Blog Hop | Jamie Fingal’s New Fabric Line “Autumn is for the Birds”

I’m so happy to share Jamie Fingal’s latest fabric line with you! And, at the end of this long post is info about TWO giveaways!!!

Jaime and I met in the green room of Quilting Arts TV years ago, and have been friends on Facebook ever since. Although I usually work only with my own hand dyed fabrics, I was more than happy to agree to help her launch her new fabric line “Autumn is for Birds”, produced by Hoffman Fabrics:

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What’s cool is that she made these designs starting with Hoffman’s line of hand dyed fabrics, cutting and fusing designs that ended up being the fabric design, a totally different method that how I usually have seen fabric designed, she it explains it all in her post here. She’s designed a main “feature fabric” (the houses on blue), then a fun birds on branches print, a large leaves print and 2 smaller leaf prints. Hoffman has a line of striped and dotted companions that go along with her fabric designs because they’re all based on a larger color palette:

I wasn’t sure WHAT I was going to make until a package arrived with a half yard of each of the fabrics shown above! I knew I wanted to allow Jaime’s fabric designs to sing, so I decided that I would use my “Modulating Squares” pattern I’ve been developing, as it is designed to let beautiful fabric speak for itself!

I cut 2 large squares of each fabric, making sure to fussy cut the fun house on her feature fabric so it was intact, and then chose to always pair one of her fabric designs with one of the companion prints. I had some fun figuring out just which fabric should be paired with which:

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I then cut a square out of each pair, always keeping the Jaimie design on top and fussy cutting out a bird, or a pretty branch or that awesome house, then I swapped out the inner squares and sewed them back together, creating pairs of blocks that were reverse images of each other. (I will say that this part was quite stressful, I’m used to being able to always dye more fabric when I need it, while in this case I only had what I had – which was plenty, but I’d committed to wanting to cut 2 big squares out of each half yard, if I’d screwed up some of the cutting, what would I do??? Not to worry, I just didn’t mess up the cutting!)

Then the fun began, trying to arrange all the squares so the distribution of busy-ness and calm was relatively even, all while trying to distribute values so the quilt top wasn’t too unbalanced. I also wanted to keep the fussy cut house towards the center as I wanted to feature it, and I tried to keep all the directional motifs going in the same direction. Phew! There were lots of different criteria to balance, and I was bound and determined to use ALL the squares.

I had my older son Liam help with this part, and took pictures of my design wall along the way to see where it was headed. I find that turning a color picture into greyscale can help with value balance:

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We stopped at 5 and decided that this was as good as it was going to get! Then I stitched the columns together and used my Quilt as You Go with no sashing technique. I chose a variegated green thread that blended into the background with all the fun, busy fabrics, but added some interest to the calmer fabrics. I quilted a combo of loops and leaves meandering all over. I also would occasionally stitch a larger, fancier leaf or bird based on Jaime’s designs, and I would outline quilt some of the stronger motifs.

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Jaime sent me extra blue stripes for the binding, I love a good striped binding! Here’s the whole quilt:

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I dyed some tonal hues to use on the back:

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Here are my quilt holder helpers, always happy to help their mom…….hah!

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So I had a lot of fun working with Jamie’s fabric,  and the boys did too, they’ve claimed the quilt as their own.

Giveaways!

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I had a great test piece of quilted fabric I made to try out my quilting patterns that I turned into a cool zip bag, so I’m going to give that away!

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And Hoffman is going to give away a stack of Jamie’s fabrics:

How to enter:

Leave a comment on this post telling me which of Jamie’s fabrics you like the best by Wednesday, February 25th at midnight PST. I’ll use random.org to choose the winner of the zip bag from folks that comment here and send all the commenter names to Jamie who will be choosing the winner of the fabrics from all the folks commenting at every stop along the blog hop. (I moderate comments, so don’t worry if yours doesn’t show up right away!)

So for more chances to win the fabric, make sure and stop by the rest of the blogs, see what awesome creations were made with Jaime’s fabric and comment for another chance to win:

We’ll only be able to send to winners in the US, so sorry to my farther afield blog readers!

79 Responses

  3. I have never bought an entire line of fabric; I usually just pick out the one or two pieces that speak to me. In this case, I really like ALL the fabrics in this line; they all appeal to me and I have NO favorite!
    Your quilt is very fun and your quilting is spectacular!!! Lucky boys to get to snuggle under that one.

  4. Well i love bright colors but lol i love all fabric…..But the strip dew drop love love love……..ty for your ideas my grand son thought your son was funny wrapped in the blanket….When i take pictures of my quilts my 7 year old grandson is always in them….My little ham man lol

  5. I love bright colors and Jamie’s fabrics all speak to me. Love the bright and boldness of the quilt that your boys took over.

  9. Love Jamie’s fabrics, they bring big smiles to everyone that sees them.. Would love to win anything you want to share. thank you for the wonderful photos and your process.

  11. I really love the house and the blue fabric but it’s all great. However, I love how you took her fabric and made it your own including dyeing the back fabric to match hers. Absolutely beautiful! And the zip bag is too cute.

  13. What a sweet throw! Your son makes a good Virgin of Guadelupe. Jamie’s fabrics spur one to take risks, don’t they.

  14. the green background with leaves and birds, would be very versatile; the zip bag would also be useful! thanks for the chance to win.

  17. Oh Candy, what a fabric treat. You’ve really set off the fancy fabrics with the companion fabrics. I’m not surprised the boys have claimed the finished quilt for themselves….It looks fantastic. My favourite fabric is the house fabric…oh that is so cute. Thanks for the giveaway.

  19. All the fabrics are wonderful but I love the green fabric with the tree branches and blue birds the best. Your quilt is awesome – sew creative & unique!

