Rainbows, Butterflies, and Kitties / Beauties Pageant 283

One of the joys of attending QuiltCon is seeing the practical handmade items other conference goers are wearing or carrying and having your own garment and bag projects appreciated by other sewists.

The past few years I’ve attended QuiltCon toting my Cargo Duffel bag (pictured below in early Amy Butler fabrics) and two infinity scarves (with Anna Maria lawns). The bag is roomy enough to carry all the necessities around the show, and the scarves are a great layer to add when the convention center gets chilly.

This year is was time for something new, so I’m sewing an All the Things Tote by Knot and Thread with blocks from my upcoming book release. The instructions in my book use jelly roll strips to create sizable block. Although the All the Things Tote is a generous 18 inches long and 11 inches tall, I still had to cut all the block dimensions in half to make them fit. Here’s how things are looking so far ...

I have a rainbow and butterfly ...

 

The sweetest kitty and flower ...

 

And a horseshoe? Yes, one of the projects in the book, named Lucky Medallion, is a medallion quilt that features a variety of good luck charms. The center of that quilt is this horseshoe.

I have less than a week to wrap this up, and I’m starting to sweat it! If you’ll be at QuiltCon, be on the lookout for me and my bag—I’d love to meet you in person! In fact, I’ll be talking about my book, showing off my bag blocks, and demoing how I use PreQuilt to visualize my designs in different color palettes. Head to the PreQuilt booth (#229) on Friday, February 21 at 11 a.m. to get in on the action. : )

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Book Preorders Open! / Beauties Pageant 282

 

 

I am pleased to announce that I’ve launched book preorders in my new Shopify store! To celebrate, I’m offering a limited-time bundle: preorder the book, and receive 2 PDF patterns free right now.

 

The preorder listing has all the details—with a bunch of styled pictures of the sample quilts, taken by Melanie Zacek. (Even if you’re not in the market for a new quilt book, the pictures are spectacular and worth a look!) 

 

To take advantage of the special offer, add the book preorder to your cart. Then, navigating to the PDF Patterns page, add 2 PDF patterns to your cart. (You must add 2.) Upon checkout, use the discount QUILTCON.

Your patterns will be available for immediate download from an email that you’ll receive momentarily (check your spam folder if it doesn’t appear in your inbox after a few minutes). The book is slated to ship at the end of April 2025 via USPS.

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Quilters outside of the US: The cost of international shipping is ridiculous! As a result, this preorder is limited to US mailing addresses. Just because you live elsewhere on this planet, however, doesn’t mean you should miss out! Drop me a note (frombolttobeauty@gmail.com) after preordering or purchasing the book locally, and I will hook you up with your free patterns. : )

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I’ll be taking a deep dive into the pattern collection in the upcoming weeks, telling you more about the backstory behind each pattern. I’ve been waiting not-so-patiently to get to this point! Eep—I’m so excited to share these projects with you!

 

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I invested a lot of time and effort to assemble this collection of patterns in book form, and I wasn’t alone in the endeavor ... Gailen Runge, the creative director at C&T Publishing, helped me make this book-writing dream a reality. Moda fulfilled my fabric-y dreams by supplying so many jelly rolls and so much yardage—the samples are all the better for it. And the Warm Company shipped me a big old bolt of Warm & White. As a quilter who loves light backgrounds, that’s been my preferred batting for the past 10 years. : )

 

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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My Love of Hearts / Beauties Pageant 281

Picture by Melanie Zacek. Copyright 2025 C&T Publishing.

I don’t know what it is about hearts, but I love them. Perhaps they remind me of being a kid and collecting heart stickers or doodling hearts on my schoolwork? Whatever the reason, decades later hearts still make me smile.

It follows, of course, that I love heart quilts. And in a household where the only other females are Golden Retrievers, I know that any heart quilt I make is specifically for my own enjoyment. (Turns out, teenage boys aren’t big fans of heart quilts. Who knew?!)

I didn’t have the bandwidth to design or sew a new heart design for Valentine’s Day this year, but when I sat down and thought about it, I’ve designed a bunch of heart quilts already ...

There’s my Love Boldly quilt pattern, which I sewed for a QuiltCon 2020 stripes challenge ...

Then there’s the Folk Heart project I wrote about in December. This is a one-time sew for me (I won’t be writing the pattern), and I’m keeping this beauty for myself.

And remember the talk of my upcoming book release, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts? When I first mentioned it last September, the April 2025 release date seemed so far away. Now that we’re almost in February, April is just around the corner. I’ll be launching a series of blog posts to talk about the 14 quilts in the book, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek of two heart quilts in the collection.

Buoyant Hearts, a project with rows of hearts that bob up and down on a background of jelly roll strips, is pictured at the top of the post, and I Heart Rainbows, seen folded up below, adorns each easy-to-sew rainbow with a heart ...

Picture by Melanie Zacek. Copyright 2025 C&T Publishing.

See? Those pictures have you smiling, too, right? Are you sewing any hearts for this Valentine’s Day? I’d love to see your Valentine’s projects past and present in this week’s linky!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter