Newest Finish: Malcolm's Quilt

I finished another long-overdue baby quilt -- thanks to HQ Pro-Stitcher.

 Malcolm is now two years old, but better late than never.

I designed this quilt about a year and a half ago. Shortly thereafter Quiltmaker magazine wanted to know if I'd done a quilt using the Churned Star block that I'd submitted for their 100 Blocks special issue. I decided to submit this design at the same time and they decided to include it in a later issue of the magazine. Here's the blog post about that quilt and here's that version of the quilt:

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Malcolm's quilt uses the fabric line Comma by Zen Chic for Moda.

I quilted it with the design Broken Glass from Wasatch Quilting.

It's a great boy's quilt design. A digital version of the quilt pattern is available from Quiltmaker Magazine.

Another Forgotten Quilt Top Finally Quilted

I finished this quilt top seven years ago. And now it is finally quilted.

I bought it as a kit in November 2008, the only time I've been to the International Quilt Festival in Houston. And I don't even like the color purple. I think I was attracted to the two background fabrics and how they both blended and contrasted with each other. I finished the top sometime in 2009.

So I needed a quilt I wasn't especially attached to to use as one of my HQ Pro-Stitcher practice quilts. This was my second go at edge-to-edge quilting. Luckily I only made one mistake -- and it isn't very obvious. (The thread broke and when I got it all fixed and started up again, I didn't pick quite the right spot. The machine quilted over a portion of the design and while it was only about a needle's width away, if you look close you can see it -- especially since it was in the border and more visible.)

Here are a couple views of the back so you can see the Ribbons design by Wasatch Quilting that I used with HQ Pro-Stitcher.

I'll be giving this quilt to my niece-in-law. She loves purples and lavenders. She and my nephew just had their third baby, Zeke. But this obviously isn't right for a baby boy. But I never finished a quilt for her second daughter, Rowan. I'll give this to her to use as she wants with her two daughters. I did make a baby quilt for baby #1, Penelope. You can see that quilt in this post. But since Penny is now in a big-girl bed, this quilt will work on that bed.

Now back to finishing more quilts! Only 33 quilt tops to go! (Yes, I really have that many tops done and waiting to be quilted.)

Emily and Jaren's Wedding Quilt

And only more than two years after the wedding.

I had one ready to quilt, only to have the bride's mother tell me that it wasn't Emily's style.

Then I made another top, only to decide I wanted it for myself.

Then I made another top. While it was laid out on my living room couch, I realized it was the first quilt I'd made that actually matched my living room. Yep, I'm keeping that one too.

But I finally picked out a quilt for them. I think it's modern enough for a couple of successful post-millennials (or Generation Z).

Uses batik fabrics, rather than something traditional. It's an original design so no one else will have one just like it. The quilt is one from my book, Triple-Play Scrap Quilting.

They seemed to like it. (I took photos of them with the quilt on Thanksgiving Day, but I can't find them on my phone or my iPad. Not sure what happened.)

Micro Quilting on a Small Quilt

Sometimes it's fun to work on a small quilt. Even though the pieces and blocks are small, I can usually finish a small quilt in only a few hours.

Add to this the fact that I love absolutely everything that Kim Diehl does, I have made several of her Simple Whatnots small quilts. And I can now say that I've finally quilted one of them.

And here's a close-up photo of the quilting. Yes, it is stippling. Or rather, micro stippling. And, yes, I like the look of stippling. (I think it's underrated.)

Kaffe Shot Cottons + Wool Batting = COZY!

I loved this quilt the first time I ran across it on Pinterest. I was lucky enough to find a kit from a online fabric shop so I didn't have to track down the shot cotton striped fabrics. Here it is before it was quilted.

And who doesn't love a log cabin quilt?

This was originally going to be for a newlywed niece when I first made the top, but I so loved the quilt and decided it had my name on it instead of hers. Plus it's not very big -- about 60 inches by 60 inches, so really not big enough for a wedding quilt. (But no worries, I finally gave Emily and Jaren their quilt on Thanksgiving and will share it in another post.)

