Hello my dear friends! It’s been a while since I posted on my blog and at least each blog hop brings me back to this place. Most of you are connected with me meanwhile at facebook where we meet every single day and exchange ideas and inspiration.
What I have to tell today is way too long for a facebook post. I’m gonna talk about what’s going on right now here at the Zen Chic Studio, chat about some quilt layout ideas and give you all details about how to win a Fat Eighth fabric bundle of my current line FIGURES.

So first let’s talk a bit about quilt layouts. When we, the Moda team, are at Market, we have a kind of presentation there (called Schoolhouse) where we all show the newest fabrics and patterns. And to find a mutual subject, Lissa, our Marketing Director, sends out each time a task to everyone. Actually it is the same task for everyone, but of course we will show our personal twist on it.
In Pittsburgh Schoolhouse our task was to sew a quilt (looks like a mega block) with a layer cake from our fabric line. Each person had that same quilt layout as a starter, but ended up with her personal interpretation on it.
So that was our original layout – the Moda Love Layer Cake Quilt  (which you can download as a free pattern here).

Of course I wanted to interpret this block in a more modern way, so I started to exchange plain squares by simple Lob Cabins to form some Pluses, to turn some blocks around and give them another direction – and to make it even more impressive to arrange the prints in color order.
I eventually ended up with a version, which looks quite modern and definitely needed an own pattern ;-)
I called it BIG PLUS and it’s now available in my pattern series.

And then we do also more fun stuff at Markets, this year for example we were all sewing scientists (at least pretending scientists) working in the Moda Laboratory. We wore a Lab Coat and taught our audience about our tips and tricks. Would you like to get to know Prof. Dr. Dr. Zen Chic from the Institute for Sophisticated Quilting? Voilà.
My new line Figures has a maritime color way with a nautical blue, aqua, salmon, linen and saffron in it and the patterns in the line are as always graphic and fresh. I was playing around a bit with sorting the fabrics by colors and figuring out how different a quilt would look if I just scale the complete range of fabrics down to certain color stories. I was surprised by the many variations I got:
I could have a serious and way of masculine look with the saffron/nautical combination

or a very feminine look by choosing the salmons and linens

but it could also be jus a youthful combination for a teenager with the aquas and reds.

or it would look lovely for a boys nursery… (BTW: I will become grandma of a little boy for the first time. Next January, so happy!!!)

I could play for hours to find new combinations… But I’m sure you have your own ideas and imagination and you will come up with projects that surprise me and make me oohing and aahing. (I love when you send me some pictures, which I can show).
So – you will need fabric! Of course! Time to talk about our giveaway. Here is a darn yummy bundle of Fat Eighths waiting for you!

For your chance to win: please hop over to my Zen Chic facebook page, like it (so you are a follower, you will get the news and inspiration and we can meet there) and leave a comment on my facebook’s post about this blog hop. That’s all!

HERE IS AN UPDATE: Since some of you said they are not at FB and wouldn't have a chance to win:
Your comment on my blog will also go in the drawings. So if you are not a FB user, you will have a chance to win if you comment on my blog also.

Today my Moda colleagues Kathy Schmitz and Edyta Sitar are also posting their giveaways. Don’t miss to stop by and take your chance to win.
The winners of this blog hop will be announced at the 13th of September.
Brigitte

Figures featuring the new patterns of Zen Chic

 

I’m really happy to have the support of my quilt guild, the MQG Bielefeld and friends who helped me to get my quilts sewn for the Market.

My newest collection for the upcoming quilt patterns is FIGURES. Precuts are available in a couple of days and the bolts are planned to be shipped to stores by the end of summer.

It’s a maritime collection based on different blues, accompanied by saffron and salmon. Big stamped figures are the theme and there are all kind of coordinating prints like graphic flowers, dots, and basic stash builders.

These are the newest patterns featuring the group and the quilts are presented by my quilting angels, the helping hands that make all the quilts possible in time.
THANK YOU DEAR FRIENDS!

HEXAGON BRILLIANCE

Ulrike has sewn the Hexagon quilt for me

MODERN RETRO

was sewn by another Ulrike from our group

SYNCHRO

was made by Christa. Christa is not always doing well and made these tops in between two chemos of her cancer therapy.

She actually did two quilt tops since this is a reversible quilt with front and back both to display. Thank you so much Christa for all the effort!

The other projects were done by me while I had still help with the hand sewing of the bindings

PLAYING WITH BALLS

the backside displays the theme of the quilt

BTW: the light grey background fabric is from my last collection SPHERE and matches the colors of the new one perfectly.

