Scrappy Broken Dishes Quilt

Awhile ago I purchased two of Laura Gunn’s Edges charm packs. I think I had a plan for them, but they languished in my closet. I then bought a charm pack of the new summer 2013 Kona solids. Charm packs are 5” squares sold by manufacturers to market new lines.


I’ve been working on an lovely queen sized quilt which I just finished (post to follow) and I just wanted to sew something quick and easy.
I sorted through my scraps and found some orphan whites and cut 5” squares.  From the charm packs I picked out the colors of spring and summer and chose to make a baby quilt in the timeless broken dishes pattern. I have a lot of squares left over in an autumn palette which would make another nice quilt.
I haven't quilted it yet, it will go to my church group and will likely end up going to our hospital’s neo natal unit.

I love this pattern, there is so much movement. The top measures 41" square.

Lemon Pepper Quilts

On a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest I had the occasion to stop at the wonderful Stitchin’ Post quilt shop in Sisters Oregon.

It’s a beautiful quilt shop and I found a pattern named Lemon Pepper by a designer I didn’t know about, Kenna Ogg of Madison Cottage Design. I bought the pattern and a fat quarter kit to make a throw sized quilt.
Here’s a photo of the pattern (she designs other patterns too)

When I returned home I dug through my stash and had enough grey, mustard and black to make two quilts. One for me and one for our local hospice. The quilts were easy to make, and could be handled by a beginner. Any color way would work. I’m thinking of making it in green and yellow.

The quilts measure 63”x63” and are machine quilted. I did one with multiple lines of diagonal quilting (love those Riley Blake geeky glasses)

The other one I did in a 4” cross hatch.

I machine stitched the bindings on both quilts.
Besides having a wonderful quilt shop, Sisters, Oregon is at the foot of the Cascades. On our way out of town we captured this unforgettable image. The cowboys, horses and dogs are metal sculptures.

Taking it to the Floor

I haven't made a queen sized quilt in a while, but if I move most of the furniture out of my studio I can pin baste it on the floor. Any larger than a queen, I have to take it to my garage floor. Which of course would need a thorough washing…and where do you stop?
The quilt began with these low volume fabrics

Now it’s ready to pin and quilt

This is a commission quilt, and it has been fun working in colors I don’t normally use. The white strip near the top is a shaft of sunlight, not a fabric variation. If you are looking closely, it's also laid out upside down.
I won’t get it quilted for awhile because I have an opportunity to go to the Houston quilt show with my sister! WooHoo!

Sacred Threads Exhibition 2005

This was the first quilt I entered in the show, way back in 2005.



Our quilting group at my former church undertook a huge project to make 25+ full sized bed quilts for a Christian retreat center in Bolivia. We had a blast hand painting several bolts of PFD fabric, using Pebeo Setaclolor transparent paints and salt. The whole congregation and many people from the community were involved. You can read more about the project here. If you want to know the technique, this link to Phil Beaver’s instructions will guide you.

Even though we had a designer who designed the quilts for maximum use of the dyed fabrics, we still had lots of scraps, most were less than 2” wide. To celebrate the event, I made this string pieced quilt. It was accepted in the Sacred Threads 2007 exhibition in the category, Brotherhood.

It has graced the walls of my studio for the past seven years, but it’s time for a change. Eastminster Presbyterian Church of Evansville, the congregation that made this project possible is experiencing a milestone this fall. The pastor is celebrating twenty-one years with the congregation. A celebratory banner is in order.  The church has lots of wall space for display. It will find a home there, and I still have my sewing machine cover and a bag of scraps.

Sneak Peak

Shhh, it’s a commission quilt for a friend. She says she likes soft colors…colors that look like they have been in the sun a few weeks, then beaten with a rock. Those of you who read my blog know I love to quilt with bright colors and graphic designs but this has been a welcome change.

I don’t know if every color will make the final cut, but it sure has been fun playing with the fabrics.

