Ta!Da! Another finish to share! This little table runner was made in no time but writing the pattern…. Well! Let’s just accept I’m not going to get that finished before Valentine’s Day. Maybe it will be finished in time for 14th February 2022?
I enjoyed designing the shadowed heart blocks and the heart shaped petals of the flower block. It was strange making this small scale project (the finished cornerstones are just ¾” square) alongside the much larger scale nine-patch quilt I also finished last week.
The runner measures 12″ x 33.5″. The patchwork fabrics are all from my stash. There’s a layer of Hobbs 80/20 batting in the middle and on the back is a piece of unbleached calico. For the quilting I used Aurifil 40wt 2460 to echo stitch the the heart and flower blocks and to stitch in the ditch. I used Aurifil 50wt 2000 to echo stitch inside the borders of the blocks.
The runner is listed in my Etsy shop, AllisonsPatchworks. I’m wondering about making a second version, this time as a long-ways wall-hanging with the heart blocks re-orientated….
linking with Beth for Monday Making, she’s busy making freestyle log cabin blocks and with Michelle for the Beauties Pageant – hearts are her theme this week.
Welcome to Saturday/Sunday Quilting bring & Share. ‘Late again Reid!’ Oops! I hope you have had time to be creative this weekend. Use the links below to see some of the projects members of our Worldwide Quilting Community have been bringing to our attention and share in the generous pool of patchwork quilting knowledge and news that’s been published on the worldwide web over the past week 🙂 Do add your links or news and ideas in the comments box at the end of this page. Thank you!
It’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to teach the foundations of modern patchwork quilting. On Saturday morning I taught the second installment of the Beginners Course at my local quilt shop. Sadly one class participant was unable to attend as she is suffering flu-like symptoms 🙁 I so hope she tests negative to Covid and quickly recovers from her illness.
I am stitching another version of the Dashing Stars quilt along with the Beginners Class. My blocks are now up on my (cluttered) design wall.
The Churn Dash block below is conclusive evidence that I have moved from an attitude of wariness towards text prints to becoming completely hooked! I’m using an extra wide backing fabric, Newsprint by Carrie Bloomston, as
Welcome to Saturday Quilting Bring & Share. Bring along a project or two and relax in the company of other quilters from around the World as they share their latest projects, tips and ideas. Please do use the comments box at the end of this post to share your links and join in the conversations. Thank you!
The weather this weekend has been perfect for getting outdoor jobs done. My husband has given the garden shed two coats of wood preservative and I’ve made a couple of trips to our allotment to cut the grass and continue the end of season tidy up. All very satisfying.
I’ve spent a bit of time in the sewing room too. I decided to keep the Quilter’s Color Quest Bear Paw blocks on point. I stitched narrow sashing strips to each of the blocks before stitching the blocks into rows. I had a bit of trouble visualising where I was going with this layout. My main problem stemmed from having to turn the blocks on their sides so the rectangular layout would fit onto my design wall.
I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to get my head around the bottom left hand corner of the layout on the design wall actually being the top left corner of the quilt top. Now the blocks are stitched into rows I’ve got a better handle on where I’m going with this! 😀 I found the ‘Piecing On-Point Quilts’ tutorial on quiltnotes.com a handy reference guide when my head went into a spin trying to figure out sashing for diagonal rows lying on their sides!
Next step is to add the sashing strips along each row. In measuring the rows I’ve discovered my quarter inch seams are a bit too scant. This row of five 6″ blocks and sashing strips should measure 35″ long not the actual 35¾”!
Ah! Well! I’ll keep all the following seams consistent to this but I’ll be sure to adjust Julie the Juki’s seam guide before piecing another project!
Juki adjustable ‘swing gauge’. There are magnetic seam guides available and I’ve seen a guide that can be attached to Bernina machines.
Lot’s of great posts this week from our Worldwide Quilting Community. Here is just a small selection you might like to click through:
Good to see the new version of Craftsy has been launched following the take over of Bluprint. The Craft Industry Alliance has posted a helpful, short article ‘What to Expect from the New Craftsy‘. The comments are worth a read too as people share their first experiences of the re-jigged platform.
