Quilts

Blooming Scrap Quilt & Progress

July 3, 2022September 7, 2025 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

But first, some fun photos arrived in my mailbox this week!

Susan, of PatchworknPlay blog, and also found on Instagram posted this in her Instagram feed this week. I have always loved her colors and especially how she subdivided the center (I changed the pattern because of her design!). Susan’s blog posts are always like a good visit with a far-away friend (we’ve known each other for ages, but have never met since she lives in Australia and I live in California); she makes such beautiful things.

I know that Linda is working on Heart’s Garden and Joan is nearly done as well. Lisa’s almost done, too, but then her daughter decided to get married. When they send their photos to me, I will post them.

Polly, who is on Instagram at Piecing Hope, sent me this photo, saying that it was just the right small project she needed during a move. She enjoyed the free patterns I have in my shop for the New York Beauties. Her feed is filled with lovely wonderful things. Mary S. has made some blocks as have others. You can see their work on Instagram at #newyorkbeautiesquilt.

Mary, of ZippyQuilts, really got in the spirit of New York Beauties, and is now making some more of her own to join these (I backed them with black). I like Mary’s blog, as she’s so inventive and is a champion of creating quick quilts in clever ways. Like Susan, I’ve never met Mary, but feel like she is a good friend. If you make one of my patterns, or something I said on the blog triggered something creative for you, send over a photo! I love seeing your beautiful blocks and quilts.

I started sewing up these blocks in earnest this week.

It reminds me of the Meadow Quilt from the designer Lizzy House (shown above) back in the day, a quilt which doesn’t have a released pattern and was taught for several years only in workshops. I have always loved this quilt, but when I saw this Blooming Scraps pattern, I knew it would be a good one to keep my hands busy while my mind explored all the ramifications of the world we now live in (translation: the J6 Hearings and SCOTUS decisions).

This past Thursday, I finished all 100 blocks. Like the original pattern, I did it in ombré. Now to sew it together and get it sent out for quilting.

I have a whole post on rulers, written when I was teaching, if you want an overview. But this week, I pulled this one out and really found it great for cutting 2 1/2″ blocks and 1 1/2″ snowball blocks. It’s a pretty slimmed down ruler, and sometimes that makes it a lot easier.

I went to my Modern Quilt Guild meeting for the first time in ages on Saturday. I usually participate online, but the covid numbers were down (however, I wore a mask) and it was Just Time. The hybrid meeting was incredibly confusing, but we saw quilts, we saw each other and showed our “Roundabout Challenges.” You can guess what I showed:

Patterns are still free on my pattern shop, for those who are looking for them. And I showed my version of Heart’s Garden for the Show and Share:

It still needs more buttons and some embellishments, but July is bringing me a long car ride, where I can get to work.

Speaking of Get to Work, I packed away my 2021-2022 Get To Work Book, and prepped up my new 2022-2023 book (I like them to go from July of one year to June of the next). I had saved some stickers, acquired others as I like to decorate a bit. I added in events for July, wrote in birthdays, but it’s a blank volume full of possibilities that greets me now at the side of my desk.

As Elise (the maker of the calendar) always says: Big Things Happen One Day at a Time. Think 100 blocks big– Think Making a Democracy big, just like our earliest founders did.

Happy Independence Day!

free handout on making this quilt, found here

As I write this, the (illegal) fireworks are already being shot off, so we’re getting in the mood for the 4th.

(Belated) New York Beauty Notes:

Karen Stone was the one who kind of put the New York Beauty block on the quilting map, when she wrote her well-known book in 2004. You can get a copy now for $50, if you want one. Others have explored this block and written books. One of the more recent writers was Carl Hentsch, who combined the Beauties with Flying Geese blocks in his book, published in 2017. I purchased the book immediately, thought I’d lost it, and bought another. (typical)

Dora, of Orange Dot Quilts, and Rana, of Sewn Wyoming, are doing a summer-long NYBeauty quilt-a-long this year (2022), making a version they call Almond Country Beauty Quilt. Kits are available, as are patterns.

I’ll probably come back with the final four blocks of my New York Beauty series, after I take a break. I want to try out this quilt I sketched up!

Quilts

This and That • April 2022

April 13, 2022September 11, 2025 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Yes, actually, I did have a March and I made these Gridster Bee blocks for Bren Moore. She had a hand-drawn sketch for us to use, and although I looked for it, couldn’t find the name of the original block. UPDATE: I think it is a variation of an album block, straightened up (the original album block is a diagonal block).

This one is Building Blocks, from Nancy Cabot, and if you switch the fabrics around and combine some–well, it’s the closest I could get. This is from Barbara Brackman’s Encyclopedia of Quilt Patterns, the digital version (BlockBase+).

Tulips were April’s block for Carlene Drake, and we started with the tutorial from Kristina of Center Street Quilts, but added side strips to make the block square.

