Bass Harbor Head Light

This wall hanging was made from a kit purchased at Sewing by the Sea in Trenton, Maine, a few years ago.  I visited this lighthouse with my son who lives near Acadia National Park where the lighthouse is located.  The shop, in nearby Trenton, has designed a series of patterns featuring different Maine lighthouses.  I switched out some of the kit fabrics, notably the sky, rocks and ocean, and added a couple borders to frame the picture.  The final size is 21 1/2" x 23".

NY themed row x row

This is a wall hanging called Home...A Light in the Window, made from a 2016 row by row design that I found at the Ivy Thimble Quilt Shop booth at a local quilt show.  Both the fabric and the row were designed for the shop by Joanne Galasso.  I loved the NY symbols in the fabric which framed the row, so bought the kit.  I've worked on it off and on since then, and finally finished it this week.   The finished wall hanging measures 22 by 48.  The only thing left to do is find a spot to hang it :). 

Medallion Quilt

Here is another quilt I had in my guild show last fall. It's a large quilt, about 108" square, so they had to fold the bottom up to hang it.  It was a guild challenge that started in 2018.  The idea was to start with a center medallion, whatever size and colors we wanted, and every month add a border that would be chosen at random by the challenge coordinator.  I usually do fused, machine stitched applique, but decided to do all the applique on this quilt by hand so it would have a softer feel on the finished quilt.  I did vow never to do hand applique again! :)   I was able to complete all the borders as they were announced, but took a long time deciding how to quilt it, and then actually quilting it.  I free motion quilt on a domestic machine, so a lot of 'wrangling' was required.

The guild show is not judged, but does have a viewers' choice award, which I was honored to win.  This is the first quilt I designed myself with no pattern, only following the directive of which type of border to do each month.  Also, I didn't buy any new fabrics, just used what was in my stash, so a win all the way around.  

Guild Challenge

Last year was the 25th anniversary of my quilt guild, and the year of their biennial quilt show, so the challenge for the year was to make a 25 inch square quilt which incorporated '25' in some way.  I decided to make a sampler with 25 different blocks, 25 different fabrics, and 25 flower petals, leaves, and berries in the appliqued border.  What a surprise to find out I won the challenge!

I made a couple labels for the back, one using all 25 fabrics, and one identifying all 25 blocks.

Time to update

Yes, my blog is in serious need of an update.  I've been so busy quilting since my last post  (yikes, almost 3 years ago?!!!)  that I haven't taken time to write about any of my projects since then.  Soon after that last post I joined a local quilt guild which has filled up my quilting time with lots of new projects.  It has challenges, charity projects, show and tell, a show every other year, workshops, etc.....all things that have kept me busy and involved.

One recent project came from a workshop I attended last fall on making a Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt. It was led by Penny Streeter from Penny's Patches, Troy PA.  The book includes a CD with templates to print, but doesn't include directions for the  6 inch blocks (111 of them) that make up the quilt. Penny collaborated with the book author and with the Electric Quilt company to put together paper piecing templates as an alternative way to make the blocks.  I had only tried paper piecing once before and didn't like it at all, but was game to give it another shot.  I'm really glad I did, because with the proper tools and Penny's excellent instructions, I found it worked well for me.  So far I've completed 100 blocks.

Acorn Medley

I saw a sample of this wall hanging in a quilt shop and loved it. After thinking about it for a couple weeks, I went back to the shop, bought the pattern, and choose fabrics, with some great help from the staff at the shop (Patchwork Garden, Amherst, NY). This is a Kansas Troubles pattern, Acorn Medley, which uses an Oak Haven charm pack and some coordinating yardage.

Some recent work, some still in progress, some finished.

Village Square

This is another Kim Diehl design from her Simple Whatnots Club. The fabrics are the Heritage Hollow design from Henry Glass. It's 37 1/2" square.

There's quite a bit of applique on this quilt so it took a little longer than tops that are pieced only, but I love the gently curving vine border. I fused the appliques in place with heat 'n bond light, and machine stitched them with a narrow zig-zag and monofilament thread.

