Category Archives: Quilting

Swedish Sunrise

Posted on by
19

I first mentioned this quilt when I spent a lot of time cutting squares of very particular colors for the Postcard From Sweden pattern. (Here, if you want to read that post.)

Photo is from the front of the Postcard From Sweden pattern

My arrangement of colors originally cut for the Postcard From Sweden pattern

After cutting all the squares and looking at the layout in the pattern, I decided to change it up. I put more of the blue at the top, green at the bottom, yellow in the middle, with the idea of imitating a sunrise.

I made a quilt with a similar idea a couple of years ago. I chuckle about it because some people call it “perseveration” when you repeat an idea like this, but if you’re an artist it’s called “working in a series” 😀

Here is the previous quilt:

Sunrise, 75″ x 50″

And here are some close-ups of Swedish Sunrise.

Quilt Stats

Name: Swedish Sunrise

Finished size: 61″ x 76″

Designed and made by me, using the colors suggested in the Postcard From Sweden pattern

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

 

Anniversary

Posted on by
13

Back at the beginning of June I marked (or failed to mark in print) the 10th anniversary of my blog.

My blogging friend Andrea recently reviewed her stats and noted her most popular posts. I almost never look at my stats because I’m writing this for fun, not for fame, but I liked her idea. So because of her I’m going to review several things I found interesting when looking at my stats.

First up: Where in the world are my readers? One of the things I love about blogging is the opportunity to exchange ideas with people I’m unlikely to encounter otherwise. Not surprisingly, most of my readers are in the U.S., followed by Canada, Australia, and the U.K. generally. After that there are a number of European countries, other English-speaking countries, and some countries I never heard of!

A blogging friend in South Africa wrote about her borage, so I planted some and it’s beginning to bloom! The circle shows a little hitch-hiker I found on the plant.

I have had no readers from Greenland or most of the countries in the African interior.

Pinterest and the WordPress app itself are the most frequent source of viewers. I know people often click on pins (Pinterest) from my blog because of the pages on which they land when visiting me. Many visitors come to this post I wrote years ago about Jo Glover, one of the original Big Stitch quilters. I expect it’s because of the pictures of some of her work, including this one:

Some Big Stitch quilting by Jo Glover

As for other popular posts, of course many people visit the home page and About Me pages. Another frequently-viewed post is about AQS Quilt Week in Chattanooga in 2016, possibly also because there were so many quilts from there added to Pinterest.

But the thing I enjoy most about blogging, regardless of stats, is encountering other quilters and their ideas. I’ve only met one blogging friend in person, but I’m hoping to meet others one of these days.

Laura visited in 2021 and was the first blogging friend I met in person.

In looking at some of these older posts, I’m surprised to see how long I’ve been exchanging comments with some of these friends. Some blogging friends have disappeared, to Instagram or otherwise, and I’m sorry to see them go. I did finally subscribe to Instagram just so I can see what’s going on with my friend Chela (colchas_y_mas), but it isn’t really a habit yet. And I’m pretty busy, so maybe it never will be. I did manage to post one picture so far 😀

Based on this review, I have a suggestion for friends who are trying to get more traffic to their blogs: Post your stuff on Pinterest. And I have it on good authority that your blog can be sent over to Instagram. I haven’t figured it out yet, but that might drive traffic to your blog as well.

I’m just happy to have met so many people through my blog, regardless of traffic in general. And to all my followers and commenters, THANKS!

Two Quilts

Posted on by
10

I mentioned last week that I had forgotten to blog about my improvisational quilt, so here’s the whole story.

Last summer I took part in an improv quilt-along hosted by Shannon Fraser Designs. I made a bunch of blocks in response to her prompts.

Eventually, I used my signature little black strips to combine them into a final design.

And then I forgot to blog about the finished product. So here we go:

Quilt Stats

Name: Improv 2022

Finished size: 42″ x 57″

Designed, and made by: me, in response to improv prompts from Shannon Fraser Designs

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

More recently I made another raid on the scrap drawers and put together this top.

