Collage quilt and art quilts are the newest trend in the quilt industry. Learn more about them and purchase patterns at CollageQuilter.com Create beautiful collage quilts with Emily Taylor's unique patterns that include a pre-printed foundation panel. Collage quilts are fun and easy to make with this simple method.

As I was reminded when I was testing my Sparks pattern over a year ago, contrast between colours is not necessarily the same as contrast between values.  I'll show you why it matters, then one method to check value with a phone camera. Why it Value Matters Colour versus Value You can definitely see four distinct colours in the photo on the left.  There is contrast between all the colours. The picture on the right is the same picture viewed through a grayscale filter to show value instead of colour.  It looks almost like there are only three different fabrics rather than four.  The yellow and tan both appear light in value, while the orange and red are medium dark and dark.  There is much less contrast between the two fabrics on the left.   Why does this matter?  Despite seeing the colors clearly, when these fabrics are used together there will be much less contrast between the yellow and tan than between the red or orange and the tan.  This is not inherently a problem. If you don't need the same strength of contrast, it's fine.  However if you need the contrast between the yellow and tan to have the same strength as the contrast between the tan and the other fabrics, this will be a disappointing collection. You can see how the difference in the strength of the contrast affects the design.  While the block design is clear in the orange and red, it fades away in the yellow because there isn't enough contrast between the yellow and the tan background.   I rearranged the fabrics to balance areas of high contrast and lower contrast to rescue most of the blocks in this quilt. How to check value using a phone camera I'll demonstrate using my new fabric selection for the Colour Value Mystery Quilt-Along (QAL).  You can read my previous post about how I had to tweak my original selection because of two fabrics being more similar than I had thought.   The pictures here are screenshots of the camera app on my Pixel phone.  Your phone may be different, but hopefully you can figure out the equivalent steps for your phone app.  If you're lucky, you might even be able to adjust a setting on your phone to just view everything in grayscale from the start.  My old phone had this feature and I miss it!  If you have Pixel phone and know how to turn that on, please let me know! Step 1.  Take a photo of the fabric, arranged from lightest to darkest. (Note the black strip at the top of these images is the top of the phone screen, not one of the fabrics!) Step 2: Click on the thumbnail image of the photo, circled in red above, which will take you to the screen below. Step 3:  Click on the Edit button, circled in red above.  That will take you to the screen below.  The area circled in red has various tool options to choose from.  Swipe left until you find the Filter option.  When that option is highlighted you'll see smal versions of your photo with various filters, right above the toolbar.   Step 4: Swipe left through the versions of the photo until you find the Onyx filter. Step 5:  Click on Onyx.  You'll see the photo with the grayscale filter applied. Step 6:  You can click on Save a copy if you'd like to save the grayscale version to review the results later. Here's my fabric selection, from lightest at the top to darkest at the bottom.   I hope you find this useful! Happy fabric pulling! Joanne PS:  There's  still time to join the free Colour Value Quilt-Along!  Click here to go register.

I had a devil of a time with a small spool of 100 wt Wonderfil Invisifil thread -- it kept getting caught in the slot on the spool that secures the thread, or wrapping itself around the vertical or horizontal thread spool holder. It was the only spool of that colour that I had and…

My friend, Diane Harris, is learning how to quilt with a stationary longarm machine, her HQ Capri.  Diane is an ambassador for HQ Stitch sewing machines and writes the blog over on the HQ Stitch page. In recent posts she has been sharing her lessons in machine quilting, and I have been sharing her posts …

I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things since my parents' accident...which is really beginning to irk me.  I dec...

February already... And already half way through it.... My plan is always to take January off from my quilting and reset but it rarely happens like that. I had one or two quilts to catch up on, accounts and tax returns to do for myself and my DH. I had booked in with my Son to have new flooring laid in my workroom (we also built a huge new storage unit), and built-in shelving/bookcase in my living room.  However, what I didn't plan on was slipping on black ice towards the end of January! I fell on my bent elbow, no broken bones (mind I do think that might have been less painful), but torn biceps muscle and tendon. After three weeks I think I've turned a corner, I still have pain but at least I can sleep at night.... Back in November I bought a 10 metre x 60" piece of heavy canvas, it cost a fortune, I'd been waiting for new leaders for my longarm to come back in stock. Sick of waiting. I thought I might as well just source the fabric here in the UK, it was probably cheaper than importing from US anyway. So, just last week I managed to cut, overlock and fit new canvas leaders for my longarm. I like zippers but I mainly use red snappers so that means sewing on the long zippers and making extra mini leaders for the red snappers too. That canvas was heavy to push through my machine with my sore arm but my physio said to use it so I did. I then had a couple of easier days. I'm really pleased with how fresh and clean my workroom now looks, it makes getting back to work something to look forward to, so lets get one of the next batch of quilts loaded on the longarm.... Anyway here are a few photos of some quilts that recently went home, (I always plan to take photos of all the quits I do however some do get missed occasionally), a couple of throw cushions that match my colour scheme perfectly and my refurbished workroom etc. My new built-ins still need painting but that will have to wait till my arm is more stable. Hey Ho!!! Carol's lovely quilt with a 'stars at sea' design Marjory's English paper pieced quilt with a 'feather flourish' design  Isabel's quilt with circles A couple of cushions for myself quilted with 'textures' A shop sample for Fabric Focus with 'star gazer' Pam's bagelo quilt with 'rapture' I'm loving my lovely clean fresh leaders...

I had so much fun playing with Cake Mix Recipe 1 that I decided to pick another one to play with. If you don't remember what I ended up making with recipe 1, click here to see that finished top. Recipe 3 makes 2" finished HST units. I chose a layer cake from the Haiku fabric line from Moda. There are lots of blocks you can make with HST units but I decided not to make blocks. Instead, I'm trying to create a design with them. Above is my current favorite layout.

I grab a needle and thread once the kids are in bed

A Daily Quilt Design, Virtually

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Somos Sonnia, Laura y Natitxu que estamos haciendo los bloques del Dear Jane. Os contaremos como hacerlos, dos bloques cada mes

Time & Talents

for an avid quilter, I copied a square from one of her quilts...completely handmade edible accessories, even pins! It was fun and took a million years. Is it obvious I've been waiting for a chance to do a sewing themed cake? :)

Creating with Colour and Cloth

Quilting blog