When I was quilting the first time around there was no internet, no Craftsy, no YouTube, no Pinterest… Only Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine. (And paper templates and scissors!) I don’t even know if there were fabric designers who made fabric specially for quilting. But times have changed and now they tempt you for months before a fabric line is released, like the next season of Downton Abbey or something, putting out teasers on Pinterest and on quilting blogs.
I began coveting Moda Winterlude before it was released. Then the Missouri Star Quilt Company featured a charm pack as the Daily Deal, so I ordered 2! A pattern was released with it, but I decided it was too labor intensive, so I went with my old pal half square triangles. I divided the squares into reds, greens, and creams and experimented with different arrangements, finally deciding on the concentric diamonds. I got yardage for the borders and back at Gone Quiltin‘ in Bandera, Texas in August 2014 while doing the Row by Row run. I love the way it turned out!
I had had the blue pieces left so I decided to make a simple square with those. This was my first real project that I quilted free motion. I used a holly leaf motif. There were several “eyelashes” where I went too fast around the curves– the machine beeped at me a lot! (Now, several moNyah’s later, controlling the speed is much easier.)