Welcome – I’m so glad you joined me to start our Alaska Rainbow Quilt Along! Every week I will showcase 2 blocks that will help build your skills and introducing more difficult ones as we go. I am so excited to get quilting with you! First, we will focus on making our Alaska Rainbow quilt with the Century Solids Collection from Andover. I will be making my blocks using our Pre-Cut kit. For those cutting your own fabric, please make sure to visit our YouTube channel for a wonderful video on ho
Made from strings less than 2 inches wide. The fabric in the middle of the blocks is Habitat Dandelions by Michele D'Amore for Bernartex. The dimensions of the quilt are 72" by 90". Just added some better photos of this one to join in with Rachel's Festival of Strings at Stitched in Color: www.stitchedincolor.com/2013/05/festival-of-strings.html I finished this top in April 2013, and I'm just waiting for inspiration to hit me for the back of it! And the quilting, and the binding.... :)
Make these fast and fun scrap quilts with these free scrap quilt patterns. Read our best tips for creating a cohesive modern scrap quilt.
Confetti Ombre Gems quilt by Emily of quiltylove.com. This colorful rainbow quilt uses VandCo confetti ombre to create an interesting and vibrant quilt.
What do you do with your selvages? (P.S. According to Wikipedia, it's "selvage" in the U.S. and "selvedge" in Britain - well, what d'ya kno...
When Richard and I saw a bright rainbow a few days ago, I realized that I've not considered rainbows as inspiration yet. We can't have something so beautiful left out, now can we? Here we go...a bevy of rainbows for inspiration! And a dozen inspiring rainbow quilts... You can find these rainbows, and a few more, on my "rainbow, colors" Pinterest board. If you'd like to help find even more rainbows to add to the board, I'll gladly add you to the (soon-to-be) group. Let me know by leaving a comment or email me at [email protected]!
Phew! Bottled Rainbows is complete! First off, a big thank you to Rachel for designing this fun quilt and giving us all an excuse to use up some of those precious scraps we’ve all been hoarding. I’m so grateful for this quilt design as it has always made me happy to work on it and has ...
People who know how to sew are never limited to their wardrobe. Or the shelves in a store. Their hands can do miracles — they can make clothes themselves.
Learn how to sew a rainbow color wash quilt pattern using leftover fabric scraps. It's so fun and easy to do! Free tutorial with video.
We are completely smitten with pretty much everything that Aurifil Designer Jo Avery of myBearPaw does. We’ve been following along with her for ages, and so love her delightfully staged photo…
Our Kantha stitch quilt upcycles old textiles with vibrant embroidery and rich textures. Learn how to make Kantha quilt and help reduce waste with Gathered
I've been wanting to make a Looper Quilt since the first day I saw Miss Make post it! I love a modular quilt pattern and this one is the ultimate! (CW: Adoption) The background Two of our closest friends told us they were working on the process to adopt kids and I got so excited!
This rainbow quilt is an easy modification of the Aftershock quilt pattern. Fabric requirements and photos for this variation included.
I was lucky enough to take a class from the famous artist/quilter, Freddy Moran, Saturday in Sacramento. I invited my friend Natalie to go with me, and that made the day even better :) This is the house that Freddy built :) She doesn't measure, at least hardly ever, and she doesn't consider herself a sewer either. Here's my freehand house on the left, along with one of my trees on the right. Freddy says that if something doesn't fit, add some more fabric to make it fit, and the extra fabric also adds some interest. Freddy and me:) Freddy has a degree in Fine Arts, raised a family of 5 boys (6 if you count her husband), and she says she was very successful at that because they are all grown up and all have jobs, lol! Freddy started her career with textile arts when she was 60, she's 80 something now. Here's my little house and a wonky star and a tree that I made in class Saturday. This is one of my favorite quilts of Freddy's. The buildings come off the sides, and it isn't bound. Freddy creates a background, often from flannel, because fabric sticks really well to it. She then creates her masterpiece by laying fabric on top and gluing them on with a purple glue stick that dries clear. She takes the finished quilt to the quilter (that hasn't been sewn or appliqued) and she tells Carol, "if any piece falls off, just stick it back on where you think it looks good!" This is a close up of one of her small quilts. The background is sewn together, and she cuts fabric or images on fabric (flowers) and glues them onto the background. Freddy loves the living dead too, hence the skulls. Freddy said that she has never bought a piece of muslin and never will. She takes great care in producing pretty backs for her quilts. Alexander Henry fabrics are very beautiful and interesting, and Berkeley, California, has a Crate and Barrel outlet where they sell Marimekko fabric for $5.95 / yard. Freddy buys a lot of her backs there. Another favorite of mine is this cow quilt! Freddy has lots of "parts". That's fabric that she she has cut into shapes, she has them in containers separated by color. She grabs those "parts" and places them until she likes the arrangement, then glues them down and lets her Carol, her quilter, machine quilt them in place. Did you notice that the cow's tail is three dimensional? This is the bag of the cow quilt. This is a close up of the machine quilting, where you can imagine the pieces being attached to the flannel background, by machine quilting. During the day, we had our sewing class, and in the evening, we had a talk and trunk show by Freddy. It was great! Notice the stack of quilts? I didn't count, but there were 30 or more. Freddy said that she collaborates with her friend Gwen Marston. Together, they make about 30 quilts a year, not including the machine quilting. Freddy and Gwen can make a quilt a day, with their combined creative genius!!! Freddy's "parts department" also