A new pattern - Twist and Shout

Buy this pattern on Craftsy!

In the nick of time for August - here's Twist and Shout.

I finished quilting it yesterday. Sadly, not at all my best quilting job (even by my admittedly low standards, this one is particularly bad. I guess I should baste my quilts more carefully.)

However, I love the pattern. I actually helped my mom a fair bit with this make, I think I made the first half of the quilt, and she finished it up. It goes so quickly! The blocks are a modified rail-fence/snowball, and both are very easy to construct.

This particular quilt is heading to a little baby boy (not yet born, both me and my mom should be astounded at our lack of procrastination!) Again, baby quilts are such a great make! They are a lovely and meaningful present, and also a quick way to try a pattern out.

WIP Wednesday - Twist and Shout

Eeeks, time just flies by in summer. I can't believe it's been a month.

Basting in progress

So, at the start of August, I gave my mom a new pattern to test out. She gave me the finished quilt top a couple of days ago, and I'm currently in the process of quilting it.

Twist and Shout - as I've named this new pattern - is based off a Moroccan tile (again!). I'm reasonably sure this is the easiest pattern I've ever designed. I'm hoping to have it complete and published this Friday, but worst case - next Friday. (I'm off to New York for an extended weekend, so not much work will get done in that time, I'm afraid!)

Before I publish it though, I need to quilt it, and as you can see, I have a helper. Or rather, the exact opposite of a helper. It's adorable when Biscuit jumps up on my sewing table to keep me company, but less adorable that she lies right on top of the quilt I'm working on.

Nah, she's just too adorable. Also, I should clean this space.

Intertwined gets a photoshoot!

Buy Intertwined on Craftsy

Buy Intertwined on Etsy

Intertwined has been the quilt on my bed for a few weeks now, and it was time to launder it this weekend. While it was hanging on the clothesline, I spent a bit of time taking pictures - I haven't really taken photos of it since it was quilted and bound, and again, Pauline, my long-arm quilter had done an exceptional job quilting it.

Beautiful blue skies. Too nice a day to be doing laundry, really, but I was out to hang the clothes on the line...

I also worked a bit on my next quilt. It is turquoise and navy blue - intense, saturated colours, I love it! I'm hoping to have it done by Friday.


How did you spend the weekend, and did you have beautiful weather? 

Mirror Mirror - version two

At the start of June, I found myself shopping my mother's stash, pulling out fabrics that were very non-me. My quilting style tends to favour a lot of white paired with bright solids - this time, I pulled out the most subdued fabrics, the biggest prints, etc. and got to work making a version of Mirror Mirror. (In chronological order, this one actually came first, and then I did the baby quilt second.)

Mirror Mirror - my newest pattern!

Happy Wednesday! 

And I have a new quilt pattern! Available for sale at Craftsy.

This one - Mirror Mirror - has been in the planning and sewing stages for a while (all of June, I think!), but trips out of town kept intervening, and then, everytime I wanted pictures, it would rain! 

Anyway, I finally caught a couple of moments of sunshine, took some pictures, and here goes! 

This one is also for a set of friends who are having a baby. Thankfully, this time, I have a bit more time to quilt it - the baby's not due for another three months. (Of course, knowing me, I will leave the quilting to the very last minute, but hey - I do that.)

The pattern is a log-cabin variation. Two oval rings are nestled inside each other. Perfect for scraps (I raided my mother's scrap stash for these), for jelly rolls, and for fat quarters!

Like I said, happy Wednesday indeed! 

Giveaway results!

I plugged all your lovely comments into a random number generator - and the winners are (insert drumroll) - Quilting Nonnie, Sandy and CreativeInstincts. Ladies - please send me an email at globalnomadquilts at gmail dot com and I'll email over your patterns!

All the others, I'm really sorry! But I've resolved to run at least one giveaway a month, so keep an eye on my blog (I'm trying to get a proper followers widget - any suggestions?) and good luck for the future!

A giveaway!

Edit: You must follow me on Etsy or Craftsy to enter the giveaway. If your handles on blogger and on Craftsy/Etsy aren't the same, please let me know in the comments who you are on Craftsy or Etsy so I can verify. Thanks!