It’s from an old book from Cozy Quilt Designs, entitled Strip Clubbing: Fast and Easy Quilts with 2 1/2″ Strips. I was pleased with the pattern and directions. Instructions were such that every one of those seams nested!!! How great is that? Because of that, almost all of those intimidating-looking intersections were close to perfect! Woo!

This is only about 36″ square, so it will be a donation quilt to cover a premie incubator at a local medical center. If you’re interested in the book, your best bet probably is a used book site like Abe Books. Sure it’s available new, but it’s old enough that there are plenty of used copies out there at a fraction of the price.

Have a good week!

 

 

Tilda, and a Forgotten Finish

Posted on by
16

A few months ago I was caught by the Tilda craze. The fabrics were just too beautiful to leave in the store, so an assortment came home with me.

Turned out they were all medium values.

I played with various options and finally decided to use my little inserted strips to bring some definition to the blocks. I’ve used these strips for years to add structure to various quilts.

And inserting this picture reminded me that I probably never blogged about the quilt shown above. More later.

Now back to Tilda: the little strips helped the individual blocks, but more was needed.

I inserted big strips to make the whole quilt echo the individual blocks.

And that’s it for the Tilda quilt.

Quilt Stats:

Name: Tilda

Finished size: 64″ x 82″

Designed and made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

And now a full view of the quilt I made from improv blocks done last year:

 

Quilty Road Trip!

Posted on by
10

I recently joined some friends for a visit to Ohio Amish Country. It was great being together, and we ate at some yummy restaurants. Of course we also visited a number of quilt shops! Here are a few of the highlights in case you’re over that way.

We stayed at a nice Air BnB in Berlin, within walking distance of downtown with good restaurants and shopping. We soon learned that the name of the town is pronounced BUR-lin, not like the Berlin in Germany.

Our best food probably was at Rebecca’s Bistro in Walnut Creek. They serve only breakfast and lunch, but it was delicious. Most of the rest of our meals were in restaurants with traditional Amish fare. One of our party had a plate of mashed potatoes with noodles, chicken, and gravy. A couple of us had a delicious salad with chicken and strawberries. Various roast meats with mashed potatoes and gravy looked good, too.

There were many nice quilts to view in the shops. Here’s one of my favorite panel quilts, but I don’t recall which shop it was in!

And look at this beautiful hand quilting done by some local Amish ladies!

We saw a group of these ladies working at a big quilt frame in one of the shops, but of course did not take a picture of them. One of our group who had been struggling with hand quilting sat with them for a while and they were generous about giving her some pointers!

There was some shopping for “antiques” as well, though I don’t think anyone bought anything. There were too many other ways to spend money!

Finally, there were wonderful bakeries everywhere, so we were “forced” to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

I would go back just for the cinnamon rolls.

 

Daisy Aschehoug Workshop

Posted on by
11

A friend and I were lucky enough to attend a “giant circles” workshop with Daisy Aschehoug when she was in the U.S. recently. Daisy is from the U.S. but married a man from Norway, and they eventually decided to move their family back to Norway. She is taking full advantage of living in Europe, teaching in various countries and having exhibitions all over the place. What an adventurous lady!

Anyway, after teaching at QuiltCon, Daisy agreed to come to North Carolina to teach a workshop and give a lecture, and I attended both. I showed a couple of her samples previously, but here are some more.

These circles finish 24″ in diameter–she isn’t kidding when she says giant circles!

Finally, here is my finished quilt:

 

Quilt stats:

Name: Giant Circles

Finished size: 68″ x 56″

Designed and made by: me, using templates designed and made by Daisy Aschehoug

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

This is one of my faves so far this year! And I recommend Daisy’s workshop if you have a chance to take it.

Off to Ronald McDonald House

Posted on by
18

If you’ve been wondering what I DO with all the quilts I make, you’re not alone!

Made from the “Tilted Tiles” pattern by Charles Cameron for the MQG

I’ve been holding a number of quilts for some programs I did on scrap quilting, but those are finished now so these quilts are off to Ronald McDonald House. The larger ones are for patients and families at the house; the smaller ones are sent to the NICU to put over incubators.

