McCall's Quick Quilts - Waterway

My quilt Waterway has been published in the Aug/Sept 2017 issue of McCall's Quick Quilts.

The cool refreshing look of this quilt comes from the Surf & Sand fabrics by Island Batik.  I especially loved the focus fabric that had the blue/green curvy lines that looked like seaweed in motion.  I quilted along those lines which made the quilting fast and easy.

You can find more info on the quilt and purchase a digital copy at McCall's Quick Quilting.

McCall's has provided two sample issues as a give-a-way.  Just leave a comment below to be entered. USA residents only please.

2017 Quilt Garden and Quilt

It's summertime and time for another beautiful quilt garden and garden quilt.  Nappanee IN is part of The Quilt Gardens Along the Heritage Trail in Elkhart County IN.  This year is the 10th Anniversary of the Quilt Garden Tours.  There are 19 gardens on the tour along with garden murals in many spots.

I've helped to plant the gardens for several years and also design and make a quilt each year with the garden block highlighted in the center of the quilt.

The garden in Nappanee this year was a quilt block with no name, so they called it Crossroads.

The symbolism is that it portrays the two highways that go thru our town (US 6  and St Rd 19).

The directional sign in the center of the garden shows the distances from this location to the other towns in the county that also have gardens on the tour.  This garden is very unusal this year as the color comes from non- flowering plants!  I'm sure this is a first!

This year the tour also includes 56 life-size sculptures by Seward Johnson.  You can find out more about all these sculptures at:  www.EpicArtAdventures.com These sculptures are wonderful and our garden is graced by one of the smaller sculptures called There, Now You Can Grow.

Isn't she adorable!  I'm sure she will take good care of our garden this summer!

Here is a photo of the quilt that accompanies the garden.  It is hanging in the Nappanee Center next door.  Be sure to stop in and see the museum and several quilts from past gardens.

Curvalicious Quilts - June Challenge

I love the logo above.  The June challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors was to make something with curves.  This was an interesting challenge.  I spent weeks thinking of what to do.  

I thought about doing curves like in New York Beauty blocks.

Photo from Pinterest

I love New York Beauty Blocks and thought something like that would be fun.
Then I thought about simple curves like Orange Peel.

Photo from Pinterest

I also thought that many blocks give a curved image, but are made from straight lines- like the snowball block.

photo from Pinterest

This is just one of many I thought of...my mind was spinning!  And time was running out...

Then I thought about fusible applique!  You can cut and fuse any kind of curved shape you can imagine....and I love to do this technique....

This is my Falling Leaves quilt.  It's so easy to fuse, cut and sew any shape.

So what should I do?  I finally decided to go the traditional route and to sew the curves on the machine.  I found a block I liked and decided to use the Dotalicious Earth fabric I had in 5" squares. I like to make small things, so I decided to make a hot pad using a selection of the blue squares.

These are my pieces- three pieces to a section and 8 sections.

Just a word of caution to someone just starting to sew curves - they are easier with larger pieces.  These are relatively small pieces and I found it was easier to put about 5 pins in to help sew the larger curve.  The inner curve was fine with three pins- one in the center and one on both sides.

Here is my completed block/hot pad.  The colors blended nicely.  I used a layer of Insul-Bright from The Warm Company and a layer of cotton batting for the inside.

Of course I didn't want to waste a scrap- it took nine 5" squares to make the front.  I added one more square to the scraps from the front to make a scrappy back.

I used the new 80 wt Aurifil thread for the quilting. It quilts beautifully! 

I like the back too- you could use either side!

Three more partial squares were used for the scrappy binding.  I used thirteen 5" squares for this project, with only a few small strips leftover.  Success!

Business Tote Pattern

The pattern on the cover of this book is my pattern called Evergreen Business Tote.  The pattern was originally published in an Oct issue of Quilter's World Magazine and later republished in this book Quilted Purses & Totes for all Seasons.  It's always a thrill when a project is featured on the cover!

I love to see my photos of my projects that people have made.  Recently Bea Lee sent me a photo of the tote that she made for her daughter.  Bea is a fellow Island Batik Ambassador- so I get to see a lot of her work (and she's prolific!)

Here is her business tote/laptop bag

I think it's lovely in the cool blues that she picked out - actually I think Bea let her daughter pick out the fabrics.  She did a great job!

You can see more of Bea's work at her blog :  www.beaquilter.com

Funky Friends at Spring Quilt Market

Island Batik had us make a few Funky Friends (cute stuffed animals) for their booth at Spring Quilt Market. Quilt Market is going on now in St Louis. The patterns are by Pauline McArthur of the Funky Friends Factory.  They have a load of cute patterns.  We made our animals using the new fabrics coming out at Market.

I made a Cherished Teddy using Retro Batiks by Tammy Silvers that are new at market

These fabrics are made with coordinating teal colors.

I also made Gertie Gecko using a couple other new batiks.  This guy can be made into a heat pack.

You can see these Funky Friends at the Island Batik booth in a video on the Island Batik facebook page.  Take a look at all the lovely new fabrics and patterns that will be coming to stores soon!

Symphony in Silhouette

I love it when people make a quilt from one of my patterns and sends me a photo of the finished project.  Here is a photo of my pattern Symphony in Silhouette by Sue McEachern.

She did a lovely job- thanks for the photo Sue!

*The winner of my Island Batik fabric scraps from last weeks post is teachpany.  Your fabrics are on the way!

May IB Modern Challenge

It's May!  The challenge this month is a Modern Challenge.  When I think of modern quilts I first think of quilts with a lot of open background - or negative space like in the logo above.  Other definitions of modern quilting are to use bold colors and prints, and to have high contrast and/or  to update classic quilt designs.

I decided to use the River's Edge fabric I was sent because I liked the contrast in the light and dark fabrics.  I had the strip package and two background colors.

The challenge to myself was to make a modern quilt using the 2 1/2" strips and the two background fabrics. The quilt I made is 36" x 36".  It has a more traditional block, with the light background fabric used as the outside strips on half of each block and the dark background used as strips on the other side of each block.  This made a strong light/dark look to each square. I call this quilt Shadow Land.

I used two different Superior Threads for this quilt- Masterpiece 159 in the piecing and King Tut 983 for the quilting.  They worked great.

I actually used parts of the background and strip package of River's Edge for the March Island Batik Applique Challenge.  This is the Nighttime at the Nest I made in March.

I debated whether to use the same fabrics for two challenges, but I thought it might be interesting for everyone to see how much you can do with just one strip pack.  Strip packs come with 40 strips- two of each design.  That's 100 " of fabric- over 2 yards of fabric in a wide variety of prints!

My first quilt Nighttime at the Nest measures 20" x 15" and the Shadow Land quilt measures 36" x 36".  I did use some of the two background fabrics also, but this shows you that you can do a lot with just one strip package!

I was surprised at how many strips and part of strips I had left after making two projects!  Quite a bit actually.

Anyone want my leftover strips?  I'm sure there's another quilt in there somewhere...

Just leave a comment and I'll draw a name next week.