My most excellent cousin just sent me updated photos of Birds of Paradise. She's all done quilting it - she did an amazing job!

I really love the simplicity of the white binding. 

Summer's such a great time for quilters - great outdoor photos! 

Look at that quilting detail! She hand-quilted it, I think. I really admire her patience!

Anyway - to celebrate her new quilt, I'm going to do a little giveaway (my first on this blog!). 

I'm giving away 3 copies of the Birds of Paradise pattern (it's a PDF file, I'll email it to the winners.) To enter the giveaway, here's what you'll need to do: 

1. Follow the Global Nomad Quilt Company either on Craftsy or on Etsy.

2. Once you've followed me on either Craftsy or Etsy, leave a comment on this post. 

3. Leave me some way to contact you to send you a pattern if you win. 

I'll close the giveaway on Tuesday June 18 at noon EST - which gives you a whole week to enter! Good luck! 

Dancing Stars - all quilted and bound

We'd sent Dancing Stars away to be long-arm quilted, and the long arm quilter had sent it back a month or so ago. I finally finished binding it this week - here it is on a bed at my parents.

Pauline, our long-arm quilter really did a great job on this. Without us specifically requesting it, she'd used a variegated thread on the front, which beautifully highlights the bright colours of this quilt.

If you want to buy the PDF pattern, it is available on Etsy and on Craftsy.

Here's why I love this pattern.

- It's an easy way to make up a large quilt - this quilt is 88"x88" (it's being shown on a queen size bed in these pictures.)
- The instructions include an outline diagram, so you can try out your own colour schemes before making this quilt. Make it as colourful or as monochrome as you wish!

Have a great weekend! I brought some fabric to make a quilt, so there could be a bit of quilting in store for me!

Now available for sale - Finlay's Stars

Yes! I did finish the quilt in time! (I might have given myself carpal tunnel syndrome or something in the process though - my right hand is very sore. Ugh.) However, I love making baby quilts as gifts - they are super-distinctive, but piece up and quilt up a lot easier than a larger size. I even got to baste this on my dining table, vs. on the floor, and my back was thanking me!

With Finlay's Stars, the most work was trimming the half-square triangles to the right dimension, but apart from that, pretty smooth sailing. (Quilting was a lot of work though - I painstakingly outline-quilted every windmill-ish shape as well as every star - which makes the quilt look fantastic, but was a lot of work!)

Of course, I did have a lot of help with this quilt - my cat Biscuit was intimately involved in both the quilting and the binding process!

Lots of pictures to follow - this project pretty much took over my life for all of the last week, so I'm going to show several photos of it!

All pieced-up, before adding a border 

Basting on a dining table...

Biscuit *helps* with the quilting...

Quilting detail. With bonus bits of thread, which hopefully came out in the wash... 

|Biscuit *helps* with the binding... (don't worry, I washed the quilt prior to giving it to the mom-to-be!)

Another photo of the finished quilt. I'm pretty impressed with my quilting diligence. 

(I did just mostly steal this post from my regular sewing blog - weekendcrafting.blogspot.com. I rarely cross-post, but this actually is both personal sewing as well as a Global Nomad pattern.)

The pattern's available right now through my Craftsy store - Etsy to follow after the long weekend, I think. (I have to pack, but if I have time, I'll put it up on Etsy tomorrow morning.)

Sneak peek - Finlay's Stars

Dear readers, in my last post, I mentioned I had a baby shower to go to, and a quilt to make for that, inspired by a Moroccan tile.

This is it - Finlay's Stars! (Finlay's the name of the wee one.)

The colours are rather un-Moroccan, since I thought this would double as a rather fabulous Fourth of July quilt. There's one planned blue (the dark one) and several bits of scrap blues, which is a good way to use  your scraps, while still keeping the look of a planned quilt.

Finlay's Stars will go on sale next week. I've no time to write instructions right now, since the baby shower is on Sunday! Eek! I better get to attaching the borders and quilting it. (My least favourite bits of the process, I'm afraid.)

