Benartex Christmas in July 2023

 Jackie Robinson has 

done it again!

A Botanical Season is 

a lovely array of 

holiday touchstones from 

holly to Christmas ornaments.

I used techniques from

my Fabric Collaborations class

to adorn this sweet and 

simple table runner

with lovely amaryllis 

flower bouquets.

I am in love with 

these sweet flowers and the 

cute star negative space 

at their centers!

The pattern can be found

in my ETSY shop

HERE.

Fun quilting 

suggestions included.

Come join the designers

and ambassadors on 

July 25th for a peek

at all the upcoming

fabrics.

You can register HERE.

Come see how I used this

line in another project HERE 

to create a matching set!

Benartex Ambassador Project #3

 Christmas in July is celebrated by 

lots of quilters to get a jump on

their Christmas gift lists, so

I am going to offer 2

Christmas in July patterns

for my Benartex projects!

For project #3 I chose

to work with the new

line, Rhapsody in White,

arriving in shops now.

This line has a lovely

silky feel to it and there

are lots of cute

prints to choose from.

White makes me think of 

snowflakes though and how 

fun are those little

paper cut ones from 

our childhood.

In all honesty, I was never 

much good at getting them 

to look pretty, and I 

have worked very hard

to make the ones

in my Holiday Settings

pattern easy and cute!

The designs can be single

or layered as shown and

explained in the 

pattern instructions

found HERE.

These will become

timeless family gifts,

used every year.

Use them for pillows,

tote bags, candle mats,

mug rugs, Santa's

cookie mat....

The list is endless!

Come join the fun

July 25th

to get a peek at all the 

upcoming fabrics!

Register HERE.

Come see how I used this

line in another project HERE 

to create a matching set!

QUILTVILLE 2023

 

I have been wanting to share

this with you all and now I 

have the time to sit and 

reminisce about the wonderful

week spent in Quiltville:)

Our friend, Tara Miller of the 

Quilt District, started this

new tradition in 2022 

and somehow I was one 

of the lucky invites!!

We arrive at this idyllic location

in the mountains with enough 

space for 12 women to gather

but also have alone time when

needed. The sewing room/ tables

are perfectly set up with light

and space enough to spread 

out and you have a design wall area too.

The kitchen has ALL the amenities to 

feed us day or night:)

This year we celebrated our

fearless leader's birthday.

A Quilt was made in her honor:)

There were presents!!

I made the muffin bags and a friend 

made these cool phone stands ...just what

I have always wanted!!

We revisited the old

wool mill again and wandered

into one of the buildings this time.

Look at this awesome old 

machinery still sitting there.

Then there were the hikes

full of gorgeous cinematic

views everywhere!

Last year it was cold and 

snowed so there wasn't 

much outdoor activity.

Bonnie took us up to the 

Grayson Highlands 

to see the ponies.

The views were

Spectacular!

This trail was my favorite

due the foliage and 

rock formations.

We saw many ponies

but got the closest to 

this cutie:)

Occasionally Jim and I 

have had a discussion about

how cool it would be to 

hike the Appalachian Trail...

LOLOLOLOLOL!

Now I can say I have!!

The weather permitted

us to enjoy a lovely firepit

one evening with

many many laughs:)

I have never seen a 

Trillium in real life...

How cool are they?!?!

IF you click the pic, it 

will take you to a wiki

description.

Here is the funny bit....

"Trillium erectum, the red trillium, 

also known as wake robin, 

purple trillium, bethroot, 

or stinking Benjamin ., 

is a species of flowering plant 

in the family Melanthiaceae. 

The plant takes its common name 

"wake robin" by analogy with 

the European robin, which 

has a red breast heralding spring.

HAHAHAHA.

I can't wait to find a way

to make a ROBIN quilt~

Quiltville in Bloom

Thanks for coming along

on my adventures.

If you would like to read

about last year's visit, 

go HERE!

Twist & Turn Blog Hop

Hello and Welcome to the 
Twist & Turn Blog Hop
featuring a new book
by Cinzia White. 

Twist & Turn Quilts by Cinzia White, 

published by C&T Publishing, is 

landing in stores this month. 

I have joined with a group of exciting 

original designers to bring more 

ideas on how to meld different designs to 

make your own original quilt. 

These innovative designers are showing 

us a variety of their own circle designs 

using the latest fabrics to highlight the 

versatility of Cinzia’s Twist & Turn Quilts. 

First let's take a peek at a couple

of designs directly from the book!

This simple layout

makes a great table runner

and the center can be anything!

You can make it as

simple or difficult as you like...

embroidery or applique' or

fussy cut as in this next

example from Cinzia's book!

Cinzia reached out to me after I 

had posted my Benartex Ambassador

January group project, a tote.

She really liked this 

flower for the center 

of her block & she 

was right!!

Here is her mock up...

HOW Cool is this!!

It is mocked up

in the 

Wave Texture line

by Jackie Robinson

for Benartex.

I have assembled the 

templates in 3 sizes

as a PDF download

in my ETSY shop.

SO many opportunities

for personalized design

with these templates

and Cinzia's book!

