oakshott scandinavia + a bartow baby quilt

The lovely team at Sew Mama Sew recently sent me a bundle of fabrics from Oakshott Fabrics' Scandinavia collection. When they asked that I create something Scandinavian-inspired, I immediately thought of the interiors of Scandinavian homes I'd seen on Pinterest and Design*Sponge, and wanted to create something that would fit into those clean, modern spaces. When I received the stack of shot cottons, I experimented with a few different quilt blocks based on Scandinavian surface patterns---including improv curves and plus signs---but none of them seemed quite right.

While continuing to brainstorm ideas, the Bartow Quilt pattern by Carolyn Friedlander came to mind. The clean lines and simple layout of this free pattern for Robert Kaufman suggested to me that it would be right at home in a modern interior, so I set to work cutting strips from each of the pastel fabrics to create a baby quilt.

I used a combination of cream shot cotton and white cotton for the top's background, and I backed the quilt with a soft Melody Miller linen-cotton print that I picked up in Japan last year, which included many of the colors from the bundle: baby pink, lavender and mint green.

I used cream thread for the cross-hatch quilting, and I machine bound the quilt with leftover Oakshott scraps, using my newest favorite method for binding.

Many thanks to Sew Mama Sew and Oakshott Fabrics for this beautiful fabric bundle! I enjoyed working in a new-to-me color palette and taking on a fun challenge.

Be sure to check out the beautiful projects made from the same bundle of fabric by these other talented makers: 

Jessica Skultety from Quilty Habit
Jennifer Fullerton from Never Just Jennifer

Mary Kolb from Mary on Lake Pulaski
Casey York from The Studiolo
Deborah Fisher from Fish Museum and Circus

P.S. A winner was selected for the Modern Sampler Quilt pattern giveaway and announced in the last post. There's still time to grab a pattern from the Zakka Workshop store for 20% off with the code QUILTALONG, and sew your first block for the Modern Sampler Quilt Along by the end of the month!

handprinted: a fabric swap II

Lately, I've been wanting to try my hand at printing my own fabric, so when I heard about the hand-printed fabric swap organized by Leslie over at Maze and Vale back in June, I immediately knew I wanted to participate.

After a bit of brainstorming, research, and experimenting, I settled on a simple triangle design.

I created a stamp using adhesive-backed foam and a plastic cap for the base and stamped away using black, aqua, and coral fabric paint. I made four fat quarters for my four swap partners.

I was super happy with the results of this experiment in fabric stamping---and only wish I'd made a fifth to keep for myself!

You can see the beautiful fabric I received in return here, here, and here.

patchwork napkins

Lately, I've been buying a lot of fabric--too much fabric. I blame this on my day job. At a fabric store. So in an effort to keep my scrap bucket from overflowing, I've been looking for quick and easy stash-busting projects. I quickly found that Film in the Fridge's patchwork napkin tutorial fit the bill, and I whipped up four new napkins.

The tops of all four napkins--prints and solids--are pulled entirely from my scrap bucket. The patchwork stripes are a mix of designer, Japanese, vintage, and shirting fabrics. 

The napkin backs are made up of fabrics from my main stash, including fat quarters from Purl Soho and CityCraft that I've been hoarding. 

I loved working with fabrics I had on hand, and definitely felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw that my scrap bucket had emptied out a bit. Know of any other good stash-busting projects? Feel free to share them in the comments!