Abundance Quilt-a-long

Lori from Humble Quilts posted the first installment for her little Abundance quilt this morning. I picked out my fabrics last night. Feeling good about really doing this, I decided to cut pieces. I usually can figure out a geometric pattern by looking at it.
This morning I realized I cut pieces for an 18″ quilt and hers is 12″. Oh bummer!
Maybe I did this because it allowed me to use my studio cutter for most of the pieces!
Anyway, I here is my progress so far:

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Lori will post the next installment on Thursday. Think I can wait that long to finish this little top?
Nah, me neither.
Until next time….

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Miniature, Traditional Quilts | 3 Comments

Crumbler Quilt?

If you haven’t seen the blog Inspired by Antique Quilts, go check it out! I check this one pretty much daily. Recently, Kathie posted progress on her crumbler quilt here. Go take a look, I’ll wait.
Back? This reminded me of this quilt I made a few years back:

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I hand pieced my version after cutting my pieces with this template:

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I bought this on eBay a number of years ago. The template says “Casket One-patch” on it. I have also heard this called coffin block.
I have also cut a bunch of Denyse Schmidt fabrics using this template.

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Now I am rethinking the piecing. If I cut my pieces in half, I could machine piece them like Kathie is doing. It would shorten the hexagons but might be worth it. Hmmmm….have to think more about this one.
Until next time….

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Hexagons, Traditional Quilts | Leave a comment

Humble Quilts Quilt Along!

I have never done a quilt along.

Never.

Ever.

But I have thought about it. And here is one that I plan to follow through on. This is hosted by Lori over at Humble Quilts.

She regularly hosts small quilt quilt alongs and I always say I am going to join in. This time, I really am!

I will choose my fabrics from these Civil War Repro scraps:

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Until next time…

Posted in Civil War Repro Quilts, Miniature, Traditional Quilts, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

QOV Challenge

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HMQA is hosting a quilt show in Salt Lake City in May. In connection with the show, they are hosting a Quilts for Veteran’s Home Challenge. All quilts will be Quilts of Valor and will go to a new veteran’s home that is being built in Utah. The fabrics shown above are the challenge fabrics.

I admit, I have had a hard time getting creative here. I really don’t care that much about winning anything, I just want to make a really nice quilt for one of our deserving vets. I can add up to three additional fabrics but there is nothing in my stash that goes well with these.

I started cutting and piecing tonight. Can you tell what this is starting out as?

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Until next time…

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Mid-Arm Machine Quilting with Barney

Last summer, I bought a new to me mid-arm quilting machine. It is a Nolting Hobby Quilter. It is non-stitch regulated and sits on a Super Quilter frame. I am not sure this frame is still made. The widest quilt I can put on it is about 72″. I hope that at some point I will be able to purchase a larger frame.

I need more practice for sure but I am improving. I found a terrific video produced by Handi-Quilter that has been a huge help in getting the tension right. You can find the video here. This video discusses needles, thread, and tension. While it is produced by Handi-Quilter, the info is not machine specific.

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I made this strip quilt a while ago and it turned out to be a perfect practice piece. This is one of the first things I quilted last summer with “Barney, the purple sewing machine.”

I have only done one quilt with a pantograph. I would like to get better at it but haven’t taken the time to practice that. I always feel like I am wasting materials if I just load fabric to doodle.

This has been a huge help in getting Quilts of Valor finished.

Until next time….

Posted in Free Motion Quilting, Machine quilting, Sewing Machines | Leave a comment

Packing

I am getting ready to ship the two most recent Quilts of Valor off tomorrow. For each quilt, a label is attached and a presentation case is sewn. I need to applique the label on tonight and fill in the details. Then I will write a letter to the recipient. One will be going to a vet in Montana and the other to one of the Dover Mortuary Affairs staff. These staff members prepare all of our fallen heroes for burial.

At this point in the preparation process, I always find myself thinking, this quilt is not good enough. I have to remember that I will never be able to make a quilt that will make up for all that our service members have sacrificed but that it is a mere token of our appreciation and love.

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Until next time…

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Another wedding quilt…

No sewing time today so I will share a large lap quilt I made for my niece’s wedding last year.  This was made from a layer cake, Frolic by Sandy Gervais. I love the colors. Mostly I loved that I found an easy pattern that didn’t waste a bit of the layer cake. I did purchase the border fabric from the same line.

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Until next time….

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And done!

It’s a wrap!

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Posted in Quilt of Valor | 1 Comment

Another QOV in the frame

My project for the day:

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Until next time…

Posted in Quilt of Valor, Traditional Quilts, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Design wall Monday!

Judy over at Patchwork Times hosts Design Wall Monday. This is what is on my wall. It is a 9-11 tribute panel that will become a Quilt of Valor. I just have to figure out what to add!

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Until next time….

Posted in Quilt of Valor | Leave a comment