Author Archives: pmegio

Quilting Treasures

A few weeks ago I was having lunch with my Mother-in-Law at our local town lunch place. One of her friends joined us and was telling me about some “quilted fabric” she found while cleaning her mother’s place out. She asked if I would like to have it. I have to be honest; I was not too enthused, but, I said I might be able to use it for something.

A few days later Bob arrived home from dropping off groceries for Isabel with a shopping bag full of some real quilting treasures. I found fabric pieced together in the 30s waiting to be quilted!

Inside I found a 70″ x 70″ quilt top. It is a very scrappy Bow Tie block quilt. I added borders and quilted it, but still need to add the binding.

The next thing I found in the bag was a set of 24 butterfly applique blocks that had been pieced together. I was going to just add some borders and quit it up, but Colette at Quilters Common insisted that I needed to take the top apart and use the blocks to create a full size quilt. She was certain whoever made the blocks intended to make a much larger quilt.

With this thought in mind I decided to take the top apart and trim the blocks so they were all 7 1/2″ squares and use them with nine patch blocks in an Irish Chain setting. I am glad I listened to Colette, because I am falling in love with this quilt top. I still need to add the borders and quilt it, but, I have a plan for the quilting.

Since I was designing a top with the butterfly blocks I decided write a pattern for the quilt. I needed to include instructions for the Butterfly Applique Blocks, so I thought it only fair that I make a few of them myself.

I ended up with a nice little wall hanging sized quilt made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I have to thank Alice for coming to my rescue and picking out the the perfect shade of dot fabric for me. I was having a difficult time finding just the right fabrics for my nine patch blocks.

Once I get these quilts finished I will finalize the pattern and you will find it for sale on Craftsy. The pattern will include instructions for both sizes of the quilt.

But, there is one more treasure to show you. Two Sunbonnet Sue blocks were also in the bag of treasures.

I have added borders to them and will be making pillows with them …. AND I am using scraps from my projects to stuff the pillows. Save yours up and do the same thing with them!

When looking at all of these quilting treasures I see fabrics in the Butterflies and Sun Bonnet Blocks that are also in the Bow Tie Quilt top. Isn’t it interesting to have a set of projects that have more than likely been worked on by one person!

Janette’s Bird Quilt

I wanted to thank Janette for sharing a photo of her bird quilt with me. You can see that she was inspired by my bird quilt to create her own quilt with her bird fabrics.

Because Janette had an idea of how she wanted to put her quilt together before she prepared the blocks she did not end up with Y seams like I did! Sometimes a little planning makes sense even if you are improvising.

I am so happy that I was able to inspire someone with my bird quilt and would love to hear from anyone who has been inspired by my blog!

Jane I Have Not Given Up on You!

Okay, here they are! More Jane blocks.

My Jane Stickle group is concentrating on the G Row to get one entire row done. I am now about 6 months behind, so I decided to focus on those as well, rather than do them in the order assigned.

I completely hand pieced Block G8 and I am happy with the result. It was a bit frustrating at first and I concluded that I am happy the sewing machine was invented! This is not a Kaffe or a Phillip or even a Westminster fabric, but I think it works well with them. Guess I have decided to branch out and mix some other fabrics in. If I have a fabric that works I am going to use it! No one in my group seemed to notice my Kaffe Fassett/Phillip Jacobs departure, so I got away with it!

I did give hand piecing another try with G1. I thought it would be too difficult to try curved piecing on the machine because the curve seemed a bit too tight. I finished this block with the machine.

For block G7 I decided to go ahead and try machine piecing the curves and it went quite well. I pressed the pieces in half to line up the centers and pinned at the center and each side. I put the convex piece on the bottom when sewing. I only redid one of the curved seems and I actually ended up redoing that one twice!

G9 is just straight forward paper piecing and I used an Amy Butler fabric this time (at least it is a Westminster fabric!). I wanted to use this orange!

Finally, I was looking at my progress chart and double checking to see if I had everything in the right place. I found my chart had a couple of blocks in the wrong row and also discovered a block with the wrong fabric! But, aren’t I lucky because the block is D13, which is just about the easiest block you could find yourself redoing. So, I now have a red and an orange D13.

And to wrap things up I will also show you the second B12 that I made some time ago because I was not happy with my first try at reverse applique. The first is really not so bad, but I think I like the fussy cutting in the redo better.

