American Patchwork and Quilting Pillowcase Challange

 Who doesn't love a bright whimsical pillowcase especially at a dark time in life. American Patchwork and quilting is asking all of us to help promote their 24 hour Sew-A-Thon to make pillowcases for a variety of charities.

Fabri-Quilt was kind enough to ask me to participate and sent me this lovely new collection called "Tweet".

APQ website has 43 patterns ready to go, all you need to do is add fabric. Click here to go to the free patterns

For my pillowcase I choose pattern #6. There were so many cute coordinates that went with the sweet bird print, I wanted a pattern to showcase as many of them as possible. I thought the checkerboard cuff would be perfect for this!

Why not get a group together for this wonderful event and get sewing.

Here is more information on the Sew-A-Thon, 

Sewathon website: www.allpeoplequilt.com/sewathon

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sewathon

YouTube promotion video: http://youtu.be/ySDoLAn6byU?list=UUQznLGBargr-HYg_GVVTmtQ

Official social hashtag: #APQSewathon

APG is hosting a 24-hour event in our Des Moines offices, but shops and groups across the country are hosting their own sewathons. Find shops in your area here: http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/24-hour-sew-thon-shops

If you want to check out other great Designers and their pillowcases just check out the links below!

Blog Participants List:

·    Alison Glass (http://alisonglass.com/blog)

·    American Patchwork & Quilting (www.allpeoplequilt.com/blog)

·    Barb and Mary of Me and My Sister Designs (http://www.meandmysisterdesigns.com/blog/)

·    The Benartex Design Team: Sew in Love with Fabric (http://www.sewinlovewithfabric.blogspot.com)

·    Debby Kratovil (http://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com/)

·    Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts (http://www.laundrybasketquilts.net/blog/)

·    Heidi Pridemore (http://heidipridemore.blogspot.com)

·    How To Sew (www.howtosew.com)

·    Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom (http://www.sisboom.com/blog/)

·    Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts (http://figtreequilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/)

·    Karrie Winters of Freckled Whimsy (http://www.freckledwhimsy.com/)

·    Kelle Boyd of Ann Kelle (http://www.annkelle.com/category/blog/)

·    Linda Carlson (www.lindacarlsonquilts.com)

·    Lori Mason (http://www.lorimasondesign.com/news/)

·    Modern Quilt Studio (http://craftnectar.com/)

·    Nicole Daksiewicz of Modern Handcraft (http://modernhandcraft.com/)

·    Northcott: Patti’s Patchwork (www.pattispatchwork.com)

·    Shannon Fabrics: My Cuddle Corner (http://shannonfabrics.com/blog/index/)

·    Tammy Silvers (http://www.tamarinis.typepad.com)

·    Timeless Treasures: Sew Timeless (http://www.ttfabrics.com/blog/)

·    Valori Wells (http://www.valoriwells.com/blog/)

·    Verna Mosquera of The Vintage Spool (http://freespiritfabric.blogspot.com/)

·    Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring (http://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/)

August Aurifil Designer

This month's Pinup Girl for Aurifil is Michele Foster. Her fabrics are so fresh and exciting. Read all about her.

Check out Pat Sloan's interview with her this month at http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/08/01/august-2014-designer-of-the-month/

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

2014 July Designer profile for Aurifil Thread

This month's Pinup Girl for Aurifil is Camille Roskeliey. Her fabrics are so fresh and exciting. Read all about her.

Check out Pat Sloan's interview with her this month at http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/july-2014-designer-of-the-month/#more-4337

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

2014 June Designer Profile for Aurifil Thread

So excited to be the Aurifil Girl for June Check out Pat Sloan's interview with me here
http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/june-2014-designer-of-the-month/

 We were asked to design a block that honored a lady that is an inspiration to me. I am so lucky to have wonderful women in my life and it is hard so hard to choose just one. But for this I had to share with everyone how amazing my two sisters are!

And for all the wonderful quilters and followers who inspire me everyday, I used our block to design "Chain Link", shown here. This pattern is available free to everyone to download from our FREE PATTERN PAGE. 

We are also offer a fabric kit to make our quilt
as shown here. Click here for details.

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

Quilt Market Spring 2014

Well another Quilt Market has come to an end. It was a busy weekend at the show after several weeks of sewing and designing. Our studio has been working with all of our clients to get ready for this show. Once the last quilt was sent for the show, I always take a deep breath and enjoy the trip to market.  I always love checking out all the beautiful quilts and projects that everyone has done. I appreciate all the work that goes into these trade shows.

As a designer, I enjoy seeing what's new in the industry. I check out the colors, styles and projects throughout the show and how they are displayed. This gives me a fresh perspective and helps recharge my batteries before I start thinking about the next round of projects.

