Access Denied
IMPORTANT! If you’re a store owner, please make sure you have Customer accounts enabled in your Store Admin, as you have customer based locks set up with EasyLockdown app. Enable Customer Accounts
Blog
Big Ocean Sew Along Week 2: Cutting Your Fabrics
Welcome to Week 2 of the Big Ocean Sew Along! I hope you enjoyed choosing your colors, checking the value breakdown of your fabrics, and getting into a good space to be creative and play with your fabulous fabrics! I am excited to start cutting it all up! This week, we are going to learn some tips for accurate cutting, talk about why I like to cut my HST squares as big as I do, and get ready to start designing our quilts in Week 3. The Big Ocean quilt can be made with any cut of fabric – fat quarter, quarter yard, or scraps - as long as it is at least the size of the triangles you’ll need for your HSTs. Check the quilt size chart to confirm what size squares you’ll need. If you’re using fat quarters or quarter yards, cut as many squares as you can from each piece. Let’s talk about some cutting tips for achieving accurate HSTs. Be sure that your rotary cutter blade is sharp. A sharp blade is easier to cut with and will get you cleaner cuts. Use the lines on your ruler to measure your fabrics, not the lines on your mat. Align the straight edge of your fabric with the correct line on your ruler, and cut. For those who use the lines on the cutting mat, this might take some getting used to, but I suggest trying it! It’s one of many habits that help me achieve accurate piecing. Speaking of accurate piecing, you may have noticed that the pattern calls for cutting your squares an inch and a quarter larger than your finished HSTs. Many HST cutting methods call for cutting your squares 7/8ths inches larger or one inch larger, but I have found that sometimes it still isn’t enough room for trimming them down to the right size. You can sew a practice square with scrap fabric to find a size that consistently leaves you with blocks big enough to trim. Here is a picture of 2 different HST blocks made with 5" vs a 5 ¼" squares of fabrics- what a difference!! Color continues to come into play, even as we cut our fabrics. I like to cut some squares into triangles to mock up color combinations and give myself room to play as I design the foreground and background of my Big Ocean quilt. If you’d like to work ahead in the sew along with more detailed guidance throughout the process, be sure to check out my Big Ocean on-demand course.
Learn more
Big Ocean Sew Along Week 1: Color Palettes, Creativity, and a Zoom Call!
Welcome to the official start of the Big Ocean Sew Along! I am so excited to create with you all this summer. By now, you have probably seen my fabric prep posts about pulling your color palette and checking the value breakdown of your pull so you have the best fabric palette to start with and build on. Join us tonight for the Zoom kickoff! We’ll meet on Zoom at 4pm PST to talk about our planned color palettes. Bring your fabrics to share if you have them! I look forward to working with you all to help troubleshoot any color palette issues you may be having so we can all get ready to cut into our fabrics next week! If you want to join us on Zoom but you don’t have the link, sign up for the Sew Along here. I will send out the link to all Sew Along newsletter subscribers today, shortly before the Zoom call. As we head into our sew along, with our color palettes in hand, I want to talk about my approach to creativity, and how I apply it to my quilting. I approach my quilts knowing that my color palettes will change as I go. If I’m trying a new-to-me technique or composition, I know it’s possible it may go nowhere. Embracing change and redirection allows me to be totally creative with my work. I can play and try things that are stuck in my head and just go for it. During the sew along, I will be working on a quilt along with all of you. I’m starting with a color focus that isn’t typical for me: purple. I’ll be making a baby quilt for my niece, whose favorite color is purple. The palette I’m building for this quilt is a starting point. I know that it will change as I go. Maybe I’ll add more hues of a certain color, or maybe I’ll pull some out. If you find a color that adds something special to your color palette, use some restraint. It can be tempting to add more shades of that color, but the full moon is special because it comes once a month, and a special color in a palette is the same! Sometimes just one or two shades of a color add that special something your palette needed. Be sure to bring your color palette with you to our Zoom call today so we can inspire each other and help each other work out any spots we’re stuck on. If you want me to take you step by step through the design process of making your Big Ocean quilt, with everything that you’ll find in the sew along content and much more, you can find all that in my Big Ocean on demand course.
