Friday, March 28, 2014

Desire To Inspire: March 2014 Edition


The Henry Glass crew always loves this part of the month. We wait in anticipation for the challenger's design and post. We are never disappointed! If you want to submit to us, send us one photograph that best represents your style. We select a new challenger for each month. Your skill level can be at any level. We can't respond to every submission but we do keep them on file. Thanks for submitting. Remember that you can view past challenges by clicking the button at the top right sidebar.


This month, our featured fabric is, Weekend Retreat by Jan Shade Beach. The collection has a fun, retro vibe and we knew that our challenger would come up with an equally playful design. You can view the entire collection on the Henry Glass website by clicking here.



We welcome Desire To Inspire Challenger, Heather Kojan. She is from Baltimore, MD and sewing with her and her guild members sounds inspiring!

[Heather Kojan]



Tell us a little about your family.
I live with my husband of 28 years, Harvey.  We have 2 kids: Kyle is a junior in college, and Katie is finishing her senior year in high school. We also have 3 cats and a rescue dog. 



How long have you been quilting?
Over 25 years

What's your favorite technique? 
I love piecing, and I’m always trying new (to me) techniques. Right now, my new favorites are curved piecing and EPP.



Who taught you how to quilt? 
My grandmother was a quilter. She didn’t teach me, but I have a lot of her quilts and I cherish them all. I’m a self taught sewer and quilter. I learned a lot from Alex Anderson on TV!

Do you belong to any guilds? 

I’m the founder and first president of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. [hg: Their blog is a fun read!] I love my guild ~ so many fun people with great ideas and always willing to share.



Anything else you would like to share with our readers?

I love to quilt and would do it 24/7 if I could. I consider myself foremost a teacher and love speaking to different groups and sharing the modern aesthetic.  I teach modern quilting classes in the Mid-Atlantic region and upstate New York. I’ve also written many tutorials for my own blog, and other popular quilting blogs such as Sew Mama, Sew! I got to attend my first quit market in the fall of 2013 to promote my new book Classic Modern Quilts.  

Thanks Henry Glass for letting me play with your fun fabric!

Oh, and one more thing: don’t try to do a quilt photo shoot on a windy day!



Henry Glass thanks Heather and her two helpers for participating in the March edition of Desire To Inspire Challenge! 

Have a great weekend!
-HG








Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Touch Of Baltimore

[Photo credit:  Little Quilts]

For a fabric designer, the early phases of the design process is exciting. Once the designer has submitted the designs, the fabric company works with the mill to get "strike offs" of the work in progress. The swatches printed in this early phase of the printing process aren't necessarily the final prints. Sometimes there are multiple rounds of tweaking before final approval.

The ladies at Little Quilts have been working with their strike offs and designing something fabulous in anticipation of the arrival of the actual fabric. Here's a sneak peak [above] of what they are working on.

"A Touch Of Baltimore" will be in quilt shops everywhere August 2014.



In case you missed this fascinating article the first time, here is a wonderful read from Little Quilts about this collection.


Enjoy your day!


-hg

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Inspiration Tuesday: Flower Girl

[Photo credit: The Pattern Basket]

Designer Margot Languedoc of The Pattern Basket is known for her beautiful floral prints and her patterns are thoughtful designs that showcase the beauty of the prints. Her latest collection, Flower Girl, should be in the quilt shops right now!


You can catch a peak of the entire Flower Girl collection and the accompanying free project on the Henry Glass website.


Margot recently posted a free pattern on her blog that is oh so adorable. We think Butterflykissed is a great pattern to usher [or shall we say push or shove] spring in our direction. Meanwhile, stay a while on her blog. It's lovely.

-hg

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Designer Spotlight: Martha Walker of Wagons West Designs


We are pleased to introduce you to one of our newest designers, Martha Walker of Wagons West Designs. We chatted with her recently and we welcome her to the Henry Glass blog.

HG: Welcome, Martha! What is the name of your company?





HG: How long have you been in business and how are you involved in the quilting industry? 

MW: I launched Wagons West Designs in 2007 with my first book, Vintage Christmas. I have since authored Be Merry: Quilts and Projects for Your Holiday Home for Kansas City Star Books, and independently, Annie's Scrapbag. I also have published individual patterns for quilts, wool appliqué and punch needle, as well as quilts and needlework projects for many magazines.

HG: Where do you live?

MW: Phoenix, Arizona.


hg: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. 

MW: I have been married for almost 27 years to Thom, and we have two wonderful boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who are 25 and 21 respectively, and a daughter-in-law, Katie, Andrew's wife. We also have one very needy, I mean sociable, cat named Tabitha.

