This afternoon I went to the Heritage Quilt Guilds Quilt Show. They are celebrating 35 years. I've always enjoyed this quilt show. The Quilt Guilds Quilt They had a challenge. Evidently, everyone had to make a 2 color quilt, using cream and orange. I didn't take pictures of who made each challenge quilt. Also, on quite a few of the quilts, from the front door, to the back of the quilt show, had this attached. Tom can hang out on my quilts anytime Now, on to some of the quilts..... This next quilt was HUGE! Her comments are touching. This next quilt also had some touching comments. This next quilt looks like stained glass. And this quilt is for all of you cat lovers. This quilt shows a great way to 'save' your childs baby clothes. I did a double take when I saw this. I just had to take pictures of it. Gee, can you guess why I took pictures of the next 2 quilts???? I spent most of the day, before heading off to the quilt show, at my large quilt guilds sew-in. I've been cutting out purses, and, today, I started sewing 2 of them together. Each purse takes about 5 hours, just for the stitching. Making 2 at a time is almost as easy as just making one (as long as the thread color is the same). Here are some pictures I took while assembling the purses. I still have lots left to do on each purse. Hint, both of them are OU (University of Oklahoma) fabrics. They are similar, but, slightly different. one purse front (no pocket yet) pocket for the purse inside lining with pockets and trim I'm not sure when these purses will get finished. Next week is busy. I have a sewing machine demo on Saturday and Sunday, at the Kendall County Historical Society's Lyon's Farm Fall Festival (say that 10 times). So far, I've decided on at least 10 different machines to take.
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
It was a quick trip to the AQS Fall Paducah Quilt Show in Kentucky, but my first time to visit Paducah. I was blown away by the number of quilts on display, in multiple buildings, both contest and exhibition. What I saw and could take pictures of was merely a drop in the proverbial quilt bucket. I currently have a bit of a gimpy foot, so my viewing was limited. Next time I need to stay more than one night! I managed to get pictures of 40 quilts to share. One of the most impressive quilts was one I couldn't get anywhere near for even one picture..."Hawaiian Improv," by Cheryl See. It won in the large quilts, hand quilted category. (She also won a first prize in a second category.) Beautiful hand quilting! It was one of the first place category winners which is involved in the voting for the super huge money prizes tonight. You can see it on the AQS Fall Paducah web site. The maker was giving detailed tours of her quilt to small groups the whole time I was there. The details were amazing, and voting for the best first place quilt was still going on... Risking your fatigue, here is one more picture of my 2nd place, hand appliqued and hand quilted, 58 x 58 inch entry, live and in person. Enjoy my tiny version of this huge quilt show! (I followed the photo rules by displaying the names of the quiltmakers and not benefiting monetarily from them. If you share these pictures, please do the same.) The following quilt won first place in my category. 44 x 44 inches, packed with beautiful movable machine quilting. The following quilt won third place in my category...loved the colors. 59 x 59 inches, stationary machine quilting. 60 x 60 inches, stationary machine quilted by Robin Hrabik (don't you think the quilter's name should be on the label if it is not the maker?? I know some shows don't accept quilts where the maker "pays" the quilter, so they are somewhat collaborators and they work it amongst themselves). 58 x 73, stationary machine quilting. 49 x 49 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik. 50 x 50 inches...my label picture was blurry...made by Sara DeTombe and Jennifer Rossi, Huntington, TN (I assume the second name is the stationary machine quilter). Great name, beautiful bright colors...makes my Bride quilt look dull...62 x 87 inches and HAND QUILTED! Darn, another blurry label. I was trying to dart in and take pictures before people wandered in frame... "Common Bride Autumn Wedding" made by Melanie Jane Mitchell, Gross Pointe Farms, MI. 85 x 84 inches, movable machine quilted by Ruth McCormick. I have a pattern for this...on my bucket list... Another blurry label..."Michigan Lighthouses" by Phyllis Jacobs, Big Rapids, MI, 93 x 93. It was first place in the large quilt, pictorial category. Movable quilted by Pam Dubbles. Another first place winner...Gail Stepanek and Jan Hutchinson (movable machine quilter?), 74 x 74 inches. I wish I could have gotten closer...half of the small diamonds were made up of teeny tiny diamonds. 78 X 79 inches, hand and stationary machine quilted. 82 x 82 inches, movable machine quilted. Another first place winner. 78 x 78 inches, stationary machine quilted. 73 x 73 inches, "Tropical Punch," Ann Horton, Redwood Valley, CA, stationary machine quilted. 84 x 84 inches, Harumi Asada, Japan, HAND QUILTED! Love the pieced trees in the corners... 99 x 99 inches, movable machine pieced. 86 x 86 inches, movable machine quilted. 91 x 91 inches, possibly movable machine quilted by Mary Christopher. 63 x 63 inches, HAND QUILTED! 70 x 70 inches, movable machine quilted by Julia Rockwell. 77 x 86 inches, movable machine quilted by Heather Broehm. 87 x 101 inches, Marilyn Lidstrom Larson and Barb Simons (possible movable machine quilter), Willow City, ND. 104 x 104 inches, possibly HAND QUILTED by Marcia Zimmerman. 