Pixelated Quilts, Shortcuts, and Quilts Inspired by a 30-year-friendship

Greetings friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I'm always so happy to check in with you!

Summer life + yardwork = sewing is somewhat minimal, but I have been snatching some time here and there and I even started a new quilt block project, entirely using my stash (bonus points!) that has been really fun. And a little bit heart-healing. In this week's newsletter I'm also focusing on some quilting ideas for short-summer-attention-spans.

New This Week

New on the blog this week, I'm sharing a tender and very personal post about a friend who inspired two quilts in the past 12 months. I've shared a little of my journey losing one of my best friends to cancer this year. She's the inspiration behind my Scandi Hearts quilt pattern. In this post I'm sharing photos of my latest "Norway" version. And in honor of this share, the Scandi Hearts pattern is 25% off this week. ❤️

I'm also sharing a look back at one of my first ever flag quilts that I made for her 16 years ago! Seeing the quilt again in person a few weeks ago reminded me how much I want to make another Norway-inspired quilt. This one has been good for keeping my hearts and hands busy.

Click below for the latest post.

Pixelated Quilt Patterns

Pixelated Quilts are a fun and simple take on a sewing basic patchwork quilts. Meaning it's really easy - all you're doing is sewing patchwork squares together into rows. There are lots of fun pixelated quilt patterns available (many of them free!) so I made a list of some favorites:

I've made this Pixelated Heart quilt a bunch of time over the years. These quilts are great for a gifting. You can find instructions for this Pixelated Heart Quilt here. Also a great for using scraps and using your low volume stash.

🧵Pixelated States! Here is a pixelated California quilt, Holly Lesue of Maker Valley has a pixelated Utah quilt, and Corine Sovey has a cool Texas Forever pattern with HST blocks. Find more Pixelated State Quilt patterns by Brooke.

🧵Carmen of Ten Sisters Handicraft has many pixelated patterns on her site - many of them free! They're perfect for using her fusible easy-piecing grid panels to make pixelated projects even easier. (Especially useful if you want pieces smaller than 3" squares.) You can see Carmen's tutorials for how to use them here.

🧵How cute is this simple, pixelated Rainbow quilt pattern from Leila Gardunia?

🧵Embroidery designs are great inspiration for pixelated quilts. Tilda has had some super popular floral-inspired pixelated quilt patterns. Another example is this pixelated Rose Quilt from Riley Blake Designs.

And, as each of these patterns show, any cross-stitch pattern would translate easily into a pixelated quilt design. Just replace the stitches with patchwork squares!

Check out this pinboard for more Pixelated Quilts + Blocks inspiration and projects.

Patchwork Piecing Shortcut!

If you're making a Pixelated Quilt - or any quilt made from basic patchwork squares - be sure to checkout Holly Lesue's Patchwork-Piecing Shortcut Technique. It's a game changer.

Fun Finds - Small Projects for Summer:

My attention span for big projects wanes considerably in the summer. Here are a couple of summer-themed mini projects to scratch your itch to stitch, but not take on anything big:

This free Pixelated Pineapple Mini quilt from Sassafras Lane has cheery summer vibes.

Suzy Quilts shares an easy tutorial for a fat-quarter-friendly market tote. Big enough for lots of groceries, beach towels or even a quilt!

Love the S'Mores Stitchery hoop art design from Bev of Flamingo Toes

Caroline of Sew Can She has a quick tutorial for reusable quilted picnic placemats.

Hoping all is well where you are. Right now we've got wicked heat - over 100 degrees F most days - and I'm not going to be sad when that's done. In spite of the heat, I was able to gather this harvest and that's making me happy. That plus I'm starting to finally get the upper hand on those dang squash bugs.

Most of my headspace today was poured into that new blog post so if you want more deep thoughts this week, that's where to find me.

Other than that I'm just trying to stay cool. Bless my poor husband, our house is so freezing to him. 😆 I've never run the AC this cool in my life. But as a woman in her early 50's, I'm finding I'm not alone in this scenario. I remind him that he can add extra layers of clothing, but for me, there's not a lot of layers left I can remove at this point.

Thanks again for stopping by. Hope you can stay cool where you are!

xo,

Amy

PS This week I'm kicking off a new bi-monthly series of emails about Growing a Creative Business with tips I've learned over the past 20 years of working in the quilting industry. If this is something you're interested in, you can sign up here.

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