Quilts Are the “Ties” That Bind

October 22, 2011October 15, 20116 Comments

I want to share with you the story of the Tie quilt that I helped orchestrate for a very special person I know from church. He served as a stake president for our church for 9 years and his term of service was up last summer. This quilt is special not only for the person who received it but also for the men represented by the ties on the quilt and the story of togetherness that the quilt created.

My dear friend Alberta from church had the idea to give a quilt to the outgoing stake president, made up of 68 ties from all the men that served with him during his 9 year tenure. These were counselors, bishops and council members, many of whom had moved out of town and had to be tracked down again. (My husband Jason’s tie is in there, too but now I can’t remember which one it is!!)

We took all the ties and formed them into a circular Dresden Plate design.
I had nearly gotten it all quilted when I decided it looked all wrong. The ties curved too much and the circle did not look like a nice flat circle – there were too many ties so it bunched up too much. I had not figured out the math ahead of time – I thought I could just sew them all together and they’d magically create a circle. The pictures in this post all show the corrected finished quilt – I was too traumatized to take any “before” pictures!

After much agonizing, I had to take it all apart and start over. This was on a Tuesday afternoon and the quilt needed to be finished for a presentation on Friday of the same week. I told Jason about the problem and he figured out the correct math for me, based on number of ties, the circumference of a circle, and the length and width of the ties. I then enlisted lots of women from my ward and they helped me for 3 days solid, nearly round the clock to finish it. We had to unpick every single tie, recut them all, resew and quilt them down. We finished it just in time and it was very well received. We even finished the binding by hand and it was nearly queen sized when done.

This quilt really helped me learn the value of advanced planning and the very true saying “measure twice, cut once!”

This project was completed last summer but it wasn’t until our church fair last week, when I was able to get the quilt and the former stake president in the room with me to take a picture. It was the most spiritual experience I’ve ever had making a quilt!

Las Vegas Temple Quilt

October 19, 2011October 15, 20114 Comments

For the community fair that my church hosted recently, several of the church members got together to make and donate quilts representing their congregations.

When the idea was first introduced to me, my immediate thought was to make a quilt of the beautiful LDS Temple here in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I gathered a few sewers together from my ward and we set to work!

After the fair, we gave the quilt to the Stake President and it is now hanging in his office.

Fun Friday

October 7, 2011Leave a comment

On Fridays we usually try to reward our kids with a fun outing or some extra free time if they’ve finished their chores and homework for the week. Well, I got MY chores done early today so I got to have my friend over to play…

Tamara has been bitten by the quilting bug so I’m helping her make a quilt. She cut out and sewed this pretty green and brown quilt top over the last month or so, then came over to my house so I could help her baste it. Next, I’ll show her how to machine quilt it and then bind it.

As a true quilt-aholic, she also brought over her adorable Abby Bag that she managed to whip together in a few hours in between taking care of her husband and kids (whom I thank for allowing her to get away and hang out with me for the afternoon!) Her bag is the one one the right and mine’s the one on the left. Do we have great taste or what??

Amy Butler Roman Shade

September 3, 2011August 31, 2011Leave a comment

I have such talented friends! And I love it when they let me share pictures of what they’ve made using my fabrics. My friend Alexis recently made a Roman shade from some Amy Butler fabric: Temple Tulips in the Cinnamon color from the Soul Blossoms collection.

Here’s a picture of her finished shade and a link to her blog Persia Lou to read all about it!

French Roses Machine Applique Quilt

August 18, 2011March 19, 20135 Comments

Yay! I finally finished another quilt! This quilt was started in a class I took from my guild several weeks ago. I used fusible applique and machine blanket stitching techniques. I’m showing the finished quilt first, then you can see the steps I took to get there:

Once the blocks were fused together on the background, I selected matching threads for the pink and green blocks. I have fallen in love with Superior Threads and will soon carry them in my shop. Next, I carefully blanket stitched around the edges of each piece. The trick here is to use an open-toed applique foot so you can see what you are doing. Stitch slowly and pivot often so you can guide the stitches smoothly around the fabric edges.

Click on the pictures to see closeups!

I like it when the back of the block looks as crisp and clean as the front! This takes good tension. One the block is all stitched, it gives a really nice texture, I think.

Finally, here’s a closeup of the quilting. I stippled loops and flowers in on the background squares, outlined all the applique, then used the serpentine stitch to quilt wavy x’s in the borders and finally finished with random loops around the outside border. I used the leftover scraps for the pieced binding (which I’ll post a demo on later). I love this quilt!

Here’s another guild member’s top, in different colors with raw edge stitching and leaves:

Charm Pack Quilts Galore!

