Riley Blake Blog Tour

Hexiquilt_webI’m finally back from Quilt Market and so excited to be part of the Riley Blake Blog Tour! I have a few pics from Quilt Market in Minneapolis in this post too.

So building Wiltshire Daisy began with color. That doesn’t always happen for me. I generally start with a concept and begin drawing the master fabric from an image in my head. This time I knew I wanted to create a gray and pink colorway. I began drawing the cabbage roses and started adding little drops of orange and yellow into the mix. Yellow and pink are two of my favorite colors together (I call them citrus—lemon and grapefruit). It seemed natural at that point to also throw in the orange (for some extra citrus flavor).

(photo to the left—Baby Hexi Quilt—free pattern coming to the blog in the next two weeks / photo below, right—Me at Quilt Market arranging my booth / photo below, left—my girls sporting Wiltshire Daisy dresses I whipped up one Sunday for church)IMG_9517_web1

Wiltshire Daisy is probably my favorite line to date. It’s very soft and shabby chic. (photo below, right—Little Love Nest Ruffle Dress for the 18 inch doll in the gray master fabric / photo below, left—my Quilt Market booth in the Riley Blake Booth with Emily Taylor)

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If you love this fabric, make sure and take a peek at the free Around the World Quilt pattern here. You can also follow me on instagram to see what else I’m making with this fabric (as well as a sneak peek at my fall line for Riley Blake!).

Happy Sewing!

Carina

PS My new kids company MiniLou has 23 days left in the MiniLou Kickstarter Campaign. Check out our cute video!

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER STOPS ON THE BLOG TOUR!

5/15 – Where Women Cook
5/18 – Becky Marie Designs
8/18 – Pattern Anthology
5/19 – Carina Gardner
5/21 – Lori Holt
5/21 – Tasha Noel
5/22 – Lori Whitlock
5/22 – Cinderberry Stitches
5/23 – Eleanor Dugan
5/26 – Simple Simon
5/26 – The Quilted Fish
5/28 – Melly & Me
5/28 – Elea Lutz
5/29 – Zoe Pearn
5/29 – Doohikey Designs
5/30 –Samantha Walker
5/30 – Kelly Panacci
 

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RBD Post Quilt Market Designer Blog Tour: Carina Gardner

IMG_2977_1_webI’m excited to be the next stop on the Riley Blake Design Blog Tour! I’m suppose to be introducing Primrose Garden, but for those of you who follow my blog, you know that I’ve been posting about this line for the last couple of months. It just barely hit stores so I’m excited to share the inspiration behind this line.

First of all, I designed this line at the same time that I purchased an old 1968 Jet Airway. The stove was original and turquoise (I may have purchased it simply for the stove…heehee). I started thinking about colors and patterns I would want in the trailer, if I were to, um, glamp it up:). I started thinking about making the glamper red, blue, and black (and I did furnish it with a lot of laminates from my Evening Blooms collection). I wanted something that felt fresh, clean, but had a traditional appeal. And that’s how Primrose Garden came into being! You can see that I created wallpaper for the glampGLAMPER_carinagardner_1_web copyer kitchen from the red master colorway from Primrose Garden (see link to Glamper pics below).

This is my first collection with an 18 inch doll panel! You’ll see more of these from me in future lines.

Because I don’t want to bore you with things I’ve already posted, here are some other links that will help you should you be thinking about sewing with Primrose Garden:

Primrose Garden LookBook (all the fabrics and doll panels!)
18 inch Doll Panel Fully Illustrated Instructions (Free Tutorial)
18 inch Doll Panel Quilt and Pillow (Free Download and Tutorial)
Carina Gardner Aurifil Thread (matches Primrose Garden!)

And if you are curious about my Glamper Renovation, you can see all the posts here. If you just want to go straight to the final photos of the glamper, you can see them here.

Thanks for visiting my blog! For more updates on fabric, quilts, and giveaways, be sure to check out my Facebook page and instagram feed!~Carina

<<<See the previous stop on this tour with Lila Tueller
See the next post with Lori Holt>>>>
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Visit the entire Blog Tour!

11/6 – The Quilted Fish
11/7 – Bella Blvd.
11/8 – Deena Rutter
11/10 – Lila Tueller
11/11 – Carina Gardner
11/13 –Bee In My Bonnet
11/14 – Fancy Pants Designs
11/15 – My Mind’s Eye
11/17 – Zoe Pearn
11/18 – Sue Daley
11/20 – Kelly Panacci
11/21 – Marin Sutton
11/22 – Lori Whitlock
11/24 – Melissa Mortenson
11/25 – Melly & Me
11/28 – Scott Jarrard
11/29 – Elea Lutz

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Little Ark Quilt by Sassafras Lane Designs

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Just checking in to let you know about the Churndash Court Quilt, created by the talented ladies at Sassafras Lane Designs. They featured my most recent line Little Ark in it. I loved how it turned out. I know you can get the pattern in paper or pdf format back clicking on the links above.

I have been loving this Little Ark line so much. I’m wishing I had a little more time to devote to it this summer. Charlie could use a few more things in this line:).

Tomorrow I am headed to my hometown in Tennessee for a friend’s wedding. Taking my Felicity girl with me to give her some one-on-one time. She (and I) are both excited to hang out. Trying to make the most of every age my children are in. It feels like it is all going soo fast. And I suspect it never slows down.

Here’s to a good ole Southern wedding,
Carina

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Newsletter Issue No. 6—Free Quilt Pattern, Tutorials and All That Jazz

You’ve waited patiently for it and now it’s done! Our sixth issue of the newsletter has really become a digital magazine with all the stuff we try to pack into it!

This issue includes a new quilt pattern using Dress Up™, the inside scoop on Designer Workshop, tutorials from the Creative Team, a fabric tutorial on making a camera strap and so much more!