I finally quilted the Kaffe log cabin quilt a few weeks ago. This quilt was my first one in which I used wool batting. Wow, I love how the quilt drapes with the wool batting. It was also only the fourth quilt I did with HQ Pro-Stitcher without the watchful eye of one of the Handi Quilter educators.

I've learned that it is an art to pick a digital quilting motif that complements the quilt design -- a motif that truly makes the quilt and doesn't detract from it. And I really feel that the design I chose works so well with this quilt. It's also a great example of pairing a curvy quilting motif with an angular, geometric quilt.

Of course, with the solid fabric on the back, you can appreciate the quilting motif much better. The design is one of the 1000 designs included with HQ Pro-Stitcher. It was designed by one of the HQ employees, Cathie Zimmerman. I'm sure I'll use the design again on a future quilt because it has good movement, is simple, yet very effective.

I used a neutral gray color 30-weight cotton thread that worked equally well on the front and back of the quilt.

Not that I needed another quilt for myself, but this is truly one of my all-time favorites.

 

Taking Inventory

So, do you know how many quilts you've finished? What about how many tops are waiting to be quilted? Or even how many projects (UFOs, WIPs, PIGs, etc.) are in progress? Now add in the kits and BOMs that you are hoping to get to one of these days.

Well, over the weekend I updated my inventory and now know why my sewing room is in total disarray! Here are the stats:

Finished quilts: 88 finished quilts, 27 of which were for my book Triple-Play Scrap Quilts, many were gifts to family and friends over the years, but sadly many are in piles throughout my house.

Unquilted tops: 33. This number is actually down by five over the past two weeks as I've quilted five tops since I now have HQ Pro-Stitcher added to my HQ Avante.

Kits and BOMs: 41. Now this was a shocker! My sister just started quilting. Maybe I need to share some with her.

And finally the WIPs (works in progress), UFOs (unfinished objects), and PIGs (projects in grocery bags): 20! In my defense, four of the 20 have all of the blocks done. I need only sew them together.

Now, add to this my fabric stash and I could probably make more than 150 quilts from what's in my sewing room. YIKES!

But the good news is that I am continually making progress --  whether's it's working on the underway projects or getting quilts finished. I even gave away a quilt on Saturday. A very belated baby quilt. The baby is now 2 years old.

The quilt photo above shows a close-up the quilt made with Hello Luscious by Basic Gray for Moda. I quilted it using a digital circles design by Nancy Haacke of Wasatch Quilting. I had a cone of Aurifil veriegated thread that they so generously donated to all of the attendees at Handi Quilter's Academy a couple years ago. The cone itself was kind of ho-hum. But it was fabulous when quilted! And it went so well with the fabric.

Two-year-old Piper didn't quite know what was going on, but her older sister Hadley is always ready to pose for the camera.

Here's another pic of the quilt:

The other finishes are being bound (thanks Mom!). I'll share them as I get them back from her.

I'm on a roll. Hoping to finish several more over the next few weeks.

 

Flash Sale: Triple-Play Scrap Quilting e-Book

Martingale is offering the digital version of my book for only $6 now through noon PST on Monday.

Jump over to the Martingale blog to learn all about it.

Whether you have pre-cuts for a coordinated scrappy quilt, fabrics in a particular style or color scheme for a planned scrappy quilt, or just a bunch of scraps for a make-do scrappy quilt, there are patterns that will work for you. Here are just three of the quilt variations you'll find in the book:

 Enjoy!

My Quilt in Quiltmaker Magazine

I'm so happy to share this quilt with you. It is in the current September/October 2015 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.

The quilt is named "Which way to go?" However, as I was making it and using that fabulous Tiffany blue background, I thought it should be named "Which way to Tiffany's?". If you don't subscribe to Quiltmaker Magazine, you can download the pattern here.