Please be sure to pop

over to the other 

designers' sites

during the HOP Dates

of May 25th-31st

for some FAB ideas

and a giveaway or 2:)

Thursday 25th: Monika Henry https://www.pennyspoolquilts.com/blogs/blog/twist-turn-blog-hop 

Friday 26th: Tammy Silvers

https://tamarinis.typepad.com/tamarinis/2023/03/twist-and-turns-blog-hop.html  

https://www.tamarinis.com/ 

Saturday 27th: Swan Sheridan

https://www.swanamity.com/ 

Sunday 28th: Laura Piland https://www.sliceofpiquilts.com/2023/05/twist-turn.html 

Monday 29th: Robin Koehler YOU ARE HERE:) https://nestlingsbyrobin.blogspot.com/ 

Tuesday 30th: Terri Vanden Bosch 

http://www.lizardcreekquilting.com/ 

Wednesday 31st: Cinzia White 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cinziawhitedesigns

Benartex Project #2- Peacock Petals

 We round up the first quarter of the year

with my second Benartex project....

Peacock Petals using fabrics

from the Peacock Symphony

line by David Galchutt.

It hit store shelves in January so

keep an eye out for it.

Deep rich colors and 

a spring vibe kept niggling at 

the back of my mind.

I thought about 2 particular 

design workshops that I

adore teaching, Scrapplique'

and Fabric Collaborations.

Both concepts along with these

two fabrics inspired

my work for this challenge.

Thankfully the style of the fabric

goes beautifully with my own 

aesthetic of swirls and dots!

Admittedly, I got a bit carried away

with my design work.

It was only supposed to be

one small wall hanging.

THEN, I got excited about working

in lights vs. darks and so only

one of four blocks is done...

Now you will be intrigued enough to 

come back and see how it goes:)

HOW CUTE IS THIS?!!!?

I cannot wait to finish the 

whole quilt now!

My ambition thought I would

do it all by hand-LOLOLOL!!

SO many little circles.

Then I saw the work of 

Kyra Reps at Daytona...WOW!

So, I tried the prepared edge

applique' method using apliquick

bars that my friend,

Susan Marth, has been prodding 

me to try for years.

I am so resistant to change!

It did make my circles a bit

better but I really do loathe 

all that prep work.

So far this piece has 3 applique' 

methods on it:

Needle turn hand applique'

Prepared edge applique'

and fusible raw edge applique'.

Whatever gets it done right?

So, keep stitching in whatever

way makes your heart happy:)

Graduations; What do they mean?

 Welcome to Graduation season!

As our future steps out of the 

shadow of their parents and wanders

into their own way of doing things, 

I thought it might be fun to 

remember some of our own

graduated ideas.

Who remembers the first time

we realized that we didn't HAVE TO  

do everything we were taught?

Who remembers that amazing 

feeling of paying your own way

for the first time and then paying 

for someone else too?

These seem like simple ideas but 

they are the small ways that we 

graduate from child thinking to

becoming adults.

When I designed, "Graduation",

the idea was that gradual learning

from simple to complex that we all

go through whether it is leaving home

or learning a new skill.

So, some of the blocks are easy and some

are a bit more challenging...

just like life.

It is now available in 

my Etsy shop.

You can also read more

about the origin of it

from this blog post:

Nestlings By Robin Blog: Graduation and Elementals

Benartex Ambassador group Totes

Welcome back everyone!  

We invite you to join the 

Ambassadors as we show

off our fun group project...

TOTE BAGS:)

There is some 

adventurous stitching!

Our mission was to 

reinterpret the logo

shown below and 

that was really the 

only rule other than 

making a bag:)

Look at these gorgeous

fabrics we had to play with.

This is the Wave Texture

basics line by 

Jackie Robinson

Based on the logo, I chose

Sky, Fuchsia, and Lime.

I love playing with this

simple petal shape and 

 I knew that I would

do hand applique' 

with embroidery, 

so here is BloomX:)

I also knew that I 

didn't want to do a 

conventional tote bag

but something more 

usable for me.

At guild last month, a

couple of members brought

in these cute project bags

with vinyl fronts and I 

was completely enthralled!

This direction meant many

challenges for me as I 

hadn't done a zipper since

7th grade Home Ec when

I made a slumber bag in

the shape of a roller skate.

I so wish I still had that bag-LOL.

First Challenge:

Learn how to put in a zipper-

CHECK!

I had to go buy a couple and 

they were on sale, buy 3

get 2 free....What was I 

going to do with 5 zippers??

The bag turned out so cute and now

I want/need more zippers-lol!

Of course, how I put that zipper

in was not how I would need

to do the one for my project.

And do you think I go online

and research first?

NO!

I like to make it up 

(and mess it up) as I go along:)

NEXT...Vinyl.

Again, let's make a mistake

first and then ask google.

Best tip for sewing vinyl:

Use tissue paper so that

it doesn't stick to your 

presser foot/feed dogs.

It sewed beautifully and

the paper comes right away.

Here is BloomX

sewn in between 

some color strips &

I remembered to add

my handle-whew!

Here is the vinyl

side of the bag 

showing some of 

my favorite tools

and a new workshop

sample for

Intro to Hand Applique'.

I do hope you will 

follow the other

Ambassadors as

they too share their 

creative interpretations

for Benartex!