this the perfect pattern to do it. The rest of the Spring Shimmer fabrics are used for the scrappy strip piecing. I loved repeating colors to add saturated areas of reds, oranges, yellows and blue. The PDF below gives directions with links to YouTube videos if you never have made a log cabin before. Give it a try! It takes just two FQ bundles. I have kits in the shop that include the Essex Windowpane border too! Having my two eldest both at California Universities has been a blessing. Both close proximity to San Francisco yet still far enough away....and our pocketbook likes in-state tuition. I think back to my days at university- left Boston to go to Burlington VT and then NYC. I definitely liked NYC better :) Vermont albeit gorgeous, had too many cows and cold winters for me. My first introduction to California, was actually Santa Barbara. Our college soccer team was invited to play in a women's D-1 national tournament fall of '86 and it was a serendipitous trip...Even though we lost terribly, California won my heart. Oh, and the Beach Boys was my first album as pre teen. So yes, the dreams had been brewing for quite some time. Cutting accurate 1 1/2" strips is key to block building. If your strips are wonky, your block will be wonkier...is that even a word? Pressing seams away from center block is also a good practice. Finished block measures 18 1/2" square. If you want to learn more about the history of Log Cabin quilts, I include a link here. Feel free to share any interesting tidbits about log cabins in comments below :) Love hearing from you. Above are three videos that cover trimming and piecing the blocks together. I love making and even though I aim to be super accurate, I don't get my shoulders all hunched up about it when things aren't perfect. The more seams one has in the quilt, the more possibility of it not really laying flat. Which is OK. My favorite part about playing with fabric is the color, texture and design part. Not the perfect seams part...haha. I am soooo OK with that! Feel free to download and print this pattern. Make it with my Shimmer or use it for your own stash buster! It's a great pattern to have on hand. Due to the fact it's free here, I will not be expanding on the instructions or offering more information. If you have questions, please see the many wonderful YouTube videos on how to make log cabins. Wealth of tutorials already out there so have fun! If you missed last blog post, take a look. It gives a broad overview of lookbook for Spring Shimmer and video that was sent to all the sales reps and shops worldwide. It gives you insider info. Also the Log Cabin is the first dive into details of the projects represented in the lookbook. Sign up for my newsletter/blog to stay in the know and become a part of my colorful fabric tribe!! We have fun! Remember last week, I talked about new CREATIVE SPARK Online Learning platform? It's exciting. If you have never taken an online class or want to learn more, watch YouTube LIVE presentation done last week. Here is the link. Plus I have a LIVE online class December 5th (3+ weeks away) and there are some spots left so join the party :) Hope to see you there!
Stay healthy and wear your mask! xo
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Spring Shimmer Video: Enter my Art Barn and see what's BLOOMIN'
I'm having a virtual party right here, right now! Kick your slippers up and watch my video. Shipping worldwide as I write this, Spring Shimmer is supported by patterns and projects designed specifically for this collection and I can finally share them with you here. There are 26 shimmery cotton prints and my design inspiration showcased in the video. Plus 8 projects highlighted in the lookbook, and they are gorgeous...Sure to get you in the mood to start dreaming of honey bees, butterflies and warm sunny days. With all the goodness in video and lookbook, it's too much to digest all the details in just one post, so here's the plan:
1. Video highlights entire collection and design inspo plus the Kona/Essex Coordinate Precut Bundles. Purchase here. 2.Lookbook filled with 8 projects to get your creative thoughts stoked. Each pattern has info where to purchase and fabrics/yardage needed. Please support these wonderful makers who work so hard on very tight deadlines to make this available to you. Most of us are super small businesses and rely on your patronage. Makers listed here: Assembly Line tunic, Rachel Rossi Tiny Dancer, Noodlehead Poolside Tote, Hello Stitch Five Star. Then Came June also put together a wonderful blog post about her Shimmer Paper Cuts Quilt. 3. Future blog posts will show projects in more detail to help you create with ease. 4. If you are a shop and want to jumpstart your classes, kits, or need details a bit more quickly, email me at [email protected] and I will get you info to be successful with your planning.
This lookbook was so fun to put together and FULL of ideas, inspiration and info about the makers and fabrics used. If you are a shop and buy wholesale, please get in touch with Robert Kaufman to purchase bolts and precuts.
Log Cabin Star Quilt will be highlighted and detailed in next post! It's soooo hard to wait! I'll hurry up;)
Switching gears, I am part of a new platform called CREATIVE SPARK Online Learning and it's awesome. If you have never taken an online class or want to learn more about the teachers presenting, we have a FREE YouTube LIVE presentation this Monday, November 16th at 12noon PST. Here is thelink. Bring your lunch, brunch or dinner! It's open to the whole world! Plus I have a LIVE online class December 5th (3+ weeks away) and there are some spots left so join the party :) Hope to see you there!