includes little blocks that have been put together, otherwise known as orphan blocks. She uses the parts for her quilts. Another favorite quilt of mine that she made is called "Parts Department". It's a kaleidoscope quilt with lots of little girls holding hands, pinwheels and much much more. It's really cute! (I couldn't find a photo of it) Freddy told us that she takes all her fabric out and refolds it every 3 months, so that she knows what she has. What a great idea!!! Here are my little blocks that I sped through! The wonkier the better, it adds a lot of interest. You don't trim until you figure out if you want your quilt to have horizontal or vertical rows, or if you are going to make a kaleidoscope quilt. Freddy loved this background fabric! I think this block is too matchy matchy, but if I put it with crazy, wonky blocks, it will add interest. Isn't this the cutest photo? I took it off the internet, it looks like a self portrait. Freddy's vests that she often wears are made by an artist in Berkeley, and are made from quilts. The biggest thing I learned from Freddy, is don't be hard on yourself, or critical about your work. Never show anyone your quilting mistakes, they will never notice them anyway. Be crazy and try new things in quilting. You don't have to follow everyone else's rules, make your own. I am still talking about quilting, lol! This quilt is called "Little House in the Big Woods". Do you see the little house in there? This is the quilt that Freddy built, and I am going to make my own version of it.....someday..... Freddy signed my book, and do you know what she wrote? "Red is a neutral."
Week two of October and I have another quilt finished despite some walking foot hiccups and a Briar Rose obsession. This week’s Project Linus finish is a little bit of a cheat – I pull…
In this FREE Evolve wall hanging appliqué pattern, I give you the templates and basic instructions to make this rainbow wall hanging!
Celebrate Pride month using this free pattern to create a quilted Pride flag! Make this for yourself or in support of your LGBTQ+ community.
60" x 72" I love a rainbow quilt and a scrappy one is even better! This is my quilt for the Scrap Snap Quilt Along. It's made complete from scraps in 12 colors. I was able to use 2.5" squares and strips, 5" squares, and even a few 4.5" squares. The pattern is very easy and seemed to go together quickly even though there are little pieces in each block. I loved that you didn't have to follow the pattern exactly and were free to make changes to fit your fabrics. I used this gray print for the back and binding. I'm still trying to use my stash but the choices in the gray prints are getting fewer and fewer. There is a large pile of scraps that need to be put away after this quilt and I still haven't tackled the ones that need to be cut from the last few quilts. But I did manage to clean my room up. We even tackled the craft closet yesterday. Am I too late for spring cleaning? Linking with My Quilt Infatuation
For those who may not know, I have a small (large) obsession with Anna Maria Horner. I have a full fat quarter set of every collection from Good Folks forward. She basically can do no wrong. However, my collection just sits on its pedestal (entire shelf) and stares at me. I can't cut it because I can't restock it. At the beginning of this year when the #economyblockalong started, I got brave. And this happened. O my goodness. It is amazing. Here's how it came to be. I took all the AMH off it's special shelf, threw it on the floor, and separated it into colors. Then I stared at it for days thinking "I cannot cut this. I just can't". Then I did, and I hated it. I got the red and orange up on the wall and decided that this was not working. My IG friends convinced me to keep it going. Once I got the yellow up, I was a little more sold. And by the time the green started, I knew something magical was happening. This is basically the ultimate tribute to Anna Maria Horner. Now it is time to have it quilted. I think I am going to get mom to do it because it it huge. 80x80. The only other quilt that size that I have pushed through my machine is the Single Girl, and it was no picnic. Hopefully more pictures soon!
Cabin Peaks quilt pattern is now on the shop! It's finally here! The Cabin Peaks quilt pattern is now available and I am so dang excited! I've had this idea in mind for a while. I just had to find the time and motivation to get it done. That motivation came when I joined the Pantone Quilt Challenge, and I made my first
I have just returned from a trip to Spain to visit my sister. I had planned the trip to coincide with the International Patchwork Festival in Sitges, which is on the Mediterranean Sea, about 1/2 hour south of Barcelona. We took the high speed train from Madrid to Barcelona. In Sitges we stayed in an apartment belonging to the family of my sister's daughter-in-law. My sister is not a quilter, but she gamely came with me and enjoyed seeing all the different quilts. Her comment on the first day was that she was amazed at the scope of the art; that one can make quilts in any fashion, depicting just about anything. There was a judged show of quilts made by members the Spanish Association of Patchwork - a country-wide guild. There were seven other exhibits of the work of expert quilters from around the world, including Keiko Goke, Maria Luisa Gutierrez, Pat Holly, Libby Lehman, Nancy Crow, Quilts of India, and Quilts of Japan. Each exhibit had its own venue in different locations around Sitges. This made for lots of walking and a bit of map reading and exploring (signage wasn't that great), but the greatest benefit was the dispersal of the crowds of people so that one could enjoy the quilts without too many people in the same place at once. The exception would be Saturday, when there were lines to get into each venue. Here are three favorites from the judged show. There were many very complex quilts, but these were the ones I liked the best. (I will post pictures of the rest of the exhibits soon.) titled: Aurora Borealis the view from the right side of the quilt same quilt as above, viewed from the left. title: Azteca same as the above showing hand quilting.