As an aside, I need to learn how to work the settings on my camera. I took photos outside, but it's a cloudy day - the brighter pictures are the manual setting, the darker ones are the automatic, and the true colours of the quilt are somewhere in between.

Etsy or Craftsy?

Dear readers I've a question.

If you buy PDF quilt patterns, which site are you more likely to use? Etsy or Craftsy? Or a third that I don't use?

I list in both places, but I'm curious. Please comment!

Dancing Stars Rangoli - prepare for a colour explosion!

Dear readers, I finally finished writing my Dancing Stars pattern instructions. It took a while! Let's just say it was worth the wait!

Buy this pattern at Craftsy!

Yes, there was snow on the ground when I took pictures. 

This quilt is too large for my clothesline - I need a different quilt hanging solution!

The full quilt outline. This would be really fun in blues and greens too, instead of the pinks and oranges.

I'm now at a bit of a standstill - my pattern testers are otherwise occupied - my cousin is hand-quilting Birds of Paradise, my mom is vacationing in India, and my aunt is making someone a table-runner.

However, I do have a baby-shower to go to, and I thought of an awesome pattern, inspired by a Moroccan tile. So maybe, I should work at that...

Well hello, new quilt pattern!

Buy this pattern at Craftsy!

Ok, you thought you were going to see Phoenix Flight, no? A bit of a wrinkle - a conversation with my aunt suggested a few problems with the pattern, which I need to resolve before it goes out. Hence, a bit of a detour.

Luckily for me, my uber-awesome cousin Priya stepped in (quite princess-like!), and sent me many photos of a quilt pattern she'd been testing for me. Birds of Paradise is made with a 13" block, very scrap-friendly and fat-quarter friendly, and makes up pretty quickly. She made a lap quilt size version. (My mom's working on her bed-size version even as we speak!)

And so, Birds of Paradise is up for sale, instead of Phoenix Flight. The best laid plans of mice and men...

 There's a couple of images of alternate colourways on the Craftsy listing, if you are having trouble imagining it in a different colourway. (Though, y'all are quilters, it's probably a bit unnecessary.)

As always, comments on the Craftsy listing would be most welcome, and I love comments here on the blog as well!

Now - to find a ruler, and to make a plan to sort out Phoenix Flight...

Coming soon (April 26) - Phoenix Flight

About a week back, I'd devoted some time to drafting and writing instructions for another kolam quilt, which I rather fancifully called Phoenix Flight. (There was something a bit bird-like about the pattern?)

I sent it off to my aunt to test out for me. And lo and behold, to my surprise, I got these pictures in my email box this morning.

My aunt rocks!

Now my aunt is a crazy-experienced quilter, who routinely takes on complicated projects that I would never even approach, and finishes them with aplomb. So, this was probably entirely too easy a project for her - she said it took her two days. (In the middle of other life things, of course.)

It won't take me two days, but it is a nice easy project, which finishes up to a lap quilt size.

I do need to have a little chat with her about pattern errors, etc. before the pattern becomes available for sale. (Also, a final pressing, and high resolution outdoor photos...) But I thought it was a fun little WIP...
 

Look for Phoenix Flight to go on sale - probably on April 26th. 

Now available for sale - Intertwined!

If you are finding me via CrazyMomQuilts - welcome!

(If you would like to buy this pattern - the links to the right will take you either to Craftsy or Etsy, where the pattern is available for sale for $4.)

The pipeline got reordered a bit - and this quilt got bumped up the list. It's a nice, easy quilt to make, and I love how it turned out! Each Intertwined block measures 22.5" square, making this a perfect pattern if you need to make a bed-size quilt in a hurry!

In my sample, I used three colours of fabric - a dark blue, a light blue and a green. I made 9 blocks, and added 2 borders apart from the sashing, making this ~80" square. Not bad at all for a few evenings' work!

It's pretty windy outside. I had a tough time trying to get good photos. In the end, I sort of gave up. Here are some outtakes!

If you like the pattern, would you do me a huge favour? Could you go leave a comment on Craftsy? Comments help bump the pattern up, and I'd love for people to see this and buy this!