Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living Blog Tour!

I am happy today to be part of the Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living blog tour! Utility-Style Quilts is Sharon Holland's new book with Landauer Publishing.

I've known Sharon for about 5 years and met her in person for the first time this past May at Quilt Market. I worked with her for two years, so I felt like I knew her well, and neither of us could believe that we hadn't actually met before! 

Let me tell you a little bit about how Sharon made this book truly special. A great quilting book requires drool-worthy quilts, obviously. But there are two other equally important components for success--fresh, appealing photography and high quality patterns. 

Guess what Sharon did before designing fabric for Art Gallery Fabrics and writing Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living? 

She worked for a pair of quilting magazines--Quilt-It Today and Sew-It Today. She was a jack of all trades: photographing the projects, writing instructions, illustrating the patterns, and laying out the magazine pages. Most magazines use at least 5-6 people for those tasks. Sharon did it all. Which means that this book is the complete package! If you'd like to read more about her magazine days, check out her post here. I worked with her as a tech editor and eventually creating the diagrams for projects, and her post offers a realistic glimpse of what life was like. 

Photo by Sharon Holland

Here's another of my other favorite quilts from Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living, called Sunday Paper:

Photo by Sharon Holland

Learn more about Sharon's book from this talented lady herself and see more photos of the quilts here.

For stop on this tour, I chose to make a version of Sharon's Midsommar quilt, shown here:

Photo by Sharon Holland

I reduced the measurements by 50% and sewed a perfect-sized baby quilt. I had so much fun with fabric selection in making this quilt! 

When I was digging through my scrap bins for palette inspiration, I grabbed my gray box. I thought I could create a similar look to the cream/low volume prints Sharon used in her version. Adding aquas to the mix was an easy decision--it's my favorite color, and I have plenty of fabric choices! 

Here's what I started with:

The most intriguing part of making this quilt? 

Playing around with fabric placement. I cut a variety of gray and aqua strips and started arranging and rearranging. With such simple piecing, value and pattern size was key. But it was a little...boring. It needed a pop. As you already know from seeing the main photo above, I went with a salmon/light red color. Great contrast with both the aqua and the gray, and a fun pop of color. 

Here's a quick snapshot from my phone as I was auditioning fabrics:

And the finished quilt, with a snowy backdrop. Paging through Sharon's book, I feel like she truly gives quilters permission--through words and her quilts--to mix and match fabrics, and to make do. If you don't have enough of one fabric, join pieces to make it work! Gray can be a tricky color to work with--it ranges from yellow-gray to blue-gray to purple gray. I usually try to choose match-y grays, but after seeing Sharon's quilts, I gave myself permission to mix it up and I love the result!

I chose straight line quilting that mimicked the strips and used a light gray thread. Yesterday's snowy weather was perfect for photographing this icy palette quilt!

If you'd like to take a test-drive, Landauer is offering a free pattern from Sharon's book: the Roman Stripe. Download the pattern here.

Find the book on Landauer's site here. You can also purchase a copy from Sharon and get it signed! Sharon and Landauer are graciously offering readers a chance to win a free copy of Utility-Style Quilts for Everyday Living! For a chance to win, leave a comment below letting me know if you made a scrap quilt in 2017. Make sure I have a way to contact you! Giveaway is open through Sunday, December 17 at 11:59 pm EST. US mailing addresses only, please.

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure you visit all the stops on the blog tour--each day I've thought that I found a new favorite until I click on the next day's post! I hope you visited Jessica yesterday and plan to visit Cindy tomorrow to see what they've made! Make sure to check out Sarah's post as well--she also made a version of Midsommar which I really like.

Monday 12/4  Heidi Staples - Fabric Mutt

Tuesday 12/5  Amy Friend - During Quiet Time

Wednesday 12/6  Maureen Cracknell - Maureen Cracknell Handmade

Thursday 12/7  Amber Johnson - Gigi's Thimble

Friday 12/8  Karen O'Connor - Lady K Quilts Designs

Saturday 12/9  Kori Turner-Goodhart - Olive Grace Studios

Sunday 12/10  Silvia Sutters - A Stranger View

Monday 12/11  Sarah Maxwell - Designs by Sarah J

Tuesday 12/12  Jessica Swift - Jessica Swift

Wednesday 12/13  Lisa Ruble - Love to Color My World

Thursday 12/14  Cindy Wiens - Live a Colorfullife

Friday 12/15  Eleri Kerian - Sew and Tell Project

Saturday 12/16  Anjeanette Klinder - Anjeanette K

Sunday 12/17  Stephanie Kendron - Modern Sewciety

Monday 12/18  Christopher Thompson - The Tattooed Quilter

Tuesday 12/19  Susan Playsted - Hopewood Home