What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Ya’ll, the Ocean Friends top is complete. Oh my! I am thrilled. This sucker was a lot of work. Months of thinking, graph paper, erasers, sewing, resizing, move this, change that…wait something is missing. You get the point. That’s just how it goes without a pattern. It felt very very improv. Well, at last…it’s time to baste and quilt. Yay!

Ocean Friends, finished top.

I found inspiration for these blocks online, but created patterns myself using graph paper. I’m happy to share those with anyone interested. Just ask. Better pictures to follow once the ...

I haven't had a lot of sewing/quilting time so far this week. I have the giant green dye order to focus on. But I've had some time in the evenings to do a little prep work.

I'm planning 2 projects. One will use the pastel fabrics from this post. I've looked at my options for the second quilt and I've decided that it's time to deal with some ugly fabrics. So from here on the two projects will be called the "pretty quilt" and the "ugly quilt". Whether or not the ugly quilt ...

I’m super excited to announce that I’m in the process of designing and testing patterns for two beautiful large quilts and a baby quilt.

One thing I’m not always particularly talented at is mixing fabrics from different lines and the Fat Quarter Shop Blogger’s bundles has helped me fill up my stash with beautifully sets of fabrics that pull from multiple designer lines. These combinations are beautifully coordinated without being matchy-matchy and I had a hard time finding patterns and quilt designs that would suit these fabric sets. That’s why I set out to build ...

Last night I was honored to present a lecture and trunk show  at the Mid Michigan Quilters’ Guild in Mt. Pleasant MI.   It was so much fun to share what I do with such a great group!

Thanks to everyone for such a great evening! ( and delicious treats!….I was particularly fond of the rhubarb!) I hope to see you all again. I have 200-300 more quilt tops to finish so It will be a new show in a year.

Back to work on this one

Happy Quilting

Tim

I am so excited about this project!!  A group of seven wonderful quilting friends have decided to do a Travelling Quilt Bee.  What is that, you say?  Well, each of us starts a quilt top, in their own style/colors.  The piece is then mailed to the next person on the list, who adds to it,  adhering to the general feel of the quilt but adding their own flair.  In the end, a finished quilt top is returned to you, passed from friend to friend and made with love- the ultimate Friendship Quilt!

We have named the project "Quilt Journey ...

Sewing the binding to the quilt is rather easy, just follow along the edge.  The corners are tricky, but not too hard once you know the secret.  Remember that quilting is based on accuracy and precision, and your binding should be that way too.  See Part One on How to Make Bias Binding if you missed it.  Or click on the Tutorials category on the right sidebar to see all my tutorials.

Begin by laying out your binding loosely on the quilt, do this on the floor if necessary.  You want to be sure that where you start will not ...

Work-in-Progress - Where am I, Where am I going

Several goals have been reached in the last two months. Yippee!

So why do I feel like I am behind?  Could it be that the list of WIPs is too long. Affirmative. Correct. Yes. You got it.  :-)

So, looking at the photos (top to bottom) the status is:

• Twisted log cabin is pieced, but not quilted.
• Table runner is pieced & quilted. One side of the binding is attached.
• Radiance Star wall hanging is pieced, quilted and one side of the binding is  done.
• Sample baby quilting is pieced & quilted. One side of ...

I’ve been feeling rather lethargic this week, and I’ve ignored my sewing machine since I finished all of the flying geese. Which, speaking of…

I have all of the remaining blocks back… and I LOVE it!

Last night I had the sudden urge to sew.  Luckily I’ve had a baby quilt basted for quite some time, and it was great just to knock it out!  Sometimes simple sewing is the best.

Before I knew it, it was quilted.

And now I’m ready for binding!

I need to keep a store of baby quilts so that I ...

<— this was really cool. The first time I was published in International Quilt Festival Quilt Scene.

<—— this is just as cool

this is a close up of the masthead of the May/June issue of Generation Q Magazine.

This still feels kind of surreal and cool.
visit Tracy visit Megan

And next month I actually get to meet them. Just color me pink and call me auntie!

Happy Quilting!

Teri

Hi Friends, sooooo… you aren’t quite ready to think about Frosty after the looong winter we have had.  I totally understand that.  Trust me — I know, ha!  You can definitely file these free patterns away for the future… but since Fun With Frosty is one of the April fabric lines released by Quilting Treasures, I thought I will go ahead and share the free patterns with you in case you want to stock up on the fabrics while they are still current.

The Quilt:

The Runner/Banner:

Click here to view the entire fabric range.

Click here to download ...

Well, Typepad had another day of problems so I'm late posting. More importantly, no appliances failed today! I'm considering the day a complete success.

Today I'm finally reporting on the kitchen floorcloths. These things took FOREVER. Hopefully they will last forever too because I'll never make decoupaged fabric floorcloths again......as long as I refer to this post before I try to start a new project. But if I ever mention it I would greatly appreciate one of you commenting to remind me not to do it.

Even though they were a total PITA to make ...

Guess what I have been working on for the last few months?  …I am very proud I haven’t said a peep until now.

I am designing a Block of the Month program in collaboration with Island Batik!

I am calling this quilt Tiputini because of all the gorgeous butterflies that inspired me so when we were at the Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station in Ecuador last summer.

The project (drawing, designing, selecting fabric and thread, sewing) has been in the works since around Christmas time, and I am FINALLY done with the quilt top.

The quilt features 12 elegant butterflies ...

I’ve discovered a great way to organize my bobbins with my thread via Pinterest.  If you haven’t seen it before, let me share it with you.

Grab your thread, bobbin, and a medium-size rubber band.

Slip one end of the rubber band through the hole in your bobbin…

Pull both loops around your spool of thread and slip one end into the other end.

Then pull on the innermost loop and pull it back around the spool and over the bobbin to lock it in place!

And voilla!  It’s organized with the same color thread and it ...

Remember from my recent post about the new book out from Interweave, Sew Fun by Deborah Fisher?

I was feeling inspired to make a family quilt based on Deborah Fisher’s community quilt in the book. Last week the chance presented itself. Patrick had a late meeting out of town and I got to pick up all the girls from school and daycare.

Now, it isn’t hard to get my girls to sit down and draw. They do it pretty much every day all on their own. But I wanted to create a cozy atmosphere around the making of ...

Happy Easter Week to everyone!    Here are my Easter finishes. They were all fun and easy to make.

Yes…the border is coming along. I am going to post some time lapse photos so you can see the progress. I have the center sections and the left sides complete. Here is the progress to date beginning with the photo I took initially:

Center sections of borders complete.

Left side sections of borders complete.

It sure has been a long tedious process…but I feel it will be done soon. The right sides remain. Although, I do have all the pieces ...