Holiday Blossoms

Each year, I volunteer to make several shop sample Christmas quilts.  Last year, as usual, I fell in love with Holly Taylor's holiday fabrics!  I love that so many of her collections play well together and her seasonal lines are no exception.  For the past few years, Doug Leko has designed pattern books to go with her collections and there are usually several quilts I am interested in making.  I find it so difficult to narrow it down to "THE quilt" for the store displays.

I thought that the Holiday Blossom block design was unique, with a simple, traditional feel.  It's so fun set in a wonky tilt.  The wide pieced border also gives it a warm and scrappy feel that beckons for a good couch cuddle in front of a warm winter fire.

Holiday Blossoms was finished in July 2017, not long after the Forever Green fabric bolts arrived in the store.  I grabbed up the fabrics quickly, before anyone else got to them, and had the quilt finished quickly (the deadline for our Holiday seminar isn't until September)!  Yep, I was excited to work on this project!

Holiday Blossoms

Designer (Book):  Doug Leko (Winterlude)

Size: 70x85""

Featured Fabrics:   Forever Green by Holly Taylor (Moda)

Quilting:  Wintergreen (Patricia Ritter)

Quilting Thread:  Fil-Tec Glide (Lt. Burgandy)

Batting:  Hobbs Heirloom Wool

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Star Spangled Dresdens

Ever since I saw the Quill fabric line by 3 Sisters, I had been wanting to make something with it.  I love a text print and the soft colors that just met together really make my heart pitter-pat!  Last fall, Jackman's finally got a select few bolts of Quill and I jumped at that chance to make one of Suzn Quilts' tiny Dresden quilts from it!

But...which quilt?  Well, it had to be one with only a few fabrics since I only had a small number of bolts to work from.  And, it had to be a design that would work well with the blendy tones of the Quill line.  Enter Susan's new book Dresden Quilt Workshop!  There were a bunch of small quilts to choose from and I had a tough time just picking one!

Star Spangled Dresdens appears in the book as, you guessed it, a patriotic quilt, but it had just enough design to make it work with the few simple fabrics I had to work with!  Red, white & blue became teal floral print, pale grey print & a darker grey...add in a punch of dark purple for pop and it worked great!

I finished Star Spangled Dresdens December 2017, but now I can't wait to make the rest of the quilts in the Dresden Quilt Workshop book.  I already have fabrics pulled for the next one, but in the meantime, I'm keeping up with Susan's Dresden Quilt Workshop Quilt Along over on her blog!

Star Spangled Dresdens

Designer (Book):  Susan Marth (Dresden Quilt Workshop)

Size: 35x35"

Featured Fabrics: Quill by 3 Sisters (Moda)

Quilting:  Twirly Feathers (Hermoine Agee)

Quilting Thread:  Perma Core Tex 30 (Lt. Grey)

Batting:  Quilter's Dream Orient

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Sister's Choice

In October 2016, I finished up the quilting on this pretty little Sister's Choice.  I love 2-block quilts.  They're so fun to make...chain piecing one set of blocks and then the other.  It becomes mindless work, but with a mix of fabrics, each block is interesting in and of itself.  While joining the blocks and rows together, I made the border units "leader/ender" style and then just chaining them thru on their own.  Again, mindless...

While a simple color scheme an tend to get boring, and it did, I love the simplicity of it.  I haven't made many 2-color quilts, but I intend to make more.  I love the results, I just have to spread out the making of them as I tend to get a bit bored with the color pallet while piecing.  I have to just keep telling myself, "It's going to be beautiful and worth it when it's done!" 

Somehow I ended up making 2 extra blocks (one of each).  I wonder how that happened?!?!?  Oh well, leftover blocks with a few extra scraps seem to make great labels!

Sister's Choice

Designer (Book):  Julie Hendrickson (Remembering the Past)

Size: 64.5 x 74.5"

Featured Fabrics: Grand Traverse by Minick & Simpson (Moda)

Quilting:   Dusty Miller Grande (Patricia Ritter)

Quilting Thread:   Madiera (8105 - Blue/Grey)

Batting:  Quilter's Dream Orient

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

Bee In My Bonnet Row Along Quilt

The Bee In My Bonnet Row Along Quilt, in the book Quilty Fun, was the first quilt I saw by Lori Holt and it instantly made me a huge fan!  I love her cutesy 1950s inspired style - actually, I love anything with a vintage feel (no matter what era)!

I finished this quilt in April 2017 and, like all of the Lori Holt quilts, I loved piecing all of the adorable blocks.  It was so much fun putting together various fabric combinations being careful not to put too many of one color or pattern close together and mindful of the rows that would be above an below.

Lori Holt's designs just beg for bright colors with tiny prints.  The quilting mimics the playfulness of the quilt and what's more fun than a panto design called "Tickle Too"!?!?!?  

In her pattern books, Lori has been known to include sweet bonus block designs with hand stitched lettering meant for making labels!  I love these patterns and always make sure to piece them onto (or into) my backing before quilting!

Bee In My Bonnet Row Along Quilt

Designer (Book):  Lori Holt (Quilty Fun)

Size: 68.5 x 86.5"

Featured Fabrics: Assorted  

Quilting:  Tickle Too (Beany Girl Quilts)

Quilting Thread:  Fil-Tec Glide (White)

Batting:  Legacy Wool

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather

The Oaks

I loved making this quilt!  I had been wanting to make just about anything out of the book Civil War Remembered, but this design was at the very top of my list!  I finished it in March of 2017.  Simple piecing + old timey feeling = big impact for me!

Look at that yummy controlled scrappiness!  I love pink, but I especially like pink with browns and dark neutrals...and I like pink even more with lots of other colors mixed in!

All those simple 9-patches deserved a slightly intricate quilting pattern.  I chose the Feather Meander because it's relatively dense and gives the feeling of "special-ness."  I'm not a big fan of custom quilting - or of ME doing custom quilting!  Oh, I love when others do it - on the right quilts.  But, not EVERY quilt NEEDS intricate custom quilting, nor does every quilt deserve it.  Some quilts are just meant to be loved and cuddled and that's why I quilt with pantographs.  I want my quilts to be used.  I have no problem with someone grabbing any one of my quilts and cuddling right up in it on the couch!

Just before adding a binding (and don't ya just love a striped binding?), I always pin on a sleeve to every quilt.  Why?  Well, beacuse, it never fails that last minute someone from the guild is asking if anyone has any quilts that can be displayed for something or other.  This way....my quilts are always prepared and the sleeves actually match and blend right in with the backing fabric.  If I added a sleeve when it actually needed it, I probably wouldn't be able to find any more of the backing fabric!

And, last but not least, the label...I label every quilt and quilted project that I do.  Always basically the same:  Name of Quilt, Designer/Pattern, Pieced & Quilted by (name, town, state, date).  I also add things like the Name of the person I am gifting it to and for what special occasion or I might note any awards the quilt has won.

The Oaks

Designer (Book):  Mary Etherington & Connie Tesene (Civil War Remembered)

Size: 62x62"

Featured Fabrics: Reflections by Jo Morton (Moda)

Quilting:  Feather Meander (Jessica Schick)

Quilting Thread:  Fil-Tec Glide (Med. Brown)

Batting:  Legacy Wool

For fun stuff happening today in the blog-o-sphere, check out the link-ups on my sidebar!

~ Heather