Custom Quilting is determined by how complex and dense the quilting is. I hope that these photos and descriptions can help you to determin...

I've had the chance to review the book Free Motion Quilting for Beginners (and those who think they can't), by Molly Hanson. I love that title! I'm a big proponent of quilting your own quilts, as you know, and I've read a lot of books about free motion quilting. I like how everyone presents the information in their own personal way....there is always more to learn! This book presents all the practical information you need to get started. More importantly, it gives you the confidence to jump in and give free motion quilting a try. There are 15 projects in the book that encourage you to start small and increase your comfort level with free motion quilting before you tackle something larger, like a quilt. What I love most about this book is Molly's tone of encouragement throughout the text and the projects. She is great at guiding you though the entire process! I've done a lot of free motion quilting and I love how relaxing it can be. I also know how easy it can be to get in a rut. I challenged myself to get out of my box, so to speak and try some new-to-me, designs. I gave this squared off stippling pattern a try and it went pretty well! I had to slow down and think about where I was going from time to time, but it was fun! I could see doing this all over a whole quilt. I also quilted a few swatches of different designs and I turned them into a set of coasters. Binding them was a little fiddly, but totally worth it! (I can say that now that they are done. Ha!) These are great because I not only used scraps of fabric, but scraps of batting as well. Hurray! I'm happy to count these as scrap project #94/101. If you would like the chance to win an e-book copy of Free Motion Quilting for Beginners, please leave me a comment in this post. In your comment, I'd love to hear what your favorite go-to FMQ pattern is. Or, if you are new to FMQ, I'd like to hear what pattern you would like to master. I will pick winner in a few days!

All the tools, supplies, notions and know how for machine quilting on either a long arm quilting machine or a sewing machine.

The bargello technique can be used to create backgrounds for applique, to showcase landscape prints, and to use up your stash. In a previou...

Pinwheels & Paddlewheels Quilt This is another one of those classic two-color quilts we all love. This one starts with simple paddlewheel blocks, which, when assembled, also create pinwheels.Pinwheels

Here is a super awesome quilt design for any quilt needing a little bit of floral flare! This fun little Daisy Chain is easy and a great way to add more texture into some of your other FMQ patterns. Click HERE for a free downloadable PDF! Click HERE to watch the full tutorial!

I've been busy here at The Painted Quilt. I think everyone has some kind of "thing" for lighthouses, myself included. Since moving to Nova Scotia in 2010, I've become even more enamored with them. Nova Scotia is the farthest eastern mainland Canadian province that is almost completely surrounded by the sea. Countless, if not hundreds of lighthouses continue to dot the amazing landscape that is Nova Scotia. Last year I designed my first nautical-themed quilt called Safe Harbor which was a tribute to lighthouses. Both the actual quilt and instructional pattern are available for purchase in my Etsy shop. The design is complete for my second nautical quilt which I hope to start on "in the near future". Today, I am introducing a collection of four lighthouse patterns from my new Lighthouse Series. Pictured below are my two different interpretations of the Western Light on Brier Island, NS... followed by the Point Prim lighthouse in Digby, NS. This next one may reside somewhere in the world but was born from my imagination and I've called it Silent Sentinel. They are all wall hanging size and measure approximately 13" x 16". Time permitting, I am hoping to have the patterns available for purchase in my Etsy shop later this week. There are three others that I am currently working on in my Lighthouse Series. They are so much fun to design and make and the best thing is, the sky is the limit when it comes to using one's imagination! Happy Easter everyone! And... Happy stitching!

