"A Flair For Fabric" Blog Hop - Margot Languedoc + Desire To Inspire

We have a lot of stuff to talk about today! The "A Flair For Fabric" blog hop hosted by Martingale & Co. is continuing with Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket. She's from Canada and is one of our newer designers. Her signature flowers and beautiful palette are lovely. Make sure that you go to her website for some gorgeous inspiration.

We have our November "Desire To Inspire" challenger to post. Apologies for the delay. It is a fabulous one.

Juli Thompson is our November Challenger.

HG:  Name?  
JT:  Juli Thompson

HG:  Where do you live?  

JT:  I am originally from Portland, Oregon.  My family moved twice across the country in 2011 to Saint Charles, Missouri and then to Saint Michael, Minnesota.  

HG:  Family?  
JT:  I live with my husband Erik of 18 years, our 8 year old son Ben, and our dog Wilson.

HG:  How long have you been quilting?  

JT:  I fell in love with quilting after visiting my local quilt shop almost 12 years ago.  

HG:  What’s your favorite technique?  

JT:I enjoy challenging myself to learn new techniques and trying them out on smaller projects.  I also like mixing techniques.  For a Thimbleberries club challenge, I combined hand embroidery, beading, machine quilting, and bias binding with a scalloped border.

HG:  Who taught you how to quilt?  

JT:  I learned to quilt as an adult by taking various classes offered through my local quilt shop and participating in Lynette Jensen’s Thimbleberries club.  I have fond memories of learning to sew craft projects as a young girl on my mother’s New Home sewing machine, but I did not start quilting until my 30’s.

HG:  Do you belong to any guilds?  

JT:  I am active in several clubs at my local quilt shops, including a Block of the Month club, Redwork club, and Kim Diehl’s Simple Whatnots club.  I treasure the friendships made through quilting!

HG:  Anything else you would like to share with our readers?  

JT:  I enjoy making quilts for family, friends and charity.  After I finish a bright and cheery quilt, rather than sorting the fabric scraps back into my stash, I make a smaller quilt to donate to Quilts for Kids or Project Linus.  I plan to piece a quilt for Quilts of Valor in the future.  There is never enough time in the day for all the projects waiting for me in my quilt room!  I encourage everyone to support their local quilt shops, take a class, join a club, learn a new technique, enter a quilt show, and participate in a mystery quilt or challenge. 

HG:  Desire to Inspire:  

JT:  For this challenge, I focused on the preprinted panel with 1 large motif and 4 smaller motifs.  The panel offers the look of applique and the durability to withstand repeated washings from accidental spills.  For the 26”x44” rectangular table runner, I adapted Kim Diehl’s “Penny-Wise” from her book Simple Charm: 12 Scrappy Patchwork and Applique Quilt Patterns.  I substituted the pieced / appliqued center section with the larger panel motif.

JT:  For the 34” x 34” square table topper, I created a scrappy Irish Chain of red and blue fabrics to compliment the smaller panel motifs.

JT:  Both projects were made exclusively with the beautiful Vintage Farmhouse fabric collection by Kim Diehl from Henry Glass.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the Desire to Inspire challenge.  

Happy Quilting!   

HG:  Thank you Juli for such wonderful work. Your projects are so beautiful and we are glad that you took our challenge.

Today we are going to have another "Countdown To The Holidays" event and we are going to give away some Kim Diehl fabric!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Have a great day.

-HG