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Wednesday 6 February 2019

The Splendid Sampler 2- my Coastline Sponge cake quilt block



Hi and welcome :)
I felt very honored and excited when Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson invited me to be one of the 80 featured designers in their wonderful Splendid Sampler 2 book and therefore to create a quilt block for that opportunity. It was really wonderful experience I gained in this collaboration, and I am beyond amazed by incredible talent, professionalism, kindness and generosity by our hosts and all designers participating in this project!

I was also delighted when I got my copy of the book-beside wonderful blocks, there are a few pages by the end of the book, explaining some quilting basics and many different techniques used for certain blocks, like embroidery, appliqué, curved piecing, English paper piecing, Foundation piecing and more!


Soooooo, I am so extremely happy that today is my day to share more about my quilt block from the book named: Coastline Sponge cake, that can be found on the page 39 of the book.

For my block inspiration, I started with my favourite  traditional quilting technique: strip piecing! Added to that were some nature and food details so hence my statement:
"Strip piecing always reminds me of baking a cake, with layers of yummy ingredients (here fabrics) placed together. The shades of these fabrics are the colors of the coastline and the sea, recalling my best childhood memories of vacations spent by the seaside, eating my favourite sponge cake".








The colors of the fabrics and thread sent to me from their sponsors: Moda and Aurifil were matching my inspiration nicely, so here are a few shoots of the original block, created for the book and to match other designers blocks when joined together in a big quilt.


As a fabric designer for AGF, I had to try the block in some of my fabrics. 
My latest fabric collection, Grid was calling me and I took some step-by step pics while re-creating  the block.


There are 5 different fabrics needed for my block. For nice shading effects-I suggest using different valued fabrics for the strip piecing units.






For the best results, I strongly suggest using the 1/4 seam allowance foot for precise piecing and also pressing fabrics with open seams after each of the steps.

Love matching seams!!!





I really enjoyed making this block and hope that you will try it and have fun with it, too and also entered it in the giveaway pool (details to follow;)!
 Here's my page from the book:





And speaking about the giveaway, for this special day, I decided to giveaway 3 of my quilt patterns, to one lucky winner!!! All you need to do is to leave a comment here, under this post and I will randomly choose a winner by the end of this week, on Sunday, February 10th, by 10 pm, Central European time, open worldwide. You can leave any comment you like, but don't forget to leave your e-mail, so that I can contact you, if you will be my Random Pattern winner.
They patterns can be chosen  from my Etsy shop:

And, another great giveaway for you is coming directly from my amazing AGF team , who is this week's sponsor on Sample Spree blog and they will be giving away one entire FQ bundle of my newest range - GRID fabrics, just like those I used in my block:) 
For this FQ bundle giveaway, you must make my block and share the photo of the finished block to be entered in the giveaway directly on the Splendid Sampler website!!!





You can also visit and join the Splendid Sampler's official Facebook group for more fun!!!
Please make sure to visit the official Splendid Sampler website regularly to get more info about the projects, blocks, tips, and giveaways too!!
Thank you so much for visiting and good luck!!!
xx
Katarina

___________UPDATE__________

We have a pattern giveaway winner!!!

Thank you so much to everyone participating, the random winner is number 15, Jill, that has been contacted via e-mail!!!!




Tuesday 5 February 2019

Podcast guest on "While she naps"


A few weeks ago, I had a great pleasure being Abby's guest, on her While she naps podcast.
If you might be interested to hear more about how I became fabric designer and more about my life in general, just tune in! You also, might be surprised with how many times I said "you know", and "actually", but I suppose it's ok when you are speaking foreign language.
Huge thanks to Abby Glassenberg for having me-I really enjoyed!!!
xx
Katarina