I’m pleased to present my version of the Boomerang quilt: Kinniken’s Dragon. This one is headed out to my brother on the east coast. The minute I saw the Boomerang pattern by Jaybird Quilts, I knew I wanted to make it. I also loved the way Angela Walters quilted the one on the cover of…
Author: Rachel
Quilting is one of my many hobbies that involve organizing small things into larger, ordered things. I quilt in a small space in the front room of my home in northern California, which often involves taking over the entire dining room table.
Quilt Finish: A Walk in the Garden
The pace of my quilting has slowed quite a bit since I started a new job in March, but the travel ban gave me an unexpected two-week staycation in July. I put it to good use, and here is the result: A Walk in the Garden. Finishing at a whopping 88” x 107”, it’s the…
Mid Year Check In: 2020 Quilting Goals
Back in December, Yvonne Fuchs (Quilting JetGirl) hosted the #2020PlanningParty to share our goals for 2020. This week she’s hosting a #2020MidYearCheckIn on those goals. 2020 has steamrolled blindly over my goals, just as it has for everyone else’s, but not all of the changes have been disappointing. I am overwhelmingly grateful every day for…
Magnetic Swatches System (Free Pattern)
I am so tickled with my newly-completed magnetic swatch system for my Kona Cotton Solids fabric swatches! Read on for instructions and a downloadable pattern for making your own set, as well as a few other options in case sewing all those fabric envelopes isn’t your thing. I have been admiring, and envying, the photos…
Quilt Finish: Sea Glass
Presenting my first finish of 2020: Sea Glass. I started piecing this quilt in March of 2019, when I was hip-deep in quilting The Color of Time on my domestic machine. At some point, I needed a break from wrestling the giant quilt so I decided — why not? — to start a new project….
Quilt Finish: Interwoven
Presenting my final finish of 2019: Interwoven! This is the seventh quilt I completed in 2019. The pattern is from Lo and Behold Stitchery. I used Kona cotton solids for the top, backing, and binding. It was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50-weight cotton thread and it’s filled with Warm & Natural cotton batting.* I…
Eight Weeks of Learning with the FMQ Challenge
I’ve just finished attaching the binding to my completed challenge quilt, and what a journey it has been! I joined the Fall 2019 FMQ Challenge to fulfill one of my goals for the year: to attend a quilting workshop or class. Angela Walters of Quilting Is My Therapy was our excellent instructor, releasing a couple…
2020 Planning Party
Yvonne (Quilting JetGirl)’s 2020 Planning Party linkup is underway! I participated last year and found it very helpful to really think about my quilting goals, which then became part of my overall yearly goals. 2019 RecapI did pretty well on last year’s goals, I’m happy to say! Here’s the update: 2019 Goal #1. Finish 5…
Bright Sisters is finished!
I’m so excited to share that I have finally finished Bright Sisters, my version of the Color Block quilt from 3 Dog Design. It’s been gifted to my amazing and talented sister, Sonja Stone, who loves it and will give it a good home. She writes young adult suspense novels, by the way. If you’re…
Feather & Fern
I’m working my way across my Bright Sisters quilt top using a different quilting design in each color block area. For the yellow & green square-in-a-square areas, I chose this half-feather, half-fern design. Before attempting this design on the quilt, I drew variations of it on my iPad and practiced on scrap blocks. I tried…
Quilting Bright Sisters
Nearly two years after finishing the quilt top, I’m finally hip-deep in quilting Bright Sisters. This is my version of the Color Block Quilt designed by Carl Hentsch of 3 Dog Designs, which I first saw on an episode of The Midnight Quilt Show. It was love at first sight. I couldn’t wait to make…
Prepping for the Fall 2019 FMQ Challenge
I’m thrilled to be participating in the upcoming Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) Challenge called Help! How Do I Quilt It? led by Angela Walters of Quilting is My Therapy. One of my 2019 goals is to take a quilting workshop or class, and I decided that this one will fit the bill nicely. The timing…
Quilt Finish: The Color of Time
I’m pleased to present the largest quilt I’ve completed to date: The Color of Time. It finished at 90″ x 108″ and I pieced and quilted it on my sit-down machines. The pattern is adapted from Dimensions by Amy Ellis of Amy’s Creative Side, which includes instructions for twin and king quilts but not a…
Creating a Queen-Sized Quilt on a Sit-Down Machine
The idea of quilting a queen-sized quilt without a mid- or long-arm machine and quilting frame seems daunting, but I did it… and you can, too! I own a quilting frame and I love it. It’s the older wooden Gracie frame from The Grace Company (no longer available from them, but sometimes you can find…
Repairing Opened Seams at the Edge of a Quilt Top
I completed this quilt top over a year ago, but haven’t had a chance to quilt it until recently. I love the pattern, which was designed by Carl Hentsch. He calls it Color Block Solids, but I call my version Bright Sisters. It includes a lot of seams that are pressed open to keep everything…
Blocking a Display Quilt
I wanted to share a picture of the surface I used when I blocked Wheel of the World (you can read more about that quilt and how I actually did the blocking here). Blocking is often done to knitted or crocheted pieces, to reshape them so they will hold their form (so hems stay flat…
Finishing the Interwoven Quilt-Along