107 x 106 inches, Beth Nufer and Clem Buzick, Brookings, OR (possible movable machine quilter). 105 x 105 inches, Gloria Seibel, Millstadt, IL, movable machine quilted by Jacqulyn Mann and Jane Hair. 61 x 61 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik. 82 x 83 inches, movable machine quilted by Sylvia Smith. 70 x 70 inches, movable machine quilted. 60 x 69 inches, stationary machine quilted. LOVE THIS! I, too, bought this embroidery pattern from Crabapple Hill to hand applique instead of embroider. Leslie beat me to it! So Cool! 73 x 73 inches, movable machine quilted by Chong Kropik. 84 x 84 inches, Julee Prose, Otumwa, IA, beautifully HAND QUILTED! This might have been my favorite quilt. Ola and Mary, does this next quilt look familiar?? (We kitted this block-of-the-month years ago when we worked at a shop.) 63 x 87 inches, possibly movable machine quilted by Irene Reising. 63 x 63 inches, stationary machine quilted. 88 x 115 inches, movable machine quilted. 48 x 57 inches, adorable, HAND QUILTED! Very cute and whimsical! 69 x 69 inches, HAND QUILTED! 66 x 76 inches, HAND QUILTED! 48 x 60 inches, movable machine quilted. 37 x 37 inches, Cheryl L. See, Ashburn, VA, HAND QUILTED! 41 x 51 inches, computer-aided quilted. Well, that was fun! Did any of you go to the show? What were your impressions? In stitches, Teresa :o)
Quilts in 2022 are back! And I have been lucky enough to attend these and teach.
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
Two more quilts from participating guild members shown at the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival 2019. More coming each week! "Carolina Lily At Last"
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
Learn about some bad quilting habits that Superior Threads recommends that you quit.
I can’t believe it’s already been a week and half since the family packed up for an evening on an island to see the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Exhibit! Family, ferries, good food, quilt…
Estimated reading time: 12 minutes Update October 2019: I am traveling again this year to the Houston International Quilt Festival and will be writing
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
Double Pinwheel & Peeping Cats Quilt Blocks. Free Pattern and Tutorial
Lori Kennedy wants you to get over your fear of ruining your quilt with machine quilting. She highlights six ways to ruin a quilt and follows up with ways to avoid that ruination. I think we all want to avoid...
“Flowers Of The Cosmos” by Fumiko Nakayama Let me just say right up front that this quilt show exceeded expectations in every way. Something I really love about Japan is …
Explore isaiahk's 5826 photos on Flickr!
There is a wonderful pattern out there from V and Co. that I have and love. It gives good instructions and information about how much fabric to buy, etc. The only problem I faced with it, is that it called for a specific cutting tool, that I did not have, and didn't feel I could afford at the time. So, I improvised. I will touch on the rest of the instructions for putting this together, but frankly you can find it in so many places on-line, that it's a little redundant. Here are the points, after making this quilt at least 3 times and teaching it multiple times, that I find makes it easier. I will also help in figuring out how to change the size of blocks, because I like to choose what size to have my blocks, so I assume you might, too. (If you just need this part, skip down to the *). First, you cut your fabric into strips, two dark and two light (These are cut at 2-1/2", finished they will be 2"). Sew one dark to one light, press towards the dark. Repeat with the other pair. Then place those strips, right sides together, so the dark is on top of the light, and the light is on top of the dark. Match your edges and sew across the top and bottom. I'm sure I don't need to say this, but taking precise 1/4" seams is a must when making a quilt. Next you are going to cut isosceles right triangles from the strip set. I show this in several pictures to show there are many ways and tools to use that can help you make that triangle. To the right I have a ruler, specifically for making this kind of triangle. This is very nice because it doesn't take a lot of figuring to know that you got things lined up - there are lines that match the bottom, the seam and the top. You cut along the sides. But let's say you don't have a handy-dandy ruler like that. You can use a square ruler. Line up the ruler so that each diagonal side (that you will cut down) have the same number lining up with the bottom or bottom seam. You can have to top point hanging off the edge up to 3/8" according to the marking on the side of the ruler. By the way, that measurement of the edge that you cut is the size of the square. As you can see from these photos of the gray and white, the unfinished size of this square will be approximately 6". The black and white square will be 10-1/2". After cutting the first triangle, flip the ruler over and cut another, and another, and another until you have the desired number. Unpick the little bit of the seam on the tip on the triangle. *Now would be a good place to interject how to figure what size to cut your strips, and how to figure what size your final squares will be. If you like geometry, you would know the "a squared + b squared = c squared" would be the equation we need, though in this case, a and b are the same number. I will break this down for those that don't thrive on the math. Pull out