Learn more
Big Ocean Sew Along Fabric Prep: Assessing Values in Your Color Palette
Welcome back for our second week of fabric prep for the Big Ocean Sew Along! If you’re just joining us, check out last week’s post on choosing your color palette. If you enjoyed that post, and you’d like more guidance on choosing a color palette for any of your quilts, be sure to check out my video course, Creating Color Palettes. Now that you have a palette large enough to make your Big Ocean quilt, It’s time to assess the values of the fabrics you’ve chosen. Reorganize your fabrics by value - dark, medium, and light, and see how that looks. One great way to assess the values in your color palette is to take a black and white photo of it. If you want your quilt to skew light, be sure you have more light values. If you want your quilt to skew medium or dark, be sure to include more medium or dark fabrics. To make a Big Ocean quilt with balanced value, try to include close to the same number of light, medium, and dark fabrics. To edit your values, you’ll need to revisit color. If you have too many light fabrics, take a look at two fabrics that are close in value and ask yourself, do I need both of these colors? You may want the subtle variation in your quilt, so the answer may be yes. Or you might be willing to part with one of them to get that value balance that you want. As you start to play with your colors to adjust for value, be sure to audition similar colors that may be closer to the values you’re looking for. Maybe a particular hue works better with one of your new fabrics, or needs to be pulled out because it no longer works. The editing process will happen as we continue through the entire process of making the top, right up until we do our final piecing. Once you’re happy with the values you have for your Big Ocean color palette, set your fabrics aside, including the ones you edited out. You’re ready to sit with them for a bit, and prepare to start cutting and designing your Big Ocean quilt. If you’d like more from me on using value as a tool for designing your quilts, check out my on demand course, Value Creates The Design. And if you’d like much more detailed instruction on designing and creating your Big Ocean quilt, my Big Ocean on demand course has everything you’re looking for. Be sure to join me next week for the official Big Ocean Sew Along kick off! We’ll get together on Zoom at 4pm PST to talk about your color palettes and have some fun discussing what’s planned for the sew along. Sign up for the sew along newsletter here for the Zoom link and all the other sew along content.
Learn more
Traverse BOM: Finishing Your Quilt
Wow! I can't believe that this is the final month of the Traverse BOM! What a wild ride! I know a lot of folks have gotten excited and already sewn their rows together. When it comes to finishing, my favorite way to finish a quilt is always hand quilting. I love the look of hand quilting. My favorite threads are made by Wonderfil and I carry them over in my shop. They are the perfect weight to give you that lovely texture, but are still thin enough to easily pull through your fabric. If you're new to hand quilting or it sounds intimidating, don't be afraid! You don't have to jump in and quilt your ENTIRE quilt by hand. You can use hand quilting to add a little texture or metallic pop to your quilt. BOM participants get a 15% discount on my Hand Quilting On-Demand Course for the month of August 2023, so head to Thinkific for your discount code! If you've never tried hand quilting before or want to hone your skills, this is a fun class to check out! I hope you all had fun this last year, working on Traverse, I know I did! If you're sad it's ending, don't despair! I have the next BOM already in the works! Stay tuned for details and sneak peeks coming soon! See you on social media! Part of the fun of a sew-along is interacting with other quilters! There are a couple of places we're loving seeing your BOM progress: Post photos of your progress & finishes on Instagram using hashtags #traversebom and #artisancottons Join my Facebook Group to share photos and chat with other BOM and workshop participants. Traverse Block of the Month Sewing Schedule Sew Along IntroMonth 1: Flying GeeseMonth 2: PlusesMonth 3: Half CirclesMonth 4: Square DotsMonth 5: HourglassMonth 6: X's & O'sMonth 7: DiamondsMonth 8: HexagonsMonth 9: Half SquaresMonth 10: TrianglesMonth 11: Finishing your quiltQuestions about assembling the block? Post a discussion inside the Thinkific platform to get help from me! My goal is to respond within 3 business days.
Learn more
Big Ocean Sew Along Fabric Prep: Building A Color Palette
I’m so excited to get started on our Big Ocean Sew Along in just two weeks! We’ll get started with a color party on Zoom. Okay, maybe not exactly a party, but I am looking forward to seeing the colors you choose for your quilt. While we’re together on Zoom, I’ll also help you all troubleshoot any issues you may be having with building your palette. If you haven’t signed up for the sew along yet, click here to join us! In the weeks leading up to the sew along, I’ll share some of my process for building a color palette for the Big Ocean quilt. We’ll start with color this week. Be sure to come back next week when we’ll look at the values we included in our palette. One great thing about the Big Ocean quilt is that you can build a palette using scraps, long strips, fat quarters, or yardage. Really any cut will do as long as you can get the right sized HST out of it. This quilt looks great in a limited palette or a more scrappy approach. The pattern calls for 26 colors, but you can add or subtract colors to make it your own. Check out the pattern announcement blog post here to see examples of the different directions you can go with your palette for this quilt. And if you’d like much more in-depth guidance on building a color palette, check out my video course, Creating Color Palettes Lecture. Grab two or three colors and start building your Big Ocean color palette. We’re not going to think about value for this first part. We’re just going to start with some of our favorite colors, or maybe a palette that you’ve had stuck in your mind for awhile, and build from there. Add a few lighter and darker shades of the colors you chose. From here, just see where the process takes you. You might be surprised to find how many different colors, and shades of those colors, you end up with. Take some photos of your palette along the way to help you edit. Seeing your fabrics from a different perspective - in a photo on your device or from farther away will help you see those colors differently and decide what you like. Move your colors around to see how they interact with other colors in the palette. You might like them where they are in the pile, but maybe they don’t work well with some of the other colors. This will help you edit even further. If you find that one of your colors doesn’t work after it has been moved around, audition some slight variations to find what works for your palette. For a dark coral, for example, try some fabrics that skew more pink or more orange. Once you have your 26 fabrics - or more or less if that’s what you like - get ready to work on value. The number of dark, medium, and light fabrics in your palette really makes the design of this quilt pop. Join us next week for tips on value! And if you don’t want to wait until next week, or you‘d like a more in-depth look at building a gorgeous palette for your Big Ocean quilt along with step by step guidance for making the entire quilt, check out my video course here.
