Old Tobacco Road

I do love me a good scrap quilt.

And this one is a fine, fine example!

I recently quilted this quilt for my friend, Rose Marie. She made it from a Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt online project, Old Tobacco Road.

I think it’s one of those quilts that, years from now, new quilters are going to be saying “Would you look at all those neat old fabrics?” about . . .

I don’t quite recall exactly how Rose Marie said she wanted it quilted, because when she gave it to me, the quilt was screaming so loudly for what IT wanted that it drowned her out.

I did what the quilt said . . .

Here’s a couple close-ups of the front:

This one shows some of the border area:

And here’s the back:

A bit closer shot of the back, showing some of the border area:

Everyone who sees this quilt just loves it, and not because of the quilting. It’s just the most wonderful scrap quilt!

I’m just lucky that sometimes I get to go spend the day and root around in her stash, and she periodically brings me leftovers she doesn’t want any more!

If you’d like to make one of these for yourself, at the time of this writing, the instructions for it are still up on Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery Quilts page, so you can get right on that. I’d be happy to quilt it for you when you’re done!

Aunt Wanda’s Baby Quilt

About a month ago, my Aunt Wanda called me up and asked me if I could help her with a baby quilt.

So I stopped by one afternoon, and she handed me a panel of 12 embroidery blocks, with the embroidery all done. They were still all hooked together into one panel — she hadn’t even cut them apart.  She said she’d like to have them back as a finished baby quilt, and could I do that for her?

Well, of course I could!

We agreed that since the couple with the baby are not planning to find out ahead of time whether it’s a boy or a girl, that I’d use red and yellow to set it with, so it would work for either one.

I chose some 1930s reproduction prints that had baby-ish motifs on them, and a solid white for the background.

I cut the blocks apart, trimmed them to size, and set them together with red sashing in pairs that went together, some horizontally, and some vertically.

Then I made these blocks to fill in with:

I quilted around the scalloped shapes of the embroidered frames, outlined the animals and the stars, and quilted a “cloud” around the letters. I put loopy squiggles in the sashing, and stitched all the frames in the ditch.

And here’s what I gave Aunt Wanda back:

You can’t really tell from the picture, but I used blue binding to match the blue embroidered outline of each block. The quilt measures 45″ x 50″. A good-sized baby quilt.

I think it came out really cute, and Aunt Wanda really liked it. She said it’s for a special baby, and now the baby will have a special quilt.

Dear Stella

I confessed earlier that I had to make a lot of blocks for my 350 Blocks Project that I couldn’t show you.

I also might have mentioned that I had been sewing Market booth samples.

Well, now that Market is over and all the cats are out of their bags, I can show you what I did, which will help clarify my high block count with proof.

I sewed three quilts for Dear Stella, for them to use as samples in their booth at Market to promote their new fabric lines . . .

The first one is made from the Marea collection. I used the “Choppy Waters” pattern from the book, Modern Minimal, by Alissa Haight Carlton. My favorite piece in this collection is the Damask. I’d love to back an entire quilt with that piece, just so I can look at it full out. Gorgeous!

Then I made two quilts from the “Baby Domiciles” pattern by Baby Aardvark, Aardvark Quilts. They’re both made from pieces from the Town and Country collection.

The first one is in the Country colorway . . .

The second one is in the London colorway . . .

The London one is my absolute favorite. The red, white, blue, and gray is a great color combination. I can’t even decide which print I like best. There’s a red-and-white polka dot I just love, but the umbrella print is so cute, the double-decker buses are adorable, and the stripe! I love the stripe, too.

Click any of the links throughout this post to look at the projects in more detail and see all the pieces in each collection. They’re wonderful (especially the London ones) . . .

And be sure and check back here next week, when I’ll have a pillow tutorial posted using pieces from the Marea collection.

Some Exciting News!

Every now and then I mention a website and group I’m part of called “15 Minutes Play“, and I periodically show things I’ve been working on from over there.

Most recently, it’s been my Color Challenge blocks, which I’m seriously behind on, but I’ll catch up.

Well, there’s big news from the 15 Minutes Play site this week . . .

Victoria has written a book!!!