  20. That fabric is so much fun! I love the colors & the birds, leaves & houses – and the stripes too. Your quilt showcased it all wonderfully, and the zipper bag is great!

  21. Ohh ahh! Your quilt and the pouch are absolutely delightful. I love all the fun surprises in your quilting, and the fun surprises in the fabric too! And tell your son he makes a great model! Thanks for the great giveaway. I treasure handmade things, and the pouch is especially wonderful in this fabric. My favorite fabric is the green with the delightful birds.

  22. Love, love, love this line! What a beautiful job you did with the quilt and the bag. “Leaf” is my favorite in Jamie’s Autumn is for the Birds” line 🙂

  23. Great arrangement of the colors….don’t you love fussy cutting Jamie’s fabrics. Thank you for the tip about using grey scale to see values….and the tutorial was excellent. I appreciate the opportunity to win Jamie’s collection, and your pouch would be a welcome bonus.

  25. I enjoyed reading your blog. It was helpful that you showed the planning process. Color value is so inprtant. Taking photos helps in the design process. I do take photos during the planning also. Love the fabric line.

  26. I love all of the lime green! This was a great post. Love seeing your process to taking b/w photos to get a handle on the values! Beautiful quilt.

  27. i like the green one with the birds on it and the blue one with the bird houses. My favorite color is red and I like the pop of red on those fabrics. I really like your quilt, it is wonderful.

  28. Well I’ll try this again. I love the green one with the birds on it and the blue one with the bird houses on it. However they are all very lovely. My favorite color is red and I like the pops of red on all of the fabrics. Your quilt is really wonderful and the zipper bag is just too cute.

  29. Wonderful tutorial – great suggestion to use greyscale to help with color value! Beautiful quilt and pouch.

  32. These are beautiful fabrics, so colorful. I like the birds on a branch print. Nice job on the quilt. Thanks for the giveaway.

  33. Love the zippered pouch. Love all the fabric but the green leaves on the lime green background the best

  34. I love the fabric with the birds! I took a class from Jamie last year at the.Houston Quilt Festival. It and she was great!

  39. I love the whole collection, happy summery colors that remind me all this snow won’t last forever. My favorite is the green with the birds.

  42. I’m am sorry to say that I would have great difficulty in selecting one fabric. They are all absolutely fabulous. I would love to have any of these in my stash. They are so vibrant and cheerful.

  43. What a wonderful line. The colors would brighten any room. The designs are so fun. A great house, trees, leaves, and birds…what more could I want! If I could only pick one it would be the feature fabric with the house.
    I’m thinking great table runner or topper. I’m thinking of one of my granddaughters because of there being so much of her favorite color. And I’m thinking summer as well as autumn.
    This is certainly a “must have.”
    Thanks for the chance to win!

  46. I love this fabric line…my favorite is Leaf with the birds!! Your quilt is beautiful and what a great design with these fabrics 🙂

  47. Oh – my – birds – houses – color – improv quilting and patchwork – my favorites – It’s a Wow event. Thanks for the great chance.

  50. I love the colors! My favorite colors are Fall and Spring colors and this combines the best of both. Love, love, love!

  51. I like the green with the leaves. I understand why the boys have claimed the quilt, I would too.

  53. I like the fabric with the house, love the bright colors. I like your dyed fabric on the quilt backing too.

  55. I live in Australia so don’t enter me in your giveaway. Just wanted to say these fabrics are adorable and I think your quilt and especially your quilting are divine. Thanks for sharing.

  56. I love the print with the house. And the vibrate colors are fun. The quilt that you made with the fabric is so nice.

  57. They are all beautiful! Do I have to pick just one? Well, okay, I really love the stripes, they add such movement to a quilt! Thanks for sharing with us.

  58. The green leaves is my favorite fabric. Your quilt looks great. You should make it into a pattern for sale.

  59. I like the red, tone on tone leaves. It is SO hard to find good reds. A lovely line of fabric. I am sure it will do well. Nice work Candy.

    ps Dreaming of Dyeing 103 Silk whenever it comes ready to launch the online class. :0)

    Like your rose. It will be 9 below zero here in Milwaukee tomorrow morning when we wake up. How lovely to see any flowers. Thanks for doing the giveaway.

  60. My fave is the green background with little colorful leaves and birds. But I love them all. I’d live to win some. Happy quilt!!!
    Beth

  61. I really love the bag that you made! I also love the fabric with the blue birds. What fun! Thanks for the opportunity to win.

  64. What beautiful fabric! I can’t choose a favorite! I like them all! Thanks for the chance to enter your giveaway! Your work is just so lovely!

  65. very hard to choose a fabric, but the little birds on the green leaf background is my favorite and a great way to show off your quilting motifs!

  67. Hard to choose a favorite, but stripes always add movement to a quilt and I like blue, so blue stripe it is!

  68. My favorite fabric is the one with birds on branches. I like all the color when you see the fabrics together.
    Lynn

  70. I really like the blue stripe. I like the fact that it’s irregular so looks hand drawn. I too like to use a stripe for the binding.

  71. I enjoyed this blog post and going to try the grayscale for values technique. Your projects are a clever use of these beautiful fabrics and your couches look cozy with that quilt. I’m going to make a striped zippered pouch like yours. Tell your son that his help with grayscaling and modeling is much appreciated!

  77. They are all “happy” fabrics. The yummy colors are so alive!
    I absolutely love the way you combined them in the zip bag. It is perfect!

  78. I really like all the fabrics in this line; they all appeal to me because of their bright colors and their nice combination. I have no favorite, you need all them to do this nice combination I have spoken! But THE BIRD ON THE BRACH is very lovely. Your quilt is very fun and your quilting is fantastic!!!