Here’s a stunning ‘leaders, enders’ quilt. It’s maker has decided leaders & enders projects are too distracting – she quickly finds herself abandoning the main project and working on the secondary, leader & ender, project instead!
Sometimes our UFOs can give us a surprise! Elana was caught on the hop when she retrieved a UFO from it’s hiding place, took a photo and saw in the picture a layout design she’d completely forgotten!
Over at Sew Yummy there’s a striking quilt finish to enjoy. I don’t know when I last saw a quilt made just using orange, blue and white fabrics. Of course orange and blue are on opposite sides of the colour wheel making for an attention grabbing quilt. I have a soft spot for this colour combo as in the 1970s our family kitchen had cupboards painted orange with blue tiles on the floor.
Sharon has two finished UFOs to share! Both made with scraps and stash fabrics and both have lovely pieced backings – again all from stash fabrics. Sharon gives links to the patterns she used to make these quilts. I’m especially taken with the ‘Plaidish Quilt’. Another one to add to my list?
Linking with Cynthia for Oh! Scrap. She has already made a start on her red blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge – I’ve yet to take the lid off my reds & pinks scrap box!
Saturday is long gone so I won’t even pretend to make this post a regular Saturday Quilting Bring & Share but, never fear, at the end of the post there are some links into the quilty goodness shared by our Worldwide Quilting Community.
My blog posting schedule slipped as we welcomed family guests and enjoyed celebrating birthdays (two of our children have their special day in the same week!). Nothing makes me happier than having all three of our children together with us 🙂 Monday was a Bank Holiday for most of the UK so that made for a relaxing long weekend.
Now I’m trying to get my head round today being Wednesday. I finished converting the guest room back into my sewing room first thing this morning (a video on my Facebook page shows what the room looks like ‘mid-morph’). I haven’t been putting everything back into place though: I’m having a bit of a de-stash following on from the Quilter’s Color Quest stash challenges. I spent yesterday afternoon out in the garden photographing fabric – conditions were ideal, hazy sunshine and hardly any breeze 🙂 Check out my Etsy shop, AllisonsPatchworks for the latest de-stash items.
Back to my sewing room…. First up on the re-hung design wall are the Bear Paw blocks made as I followed the Quilter’s Color Quest QAL.
I’ve put all sixty up in no particular order and will just leave them to settle, waiting to see if any are too dominant or distracting. It’s such a scrappy mix I figure most, if not all, will be fine. I am considering adding sashing between the blocks to give the eye a bit of a rest as it travels over the quilt top. What do you think? Rachel Hauser gives instructions for different layouts including ‘Flower Pod’ and ‘Modular’ which both involve grouping and separating the Bear Paw blocks with additional fabric. But these alternative arrangements are not on-point and I do like the blocks on point… Plenty to ponder.
Here are the promised links into just a little of what has been shared by our Worldwide Quilting Community:
I wonder how many Hoffman Dream Big panels are languishing in ‘must get round to that’ piles? The panels are available in many attractive colourways. Carole has been at work on two of the panels. In this blog post she shares her quilting plan for the second of her panels and shows us, with lots of clear photographs, how she executed the plan. The quilt is now hanging in a local quilt shop and makes a stunning display.
Christa Watson shares her method for creating wavy line quilting patterns in a video tutorial. She is also offering a free download of her patchwork pattern, Puzzle Box.
Re. The Quilter’s Color Quest, JanineMarie has written a lovely post describing what she has learned about her stash through the final couple of Challenges. Her Bear Paw blocks look great – she has given a lot of thought to her fabric choices.
Often times ‘simple is best’. Patty has used a Charm Pack and some background fabric to make a lovely quilt to welcome her neighbour’s new baby. It’s a great gift and can be made in double quick time… It makes me want to rummage through my stash for a charm pack!
Linking with Susan for Midweek Makers and Jennifer for Wednesday Wait Loss. Both blogs have quilts and projects made by their hosts and contributors to the link ups – more inspiration!