I stitched in the ditch in most of the pieced sections, did a diamond pattern in the plain borders, and did echo stitching around the appliques.

This is one of the projects that is actually finished and hanging on the wall. Yay.

 

 

Old Towne

Having decided I rather like kits, I found this one on sale at Craftsy. The fabrics are all Sturbridge by Moda. The pattern is by Kathy Schmitz. The size is 49" x 59"... not a bed quilt, but a nice size for a throw. I couldn't fit the entire top in the picture, but this at least shows the borders on two sides. I have backing in the black print fabric so I'm on track to get it basted and quilted.

Grandpa George's Cabin

I am running out of wall space for any more small quilts so it's time to make some bed quilts. I saw a kit for Grandpa George's Cabin and loved the colors, so when it was on sale I bought it. The quilt pattern is designed by Joyce Weeks for Geoff's Mom Pattern Co. The fabrics are by Diamond Textiles and the quilt size is 82" x 89". Some of the homespuns in the kit were a little dark, so I substituted a few brighter colors from my stash.

I love the look of on point settings but I did find it rather tedious to stitch the blocks into rows and the rows together. So, though it took a while, the top finally got done. Now it is awaiting batting and quilting. Fortunately I have coordinating backing all set to go.

 

 

Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots wall quilts

 

I participated in a Simple Whatnots program at my local quilt shop last year and am continuing to work on finishing the various little quilts (some with kind of funny names) made with Kim Diehl fabrics and patterns.

 

 

Widdlytinks

 

 I pieced this one last fall, didn't feel like making all those little yo-yos, so set it aside until now. I finally stopped procrastinating, made the yo-yos, and stitched them on. This is a fairly small quilt, 12 1/2" x 14 1/2".

 

 

 

Window Box

 

This 13 1/2" x 18 1/2" quilt was also pieced last fall and set aside to do the applique after Christmas. The pattern called for appliques with the same cotton fabric used in the piecing, but I decided to do wool applique instead. It was stitched down with my machine buttonhole stitch.

 

 

 

Hen Pecked

 

This was the smallest of the club quilts at 10 1/2 x 11 1/2". The half square triangle blocks are just 1". Usually I make HSTs by stitching 2 squares together 1/4" each side away from a diagonal line drawn in the middle of the square and cutting apart on the drawn line, making 2 identical squares. This time, I remembered I had an Accuquilt fabric cutter triangle die of the exact size to make finished 1" squares, so I used it to cut all the triangles. They were so accurately cut that they stitched together really well.



Hopscotch

 

This is one of the larger quilts, 28 1/2" square. The pattern had directions for adding the center applique, or just using more rows of triangles. I liked the applique look better so went with that option using the iron on fusible web method. I haven't quilted this one yet. All the flying geese units were made by stitching squares on the diagonal on each end of the background rectangles, folding the squares back, and cutting off the excess. When I stitched the squares on, I stitched an extra seam 1/2" away from the diagonal stitching line, resulting in 2 already stitched small half square triangle squares left from each unit. I have them all set aside ready for a new project. Yaay.

Button Flowers

 

 

This little 17x23" wall hanging was from the McCall's mini madness quilt-along last year. It's called Button Flowers, designed by Sheri Bain Driver. I was so anxious to get it done that I bought the kit

 rather than take the time to plow through my fabric stash to find the perfect colors. I finished it last fall but just recently sewed on the little buttons.

Starry Night/Tardis Wall Hanging

This wall hanging was made for another grandson whose favorite painting is Starry Night and who is a big Dr. Who fan. (Dr. Who is a British science-fiction television programe produced by the BBC from 1963 to the present). Dr.Who travels in a time machine, called Tardis, which looks like a 1960's police box. In one episode he travels back in time to visit Van Gogh and brings the artist to the future to see his works in a museum. Thus the connection between Starry Night and Tardis. There are many examples of quilts with this combination online, and I borrowed some of the ideas to fashion my own. I found a small Tardis picture and printed it out on fabric for the applique.

