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…
Tag: fmq
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…
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…
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…
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…
Block 69 Full Circle
I really like how the quilting came out on this block! It was a little tricky to piece, but definitely worth it. When I quilted it, I wanted to emphasize the stripes in the top half of the circle, so I quilted straight lines about 1/4″ or so apart. In the bottom half, I used…
Bonus Block: Butterfly Charm Block (Pepper)
I included this block in my Splendid Sampler quilt because I came across the pattern while working on the Sampler and it delighted me. I added a little extra framing to make it the right size, since the pattern has the blocks finishing at 5″ instead of the 6″ needed for the Sampler. I love…
Block 29 Scrappy Happy Heart
One of the nicest things about joining the Splendid Sampler Quilt-Along was discovering new (to me) quilters and designers. Christa Watson, who designed this block, was one of those discoveries. I love her blog and her easy and happy quilt designs. This was one of my favorite blocks to piece. I have mixed feelings about…
Block 28 Stitching Fashion
The original design for this block includes the dress, a spool of thread, and a needle, but I decided the dress would be enough of a challenge on its own. It was paper pieced and some of those pieces are tiny (all the Sampler blocks finish at 6″ square, not including the blue borders). I’ve…
Block 21 Sweet Candy
When I chose the quilting for this block, I decided to echo the candy theme with some ribbon candy in the center square and then use loops in the orange triangles to suggest the crinkly edges of a candy wrapper. I practiced continuous curves in the lighter background squares (clearly, more practice is needed) and…
Block 16 Pieces of Friendship
I love how this block comes together. It looks complicated, but Lindsay’s design is deceptively simple. When this block came up in my to-quilt pile, I had just learned the fern design (Angela Walters again, I love her Craftsy classes) and I wanted to practice it, so I decided to use it in the dark…
Free motion quilting practice!
This week I practiced two new-to-me free motion quilting designs: paisley feathers and meandering flowers. I was binge-watching quilting videos on YouTube one evening and found Angela Walters’ tutorials for the two designs (paisley feathers here, meandering flowers here) and thought I’d give them a try. I’ve practiced on several of Leah Day’s designs from…