TAPE IT

BIG PLUS

the front of the quilt is grouped by four colors, so I transferred the idea to the back and did it with the same for colors accordingly.

this time I created also two patterns for young mothers or grannies with little kids or babies

DREAM BIG

the backside has a little plane for flying to heaven where all the dreams live

 

and I made some toys for little fingers

WATER WORLD FRIENDS

        

Finally: my sewing marathon is done, everything packed into my suitcase and tomorrow I’m heading off to Pittsburgh quilt market.

If you have a chance to be there: Please step by at my booth 447 and say hi, I would love to chat with you for a while.

This is the perfect thing for a Layer Cake…

…even if you are a beginner. But also the more experienced quilter will have fun with it, just because the result is so successful that you will make more than one project with this block.
I did a quick demo together with the friendly film team of the fatquartershop how to make a block.

It features my pattern OPEN YOUR WINDOW, which uses a layer cake of the brand new collection Sphere.


By the way – did you know that you have an instant access to all of my patterns as a PDF-download? You even save yourself the shipping costs. They are on my website, go to the menu PDF Download, where you will be guided through and get the pattern in your email box. Just in a minute!

This is the direct link for the OPEN YOUR WINDWOW pattern.
There were some snippets left over and they went onto the backside.


Have fun and happy sewing!

New Zen Chic Quilt Patterns featuring Barcelona

Hi, this is me again. Christine of www.grapes-heart.blogspot.com. Last week I promised to come back for a reveal of Brigitte’s new patterns for Zen Chic.

During the last four weeks, almost all of our MQG Bielefeld members have been helping Brigitte to prepare for Spring Quilt Market 2013 in Portland. Along with her new fabric line for MODA,“Barcelona”, she designed seven brand new patterns. As these new fabrics arrive only shortly before quilt market, there’s not much time to get those quilts for her booth done. So we volunteered to piece some quilt tops. She still had to piece the backing, baste, quilt and bind all those quilts…

Last Saturday was our monthly MQGB-Sew-In and we had a big Show & Tell with all the quilts WE MADE FOR PORTLAND (o;
(Can you tell we are a tiny little bit proud to be part of this Quilt Market Crazyness…?!)

This is Brigitte with an appliqué quilt named “Clarity”

… details of her beautiful quilting:

…and the final pattern cover (available just in time for Quilt Market):

Evelyne made this cute Baby Quilt Top – the first Baby Quilt Pattern Brigitte designed for a fabric line):

Brigitte chose this boy-ish quilt design that features cars and arrows.

And this is the cover of “Child’s Play”, a beginner friendly quilt pattern.

This is Brigitte explaining “Thirtythree”, a quilt that uses the “Street Map” Prints of her fabric line “Barcelona”. She added the “magical number” 33 to the quilt as another hommage to Antoni Gaudí, who referred to #33 in his buildings repeatedly.

A close-up of her longarm machine quilting:

And the final booklet cover of her pattern:

Ulrike made this gorgeous quilt top titled “Pure”:

Brigitte (and her partner Martin) added this stunning zig zag quilting…

… that shows best on the backing…

… and the cover is to die for, isn’t it?!

There is a second Ulrike in our MQG who made this beautiful quilt (but could not be there on Saturday):

Brigitte added a spiraling quilting design and machine-bound this green beauty using a decorative stitch of her sewing machine.

The Booklet Cover for “Quiet Haven”:

This rather straight line quilt top was made by me. Brigitte designed it as a wall hanging for a clearly structured office space.

To soften those straight lines and bold color contrasts, she chose a curvy-kidney-kind-of-quilting.

And here is how she designed the final pattern cover photo:

Last but not least, this is Brigitte again with another quilt: “Shine Through”, that was designed as an homage to Gaudí’s famous mosaics.

…she quilted it with a straight barcode design…

… and made this stunning cover (my favorite…).

That’s the seven quilts we helped making for Spring Quilt Market. There were two more for US based Quilting Magazines that we can’t show you right now. For those two Christa (who wasn’t at the Saturday’s meeting either, so we have no picture of her) was the helping angel. As soon as these both quilts are published and at newsstands, we can catch up on showing them. That a grand total of nine quilts in 4 weeks. And although we helped piecing and appliqueing, Brigitte still had to make backings, baste them, quilt them on her longarm machine and bind them. I am totally impressed by all the efforts she puts into each new fabric and pattern line and the perseverance to get everything done in time. I love each and every pattern she designed (but then, I am biased, I guess…).

Which one is your favorite?!

Brigitte, have a nice and safe trip to Portland and back!
And don’t forget to bring back many memories and photos to share during our next monthly Quilt Talk!

Christine

P.S. Did you enter Brigitte’s Giveaway? There’s still time (until she gets back from Portland)…

 

Note from Brigitte: Thank you, thank you and did I already say THANK YOU my dear friends!!!! You know – I wouldn’t have managed everything in time without your help, and I’m very grateful I can rely on you all, your support and your skills. XOXOXO