Is this the easiest quilt-as-you-go joining method ever? I think so! There is no hand sewing and no joining strips!
If you listen to the Chris Evans Breakfast show on BBC radio 2 you may have heard him invite people to share their Smug Zone stories. I am ...
It's Week 4 of the 30 Days of Improv QAL and this week you're playing with curves in your improv quilt exploration!
It’s release day for Anthologie quilt. We are having a sale on all of our patterns today and tomorrow (sale ends 8/28/20). Find all patterns here. Finished Anthologie quilt posts: Quilt Reveal – Anthologie #2 – one with butterflies Quilt Reveal – Anthologie – Bari J version Working Anthologie series: Inspiration Collage 9-Patches La...
A Super Easy Quilt to Make in Whatever Size You Want! Leftover fabric strips and attention to values create a stunning quilt. This is a great project for making a dent in your scraps and stash. Jelly roll strips and fat quarters will work nicely if you don’t have enough scraps on hand. The blocks …
Here are more than 30 free patterns for rainbow and color wheel quilts. In a true rainbow quilt the hues are arranged in the sequence in which they appear in a rainbow: ROYGBIV (red, orange, yellow,
Rainbow ombre Lucky Log Cabins quilt by emily of quiltylove.com. This quick and easy modern log cabin quilt is a stash buster quilt pattern.
We found a rainbow of colors on our walk this morning. Which leads right into my finished rainbow piece for the Swirls of Color class with Isobel Moore. I'm known for starting lots of projects....and only finishing a few. I really wanted to start experimenting with some other swirl ideas today....but I thought it was more important to get closure on this one. I think I'm going to keep this piece....so wanted it small to tuck somewhere in my studio. I chose to bind it onto a canvas like I did for a recent fabric stained glass piece....simple and clean. http://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/07/fused-bound-binding.html There are lots of strings that go off the edge....so the binding a little lumpy...but that's the nature of the project. I'm actually pretty happy with it....which is unusual for me to say. Isobel is such a great teacher....and I can't wait to keep working with strips of cloth and fibers. I cut my piece the exact size of my 8" wooden paint panel (a reject from my painted papers class). I prepared the binding with a 1/2 inch of fusible webbing along the edge and sewed it on the piece like I would a quilt with mitered corners. I glued the piece on the panel with thick gel medium and weighed it down until it was dry...then fused the binding around to the back. Before I read the finishing lesson from the class...I was thinking about binding it with this soft stripe...that blended so well with all the colors. But based on Isobel's advise in the lesson....I chose the simple linen....and fused some of the stripe on the back for extra strength and as a little surprise. It was the right call!! Thank you Isobel!!! This oversized marble that spins on a base looks as if it was my inspiration! You can check out a little video of this marble in action on my Instagram page. Just click through the first couple of photos to the video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCmdbAMH0Pf/
Quilts made with disappearing blocks are intriguing—and oh-so-fun! But just what are they and how are they made?
📷 Holy cow, I like this one from Pinterest (Russian sewist). Do you save photos of quilts you'd like to try? This one would be great for reducing my scrap bin overflow. 95% of my scraps are 2.5" wide strips. Smaller strips I give to my friend Jerry, the rug guy. This Russian artist's quilt I like the variety of color and pattern, "fits me to a T". (Where did that expression come from, I'd like to know). The Light and dark cornerstones are deliberate--and that is something that peaks my interest. I especially like the skinny sashing, even though its medium to light value is almost LOST. 📷 Above, is one of my quilts. Simple, fun to make. Designing quilts on the fly . . . my design idea here was to join Four (10.5") scrappy strip blocks with a light color sashing and orange corner stone. I couldn't decided in the first place if I wanted orange corner stones or turquoise corner stones . . . . so I framed the quadrant block in a dark blue small paisley print accented with turquoise corner stones. Other Bits: A couple years ago I was waiting, waiting, waiting, for Anita Solomon Grossman to come out with her simple cuts technique for "her Wonky Star" block, but it never materialized online. I experimented on my own to build her wonky star block (trying to think it through like Anita would). That experiment resulted in 8 wonky star blocks sitting in my scrap bin, (4) red stars on a teal background and (4) teal stars on a red background. Having no better use for them, I threw them into this quilt for interest.
Here are our top tips for making sewing curves less stressful. Sewing curves can be frustrating and we have pulled together a few tips to get you the results you want!
