A Tale of Two Quilts

                   
My friend and former next door neighbor, Mary, recently moved. She has a new set of extra-long twin beds that she wanted quilts for. 

             
Her inspiration for what she wanted was this rainbow chevron quilt photo she found online, made by Red Pepper Quilts.


From that photo I set to work. I started out with 6 1/2" squares in 5 different colorways.


This is 560 half-square triangles. I squared them up to 5 1/2", or 5" finished.


Here they are, being arranged on the design wall, which wasn't long enough to put them all up at once!


Webbed together, as Bonnie Hunter calls it: when the blocks are chain pieced together in one direction--in this case, the horizontal seams, without the threads cut between blocks. The chain pieced threads will hold the quilt together while sewing the vertical seams.

             
Quilting! I used an edge-to-edge design called Windy Meandering by Sophie Collier. It has a long repeat, looks very random, is evenly spaced and has a variety of swirls.

             
Close-up...


I used the 5 colors of the quilt for a scrappy binding.

             
Each quilt finishes at 70" X 100", standard quilt size for extra long mattresses.


Here they are finished and hanging on my longarm...


The backs, with labels in the bottom corners...

              
A close-up of the backing fabric...


And the finished quilts!!!

         
The quilts are delivered. Mary sent this photo of the quilts in her new guest room!!! Thanks for sending the photo, Mary!!!

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Check out other goings on in the quilt world at Show Me Something Rainbow, Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework, QuiltFabrication, Sew Can She.

3050 Miles of Quilt Shops

                         

My friend, Wendy, visited all 72 quilt shops in the 2016 Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop, over 2 weeks time! That was in July/August, 2016. She was one of 99 participants that made it to every participating quilt shop. 

She made this quilt top from the 2016 Minnesota Shop Hop fabrics. The pattern is Marching Band by Terry Atkinson.

                

For quilting, she requested an edge-to-edge design called "Americana Flourish".  

               
The back is a pieced quilt in itself! Every shop gave out a free 5" square of the shop hop fabric, so the backing includes 72-5" squares, as well as some of the other fabrics she didn't put on the front.

              
A bigger photo of the back.

                
And here's the front, photo taken on a rather windy day! Great job, Wendy! It finishes 72" X 91". Great memory of your 3050 mile trip!

You'll find my 2016 Minnesota Shop Hop quilt here.

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Check out interesting quilt links at Cooking Up Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Sew Fresh Quilts, Quilt Fabrication, Small Quilts & Doll Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts.

The Latest Quilt News

Very excited here--just found out my "Tsukubai" won 1st Place Viewer's Choice at the Dakota County Star Quilters quilt show!

And my 2016 Row By Row quilt won Honorable Mention!

Now, let's get on to some quilts hot off the rollers. Here are a few quilts my clients have been making recently.

Karen asked me to quilt this giant piece of designer fabric. It is made by Marimekko of Finland.

She requested tennis ball size meandering. There is nothing more fun than meandering on a longarm! As you can see on the top roller, the backing is Minkee, which makes it super cuddly.

                     

I can relate to long quilts! This one finishes at 59" X 107".

              

Kim found this log cabin quilt top in a box. It was pieced by her grandmother, who has been gone for 26 years now. 

 The fabrics look like they're from the 40's, 50's and 60's, all leftover scraps.

             

Here's what the back side looked like, before quilting. She foundation pieced all the blocks on muslin, gauze and flannel.

Kim will be giving the finished top to her mother for Mother's Day. I'm sure the fabrics contain a lot of wonderful family memories.

             

This is Wendy's mystery quilt from Glad Creations, 2017. 

The quilting is a very swirly design called "Lovegrass".

Wendy used batiks, including the backing, where the quilting really shows up!

And here is the big picture! 

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Check out all the interesting quilting links at Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Kokaquilts, She Can Quilt.

Colour Me Happy Quilt

My latest finished quilt! Finished quilt number 12 for me in 2017.

                   
As soon as I got this magazine, Love Patchwork & Quilting, Issue 46, I knew I wanted to make the cover quilt--so modern, simple and colorful! The designer is Felice Regina of Sew Scatter Brained.


I made all the flying geese first--48 total.


Next came the square in a square blocks. I love using the Folded Corner Clipper ruler on the corners, to avoid drawing lines down the diagonal of the squares. And yes, I do save the corners and sew them into half square triangles for other projects.


Progress on the design wall...


Next comes the arranging and rearranging...


One could rearrange forever! I had to finally stop and say, this is it! The final arrangement!


Next up came the quilting. I used an edge-to-edge design called "Cinnamon".

             
And here is the finished top! Mine finishes at 48" X 64". I used Quilter's Dream Orient batting--a bamboo/silk combo, for a lightweight finish. This quilt will go to my MIL.


And the pieced backing, made from 12 fat quarters. I turned the label the wrong way, but finished is better than perfect!


DD2 is working on her own version of this quilt right now--her progress so far. She's doing 20 blocks.

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Check out other quilty inspiration at: Love Laugh Quilt, Em's Scrapbag, Cooking Up Quilts, Patchwork Times, Let's Bee Social, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Sew Can She.

Mother Bear Teddy Bears

I knit and crochet, besides quilting. One project I like to do is Mother Bear Project teddy bears. They accept knitted or crocheted teddy bears. I like to crochet my bears, as they go faster, plus I can do amigurumi style ears of various fun colors. 

               
These teddy bears are send to children in Africa, affected by AIDS. Many of them are orphans. Photos of the bears in the arms of their child are posted on the Mother Bear website. Two of my bears recently showed up. This is my 190th teddy bear and it's child!


Baby quilt made with the Urban Abacus pattern and Quick Curve Ruler.

               
And here is my 187th teddy bear, both my original photo and a photo with it's child! 

BTW, to see what 84 teddy bears, with bright colored ears, being sent off at once looks like, go to this post.

If you knit or crochet, consider making a teddy bear, and send a child in need some love! The patterns, both knit and crochet versions, are available here http://motherbearproject.org/pattern.html

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

A Japanese Mini Finish

I thought it's about time I add another Japanese mini side to our stairwell quilt gallery. When I recently signed up for the newsletter from Blossom Heart Quilts, she sent a quilt pattern. She lived in Japan for several years, also. I thought I'd make it up from Japanese indigo fabrics.

She calls the block, Diamonds In the Sky quilt block. It finishes 12". 

First I had to decide if I liked arrangement A,

Or B. 

Everyone preferred B, including me, so that is how I stitched it up. 

I quilted it with matchstick quilting on my longarm. After quilting, it seemed to need a border, so I added stitch and flip borders and it went back on the longarm for more quilting. Here's the finished mini. 

And the back, with hanging stick, 3-M Command Picture Hanging Strip (hook and loop) and label.

And here it is, hanging in it's spot on the Japanese mini quilt wall!

Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts, Busy Hands Quilts.