Happy New Year!

Hello everyone-- I hope you all had a great holiday season. I was so busy learning new things. I made my first scarf over the holidays and then made one for everyone on my list. I used a biased tape maker for the first time and it really worked! And I made my first American Girl outfit which my daughter loved but was a little bit wonky.

Now I'm back to my real love, quilts!

Here is my newest, just made in 2013 quilt and pattern:

It's called "Little Handstand Bear" because the bear is doing a handstand. My 7 year old said "Mommy, you made a mistake, the bear is upside down". I said it was supposed to be like that. She said I should let everyone know , so that's where the name comes from.

modern quilting means less cut and piece

Ok, maybe most of you will disagree with me on this, but sometimes it is a waste to cut up a big beautiful piece of fabric just to sew it back together again. I know back in the day pioneer women cut up old clothes and grain sacks and used the best pieces for quilts. I think that's still a great way to reuse your scraps and worn clothes. But what about the new yard and half you couldn't resist from the quilt shop? Why not make it into a whole cloth quilt blanket?

Here are 2 of my "couldn't bear to cut up the fabric" quilts:

 The flying geese and the trees have such a wide open field feel to them, who would want to interrupt their flight?

 This fabric from Alexander Henry reminds me of a Mexican horse blanket. It had to stay in one piece!

These are simple 3 layer whole cloth quilts with embroidery floss ties keeping the quilt together. It is so enjoyable to make these quilts. Peaceful, too.

my very first quilt kit is for sale!

When I started making quilt patterns, the idea to sell kits was not far behind. I've been waiting for the perfect quilt to sell as a kit and here it is:

The first picture is the kit with all the parts, the second photo is the kit all bundled up to mail. The green flower in the center is a coaster, one of the little gifts I like to add to surprise the customers. ( I usually include a bookmark, but of course, being me, I got tired of making them and switched to coasters. The only problem with coasters is I'm not sure if it is obvious what they are so maybe I need to include a tag that says "coaster"?)

Back to the topic, my first quilt kit, is the star fish quilt. So now I have the quilt, the pattern, and the kit available. I hope someone besides me likes them...
Here's how I described the kit deciding process:

love this quilt! It was such fun to design and make, I thought someone else might want to try it. Then I thought, it might be a hard for someone to gather all the little pieces for the star fish. Then came the great idea to assemble it all in a kit. I had enough fabric left over except the mermaid one, which was easy to order from my new favorite Etsy fabric store, Baileygirlsfabric.

I knew if I were buying a kit I would want everything to complete the project, including the batting layer and the back. So everything is here, except for the thread and the sewing machine. The kit is available, of course, in the shop for $42.00.

mermaids and star fish quilt from Sarah Jane

I love Sarah Jane fabrics for kids. The designs say childhood antics, old fashioned fun and lots of imagination. Her newest design set is called Out to Sea. I've already made some quilts from her ship fabric and map fabric, now it's time to take on the mermaids and octopuses.

I've had the mermaid fabric around the sewing a room awhile. I wasn't sure how to make it into a quilt. There's a lot of motion in the pattern with a red haired mermaid swimming and playing. There is also lots of open ocean, so to speak, or open space with just some tiny fish and water bubbles.

My last few kid's quilts have had large appliques to the side with most of the quilt left to show off the main fabric design. With the mermaid fabric, it seemed that the print wasn't telling the story by itself, it needed more. The problem then was that my mind needed to get out of the groove of single large appliques into something else. Finally it came to me.


