Tutorials

Friday, March 22, 2013

colored pencil roll




 

















It's ANOTHER colored pencil roll...



These are so fun to make! 



(the attempt to be a cool photographer/blogger shot.)

The pattern is in Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.  I've made several and blogged about just a few projects out of this book--I love it!

another colored pencil roll
puzzle ball

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

pink & blue stacked coins

 
Norene made these two stacked coin quilts. 
 
 
I did feathers in the sashing and swirls and stars in the coins. 
 

And here's the pink version.  Same thing only different :)  and bigger. 
 
 
feathers and curly-Q's with a few hearts thrown in the mix.  Love how these both turned out!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Antique 9-patch

 
Maxine had me quilt this antique 9-patch quilt that her mother had made loooong ago, most likely out of her old clothing.  Maxine added the 3 outer borders to make it bigger. 
 
 
I had some issues with the blocks ballooning, so I realised that when quilting them, I needed to somehow spiral my way around the outside and work my way to the middle in order to keep it from puckering.  So this rose design was what I ended up doing.  It worked out pretty well!
 
 
I like a feathered border! 
I'm so glad that this quilt is finally finished and can be used and appreciated, and not spend another year in a closet!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Farm Baby Quilt




Norene made this little farm baby quilt.

I did a funky feather in the borders and customised each block by outlining the animals. 


Such cute fabric! 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

July 4th Row Quilt

 
This is Katie's July 4th Row quilt!  Isn't it amazing!?  (sorry it's sideways!  I can't get it to rotate for the life of me.  argh.)  The story is... about 3 years ago we got some friends and family quilters to do a row exchange.  Each month you made a row to add to someone's quilt and it got passed around 8 times (8 months).  You might recall another I've quilted here. 
 
 
I had a lot of fun quilting it up.  I only had 3 thread color changes--navy, cream and a pink/orange/yellow varigated one. 

 
The row I made is the parade themed one.  With the light yellow background. 
I was pretty ambitious huh?!
 
 
Jan made the firecracker row.  Love how this block turned out.
 

 
Katie made this row: Fireworks!
 
 
Plenty of American flags...

 
Becki (the over-achiever!) made this row.  Paper-piece, applique, embroidery...  Love it!
 
 
How cool is this block? 
 
Where's my row quilt you may ask?  Still in the box, unassembled, collecting dust. 
It's on my finish-it-up list!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Mountains and Valleys

 
Katie made this one.  I call it Mountains and Valleys, although she did inform me that it is supposed to be a sunrise.  I can see a sunrise behind a mountain in there...  I had a hard time thinking up how to quilt this one. 

 
I ended up doing a wild feather wreath in each block using a charcoal thread. 

 
And I extended the wreath into the borders. 

Monday, February 25, 2013

Red & Whites

 
It's another red & white quilt from Norene. 

Some little bit fancy borders.
 
 
It's hard to see, but when I got to the end I ended up with a group of 4 piano keys, so the last design is a little bit extra wide.  But I don't think it is very noticable at all. 

 
Corner to corner in the center.  I really like how this one turned out!  Almost makes me want to cut all my fabric up into little squares...almost :P
 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Using it up- Black, white and Red

 
Norene (also my MIL) was recently on a mission to use up all her black, white and red fabrics and ended up with 3 quilts!  This one she laughs at since it's so wacky looking, but I told her "it's a modern quilt!"  I really should show this one last since it used up the last bits from her other 2 quilts...

 
I decided to do something "modern" looking and wanted to do these super swirls.  Inspired from Emily's quilting on this quilt. 
 
 
Quilt #2

 
Here is another design I wanted to try.

 
I will admit that it took me a little bit to figure out how to end up in the direction I wanted to go with this one.  It's all in which direction your hook goes.  If you want to go right, make your hook to the right.  And if you realize you goofed up, just do one less echo or layer and it will be all good.  :)

 
I got the design from this flyer in the mail.  Just to prove to you that I'm really not that creative-I get all my designs from various places! 

Sunday, February 17, 2013

A couple of exciting things.

 
A couple months ago I decided to sign up to join the do. good stitches phenomenon.  I had just about forgotten all about it when I received an e-mail saying I was in!  If you are unfamiliar with do. good stitches, it is basically a group of sewists that each month make a quilt for charity.  Each person makes a couple blocks and sends them to the quilter to put together and finish and send off the quilt.  My group is Haven.  (There are hundreds of groups.  Well, I'm not sure about hundreds, but there are quite a lot!)  We are making quilts for Alternatives for Battered Women in Rochester, NY.  You can see what we are up to on flickr.  Our first quilt is inspirational words using quiet fabrics.  Or, as I like to call them, lights. 
 
 
So here are my 2 blocks, ready to be sent off! 
 
I have 2 months/quilts to plan: September and December.  I am planning on something suuuper simple for December's because, well, December is usually a pretty busy and hectic month.  But as for September...look out!  :)  I have no idea what I will come up with, but I will be on the lookout for something pretty and nice. 
 


 
Also, several months ago, I was contacted by someone from Quilter's Digest to send an entry for their newsletter.  Now, I had never heard of Quilter's Digest before, but I wasn't going to pass this up.  And I didn't really think it would really actually happen.  But! Lo and behold look what I got in the mail a couple weeks ago!
 
 
Anything look familiar?!  There's my alphabet quilt on the very back page.  Pretty Cool!!  It's in issue #5.  Yeah, it's a pretty new publication.  Now, where can you pick up your free copy?  Well, nowhere in my home state of Iowa sadly!  But you can find a list of retailers offering them here. 


 
And looky what I have here!  Another alphabet quilt!  I only started it about a year ago!  It's a commissioned quilt, which I have never done before.  I have no idea what to charge for this!  I kept track of my hours for piecing it though.  I know what the quilting costs, but for the whole thing?? 
help please.

So there's my 2 exciting things.  Exciting to me anyways!  Haven do. good stitches group and being in Quilter's Digest.  And it's only February!!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Triple 4-patch

My family sewing team made this triple 4-patch quilt as a wedding gift for my cousin this spring.  I know a couple few family members check the blog every once in a while, but I am taking the risk that they won't spoil it for us!!
 
 
 I believe the pattern was in Fons and Porter sometime last fall.  We made the blocks a bit bigger than the pattern called for.  We made the smallest squares 1 inch finished instead of 3/4.  (--the one year old is in there for scale purposes :P--)  I really love how it turned out!  Each of us cut out squares from our stashes so we had it all cut out and ready to go by the time we got together.  And it has a nice variety of fabrics as a result. 
 
 
I quilted an all-over swirly/feathery conglomeration. 
 
 
Here is a peek at the back.