Stay healthy and wear your mask! xo AIRING NOW! TheQuiltShow.com #2706LIVE STARTING TODAY!! You're invited to check it out as Alex and I talk about my history as a fabric designer, important quilts, SKY Ombre fabrics, how they are designed, printed and used, which includes a free download of SKY STAR OMBRE PILLOW. Plus a peek in my studio. Special guests also include the fabulous JULIE SILBER and JOE CUNNINGHAM. First I'd like to share the behind scenes....There is a bumpy, circuitous story behind the planning and filming of my appearance on The Quilt Show #2706 which begins airing TODAY! Sept 6th 2020. A year ago I was getting ready to launch my new book, Ombre Quilts and SKY ombre fabrics was in Kaufman’s warehouse getting ready to ship to stores worldwide, Alex had let me know that my new stuff would be fun to share with her group. Normal stuff: Book highlights, Taping The Quilt Show in Colorado per usual, getting in touch with production team, figure out the project etc... Our story gets interesting a few months later at the creative Craft Napa event, Jan 2020 when Alex and I spontaneously whisked ourselves to the middle of downtown Napa, squeezed into a crowded sushi bar, and luckily found an open cocktail table, wedged in between chatty diners. Even luckier to score two odd chairs, just happy to plunk ourselves down and absorb the vibrant surroundings: We were famished and ready to Join in! Like a couple of chatty Kathys, we were off and running about lots of industry news, what we were excited about, classes we were teaching and taking. Just happy to catch up....We have been friends for years- but you know how busy we all get and I have just come to accept it’s impossible to keep up with all, so an evening out, just the two of us, is a very special treat! I bet you didn’t know Alex had hosted a baby shower for me back in 1998 when my first born was an infant! That was a lifetime ago~ Look how young we were! Hahahahaha. The Quilt Show production usually happens in Colorado, was now moving and there were LOTS OF UNKNOWNS. The way they worked and crew she and Ricky had to rely on was changing and would I be willing to be the first filming ginuea pig so to speak. “Sure” I said, we are all in this together! Let’s continue... End of January, we were at Quilt Con in Austin and we planned that my filming was scheduled to be in March with an audience or potentially a field piece in Texas, the new location! “I’ll roll with it. Whatever you guys want to do. Just let me know when and where to fly into!” Famous last words! Then end of January arrived and my husband and I got really sick. For over a week with dry cough, fever and we felt like zombies. We hadn’t been this sick in years. Then we finally got better. Was it the flight? Was it the big show? The running narrative was that maybe we got COVID 19 while at Quilt Con??? We seriously didn’t think we had....but today I wonder.Our doctors don't recommend getting tested as it's completely unreliable. Anyway, filming was delayed and not just because we had been sick but the CDC information coming daily was serious and this pandemic was in the USA. Scientists and doctors giving us daily reports of the situation and NYC was a terrible mess. The Quilt Show could not film now and talk of May/June was on the table...Then it creeped into July...Stay tuned was the best we all could do. AND we did. HERE IS THE LINK TO THE TRAILER!. The Quilt Show is a subscription base with hosts Alex Anderson and Ricky TIms. They bring you the friendliest interactive online community for quilters worldwide. Join today, they’d love to have you learn, share, create and connect with them. The Quilt Show episodes feature the best talent in the business! They have a $19.99 special going on now! I get to share next week a free online link if you aren’t a member, so stay tuned for that too! PIVOT was a the new popular word in business. So, since we were quarantining, in our home state of California, Alex, Ricky and team decided in order to get this done safely....they focused on all the local talent in California and decided to film at her house! WIth a 40 minute drive, I could be there! Covid Testing was available and the guests list was fabulous! During all these twists and turns, our community was making masks in the millions, quilts for people in hospitals, PPE for doctors, nurses, essential workers....The whole sewing world picked up their game and we all focused on how we could help. It’s been amazing to see such effort. I love being a part of this huge group of people I call my tribe. So in the end, it went smoothly, and yes, Alex has hosted a SAFE HOUSE PARTY in which you all are invited. Plus I offer a free pattern through both mine and The Quilt Show’s website that makes a super easy sawtooth star pillow with just one half yard of my ombre fabric. SO I hope you get a chance to watch and tune in. If you are not a member, I'll have the link which I am posting on Sept 13 and it’s live for just one week for free watching for my mailing list peeps, compliments of Alex and Ricky. So amidst this terrible pandemic, lots of moving parts were happening with the excellent people of The Quilt Show and I are so proud to be a part of this historic time when Alex and friends are doing their best to keep upbeat, creative and sharing with all of you. Freddie Moran and Sujata Shaw is a favorite show too, a must watch and showed the one before me. So if you like what you see, stop by my website and pick up a bundle of 6 fabrics to make the Modern Madras Table Runner I talk about, a signed book or any other treats we have. Hope you are all staying safe. California is still burning although many blazes are under control, one began last night called THE CREEK FIRE and it's already burned 40,000 acres and as I write this, we are at our cabin in Tahoe and the sky outside is an eerie brown. A colorway I definitely do not get inspired by. Keep your loved ones close.
