Category Archives: Quilt Design

Great Blocks, OK Quilt

Posted on by
6

Last year’s Block of the Month (BOM) at Studio Stitch was a series of complex hexagons made with the Jaybird Quilts rulers. You can read about the woman who designed this way to make them in my earlier post here.

I enjoyed making the blocks and most weren’t very difficult with the use of the rulers and Justiann’s good instructions.

They looked great when I put a few up on the design wall to view them together.

It was my intention to make the quilt using the Kaufman Effervescence fabric, like Holly did here:

Quilt (c) Holly Alloway, designed and made by her

The fabric was ordered by the shop months ahead of time, but it still hadn’t arrived when the BOM classes were finished. I auditioned several other fabrics and finally settled on black and white with metallic accents. Here’s the finished quilt. (There were several blocks left over.)

I’m not crazy about it. In this instance, I think my choice of secondary fabrics does nothing to enhance the blocks. However, a done quilt is a good quilt so I’m on to the next project.

Had any quilts like that lately?

A New Donation!

Posted on by
11

A friend called recently to say that a local charity wanted a quilt to decorate their new office space. I sent a couple of pictures and they were enthusiastic but thought maybe they wanted both quilts! Eventually someone came over to look at some options since both the pictures I sent were very much alike; I didn’t think they’d want two quilt so similar. Of course I was thrilled that somebody wanted my quilts!

The charity is Backpack Beginnings, a local organization whose mission is to give “food and basic necessities directly to children in need” and to connect their families to appropriate community resources. I like the fact that they have a “market” where families can “pick out their own groceries and supplies”.

Anyway, back to the quilts. The Backpack Beginnings representative selected these two quilts to decorate their new space, and I couldn’t be happier that someone actually requested a donation!

This first quilt, 48″ x 48″, is a modification of a pattern by Brigitte Heitland. I made it in 2022 and quilted it using the QAYG method.

The second quilt has been around a long time! I made it for Modern Quilts Unlimited back in 2014 and quilted it myself. Finished size is 47″ x 57″. It’s one of my favorites, so I’m glad it will be displayed.

Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine

Just FYI, if you’re local, Backpack Beginnings has the quilts they need now, but they still need volunteers!

More Orphan Blocks

Posted on by
11

First, I found this on the blog from Frances Arnold, a fellow quilter as you can tell:

How true!

And the same seems to be true of orphan blocks. Here’s the box with mine, despite my having made multiple quilts from them recently.

Here’s the latest top made from orphan blocks. It will go (eventually) to Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses.

Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″

And here are a few more made from orphan blocks.

Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.

But look back up at that full orphan box. I think orphan blocks must follow the same rule as scraps!

What do you do with orphan blocks?

Another Fun Pattern

Posted on by
11

Every once in a while I find a fabric I just MUST buy. Then it can be a challenge to decide how to use the fabric to highlight the reason I love it. I recently used the BQ2 pattern for a couple of these fabrics and I like the way it worked out.

The first fabric I just “had to have” is Wild Blossoms by Moda. Here’s a picture from the Moda site. It may not be clear on my blog, but you get the idea. It’s an ombre print across the width of fabric.

I modified the dimensions of the blocks in the BQ2 pattern because I had exactly one yard of the feature fabric, and here’s the final quilt.

The second “must have” fabric was this cat print designed by Chong-A Hwang, whose designs I frequently admire.

I had enough of this fabric to make a twin-sized quilt for one of our guest beds. I hope the guests like cats!

I recommend this pattern for big prints you want to show off. The pattern is well written and the blocks are big so the quilt is quick to make. I’ll probably be using it again.

Anybody else out there have favorite patterns?

On to 2024!

Posted on by
22

Having reviewed my faves from 2023, I’m looking at plans for 2024.

First: My MQG is having one of those UFO challenges where you pick one each month, so I’ve made a list and started that. The current project is cutting up some of the orphan blocks, shown here…

…and making them into different blocks. Some are on the design wall here:

Who knows where that will go!

Second, having enjoyed the Bloem pattern by Libs Elliott, I’m making her pattern La Fin Du Monde.

Next up will be some map quilts. I took Timna Tarr’s map class via Creative Spark in 2022 and have been enjoying my experiments since.

It’s time to actually finish some of those map quilts…

And speaking of map quilts, I’ve been facing these and hanging them as usual, but the Chief Consultant (AKA husband) thinks they need to be framed. I’m considering adding borders to frame them, or mounting them over stretched canvas (still without a frame). Or maybe a poster frame? Or maybe just stay with the facing.  Anybody have an opinion?

One more thing I’d like your help with: I’m on the program committee for one of my guilds. Has your guild had any outstanding programs you can recommend? We are in Greensboro, NC, and we need either someone nearby or someone who presents via Zoom in order to stay within our budget. I’d appreciate any ideas.

 

Personal Favorites from 2023

Posted on by
15

Here are my personal faves of the quilts I made in 2023.

This is my version of the Bloem pattern by Libs Elliott. I think I showed in-progress photos but forgot to show it once it was finished!

I made this from a panel I just had to have. I especially enjoyed making the balloons and trees the opposite of each other.

This is made from Rachel Hauser’s Oodalolly pattern, which I’ve admired for years.

Swedish Sunrise is one of several quilts I’ve made with a sunrise theme. When It’s art we call it “working in series” rather than “perseveration” 😀

I made “St. Agatha in Venice” to use this beautiful print fabric.

Yes, it’s being held out a window by hand, so the picture isn’t as nice as the ones taken by the magazine folks!

The Tilda fabrics are beautiful, but so similar in value that they needed structure when they were all mashed together.