My friend, Mary of Zippy Quilts, asked me for an interview as she occasionally features quilters on her blog. I was most happy to oblige and she did a lovely post about me and my quilts. Thank you, Mary! If you don’t know Mary’s work, she is inventive with her use of color and shape and is always coming up with an interesting quilt or two or ten to put up on her blog. She’s also a sewist, and teaches classes near her home.

Another thing that happened in April: I purchased Timna Tarr‘s Mosaic Class way back in the ice ages of April 2020, and finally got around to going through the course and watching the videos. It was very informative and I added that Quilt-to-Make to my list from the last post.

I had planned to use this picture, taken by my husband Dave, but now I don’t know if it’s too dense.

Right after I first published Dave’s photo of his flower (anyone know the name? Zinnia? Gerbera?), Angie contacted me asking if she could use the palette of the photograph to inspire a quilt she was making. She recently sent me the final top–it’s really stunning! I love that she’s worked in all the purple to help balance the pinks. I am also very happy that my husband’s photographs also inspired someone else. (I really like his recent post of poppies.)

The eryngium (left) and the roses are some beautiful things I’ve seen lately.

These three images, also titled Quilt Fail #1, #2 and #3 are not. I loved all the incredibly supportive and encouraging comments on Instagram, but when you know, you know. Even my husband (also incredibly supportive and encouraging) agreed that it wasn’t worth more of my time.

I did love experimenting with the technique developed by Dora Cary of Orange Dot Quilts. With her skills and experience this is a fascinating quilt. But I had chosen this:

I was thinking: Impressionism, Monet, girl with umbrella: WIN!

Not.

There are more than a few renditions of Monet’s woman with a parasol. I think I’d purchased one of the more hideous versions.

Here’s the original from the Musee d’Orsay. The colors are more delicate, the arm in front doesn’t look sunburned and the arm in back is in shadow, not a purple glove. And it’s not printed digitally, which I think often has a more garish look, with stronger contrasts.

Lesson Learned.

One down (actually two, if you count the Bee Block). I will probably circle around back to this pattern (because I like it) but will take more time to look for the right fabric.

Don’t forget that Part Four of Heart’s Garden will post up on Easter Sunday. If you haven’t already downloaded the free version of Part Three, go and do so now before Part Four goes up.

Happy Quilting!

Quilts

The Tale of the Chess Bag

April 3, 2022September 11, 2025 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

It all began when summer weather came early, and summer weather always calls for a summer purse. The Chess Bag was a kit I picked up at Road to California from a booth run by By Hands, USA. I’ve purchased from them many times (I have yet to make the Totoro Bag I picked up in the Before Times, but is no longer sold).

The kit also appealed to me because they sewed up the hard part for me: all those teeny chess board squares. I thought the back looked as good as the front.

I quilted the chessboard squares to batting, but it was too floppy, so then I quilted the whole thing to ByAnnie’s Soft and Stable, which gave it more body. I did parallel lines, but had to raise the quilting shank because it was so thick.

I used some scraps from the kit and made two interior pockets. Can’t have a summer purse without pockets!

I love the silvery color of the background against the russets, deep greens and blues in these fabrics.

I couldn’t sew on the handles as neatly as she did, so appliquéd on some squares to cover up the mess.

The End!

Quick Quilt · Quilts · Tiny Quilts

Teeny Quilt for St. Patrick’s Day

March 16, 2022September 13, 2025 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

May your pockets be heavy, and your heart be light;
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.

And may you have a few a minutes to stitch yourself up a little Teeny Quilt on a Frame for St. Patrick’s Day. Pattern is a free PDF download:

st.-patricks-teeny-quilt Download

I’m adding this to the Main Page of Tiny and Teeny Quilts on a Frame, so you can always find it there.

This teeny quilt on a frame was inspired by two things: this March pillow from Stash Fabrics (from Riley Blake’s Year of Pillows).

And because a dear friend of mine, who is by all rights and purposes is Irish (even though she was born and raised in the United States), has had a bad dose of it this year, and I didn’t want her to be forgotten on her favorite day. She’s the one who would hand out pots of shamrocks to her friends on St. Patrick’s Day. She and her husband have also gone to Ireland about a dozen times, and I never tire of her bopping out with phrases in the way they say them in Ireland. She gardens like no one else, loves saints and sinners and babies and her family with a fierce love, including her friends in that welcoming aura.

While I machine appliquéd the hearts on the pillow, I decided that for such a small project, I would fuse the hearts on.

I put a light crease at the halfway mark — both ways — to get those hearts perfectly centered.

A simple topstitch with green thread, then a white echo, then stipple everywhere else. I’ve learned not to get too “over-the-top” on the quilting with these tiny quilts: the design is the most important, not the quilting.

I cut my binding strips 1 1/2″ wide and use the single-fold binding technique (post is also found in the Tutorials, Techniques, and Freebies, above). I use a glue stick to get it into place, then topstitch down the binding 1/4″ away from the edge and no farther. This ensures that you can slide your picture frame into the pocket on the back.