Coming soon to a bookshelf near you...

Skip the Borders

Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts

I'm very excited to share with you that I published a book with Martingale & Company. Get it now here!

An outtake from the author photo shoot... I can be a ham sometimes!

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I can't show you the cover or any of the quilts yet, so I thought that you'd enjoy some sneak peeks.

Edit: Cover is now revealed!

on to the sneak peeks...

 One of the many pieced quilt backs

Since I'm a huge fan of binding, I decided to write an entire chapter of the book on it! The chapter focuses on function, color options, details, math and more! I made 10+ little samples and bound them using all different styles! Binding is always important, but it plays an extra special design role in a borderless quilt.

Binding Samples

Some of Angela's amazing quilting

I'm SO excited to finally be able to tell you! Over the next few months I'll be sharing more about the book. Thank you for all of your support here on my blog

My book is scheduled for release on August 6th... which happens to be my mom's birthday! {Best birthday present I could ever give her.} Get here --> Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts

© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

Scrap Sunday - Documenting the past

Welcome to Scrap Sunday.  Every Sunday I'll be posting what I'm doing in scrapbooking... or what scrappy quilt I'm working on.  If you are working on Project Life, scrapbooking, or a scrappy quilt please link up at the end of this post.

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Today's post is about using the elements of Project Life to help me create albums from past events.  If you don't know anything about Project Life I suggest checking out this slide show.  You can also learn more about Project Life by reading my other Scrap Sunday posts.

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I love photos & tend to take a lot of them, especially at BIG events.  One of those events was back in 2006 when my brother got married.  After the wedding I printed out a big pile of 4x6 photos & put them all in a basic photo album.  The problem was that I didn't add any journaling, and captions, or any basic descriptions of who was in the photographs.

I started by taking all of the photographs out of the basic album.  I organized them by event since the wedding included a wine train tour & celebration dinner before the wedding.  Lastly I took note of how many horizontal photos I had & how many vertical.  My goal was to avoid re-printing photographs if at all possible since I already had so many printed.

The first step was to take the Photo Pocket Pages from the Project Life assorted kit and lay them out on the floor to see what my options were.  I decided to start my album with the A design.

Using the Cobalt Digital Project Life Kit, I created a title page.  The original elements from the title page include a block that says "Welcome 2012" & "Time Period" so I swapped those out for some generic designs.  I also added the date of their wedding and a few photos with Polaroid like frames.

I use Adobe Photoshop to add all of the text & elements on to the digital products from Project Life.  The less expensive version is Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 which is perfect for digital scrapbooking.  If you are new to digital scrapbooking I suggest starting your journey by taking a class from Jessica Sprague.

Since I'm creating the album from my perspective I added a photo of Brad & I with a caption.

After creating the title page the next step was to put all the photos in the album.  I did this first and then began to add the journaling cards once all the photos were in place.  The variety pack comes with six options and four were perfect for the 4x6 photos I already had printed.  Below are the first few pages of my album.





A on the left, C on the right

C on the left, A on the right

A on the left, C on the right

I've been waiting for the horizontal journaling cards to be released and that happened just a few weeks ago. Now that they are available I'll be finishing the cards for the empty slots you see below.
C on the left, D on the right

D on the left, C on the right

This is the end of the book at the moment.  I took all of assorted "flat" memorabilia from the event and put it into one of the design E pages. It has four 6" x 6" slots that worked well for the napkin and a few cards.  Now that the 6 x 12 Page Protectors are back in stock I'll be using some of those for the taller elements like the program and the menu from the wine train tour.

I also had some things that weren't flat enough to put in a page protector.  I took all of those things and put them in a Big Envelope Page.  It is the same size as the page protectors, but it's made of stronger plastic and has a flap at the top so you can put bulkier items in it.

I've decided to put it all into a Black Signature Binder.  It doesn't take up all of the binder so I'll probably use the binder to hold a few events as I continue to convert my simple albums over to Project Life style albums.

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If you have a scrappy project to share leave your link here!

Products used {I'll warn you that things sell out fast.  I won't remove links of sold out items so that you can bookmark them if you want for when they are back in stock.}

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© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

Auction Results & Giveaway Winners

What a week!!

The Choose Joy Auction... amazing!

Ashley posted this note to facebook last night.