I’ve known about it for quite awhile, but we were all sworn to secrecy, so I’m really excited to finally get to tell you about it. I’m so proud of her!

I’ve been observing from the sidelines ever since she started writing the book, and I know it was a long, arduous process, so I’m really excited for her that it’s finally getting close to becoming a real object that we can hold in our hands. And I’m really excited to get my hands on a copy when the time comes!

I’m even more excited that it’s finally coming, because I quilted a few of the quilts that are in the book, and I believe one of my own quilts, that I made because of the 15 Minutes Play site, is also in the book.

You can read more about the book HERE on C&T Publishing’s site, and it’ll be available this coming November. I’ll be sure and let you know more about it as time draws near.

You can read Victoria’s announcement HERE.

You’re gonna want to have this book in your quilting library. It’s not a pattern book — it’s a book that challenges you to do things and make wonderful stuff you’d never think of on your own.

Very inspiring . . . (and I’ll just bet we can get V to autograph one for you!)

Day and Night

A couple weeks ago, I quilted a quilt for my friend, Rose Marie.

She calls this quilt “Day and Night”, and it’s a pattern from the book “Pink Lemonade & Other Delights: 10 Refreshing Quilt Projects” by Linda Johnson.

Rose Marie told me to do something custom to it, whatever I wanted. Always both fun and scary for me . . . I’m never sure if what I choose to do will be what the customer likes.

For this quilt, I decided to use 3 different thread colors: black on the black border, pink on the pink and black 9-patches, and yellow in the yellow blocks.

Here are some pictures of what I did to it . . .

The front:

I did a Pam Clarke-style flower in each 9-patch block. In the yellow blocks that had applique, I outlined the flower, then stippled what was left of the background.

In the plain yellow blocks, I did a frame with circles in the middle, and a flower inside the frame.

A close-up of a yellow block:

The back:

More of the back:

In the black border, I quilted one-sided feathers in the scallops around the edges, then used triple lines to fill in the background between the feathers and the blocks. I outlined the applique that was in the border.

You can’t really see that I used 3 different colors of thread . . . but I will say it was very brave (or maybe stupid) of me to quilt with black thread on a white backing, as it is very unforgiving. Every little backtrack seemed to stick out like a sore thumb!

Rose Marie and her husband, George, came to pick it up from me one afternoon. George is helping her hold it, and he looks as proud as if he’d made the quilt himself!

Springtime in Paris

The theme for my guild’s 27th Annual show this past weekend was “Springtime in Paris”.

We decorated with little vignettes all throughout the show area, each containing items with a French flair, such as a white wrought-iron patio table with a wire basket holding a loaf of French bread sitting next to a bottle of French wine, or hat boxes and draped toile. We tried to put little French touches throughout the space.

Early in the planning stages, we even decided our raffle quilt could match our theme. So I designed a medallion quilt that has some piecing and some applique, and we chose soft, springlike colors, and came up with “Springtime in Paris”, the quilt!

I’ve turned “Springtime in Paris” into a pattern, so if you really love this quilt, you can now make one for yourself!

The pattern comes with full-sized applique templates, and complete instructions for making the 86″ x 86″ quilt as shown. We used the “Buttercup” line by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts by Moda for our quilt, along with Moda Bella Ivory solid for the background.

My committee members worked hard to see this quilt finished. Rose Marie pieced the 64 blocks needed for the setting. I did the applique, and set it all together, Marsha provided the backing and batting and did the binding on the finished quilt, and Bonnie HAND QUILTED it for us!

I’d love to see it done in some richer colors with toiles, or even a black and white version.

When I showed the completed top to My Cowboy, I asked him if it looked spring-like, and he said: “Yeh, and it looks all French, too. It’s got them La Fleurs all over it!” So I guess we met our goal of making it look like “Springtime in Paris”, if even a cowboy can guess!

The pattern is available in either a printed version, or as a PDF file, and is available now in my Etsy Shop.

However, as usual, I’m giving away two copies of the pattern here on my blog to celebrate the design’s debut. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post before noon on Saturday. I’ll draw for two winners on Saturday, June 9th.

Hands of Friendship 2012 Show

My home guild just had its 27th Annual quilt show last weekend.