Learn more
Big Ocean Sew Along!
I am excited to announce the Big Ocean Sew Along! We're going to have so much fun playing with color and value, and developing our design skills later this summer. Check out the pattern and video course here, both 20% off this weekend, through July 23rd! Sign up for the weekly Big Ocean Sew Along newsletter here! I signed up! Now what? Join me for a Zoom call to officially kick off the Big Ocean Sew Along on Tuesday August 8th! You will get the link and all the details in the Sew Along Newsletter. The sew along will run from the beginning of August to the end of September. On July 25th, I'll share fabric prep information to help you get started choosing colors and deciding on values. You'll get tips about how I build (and build and build, ha ha!) a color palette for a quilt like this. On August 1st, I'll follow that up with a post about how I edit my palette down to the final group of fabrics. Then we'll officially get started August 8th! We'll get together on Zoom to talk about the palettes we have planned, and chat about any fabrics we want to change or add to make our palettes sing! Follow Along Throughout the sew along, I will communicate with participants in a weekly newsletter. Each Tuesday during the sew along, registered participants will get a newsletter with details about the plans for that week, and a link to a blog post with more tips for making your own Big Ocean quilt. The Big Ocean Sew Along Schedule Week 1 - August 8: Join me for our Zoom kickoff! We'll work to build our color palettes, learning about the importance of color and value for the Big Ocean quilt. Week 2 - August 15: We'll cut our fabrics for the foreground HSTs, and learn tips for accurate cutting. Week 3 - August 22: We'll sew together our foreground HSTs, and share Tara's favorite tools and techniques for accurate HSTs. Week 4 - August 29: We'll design the foreground of our quilts, sharing tips for the best value and color placement. Week 5 -September 5: We'll choose our background fabrics and sew the background HSTs. Week 6 - September 12: We'll sew our foreground and background together into our blocks and finish our top construction. Week 7 - September 19: Join me for our Zoom wrap up! We'll talk about plans for quilting our Big Ocean quilts, and I'll share my favorite tools and tips for hand quilting. This sew along will give you the boost you need each week to keep working on your Big Ocean quilt, and give you tips and tricks along the way. If you don't want to wait, and would like to have all the content from the sew along newsletters and a lot more, check out my Big Ocean video course here. Click here to sign up for the Big Ocean Sew Along and get the invite fo Zoom kickoff on August 8th!
Learn more
Big Ocean Quilt Pattern
The Big Ocean pattern and Video Course are now available in the shop! All PDF patterns and video workshops are 20% off in my shop through Sunday, July 23rd. The pattern comes in three sizes: 40" x 40", 64" x 64", and 96" x 96". Big Ocean Beginnings The Big Ocean Quilt started with a moody palette inspiration and a bucket list quilt. I built on a traditional design that I'd been wanting to work on for awhile. I grabbed my scraps and created a palette that started with dusty purple and black and just kept growing! Eventually I had more than 40 colors, so I started making HSTs. Color, Value, and Design This quilt pattern is all about design. The piecing of the pattern is simple, which makes this pattern great for beginner or advanced quilters who want to work with color. The piecing allows the color interactions to shine through. The relationships between the different values that you choose - all the light, medium, and dark fabrics - create movement, which is part of the magic of this quilt. So Many Ways To Make It Your Own! There are so many different color and value combinations you can use to make your Big Ocean quilt. You can choose color themes for each of your blocks or use a more randomized layout. You can build a two color palette for a baby quilt, or you can combine these approaches, using two colors in the foreground areas and a mix of values in the background. Where To Find a Big Ocean Quilt Kit For quilters who want a ready made kit, Amy at Sewtopia and Wendy at The Next Stitch will be carrying Big Ocean bundles that include all the fabrics you need to make the quilt on the pattern cover. What will I get in the video course? In the video course for this pattern, I'll take you through the design and sewing process, step by step. I'll walk you through my thought process designing the palette, and help you find the fabrics you want for your own quilt. After that, we'll get into the design! I'll take you through the entire process, different ways to lay out your blocks, design the foreground and background, and get it all put together. The video course contains in depth and detailed information not found in the sew along, and your access to the content will never expire! Click here to purchase the Big Ocean quilt pattern and video course. Big Ocean Sew Along Starts August 8th! I hope you'll join me for the Big Ocean Sew Along! We'll start with a live Zoom call on August 8th to talk about color and value. I'll share weekly newsletters while we work on our quilts step by step, then finish with another Zoom call for sew and tell! Click here to sign up!
