Category Archives: Free Quilt Pattern

A Quilt for A Man (or anyone)

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It’s sometimes difficult to think of a quilt design to make for a man, and can be even more difficult to find fabrics that don’t seem too “girly” or cute. Leaving aside the options of fabrics featuring beer labels or half naked women, I thought muted blue and brown would be a good option.

And of course, Studio Stitch had the perfect fabric collection! Here’s the quilt:

And here’s a secret:  I used flannel (the 108″ wide backing flannel) for both the batting and the backing!  As you can see, it drapes beautifully.  An added advantage was that flannel sticks to itself pretty well, so there was no trouble with layers shifting when I quilted it.

Having made it, I wrote up the pattern for Studio Stitch. They will be offering it free with purchase. I don’t know details, so if you’re interested, go to  their website  and sign up for the newsletter and they’ll let you know.  (Newsletter signup is just below the big picture on the front page).

Have a good Thanksgiving and STAY SAFE!

It Happened This Way…

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A friend and I made Pat Sloan’s weekly blocks for her Going on a Picnic quilt. It gave us something to look forward to when the blocks came out each Wednesday and we enjoyed exchanging pictures of our blocks. Here’s my finished quilt top, though some of the blocks are NOT what Pat designed. If I didn’t like hers, I just made my own.

Meanwhile, my husband and I decided to lease a house for part-time use near where our grandchildren live. It’s a long story and not about quilting, so I’m not elaborating here. However, it came to mind that the house might not have window coverings. So all my quilt backs got packed to move in case we need temporary “curtains”.

And then I finished the quilt top, now known as “The Elvis Quilt”.

Elvis on The Elvis Quilt

There was no quilt back available, and I wanted to get it to the quilter before the moving van arrived. Therefore, I took all the leftover fabric from the quilt top and combined it with leftover pieces from a gray quilt back, and here it is.

It took all day to do this, with time out for packing, laundry, etc. Now I know why I buy the wide quilt backs. Anyway, a good quilt back is a done quilt back!

Hope you have a good week!

Two Finishes with Kaffe Fabrics

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As sometimes happens, I bought a fat quarter bundle of Kaffe fabrics for something else entirely but changed my mind.

If you’ve ever tried making a quilt with fabrics designed by Kaffe Fassett, you know that you have to choose the pattern verrrry carefully if you don’t want a hot mess.  The fabrics are beautiful in their own way, but they don’t play very well with traditional patterns or patterns requiring good contrast between pieces. Therefore, I found a pattern written specifically for Kaffe fabrics.

The pattern made a larger quilt than I wanted, so I sorted the blocks into Kaffe 1 and Kaffe 2.  Here’s the larger one:

Quilt Name:  Kaffe 1

Pattern Source:  Free Spirit Fabrics (see link at bottom of post)

Finished Size:  58″ x 70″

Quilted by: Julia Madison

And here’s the smaller one made with “leftovers”:

Quilt name: Kaffe 2

Pattern source:  Free Spirit Fabrics (see link below)

Finished size:  48″ x 60″

Quilted by: Julia Madison

It was fun working with those wild fabrics, and the pattern was fairly easy.  Here’s the source for the free pattern if you’re interested: Carnival of Color

 

New Quilt for Studio Stitch! OMG!

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OMG is One Monthly Goal,and I’m linking up.  My goal was to make a quilt from the lovely fabrics shown below, and there’s a picture of the finished quilt below as well!

It happened again!  I fell in love with these fabrics, so I’ve written another pattern exclusively for Studio Stitch.

These fabrics are from Studio Stitch

Here’s my shop sample in crib size:

The pattern is written to make it easy to set blocks on point, so if you’ve never done that, now is the time.  There’s even a little “cheat” to be sure the points don’t get cut off when you add the coping strip.

The quilt shown above is crib size, but the pattern includes four different sizes from crib to queen.  It can be made with one or more charm packs, or Studio Stitch will make you up a kit with the same fabrics used in the sample.  And yes, they can make you a kit even if you want to make a different size from the sample!

