Guest Blogger November 2016

For this month's Guest Blogger I would like to introduce Sharon McConnell from ColorGirlQuilts. I love Sharon's use of Bright/Bold Designs and fabrics. I am in love with some of the patterns she has for sale!! She also has some very useful tutorials and free block patterns on her blog as well. Please welcome Sharon of Color Girl Quilts.

  My name is Sharon McConnell,  and my passion is designing and sewing unique quilts. You will find designs for beginners and advanced quilters, projects for pre-cuts, scraps or for showing off a favorite collection of fabrics. I started blogging about my quilty adventures in the summer of 2012, after long admiring many other bloggers and their incredible talent. The Color Girl Quilts blog will always be filled with positive energy, colorful images, and hopefully exciting quilting projects.

 These patterns and many more available here

Q &A :

    1.What do you love about (Modern) quilting/fabrics?

I love the clear bright colors, and that there are so many choices! I tend to prefer pretty basic prints and tone-on-tone fabrics, so the vast array of designers and styles in the modern fabric world makes sewing so much fun.

    2.Where do you draw inspiration?

I have some favorite design elements (especially curved piecing), so I tend to start with a shape and build a quilt design around that. Sometimes the shape gets cut up and rearranged, or I experiment with how shapes and blocks can be put together to make unexpected designs. The fabric also has a big influence on what I make. If the prints have a certain style or look, I might go with that for the type of patchwork to use it for.

    3.What are you currently working on? (Can we have a sneak peek?)

I just finished the top for a second version of my newest pattern, Summer Bloom. This new version is super bright and has much more variety than the original. It was fun to play around with changing up the pattern to get a new look simply by using different colors and contrast.

I am also working on my own medallion quilt. I have made several of the popular medallion quilt patterns and I think they are a really fun style. I decided it was time to design my own.

    4.Solids or Prints?

Oh, prints all the way! There is a certain challenge to me in mixing a large variety of prints and still pulling of the right contrast and balance for a successful quilt. A couple of my favorite all-print quilts are Ring Around 

 and Fly Over.

 I do like solids a lot, too and use them for mixing with prints. I have never managed to make an all-solids quilt, though. I just can't resist prints!

    5.Precuts or Stash?

I am a stash girl. While I enjoy sewing with pre-cuts and often use a designer collection as a starting point, part of the fun of quilting for me is choosing the fabrics. This means rooting through my stash for the right colors and prints and experimenting with new combinations.

    6.Favorite Tool/Trick you can’t live without? 

I have pretty impressive collection of templates since I like curved piecing so much (most of them I make myself by drafting on the computer and then printing them out). For quick (straight) cutting, my favorite ruler is the one with slits so you can cut a bunch of squares and rectangles at the same time.

    7.What’s your Favorite Blog and/or Designer? 

Can I choose more than one? my design crushes are Alison Glass and Katarina Roccella. I love Alison's colors and basic prints that are so useable in a variety of projects. Katarina is just such an incredible artist...her sense for fabric design blows me away. As far as other quilters, Kathy Doughty and Jen Kingwell are favorites and I love the work of Leanne (Nifty Quilts) and RachelDaisy (Blue Mountain Daisy).

    8.What’s one thing we should know about you? 

While I pretty much eat, sleep and breathe quilting, I am also the mother of two boys and two lady labrador retrievers, so life is very full. Some of my goals in the quilting world are to do more teaching and increase the reach of my patterns in quilt shops.

Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself! I hope your members will drop me a comment on my website or IG. Patterns are available to download on my website or through craftsy.

Sharon McConnell

Color Girl Quilts