Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Happy Halloween - Island Batik Style!

Happy Halloween!  

For this month's challenge, the Island Batik Brand Ambassadors have been working with Needle, Paper, Scissors as the theme!  


I will be honest, paper piecing is not my favorite technique....  but I'm not afraid of a challenge! I wanted to make a fun pattern, something whimsical and why not a paper-pieced pumpkin for Halloween!  

I have named it Paisley Pumpkin since there is a paisley motif in the fabric in the middle of it's forehead! 


I started with a digital sketch that I created in my design software.  This gave me a general idea of what the pumpkin would look like and most importantly, it allowed me to print the papers for the paper piecing. 


Next I started sorting thru the fabrics I have received as an Island Batik ambassador.  I found all these fun orange patterns - paisley, ferns and swirls!  And then I found some wicked cool gray batik for the eyes .... I love the eyes the best.  They look so real :) 


I'm so pleased with Paisley Pumpkin and I hope you enjoy him too!  I used Warm 80/20 batting from The Warm Company but it would have been really fun to have used a super thick batting to give him more dimension.  

To keep up on all the fun projects I'm working on, be sure to follow me on Facebook at Masterpiece Quilting or on IG @masterpiecequilting. 

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

My Happy Place - 2018 STBS Row Along

Welcome to my Blog!  I'm Nancy Scott of Masterpiece Quilting and I'm excited to be part of this elite group of bloggers bringing you the "My Happy Place" Row Along.  You can get to know me on my About Me page.   

Today I want to focus on My Happy Place row.  This theme was a challenge for me... I guess I don't think much about where "my Happy Place" is or what it is :)  But everyone who knows me knows that I love Antiques so it made perfect sense to use that as the theme for my row. My favorite antiques are quarter-sawn oak and walnut furniture as well as depression glass, ironstone china, Ruby Red glassware, blue canning jars and of course, antique quilts! 

I credit my love of antiques to my father, who was always refinishing antique furniture, and an amazing lady named Bernice, who was a dear family friend.  I loved going to her house because she had more antique furniture than anyone else I knew! 

So without any further adieu - here's my row! 



First of all - huge thanks to Northcott Fabrics for graciously providing the fabrics to make this quilt.  I used fabrics from their Artisan Spirit collection. 
And huge thanks to The Warm Company for supplying me with their Warm 80/20 batting and Steam-A-Seam 2 Fusible Web. 

I pieced the partial Dresden blade and Wedding Ring arc and then use raw edge fusible applique to attach then as well as the letters to the background fabric.  Each piece was secured using matching thread and a machine-blanket stitch.  The pattern is available for FREE until October 11, 2018 in my Craftsy store.   After that, the price will increase to $5.00. 

And what's a blog post without a giveaway or two or three! 

From Moda - 2 Moda Collector Tote Bags  valued at $15.00 each.  Shipping is the responsibility of the winner. 








And from Masterpiece Quilting (that's ME!) - 3 copies of my new book The Simple Sampler valued at $17.98 each.  I will pay shipping - international too!  In case you aren't one of the lucky winners, you can purchase a copy on Amazon.  






And from Electric Quilt - Electric Quilt Version 8, a $239.95 value!  The shipping  will be a Coupon Code Via Email. 







Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog.  Be sure to visit the other bloggers participating in the My Happy Place Row Along.  I've seen previews of many of the rows and they are simply beautiful! 

Tuesday September 4, 2018
Thursday September 6, 2018
Tuesday September 11, 2018
Thursday September 13, 2018
Tuesday September 18, 2018
Thursday September 20, 2018
Tuesday September 25, 2018
Thursday September 27, 2018
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Show and Tell Day


Rules and Guidelines For Giveaways
Please take the time to read it.

Giveaways offered by sponsors are assigned to the various bloggers for their featured day.

There are no prior announcements on who is doing which sponsor except to the sponsor themselves.

You'll have to visit the blog or the featured blog to enter the giveaways.

Not all giveaways can be entered at Seams To Be Sew.

I will start announcing winners on September 11, 2018, and finish announcing winners on October 10, 2018.

In most cases, the blog where you won at also will announce their 
winners.

You must give a valid email address when you enter the giveaways, any email returned to me, loses the ability to win automatically.

With the exception of Show and Tell Day, all giveaways run for approximately one week.

You are given 3 days to answer the email, if you do not answer within 3 days a new winner will be drawn. Check those spam/junk mail folders, you may miss that winning email if you don't do so because there are no exceptions to this rule.

