Hello, and happy Saturday!  We have some breathtaking projects to share with you today, courtesy of Jera Brandvig, aka Quilting in the Rain.  She was our gracious filming guest back in June, and now we are thrilled to have all her videos featuring her gorgeous new line called La Conner done so we can share them with you all!  Over those few days, we just fell more and more in love with Jera.  She is brilliant, and you’ll have to agree with us after this post!

All her projects were made with her brand new fabric line for Lecien called La Conner, and it is the most beautiful, elegant fabric we have seen this year.  Inspired by summer trips to this idyllic town in Washington, she has packed it with little berries and flowers on classic geometrics, like checks and ginghams.  She formed the color palette so you can use it every season and holiday, plus the touch of gold metallic adds a beautiful finishing sheen to anything you make with it.  There is even LACE and thread to go with it!  Check out our La Conner video to see it all, before we move on to her projects!

The Quilt-As-You-Go Strip Quilt Block… with LACE!

Jera’s fabrics are just the start of our love affair with her creativity.  She is also the author of two Quilt-As-You-Go books, Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern and Quilt-As-You-Go Made Vintage (releasing this September!).  As a busy mom of two kiddos, she fell in love with quilting and developed her own methods of quilt-as-you-go out of sheer necessity, to be able to do a little bit of sewing each day.  That led to her publishing her first book Quilt-As-You-Go Made Modern, and in this next video she shares a strip quilt block from that book, with an added twist of charm with her new LACE!  (Yes, I’m capitalizing all the LACE in this post, but it’s unique and deserves all the special recognition, so sorry not sorry!)

The La Conner Patchwork Tote Bag

Jera also designed for us a charming patchwork tote bag with a cute pieced pocket.  Bags are far from our specialty, but after watching her make this one, we all were inspired to go home and make our own!  She taught us how to use new notions like strapping for the handles, and you can make it with a pieced or single fabric rectangle for the body of the bag (options, options!).  And of course, if you feel the need, you can always embellish it with her wonderful LACE!  It’s a great first bag project for anyone to try.  (We were very tempted to keep the bag, but alas it is now home with Jera!)

The La Conner Pocketed Placemat

Continuing onto more pretty projects to adorn our homes, she designed a pocketed placemat using a quilt block from her upcoming Quilt-As-You-Go Made Vintage book and sweet, easy LACE edging (indulge me… I’m almost done!)  If you’re like me, adding pockets to any project just takes it up a notch.  How cute is that silverware tucked inside?  Imagine customizing a placemat for each member of the family, it’s like an invitation to the table every time you use them!

How to Bind with LACE!

Finally, she showed us the most amazing way to finish a quilt… and the answer is, of course, LACE!!!  The La Conner lace has a special feature that makes this a super easy way to enhance the ‘ooh aah’ element of your quilt.  Watch the video to find out what it is, and try not to drool all over that pretty LACE, which is available in single color 11-yard spools and multicolor 1-yard packs.  Plus, not having to prepare binding strips?  Yes, please!  And of course, having matching thread colors is another level of La Conner perfection!  So brilliant, that Jera.

We are so grateful and happy that Jera spent these few days with us, blowing our minds with all of her creative methods, hacks, tips and ideas!  Be sure to save all of these videos for your future projects (#quiltgoals) and let us know what you think (especially about that luxurious LACE).  Have a wonderful weekend!