My family and I are without words tonight. Over $30K raised in the Team Ashley auction to help pay what seems to be never-ending medical expenses. That. Is. Incredible. Thank you from the very deepest bottom of our hearts. We are truly humbled by your generosity and support and continue to CHOOSE JOY every day and hope you will too. Pray for a BIG FAT ZERO in my tumor markers this week so there will be an end in sight to chemo.... and for anyone else going through something similar in their lives. We love you all!!! XOXO, Ash
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For those of you who didn't see my post last week... I have donated one of my quilts to the Choose Joy Auction & Benefit.  You can read all about it in my original post here.

The who/why/when and inspiration for the auction.

This post has FAQ on the auction.

100% of the money raised is going to help Ashley in her fight.  Team Ashley has donated their time and is not taking any salary or compensation from this auction. This is currently the only auction endorsed by Ashley and Lil Blue Boo. 

--Now it is time to announce the winners of the Fat Quarter Shop giveaway!Each winner will receive a full collection of fat quarters from the Palladium collection by Dear Stella

and the giveaway winners are...

23 & 563

congrats!
mascanlon & Patty D please contact me with your info!
Thank you to Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring the giveaway!
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thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway & everyone who helped out Ashley's auction!





© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

The auction has started!

Here is a direct link to my quilt in the Team Ashley auction.

I was shocked {happily shocked} when I discovered that my quilt already had 50 bids!!  You guys really are amazing.

For those of you who didn't see my post last week... I have donated one of my quilts to the Choose Joy Auction & Benefit.  You can read all about it in my original post here.

The who/why/when and inspiration for the auction.

This post has FAQ on the auction.
You can see a sneak peek of some of the items here.

100% of the money raised is going to help Ashley in her fight.  Team Ashley has donated their time and is not taking any salary or compensation from this auction. This is currently the only auction endorsed by Ashley and Lil Blue Boo. 

There are hundreds of items in the auction so I encourage you to check it out & help in any way you can.



© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

Scrap Sunday - My Bee Beautiful Quilt

Welcome to the second Scrap Sunday.  Every Sunday I'll be posting what I'm doing in scrapbooking... or what scrappy quilt I'm working on.  If you are working on Project Life, scrapbooking, or a scrappy quilt please link up at the end of this post.

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I had planned on showing you I'm using Project Life to catch up on scrapbooking, but instead I'm going to show you a scrappy quilt I worked on yesterday.

Back in June of 2010 I sent out the following piles of fabric to the members of Bee Beautiful along with directions on the type of drunk love inspired blocks I wanted.

I don't have a good reason for not finishing this quilt back in 2010.  I got busy... and it ended up being put neatly in a bin with all the additional scraps.  My Bee members made 22.5 blocks so I didn't have much left to do at all.  I was inspired yesterday to pull it out and finish it.  I made the additional 2.5 blocks. {Natalie made a half block with the scraps she had & I finished it.}

 I spent most of yesterday on this quilt.  I cut & added the sashing and borders.  I used Aqua Kona Crush.  Robert Kaufman isn't making Kona Crush any longer so I'm glad I saved enough for the quilt!  {I had put it away with the blocks... woo hoo for being organized!}

...and now the quilt top is done!

I'm SO happy with it.

 Since this quilt also matches my new room... I think I'm going to have to rotate using my new Come What May quilt with this one.

Each of the Bee members also made a siggy block.  I pieced them all together inside of navy quilter's linen.  This is the start of the back.  I'm not sure what my plan is for the rest of the back yet...

This is my leftover pile of Neptune scraps.  I might incorporate more of them into the backing, or I might just save them for another project.

I even have the binding ready.  It is made from leftover Jelly Roll strips & was actually a present from Allison.  Years ago we both were hooked on Neptune at the same time and she created way too much binding... close to double of what she needed for a Neptune quilt and decided to give it to me!  Thanks Allison! :-)  I miss you!!

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See you back here next week for another Scrap Sunday!

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Here's a button for you!

<a href="http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/" target="_blank"><img width="140" alt="scrapsunday" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMOciGosXKrXD3SP9x9UOjyWxX5KOqW014YJeyh-7k6kVQdYcI2Ros91S7HMkiWLv27z1zjjMzVt1Oqms472umihvC3IgytNqSl-gzTsDSD0jgLJbKDJDp6clhDkFRtkMTJIaLyqPO3c/s200/scrap+sunday.png" /></a><br />
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If you want to show something scrappy you are working on leave a link in the comments.  I'm running late this morning & can't get the widget working... once I get it fixed I'll add your links.
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© Blog post written by Julie Herman
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/