Val's Simply Dashing 2.0

This is Val's second unique interpretation of our Highway 10 Designs Simply Dashing pattern.  The pattern is written as a two fabric quilt that utilizes strip piecing for a fast and easy finish.

  Val made it her own by starting with some ombre fat quarters and doing a whole lot of organizing and planning along the way.  

I think the navy background really makes all of the other colors pop.  Val chose the Soho pantograph and a shiny blue thread.

Val chose her backing fabric from the small collection of Northcott wide backs that I have in stock.  This blue Stonehenge is a lovely option with lots of color variation.

 

Pair of Simply Dashing Quilts

Reneta made these great Canadian themed quilts for the exchange students that have been staying with her this past year.  The pattern she used is Simply Dashing from Highway 10 Designs.  The fabrics are from the Northcott's Stonehenge Collection- Oh Canada 10.  

Reneta selected the Windswept pantograph for both quilts.

The second quilt uses a fabric from Northcott's Canvas line for the background of the quilt.

These quilts will be a great memory of their time in Canada and their host mom who is a talented quilter.

 

Simply Dashing - Oh Canada!

This patriotic version of the Highway 10 Designs Simply Dashing pattern was made by Reneta.  Only two fabrics are required, and as Reneta will tell you, this pattern is super simple to put together. 

Reneta made this quilt for her son Joey who received his Bachelor of Music from Brandon University.  Joey is going to be continuing on to do his Master in Spain this fall, so Reneta wanted to send him off with a reminder of home.  All the fabrics she used are from the Northcott Stonehenge Oh Canada line.

Reneta knew that she wanted me to quilt this one with the Musica pantograph as it was so fitting for her son.  I used a black Magifico thread.

Simply Dashing and our whole line of Highway 10 Designs patterns are available as pdf downloads or in paper format in our Etsy store.  

Gimli Quilt Retreat

I spent this last weekend in at the Lakeview Resort in Gimli, MB for a quilt retreat.  My friend and business partner Kathy had been encouraging me to join for the last couple of years, and this year it worked out.  Kathy and I took this opportunity to work new samples of our latest patterns for our Canadian pattern distributor QuiltSource Canada.  QuiltSource Canada supplies quilt stores with all kinds of wonderful quilty goodness including fabrics from Lewis & Irene.  The fabrics used in the Simply Dashing sample above, were from the Bumbleberries line and they were rich in colour and very nice to work with.  Thanks to our friend Renee for the assist in holding up the quilt top while Kathy found just the right light!

I always bring my little Singer Featherweight to retreats and it brings me much joy every time I use it.

We also made some samples of out Roundabout place mats and runner using the Bear Hug line from Lewis and Irene.  We had a lot of fun putting different combinations together before we settled on our favorite.

On Friday evening Kathy and I held a trunk show of quilts made from our Highway 10 Designs patterns.  The majority of the quilts are twin size or larger, so when you put about 50 of them together, the piles get large quite quickly.

We held the trunk show in the dining room right after dinner.

Our friends Janie and Renee folded our quilts as we talked so there was a nice display for everyone to see once we were done.

On Saturday afternoon, Kathy & I taught a class on our Roundabout pattern.  It was a fun group that ranged in experience and age.  Our youngest participant was only 12 and she had her project completely finished later in the day!  Her grandma and great aunt also took the class, and it was so nice to see family members passing on their love of quilting to another generation!  Here you can see the wonderful variety of fabric choices some of our students made for their projects.

I am never sure how many projects to bring for a weekend of sewing. Highway 10 Designs accomplished a lot (and had a lot of fun), but I only had a little bit of time left to start my personal project of an Atomic Starburst quilt.

Simply Dashing by Highway 10 Designs

I am excited to introduce the newest quilt pattern from Highway 10 Designs - Simply Dashing.  Two fabrics in a unique layout make for a simple to make, but eye catching quilt.  The pattern comes with instructions for 5 sizes from a generously sized baby to king sizes.  We love this pattern so much that we have already made it in three totally different colorways that I will share.  It is available as a PDF download or in paper format in the Highway 10 Designs Etsy Store.

 

Kathy pieced our cover quilt in classic black and white.  It is so crisp and really brings out the geometric nature of the quilt.  Kathy took awhile to decide how she wanted to quilt it as she she loved the pieced top just as it was, and didn't want to detract from the graphic design.  In the end gently flowing vertical lines using an invisible thread was just the right finish.

The first quilt that I pieced to test drive the pattern was this pink and grey version in the baby size.

I quilted this version with a pantograph called Sweet Pea that compliments the motif in the pink fabric.  It was quilted using a grey So Fine thread that blended nicely into the background fabric so the quilting just added some texture but didn't distract from the design of the quilt.

And now my favorite version of Simply Dashing- our teal and navy one that I pieced and quilted.

And here you can see how great the design looks on a bed.

The Moda Grunge Dot fabric inspired me to quilt more circles all over the quilt.  I love how it turned out! 

I wasn't 100% sure my idea would translate to the quilt the way it looked in my head, but after taking a step back and looking at my first pass I was feeling much more confident.

I am a hand guided quilter, no computer to quilt perfect circles here, so I used circle templates to create the design.  I settled on 4 different sizes,  a 2", 3", 4" and 5".  My hands were tiring quite quickly trying to hold on to the slippery templates,  so I cut small pieces of shelf liner and slipped them under the templates and it really made a huge difference.  I didn't attach the shelf liner to the template, simply placing it underneath was sufficient.

I randomly grabbed the different size circles and stitched around them. I would double stitch around part of the template to travel to where the starting point for the next template needed to be.  The first little bit took quite a bit of thinking to achieve the look I was after, but after not too long I found my groove and the quilting progressed at a reasonable pace.

 I hope you enjoyed seeing Simply Dashing in its 3 versions.  I left out one part of the story - how this quilt got its name.  Head on over to visit Kathy's post at www.tamarackshack.blogspot.com to read all about it!