Secret Revealed!!!!

Hi Everyone!!!! Today I finally get to reveal the secret I’ve been holding onto for the last couple of months! YAYAYAYYYY! I’m really excited, can you tell?

Drumroll please….. I wrote a tutorial for the Moda Bake Shop! I submitted a design, and they actually liked it! (Hubby says I shouldn’t be so surprised, of course they liked it, I’m awesome — but you understand my excitement, right?)

A few months ago, after a wonderful quilty day with friends, I got stuck in traffic. Fueled by a day full of talking about quilts, I started seeing quilts everywhere, including the brake lights I was staring at. A little more refining and thinking, I had this:

This is the first time I ever made a fully detailed drawing of a design in my head (and I’ll share more about this in a few days). I am so amazed that it came out exactly like I saw it in my head!

I designed the quilt around using just one charm pack. So many of us can’t resist those little cuties, and collect them almost obsessively. But what do you do with just one charm pack? Especially if it’s a few years old and you can’t find coordinating fabric anymore? Find two coordinating solids and make this!

I really wanted to intensely quilt it, of course, but time constraints just wouldn’t allow it. So this quilting scheme was proposed by my husband. Something simple, but impactful. No sprained wrists, no running out of thread at 3am, just easy and carefree. Well, until the thread kept breaking… My machine DEFINITELY prefers poly thread.

There’s random straight line quilting in the foreground, with two colors: yellow variegated and hot pink. Yes, I used hot pink thread! The background is done in figure eights that gradually get bigger as you move up the quilt. A very fun way of playing with the negative space, but very easy. I just marked out the sections with masking tape.

Moda sent me the new Bright Sun fabric by Chelsea and Sherri from A Quilting Life.  It’s like this fabric was made just for me! Yellow, turquoise, polka dots, arrows… what’s not to adore? I hope you guys like the fabric too, you’re going to be seeing a lot of it here in the next few decades. I can’t wait to see what their new line is going to look like!!!!

And of course, Woody had to help. Just as he’s helping type this… Purring away and making it difficult, but he’s so cute, I never have the heart to move him.

Oh, and if you’re a frequent visitor, you may have noticed the change of scenery. My normal photo site was cramped with extra siding, so hubby suggested the local lake beach. (He’s really smart.) They had all these wonderful spots to snap pictures (and that gorgeous yellow tree!) that I’m sure you’ll be seeing it again.

Please, please, please let me know if you have any issues with the tutorial, or need a little extra help. I know there’s a few tricky parts, but it’s really not as difficult as it may look.

No more secrets for awhile, okay guys? I’m not good with secrets….

(Linking to Sew Cute Tuesday and WIP Wednesday)