On a cold winter afternoon, there is nothing like snuggling into your favorite reading corner with a cup of hot tea and a snowflake inspired lap quilt. Enjoy a good book or surfing your favorite blogs while staying toasty warm. For a fun twist on a classic appliqued quilt we used Freezer Paper Stencils to …
Quilting
Quilting Basics – Part 4 – Answering Questions and Helpful Readers’ Comments
Blogs are like books in progress. Although, as the author, you are always on the last page, writing your heart out, at any point in time, someone else can pick up the book, and start reading, and it is all new and fresh to them. Yesterday, someone linked to our articles on basic quilting. Because of that, there's been renewed interest in those postings, with …
Fairy’s First Quilt
Fairy got the coolest sewing machine from Santa this year. I’m a tad jealous myself and have been borrowing it for all my little projects recently. 😉 Unlike the toy or children’s sewing machines we have tried in the past this Sewing Pretty with Hello Kitty by Janome is a REAL machine… just slightly smaller …
Quilting Basics – Part Three – Embroidery
Quilting Basics – Part 1 Quilting Basics – Part 2 Quilting Basics – Part 3 Quilting Basics – Part 4 When I was done quilting the sample I made for our Quilting Basics series, I wanted to add a little embroidery to the piece. I thought back to those early days of coloring inside the doodles and instead …
Quilting Basics – Part 2 – Stitching
Quilting Basics – Part 1 Quilting Basics – Part 2 Quilting Basics – Part 3 Quilting Basics – Part 4 Let's face it, the more we do something, the better we get. Sometimes when we try to explain a technique to someone, we find the chore daunting. We know when the bread has been kneaded long enough or how …
Quilting Basics – Part I – Getting Started
Quilting Basics – Part 1 Quilting Basics – Part 2 Quilting Basics – Part 3 Quilting Basics – Part 4 Probably the question I get asked MOST is… how do you get your stitches so even. My glib response is usually… years of experience. Although that is true, there are tricks I've learned along the way …
Quilting 101… Sort of!
Have you been thinking about quilting but not sure how to get started? Like anything else, quilting is not hard if you break it down into small steps and learn a few tricks. This week we are going to be talking about hand quilting, and before the week is over, you’ll be quilting like a …
Pinwheel Quilt – Part Two “Assembling Your Quilt”
Remember that pinwheel quilt I started before my vacation. I didn’t forget… as promised here is the second part of the tutorial. Now that you have complete Part One of this tutorial, you should have your 17 pinwheel blocks completed and 18 6" print blocks cut out. Layout your block into rows as follows… 3 …
Pinwheel Baby Quilt – Part One “The Pinwheel Block”
The other day I mentioned that the pinwheel quilt was my favorite “go to” pattern… especially for baby quilts. (I CHERISHED my pinwheel baby quilt 🙂 I am now making one for my little niece that is due in September. (Don’t look Meghan!) I will share this tutorial in 2 parts. Part 1: Making pinwheel squares. …
Playful Pinwheels
Over the years I have made quite a few quilts… Log Cabin, Split Rail, Nine Patch, Irish Chain, Around the World, even a Lone Star but the quilt block I return to again and again is the Pinwheel. I love pinwheel quilts. It is my go to pattern when making baby blankets. I made my …
Falling Leaves Wall Hanging
This project was an absolute joy to make. It started with an idea but morphed as I was working on it. The pattern has the tree trunk, the major large pieces and an assortment of “leaves”. It also has the majority of stitches I used, but I encourage you to be playful, and make this …
Harvest Quilt
Last year while completing our Harvest Activities we made 10″ square batik quilt blocks each month with the intent to make a quilt showcasing the kids artwork. This project got buried in the craft cabinet during the holidays and never resurfaced. Recently, I’ve been working on another quilt project and all of the kids have …