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Have you noticed the Quilting Bloggers button on our sidebar?
They are a resource for finding blogs in your state, or what’s going on in the blogging world. They offer quilting tips and tricks and tutorials. Every week they have a themed contest. This week is Easter quilts. I added my Rabbits Prefer Embroidery to it this time. It’s a Bunny Hill design that is redwork but I decided to use pastels for Easter. The prize is Christmas fabric! You know I couldn’t resist that:)
Voting starts today and ends Sunday at midnight. So head on over and vote if you feel like surfing the internet on your holiday. This link will take you to the site or simply use the sidebar button.
We hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend. I hope to get some serious sewing done!
Happy Easter!
I thought I’d share some of the machine quilting books in my stash that I reference often when needing ideas for my next project. I would recommend them for beginners through experienced machine quilters – they are chockfull of ideas, patterns to utilize and tips to get you started!
Quilting Possibilities…Freehand Filler Patterns by Sue Patten – In this book, Sue takes various blocks (@ 40) like 4-patch, 9-patch, Kansas Star, Pinwheels, Dresdens, borders, etc. and provides alternate designs to quilt the same block. She focuses on the primary or secondary pieces in the block to create dramatic variations in look and textures. There are many flower and feather designs I would say for a more intermediate/experience quilter but definitely will provide inspiration for any beginner!
Machine Freehand Patterns by Nan Moore – I highly recommend this book for all levels. Nan starts you with the basics by guiding you through an overall or continuous-line block design with the use of arrows all the way to elaborate feathers designs including borders. The pages are full of patterns you can shrink or expand to fit any block you are working on.
Follow-the-line Quilting Designs Volume 3 by Mary M. Covey – I believe there are 3 volumes in this series with full-size patterns for blocks and borders which makes it simple to trace, transfer and stitch continuous-line quilted motifs. I like the variety of designs and the how-to instruction booklet that is included.
Creative Classics – 250 Playful Continuous-Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz – Laura takes basic shapes like the clamshell, waves, serpentines, Baptist fan and feathers and fills the pages of this book with endless variations of each to utilize as an overall designs, blocks or borders.
250 Continuous-Line Quilting Designs for Hand, Machine & Long-Arm Quilters by Laura Lee Fritz – This book is filled with fun themed designs such as Home& Garden, Birds, Flora & Fauna, Domestic Animals, Woodland Animals, Under the Sea, and Textures. She includes some tips on planning and transferring the designs to help you get started.
Foolproof Machine Quilting by Mary Mashuta – For those of you struggling to get started or having trouble with free-motion quilting with a darning foot, Mary teaches you how to machine quilt using your walking foot and going beyond stitching in the ditch. She also utilizes paper templates to expand your design options.
As always, have fun with machine quilting and remember it takes practice! So keep trying different techniques until you find one that works best!
I was definitely in the Easter mood while stitching Birdie & I wanted her to have a “Pastel Paas” thing going on. So I stitched her in pastel variegated floss & I found these cute little Easter egg buttons at my local cross stitch store to decorate the tree with.
Thanks for another cute block Little Miss Shabby. I’m having lots of fun stitching these!
Come on y’all sing along! This is something to sing about. We whipped up one of the OU quilts for a friend.
Paige did the quilting and oh my, she did an amazing job!!
Would you just look at how the OU stands out with all those whimsy swirls.
And when you turn it over the OU pops off the backing since she used a white bobbin.
The quilt is really easy to get together since its a log cabin.
I think this makes my 3rd OU quilt. Just spreading the Sooners love y’all!
Good morning everyone! I thought I’d share a few pics from the quilt show Kathi and I worked in Morris, IL.
This is the Quilt In Joy booth. Sorry about the glare. We had to add our own lighting because it was so dark in the banquet room. There’s Beetle Boy right in the middle. Everyone loved him!
We had really great neighbors. This is Backyard Quilt Shop from Fort Atkinson WI. Kathy and Butch have this shop in their basement, run an auto workshop next door, and she also does custom quilting. Can you say super busy couple! They’re working on 7 years now being in business. She had some really good stuff in the booth. A Yellow Brick Road quilt done in Rouenneries fabric. Yellow Brick Roads bore me to death and I said I’d never make another, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Quilter’s Destination, from Arlington Heights, IL was on the other side of us. Specializing in Crapapple Hill embroidery and beautiful fabrics, so you know I was hooked there. They had tons of embroidery samples made up. And Pattie and Wendy were sooo nice!