your calculators and plug in these numbers. Let's say you want to have 1" finished stripes (be sure to add your seam allowances after doing the math). Here's how the figuring works: 1" x 4 (number of strips per square) = 4 4 xª (squared - or if easier do 4 x 4 = 16) 16 ÷ 2 = 8 8 √ = 2.82 (square root) This will be the size of the finished square using 1" strips. Plug in whatever size strip you want to cut: 2.5 x 4 = 10 xª = 100 ÷ 2 = 50 √ = 7.07 Remember to add in the seam allowance before cutting - this 2.5" strip finished needs to be cut 1/2" larger at 3". It can also go the other way. You know you want a 3" square finished. What size strips to you cut? 3 xª (or times by itself 3x3) = 9 9 x 2 = 18 18√ = 4.24 4.24 ÷ 4 = 1.06 (size strip to use) Confused? Click here for all the numbers figured out for you. Personally I prefer the first way, but it's good to have both methods. "But wait!" you say. "You didn't tell me how to figure how much material I need!" For this there's not the easy formula, but I will tell you this: Take the size of your strip (let's say it's 2.5" finished) and multiply that by 4. 2.5 x 4 = 10. That is the length of the seam at the bottom of the triangle. Doing simple math in your head, you can see that with 42" wide fabric, you are going to get 10 triangle bottoms across one side. The other side will have 3 with 2 partials left over. From there, you should be able to figure out what you need, or you can message me and ask if you need more help. We now return to our originally scheduled programming. Open up flat and iron the seam towards the dark fabric. Square it up, by lining up the center seam on the diagonal and trimming to the correct size. In this case, I'm trimming to 6". My preference (because I strive for perfection) is to trim all four sides to make it a perfect square. At this point, I cut the light and dark squares the size that matches the striped pieces. Then, with right sides together (and I find it works best to put the striped piece on the bottom because of the biased edges stretch more on top), I sew the squares together. I prefer to chain piece them, saves me time, thread and headaches of dealing with the little bird's nest of bobbin thread knotting on the bottom. As you can see, to form the majority of the pieces, the dark square and light square are sewn on the same side of the striped square. Then flip one around and make this layout. Match the center seams and sew. Then join those squares together in strips. You can choose to make long strips that you then sew together, or I prefer making larger squares and sewing larger and larger squares together. Personal preference. You can do it the way that is most comfortable for you. Continue to carefully match each corner seam. To help me with my chain piecing, I carefully stack the pieces up - two pieces together with edges matching. (Photo on left). I place the stack to the left of my sewing machine, then turn the stack so the edge that I'm sewing are next to the machine. (See photo on the right). I pick up the top piece and without turning it, put it under the foot to sew. It's already lined up and oriented correctly, and when there's a color scheme that has to keep things in the right order, it's taken care of. I don't have to sew individual blocks and put them back on the design wall (or lay it back out on the floor), because I know that they are going to come out of my machine still attached by the chain piecing and in the same order I put them into the machine. Keep sewing until it's all put together. Then quilt as desired. My preference is pin basting, even when I'm putting it on a quilt frame. This gray and white houndstooth I hand quilted around the colors so the houndstooth pattern would also appear on the back. As you can see in the photo, when I hand quilt, I look for a way to quilt continuously rather than have to tie off and start over again. For this quilt, it meant quilting in a rather zig-zaggy pattern moving from the bottom of the quilt frame, up. So, as I quilt with one thread and reach the top of the quilting area, I unthread the needle and move over to the next place where I quilt with a different thread. You can see the multiple threads all over the quilt. I discovered this method when I was quilting Sterling's large Bird's in the Air quilt and much prefer to not have to tie as many knots in the center of the quilt. The pink and gray, as well as the black and white, were both machine quilted on a long-arm. Meredith quilted the black and white. I don't know who did the pink and gray. At the end, don't forget to put a label on as to who made the quilt, date and any other important information. One thing I don't like about this pattern is that the squares made up of the stripes, have all the edges of the square on the bias. These you have to sew to squares cut on the grain. This makes it difficult to line up corners perfectly. And I prefer to be able to make it look as perfect as I can. Someday, I will figure out the pattern for this where all the squares can have the straight grain around the edges. . . but not today. ;-)
The best quilt coat pattern for your next quilt coat with coat examples and fabric recommendations. Learn quilt coat pattern tips and tricks
Hello Everyone, Is it really the 1st of April already? It's time for the Country Charmer Quilt Along update. I'm so pleased to show ...
Small but mighty! A pocket prayer quilt is a tiny quilt with a prayer or saying on it. It works up quickly, uses scrap fabric, and the prayer can be ironed on the fabric using HTV or a DTF transfer.