Calling all you "MAKERS" out there...

You guys, I'm so excited to share with you this little project 

I've been working on!  

Teespring.com invited me to create a shirt campaign for quilters!  When I found out I could keep or donate all the proceeds - I knew I just had to do it.  You see, there is a special little girl in my neighborhood.  She's 4-years-old and was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia last year.  I've been wanting to do something for this beautiful little girl and her family so I'm proud to say 100% of the profits from the campaign will be donated to 

Brinley Mae Raven.

I enlisted the help of my quilty, graphic designer friend, Holly Mateer and together we created this CUTE design for quilters, sewists and crafters!  It's available in mens and womens sizes and 6 different colors.  It's $24.99 and made with a triblend of materials so it won't shrink!

The shirt is only available until April 1st so don't think  - head over NOW to teespring.com!  I'd love to sell a million to help Brinley :)

I know this is a good cause!

I've already ordered mine and can't wait to wear it!

More information about Brinley and her family can be found HERE.

Happy quilting!

~ Amber

ME - APQ Podcast - TODAY!!!

I'm freaking out a little but I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be a

TODAY!!!

The show airs 4 pm Eastern, 3 pm Central, 2 pm Mountain and 1 pm Pacific.  

Click HERE for your listening pleasure!

We'll talk about all sorts of fun stuff so I do hope you'll tune in!

Happy quilting!

~ Amber

Pixilated Heart Mini Quilt

Happy Monday, everyone!

Today I want to share with you a quick project I recently finished.  

It uses a new-to-me method of piecing called "fusible patchwork".  My friend Heather Andrus, from the blog Quilt Story, introduced it to me but the original tutorial was created by Elizabeth Hartman of the blog Oh, Fransson!  You can find the tutorial HERE.

I used 820 Quilter's Grid fusible interfacing by Pellon.  

It's 1" printed grid ensures perfectly matched up corners in your patchwork piecing by sewing vertically and horizontally on all the lines!  AND, it eliminates the need to fuss with pinning because all you have to do is fuse your patchwork pieces in place!  It does create some stiffness to your project though so I'd personally only use it for wall-hangings or maybe even a patchwork bag!

I wanted to be able to display this mini all year around so I decided not to make it too Valentine-y :)  I loved working with my low-volume scraps for the background and some favorite bright pieces from my stash for the heart.  The triangle/heart print in light blue, navy, green and pink was the piece I used to base my whole color scheme off of.  I love that print so much that I backed the whole thing with it too and then had to buy some more just to have in my stash! :)

I decided to quilt through all the squares diagonally creating a cross-hatched effect (I love cross-hatching!)  I tried a few different ways of marking the lines - first, with blue painter's tape and then with a water-soluble pen but finally decided I could quilt it just as well by "eyeing it" (since the squares were small enough) so I stopped marking after the first line or two.

It's hanging in my sewing room with a few other minis above my quilted design wall.  I'll show pictures of the whole room one of these days.  I'm waiting to make and hang one more to finish off the space!

I hope this inspires you today to try something new!  

Whether it be a a new method, a new product or a new color scheme!

Happy quilting!

~ Amber