End of an Era

Last week I finished the last of my sock monkey fabric, today I finished the last of my giant Gerber daisy fabric.  I made at least seven baby quilts from this pattern as well as a queen sized bed quilt.

The fabric is no longer available, so I’m going to have to go shopping. My other quilts in this series were quilted with a cross hatch design, but I decided to try the serpentine stitch for this one. Here’s a link to last week’s post about the  serpentine stitch. It’s from Bernina, but the multi-point zigzag stitch is a utility stitch on just about every sewing machine. To get the serpentine look, it’s all in a matter of adjusting the width and length of the stitch. I quilted the vertical rows 1 1/2” apart. I used Superior Bottom Line thread in the top and bottom. It's a very thin thread which just gives texture.

Back view

It’s also the last of this Henry Glass print too.
I really like the look of V and Co.’s tutorial on the oversized Dutchman’s puzzle block. Maybe this is my next series? Click on the photo to go to Vanessa’s tutorial for this pattern.

Machine Stitched Binding

I have hand sewn my quilt bindings for years, but recently, my wrist has been causing some problems so this week I decided to give machine binding a serious try.
Here’s a big thank you to Jan McKinney who showed me how she binds quilts for customers at the Sew and Quilt Shop in Bunnell.
Rather than using a straight stitch, or a zigzag stitch, she uses an adaptation of the multi-point zigzag stitch (or as Bernina calls it, a running stitch) to create a serpentine stitch.

Begin by stitching the binding to the back of the quilt. This is the reverse of how you would do it if you were hand stitching the binding. Fold the binding to the front and select a multi-point zigzag stitch. Lengthen the stitch length and make the width narrower. You’ll need to practice on some samples, but I set my stitch length at 1.6 and my stitch width at 2.0. There are endless variations to try.
Here’s how it looks on the back. I slipped off the edge in a couple of places, but with the serpentine stitch it’s really hard to tell.

Here’s a tip sheet from Bernina about using the running stitch as a quilt stitch.
The results? Three finished baby quilts.

Comma Again?

I have my favorite fabric designers, and Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic is in my top ten. Her line Comma is so simple, yet so striking. I came by a layer cake of this line and found a pattern on the Moda Bakeshop. It’s designed for use with a layer cake fabric bundle, but you you can use yardage just as easily. Beginners, don’t fear, this is a very simple quilt. I did add more blocks to make the quilt a little larger than the pattern specified, but it is even easier that the ubiquitous Yellow Brick Road pattern. It’s available free here.
I am having fun with piece backs these days.

Since the quilt design was simple, I decided to experiment with an all over quilting design that was a new design for me, Pebbling. It’s not perfect, but I did have fun doing it. What I especially liked was using Isacord 40 weight polyester thread. This is the thread Leah Day recommends, and it is available in many local quilt shops and online. I’ve been using Superior Thread for a long time, but this last quilt has made me a convert.

Zen Chic Comma Baby Quilt

To anyone who is not a fabric enthusiast, that title means nothing, but Brigitte Heitland is the designer whose company is named Zen Chic. She has designed several commercial fabric lines, and one of my favorites is Comma. One of the projects Brigitte featured on her designer page is this one by Emmaline.



I liked the mustard and grey fabric selections and decided to make a similar one. Here’s my version.





Fabric : Comma from Zen Chic, back is also from the Comma line, Nigella.

Construction: Cotton batting and Signature cotton thread

Size: 38” x 59”  The blocks are about 6” square

Quilting Design: straight line quilting 1/2” apart

Now a word about my walking foot. I do most of my quilting with a Juki TL98E which I have had for about eight years. I like everything about this machine except the design of the presser feet. I have changed or adapted each of the feet that came with it.  The walking foot has no guide bar for aligning your stitches. I've searched at quilt shows, talked to sales reps, and a walking foot with a guide bar does not exist for this machine. 

Here’s what I finally rigged up.



I taped a guide bar from another machine to the Juki foot. Really now, Is that the best Juki can do?

Canning Tomato Catsup

Gather ripe tomatoes and canning equipment, and call some friends to come over.



