New Patterns from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co

Carrie, the designer of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. patterns, joins us today to help us showcase her four new patterns, hot off the press–4OT, Cheap Trick, Crackling Palms, and Wind Farm. They all have a different feel but are equally excellent. Read about her designs, her “studio,” and…well, it’s just plain entertaining to read! Enjoy!

Hello Jolly Jabberettes!

I hope you’re having a lovely July day wherever you are. It’s hot here in Phoenix which means I’m inside finishing the binding on 4OT. It’s back from the quilter, the binding has been attached and clipped and now it just needs to be stitched down. I love binding clips! Imagine my surprise to find out that many quilters use only five or six clips at a time. I use five or six packages – and I put clips every inch or so until I run out! Does that seem excessive to you?

When asked to tell you where my inspiration comes from and how some of the new quilts came about, I wasn’t sure where to start. Every quilt is different in that some get their start when I fall in love with a particular piece of fabric while others start with a block or setting, and some come about through a jigsaw-like puzzle process. It is also the result of a particular mood, whim or challenge.

Quilts like Crackling Palms and Wind Farm started with a block that went in search of fabric to suit a mood – something warm and cozy, and then something soft and pretty. And since I was also in the mood for Fat Quarters, both quilts had to have pieced borders, which you probably already know I love. Cheap Trick is the result of a friend – former friend! – asking me to figure out how to fit the cutting for one of her favorite blocks into one of Moda’s Layer Cakes. Now that the quilt is finished, she thinks she should get it!

4OT is one of my “puzzle” quilts and I usually have the most fun with these. It’s a MacGyver thing – this is what you have to work with, see if you can figure out how to make something cool with it. With 4OT, I was sent a fat quarter bundle of Portobello Market, the new 3 Sisters collection for Moda. I knew what I loved – the big prints, especially the reds – and how I wanted the finished quilt to look – planned but still scrappy. I grabbed my notebook, a pen, and my trusty calculator, and I started doodling and making notes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Color me totally biased, but I think this one worked.

Okay, I’ve put this off long enough but I can’t avoid it any longer. I was asked to send a few pictures of my “studio”. I don’t have a “studio”, I have a disaster area. Actually, it has been officially classified as a “crime scene”. I’m not kidding! The sheriff’s department has pictures! We had a break-in while I was at Fall Market last year and pictures of the “damage” are standard procedure, especially since they caught the nitwit in the house – that’s a long story for another day.

So all you get are close-ups of stuff that isn’t too messy. This is my wonderful sewing basket, it sits next to my sewing machine and holds all the things I want/need to keep within reach. It was made by a lovely lady, Barb Reininger. On the other end of the table – I sew on a very large table — is a large wooden tray-thing that holds all the stuff I think I might need and may want to have handy. I use a lot of it but I also have to confess that I can’t remember the last time I used half of it. Does that sound familiar to any of you? I also have a basket of stuff I am thinking about using, a doo-dad or two that makes me happy to see, and there is always a jar of treats for Rosie within reach.

And then there’s Rosie…waiting for me to finish so she can have one of those treats.

Carrie Nelson
Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.