HG: Are you a quilter?

MW: Yes!

HG: Who taught you how to quilt?

MW: I was inspired to begin quilting because I loved the quilts my Grandmother made, but I actually taught myself how to quilt. I began piecing by machine, but later in my early twenties took a class where I learned how to hand piece, so it's great to know how to do both! I taught myself how to quilt by hand, and in the late 90's I took a few classes to learn how to machine quilt. I've also learned SO many things from books and magazines!



HG: How long have you been quilting?

MW: I made my first quilt, a big four patch bedspread, when I was a teenager, which was over 40 years ago. My mom had a big box of scraps, which I almost emptied after cutting 4 1/2" squares for that double bedspread. With the leftover smaller scraps, I started my second quilt, a Grandmother's Flower Garden, when I was a sophomore in high school, and finally finished it my senior year in college. Then it was on to a postage stamp quilt to use up the rest of the scraps for a triple Irish chain wall hanging. Luckily by then, quilting fabrics and quilt shops began to appear, so I could start rebuilding my stash!

HG: Favorite technique?

MW: I like variety, so it's fun for me to switch from hand appliqué, to hand piecing, to machine piecing, to wool appliqué, etc, etc. When making a quilt, I try to use as many different fabrics as I can in a single quilt, "scrappy" if you like. I think the bigger the assortment of fabrics, the more interesting and lively the quilt.


HG: What is your style? Country? Modern? etc.?

MW: I would say a mix of traditional/ folk art/ primitive. I am so inspired by quilts from the nineteenth century, and try to emulate the sense of spontaneity so oftentimes found in those quilts. 


HG: Do you design on paper, computer, other?

MW: My designs almost always start as drawings on paper, which I later transfer to the computer for patterning or to be placed within a combination appliqué/pieced design. I use both Adobe Illustrator and EQ7 for design and drafting.


HG: Thanks for visiting with us Martha. Your new line is fabulous. Meanwhile for our fans, you can catch a sneak peak of Martha's new line Sentimental Stitches on our website. The line will be in quilt shops in October.

-hg

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Fabulous Folio Basics!



The Folio Basics collection is an excellent range of consisting of a large rainbow of colors. New colors will make their debut at your local quilt shop this April and can be previewed on our website here. The possibilities are endless when you incorporate these prints into your projects whether they're applique or pieced. You will find a color that coordinates with other Henry Glass designer collections too! Bring some color into your new project by using Folio Basics. 



   



-hg


Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Inspiration Tuesday!



The inboxes at Henry Glass have been very lucky lately. People have been submitting photographs of their projects. We love to see what you make with the Henry Glass collections!



Александра Беликова wrote to us to share her project. She made a lovely quilt with Fishy Fishy collection by Heather Mulder Peterson. So fun! She has some more photos of this project on her blog, Kalinka Handmade. Just lovely.

"Good day!
I want to show you my project of tissue collection "Fishy fishy." I enjoyed working with this fabric! Thank you!
Characters drawn from felt my mom."


Thank you for sharing. You know how much we love show and tell! If you have a project to share with Henry Glass, send a photograph of it here.

-hg

Thursday, March 6, 2014

American Beauty


We truly love it when we receive a photo or two of a finished project that features our fabric. Judy Hansen, owner of Quilt Shop of Deland in Deland, Florida, in sent in photographs of a quilt that her customer, Renee Burson, made from Beth Logan's American Beauty collection. Wow! The pattern is designed by BJ Designs.






Judy also sent in a photograph of an adorable zigzag runner. You can contact her shop for details about the project.

Thanks for sharing! If you have a finished project, send us a photograph and we will feature it!

-hg

Monday, March 3, 2014

Reflections Of The South: A Touch Of Baltimore


Little Quilts' new collection, "A Touch of Baltimore" is a beautiful line that reflects the prints used in quilts from the mid-1800s. Henry Glass asked Little Quilts' designer Mary Ellen Von Holt to sit down and chat about the history of this era and the types of quilts that were made.






Little Quilts has designed a few patterns to accompany this lovely collection.  The first design is an easy pieced quilt that uses the eagle and floral panels. The result is a quilt that looks hand-appliqued without all of the work! The second design is a design for a glorious Baltimore Album quilt. Little Quilts used the prints from the "A Touch Of Baltimore" line in this beauty. [You can download them for free from the Henry Glass website by clicking here.]




Thank you Mary Ellen! The new line is gorgeous. Ask your local quilt shop for "A Touch Of Baltimore' so that you can make your very own Baltimore quilt. Fabrics will hit the store shelves August 2014.

-hg