Is this more than you ever wanted to know about my Jane blocks??

Oh!! …. in case anyone is counting I finally got 50 blocks done! WOOT WOOT!!

Two Small Commemorative Quilts

I recently made two of my small commemorative quilts.

The first one was for a Major at the Air Force Base where I previously worked. My old boss got in touch with me and asked if I would make this quilt. The color scheme is Red, Yellow and White because the Major is a Kansas Chiefs fan!

The second was for a co-worker at the EPA who has moved on. I really do like the color scheme in this one. It is very calming.

Pilgrim Roy Quilts

I finally made it to the Pilgrim Roy Quilt Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was quite exciting to see the quilts exhibited in the Museum. There are an amazing number of quilts on display and they are all amazing to see. I took quite a few photos and am sharing some of them here. But, you must try to go and see these quilts, and quickly because the exhibit is closing on July 27.

After soaking in all of the quilts I also took the time to wander over to see some of the Art of America, Contemporary Art and European Art.

Poor Neglected Jane

After many moths of neglecting my Jane quilt I finally got some blocks put together for the July meeting.

Here are each of my blocks. The Star block was a bit of a challenge, but the method we used for the center was to fold a little square in half which worked out wonderfully.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting one of the background pieces lined up correctly when paper piecing the star. After ripping out three times I grabbed a 6″ width of fabric strip, placed the paper on top off that and ran it through the machine. Plenty of room and no wasted fabric after I trimmed it … how’s that for a new paper piecing method!

Boston Modern Quilt Guild Gift Swap

Just a quick post to Thank Yvonne for the gift she sent me for the Boston Modern Quilt Guild Gift Swap. Yvonne didn’t make it to the meeting, so she sent me a box full of goodies … a perfectly crafted fabric basket for organizing things, a pin cushion that has programmed stitching which says “Patrice loves to Sew” (yes!!) and a jazzy, roomy wristlet wallet. But then there was more … the rest of the buttons used for the basket and also a bar of scented soap! Thank you, Yvonne!

And also thanks to Jenn for organizing the whole swap!

Here is another picture of the basket, which I have already put to work, along with the rest of my Goodies:

The Garden Continuum Quilt

I decided to participate in the Modern Quilt Guild’s Michael Miller Fabric Challenge. My plan was to fussy cut some blocks and then improvise from there, although I must admit my improvisation ended up taking place on my drawing pad so that I would have an idea of how much fabric I would need to surround my blocks. Does that mean it is not really improvised? Can there be no planning with improvisation? Perhaps not!

I am calling this quilt the Garden Continuum. It is 48″ x 64″. I used all 6 of the fat eighths provided and I think I made good use of them. I used 2 yards of fabric for the background and the binding, and also added about an eighth of a yard of a solid green fabric.

In keeping with the theme of the quit, I went with edge to edge swirly quilting so that the garden blocks blend in and appear to be floating in the continuum!

Aunt Lucy is Quilted

Just an update regarding my Aunt Lucy Quilt. I have finished quilting and binding her. The fun thing about this quilt is that it has a wonderful collection of Reproduction Fabrics. This was possible because I participated in a block of the month program at Quilter’s Common in Wakefield, MA. Thus I did not have to purchase one bit of fabric more than required and still got this wonderful scrappy quilt.

The quilting was a bit of an adventure for me. I printed patterns that I sized to fit the blocks and borders and used the laser light on my longarm machine to trace them. This is the second time I have turned a quilt to do the borders. I did a test run with a little panel quilt (that still needs a binding). I am happy with the results.

I found the patterns I used in this quilt in May Covy’s Follow the Line’s Quilting Designs, Volume 5, Authentic Civil War Designs and More

A different kind of Muffin

Spelt Blueberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, grease and flour 12 muffin tins.

Dry Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar or organic sugar

Blend above together in mixing bowl

Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix above together in separate bowl

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients

Stir in 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Spoon into the muffin tins and Bake at 425 degrees for 17 minutes, or 400 degrees for 15 minutes in a convection oven.

Extra milk is needed to add moisture for the coconut flour. If not using coconut flour use
2 1/4 cups spelt and only 1 1/4 cup milk.

These muffins have perfect texture and a rich flavor. The coconut flour adds fiber and the spelt flour adds the richer flavor. I love these muffins