What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Mikayla’s Grace is a wonderful charity in my area of Wisconsin that supports families with a baby in the NICU (neonatal ICU) and those who experience the death of a child or pregnancy loss at hospitals in the Dane County area.

Crafters from all over make beautiful handmade baby items that they sew, knit or crochet and send to Mikayla’s Grace — from gowns, hats, and booties, to baby blankets and quilts. Several times a year volunteers meet to assemble these donations into care packages and deliver them to local hospitals to distribute.

Melissa recently sent out an email ...

This week’s challenge for Project Quilting (Season 15.5) is “wearables”. You can turn clothing into something else or “quilt-ify” something you wear or make a clothing-themed item.

Here are the normal rules, and you have one week from start to finish to meet the challenge.

• Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline.
• Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes.
• Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have ...

This week the Project Quilting 15.4 challenge is hour glass”

I knew just the block I wanted to use. Half square triangles pieced into a shimmering star. You can see the hour glass shape in the white star tips!

It was a very simple project and was cut, sewn, quilted & completely done in only an hour and a half.

After making 8 half square triangles, I added 8 squares to make 4 blocks measuring 4.5” (4” finished) each. Then I sewed the 4 blocks together forming the star (8.5”, 8”;finished). Next I simply added a 2 ...

When I saw the Challenge from Project Quilting for this week “Inside Out” the first thing I thought of was a rag quilt, or a quilt with raw seam edges showing on the right side. NOPE. (Everyone will be doing that.)

So next I looked up the phrase online. Besides the title of a new cartoon Disney movie, most posts were about how to “birth” a quilt by sewing the top & backing/batting right sides together & leaving a seam open to turn right side out to finish it instead if binding. NOPE.

Nothing else I saw or read inspired me ...

The Project Quilting challenge for this week (Season 14, #3) is “54/40 or Fight”. It’s the name for a traditional quilt block. If you’re interested to find out more about the block, it’s history, or the Project Quilting challenge, click here: Project Quilting

The challenge has to be done from beginning to end in one week. I was thinking about using the 54/40 or fight block as the center of a square table topper, making pieces wonky to make it more modern. But my heart wasn’t in it. Nothing seemed to come together.

I ...

So I haven’t painted or drawn on fabric for quite awhile now. And with the snow falling outside, I declare an official “Snow Day” … a day to relax, stay cozy indoors, and “play”.

I’ve got my Derwent Inktense 24 box of pencils, a few stiff brushes, some plain white fabric (PTD prepared for dying), freezer paper, and water/aloe vera gel/textile medium and I’m ready to play.

For those of you not familiar with these color pencils, once they’re activated with liquid and dry they become permanent. Unlike watercolor or regular color pencils, these pencils ...

When you have an idea in mind for your art quilt, often combining techniques you’ve learned along the way and a little experimentation will help you reach your goal.

My goal for this small landscape art quilt was to recreate a scene of our Capitol shown in the distance through the autumn leaves. The fall season is my favorite, and so beautiful at the UW-Madison with the variety of trees and colors. Having worked in the heart of this beautiful campus for many years, I’ve had many opportunities to view it.

So how do I begin to reach ...

So this is the last Project Quilting challenge (season 13)for 2022. As you know the challenge quilted project can be anything (from a quilted coaster to a full sized quilt) but has to be done (start to finish) during the challenge week. It’s amazing what quilters can accomplish.

I don’t have a lot of time this week, but I really wanted to make something simple so I don’t miss out on participating this week.

I used my Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) computer program to quickly design a doll quilt/table topper with a strip of flying ...

Like many of you, I can’t stop thinking about and praying for the brave people of Ukraine as they are under attack. As Lella Boutique said so beautifully in her recent blog:

“Sunflowers are powerful and relentless in their pursuit of light … It seems so fitting that Ukraine’s national flower is a sunflower. Sunflowers have become a powerful symbol of the Ukrainian people; their heart, strength, and determination to fight for the good. It’s impossible not to be inspired by their spirit. We pray for these heroic people to overcome the evil at their door. We pray ...

Normally I bind my quilts (baby quilts, lap quilts, bed quilts) using double folded straight-of-grain binding cut between 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 inches wide, folded in half (wrong sides together) and sewn on the quilt. For more info on that process, go to my blog post: How to Bind a Quilt—The Secret to Perfect Corners. Double fold is great for projects that will take need to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

But I’ve found that single fold binding is perfect for most of my smaller projects, like wall hangings, table toppers, etc. I ...

It’s the very last challenge week for Project Quilting Season 11 (2020). A big shout out to Kim Lapecek (Persimmons Dreams);and her cohort Trisha Franklin (AKA Quilt Chicken) for making this challenge possible, and for cheering us up during a very unusual and difficult time.

They couldn’t have chosen a better challenge theme “Vibrant and Vivacious”. Working with bright colors was just what we all need to distract us from all that’s going on and to help cheer us on.

I chose a border print of red poppies from my stash. So bright and cheerful, the ...

So this week’s challenge for Project Quilting is “Put a Heart on It”. I’ve been wanting to do another Lil’ Twister tool quilt AND break into a beautiful Moda charm pack I just got by American Jane called “Merry Go Round”. I love the bright & pastel spring flower-like colors.

So here goes! How do you make a Twister heart? First position all the 5 inch squares into a large patchwork quilt top, kind of in the shape of a heart. This one is 7 x 7 squares.

Sew it altogether, then add a border out of the same ...

So as you’ve heard me talk about before, Project Quilting is similar to Project Runway–you’re given a challenge & a limited period of time to make it, start to finish…but no one is voted off! It’s the creation of Kim Lapicek with her friend, Trish (AKA Quilt Chicken), and helps take the “cabin fever” out of the middle of winter here…although they have quilters from all over the world entering!

This is Season 11, Challenge 2: And the phrase is “Team Colors”. Well, I’m from Wisconsin, so of course (being football season) it’s ...

When I found out the theme of this week’s Project Quilting challenge: NOTABLY NUMERIC, absolutely nothing came to mind. Then I remembered a kit I bought at the Madison Quilt Expo a couple years ago. It’s for an advent calendar wallhanging designed by Leanne & Kaytlyn Anderson of Whole Country Caboodle.

Everything I need is in the box (except for the batting & backing).

I loved this fabric and pattern, but every year around Christmas I never seemed to get around to it. Well, now’s my chance! …even if the holidays have come and gone, I don’t mind ...