Visit the Carina Gardner Newsletter Issue No. 6 here.

Many of you have requested that we make the newsletter downloadable (which makes sense for those of you needing to print the patterns!). I made sure that this issue and all the previous issues now include the download button for your convenience. I also plan on getting smaller bite-sized downloads of the Dress Up™ Quilt, the Pinfeathers™ Quilt, and the new Dainty Blossoms™ Camera Strap Tutorials available soon.

Some of you saw my early picture of the Dress Up™ Quilt on Instagram (check my sidebar). I usually piece together all my quilts, but my mom helped me on this one. Things have been a bit busy and it’s such a blessing to have a quilting mama! She’s also planning on flying out a couple of weeks before Quilt Market to help me out with the tremendous amount of sewing we will be doing for my booth. The pattern instructions for this quilt are included in the 6th issue, and I hope you get a chance to make it! It’s simple and so sweet!

I’ll be back soon with my favorite way to cut bias strips and all those easy downloads!

Enjoy!

Carina

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More To Come…

It’s been so busy since I got back from Vegas that I haven’t posted anything (well, much of anything) about Spraguefest. In fact, there was so much to show and write about that we decided to just add it to our newsletter.

In fact, we’ve got a lot of great stuff coming out in this quarter’s newsletter including an introduction to the fabulous Susan (many references, but never a formal introduction). How about a new quilt pattern? Simple and modern…you know me! Keep your eyes out for the 5th issue of our newsletter coming in a couple of days! Never seen our newsletter? You can check them out (and sign up for) them here.

So what’s been keeping me so busy? I just finished Art of Digital Design 2, which was critique-heavy. Everyone did a great job and it is sad to see that class end:(. The other thing I have been working on has kept my sewing machine a-humin’. If you attend Quilt Market, keep an eye out for my goodies in the Riley Blake booth. So what is it you say (the suspense is killing me!)? Four brand-new patterns! They won’t arrive until January, but I’ll give you lots of sneak peeks and Riley Blake will be showing off these new patterns in Dainty Blossoms™ at Quilt Market in Houston.

Lots of good things coming…get ready!

Carina

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Quilting, Er, Napping Cat

Rosy and I agree about many things.

Sleeping is good. Eating is good. Snuggling is good. Back scratches are really, really good.

Where we disagree is our take on quilting (and oh! the contention!). Rosy believes half-finished blocks are perfect for napping on. I, personally, like to see the quilt get finished before it is napped on.

I guess we have to disagree about something.

Quilt sent to machine quilter…check.

House completely wrecked…check.

Half packed for Vegas…check.

Siri has new glasses right in time for picture day…check (will show off soon!)

Ready to fall into bed…check!

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Spring Quilt Market 2011

I was a happy girl at Quilt Market this weekend. Susan and Emily walked the show with me and we have a fabulous time! It was nice to have market in town (here in SLC). Here’s a sampling of my Friday (prepare yourself for a long and picture-heavy post!):

This was fun! My little bio at Northcott and a few of my patterns on display at The Pattern Peddler’s booth.

The absolutely delicious Riley Blake booth! And I feel silly because I completely forgot to take pictures of the Little Miss Suntop and Skirt model & the High Tea Soiree Dress model while I was hanging out. I’ll get photos of them when I pick them up.

(You know that Riley Blake is giving away this Beach Cruiser, right?)

Susan was cracking us all up with her enthusiasm! Here she is getting a Moda tattoo. Classic Susan!

And me forcing her to pose in a window frame.

Those gorgeous hats (above) are a new pattern by Amanda of the Quilted Fish. Seriously, adorable!

Here’s one of my new favorite people-Rebeckah Merkle. Here booth was fab and she was sweet too! She has a new line with Timeless Treasures.

This fabulous footwear belongs to Anna Marie Horner’s daughter. Anna Marie passed on some serious style to her daughter.

If you attended market, you might have joined in the All Dolled Up contest that was going on. This fabulous quilt was at one of those booths. And that flower…well, how could I NOT take a photograph of it? Of course, I have no idea what booth it was in.

Me with the extremely nice Joel Dewberry. The amazing frame and mini quilt are by Gigi’s Thimble.

Emily in total bliss as she picks up EQ7!

These lovely ladies (Megan of the Brassy Apple and Daria of the Boutique Cafe) are giving away one of my Ruffle Dress Patterns! Check out their podcast interview with me in a couple of weeks at the Boutique Cafe!

Finally, I had to show you a little goodness from the Seven Islands booth. I think Susan was drooling…literally.

That’s a pretty decent sampling of my two days at market. Hopefully, I’ll get some pics up soon of Josh and me in our 80’s gear for the Riley Blake party. If I haven’t scared you away yet, that post might do it.

Happy sewing!

Carina

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Machine Quilting Show

On Saturday, I did a quick run down to the Southtowne Expo to visit the Machine Quilting Show. It was a busy day, but I’m so glad I had a chance to go. My friends Emily and Laura spotted my Love Next™ fabric in this darling quilt…it made my day!

I’m pretty excited about this coming week…it’s Quilt Market! While you won’t see me with a booth at this one, you will be able to catch me part of the day on Friday at the Riley Blake and Northcott booths. You’ll be able to check out my next three lines due out this summer at the Northcott booth. I’ll also be wandering the show. Feel free to stop me and say hello!

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Pinwheel Coquette Quilt by Emily Harris

This quilt was made by my good friend Emily Harris (the same that made that amazing chocolate bunny cake!). These gorgeous little pinwheels were made with a fat quarter bundle of Coquette™. Isn’t it wonderful? It makes me want to pull out the sewing machine right now and start working on a quilt!

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