Today, is an Exciting Day here at Quilting Affection. 
I'm proud to introduce my first pieced pattern Crossing Swords! What a great beginning to an exciting new endeavor for our online store! The development of Crossing Swords! has taken several months of work and several versions of the blocks to give you an easy to read and follow pattern. The Crossing Swords! pattern finishes out to be a 50" x 50" which makes
a great size for a wall hanging, a lap quilt or sofa throw! In the
picture to the right, the hanging uses the Moda "Grunge" tonal fabrics
in sofa neutrals. These colors are also featured in our kit that we
have made available. The kit includes the pattern and Moda “Grunge” fabrics (Grey, Tan and Cream) all for 
$42 (Backing fabric is not included). The stand-alone pattern sells for only $8.00.
Crossing Swords!
appears to best advantage when high contrast fabrics are selected. I
suggest using Grunge, Marbles and Belle Solids. You can be bold in your
color selection.
If you are interested in this pattern or any other Quilting Affection pattern, please check out the Patterns page in our store. If you are a retailer and would like to carry our patterns in your store check out our wholesale page.
Hope you enjoy this pattern,
Tina
One of my favorite quilting blog sites to visit is Quiltville Quip & Snips by Bonnie K. Hunter. Bonnie is a Scrap Quilt Designer and teacher. On some weekends and weekdays she turns on her QuiltCam and I watcher sew along with hundreds of people of other people, sometimes she will have 500-600 at a time watching her sew on projects on her on her antique machines. Viewers also can comment on what they are sewing or ideas they have during QuiltCam. Its like having someone in the room sewing with you. I would love it someday to take a class or retreat with her, she is a very popular teacher and I can tell why by reading her blogs and watching her on QuiltCam.Bonnie announced about a month ago Easy Street Mystery Quilt, so I decide to try it out (I have never worked on a mystery quilt before) She told us the colors to use, grey, white on black, Limey Apple greens, Cool Aqua and Turquoise, Assorted Purples, and the rulers you would need for this project, but we were welcome to change the colors as long as they were contrasting. I decided I would stay with what colors she choose, not having a lot of the colors in my stash, I went down to JoAnne Fabrics and picked up what I needed.
Last Friday, she revealed the first clue of the mystery. You needed to cut 2" strips from the grey and white on black fabric. Sew the white on black and grey strips together into one long strip then cut int 2" strip. You need to have 384 of these subsets.Last night, I finished with sewing all the 384 2" twosomes, so I put them in a bin for today. 
This morning, I began working on sewing them together into 192 4-Patches. After they were all sewn I ironed them open, then work on spinning the seams so they will lay flat.
Spinning the seams looks complicated but it is really simple to do. All you have to do is give a twist to the loosen the stitches, this allows you to move the seams so they lay down in the the opposite way. So it looks like you have a pinwheel in the middle. Once you lay them down, just press them open with your iron.Well I just finished with the 192 4-Patches, so I can go get me rest of my house cleaning done for the day. Next week, I will have another part of the Mystery to report. Tina
One of my favorite quilting blog sites to visit is Quiltville Quip & Snips by Bonnie K. Hunter. Bonnie is a Scrap Quilt Designer and teacher. On some weekends and weekdays she turns on her QuiltCam and I watcher sew along with hundreds of people of other people, sometimes she will have 500-600 at a time watching her sew on projects on her on her antique machines. Viewers also can comment on what they are sewing or ideas they have during QuiltCam. Its like having someone in the room sewing with you. I would love it someday to take a class or retreat with her, she is a very popular teacher and I can tell why by reading her blogs and watching her on QuiltCam.
Bonnie announced about a month ago Easy Street Mystery Quilt, so I decide to try it out (I have never worked on a mystery quilt before) She told us the colors to use, grey, white on black, Limey Apple greens, Cool Aqua and Turquoise, Assorted Purples, and the rulers you would need for this project, but we were welcome to change the colors as long as they were contrasting. I decided I would stay with what colors she choose, not having a lot of the colors in my stash, I went down to JoAnne Fabrics and picked up what I needed.
Last Friday, she revealed the first clue of the mystery. You needed to cut 2" strips from the grey and white on black fabric. Sew the white on black and grey strips together into one long strip then cut int 2" strip. You need to have 384 of these subsets.
Last night, I finished with sewing all the 384 2" twosomes, so I put them in a bin for today.
This morning, I began working on sewing them together into 192 4-Patches. After they were all sewn I ironed them open, then work on spinning the seams so they will lay flat.
Spinning the seams looks complicated but it is really simple to do. All you have to do is give a twist to the loosen the stitches, this allows you to move the seams so they lay down in the the opposite way. So it looks like you have a pinwheel in the middle. Once you lay them down, just press them open with your iron.
Well I just finished with the 192 4-Patches, so I can go get me rest of my house cleaning done for the day. Next week, I will have another part of the Mystery to report.
Tina