But my favorite part of Market is I like to see all the people. I am on my own most of the year working in the studio and communicating with everyone via email/phone with all of our clients. Market gives me an opportunity to see old friends and make new ones!


Until next time.....
Heidi

Best Scrap Tour 2014-Buttered Cakes

I am so excited to participate in Quilter's Newletter's Best Scrap Quilts Blog Tour. Above is the quilt I did for this issue, which they named Buttered Cakes. It is a very sweet name for a very sweet quilt.  I created the block by mixing a Churn Dash and Log Cabin block, to make contemporary design that still had a vintage appeal. The fabrics are from Marcus Fabrics. I used a variety of 30's prints in my design. These period prints pull the whole quilt together. I Think this design would also look good in just about any fabric combo making it a great stashbuster quilt pattern.

This magazine is available on newstands now. So make sure to check out all the wonderful quilts in this issue!

Make sure to leave a comment below to be entered to win a prize from Quilter's Newsletter. Please include your email so we can notify you when you win!


Until Next Time.....
Heidi

Star Sampler quilt with Fabri-quilt

Last month I participated in a Star Blog Hop with Fabri-Quilt. And now we have the unveiling of the quilt top that Lisa Ruble has a assembled from all the blocks! You can read all about the project at
Here

Here is my block called Double Star!

Visit inspiredbyfabric.blogspot.com for the instructions 

 to make your own elegant star block!

Happy Quilting!

2014 April Designer Profile for Aurifil Thread

This month's Pinup Girl for Aurifil is Emily Herrick of Crazy Old Ladies Quilts. I love her clean and modern quilts.

Check out Pat Sloan's interview with her this month at http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/april-2014-designer-of-the-month/

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

Tutu Cute with The Quilter Magazine

 Tutu Cute designed by Heidi Pridemore

This month we have a quilt in The Quilter Magazine called Tutu Cute! This is a perfect quilt for the little dancer in your life.

When I saw this fabric collection from Quilting Treasures, I immediately fell in love with bright clean colors used for this group. I also loved the look of the little dancers, they are so sweet and graceful. This was one of those cases when I knew what I wanted the quilt to look like to showcase this fabric. When these ideas pop in my head, I just run with them.

So here is a peek at how this one was designed. I knew I wanted to have appliquéd tutus twirling around the quilt but I had to think about what would go with them. Once I knew I was going to work with this group, I talked to the editors at The Quilter to see if they would like a quilt from this group. This would help me decide how big the appliqués would be and what the second block would look like. Once they were on board with this project, I finally decided the second block should be a heart block. I came up with a simple pieced block to go with the simple appliqué tutu blocks. The hearts could represent the quilter's love for the special person they are making the quilt for or they can represent the little dancer's love for Ballet.

For the colors on this quilt, I made all the tutus with the cooler colors in the collection and saved the pink for the hearts. I love to include yellow in my quilt so I added a splash of yellow for the waistbands, inner border and outer corner blocks. All these bright colors look wonderful against the white backgrounds and borders.

I hope you have enjoyed this story behind the quilt. If you need to make this quilt for the little dancer in your life we have a limited number of fabric kits for this one.

Until Next Time....
Heidi

Cute Hoots with McCall's Quick Quilts

Cute Hoots Designed by Heidi Pridemore

We have quilt in the April/ May issue of McCall's Quick Quilts. I love these sweet owls that are all admiring the girl owl in the center. You know the one with the flower, (thats how you can tell). So here is a quick story of how I came up with this design.

For this project  I was given the fabric and asked to come up with an owl design that had some applique but too not to many templates. The templates also had to fit within the magazine without having to enlarge them. So I designed one owl with templates would fit the magazine page and then played around with the pieces to create different poses for the owls. Then to make the center owl stand out I flipped the colors and added a flower. Once "she" was created, I realized the outer owls could be her admirers hooting at her.

Once I had the owls figured out, I started playing around with the pieced block. I needed to bring some other colors into the center of the quilt to help balance the colors in the outer border. I love using "X" blocks for square quilts to offset the main blocks, so this block was the winner for me. For the borders I made the side inner borders brown to make them look like trees on sides of the quilt and then made the top and bottom borders green to represent grass and leaves. I added corner stones to the outer border to add interest and to be honest to avoid having to do mitered corners.

I hope you like our Cute Hoots. We have a limited number of fabric kits for this one if you would like to have some hoots for your home!


Until next time......

Heidi

Downton Abbey and Violet's Quilt

Downton Abbey - Violet's Quilt Designed by Heidi Pridemore

As some of you may know, I design alot of free projects for many of your favorite fabric companies. Every project is an exciting adventure where the fabric tells me their story and I create a quilt that passes that story on to the quilters who make it.

