The Big Book of Civil War Quilts (New Release)

Hello all! Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you a new book Martingale has just released called The Big Book of Civil War Quilts.

 It's really a big book! 58 patterns! You heard me right, 58! You could make a quilt a week and still be making them this time next year and beyond!

The quilts in this wonderful book come from a variety of your favorite designers, in sizes large and small... Basically if you love Civil War or traditional quilts, there's something in here for you!

I was blessed enough to have two of my very own quilts in this book.

 This is Beloved and it's one of my personal favorite quilts ever. I made it almost entirely out of my stash (everything but the borders, binding, and backing) and you can really have fun with color combinations. I paired up some crazy fabrics together and the results are better than I anticipated.

I actually made this quilt for my Hubby (hence the name) and it has such a comfy cozy feel to it.

This second quilt is a mini called Woven Stars that I hand quilted. I actually began as a hand quilter and miss it so, but the long arming has slowly (but surely) taken over my life! This little gem was just enough to play with my favorite rich fabrics and get a little bit of hand quilting in without committing to a large project.

Again, you can find both of these quilts and many many more in The Big Book of Civil War Quilts. I think the timing is just perfect because the weather is starting to change here, the air is a little crisper and cooler, it's time to dust off the crockpot, and pull out my quilts for Fall.

If you'd like to see more quilts featured in this book as well as have a chance to win your own copy of the book, head on over to Martingale's blog to enter! Just click here. 

So, I think I need a new quilt for my bed and I have a ginormous stash of reproduction fabrics just sitting there... Now to decide on a pattern... I think that's the hardest part!

Book Quilt: Beloved

Beloved, as in soul mate, spouse, man of my dreams. Yes this quilt was designed for my Hubbin since the first quilt I made for him is in disarray and shambles as we speak.

Copyrighted Image provided by Martingale, Brent Kane, photographer

Needless to say if I haven't told the story before, Ben's first quilt was hanging at the Lake Farmpark Show a few years back. He went with me to pick up the quilt and bear hugged it the whole way home. Once we got home he put it on the bed. It was meant to be a lap quilt, so it really didn't fit well, but it covered the mattress (just barely) so it was on the bed. That was until about 5am when the dog got sick all over the new quilt. So not only did the dog get sick on it, but the backing fabric bled and now the whole quilt has a rosy hue to it. Since that first horrible day of it's existence in Ben's possession, it has since been loved to death, chewed on and a whole slew of other things that happen to the "favorite" quilt. It's still warm and usable, but it sure isn't pretty anymore.

So feeling super horrible since that first day we brought home the quilt, I have been on a quest to make Ben a new quilt. This quilt is quite large and one day when we don't have dogs on the bed anymore, this quilt just might be the new bed quilt. I made this quilt entirely from my stash (if you listened to the Pat Sloan Radio Show, this was one of many quilts in the book made entirely from my stash), okay all but the borders and binding, and backing, but the main thing was I did not purchase any extra fabric for the blocks.

The block in this quilt is one that I just fell in love with and wanted to see if it was colored differently and paired up in opposite tones how it would look, and here is the quilt. Quilts like this are a great way to boost your color exploratory skills. (Yes, that's a real thing, I say so) With a quilt like this where you only have one block to worry about, you can focus so much more on the color. You'll see the tips and tricks in the book that will help you understand color and make choosing fabrics to make something like this so much easier.

I hope Ben likes it, but I think in the meantime I'm going to have to make a quilt that will be well loved and chewed on and dug into for Chihuahua nests and just to be used to death. I'm not saying it will be pretty, but this time of year it's more for the warmth than anything else. Beloved is just too nice to get used right now, one day it will, just not today!