Made from Tula scraps because I always wanted to make a quilt that looked like the squares overlapped

Modification of the “Turning Twenty Again” pattern made crib size

Modification of a pattern by Sherry Shish

My arrangement of the “disappearing 9 patch” blocks

From a pattern by Sherry Shish

Quilt I designed to use a layer cake. No pattern available.

My arrangement of scrappy HSTs

scrap quilt

Scrap quilt made with strips that finish 1″ wide; no pattern available

Modification of something I saw online; no pattern available

My original design for a crib-size quilt; no pattern available

Modification of a design in “Jump Into Patchwork and Quilting” by Sarah Ashford

My husband said, “Those are some really nice quilts you’re giving away”. Yes, they are; I do not make quick versions of quilts for donation, nor do any of the people with whom I work on donation quilts.

Consider the quilts that have come to light recently after having been sent to the UK during World War II. I think they were valued for their usefulness, but also for their beauty in a difficult time.

Will our donation quilt be worth saving that long? I do want them to be used, but I hope they are beautiful enough to be cared for as well.

Some Fun Hexies

Posted on by
20

This is one of those patterns that just looked like fun, so I made it. And it was fun. I’ve made Sassafras Lane designs before and the patterns are well written and clever.

Above is the “A side” (if you’re old enough to remember what that means), below is the B side. After I made the blocks with printed fabric I decided solids would be better, so I made blocks with solids and used them on the front. Since I DO NOT need any more orphan blocks, I made a back from the “leftovers”.

And I’m happy to say the longarm quilter found a hexie pattern for quilting it!

Quilt Stats

Name: Hexie Party

Finished size: 55″ x 62″

Pattern by: Sassafras Lane

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

Leaf Pounding Party

Posted on by
17

I learned about “leaf pounding” to make prints on fabric in a workshop years ago. I never did much with it, but I did finally hand quilt one piece.

And this next one is even bound!

This gave me the idea that I could have some co-workers over and we could all pound leaves. So here we go…

Everybody brought a variety of leaves

We arranged them on PFD (prepared for dye) fabric

Then taped them to the back of the fabric and pounded the front side

Results varied!

The Japanese Maple leaves came out very well

And, especially toward the end, it was sometimes more fun to make a secondary pattern with hammer marks than to pound the whole thing

Finally we had cookies…and a veggie tray?!?

Have you tried leaf pounding? There are, of course, multiple youtube videos on how to do it. What worked for you?

P.S. – I am making a quilt for the December/January issue of Quick + Easy Quilts using these beautiful fabrics from Robert Kaufman.

So watch for that issue to come out with my quilt in two colorways–this red/green/gold plus a blue/white/silver version!

City Park: A Panel Quilt

Posted on by
12

This quilt started when I saw the central panel at Studio Stitch and it was just too pretty to leave there. It’s actually yardage, not sold as a panel, but of course can be used as a panel.

The fabric is Robert Kaufman “Happy Place”, so I consulted the website of the manufacturer for design ideas. One of their designers had made a wall hanging from this fabric, so that was a good starting place. The trees and balloons were inspired by Jen Kingwell’s “The Avenue” pattern, though I used my own templates rather than hers.

I love the way the print fades from vibrant at the bottom to ethereal toward the sky, so I added additional striped sky. I then put balloons in the sky, with their silver tape strings hanging down into the house area.

Finally, I put a strip of coordinating fabric from the collection on the left side of the panel to balance the design.

Hopefully you can see the lovely bubbles used to quilt the piece. Quilting was done by Linda Nichols. I love this cheerful quilt.

There are a lot of beautiful panels out there now, so I’ll offer a class to “design your own quilt using a panel” at Studio Stitch in June.

Quilt Stats

Name: City Park

Finished size: 56″ x 58″

Designed and made by me, with inspiration from the Robert Kaufman website

Materials: Happy Place fabric by Robert Kaufman, except a leftover scrap for the upper sky and Kaffe fabrics for the balloons and trees. Balloon strings are YLI metallic braid, couched onto the fabric.

Quilted by: Linda Nichols