My Instagram feed is almost entirely filled with quilters, which I love, so I see a lot of invitations to quilt-alongs. I usually don’t pick up on those, but when I saw this one I was drawn in immediately. I love the geometry of the quilt pattern, I loved that the quilt-along was only 8…
Presenting: Wheel of the World
My first honest-to-goodness commissioned quilt is finished! Here is Wheel of the World: If you live in the Pacific Northwest and you want to see it in person, it will be hanging in the Everett Quilt Show next week (April 25-27) in Everett, WA. This quilt began its journey nearly two years ago with a…
Sun and Shadow, Earth and Sky
Presenting my latest finish, 21 years in the making: Sun and Shadow, Earth and Sky. Years ago, I started this quilt for friends of mine who were about to have their first baby. The “baby” is now almost old enough to drink, but I finally finished his quilt. The fatal combination of not owning a…
Starting the Interwoven Quilt Along
Today marks the beginning of the eight-week quilt along to make the beautiful Interwoven quilt designed by Brittany of Lo and Behold Stitchery. I’m excited to be joining in (and excited that this one is a little more manageable than my last quilt along — the 100 Days 100 Blocks Tula Pink City Sampler marathon)….
13 Things I Learned while Making That Awful Quilt
I made these nine Ohio Star blocks almost 20 years ago for a swap, but I didn’t send them. I can’t recall now whether I dropped out or remade new blocks to send, but I clearly remember thinking that I could never inflict these monsters on some poor innocent quilter. The points were either floating…
Quilt Finish: Sea Diamonds
I’ve just managed to squeeze one more completed quilt into 2018: Sea Diamonds! I finished turning the binding about two hours ago. It’s a lovely sunny day so I found some evenly lit spots for the photo shoot, and here it is! The pattern is called Diamonds in the Deep and is by Kirsty of…
2019 Planning Party!
Yvonne/Quilting Jetgirl is hosting her annual planning party and blog linkup! It’s my first year participating. Here’s a quick recap of my 2018 goals and a look at my quilting-related goals for the #2019PlanningParty! 2018 Recap I set three major goals for myself early in 2018: relocate our household to Seattle, where my husband has…
My new quilt studio!
I’m sitting in my (relatively) new apartment in Seattle, where the weather has decided to stage an unexpectedly clear blue day in the middle of the cloudy rainy season. If I look over my left shoulder I can see my quilt studio. It makes me so happy — I have a huge chunk of the…
Bright Sisters: Ready to Sandwich
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about this work in progress, what with the move and everything else — but here’s the update: the top is pieced (and in need of a good pressing, after being folded and boxed up) and I’ve got the quilting design sketched out! Here’s the finished top, wrinkles and…
Troubleshooting Free-Motion Quilting: Breaking thread
I was quilting a small wall hanging on my sit-down machine last week and got really frustrated when my top thread kept breaking. I was almost done with the project and was quilting the border with a ferny vine pattern, and every few inches of stitching, I had to stop and tie off the broken…
Drawing with fabric
Several years ago I picked up a book called Free-Style Quilts: A No-Rules Approach by Susan Carleton. I loved the photographs of her undersea scenes and promptly got started on a 30″ x 48″ panel of a complex undersea scene of my own. That one is still in progress, but in the meantime I’ve made…
My BIG design board
Last time, I showed you how I made mini (10″ square) design boards for individual blocks. Today, I want to show you my beautiful new giant design board, measuring 8′ (about 2.4 meters) square. It’s one of my favorite things about my new quilting studio space and it was really easy to create and install….
Mini design boards: keep patches organized while you sew quilt blocks
The 2018 Tula Pink City Sampler Sew-Along just finished, and I’m pleased to say my quilt top is completely done! It was challenging to keep up with the one-block-per-day schedule but I’m glad I did it. What with the move and all, I had to be extra-organized and do a lot of advance sewing and…
Wrapping Up the City Sampler
It’s over! Yesterday we posted the last block — #100 — and now everyone is finishing their quilt tops or showing pictures of their completed quilts. It’s wonderful to see how many variations of quilts are being created from the same set of blocks. But I’m getting ahead of myself — first, here are the…
This (Almost Final) Week in the City Sampler
Just two more blocks to go after this batch and the sew-along will be done. At the moment I’m sewing the blocks and sashing into rows and I love how it’s coming together! For now, here are blocks 92-98: Only two more! I’m hoping to have the top pieced by the end of next week,…
This Week in the City Sampler
This week goes all the way to block 91 — almost there! I actually just finished sewing all the blocks today, and finally have them up on my new design wall so I can decide what order to put them in for the finished quilt top. My quilt is called Hello, Seattle because I moved…
This Week in the City Sampler
It’s so exciting to see all the blocks coming together as we get closer to the end of this project. Other quilters have been posting collages of their blocks together and I’m impatient to see everyone’s completed quilt tops. We still have a few blocks to go, though. This week is all about squares, or…
This week in the City Sampler
We’re getting close! This week we passed #75, three-fourths of the way through the project. I’m more or less settled in the new place — at least, both my sewing machine and my computer are set up and operational. That counts, right? — and so far I’m still keeping up with the daily block schedule….