Keep on making! with love, Spring Shimmer, it's in our nature...Hi All! You know how much I love SHIMMER with its pearlescent print on top of gorgeous, hand drawn designs. I am so thrilled to be introducing my SIXTH Shimmer Collection with Robert Kaufman! 26 vibrant, sophisticated 100% premium cotton prints produced in Japan. I complied my photos and files of inspiration for months, revisiting and curating the best ones tucked in a special folder labeled SPRING SHIMMER 2020 long before we actually got here. I begin at least a year in advance and the collection evolves and projects are dreamed up to the last minute! Drawing, painting, pitching colors, creating mood boards to solidify my visual dreams of which I love to share with you. So here it is, I hope you love it. Official releases are when RKC account managers can finally show the world a new collection yet it feels like forever until it gets to the makers! SPRING SHIMMER ships worldwide November 2020 so be sure to ask your favorite shop to stock up for you! We have put together a fabulous LookBook featuring 8 projects all with patterns from myself, Noodlehead, Then Came June, Assembly Line, Rachel Rossi and Hello Stitch! Great stuff I think you'll love. I will be rolling out the projects over the next few months so not to overwhelm in one blog post! Plus I've selected 20 essex and yummy basics that coordinate with the prints. More eye candy below. Keep making everyone! On somedays its the only thing that really fills me up, to get lost in the beauty of color, fabric and creating. It feels so good. Busy hands quiet the mind.
Sending blessings and love to all. See you again soon! xo PDF Download Patterns 100% of proceeds goes to Meals on Wheels America Us makers tend to do pretty well hunkered down in our nests as we feather our surroundings, creating heart felt textiles to express ourselves and give to loved ones. We're used to writing TO DO lists in our creative spaces, making in isolation often, contemplating piles of fabric, reorganizing our collections, deciding what project we're gonna work on next. But after this long spell of hunkering down? What's going on for you? Some days I relish the solitude and others I feel downright awful and blue. Yesterday, I felt like a cat trapped in the dryer that keeps churning round and round on Air Fluff: Disoriented and aimless...Yup... I have Covid Brain. What to do? Be in nature. Count blessings. Help others. Exercise. Stick to a project. Give to charities. Make masks. Zoom with friends and family. I wanted to share that this Memorial Day weekend, I am donating 100% of PDF Sales to Meals on Wheels America. If there is a pattern or Ombré Quilts Book you've been holding off on, you get a double bonus. All of your dollars go directly to this great charity and you get the pattern too. A win-win! We all know the elderly need more care now than ever. Speaking of elderly, anyone watching Leslie Jordan on Instagram right now? I bust out laughing! A delightful southern, gay sexegenarian tickling all my funny bones with his daily quips and stories delivered in a thick Tennessee drawl. Interior decorating, nosepapers, mood boards (aka hot pics of Dylan McDermott) mama's recipes etc... I love him. Who else makes me smile? George and Eliot: Denyse Schmidt's kitties. She posts entertaining clips of their mischief making. Her keen observations, I believe, cross into every aspect of life. To connect with a range of makers, I watch Pokey Bolton's IGTV where she has just finished her 47th day of interviewing creatives in our industry. What a gift she has given all of us, and if you can't watch it live, its on her feed. She's relaxed, inquisitive and having candid conversations with so many interesting people. This makes me happy. Enjoy the images of color, humanity and kitty beans. Keep making. Stay in touch. Take care and be kind to yourself and others STOCK IS REPLENISHED! SKY Half to Have It Bundles, Madras Table Runner Bundles and More!
