Small Cuts, Big Impact: Cutie Collections

We were first introduced to Cutie Collections by our friend Debby Brown, who design the Petal Power quilted runner featured in our July/August 2015 issue. Soon after, one of our ad managers, Melissa Kanovsky (MK as we affectionately call her) fell in love with a Cutie Pattern quilt, Sun Kissed, when she saw it at the Quilt Basket in Pawling, New York.

First, some background: Cutie Patterns are designed for Cutie Collections, which are packs of up to 16 fat eighths (9″ x 22″). These curated collections make up the body of the quilt, with additional fabric for one or two borders. Cutie Collections are $20, and patterns are $3.50. The collections and the patterns may be purchased together or separately, and are signature items for the Quilt Basket.

Now, MK kept raving about Sun Kissed (rightly so), which was designed by Sarah Fabian of the Quilt Basket, and we had to find out more.

Sarah Fabian’s Sun Kissed, a Cutie Pattern.

We tapped Sarah and asked her to share  a little bit about her design process, and fabric choices:
“I was inspired by the Sun Prints Collection and the Ex Libris panel designed by Alison Glass for Andover Fabrics. This line of fabric needed a clear, modern design. After choosing the chevron pattern, the next challenge was making it fit on a fat eighth (9 inches by 22 inches). In this case, it worked beautifully and as the quilt started to come together, I loved it more and more. The panel just pulled the whole quilt together.

“The biggest challenge  in designing a Cutie Collections Pattern is always figuring out the best and most efficient way to use a fat eighth. The Sun Kissed pattern specifically added an additional challenge to determine how to emphasize the modern, colorful and beautiful panel the best way possible.

“The feedback and response from our customers in regards to this quilt and pattern has been extremely positive. I believe the choice of piecing, fabrics and overall design make this quilt so appealing. For the last year, our Cutie Collections have been growing. I have been involved in designing a few different patterns. Some of these include Zig Zag Reflections, Rail Trail, Tillie and Lily’s Strings.

We asked Sarah to share more about herself:

“My love of quilting started when I was six years old and my mom opened the Quilt Basket. When I first began quilting, I worked on projects and classes with my mom. She taught me the traditional art of quilting, which I now incorporate into my more contemporary tastes. As a young quilter, and now a mom, I understand that personal time for hobbies is hard to come by. Since making the transition from being a stay-at-home mom to toting my energetic toddler to work at the shop everyday, I have come up with many new creative ideas, and have found myself with even less time to work on them! This has inspired me to develop easy and inexpensive projects for quilters of all ages and levels. You can find tips and stories from this working mom on the entertaining and informative Quilt Basket blog.”

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Quilt. Sew. Live. Breathe.