Liberated Quiltmaking - Fall Abundance

I finally finished "Fall Abundance" - I love it so very much. There were many hours spent creating in this liberated quiltmaking style. It was a labor of love and I kinda hope it will stay around for a bit. But, if you love it as much as I do, it is my very first item listed on Big Cartel .

I tried a new quilting motif - at a friend's suggestion, I created a meandering leaf pattern.

A liberated Modern Maple..

 The back is wholecloth fabric from Riley Blake and was bound in a dark chocolate feather fabric.

It's so beautiful, even our WolfMan wanted to snuggle in it..

Loving the crunchy leaves, shorter days and crisp air..

Linking up to Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival

xo,
Jennifer

Why I Chose To Leave Etsy

Let me start off with gratitude. I am so grateful for every Etsy buyer that trusted me to create something beautiful for them. I am grateful that for a number of years I was able to bring home a large chunk of change to my dinner table. I am grateful that I have a family that supported me, watched as I worked crazy hours and believed in my dream.

I am so very grateful for what Etsy was, but things have changed. Somewhere in the last couple of years, the heart and soul was lost. The beautiful handcrafted community has been blanketed by mass amounts of resellers. I'm not talking about those selling supplies or vintage goods - there is no ambiguity there. I'm talking about those shops that are selling mass produced items under the false guise of handcrafted.

Now personally my niche is not really at stake. Art and quilts don't normally have mass produced competitors. However it is what Etsy is not doing that has pushed me to leave.

I don't want to dwell on negativity. To each their own, but I've decided that is something that really matters to me and I have to stand my ground. I will continue to buy on Etsy from the sellers I know and love. I hope that in the future things will change for Etsy. In the meantime I have closed up my shop and will be trying out Big Cartel. There is a link to my shop in the header. You can also peruse the gallery to see some offerings.

xo,
Jennifer

Liberated Halloween Baby Quilt

I love to make a few things for the kids for the holidays. I had planned to make the girls' Halloween skirts and baby boy a pair of pants. Unfortunately, the first skirt pattern I used was written with incorrect measurements. I had to scrap the skirt and in the end, I didn't have enough fabric to make baby boy's pants. The agony of being the third child..

Rather than toss the scrapped skirt in the trash can, I decided that I would cut it apart and create a stroller quilt in my favorite improv style. Makes perfect sense in high insight, he can use the blanket daily and get much more use out of it.

I used the Riley Blake fabric as focal points and improv pieced around them. They are so cute and get a ton of attention. I love sweet Halloween fabric that is not overwhelmingly scary.

I've seen a few quilting friends rave about how fun striped binding is. Luckily I had the perfect fabric for it and I love it! It is just the right, fun touch to the quilt.

So when life or sewing gives you lemons, it's time to make some adorable lemonade!