I didn't get any pictures of my process, but I did it as I had done the blue and yellow wall hanging, starting by sketching a large drawing (about 24" x20") and then choosing fabrics. This time I used fusible webbing along the edges of the pieces and pressed them in place on a couple batik background fabrics rather than using freezer paper and glue. I did all the appliqueing and quilting after layering and basting. I stitched close to the edges of each piece first, using a walking foot, then added swirls and such for the quilting.

Baby Quilt

A little blue and white quilt finished for a new grandson. I think this was made using strips from a jelly roll I won in an online giveaway a few years ago. These aren't colors I use in decorating, but seemed perfect for a baby quilt. When it was all pieced, it reminded me of the sea, so I machine quilted little fish, shells and sea creatures in the striped blocks, starfish in the small blocks, and swirls in the white.

Blue and Yellow wall hanging

 

This wall quilt, which I made last summer, was inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night and based on a Pinterest picture which I've traced to Wonderlab Science Museum in Bloomington, Ind. but haven't been able to find any further information about it so far. I made the quilt for a new grandson's bedroom with a navy and yellow color scheme and an art theme loosely based on paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Modigliani.

 

First I raided my stash for appropriate colors to play with.

 

 

Then I enlarged the picture to about 22" x 22" and modified it a little.

 



 

 

Since all the pieces were curved, I decided to use freezer paper. I numbered and hash marked each piece on my master drawing, then traced it all on freezer paper. I ironed the paper to the wrong side of the pieces, cut with a quarter inch seam allowance,  pressed over the overlapping seam allowances and then glue basted the pieces together and removed the papers.

 

 

I worked in sections.

 

Once everything was glued in place, I machine stitched close to the edge of each piece. Then I layered the top with batting and backing, pin basted, and free motion quilted a swirly pattern all over.

 

Here it is with the quilting done. I finished it off with a navy binding but didn't get a picture of that.

 

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Death Star Wall Hanging

I made this wall hanging for my middle grandson who has been a Star Wars fan for years. I used a free pattern on the Quirky Granola Girl blog but enlarged it to make the star about 12" in diameter. Total size of quilt is 22 x 22. I cut the patterns from freezer paper, ironed them onto the fabrics, then glue basted the pieces together. I hand embroidered the stars and machine quilted everything using a walking foot.

Kansas Troubles pattern

 

This little quilt is from a pattern I purchased in a quilt shop in Freeport, Maine. It's called KT Classic Charms, designed by Lynne Hagmeier, and is 22" square.  I used some charm squares from a Jo Morton pack I bought at the same shop. Like many (most) of my quilt tops, it remains to be quilted. I'll probably do stitch in the ditch on the main section because I want the fabrics to be the center of attention. Then I'll do some free motion in the border. By the way, all those little triangles are  HALF square triangles :)                                                                        

HSTs and QSTs - a Pet Peeve

It really, really bugs me when quilters use the HST term for both kinds of triangles. Yes, they look the same, but in half square triangles, the diagonal is on the bias and the edges are on the straight of grain. Quarter square triangles are the opposite, with the diagonal on the straight of grain and the edges on the bias. For stability of your blocks it helps to have all the outside edges be on the non-stretchy straight of grain. Thus, placement and type of triangles used is important for accurate measurements, matching seams and points, and preventing the block from having a 'wonky' shape.

I see all sorts of videos and tutorials for making quick triangle units. The triangles are invariably referred to as half square triangles when they actually are quarter square triangles. One such tutorial is the 'tube' method where you stitch 2 equal sized strips together on both the long sides, then cut them apart on 45 degree angles. Most of these tutorials recommend heavily starching the fabric, I guess to cut down on the bias edges stretching out of shape.

 

I have no problem with people posting and using these methods. It's totally OK if you want to do it this way. There's no 'rule' that says you can't. Just please give the triangles their correct names. It seems pretty simple to me and would certainly help clarify whether the edges will be on the bias (QSTs) or not (HSTs).

There's a detailed explanation of HSTs and QSTs on the Guidelines for Quilting web site. I'm not affiliated with this site (they sell rulers), I just think they have a pretty good tutorial.  

http://www.guidelines4quilting.com/HST-QST.html