Tutorials

Friday, April 25, 2014

3 more from Jessica


A few more from Jessica here.  Another quilt from Moda's Oh Deer! line.  She has made several of these- they must be a good seller in her Etsy shop.  


I did an overall paisley swirl design on this one.


This baby quilt is just the sweetest!  If a baby quilt can be glamorous, I think this one is. Feathers in alternating directions with strings of pearls in between.   


Love the soft pinks and grays.


And another baby quilt, this time not so glamorous, but sweet just the same.


Double bubbles.


And she also had me quilt up some flannel yardage for making another crafty thing.  Trying out all over pebbles and swirls this time. 

Thanks for letting me quilt all your quilting projects Jessica!  I always have fun with them.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

25-patch from Jessica


Jessica made this neat 25-patch quilt.  


I quilted this meandering square design in the sashings and for the blocks, kept it super simple with a meander, but added a little secret surprise somewhere in each block.  Something different in each one.  This one has a paisley design in it.


A basketball here.  This street-themed fabric line made me imagine I was little Jeffy from the Family Circus comic strip.  The ones where they show his little path across the neighborhood- jumping over things, going down slides, crawling through stuff...


This quilt also makes a great backdrop for some fall field work.  Apparently.  :)
Thanks Jessica!  Stay tuned for more cute quilts from her.  


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Winter Critters = DONE!! (and more)


I finally finished it!  (Just in time for Spring!  ha ha.)  This pattern is called "Winter Critters" and was in Quiltmaker magazine a couple years ago.  I fell in love with it instantly, but it has taken me about 2 years to complete it. I started off by gathering and purchasing the fabrics.  I ended up tea-dying the tree fabric to make it more brownish than yellow.  That was a first for me.  I learned that it takes a LOT of tea bags to make a significant difference in your fabric color.  
I got the top together easily enough, but then stalled out when it came time to put the balls on the stocking caps, the noses, and the embroidery work.  So it sat in the cupboard for several months.  


I'm pretty new to embroidery and hand applique.  The embroidery seemed easy enough, but the teeny tiny little circles were intimidating.  I considered gluing on little pom-poms, but ended up just cutting out little circles, and going around the edges with a blanket stitch in DMC floss.  I even stuffed a tiny bit of batting in there as I closed it up.  Was it the best way?  Probably not.  And my blanket stitch skills are ok at best.  Those tiny circles are tricky to go around.  But, overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  


I quilted it just like the one in the magazine, but added just a couple little details in the squirrel's tail and the raccoon hat.  


My only regret is that I ran out of the white fabric I was using and used another piece that looked white, but clearly is not once I got it sewn in.  It's right above the birds and will forever haunt me every time I look at it.   Maybe if I hang it in a dark enough spot in the house it will be hard to notice??  Anywhoo, it's got a sleeve on the back and it is done done done!  And in the closet it goes with the rest of the Christmas decorations.  But it will most likely stay up until Valentine's or St. Patty's day along with the snowmen decorations.  Ha ha


Here is my Do. Good Stitches-Haven group block for April.  A Scrappy Trip is what it is called and you've probably seen these all over the interweb by now.  The tutorial has been up for quite a while.  This was my first time making them.  I'll have to admit that ripping out the little 2.5 inch seam with each strip got to be a little tedious, but once you get going, you won't want to stop!  It is a great quick and simple way to use up your stash.  (Mom- I'm looking at you!)  CosbyGryffin had us use a warm color palate with burgundy, dark purples, oranges and pinks, and with yellow going from corner to corner.  I pulled some fabrics and started cutting and before I knew it I had enough for 3 blocks.  We are only required to make 2, but she would gladly take any extra blocks to make it bigger.  Most of us did make extra blocks so far.  It's going to be pretty!  

Oh, and one more thing.  In about 3 months we will be welcoming a baby into our family!  Yep, I'm having a little girl!  So I anticipate the longarming will slow down quite a bit this summer.  And how it will work with 2 little ones and coordinating naptimes long enough to get some quilting in will have to take some adjusting.  So in the meantime, I'm quilting up a storm.  That is as much as my aching back and hips will let me.  :)

Monday, April 7, 2014

Norene's Sampler Quilt


Norene made this neat sampler quilt.  Such bright, fun colors!

I did a lot of custom work on this quilt, as each block required some thought and deliberation before attacking them.  The fabrics were all swirls, so I incorporated that into the quilting as well. 


This has become my new favorite pinwheel design.  The idea for it came from my own noggin, but I'm not saying it's my own original idea.  I'm sure someone else has done it before, it's really very simple.  But it is pretty quick to do and is not too dense of a design, which I like.  I've done another little variation of it on a recent quilt, so stay tuned for that post.



These little strips in the border were tricky to come up with an idea for.  I ended up extending the swirls from the blue sashings, and more swirls to fill the little green strip.  And curly feathers in the wide border.





Lots of C2C's, loops, and swirls.  Oh how these sampler quilts are a challenge, but they do turn out pretty in the end.  yeah??  

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Maple Leaf Quilt


Donna made this lovely Maple Leaf quilt.  


I quilted feathers in the outside border, leaves in the smaller border, and loops in the sashings.  


I had a hard time finding some inspiration on what to custom quilt inside the leaves.  After searching several images, I figured out that I was pretty much on my own.  But that was ok after all.  I had fun inventing my own designs.  So perhaps if you are searching for ideas yourself, I hope these will help you out.  This one I did a leafy branched feather in each lobe.


In these smaller leaves, it's hard to see well, but I just did a few long pointy leaves branching from the leaf petiole.


This one is similar to the other large one, only in the traditional rounded feather shape.


This one I just did simple large bubbles.  


A pointy feather in this one.  Thanks for letting me quilt your special maple leaf quilt Donna!

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Christmas flannel quilt: Saved


Here is an 'In progress' shot of Joan's quilt.  This quilt was a little different in that it was one that had been tied several years ago, but several of the ties had come out and the batting was getting bunched up between the layers.  So Joan took it all apart, added a piece to the back to make it a little bigger for me and had me quilt it back together. 


This was an all flannel quilt.  The borders had shrunk more than the center and I had some excess fabric to contend with.  It was doable and I think it turned out great!


Swirls were perfect for the job as you can push the fabric one way and then the other so you don't get puckers.  Isn't this print cute?!  I'm glad I was able to help save your cuddly quilt Joan!