Wash and prep the tomatoes



Grind the onions and tomatoes



Wait for the catsup to cook



Fill the jars and load the canner



25 pounds of Roma tomatoes made 3 batches yielding 36 half pint jars. Yum!

Here’s the ancient recipe card, written when people still measured in pecks.

Japanese One Yard

I purchased one yard of this Japanese fabric over 10 years ago. I only had one yard and I wanted to use as much of the fabric as I could. It was one of those “just can’t cut it fabrics.” So I designed a pattern that would use the fabric as the focus but extend the size of the quilt. It now measures 45” x 58”.

I had fun with the quilting

and also with the back

The two inch squares were cut from my stash and scrap basket. I especially liked the purple fabric. It’s a Clothworks fabric by Julie Creus of La Todera. You can click on her name to find out about the fabric line. Fantastic blenders. I have them all!
Backing is Robert Kaufman from the Quilter’s Linen line. Batting is Hobbs washable wool, thread is Superior Bottom line, green fabric is pistachio from the Moda Bella basics line.
I have another yard of similar fabric in red, I’ll make another one and photograph stepouts and write a tutorial. Every quilter has at least one yard of too beautiful to cut fabric in their stash.

Ticker Tape Quilt

After seeing this quilt technique in Sunday Morning Quilts and Amy Gibson’s blog I knew I had to make one.

The quilt measures 18”x 40”. Ticker tape fabrics are from Moda’s A Stitch in Color and Simple Marks Summer lines. Both are from the talented designer Malka Dubrowsky. The background fabric is Dictionary Pages from the Mama Said Sew line. I used cotton batting. I first tried using my walking foot, but changed to my free motion foot for better visibility and less turning. The pieces are small, and I can do better stitching, but this was really the look I was after. I also left the selvage edges on a few pieces. It is a thready quilt, it will fray even more, but it’s a wall hanging and won’t get the wear a lap quilt would.

My inspiration was a quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts and this quilt from Amy Gibson’s blog.

I had fun making this even if I did sew through my fingernail twice and experienced having the needle graze my finger another time. Living dangerously…

A peek at Barcelona, the new fabric line from Zen Chic

About a month ago, I won this fabric, Barcelona, Zen Chic’s new line from Moda. It won’t be in stores for another few weeks, but I was lucky enough to have my name drawn in her give-a-way.

It was probably about the equivalent of a jelly roll. I wanted to make a throw sized quilt, so I added some fabrics from my stash and a few solids. Additional fabrics are from the Zen Chic Comma line, Pearl Bracelets from Andover and the Architextures line from Robert Kaufman. The sashing and border are Kona Ash.

I just had a taste of this fabulous fabric line, and I love it.

Journey of 2,352 squares completed

It’s done, the piecing,  the quilting, the binding. I started this quilt in March, and last week I stitched the binding. I chose the swirling waters motif for the quilting. It’s my new favorite all over quilting design.


I used wool batting and Superior Magnifico Poly thread.

Finished Sampler Quilt

Ta Da! I have finished the Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month Sampler. The top was finished a month ago, and I enrolled in Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting a sampler class and did the free motion quilting for it.  I used fabrics from Malka Dubrawsky’s Stitch in Color and Simple Marks lines, and chose the steel grey from those lines for the background fabric.

My favorite blocks? Unexpectedly the Dresden Plate block in the bottom right corner and the Dresden Wheel block on the fourth row. I had eschewed learning to make those blocks because I perceived them as too traditional, but the instructor Amy Gibson put a modern spin on the blocks. I also unexpectedly enjoyed the English paper pieced hexagons for the same reason. They are so much more than Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

My least favorite? The paper pieced blocks, second row, second block and third row first block. It’s not that I dislike the finished product, but the process is frustrating for me. My brain just doesn't get paper piecing.

here’s the back and some close up shots of the quilting
 


I still have a lot of Malka’s fabric left, so I decided to make another quilt using off-white as the background color. Here’s the start. For this quilt I’m just choosing the blocks I like…no paper piecing.