The pattern is free with a purchase from Studio Stitch; Here are the links to the kit and the fabrics used. 

Kit: click here to view

Fabrics: click here to view the fabrics used in the quilt, including more options and the charm pack that would give the quilt more variety if you prefer that.

Of course, this also would be great in seasonal fabrics for certain little people… just saying!  Hope you have a great week!

 

For a Good Time…and OMG

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For a good time, see if you can visit your local quilt shop! I was able to visit Studio Stitch last week because they are observing strict social distancing and mask guidelines, including limiting the number of people in the shop at a time. It was SO MUCH FUN to get to shop for fabric after being quarantined for 6 months!  I appreciate the care the staff are taking to try to keep everyone safe.

I should mention that I also checked the public health report and noted that COVID was trending down in Greensboro before going there.

Here’s the haul from one visit to the shop:Yes, the gray and white fabrics are metallic! And the fat quarter at the far right just jumped into my basket while my other fabric was being cut.  (Not my fault!!)

Which leads me to the OMG part.  For the first time, I am joining the One Monthly Goal challenge.  I’ve seen several blogging friends doing this for quite some time but haven’t joined up.  So, here is my OMG for September:

In September my goal is to make a quilt from these fabrics and write a pattern for that quilt.

These lovelies are from Studio Stitch, too

The pattern will be available through Studio Stitch when I finish it.  If you subscribe to their free newsletter (subscription form is about half way down their home page) you will see a picture and information on getting the pattern when the time comes. And of course I’ll show the quilt here when it’s finished!

That’s all the excitement for now.  Has anybody else been able to visit a shop in person with precautions in place?  Thanks for reading, and stay safe!

Fiddlesticks!

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I finished this quilt last month, but I’ve been doing a lot of quilting due to quarantine, so I’m behind on showing my work.  This is a scrap quilt, of course.  I’ve been seeing lots of quilts with little strips inserted on Pinterest, and finally got around to developing my own.

First, I got out all my solids, including the Grunge, and cut a 12″ square from each for background.  I planned to trim the blocks to 10.5″ after I finished inserting strips, since I have a 10.5″ square ruler 😀  No point making things difficult; let’s plan for easy!

Then I got out all my scraps and cut them into strips ranging from about 1″ to 2.5″ in width.  I made strip sets and cut them crosswise into strips for the quilt.   The inserted strips were cut in widths varying from 1″ to 2″, which of course means they finished 0.5″ to 1.5″ wide in the blocks.  I made more skinny ones than wide ones.

I just slashed the blocks at random angles.  I did slash and insert only one strip at a time. 

After I’d inserted enough strips to suit me, I trimmed each block to 10.5″ square.

Just look at the fun flower design my quilter used!

And yes, I left 3 blocks unpieced to add interest.

Quilt stats:  Fiddlesticks

Finished size: 49″ x 69″

Designed by me, based on multiple inspirations from Pinterest

Technique: Improvisation

Quilted by Julia Madison

An Easy Donation Project

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Pineapple Fabrics recently sent an email requesting blocks to be made into quilts for Brenner Children’s Hospital.  Some days I feel completely overwhelmed with making donation quilts, but this looked easy and fun.  They asked for applique pineapple blocks, using a template they provided.

Here are mine:

A couple of my quilting buddies made even more, and Chela even used Dr. Seuss fabric for hers!

Here is the link to the Pineapple Pieces Project if you are interested.  Full disclosure: these blocks were as fun and easy as they looked, I also appreciated not having to make a whole top and quilt it!

And I have donated this little art quilt of to the Studio Art Quilt Association’s annual auction.

Quarantine has provided a lot of good quilting time, though I miss getting together with my quilting buddies!  I hope you are finding benefits to enforced time at home, too.

 

Some Quarantine Fun

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I’m happy to report that at least one person used the pattern I designed for Studio Stitch and then sent me a picture of her quilt! Thanks, Judi! And here it is:

Photo courtesy of Judi Bastion

I’m always happy when readers send me pictures of what they’ve made from my patterns or classes, and Judi even found a typo for me as an extra help!  Thanks again!

