Category Archives: Patterns

Landscape Applique Class

I have been wanting to do a little art quilt of my house for awhile now.  I was thinking in terms of pieces cut and sewn together, but when Quilters Common was offering a class by Sue Colozzi featuring landscaping with raw edge applique I decided to give that a try.  The class project was a house … a standard center entrance colonial.  My house is a rather unique L shaped cape with a garage underneath.  Very 50’s!

Not to be deterred I decided to go ahead, with encouragement from Sue, and used a picture of my house for the project.  But, I needed to enlarge the picture and rearrange things a bit.  I did not want the tree in front of the house!  I started with an acrylic painting that I had done, enlarged that and then referred to a photo taken in the summer.  I had to add the squirrel, but Bob wanted me to put a car in the driveway …. of course he did!  Maybe next time.

I am happy with the result, which I think is nicer than the painting.  I work better with fabric!

Of course, I still need to take the time to finish this quilt.  The edges of each piece need to be sewn down, borders added and the whole thing needs to be quilted.  My plan is to use my embroidering method, which will mean taking the time to scan the quilt and “program” the stitches and then let my embroidery machine finish it for me!

If you decide to try this here is the method I used for fusing the shapes to the background.  I first drew the house, then I scanned the drawing and printed a  mirror image of it.  I then took a sheet of Steam a Seam 2, which is a doubled sided fusible web, and traced the shapes from the mirror image, grouping shapes by color.  Then I cut out each group of pieces and fused it to the back of the appropriate fabric.  Then I cut out the individual pieces and used the original drawing for a guide to place the pieces on the background fabric.

drawings

 

The Quilted Tote Bag

When I first started using my Quilt Frame I took yards of fabric and quilted them for practice.  Around the same time my friend’s daughter was starting college and she asked me if I would make a tote bag for her to carry books and a laptop.  I had been thinking about making tote bags with my yards of quilted fabric, and thus we have the Kerryn Bag!

The bag has pockets on the outside and more on the inside.  It has a button and tab closure which is easy to add on after you have put the bag together.  These bags have been very popular and I often get requests for them.

kerryn-bag-craftsy

inside

zipperbags

If you would like to make this bag, I will be teaching a class at Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA on September 27, 2013.  The pattern for the bag is currently for sale at Quilters Common, and also in my Craftsy store.

To make this bag you will have to use a Jeans needle and have a machine that is comfortable sewing through several layers of quilted fabric.  To make the corners of the bag you need to sew through four layers, which means 6 layers at the seams!  If your machine is happy to do that for you then you might enjoy making your own tote bag.

I usually have enough fabric for a little purse or a cosmetic bag, or both!!

 

The Lorax Plan

I have been putting a few quick quilts together to practice on my new quilt machine and I found myself at FatQuarterShop.com this morning looking at Dr. Seuss fabric panels.

I ended up putting a quick quilt plan together based on my Grinch Quilt.  I picked out the fabrics to go with the colors in the panel and once I get started putting this quilt top together I will improvise with borders around each panel block.

What I did was copy and paste images of the fabrics in a Microsoft Word document to see how everything will look together.  How do you plan your quilts?

Lorax Quilt Fabrics

Here is a picture of the Grinch Quilt.  I will use a similar approach for the Lorax Quilt.

Grinch Quilt

Pillow Talk

I wanted to show everyone how I make my pillows. These are two pillows that I made for my sister and my niece who is adopted. The quote on the pillows is very important to her!

The photos give step by step instructions for putting the pillows together. I machine embroidered the quote and trees on 12″ square backgrounds and then added 3″ borders. I made my own pillow inserts for these 18″ pillows. I hope these photos provide sufficient details. Send me a comment of contact me if you have any questions!

I also have made pillows that have a quilted front.  I just layer the front over a piece of batting and backing, then I free motion quilt the layers together.  The back of these pillows is the same as shown here with the fusible interfacing.  My Cardinal Pillow is my favorite!

Heather Ross Rocks

I love Heather’s new book, Heather Ross Prints: 50+ Designs and 20 Projects to Get You Started. This book has a CD with her art work which she is allowing you to use in your projects. You can print her designs on fabric, paper, wall paper, etc. and use these designs as you please.  What a fabulous idea … very modern;  a new innovative approach to marketing  fabric designs.  Heather has been selling her designs on Spoonflower for awhile and this is a great way to learn about designing and printing your own fabric designs.  The book has lots of projects and even a tutorial for drawing your own designs.

I have not made anything from the book, but here is a quick quilt I made from Heather Ross 10″ squares, a variation of my Cake Quilt pattern. This really is one of my favorite quilts. I love the colors together!

 

Heather Ross Quilt chairjpg

Kaffe Fassett Cake Quilt

This is what I did with 40 10″ squares of Kaffe Fassett Millefiore and Paperweight fabrics.  I did have to add a few fat quarters into the mix.

Peggy Anne’s Quilting and Sewing Company is selling packages of 10″ squares and then all you need are the fat quarters or some extra yardage to make this quilt.

I have put a pattern together with the directions which is available as a downloadable file in my little pattern store.

The quilt is 64″ x 73″ which is a nice lap quilt or a perfect size for the charity quilts that the North Parish Quilt Guild puts together for the Hole in Wall Gang Camp!  I’ll have to make one for them, and I also might put a couple of kits together for other guild members to put together.

 

The Modern Goose Quilt

The Modern Goose Quilt

This quilt is the stunning result of a challenge between Peggy Anne and me.  We were on our way to the Denyse Schmidt Pure Improv class in Nobleboro, Maine.  Peggy Anne had her book that lists all of the quilt stores in the entire country.  So we stopped at a few.  I ended up picking out some fabrics at one of the stores, and Peggy Anne decided to buy the same fabrics, so of course we had to have a challenge.  The only rule was that we could only add one more fabric with no limit on how much of that fabric you could use.  I chose one extra solid color, the brown, in the same amount as the other solid colors.

This quilt has large blocks which go together quickly, and you can achieve great precision and very little waste of fabric if you use the Deb Tucker Wing Clipper I.  I have included some pictures showing how to do the no waste method.

If you like this quilt I have put a pattern together for it and it is for sale in my Pattern Store.

We were trying to take this picture today … such a windy day, we could not get it to stay still … it wanted to fly away!

 

Applique Bird Quilt

I have finally finished my bird applique quilt!

To finish the edges of the applique I used my embroidery software to digitize the stitches to embroider around the edges of each piece.  Look for an article in Issue 17 of Bernina’s Through the Needle on line magazine to find out how to do this.

Patterns for the blue jay and gold finch appliques are for sale in my Pattern Store. I have also finished the pattern for the cardinals in the pillow.  All of the other applique designs were designed by my friend Peggy Anne, and some are for sale at Peggy Anne’s Shop.

 

hangingtree

Celebrate this Quilt

Here is a fun quilt that I made.  Please visit the Patterns for Sale page if you are interested in purchasing the pattern for this quilt.  This quilt is 49″ x 72″.