This quilt is fat quarter friendly and consists of only 1 block style. I cut my focus rectangles from 6 different fat quarters using 20 on the front and saving 4 for a pieced back that I’m s…

Earlier this week I shared my latest quilt finish, a Shadow Block Mini Quilt. Today, you can make one, too. One very important thing to keep in mind with this project is that the smaller the project, the more important it is to be accurate. Be extra careful with your cutting and check to make sure your seam allowance is an accurate 1/4". If you do those two things, your project will come together perfectly. Fabric requirements: Focus fabric - Twenty 3" squares A charm pack (an assortment of 5" squares from a single fabric collection) is a good way to bring variety to the squares, or, if you have been quilting for a while, you can probably find a nice assortment in your fabric stash. If you wanted to cut the focus squares out of the same fabric, you need a quarter yard or fat quarter. Shadow fabric - 1/4 yard or fat quarter This fabric should be a solid, medium value neutral. The finished quilt shown uses a tan, but a gray, or even khaki green would work for this. As long as there is contrast with the background, it should provide the right effect. Background fabric - 3/8 yard light solid fabric Backing fabric - 5/8 yard Binding fabric - 1/4 yard Cutting for the quilt top: Focus squares Cut twenty 3" squares Shadow Cut twenty 1" x 2 1/2" rectangles. Cut twenty 1" x 3" rectangles. Background Cut forty 1" squares. Cut twenty 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles. Cut five 19 1/2" x 1 1/2" strips. These strips form the sashing between each row of blocks. You may want to wait until your rows are sewn together before cutting these strips. That way if your seam allowance is off a little, you can cut these strips to the length of your rows. Cut two 17 1/2" x 1 1/2" strips. These two strips will go on either side of the quilt top once everything is sewn together. Again, it might be a good idea to wait and check the width of your quilt for greater cutting accuracy. Make the blocks: Each block needs one 3" square of focus fabric, two 1" squares of background fabric, one 1" x 2 1/2" rectangle of shadow fabric, and one 1" x 3" rectangle of shadow fabric. First, stitch the background squares to the shadow fabric. Press the seam toward the shadow fabric. Next, stitch the shorter shadow fabric and background strip to the side of the focus block. Press toward the focus block. Then stitch the remaining shadow and background strip to the top of the block. Press toward the focus block. Your finished block should measure 3 1/2" square. Check each block and trim it to size if needed. Or, adjust your seam allowance if the resulting block is too small. Once you have made a couple of test blocks and are pleased with the result, you might want to try chain piecing some of the parts to make it go together faster. Chain piecing is when you have lots of similar piecing to do so rather than starting and stopping for each one, you stitch one right after another without cutting threads. It can also help with pressing. I chain pieced all the squares to the shadow rectangles. The connecting parts helped my pieces stay flat and secure on the pressing surface. It's hard to wrangle a tiny one-inch square for pressing. Once I had them all pressed, I cut the units apart and continued to the next step. Arrange Blocks and Add Sashing: Once you have twenty blocks made, lay them out in four rows of five blocks, switching them around until you are happy with the arrangement. I tried to do the arranging at the beginning but discovered it was too hard to keep them in order while the blocks were being assembled. You can see where I had already made two blocks to check my accuracy before playing around with the layout. I ended up arranging them again after all the blocks were made. When you arrange your blocks, make sure the shadows are all facing the same direction. The next step is to add sashing between the blocks. Each row of five blocks will need four 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" background rectangles sewn between. Press the seams toward the sashing strip. If your seam allowance has been accurate throughout the project, each row will measure 19 1/2" long. It is okay if it doesn't. Just make sure to adjust the length of the long sashing strips as needed. Now stitch long sashing strips (the 1 1/2" x 19 1/2" background strips) between each row, then to the top and bottom of the quilt top. The last step is to add the remaining two background strips (1 1/2" x 17 1/2") to each side of the quilt top. Your top is finished! Cut your backing fabric a few inches bigger than the quilt top. Layer the top, some batting, and the backing fabric and get ready to quilt. There are a million ways this top could be quilted, but I really wanted to emphasize the shadow on mine. It is heavily quilted with free motion straight(ish) lines sewn on each one. The only other quilting is straight lines along the edges of each block, both horizontally and vertically. There is no quilting on the focus blocks so they will stand up just a little more than the rest of the quilt top. Once the quilting is completed, trim and square up the edges and add some binding. I am finally getting the hang of machine binding so that is how the sample quilt is finished. This quilt is fast and fun to make. If you make this quilt, I would love to see how yours turns out. Please leave a comment or drop me an email if you have any questions.