My fave’s from the show…
Lifesavers
And of course a Crapapple Hill quilt.
This is the backing fabric for a Christmas quilt I had to get a pic of.
And guess what. There was a bed turning event at the show and the quilter was showing her wholecloth white quilt that had been marked in blue that wouldn’t come out….shocking, I know…ugh. I’m feelin her pain! I think hers is worse though. Hand quilted and it had silk batting..uh oh!
Ok, I’m off to work now! Have a great spring weekend!
Cleaning..no, but I seriously need to. Spring is much harder on my house than winter especially with a dog in the family.
Remember this vision of Christmas goodness?
Just got it back from the quilter and she used a blue marking pen on it. Need I say more? I really hate those things. They are very unpredictable! For starters, I’m not the girl who washes a quilt when I get it done. I like crisp and fresh. So that’s a little disappointing, but what’s a bigger disappointment is that I’m going to end up trashing something I worked hard on, cost a lot of money, cause let’s face it people fabric is not cheap, and it’s from my favorite lines of all time…ugh. I’m sooo frustrated. These are the pics of the quilt after it’s been washed a zillion times using a zillion methods. You may need to enlarge them for the blue to show up.
The blue is all over the borders also. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!…help:(
On a more positive note, I have been working on some bindings and a cute little baby quilt from the Just Dreamy line from Riley Blake.
Adorable! Can’t wait to finish this one! I see giant rick rack in this quilts future.
I modified the Birdie Stitches block 3 just a bit. I couldn’t help but add some shamrocks and a leprechaun hat to the bird.
The cloud looks like I colored white around the edges but it’s just the grunge fabric. I think it turned out cute! Thanks for another fun month Little Miss Shabby!
I finally snagged a few minutes today to photograph the beautiful group of rows I received a couple weeks ago from our SewMod row exchange. I’ve been daydreaming of all the possibilities for layouts and borders! From left to right the rows were made by Andrea, Lorrie, Pattie, Vicki, Shelley and Kelly! What a creative group!
I thought I’d show you a picture of my first row quilt made with rows received by each member in my long time quilting group Pieceful Pals which was the inspiration for this SewMod group challenge.
Last Wednesday the SewMod girls got together to exchange our rows for the challenge. My focus fabric was a different Halloween fat quarter for each one of the girls to work with. I think my rows turned out awesome! It’s hard for me not to like anything Halloween. It is my 2nd favorite holiday. I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone what my 1st favorite is:)
Now the challenge will be to set the rows so that everything flows together. I can use sashing and borders. And since Kelly made the row with the spooky appliqued tree vertical, I get to come up with something extra special to fill in the space. Maybe the tree could use some creepy roots with bones buried there?
I also brought home these rows…
I’ll be putting this quilt together as a charity quilt. In August the area will be having a pretty big shop hop,the Northern Illinois Quilt Fest,which includes Fons and Porter coming to Quilt In Joy for Quilts of Valor. The SewMod girls will be hosting our own quilt show in one of the neighboring buildings. I’m really excited about this! We’re going to hang our row quilts and other things we’ve made, and we’re using this row quilt as a raffle quilt with the proceeds going to a charity.
I’m feeling pretty busy lately! …yet as I write this post I’m watching Matlock..seriously Matlock? Ok , I’m off to be productive!
Have a great day everyone!
Maybe the more appropriate title should be snowed in.
After that super scary blizzard Tuesday night, I had 3 feet drifts preventing me from leaving or opening any doors. It made for a claustrophobic me and a confused puppy, who didn’t understand why we couldn’t take a potty walk…ugh We weren’t dug out till 3:00 p.m….poor thing!
This is the path to my front door! If I was a kid this would be awesome!
So, what do you do on a snow day besides listen to your teenager whine about having nothing to do because he can’t leave the house?
Work on Birdie Stitches block 2.
SewMod