Inspiration time! - The Heartland Blog Tour

Hello friends,

and welcome to my stop of the beautiful, inspirational Heartland Blog Tour!

I hope you already visited Alicia of Sew What Alicia and Paola (on Instagram as @loveoffabric) to see some gorgeous creations posted yesterday!

We are celebrating the release of Pat Bravo's newest, fresh, gorgeous Heartland fabric collection!
It is fresh, beautiful and with colors that just sing along with my current surroundings and inspirations - bold yellow and gold/mustard, some stormy-sky grays, and then everything in between... Love it!
So of course I was excited when Pat put out a "call for makers" and over the moon when I was one of twenty makers chosen!! I just feel so humble and grateful and...HAPPY!! :)

I immediately pulled out my handy Quilt Planner with all those graph-paper like pages and started doodling... Pat said - think Scandinavian!! That, together with some of the fabric designs made me doodle this...

It was an idea for a table runner with some tall pines and some big sky stars. Then it developed a bit and got colored in EQ7, and became this:

I call this one Big Sky Runner. 

What do you think? Yes? 

I played some more and with different backgrounds and also wanted to expand it into a bigger quilt, so this is what precipitated at the end:

This one is Big Nordic Sky. 

There is many more versions of these designs, but that can be a whole another post - design process.

Now, on to the REAL FUN - playing with fabrics!

Aren't these just gorgeous?!

I really love my table runner idea, but in order for it to work and be a good size (actual table runner!) there were some itty-bitty HSTs to be made...YEIKS!!

Trusty Thangles to the rescue and it wasn't really that bad...

They really are only 1 1/2" big!

My friend Robi, a miniature specialist, would be so proud of me! (Hi Robi! :)  )

And some utterly cute little stars were born... (if I may say so myself).

That little Hoot owl!!! Just too cute! I might have to design a whole quilt around them, and also get some of the knit fabrics for my little grand babes...

But after few more HSTs and some quarter-star blocks, here is basic layout on the wall:

And then for some tall pines...

I really liked it at this point!! One of those moments when real life design looks just as good as the virtual one! (not always the case, right?)

It was time to quilt!!
Now, here is where my struggle was: I love, love, love free motion quilting! And I am much better at that then straight line quilting! But hey, we need to challenge ourselves and grow, right? Specially when design call for it. So with beautiful gray 50wt Aurifil in the machine, off I go!!

Those owls just beg to be photographed!! :)

And yes, I just posted that real close-up, with all my imperfections! Oh well, practice, practice, practice...

Here it is, all done and bound:

I think tall pines do need some more quilting... What do you think?
But to be on time for this lovely blog tour, I left it at that for now. I will update you on final decision!
I apologize for not the best light in my sewing room. I have my hubby working on that...
So time to take this Big Sky Runner outside for few more photos!

I am working on that lap quilt too and promise to post it here as soon as I am done!
I am also working on posting both of these patterns as free patterns on Craftsy - what do you think? Would you make it? :)

I hope you are inspired as this wonderful Blog Tour takes flight - make sure to go visit Lisa Chavez today too and then tomorrow it is Lisa Serino's  and Aimee Leptic's turn!
And there is so much more to come!

 Bookmark Pat Bravo's blog post with the whole list and - keep hoping and being inspired!! I can't wait to see what everyone makes!!

I would love to hear what do you think about this design and how do you come up with your ideas - leave me a comment and thank you so much for spending some time with me today!

Wishing you joy and inspiration,
love,
Marija

PS - is it crazy that I remembered this picnick table we have at work and brought the table runner with me, just to take another photo today? Yeah, it probably is. But I like the photos so here they are! Ha ha!

#TheHeartlandBlogTour #PatBravoDesign #ArtGalleryFabrics #HeartlandFabrics #Aurifil