I fell in love with this fabric — Imperial Gardens by Benartex. I chose the pattern Phoebe’s Flower box by Missouri Star Quilt Company. I started it during the Covid quarantine and finished it in 2020 on a friend’s longarm with a neat pantograph. It was gifted to a friend this year.
I started this quilt in 2020 during the Covid quarantine. The pattern is Alter Ego from Missouri Star Quilt Company. The fabric is Middleton Place by Windham. Quilted on my HQ Moxie in a simple swirl pattern. This was the first quilt done on my own longarm. It was a wedding gift in 2021, obviously after I put on the binding.
This is a graduation quilt for a very special young lady in our lives. She’s the perfect mix of down-to-earth yet a dreamer, of dirt under her nails until she glams it up. In our family we call that a cowgirl-princess. She’s amazing.
When choosing fabric for her quilt, she really likes blues and greens, and I knew I wanted to do something a little traditional and a little wild. I settled on Kaffe Classics – Island Design jelly roll. From afar, it’s easy to see the blue and green shades, but up close the fabrics definitely have a funky feel.
The quilt uses a keyhole pattern which really is easy and lots of fun to make. At first I was going to tie the quilt, but after doing some free-motion quilting on QQ#2, I decided to give it a try here as well. I studied lots of videos online and then turned my ideas loose.
This was the perfect quilt for learning more free-motion skills, as the fabric lends itself to imperfection. I outlined the keyhole blocks and left most of the block unquilted, then practiced several different patterns to fill the keyholes.
I decided to have some fun with the borders since there were several and just see what would happen with a little linear structure and a lot of creativity. It’s definitely challenging on a regular machine to have enough room to have smooth motion. It also takes a lot of upper body strength, so I could only work for a little while before I would have to take a break. I learned a lot about my Singer’s capabilities for free-motion quilting. Although the quilting is anything but perfect, I think the imperfections add to the funky feel. The pieces left over from the keyholes was perfect as an inner border.
The binding is made of left-over strips from the jelly roll, and I really like the whimsy of a multi-colored binding. I raided my button stash to make a simple and fun little label, and there you go–a one-of-a-kind quilt for a one-of-a-kind girl!
This quilt is a graduation quilt that I had been planning for the past year. When I knew that the colors I was going for were reds and purples, I knew that Hopscotch Punch by RJR Fabrics was going to be the bomb! I chose the fabrics first in Pixie Strips (2.5″ strip set), then finally settled on a Stack & Flip quilt pattern. The colors lined up to give some real drama and movement to the quilt. Unfortunately, indoor light doesn’t do it any justice.
I machine pieced the quilt and decided that black was just the color to make the reds & purples pop. I was going to tie this quilt, but found that I couldn’t find a way to tie it and make it look balanced. So, since the back was a single fabric, I decided to do some simple machine quilting.
First, I outlined the quilt regions using some of the “fancy” stitches on my Singer machine. Then, figuring that the quarantine was giving me an excuse to learn some more quilting techniques, I decided to do some free-motion quilting. It’s rather challenging on a regular sewing machine. However, the generally straight pattern with an occasional “lollipop” seemed like a great way to start.
I finished with a tag on the back, going through my button stash to add in some “button bling.” Finally, on to one of my favorite quilting activities: hand stitching the binding (I know, I’m kinda weird!). I kept out a few of the lighter strips of fabrics and I like how they frame the black borders.
I hope the young lady really likes it; I think it is stunning.
A dear friend had her 25th anniversary this spring. Unfortunately, the events from this spring (and an unfortunate lack of female offspring!), meant that there would be no celebration of this remarkable event.
Luckily, I had just the answer to this problem: an anniversary quilt! I had 2 lovely Layer Cakes (10″ pre-cut squares of coordinating fabrics) in my stash. The name of the Layer Cakes was Middleton Place by Windham Fabrics. The pattern I chose was “Building Blocks” and if you click on the link it will take you to the tutorial.
I machine pieced the quilt and then hand tied it with a dark rose-colored thread. I especially like creating projects specifically for people, as it gives me a chance to think on these special folks and I also do a lot of praying for them while I make their quilt.
Because the weather was so iffy, and I was trying to get a photo of the quilt in natural lighting, I ended up using my deck as the background. I know…not very inspiring, but at least the quilt stayed clean and dry. The direct sunlight does wash out the colors a little, but it is much prettier than in artificial lighting.
I love piecing the backs of my quilts so that they are almost as fun as the fronts. I may take some unused fabrics or blocks from the front, then add in some more fabric from my stash. It’s just another way to make this quilt unique.
Sarcoxie Creek Studio 