This Week in the City Sampler
The Move happened this week, so some of these blocks were made right before I left and the rest were made right after I got there. Naturally, the sewing machine was the last thing I packed, and I carried it in the car along with all the basics I would need to keep going on…
This Week in the City Sampler
It’s moving day and the truck will be here any moment… so this is short and sweet! This week’s lineup: (At this point the movers arrived, so I showed them around and am now hastily finishing the post so I can pack up my computer… always the last thing to go!) That’s it for this…
This Week in the City Sampler
Here’s this week’s roundup, which thankfully includes the last of the Triangles section. See that first block? I had to pull it apart and redo it because the first time my 1/4″ seam gauge was in the wrong place. Just a tiny bit, ever so slightly, wrong. But it adds up when you put that…
This Week in the City Sampler
The end of the triangles is in sight, but not this week. More adventures in diagonal piecing! And let’s just lightly gloss over the top edge of block #43. I’ll make it work, but… it wasn’t my proudest moment. Next week: More triangles, including a block I had to pull apart and completely redo, and…
This Week in the City Sampler
We’re hip-deep in triangles now and I’m having mixed results. For the life of me I can’t put two pieces together and get a correctly-sized half-square triangle the first time. When I use the oversized method to make multiple half-square triangles and trim them down, they are perfect. (I mean, naturally! They’re oversized and then…
Block 20 Nature’s Walk
I almost didn’t do this block because I was intimidated by the embroidery, but I couldn’t resist the ladybugs. So I got out my book of embroidery stitches, watched some YouTube tutorials, and queued up Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, featuring six hours of young women for whom embroidery…
This Week in the City Sampler
I have a confession to make. I am not posting this from my desk at home. I am at this very moment cruising along the lovely Douro River in Portugal, enjoying some delicious wine and a relaxing break from the madness of packing. But that will not stop the blocks from coming, oh, no! Here…
Block 15 Family Affair
When I saw the pattern for this block I was sure I was never going to get it to work. Look at all those matching points and seams! No way, not even with paper piecing! To my surprise, and to the credit of block designer Janice Ryan, it came out great. Not everything matches up…
Block 13 Scrap Stars
My version of Scrap Stars differs a little from the original pattern. Let’s say I was making the best of a measuring error and leave it at that 🙂 My block frame is different, and I chose to use only two fabrics instead of the scrappy mixture that the designer Corey Yoder used so effectively….
This Week in the City Sampler
I’m still keeping up with the daily block for the Tula Pink City Sampler, despite packing up to move. My quilt room will be the last place I pack, of course 😉 Here are this week’s blocks — still in the “rectangles” section: I’m mostly pleased with them, especially the last one. I was very…
Block 10 Iowa
This block came together very quickly, but it took me a long time to decide how to quilt it. I didn’t want to lose the ring, so I knew I wanted to treat all the green patches (center and corners) as background. I decided to do a small-scale meander there to make them recede. I…
Block 8 Friends Around the Square
I was practicing dot-to-dot free motion quilting when this block came up in the rotation, so I used that technique to quilt it. For the dark red triangles, I drew a line with a chalk pencil from each corner of the block to the middle of the base of each triangle, then marked 2 points…
This Week in the City Sampler
We finished the first section, crosses, and have moved into rectangles — easy to cut, easy to piece! Here is this week’s lineup of Tula Pink City Sampler blocks: I’ve started keeping track of the number of blocks I need in each color combination to achieve the rainbow effect in the Gridlock layout. I’m trying…
Block 6 Focal Point
This block, designed by one of my quilting idols (Natalia Bonner), reminds me of opening or unfolding an origami box. I loved the way it came together when I was piecing it and I enjoyed planning how to quilt it, too. First, I echoed outside the center square to pop it up a little. Then…
Block 3 Lots of Love
I remember making this block, waaaay back at the start of the Splendid Sampler in early 2016. The heart in the lower right corner came out very uneven because I didn’t pay attention to my seam allowance. As a result, the block was the wrong size and was noticeably crooked. I left it on my…
This Week in the City Sampler
Week two is done — seven more blocks! I’ve decided to name this quilt “Hello, Seattle” in honor of my upcoming move to that city, which will happen in the middle of this sew-along. This week’s roundup: This week’s lineup features several prints from Tula Pink (blocks 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14) along with…