If you are notified that you are a winner, in most cases, you will need to provide your name, address, city, state, zip code, country, telephone number, and email address.

In some cases, you will be asked to comment on the blog to enter the giveaway... do the right thing and thank them for the time it took to create the pattern, thank them for the pattern and...

Thank the sponsor by buying their products for the giveaways. This helps them continue to offer great prizes for these types of events. You can also comment on their social media pages. Even if you don't win, letting them know you love their products is a huge incentive and they really do love hearing from you.

No purchase whatsoever is necessary.

You must be 18+ in order to win a gift.

You are responsible for claiming and paying any tax owed on the value of any gift that you win. Prizes valued at $500.00 should be claimed.

All winners are chosen at random.

All winners will be announced on the blogs via the Rafflecopter entry form and/or post by the blogger at the site where they won and here at Seams To Be Sew. All winners must allow for their first name and first initial of their last name to be announced on this blog.

Odds of Winning a prize are based on a total number of rafflecopter entries during each week and in total for all giveaways.

This giveaway is void where prohibited by law.

Participating bloggers may enter any of the giveaways.

The word giveaways in the rules and guidelines are also known as sweepstakes.

Most of the giveaways are international shipping this year
in some cases, you will be asked to pay for shipping your giveaways.

I am not rich and I do not ask sponsors for money, they provide prizes only.

If they shipped the prize to me, you will be asked to pay for shipping.
All giveaways will be shipped that are in my home within 48 hours of my having heard from you.

An invoice will be sent to you via Paypal, and shipping will take place via Paypal, so your Paypal email will be needed to send the invoice. You will receive a tracking number except for overseas shipments. All shipping will either be first class which averages out at 2.77 to 4.00 up to 13 ounces. Paypal fees are added to that amount to cover that fee. All fabric bundles from Michael Miller, Hoffman, and Moda will be shipped via Priority Mail to protect the fabric itself.

Please note, every effort is made to protect the prizes. They go into a plastic bin when I receive them, and it is covered by an air tight cover. I have a dog in my home and I have a smoker in my home, so I do everything possible to protect the prizes.

Most companies are very good about getting prizes off to customers quickly also, but some companies are overseas, so please allow all sponsors a 2-week time period before you report to me that you still haven't received your prize. When the company is overseas, it can take 6 weeks to 90 days for an item to also arrive.


Whether or not you read the above, the rules for giveaways are in place to protect everyone. I do not want to hear you didn't read them, they will be posted on my blog daily during each featured day. There is no excuse for not reading them.


Monday, October 1, 2018

2018 Monthly Color Challenge - October is Blue Violet

I'm excited about October's color - Blue Violet.  It's not as edgy as Red - Violet that was featured in September.  In case you missed them, be sure to check out my red-violet blocks.   

Anyway back to Blue Violet (it's one of those days when I digress on every topic!)   I was surprised I didn't have much Blue Violet in my stash.... I'm going to need to work on that. :)   I ended up purchasing a few quarter yard cuts of blenders to fill in what I was missing.   I'm noticing that my stash has a lot of medium to dark fabrics and not very much in the light and light-medium range.  I guess I'm not much of a pastel person! 



If you are finding this blog post for the first time and aren't sure what we are talking about .... To get all the scoop, be sure to check out Jen's post.


I'm using Jen's pattern (available on her blog - see link below) and made both the 12" and 6" block this month.   I love how subtle the block is - it's very soothing! 



With only 2 more blocks to make, I've started working on my final quilts.   I can't wait to share them with you.  Stayed tuned to social media for some sneak peaks :) 

I can't wait to see what your block looks like.  On Jen's blog you have an opportunity to share your blue violet block or anything made with blue violet from October 21 to 31 to be eligible for prizes.  

And speaking of prizes, the sponsor for this month is Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics who are giving away a $25 gift certificate!  I love hand dyed fabrics - don't you? 





Also be sure to visit the other bloggers who are participating this month.  It's so much fun to see what fabrics everyone has selected and how different the same block looks with different fabric choices!



Jen Shaffer of Patterns By Jen
Jen Strauser of Dizzy Quilter
Sherry Shish of Powered By Quilting
Jen Rosin of A Dream and A Stitch
Dione Gardner-Stephen of Clever Chameleon Quilting



And if you are playing along with us, make sure to use #2018monthlycolorchallenge on social media! And speaking of social media, be sure to follow me on IG: @Masterpiecequilting and Masterpiece Quilting on FB for sneak peaks and updates!