My Fancy Flowers Finale

Today I finished the binding on my version of Fancy Flowers, the new McCall's Quilt Along project designed by Erin Russek. The quilting was done by the talented Karen Dovala. Here's the whole quilt:

If you'd like to try this project, the videos and pattern are all free until March 31, so there's plenty of time to watch, learn, and create. Click here for links to everything you need (except fabric, which you likely have plenty of!). I'll always have a special place in my heart for this one...it's the quilt where I learned to love appliqué.

Quilt Along with McCall's!

The new McCall's Quilting Quilt Along launched today, and I'm so proud of it. Although I'm not onscreen talent for this one, my quilt top is shown in this first episode, and I served as quilting advisor/gofer for the whole taping process. The project, Fancy Flowers, was designed by Erin Russek of the McCall's staff and One Piece at a Time, and it was so much fun to make. Check out the video...maybe you'll want to give it a try!

In the TV Studio

Next week we're taping Fancy Flowers, the third McCall's Quilting Quilt Along, this one starring Erin Russek and Valerie Uland. You can see the quilt they'll be teaching on the back wall of the set above. I have the fun job of serving as coach/gofer/audience on this project, and today we rehearsed 5 of the 11 episodes, which will premiere on McCallsQuilting.com beginning late this fall. Learning about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into producing a series like this has been fascinating to me. I would guess that for every minute of video produced, about 2 and a half hours of prep work of some kind has been done. About 260 hours of prep and filming will go into this series of 11 short videos, and that's a conservative estimate. From project design to sample making, rehearsals to taping, set design to tape editing, there are SO many talented people involved, and there is SO much work to do. We're hoping lots of quilters will be inspired to try this project...it's so appealing that several of the McCall's Quilting staff members (myself included) who don't appear in the video made their own versions of the project. You'll get to see all our quilts in episode 1! Stay tuned...