August 16, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I don’t know what it is about Charm Packs that have gotten me so addicted! Now my friends are using them, too and making even cuter quilts that me!! My friend Stacy stopped over after our workout this morning (which means getting caught on camera with no makeup!). She showed me these adorable Charm Quilts she whipped up this week using Keiki’s Oops A Daisy and Sanae’s Chrysalis charms, both precut from Moda:

Aren’t they simply adorable?

She made them for a friend who’s expecting twins – a boy and a girl!

How perfect!

I especially love how she finished the quilts. She used Minkee on the back and omitted the batting in the middle. My favorite part is the pom-pom fringe with the satin binding.

Each quilt takes just one charm pack for the front and finishes about 28″ x 32″. This will be a perfect gift for the new mom to be!

Here are are pictures Stacy took of her two quilts outside.

Don’t they look like they belong in a craft or quilting magazine?

Charm Pack Table Runners

August 6, 2011August 9, 20112 Comments

A fellow guild-member named Judy sent me a picture of two table runners that she recently made from charm packs. Here’s what she had to say about them, “They are from the book ‘Fast & Furious quilting as you go’ by Gudrun Erla. The runner is called Lucky Charms. It only takes 5 light and 17 medium to dark charms (backing, binding and batting extra). The size is 8 1/2″ X 26 1/2″. A really quick and easy runner that can be made for all occasions. Everyone that has made this has said it is very addicting and lots of fun!”

I met Judy recently when I took an all-day sewing class sponsored by my guild. (You can read about that in an earlier post). During the class we chatted about how fun charm packs are to work with and the possibilities are almost endless.

We also took a break with a few other sewing buddies to go visit a fun little quilt shop in the area that had just opened up. You know you are having fun while attending a quilting class and a shop hop breaks out! Isn’t this place cute? The owner is super friendly and is a mom with young kids, just like me!! This is exactly the type of shop I would want to run if I owned a “brick and mortar” store rather than my on-line shop.

Dr. Seuss Quilt, Thing 1 and 2 Costumes

August 3, 2011August 3, 20112 Comments

I was so taken with the introduction of Dr. Seuss fabric that I just had to get some! Here’s a picture of Jason and me dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween last year.

I found the wigs at the store and just knew they were perfect for these costumes. I bought the blue and red spotted fabric at a local quilt shop (now I’m carrying the entire line). I used a super easy sewing pattern to make the pants, then appliqued the letters and circles to the front of red T-shirts. It still cracks me up seeing us dressed like this but it was fun and we got quite a few comments on our outfits.

Here’s a quick and easy strippy quilt my friend Jessica made with Cat in the Hat fabric and coordinating yellow dots. I love how she cut the black and white striped fabric on the bias for the binding. What a perfect gift for her child’s school teacher!

Why You Should Join a Quilting Guild

August 1, 2011July 30, 20111 Comment

I have “sew” much fun in my quilting guild that I wanted to encourage you to join one if you haven’t already. My large guild of over 300 members has several smaller groups that meet once a month, called quilting circles. Here’s a report of Rainbow group’s July meeting:

We had a demo on binding and how to finish the ends so that they are neat and tidy.

We also had a book report on two fabulous scrappy quilt books that use jelly roll strips. They are called Scrap Basket Sensations and Scrap Basket Surprises. Our guild president, Bobbi has already made a few quilts from the book.

I liked them so much that I ordered several copies to sell on my website and it will be available the middle of August. I can’t wait!

The best part of our meeting, by far, is the show and tell. We have some absolutely talented ladies and it’s such a treat to see their work.

One of our members, Karen, won a weekend retreat with Ricky Tims and we were all jealous!! She dyed her own fabrics and designed a unique Rhapsody Quilt.

After such a fun and uplifting meeting I was inspired to go home and sew. That’s the point, right?

Fabric Shopping Spree

July 28, 2011July 28, 20113 Comments

Ok, so it’s a different sort of shopping spree I had this morning – one of my fabric sale reps came by to pay a visit today bringing loads of new fabric samples and paper-mockups of new lines coming out this fall.

Here’s Ron from Westminster showing me the latest and greatest new fabrics from Kaffe Fassett, due out this fall. I scooped up a few geometric-looking lines and ordered a bunch of precuts. Westminster is getting on the bandwagon with that, much to everyone’s delight!

Next, I got to see paper printouts of Amy Butler‘s newest collection, Lark, coming in October. First the company prints the designs to scale on paper, then produces them on fabric after enough orders have been taken. I’m sure this one will be very popular!

I’ll be going to my next wholesale trade show in September but it’s nice that many of my sales reps will also make house calls. Now, I just have to be patient and wait for the good stuff to arrive!