The mermaid is holding a star fish, so I thought, why not add some more star fish to the quilt? Now the ocean spaces have bright star fish in them:)

The finished quilt and the pattern are available at Maryland Quilter. http://www.etsy.com/shop/marylandquilter?ref=si_shop

having Christmas fun early

I'm having such fun putting together Christmas quilts. I decided that whatever I wanted to make, I'd go ahead and make. So here are my latest two Christmas quilts, one is a geometric bit of everything and the other is a super traditional nod to Christmas past:

This geometric quilt came together like a painting. I started with preparing the canvas, the three quilt layers of top, batting and backing. These layers were pinned to keep them from shifting. Then the fun began. All my scraps and small pieces went flying everywhere and the best ones landed on the quilt. These were moved and trimmed and layered and finally pinned in place. Then they were sewn to the quilt. I love sewing the appliques and quilting at the same time. It is just a lovely economy of effort and creates a beautiful pattern on the back of the quilt. This holiday quilt is a bit expensive, $105.00, because there is a surprising lot of time and dense sewing invested.

The quilt above  was labor intensive, this one was just fun and easy. I loved quilting following the outline of the little winding road between the houses. Such fun and I could almost smell the pumpkin pie, can't you?

once upon a fairy tale quilt

I really love the fabric line, Fairy Tale Friends by Moda. I bought a bundle of fat quarters through a great deal from Craftsy. The fabric is rich in color and has a great texture.

 I used 4 fat quarters in the same color family to make this first quilt. The bundle came with two craft panels with scenes from fairy tales. I knew I wanted the quilt to showcase parts of the panel, but it took  a bit of thought to decide how to do it. Finally I chose a mottled red flannel as a frame for the pictures. The flannel is also used for the back of the quilt.

The best part of the project is that I only used 1 of the 4 colorways in the fat quarter bundle, so I have lots more fabric to mess around and make more quilts with :) Yippee! I'm such a fabric addict :)

I love love love this pattern

I've been having fun all week with this pattern. I had some leftover ovals from Kelsey's wedding quilt and was moving them around, trying to fit them into a lap quilt. Here is the result:

I liked it so much because the center pieces are the pieces that are cut out of the ovals, so there is no waste when you cut out the applique AND you get twice the reward from your efforts. I love that! In fact, I loved how the quilt looked so much, I made 2 more of them, each one a bit different:

I often like to make batches when I fall in love with a pattern, then I'm done and don't make any more, ever.

If any of my readers would like a free pdf copy of one of these patterns, just mention it in the comment box. Include your email address and which quilt you want to make, I'll send it to you :) They are also available to purchase in my shop.

from really big to teeny tiny

I'm still recovering from the huge queen size quilt I made last week. So today I had fun with a little project. I found the idea for this one in a great book, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. You start with a moleskine cahier pocket notebook. Add fabric pieces in whatever design. Sew it to the cardboard cover with a small zigzag stitch. I added a mini bookmark to mine. I made 5 and they are available in the shop. Well, I made 3 other ones that my kids got because I didn't get the hang of it till the 4th one. One of the perks to having a crafty mom-- you get all the not quite sale able stuff :)

the wedding quilt that wasn't

Here's the first try of a wedding quilt for my niece, Kelsey. She wanted black, white, grey and a bit of some other color. Somehow the quilt that I was thinking would be muted in color turned out dramatic. I still don't know how that happened. Then it was also too small when they moved and got a queen size bed. So now this crazy quilt is in the shop waiting for the person I must have made it for who isn't Kelsey :)

kelsey's wedding ring quilt finished!

I finally tackled my niece's wedding quilt and finished it. I'm so happy !! It was a real challenge to design and create. Large quilts intimidate me anyway, and I wanted this one to be special. Thank you quilter Liz for encouraging me to get on with it. It's great to have a friend and really neat to have one all the way in Australia :)

Here is some of the process behind the quilt. I wanted to make a double wedding quilt which is a traditional pattern. I am not traditional. So I had to bend the pattern to fit me. It had to be the best I could make it but also the most efficient. In other words, I don't have the time or patience to cut hundreds of little pieces and then sew them back together.

 So I converted the pattern to an applique design, sewn and quilted on a central panel.
I added a couple of borders.

 Here is the finished quilt. The pattern is for sale in the shop, the original quilt going to Kelsey, of course. Tomorrow I hope to show you the first wedding quilt I made for her, which turned out not at all as I planned. That one will be for sale in the shop.