Courtyard Square

Hey Everyone!

The block for the Mystery Quilt Along for May is block 578--Courtyard Square.

Here is mine:

And here is one from a client in the FB group. (click on the link and join us!)

I asked the quilt block designer,Pam Vieira-McGinnis, a while back some questions that I thought might be help us get to know her a little better.

Here is the email copy and pasted:

Tell us a little bit about yourself—how did you start quilting? How long have you been quilting? I have been quilting for almost 30 years. I think of it as a natural progression of my love of sewing and fabric, quilting was a way to use many different fabrics at one time. I had admired quilts in my favorite magazines for a long time, Country Home and Country Living and it was a great way to recreate the look. A friend and I took a class and and by the time the class was over I had another quilt top pieced and ready for quilting! Do you design anything else besides patterns? Fabric, etc? In May of 2011 my first line of fabric with Holly Holderman's LakeHouse Dry Goods Fabric debuted. I subsequently had 4 more lines of fabric with LakeHouse and it was great fun! I never dreamed that such an opportunity existed for me! I had some patterns available through my friend Elizabeth's pattern company Late Bloomer Quilts, and I have several free patterns available on my blog PamKittyMorning.blogspot.com. I have also been lucky to have blocks in the first 16 Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazines, Courtyard Square being the first! What is your favorite part about designing? I love making things! I get some kind of idea then it' s so fun to get out the graph paper or fire up photoshop and start on something. There is so much inspiration out there. Do you have a favorite color? Style of fabric? My favorite style of fabric is 30's retro ... not just the pure 30s reproductions, but the brighter retro prints. There is so much out there right now. And with that I love those quilts from the 30s and 40s. Back in the day when I first started quilting I used mostly Civil War type fabrics, that was what was available at my local shops and we didn't have the internet and shopping opportunities we did now. I still love that look, tiny blocks, scrappy, but I'm always drawn back to the brighter more cheerful colors of the retro designs. Where do you get your inspiration? Inspiration is out there everywhere. The most obvious is the antique quilts, but I find inspiration in fences and mosaics, in the layout of tiles, old graphics and dishes... everywhere you turn there's something that can spark an idea.