Learn more
Traverse BOM: Triangles
This month, we will be working on the final row! I can't believe we've come to the last row! How did that happen?! This month, we revisit foundation paper piecing. You should all be pros at it by now. This block is pretty simple and so it's an easy way to finish up this quilt. Have fun this month! Savor every stitch and be thinking about what you might want for you binding, backing & quilting. We will be finishing this BOM and quilt before you know it! Suggested Schedule: Week 1: Cutting the fabric + Sewing the blocksWeek 2: Sewing the blocksWeek 3: Sewing the blocks + sewing the rowWeek 4: Sewing the row See you on social media! Part of the fun of a sew-along is interacting with other quilters! There are a couple of places we're loving seeing your BOM progress: Post photos of your progress on Instagram using hashtags #traversebom and #artisancottons Join my Facebook Group to share photos and chat with other BOM and workshop participants. Traverse Block of the Month Sewing Schedule Sew Along IntroMonth 1: Flying GeeseMonth 2: PlusesMonth 3: Half CirclesMonth 4: Square DotsMonth 5: HourglassMonth 6: X's & O'sMonth 7: DiamondsMonth 8: HexagonsMonth 9: Half SquaresMonth 10: TrianglesMonth 11: Finishing your quilt*links to each month will be updated as they are released. Questions about assembling the block? Post a discussion inside the Thinkific platform to get help from me! My goal is to respond within 3 business days.
Learn more
Traverse BOM: Half Square Triangles
In this month, we will be working with half square triangle (HST) blocks. When I was designing this row, crazily I paper pieced the half-square triangles (I know, I know) because the size of the block was sort of odd to make the row end up exactly 72 inches. I'd like to say I quickly came to my senses, but that was after I'd pieced the whole row! It just seemed so unnecessary to paper piece an HST! So I reworked the size to have the row finish the correct size and not have the HSTs finish at a measurement you would hate (like something with a 16th of an inch in it!). In the end, I liked how the variety of colors added a lot of interest and sparkle to the row. It's the simple rows that always end up being some of my favorites and sometimes getting to something simple is deceptively tricky. Have fun this month! Suggested Schedule: Week 1: Cutting the fabric + Sewing the HSTsWeek 2: Sewing the HSTs + TrimmingWeek 3: Joining the HSTsWeek 4: Sewing the blocks into rows Monthly Sponsor & Prize This month's giveaway sponsor is Quilter's Dream Batting! I've used both cotton and wool from Quilter's Dream and I love it. Using their Bamboo/Silk blend is on my to do list as I've heard it's a lovely thing to hand quilt through! As part of this month's giveaway whey will be giving away a double size batting to help you finish your Traverse quilt or your next one! How to Win: Post progress photos of your diamonds on Instagram using hashtags #traversebom and #artisancottons. You must have a public Instagram profile to participate so we can see your photos Photo must be posted by June 30, 2023. A winner will be chosen randomly in July. Winners will be announced on Instagram and contacted via DM. This month's giveaway is open to United States participants. See you on social media! Part of the fun of a sew-along is interacting with other quilters! There are a couple of places we're loving seeing your BOM progress: Post photos of your progress on Instagram using hashtags #traversebom and #artisancottons Join my Facebook Group to share photos and chat with other BOM and workshop participants. Traverse Block of the Month Sewing Schedule Sew Along IntroMonth 1: Flying GeeseMonth 2: PlusesMonth 3: Half CirclesMonth 4: Square DotsMonth 5: HourglassMonth 6: X's & O'sMonth 7: DiamondsMonth 8: HexagonsMonth 9: Half SquaresMonth 10: TrianglesMonth 11: Finishing the Quilt*links to each month will be updated as they are released. Questions about assembling the block? Post a discussion inside the Thinkific platform to get help from me! My goal is to respond within 3 business days.
Learn moreInvalid password
Enter