Category Archives: Quilts

Progress!

I have made some progress on two quilts in the last week or so.

I finished my Midnight in Bali quilt top and have quilted it. I used an edge to edge pantograph called Big Leaf which I think suits the batik fabrics. I have taken photos of it, but I must admit that I still have not attached the binding! I promise I will finish this quilt! I have the binding cut out, but wanted to get outside and take photos in the snow before it melts … it is Spring, the snow must melt!

I also put a quilt top together with the Lorax panel. It might be a bit too abstract? But, I do like it. I have a perfect panto for this one, too. It is called Zephyr, but it reminds me of the Truffula trees!

Ocean Wave Quilt Top

A few years ago I had the idea to look at quilt tops on eBay. I was thinking in terms of practicing my quilting without taking the time to put a quilt top together. Not a bad idea, since you might even be able to buy one for less than the cost of the fabric it takes to make a quilt top. But, the tops that caught my eye were older tops. Quite a bit older! I ended up bidding on and winning this turn of the 19th century quilt top.

I was quite surprised when I received it. I did not truly understand how old the quilt top was when I bid on it and felt like I had one a prize! The woman who sold it to me said it was from an estate sale and she knew nothing more about it. I realized that I could not risk quilting it. I did add borders and a backing to the top to stabilize it. But, if I bought this top today I would just lay it on top of a piece of cotton batting to keep the seems more stable.

This got me started researching old quilts and fabrics. I enjoyed reading The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950 by Roderick Kiracofe. I read the book cover to cover! And I also have a copy of Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800-1960, by Eileen Jahnke Trestain.

I now have a few more antique and vintage quilt tops. I tend to quilt the tops from the 30’s, but not the ones from the 19th century. They are too fragile for that.

These old quilt tops always intrigue me. I wonder at the beautiful fabrics and all of the hand stitching that went into them. I am inspired by the designs and the use of colors. I really do enjoy them!

Midnight in Bali BOM

I am working on finishing a Block of the Month quilt from last year. This one was with Quilters Common in Wakefield, MA. I have finally gotten the blocks and center medallion sewn together and now all I have to do is add the borders. The pattern is from Beyond Tradition by Pamela Culo.

Here is the top with the Borders waiting to be added. I think the finished top will look spectacular.

This was one of those BOMs where you would get the kit free each month IF you completed last month’s BOM … which motivated me to get them done. I also made a commitment to make a second block each month using reproduction fabric. My motivation for this was all the ewws and ahhs that I got from my fellow BOMers each month!

Bouquet WIP

I have finished the Bouquet Quilt. I used Kaffe Fassett Russian Rose for the binding. I am very happy with this quilt!

I machine sew my bindings. This is a modern quilt done by machine. My thinking is why stop using the machine when you are finishing the binding?

The binding was first sewn to the front of the quilt, then I stitched along the edge of the binding on the back of the quilt with my edge foot. I used a dark gray thread for the top thread and a tan thread in the bobbin, which is less visible on the top of the quilt. Sometimes I sew the binding to the back of the quilt and roll it to the front and sew along the edge on the front of the quilt.

From January 27, 2013:

Here is an update on the Bouquet Quilt. It has been so cold lately that I have been happy to stay in the house working on this quilt! I finished quilting it yesterday. All it needs now is the binding!

Posted January 20, 2013:

Yesterday in the mail I received 3 yards of new Kaffe Fassett fabric: ocher palm fan, blue field bouquet, and red suzani. I was a bit disappointed because the yard of field bouquet was not cut correctly. Whoever was cutting it just was not taking in the entire yard and seeing that it really is a panel and not regular yardage. If cut correctly you will get 12 bouquet blocks. Four of the blocks in my yard had been clipped off on one end, with just a sliver of four more at the other end of the yard.

What to do about this? Lemonade from Lemons. I do have 12 blocks, but four of them are different with wider borders than the other 8 blocks. I think this will make the quilt more interesting!

If the fabric had been cut correctly I would have said “how pretty” and added it to my stash … but I had to spring into immediate action to save this fabric!

Here are photos of some of the blocks. The sashing will be a gray Moda fabric which will add a rich tone to this quilt.

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?

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

Little Logo Quilts

Here are a few photos of small quilts that I made to be given as gifts to commemorate a significant event, such as a retirement or joining the military.

These little quilts are easy to make and enthusiastically received.

EPA Quilt

Air Force Joint Stars Quilt

Air Force AGSSD Quilt

Here is one that I made for someone joining the Marines which has been framed and was given for a Christmas gift.

The center of each quilt is a logo that is printed on fabric. I have been using EQ Printables Inkjet Fabric Sheets. They cost $3.00 per sheet so you really want to print on regular paper first to be sure you have the page set up correctly before using one of your printable fabric pages!

Just the Quilts, please!

Just a quick overview of the quilts that have been presented in this blog.

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!

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

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!