Meanwhile, one of my nieces sent me a picture of a “quarantine quilt” made from this pattern:

Photo courtesy of Java House Quilts

Photo courtesy of Java House Quilts

Now seriously, people, this is the quilt to make in memory of 2020!  The pattern is available here, and they are donating part of the proceeds. 

If you don’t want to make an entire quilt, this Japanese lady has a free paper-pieced pattern for a single block:

Photo courtesy of MisoQuilty.com

Of course COVID is a serious situation, but a little laughter helps offset all the worries! 

And by the way, I’m out of elastic for masks.

Thanks for reading, and I’d love to see what you make!

2020–Yikes!

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My blogging friend Velda at Freckled Fox Quiltery  posted a while back that she is making a temperature quilt for 2020 because–what a year!  I liked that idea. I certainly feel that this year deserves to be memorialized in a quilt, but I do not want to paper piece a picture of the COVID virus, or make the quilt I designed to represent the ICU, or quilt anything else directly COVID related.  Making and wearing masks is a sufficient reminder, thanks!

In addition, Velda linked to a free pattern that I liked the looks of.

Here’s a link to the free pattern.

Any temperature quilt will require a lot of research (high and low temps for every day of the year for your location) and organization.  Here are a couple of things I learned along the way.  This pattern is clearly written and she has some good suggestions regarding fabric choice.

First, of course, I pulled fabric from my stash.  I was happy to see that I had everything I needed, since quilt shops were closed for browsing and I thought it might be difficult to order by phone. 

The colored blocks in the pattern are cut 2″ square (yikes!) so I decided to try something new to cut down on fraying.  I recently purchased a product called “Terial Magic” at A Stitch in Time.  It is a “fabric stabilizer” and has several uses.  It kind of glues the fibers in the fabric together to decrease fraying and also makes the fabric stiff.

After talking with the lady at the shop, I mixed the Terial Magic 1:3 with water and put it in a spray bottle. I will say that I was happy to have to prepare only fat quarters of the fabric, as the process was kind of time intensive.  However, the fabric came out very crisp and wrinkle free and did not fray at all when I cut it.  Actually it was easier to cut than usual.  The stuff is supposed to wash right out once the quilt is finished, and I’m trusting that it will 🙂

When I got the squares all cut and started sewing, I discovered that I had somehow tricked myself into believing there was enough contrast between these two shades of green!

Luckily there was an adequate substitute in the stash!  Here are the strips for the first quarter.  Each strip is sewn together, but I have not joined them yet.

One final hint: I cut up the January calendar page and pinned the numbers on the blocks to keep them in order until they were sewn together. 🙂

Are you making a temperature quilt?  Another quilt to commemorate 2020?

 

My Quarantine Quilt: Support Your Local Quilt Shop

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It all started when this fabric jumped on me at Studio Stitch.  (I promise I was minding my own business when it jumped on the counter to be cut.)  I love this fabric and my new policy is “Life is short, buy the fabric”.

At the same time, the scrap bin was AGAIN overflowing! I’m suspicious of what goes on in the scrap bin when I’m not looking 😉

I decided to make the scraps into strip blocks for a quilt.

When I finished the quilt, I called Studio Stitch right away and ordered more of the background fabric because it is just perfect.  It has more interest than a solid, but doesn’t fight with the overall design.

I also decided to write up the pattern and give it to Studio Stitch to use as a gift with purchase. They are working to provide things you may need from the shop, and even service for your machine, during the quarantine.  You can email them to order anything either for pickup (they’ll walk it out to your car) or to be mailed.: info@StudioStitchOnline.com.

Here’s a detail of the finished quilt.  I hope it is clear enough to show the nifty leaves Julia Madison quilted into it for me.Quarantine is a great time to get rid of a big pile of scraps!  Contact Studio Stitch if you need fabric or a Tucker Trimmer II, which was useful for this quilt.  And please send me a picture of what you make!

And yes, I’m still making masks, as I’m sure you are, but we need fun and we need to support our favorite shops, too 🙂