Monday, July 25, 2016

Autumn Glow

The August/Sept 2016 Quilter's Newsletter magazine has my quilt pattern for Autumn Glow.
This quilt is made with the Sweet Georgia Peach collection from Island Batik.  These are lovely soft colors of peach and green and browns.  This is a lap quilt 47" x 59" and was quilted by my talented friend Ande Stephens in an all over quilt design.

The pattern in the magazine is given with pieced blocks, but I actually made this with paper piecing.  You can go online at www.quiltersnewletter.com to get the foundation patterns.  There are only a couple paper pieced blocks and that makes it a pretty quick and easy project.  Look for the Sweet Geogia Peach fabrics in your local stores





Friday, July 15, 2016

Christmas in July

Whooo's thinking of Christmas in July?
 The Island Batik Ambassador's challenge for this month was Christmas In July

Our fabrics for this challenge were from the Holiday Happenings collection
This is a lovely collection- but the fabrics I was given were the darker brown blends, with some purple, black and golds - not what I usually work with for Christmas quilts.  
So I thought and thought....Finally decided if I was really going to work on Christmas projects in July, I'd probably be working on gifts.  After more thinking and thinking about my colors and what kind of gifts to make with them,  I finally decided to make pincushions!  Falling back to ideas on Pinterest- I found this cute little owl pincushion.  Only three fabric pattern pieces and one cardboard circle.

I started with one owl to test the pattern, then proceeded to make him a bunch of friends...

I couldn't resist posing them a couple different ways.  The fabric colors worked great to make these cute little woodland creatures!

This pattern was really quick and easy- a great project for little gifts.  Make a few!




Tuesday, July 12, 2016

EQ's Birthday!

This year Electric Quilt turns 25!  They are having a great contest along with Island Batik this month.  Island Batik is giving away a copy of EQ7 - a $190 value.  You can enter by going to their website/blog or by clicking here:  Island Batik blog

Electric Quilt is giving away a 10 yard bundle of Island Batik fabric.  It's just beautiful!  You can enter by clicking here: Electric Quilt Blog

Be sure to enter!

Saturday, July 2, 2016

2016 Quilt Garden Quilts

With summer comes the lovely Quilt Gardens in Northern Indiana.  I've been privileged to make a quilt representing the Nappanee Welcome Center's quilt garden for several years.  Because this is Indiana's Bicentennial - all the quilt gardens on the tour ( 19 gardens and many quilt murals) selected traditional quilt blocks for the gardens.  The Nappanee Welcome Center selected the Whirligig pattern.

Here is a photo of the garden in full bloom - it's really lovely.

photo courtesy of the Nappanee Welcome Center facebook
And here is a photo of the quilt.  I always add a border around the central garden quilt block design.
This year Ande Stephens quilted the quilt.  You can't see the quilting, but in the borders she added a torch from the Indiana flag, the Indiana State Bird- Cardinals, Indiana's State flower- the Peony and the dates of the bicentennial.  Just beautiful quilting!


The quilt is available for view in the Nappanee Welcome Center located behind the garden.  As an added bonus this year- all the quilts from past gardens are also on display.                                      

I've also  made a quilt for Lintons Enchanted Garden for the past three years.  This quilt is made using some of the current Vera Bradley fabrics and the quilt is offered as a raffle with the money going towards breast cancer research.  This year  Linton's garden block design was the traditional Card Trick pattern.  Here is a photo of their lovely garden.
photo courtesy of the Nappanee Welcome Center facebook
This is a photo of my quilt called Playing With a Full Deck.  I named it this in case anyone counted how many "cards" are on the quilt.  If they counted - it may not add up correctly - until you look on the back where I added enough cards to make a full deck!

If you are interested in touring the quilt gardens, you can find more information at:  http://www.amishcountry.org/explore-the-area/quilt-gardens
The gardens are a lovely way to spend a day or two and enjoy the added attractions in Northern Indiana