I even quilted this one myself (that is, with the help of the HQ studio educators and computerized quilting). I used an HQ Infinity machine equipped with HQ Pro-Stitcher. I selected a fabulous edge-to-edge digital motif by Wasatch Quilting.  I think the quilting motif works so well with the quilt. The motif is called Modern E2E 1025.

Here are some additional pictures of the quilt that better feature the quilting:

Quiltmaker magazine also featured a miniature version of the quilt, called "Spook-tacular". The blocks are half of the size of the "Which way to go?" quilt. As you can see, they used Halloween fabrics, and it turned out so cute.

 

And here's my original design. I've sewn the top, but I guess I've never taken a photo of the top since all I can find is my Electric Quilt design. I used the Zen Chic fabric line named Comma.

So, as you can see, the quilt design lends itself to all types of fabrics. And it's a great beginner quilt.

Enjoy!

The Big Book of Scrappy Quilts

I am thrilled that Martingale / That Patchwork Place has included two of my quilts in their upcoming book, The Big Book of Scrappy Quilts.

This truly is a big book! It includes 77 quilt projects, including Civil War, 1930s, modern, traditional, and country designs. And the book retails for $29.95, so that is less than 40¢ a pattern.

I am in such good company. Look at the names of just a few other Martingale authors who are included in the book: Kim Brackett, Lynn Roddy Brown, Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine, Kim Diehl, Amy Ellis, Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene of Country Threads, Joanna Figueroa, and many more.

The Martingale editors included the coordinated version of my Day's of '47 quilt. This quilt features the Salt Lake City block and was made with Cosmo Cricket's fabric line Circa 1934 for Moda. I chose a dark background for the blocks to show off the unique piecing, as well as complement the graphic nature of the prints. By using the same black cornerstone with cream sashing strips, a secondary shoo-fly design was created where the blocks come together. The pieced border also uses a triangular element from the block which helps to unite the quilt. This coordinated version of the quilt finishes 61.5 x 61.5 inches.

The other quilt in the book is the make-do scrappy version of my Bull's Eye quilt. Funny thing (to me anyway) is that this is my least-favorite quilt in my book -- and yet Martingale included it in the book as well as in the 2015 That Patchwork Quilt calendar. I guess they must have liked it. (And it definitely fits the definition of scrappy since I remember being very random when I selected the fabrics and they were all from my scrap pile!)

For what it's worth, this is my favorite version of the Bull's Eye quilt -- made with flannels.

The Big Book of Scrappy Quilts goes on sale on August 4th. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!


 

Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

I am so happy to be able to share the quilt I did for the latest issue of Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.

As you probably already know, twice a year Quiltmaker magazine assembles 100 original blocks into a special issue. I've been privileged to have a block in three of the special issues.

Well, twice a year Quiltmaker also puts together a special issue comprised of quilts made using some of the blocks from those magazines.

In the Spring 2015 issue (available today!), I was so pleased that I was able to showcase the quilt I made using my Churned Star block. the block combines a traditional churn dash with a variable sawtooth star block.

Here's the block that was featured in the 100 Blocks special issue.

When the great folks at Quiltmaker magazine invited me to make a quilt featuring the block, I already had a quilt design in mind and even had fabric set aside. They made a great suggestion for the quilt and then sent some fabric that wasn't yet available in quilt shops for me to use. It was the perfect fabric -- Feed Company by Sweetwater for Moda -- which, by the way, was from the same designer that I had chosen for my original design.

Here's the finished quilt:

It was quilted -- magnificently I must say -- by my co-worker Marie Eldredge, one of the fabulous educators at Handi Quilter. I knew that she would be able to fill all of that negative space with the perfect motifs. Quilting definitely makes the quilt!

I hope you love the quilt as much as I do.

Be sure to visit the Quiltmaker blog to see many of the other great quilts in this special issue.