Make The Elephant and I Jumbo Tote! Free tote instructions below.![]() Elephant and I is a best selling quilt/pillow pattern in which I offer an instructional YouTube video to help you make it! When I finished filming, I had this teaching sample and I thought, Let's make this into a jumbo bag and give away free instructions to fans!! I absolutely love how it looks, functions and feels. I use my new bag to haul quilts to events, it's big enough for a weekender and a catch all for just running around- Last week it was stuffed with warm clothing for 4! It's huge and can hold a ton stuff, has sturdy handles which are hand stitched and it's comfortable to sling over the shoulder. My favorite match stick quilting gives body, style and stability. Below is the free bag making instructions but you need to buy the pattern to make the elephant and person. I have posted lots of detail photos to show techniques. Also go to my YouTube video for all three videos for more info on color selection, my favorite paper piecing tips and how to get that professional looking appliqué finish! For the background strips, I used my Shimmer/Studio Stash fabrics mostly, a few beautiful prints from Karen Lewis and a variety of bright prints and solids for the woman and elephant, who wraps around to back of bag. Leather handles and suede trim are from my dad's 1970's workshop that I am up cycling. Waxed linen twine is heavy duty and I was sure to create my stitch holes with my chisel before stitching. ELEPHANT & I JUMBO TOTE: 22.5"x 25" Materials: •Elephant and I Pattern by JenniferSampou.com/C&T Publishing •Colorful scraps for elephant and person. See pattern for details •12 strips of light value background fabrics 2 ½” to 8 ½” widths by 28” long. 1 1/2 yd lining fabric •Two premade purse straps approximately 31” x 2” or make your own from thrift shop vinyl/leather belts. •Grommets, 4 D rings or heavy floss to attach handles to bag details. Maker’s choice -Watch YouTube Elephant and I for tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEGXP4_bQpM&t=424s -Watch C&T YouTube for tutorials about bag making and Kraft-Tex https://www.youtube.com/user/CandTPublishing -Expectation is maker has some experience with bag construction or see The Better Bag Maker (C&T Publishing 2014) Make: Layout Strips: Choose 11-12 strips cut for background fabrics. Lay out to your preference. 1. Strip Rectangle: Sew 2 ½” to 8 ½” widths by 28” long strips right sides together. Press seams open. Continue stripping until rectangle measures 46” x 26”. 2. Follow Elephant and I pattern: Make person, elephant based on pattern instructions and YouTube tutorial. 3. Position elephant and person to background. Place elephant and human 5” up from bottom, person’s hand 3 ½” in from right side. Back elephant foot 15” in from left side It wraps around to back of finished bag. See photo above. 4. Quilt Sandwich: Cut lining and batting a bit larger than the top rectangle. Baste. 5. Matchstick Quilt: Topstitch across entire surface. Begin in the center and work outward, trim edges. 6. French Seam: Bag Side/Bottom: Make French seams by folding wrong sides together and sew a ¼” seam. Turn wrong sides out and sew a ½” seam to bury raw edges. Or sew right sides together along one side and bottom and finish raw seams with 1" Kraft-Tex or leather trim. Maker's choice. 7. Grocery Bag Bottom or Boxed Corner: With bag inside out, pinch bottom corners matching side seam to bottom center. Measure up 3 ½’ from tip and pin at the 6 ½” width and draw a stitching line and pin. Sew from each side to center French seam. Backstitch for durability. 8. Bag top edge: Cut or sew together a strip of up cycled leather or Kraft-Tex 45”x 1”. Fold in half and press. Fold strip over top raw edge making sure both edges of leather/Kraft-Tex are equidistance ½” from edge. Glue down or use binding clips to hold in place. Top stitch along edge, with slight over lap where strips meet. 9. Handles: Attach handles 3 ½” below top edge and approximately 5 ½” from outside edge using grommets, D rings or hand stitch with heavy duty thread. If working with heavy material such as vinyl use a heavy needle on your machine or if by hand, be sure to create your holes with leather chisel prior to stitching so threads go through layers with ease. This pattern designed and made by Jennifer Sampou is for personal use only. Please contact [email protected] if you’d like to teach to a class. Must have permission. Thank you. Visit jennifersampou.com, Instagram and @Jennifersampou YouTube for instructional content. A special thank you to Becky McCoy for sewing assistance. Hope you enjoy making a new version of Elephant and I. As always, part of the proceeds of this pattern are donated to Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mal Thailand co-founded by Lek Chailert the most ethical sanctuary to visit where elephants are in their natural habitats, just being elephants: Not being ridden, doing tricks for human amusement or mishandled by mahouts. The animal kingdom is most precious and it's our job as stewards to respect, honor and protect. Above is my current book of choice, Animalkind, by Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone, It's really insightful and I am learning so many fascinating things- there is so much we don't know about the amazing world of animals. Last year, my husband and I changed our diet to 90% Whole Food, Plant Based, which we now understand is the way to a sustainable future on our planet. Changing old habits takes commitment but it's been fairly easy to do together- we both grew up eating meat and raised our children on meat but the more we learn, the more we grow and understand adverse health effects, question the ethics and sustainability of eating animals. To the right, my zip bags made from recycled coke bottles and a sweet pic of a happy romp in the grass from the sanctuary. Always, I send my blogs with kindness and hope you are all well and safe. Now go CREATE!
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