Behavior Modification for Quilters

My husband and I have two sons, and we sometimes use incentives to encourage desirable behavior. Our younger son, for example, is supposed to wear hearing aids but doesn’t tolerate the sensation of having a little chunk of (very expensive!) plastic in his ears. So we started with getting him to hold a hearing aid in his hand for 10 seconds and rewarding him with a TV show or iPad time. We worked up from there ... holding for 20 seconds, for 30 seconds, touching a hearing aid to his ears, etc. The plan is working: Now he’ll tolerate a hearing aid—not turned on yet!—in his ear for several seconds. On my good days, I call this “positive reinforcement.” On my more cynical days, I call it “bribery.”

If that strategy works for a 5-year-old, surely it could work for that 5-year-old’s mama. My challenge? Not to eat any Halloween candy.

Perhaps other people could eat a piece a day or whatever and not fall off the deep end. I knew that for me, though, one Kit Kat would lead to two Kit Kats, if not half a bag of them. (And it really is about avoiding the Kit Kats—they’re the gateway candy to harder stuff, like Milky Ways, Almond Joys, and anything with dark chocolate.)

If I could endure an entire month coexisting with Halloween candy in my house, I would buy myself some just-because-I-like-it fabric. I’m happy to report I succeeded. I haven’t been an angel—I still ate my fair share of cake over my sister’s baby-shower weekend and had a Swedish fish here and there (Swedish fish are a staple in our pantry, not Halloween loot). But look what my self-control earned me ...

Eep—I know! I’m a big Basic Grey fan, and I’ve been very excited about the design house’s most recent line for Moda, Mon Ami.

I consider this one of the focal prints in the line. Isn’t it dreamy?

Ack! And these dots—they’re perfect for stashing!

Here are some other peeks of the line,
including Basic Grey’s signature Grunge in charcoal.

I rarely buy an entire line, but I didn’t stash enough of an earlier Basic Grey line—PB&J—before it went out of production and I didn’t want to make the same mistake with Mon Ami. I don’t have immediate plans for these 40 fats. They will have to “age” in my stash until I find the perfect project for them. : )

Are there new lines you’ve got your eyes on? Do tell!

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social, Sunday Stash, and Sew Cute Tuesday ...

Quick, Make a Bag!

Do you recall my flying geese dilemma? I was considering pairing these fabrics with a light-colored Essex Linen for a quilt of crazy-big flying geese.

I decided that was a Bad Idea. The blues were beautiful but wouldn’t stand out against the Essex Linen. I could have returned all those fabrics to my stash, but the Amy Butlers (those second and fourth from the top) were purchased specifically for this quilt and had the potential to spend an eternity in my stash.

Don’t get me wrong: I adore those two fabrics, both from AB’s Cameo collection. But between their large-scale designs and super-gray undertones, they might not play well with other fabrics. So before I could issue them a one-way ticket to my stash drawers, I quickly cut them up for a bag.

See? They are gorgeous fabrics. They need to be used and loved, not merely visited by me when I check in with the rest of my fabric hoard.

The pattern is Alicia Paulson’s Jane Market Bag. It is the perfect bag pattern—like a simple grocery bag all grown-up with two exterior pockets. I’ve made this pattern at least 30 times (no joke). If I know you in real life, it’s only a matter of time before I make you one.

So this project got me thinking ... I really love Amy Butler’s designs (see this post for more gushing). Is there an epic AB quilt in my future? It would be fitting to make a best-of quilt with my favorite AB quilting cottons. Can I pull off the necessary fabric pull, though?

Some designers’ fabric is conducive to mixing and matching between collections. Bonnie and Camille—with their aqua, teal, true red, and navy—come to mind. And then there’s Cotton and Steel, with a palette that all four of its designers share. I don’t think Amy’s collections work together in the same way.

What do you think, is it possible? Do you have any advice on how I should approach this project? Better yet ... Have you made such a quilt yourself?

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, TGIFF, and Finish It Up Friday ...

Use All the Jelly Rolls!

Buy the Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll pattern here.

I’ve succumbed to the allure of precuts on many occasions. Who can blame me? They’re a cost-effective way to get a cross-section of an entire line, and because they are precut, there is less work for me.

Jelly rolls are not as versatile as other precuts, though, so they tend to linger in my stash. I have four of them right now, and it’s time to put them into service as quilts. Two of the four feature Christmas fabrics, so I decided to use them up first by making quilts for Christmas giving. The holiday deadline was the kick in the pants I needed to get going!

First up: my Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt. Most of the fabrics are from a jelly roll of Basic Grey’s Evergreen, but I supplemented that lot with some Evergreen fat quarters and some strips from a jelly roll of Basic Grey’s 25th and Pine. My goal was to cull the lighter, airier fabrics and sew them with a few well-placed color-saturated selections. I omitted all the super-Christmassy fabrics, striving for a more wintry quilt that could be used throughout the cold months here in New England.

I love the results. The Scandinavian feel of the Evergreen line is going to be perfect for the recipients I have in mind.

This is a happy accident. I miscut the background fabric and had to make
do with a neutral pattern in its place.

Christmas quilt #2 is in the works. It’s going to feel great to trim my jelly roll stash down by two!

Do you have a go-to pattern or two for your jelly rolls? If so, I would love to hear about it. And if you’re able to resist jelly rolls in general, can you teach me how to do that, too?

Buy the Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll pattern here.

The Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt

The Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll Quilt is now a full pattern and includes instructions for five sizes (child, lap, twin, queen, king) and two design options, as well as tips for getting the best results sewing long columns. It is available through my Etsy shop.

A printed version for wholesale is available. If you are interested in carrying it in your shop, please drop me an email at frombolttobeauty [at] gmail [dot] com.