Sometime though a line of fabric comes along that everyone already knows its story and I have to create a quilt that fits that story. It usually involves a bit of research on my part to have a good understanding of what the fabric represents so the quilt pattern I design can fit the story that is already known.

Last summer I was asked to design a quilt using a new line from Andover Fabric and was so surprised and excited to see it was for Downton Abbey, a very very popular TV show that I happen to be a big fan of. So though the fabric already had an established story, I had already been following it and fell in love with the world it was created from.

The group was divided up into subcategories, one for each daughter and one for the Dowager Countess. There were several other designers working on this project as well as myself and Andover was going to select their favorite ones for the official quilts. So I was not sure if any of my designs would be selected. When I heard they had selected my quilt for the Dowager Countess Violet (Maggie Smith's character), I was quite excited. It helped that she is also my favorite character!

So here is how I came up with the design for this quilt. When I started working on the project and knew I was creating a design for each character. I wanted each design to stand on their own but also to tie together to tell a story, so I decided each quilt would have a flower appliqued on it to represent the character the quilt represented. So for the Dowager's quilt, it was an easy choice for me, a violet for her name. My plan for her quilt was to create on a design that would capture the Victorian era. I also wanted to consider the character's personality for the design. Violet is a sharp lady who has complex personality. I wanted to create a quilt that had a complex look but was still approachable for most quilters to make.
I created a complex block but then only used six of them in the quilt. Then I added an applique border to include my flower concept and finished the design with a simple pieced border alternating the lights and darks to frame the quilt. Once I added the fabrics to the design, the result was everything I was hoping for.

When we arrived at Fall Quilt Market, the Downton Abbey fabric was the buzz of the show. Everyone seemed as excited as I was about this group. Then I found out that they used our quilt as the cover quilt for the sales material and as the centerpiece for Andover's presentation with the production and costume designers, whom I was told really liked my quilt design. I am very proud of this quilt and wanted to share the story about how it came to be.

Here is a link to Andover's Downton Abbey presentation at Fall Market 2013
Andover Fabrics Downton Abbey Presentation


Finally we have just received our fabric from Andover for our Fabric Kits. If you would like a small piece of Downton Abby for your home you can order your kit here Click here to order Downton Abbey-Violets Quilt Kit


If you would like to download the pattern for FREE from Andover click here

Until next time....
Heidi

Gray is the new Black

     

Fusible Applique is my favorite quilting technique when I design quilts. I love the freedom of designing any shape I can think of. Flowers, characters, circles and swirls. No matter what shape I want this technique lets me create it. You can check out some of my designs on our website, 

www.The WhimsicalWorkshop.com  

When I travel and teach my fusible applique classes around the country, the most popular question I am asked is what kind of thread I use to finish my edges. I love to use 40 or 50 weight Aurifil Black thread most of the time. I love the way the black thread makes the edges of my shapes pop out. Many of our quilts are photographed for magazines and the darker edges add dimension to the quilt .  This is how I finished our Cute Hoots quilt. But this is not the effect I want on all of our designs and sometimes I need the edges to fade away or a black outline is too harsh for the fabric colors.

In these cases it is much better to use Aurifil light gray thread (2600) to finish the edges. I used gray to finish the edges on our Tutu Cute Quilt  (featured in this month's The Quilter) and our Downton Abby Quilt  (designed for Andover) both shown here. Also by using gray thread, I do not need to change the threads to match the fabric colors throughout the quilt.

I hope this little tip helps you next time you have to decide which color thread to use on your next project.

Until Next Time......

Heidi

2014 March Designer Profile for Aurifil Thread

This month's Pinup Girl for Aurifil is Emily Herrick of Crazy Old Ladies Quilts. I love her clean and modern quilts.

Check out Pat Sloan's interview with her this month at http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/02/28/march-designer-of-the-month-emily-herrick/

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

Double Star with the Fabri-Quilt Star Blog Hop

This week I am participating in Fabri-Quilt's Star Blog Hop. We were each asked to design a 12-1/2" star block using Fabri-Quilt's Marblehead Venetian Glass Fabrics designed by Ro Gregg.

Here is my block called Double Star!

Visit inspiredbyfabric.blogspot.com for the instructions 

 to make your own elegant star block!

When I was asked to design a star block with these wonderful fabrics, I wanted to make something as elegant as the prints. I decided to go with a double star to showcase the warm and cool color palette of the group.  I love the marbled fabric because it reminds me of interior of old books so I used it for the block center and then surrounded it with the different scroll prints.

You could make a quilt with all the star blocks using the same fabric combo or mix it up by making each star block from a different color combination.

 Make sure to check out the other Star blocks at inspiredbyfabric.blogspot.com

Hope you enjoy this pattern and I would love to see what you come up with, using any of the star blocks from this blog hop.

Until Next Time.....