The “Wish” pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew was perfect for a Quilt of Valor

“Mod Owls” made a good teacher gift because the mascot at my grandsons’ school is an owl

Aha! Orphan blocks can be cut up to make new blocks, as I did with my Giant Circles quilt, here

Next post will be the “on to 2024” edition 😀

Dreamlines: A Year-Long Project Finished

Posted on by
16

I learned of Brenda Gael Smith’s Dreamlines project from a fellow blogger and signed up early in 2023.  It’s a free monthly art project that has had international participation, and I’ve enjoyed it. Here are my pieces from all the months sitting on the design wall so I could think about what to do with them.

I accidentally made one month’s project in the larger size, but I figured that would be OK.

The plan for November was to finish the piece, and here’s mine.

I left out some of the pieces I’d done, cut one of the big pieces in half, and added some solid strips. I quilted it with horizontal lines in threads to match the various pieces.

You can go to the Dreamlines Gallery on Brenda’s site and look at the variety of finished pieces from around the world. It’s really fun to see the variety of compositions and all the different places where people participated.

I’ll be watching to see if Brenda offers a project for next year, because I enjoyed this one. She also offers some online classes and a friend who took them says they are good.

Electric Quilt, and Why I Use It

Posted on by
12

I’ve been using the quilt design software Electric Quilt (EQ) since the EQ5 version. I’m now using EQ8, so it’s been a few years. OK, quite a few.

All the drawings in this post were done with various versions of EQ.

I love EQ for several reasons:

  • I like to design my own quilts. At first I didn’t have many ideas, so I just combined the blocks provided by EQ in various ways. There are almost endless possibilities. Here’s where I re-drew Arkansas Crossroads to see how it would look with a scrap slab center.
  • Once a quilt is designed, it can be exported as a JPEG to share with friends! That’s how I got the pictures in this post from EQ to the blog 😀 Here’s one from 2007:
  • I can fiddle endlessly with various layouts, block sizes, colors, etc, etc. before deciding how I want to do a quilt. Here are a few options I considered for a doll quilt for a friend.
  • When the instructions in a pattern don’t work out, or the size of the quilt doesn’t suit me, I can draw the quilt in EQ and try out various solutions. Here’s a block I re-drafted after the instructions in the pattern didn’t really work. And by the way, I was able to print templates straight from EQ in the desired size once I got it re-drafted.
  • AND on top of all that: the block above was colored with my actual fabric because I was able to scan the fabric into EQ, scale it, and then fussy cut the block center from it!
  • It’s possible to make everything from simple to elaborate designs.
  • EQ gives me an estimate of the yardage needed for a quilt. It does over-estimate a bit, but of course that’s waaaay better than underestimating! So, for example, I drew this quilt and then decided what size I could make it based on how much fabric I have. I can change the size of the blocks until the quilt fits my yardage!
  • I just like to draw things in EQ for fun. Here’s a tile floor I photographed in a restaurant and then drew in EQ. No way would I make this, but it was fun to draw. The asymmetry shown was indeed in the floor from which I copied the design.

There are sooo many other things I love about EQ! I’ve just taken the on-line classes to learn to use it better and they were very helpful.

And finally, the folks at EQ provide wonderful customer service. A friend and I both failed to figure out how to draw the quilt below in EQ. I emailed tech support about it and Heidi drew it for me! She also sent a link to a lesson on how it was done 😀 That’s great customer service!

I get so much use out of this program! Have you tried it?

PS: No, this is NOT a sponsored post! But here’s the link if you want to learn more about EQ8: ElectricQuilt.com  

The EQ folks have a video program for guilds, too. Don’t know about you, but we’re always looking for program ideas.

Eeeek! Another Start!

Posted on by
18

OK, so the Bloem quilt is off to be quilted and I thought of the other pattern I got at Five Little Monkeys. It’s on the right below. (That’s Bloem on the left.)

I had some strips of Kaffe [2.5″ strips of fabric by the designer Kaffe Fassett] and no intention of following most of the instructions on the pattern, so I just started.

I usually reserve Kaffe fabrics for quilts designed by him, or at least for modern quilts. I did think this design modern enough for them to work, but then…

Those are interesting blocks, but they don’t much hang together. It might have been a good idea to follow some of the pattern’s instructions about color placement. And maybe cut back a little on the Kaffe.

To be continued 😀

And not to worry; if there aren’t a few mistakes I’m not stretching my skills enough!

What’s your latest experiment?

 

Fall Classes

Posted on by
8

Studio Stitch has published the fall class list. Of note for those of you with embroidery modules, there are some new embroidery classes that look like fun.

For quilters, here are the classes I’ll be teaching!

In September it’s basic binding. This is something many quilters struggle with and I promise to make it easier.

Also in September I’m teaching a class to rescue some orphan blocks! As I’ve mentioned, I have a lot of those and I suspect other quilters do, too. Here’s the quilt for the class:

And note that the blocks do not have to be all the same size/shape/etc. We have work-arounds!

In October I’ll be teaching two quilts (but at different times!). The first is Weathervane. There’s a kit for Weathervane available at Studio Stitch or you can just bring the pattern (also available at the shop) and your own fabric. (There’s a discount on the class if you’re using the kit from the shop, plus of course you get 15% off the kit since it’s for a class. Just sayin’–double discount!). This is a good quilt for perfecting your half square triangles.

Then later in October I’m teaching Wish, a pattern from which I made this Quilt of Valor.

There are fun classes by other teachers as well. You can hop on over to the shop’s website to check them out.

If you’re local I hope to see you soon!