If you were anywhere near Kirksville, MO, and got to come see it in person, you had a treat. We had 138 quilts in the show, plus many more on display.

Our theme this year was “Springtime in Paris”, so we had little French-themed decorations strewn throughout the show area, mostly thanks to my friend, Rose Marie, who has a flair for decorating.

We had a display of our Community Service quilts, and each of our 7 vendors had quilts on display, as well as goodies for sale.

Our bedturning this year was devoted to the memory of one of our founding members, Reva Selby, who passed away last November. Reva was a wonderful quilter, and we had many of her quilts to show, thanks to her family. The family came to watch the bedturning and see their mother’s/grandmother’s quilts:

Next to the bedturning was another display of quilts from another of our founding members who passed away just a few weeks ago. Vera Lile was an art teacher for over 20 years. In fact, she was my brother and sister’s grade school art teacher, AND the grade school art teacher to both of my own daughters, that’s how long she was there!

It’s sad that Reva and Vera are gone now, and our guild will really miss them.

Our raffle quilt was the first quilt you could see as you came through the door. It was won by the brother of one of our members, so we know it will have a good home. I’ll tell you more about the raffle quilt soon.

For now, here are some highlights from our show.

We have 11 categories in our show, and our awards are strictly Viewer’s Choice — there is no judging. So what you see is what the attendees of our show voted as their favorite quilts from the weekend display.

Small Art Quilts/Wallhangings (up to 36″ wide), Michele Breault, with “Nine Patch Stars”. Tiny pieces, hand quilted. Michele does wonderful handwork.

Large Art Quilts/Wallhangings (over 36″ wide), Sharon Pfeiffer, with “Southwest Memories”:

Baby/Youth Themed Quilts, Lori Smith Patterson, with “Little Girl With the Wild Hair”:

Youth Quilter (made by quilters under age 18), Ashley Hulet, with “Venetian Reflections” (quilted by Joan Harrison):

Hand Quilted, Michele Breault, with “Quilt As You Go”. Another stunning work from the hands of Michele:

Computer Guided Machine Quilted, Cathy Poyner, with “Bon Voyage” (quilted by Wanda Cagle):

Hand Guided Machine Quilted, Pieced (up to 82″ wide), Katy Kitchen, with “Hazel’s Diary Quilt” (quilted by ME — that’s my sister’s quilt!):

Hand Guided Machine Quilted, Pieced (over 82″ wide), Alice Allinson, with “Amazon Star”. The picture does NOT do this quilt justice. For one thing, it’s huge, so it couldn’t even be displayed full out, and the machine quilting she put on it is absolutely amazing, and it doesn’t even show in this picture.

Machine Quilted, Mixed Technique, Kathy East, with “Hands Around the World” (quilted by Joan Harrison). An extra word about this quilt: I told Kathy I’m as proud of this quilt as if I did it myself.

Here’s Kathy’s story about it:

“On April 14, 2007, I attended a class taught by Shelly Pagliai in Kirksville, on how to design a quilt. The quilt I designed has ladies’ gloves hand sewn onto various size blocks, with the blocks gauged to the size of the gloves. The fabrics are from our travels in the states and also Europe. When I was unable to purchase cotton fabric by the yard in European countries, I purchased man-sized cotton handkerchiefs and used those for the blocks. Instead of sashing, I used black grosgrain ribbon put through a ‘tape maker’ to frame the blocks. Each fabric is identified as to the origin of purchase. ‘Hands Around the World’ boasts a center block with two different gloves shaking hands. Many of the gloves are embellished with beads, fancy stitching, lace, or buttons and one pair is hand-crocheted. It was completed in April 2012.”

It’s always so wonderful to see one of your students make something that means so much! I’m so proud of her! She said: “It only took me five years!”

Quilt Guild Challenge 2012, Crayon Challenge, Lori Smith Patterson, with “Crayon Challenge — Sky Blue”:

Antique, Liz Mills, with “Double Wedding Ring”:

That’s all the first-place winners in each of the 11 categories, but I have a few more shots from the show for you . . .