I'm needing a new design fix today! This design is based on Basic Spiral, but with little pointy ends like flames to make it Blazing Spiral:I read somewhere last year that Spirals are the new Stippling, which made me laugh at the whole fashionista sound of that. After all, gray is now the new white!But

How to use value, scale, and placement to choose fabric for your quilt.

I hate to pick favs but this one is my Favorite of the Trio.Thread - Iris MintBatting - Hobbs 80/20 Tools - A ton of templates were used. When you send me a quilt in the mail and you are unsure of the

Petit Design Co has done a 31 day series on quilting with a walking foot.........think it is just straight lines? NOPE - she includes curves. There are some great ideas applicable to quilting on a lon

This tutorial is for making tumbling blocks using strips sewn together – no Y seams. This technique, developed in 1987 by Marci Baker, is available in the book ABC 3-D Tumbling Blocks ……

This bargello quilt was made for an artist friend who is expecting a little girl at the end of the summer. We’re all super excited for her, and I couldn’t wait to begin working on this…

This is the third block of my Irish Great-Grandpa Sampler Quilt. I found the pattern for this 12" Tall Ships quilt block free on-line ...

my adventures with fabric

Today we're going to sew together this modern-looking traditional quilt block called Interlocking O's. The pattern is attributed to Doris Dace but I couldn't find any more information about it other than that. Let's get to it!

here is the pattern for the elephant in case anyone is looking for one. I don't know what size it will print out, I am not smart enough for that, but I tried to scan it big enough. Hope this helps.

I would like to introduce block 8 in the I dropped the Button Box quilt . I hope people will enjoy seeing it in more detail over the next week or so. Fabric content: How I managed a small block like this with 9 pieces of fabric on it I am not sure but …

machine finished hand applique workshop

Windswept PAPER longarm quilting pantograph design by Naomi Hynes More Details Windswept quilting pantograph sewing pattern from Naomi Hynes. PAPER: A single row is 6.5" inches wide - printed with one row - 144 inches long Click here to go to our main Panto Directory Page. Click here to see more items of interest to machine quilters. Don't know what a "panto" is?  Click here to find out what the heck a "panto" is.

For Day 3 I was thinking about the landscape quilts I’ve created in the past. Every time I started quilting the green grass or hills in the landscape, I’d get very upset. The quilting fillers I was using didn’t look very good and certainly didn’t give the quilt the texture I was looking for. I

Finally my bird applique blocks are ready to buy as individual patterns! It’s been a long time coming but I finally got my act together and with the help of an amazing ‘pattern elf’ (you know who you are!) I have managed to produce four bird patterns which have just been released. I already had …

Explore rosiepink's 32 photos on Flickr!

I've had several people express that they'd love to make an Hawaiian quilt, but feel they do not have the time or skill. So, I wante...

Did this a while ago but was never really happy with it so it went no further. More recently I had another go, but I still wasn&...

I would tell you what I love about this pattern, but it would take all day. Because what's not to love about the Petal Pink Diagonal Stripe Quilt? Its tranquil use of color and simplistic design make it the ideal pattern for any quilter. I can't get enough of the gorgeous color palette, which surprises you with a few pops of neon yellow, giving it a coveted contemporary style. This lap quilt pattern pieces the strips in random order, establishing a playful vibe that still looks clean and precise. It truly is a pristine quilt pattern!

Девочки, это песня! Смотрим, любуемся, восхищаемся | Вступай в группу Polly Stitch: лоскутное шитье с Полиной: Рукоделие в Одноклассниках