6 New April Showers Patterns - It's a great day here at Cotton Way!

Look what's on top of my jelly roll stack, our new line of fabric, April Showers!

I couldn't be more excited about it, so sorry for the picture overload, I will try to keep the words to a minimum!  

Camille and I have both been sewing madly.  

We love that this line mixes so well with our other collections.

 Yes, I have been feeling much more energy this last couple of weeks and am happy to start getting back on top of life again.  Thanks again and again for all of you out there that are so sweet and thoughtful and just keep encouraging me - it really means so much! 

I have been excited to have an overload of quilt therapy in getting ready for Market.  It's so exhausting in it's own way, but I am so grateful to have some normalcy in my schedule and cutting up fabric and playing with it is certainly healing to me.  

I am still not quite up to going to Market this time, 

but Camille will be there in the Moda booth with all of my new quilts and projects to show those of you that get to be there and for those of you that don't, you get to see it here. 

Camille has some really great stuff she has designed as well, plus her new thread line, so make sure you stop by the booth to say Hi!

 I started sewing and had so much fun with this line that I designed 6 new patterns.

Of course with a line called April Showers, it has to involve umbrellas, rain boots and lots of rain drops, so my first pattern is called Walking in the Rain.

 It is a kaleidoscope block that looks like twirling umbrellas from above.

I love how my quilter, LeAnn, quilted the umbrellas have motion 

and the background like puddles.

You can't necessarily see it that well in the pictures, but I was crazy enough to fussy cut the pieces so all the rain drops in the background print are falling down.  They have to right?

Well, sometimes here in Idaho they do fall sideways sometimes.

The umbrellas were so much fun to piece.

April Showers bring May Flowers, so that is my next pattern.

I couldn't get enough of the polka dots in this line, so I decided to use them all in one quilt.

It takes 9 Fat Quarters, so collect your favorites.

This can be a Table Topper or a Baby Quilt, it's just 41" x 41", 

and can be appliqued like this, or you can use the soft raw edge method 

to make it a little faster and a little more fun to cuddle with.  

  

I love making flying geese blocks and this quilt has it's share. Splash is what happens when you jump in puddles during a rain shower, so that's how this pattern got it's name.

It takes just one Layer Cake for all of the blocks. It was fun to mix up the centers for just the right combination.  Don't you just love that vintage umbrella print with it's cute little aqua bows? 

I sashed the vertical lines with an aqua solid to give it a bit of a retro feel.  

The red diamonds in the sashing really pop.

More polka dots here too, just might have to have several bolts of these!

This pattern has been in my brain for a long time and is now finally a pattern.

This just seemed to be the perfect fabric line to use.

The solid scalloped borders frame the prints so well.

It was  fun to use some of the left over strips from my other quilts, 

The other three placemats use the Moda Candy 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares.

 I couldn't resist hand quilting these two placemats.

More quilt therapy...I need a lot!

Any of you that read my last blog post know that I promised that if you got your ironing board all fresh and ready to go, I would have something to add to it. Well, my 

Ironing Board Organizer is just the thing to finish it off.

Even with my new cover, I found myself sticking pins in the end of my ironing board as I took them out and pressed my blocks. I had threads and tails I had clipped in little piles, so...

...I thought it was time to have a pincushion and some little pockets to hold all of those little sewing gadgets I needed so I didn't have to walk back and forth to my sewing area. There is room for your measuring tape, seam ripper, binding clips, pencil and even a pair of scissors hooked to the organizer so they are always right there. The other side has a little pocket to collect all the little threads and tails that you clip off and make your space so clean.  I hope you will try one, It would be a great gift for all of your quilting friends.  

Christmas will be here before we know it.

Speaking of Christmas, I know this April Showers fabric line does not seem to shout Christmas, but when I pulled out all the reds and greens, I couldn't help but design a Christmas Quilt, in fact I designed three, but decided on this one because I have been hanging out at our cabin so much this summer recuperating, that it made me think it was time to design a quilt to use in our cabin this Christmas.  Naturally, I decided to use that great log cabin block and combine it with a flower block.  

  

Again, I had to use those yummy red polka dots, the berries and stripes.  

The background is a cream on cream polka dot and it works great for a background print and still gives some texture.  

The blocks are large and that makes the piecing fast.  I think this is one of my favorite 

quilts I have made lately.

This emerald green flower print in the line just looked like a holiday print to me and was perfect for the back, not to mention the bias stripes that are perfect for binding on any quilt.

  

The quilting on this is a little hard to see in photos, but LeAnn quilted trees, ornaments, poinsettias, snowflakes, ribbon, holly leaves and berries on it

to really give a wonderful holiday feel.

This quilt would also be fun in a scrappy look. Someday I will have to make that one.

Wow, that was fun! 

It's really hard not to show you what I am working on while it's all in the process, so now that it is all done, I hope you are inspired to start a new project for yourself, 

or make some handmade gifts for the ones you love.  

Don't forget, the Ironing Board Makeover  giveaway will be on October 30th, so don't miss out.

  

All of my new patterns are available today in the shop here, paper pattern or PDF, and the new Bonnie and Camille fabric line for Moda, April Showers,

will be in quilt shops in March!  Just in time for some

April Showers,

Bonnie