Makenzie Couch, granddaughter of my friend, Rose Marie, made her first quilt over the last year, and she entered it in the show this time. I think she’s destined to be quite the imaginative little artist. She colored blocks with crayons and set them into her own design, and it’s named “Life on the Messed Up Farm with the Rapid Pink-Eyed Cow”. She won a third-place ribbon in her category.

When members had some down time, they gathered in the bedturning area to stitch together. Behind them is Vera’s quilt display, the only shot of it I got.

This is a quilt that belongs to my friend, Kay. It won third place in its category.

I quilted it for her, so I took some pictures of it as it was hanging. I had forgotten how I had quilted this, it seems so long ago!

This is another Hazel’s Diary Quilt made by my friend and fellow QQB member, Marge. Her colors are completely different from any of the others, and it has such a cozy, warm look about it. I also quilted this one for her, but the quilting doesn’t even show up.

I did get my Crayon Challenge finished in time to enter it, but I forgot to even take a picture of it hanging there!

Just me bein’ me . . .

And that’s the recap of our 2012 quilt show. I hope you’ve enjoyed the quilts!

The Three Rs

Cowboy style!

What three Rs is a cowboy concerned with?

Why, Ridin’, Ropin’, and Ranchin’, of course!

This cute little throw quilt is my current project for Riley Blake Design’s Cutting Corners College, and the tutorial is available on their site for free. Yes, free! Can you beat that?

I decided I’d like to take outdoor pictures of this quilt, and I managed to convince My Cowboy that it’d be a good idea if he would help. He graciously agreed.

He saddled up Chip, the Wonder Horse, and Blueberry, the SuperDog came along with us, and we attempted to take some pictures.

Naturally, I choose the exact moment that a thunderstorm was rolling in to do all this. Can you see it in the background? Look how dark it’s getting . . . eeeee!

And it was a tidget windy . . .

OK, a LOT windy . . .

I’m blessed that all my helpers were of the patient sort!

The entire time, Chip was seriously wondering what this was all about. Where are the cows? Why aren’t we working? Really, you want me to stand still and hold a blanket? That’s it?

And then the quilt got rained on . . .

We sorta really suck at doing photo shoots around here. But it’s all good. We really need rain!

Just as we were finishing up, curiosity got the better of a few members of the kindergarten class. They came running to see what was going on. From left to right, there’s Big Jake, Chester, Jenny, and Joe Kidd. Yes, I name all our cows and calves. What? Doesn’t everyone?

You can satisfy your own curiosity, and hop on over to Cutting Corners College and get the free tutorial. The quilt measures 60″ x 78″ finished, and it’s really easy, I promise!

Hearts, Friends, Etc.

Yesterday I blogged about finishing my January Challenge for the Modern8Create group I belong to.

Well, I have my February Challenge finished, too. I just didn’t want to show it to anyone until the recipient had seen it.

Our February Challenge was to make a heart and gift it to someone who needs it.

At the time, my friend, Stephanie, was going through some rough and overwhelming stuff (she’s a very very busy lady), so I thought she could use a heart with some encouragement, so I made this for her:

You can read more about how I made it in my post about it on the Modern8Create blog. I go into a bit of detail on how I created it.

You can read what Stephanie has to say about it HERE. She has much better pictures of it than I do, if you’d like to see other shots of the quilt.

With this project, I’m only (I think) 3 challenges unfinished. I’m doing them all, some of them just take longer than others (read: I get overzealous with the challenge). And I have finished 17 projects this year so far (on my way to my yearly goal of 100).

How’s your year going?

Are you taking on any challenges?

Inspire

I belong to an online quilting group called the Modern8Create.

We have our own group blog where we each take turns offering a challenge to each other every month, and post about the work we’re doing on those challenges.

The challenges are fun, they make me do things I’d never think of on my own, and they make me try new techniques and new ideas.

And it’s all very inspiring. Not only to work on the challenges themselves, but to see how each of the other 7 members of the group interprets each challenge as well.

In January, we were challenged to pick a word for the year, and make a quilt using our word.

It took me until February to come up with the word I wanted to use.

Then I had to actually execute the word in fabric.

But I’m finally finished with my January challenge, and here it is:

You can read more about the process and how I made it over on my post about it on the Modern8Create blog.

You can also see all the projects that all 8 of us are working on regularly. Go get inspired!