One of my guilds provides little wall quilts, featuring houses, to Habitat for Humanity. They give one of these quilts to each new homeowner, and have asked us to provide a few more. To make this one, I used a pre-drawn block from EQ8 and printed a line drawing of it at 12″ x 12″. Then all I had to do was measure the components and make the fusible applique quilt. This is the block as it was shown in EQ8: Block design taken directly from EQ8 And here is the line drawing I printed from the program (along with my notes!): EQ8 drew this as if I were going to piece it. There was the option to p ..read more

Last year’s Block of the Month (BOM) at Studio Stitch was a series of complex hexagons made with the Jaybird Quilts rulers. You can read about the woman who designed this way to make them in my earlier post here. I enjoyed making the blocks and most weren’t very difficult with the use of the rulers and Justiann’s good instructions. They looked great when I put a few up on the design wall to view them together. It was my intention to make the quilt using the Kaufman Effervescence fabric, like Holly did here: Quilt (c) Holly Alloway, designed and made by her The fabric was ordered by the shop ..read more

A friend called recently to say that a local charity wanted a quilt to decorate their new office space. I sent a couple of pictures and they were enthusiastic but thought maybe they wanted both quilts! Eventually someone came over to look at some options since both the pictures I sent were very much alike; I didn’t think they’d want two quilt so similar. Of course I was thrilled that somebody wanted my quilts! The charity is Backpack Beginnings, a local organization whose mission is to give “food and basic necessities directly to children in need” and to connect their families to appropriate c ..read more

This pattern came from a shop I visited on vacation last year. Then there was the issue of templates, which I ended up ordering from the same shop where I’d bought the pattern. Of course I can make templates, but it’s so much easier to cut around an acrylic template than to draw around a home-made template and then cut with scissors. I got the small templates because that’s all that was available. Here’s a detailed picture in which you can see the lovely swirl quilting as well as that pointed lozenge that finishes at 2-1/4 inches long! The quilt was exhausting to make, but I love it now that i ..read more

It probably looks like I’ve been wandering around the country taking classes instead of making quilts, and of course that’s partly true. However, here are a couple of finishes. This first one was made because I love-love-love some of the Tim Holtz fabrics, so the blue-green one is featured here. Also, I really like the movement triangles give to a quilt top, so I chose this Jaybird Quilts pattern called ChopSticks. A few of the blocks are made with some Fossil Fern fabric I found; I thought I had given it all away, but I guess not! Anyway it fit right in and provided a bit of variety. Qui ..read more

I’m happy to say I was able to attend the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival (MAQF) in Virginia recently. I took two classes and will write more about them later. For now, here are some of the quilts I especially enjoyed. There were many traditional quilts and art quilts, but of course my favorites were mostly modern. And BTW, I’m sure some of them came directly from QuiltCon. Simply Luxury by Susan Bravereman Holding Space by Sharon M Carrier Modern Garden by Andrea Barrett Orange Sherbet, by Sana R. Moulder, was made from a pattern. I would have liked to know the name of the pattern! And lo ..read more

I’ve heard for years that I should label my quilts, and I get it, especially because I have inherited some quilts without labels. However, since I donate most of my quilts, I have spent a good bit of time lately removing those labels I worked so hard to make and attach. I suppose I could leave the labels on, but it seems inappropriate to have my name on a quilt that I donate.  Here’s my current compromise. After finishing a quilt with binding, I use my sewing machine’s lettering function to stitch my initials and the year in a corner of the quilt, as inconspicuously as possible. Thi ..read more

When I asked for suggestions recently about how to display some of my map quilts, the majority suggested mounting over canvas or on the front of canvas. This one was already faced, so it’s staying as is. However, I researched online to find out what others are doing, and here’s what I found. Cindy Grisdela, whose work I admire, has a tutorial on her method for attaching art quilts to canvas. Here’s the link. Her method is way complicated but does leave the option of removing the piece without (much) damage in the future. A tutorial on another site suggests using heavy duty velcro attached to ..read more

First, I found this on the blog from Frances Arnold, a fellow quilter as you can tell: How true! And the same seems to be true of orphan blocks. Here’s the box with mine, despite my having made multiple quilts from them recently. Here’s the latest top made from orphan blocks. It will go (eventually) to Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses. Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″ And here are a few more made from orphan blocks. Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts. But look back up at that full orphan box. I think orphan blocks must ..read more

I’ve been eyeing this canvas fabric ever since Studio Stitch got it in, and finally I bought it and made some bags. First up was a tote bag from a free pattern I’ve used many times. You can find it here, on the Bijou Lovely site, still available for free. The instructions are clear and well illustrated. I added a Kraft-Tex bottom panel, which is a little more complicated, but it won’t be any trouble if you’ve worked with Kraft-Tex before. There was a little fabric left, so I made a BIG pyramid bag using another free tutorial, available here. This is another one I’ve made many times, but usual ..read more