2014 February Designer Profile for Aurifil Thread

This month's Pinup Girl for Aurifil is Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. She is one talented lady.

Check out Pat Sloan's interview with her this month at http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/february-designer-of-the-month-amy-gibson/

Aurifil is having a sew along with a MONTHLY thread BOX giveaway (seriously folks… you could win a box of Pat Sloan's  thread which is over $120.00 value.. for making a quilt block… you have to join in!).

EACH MONTH they will pick one random winner that has made a  block from our 2014 designers and that random person receives a FULL BOX of Pat Sloan's Aurifil thread as the  prize! Winners are all contacted via Flickr email and posted at our FLICK GROUP HERE

Check it out!

Happy Quilting!

Heidi

New Year, New Goals

Big Blooms pattern available from The Whimsical Workshop

We are three weeks into the new year and I am finally getting to blog about it. The past few years have been a quite crazy and I have let my life get a bit out of control. As I am sure all of you can relate to. Our business has seen great growth over the past three years and with that comes a lot more work, longer hours and lots of juggling.

After giving all my time to The Whimsical Workshop, I have decided to pause for a moment and think about how I am spending my time, how can I make life a little less crazy, how do I take time for ME and continue to move forward with our business doing the things I love!

So as I look forward to 2014, I have taken time to reflect over the past few years and thought about what I want to change moving forward and here are my pearls of wisdom I have come up with and have put into practice:

1. I have learned I will never be caught up. If I am doing things right, there will always be a new project just around the corner waiting for me. I have treated work like a sprint and it really is a marathon! I need pace myself, stop and take a break every week. Exercise, day trips and hobbies outside of quilting are needed to keep me fresh.

2. It is okay to say NO. I have realized that not every job is a good job and it is okay to turn work down. This is a very scary concept to me. Once I realized that a job that takes 10x longer than I estimated due to the stress the job causes me dread working on it, it is not really worth doing! (It is also so empowering to say no to something you really do not want to do.)

3. Spread out large tasks over a few days. Back to the sprint vs. marathon concept. I used to kill myself to complete a quilt top in a day, now I am trying to spread it out over a couple of days. My work looks better and I am not quite as sore at the end of the day. Larger projects are easier to accomplish if I break them down in smaller tasks and spread them out. I am amazed how much more productive I have been in the short time I have started doing this.

4. Write it all out- I used write down all the tasks that I needed to accomplish each week and I would hope to get to long term tasks with longer deadlines on the weekends. Well I would push off the longer tasks until they became the rush projects during the week at a later date. I also spent the whole week feeling stressed out about the number of jobs I needed to complete. So I never stopped working and never felt a sense of accomplishment.

Now I take the week's list of projects and break them down by day of the week. I make sure to include smaller tasks for the long term projects on the lists and also to leave time each day for things that pop up (They always do). This has helped me plan my workload better and I  have set a goal I can accomplish everyday. I also get to experience an empty in-box several times a week.

After three weeks of following the above, I have to say I feel calmer and have an easier time dealing with things that out of my control. I think I might have tamed some of CRAZIES in my life. I hope some of these ideas can help any of you who also have a case of the CRAZIES with no help in site.

I would also love to hear some of your ideas on added a touch of calm in your life. Leave a comment below by 1/27/14 to win a copy of our Big Blooms Pattern.

Until Next time.....
Heidi

Aurifil Designers for 2014

As many of you know, I LOVE Aurifil thread and use it all the time in our studio and this year I am excited to announce I am one of the Aurifil Designers for 2014. I am Miss June! Each month I will share with you the designer of the month. I am so excited to see what everyone comes up with this year. 

For 2014 Aurifil selected this group of fabric for the Design team challenge. The prints are all from “Wishes” by Sweetwater for Moda. Plus the Moda Bella Snow.

Each designer is going to create a 12″ finished block with a modern/clean feel using some of these fabrics and adding in ONE fabric from their stash.

January!

The first block is from Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, which will set the tone for the entire year. 

Here is the link to Pat Brovo's interview with the amazingly creative lady.http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/category/designers-of-the-month/

2014 Design Team

Scott Hansen http://bluenickelstudios.com/
Camille Roskelley http://camilleroskelley.typepad.com/
Carrie Nelson http://lavieenrosie.typepad.com/
Emily Herrick http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/
Heidi Pridemore http://heidipridemore.blogspot.com/
Jane Davidson http://quiltjane.blogspot.com/
Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com
Pat Wys http://www.silverthimblequilt.com/blog/
Natalia Bonner http://www.pieceandquilt.com/
Michele Foster http://quiltinggallery.com/blog-posts/
Brigitte Heitland http://www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com/
Angela Yosten http://blog.angelayosten.com/
Amy Smart http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/
Amy Gibson http://www.stitcherydickorydock.com/

Until Next Time....

Heidi