Quiltpiecer

  I finally finished my Appalachian Autumn quilt, which I posted about my WIP here . Bonnie Hunter's newest pattern was released last month and I knew I had to make this quilt as soon as I saw it. I love the pieced border.  It's a bit more work but I think it's well worth the extra effort.  I may just start adding pieced borders to future quilts. The centers of the leaves are string-pieced and so fast and easy to make. This is the second quilt I've quilted using an edge-to-edge pantograph with my Mega Quilter.  I used an oak leaf pattern from Golden Threads.  Still not perfect but I'm pretty happy with the results. I used the same fabric for backing that I used on the autumn wall hanging I made for DGD#1.   I love this print with the pumpkins and corn and fall floral.  It screams fall! And, I say a quilt is not complete until the label is on. The quilt measures 52" square and the batting is Warm and Natural. If you'd like to see more quilting goodness and

  I made this Christmas quilt top 10 years ago using charm packs from Kate Spain's 12 Days of Christmas.  The pattern is a Charm Pack Quilt Along by Freckled Whimsy.  Surprisingly, the instructions for this quilt are still available here . I never completed the quilt and, regrettably, I ended up selling the top.  So I decided to make another one which I definitely plan to keep.  Unfortunately, the Kate Spain charm packs I used in 2010 are no longer available and impossible to find.  I do love the red, aqua, and green color combo and have been collecting similar color fabrics so I'm good to go. The top is made with 25 blocks; and each block consists of HST and 4-patch units.   Since the units are made from 5-inch charms, it's not a very difficult pattern.  So far I've only made these 12 HST units and I also have all the charm squares cut out.  Not a whole lot of progress but at least it's a start.  The remaining HST and 4-patch units should go together pretty quickly

  I previously posted about my Halloween No Point Stars top and I am happy to say that I finally finished the quilt ... just in time for Halloween! I used a polyester snow blanket remnant for the batting.  Yes, a snow blanket used for Christmas villages.  This was not originally intentional.  I didn't want to use Warm & Natural as I was not going to use this as a "blanket" but rather as a display/decoration.  I wanted a lightweight batting so I looked through my bin of batting remnants and found what I thought was just right. As I was basting the quilt, I noticed some glitter - not much - just a tiny bit on the "batting".  It finally dawned on me why it felt a little different!  How did this snow blanket get mixed in with my regular batting remnants?  Anyway, I was already halfway done so I decided to go with it. I didn't have any Halloween fabric large enough for a backing but I found this black-and-white toile fabric, which is  actually a curtain made

  I am happy to say that I finished the top for the Appalachian Autumn quilt that I posted about last week.  I still need to quilt and bind it so it continues to be a work-in-progress.  Hopefully, I'll be able to complete it next week.   In the meantime, I still have my Halloween Stars top to quilt and bind, which I hope I can get to sometime this week.   I can't believe Halloween is just around the corner.  When my boys were little, I loved decorating for Halloween and taking them around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating.  We had tons of trick-or-treaters and it was always a lot of fun.  When we moved to this neighborhood 23 years ago, it was a brand new community with young families.  Everyone knew each other.  But alas, the "children" are now grown up, with careers and families of their own.  Although some families have moved, most of us have stayed and are now growing old together with empty nests.   And over the past several years, we have fewer and fewer t

I posted about this completed quilt top a couple weeks ago and finally finished the quilt today.  I machine-sew the binding on charity quilts so that makes it fast and easy. The quilt measures 42" x 52" and has a polka dot sheet for the backing.  I used a low-loft polyester batting.   This is the first quilt I quilted on my Mega Quilter since it came back from the repair shop a couple weeks ago.   I've had this setup for 15 years and have never used it with the laser pointer and pantograph pattern.  I even removed the shelf when I moved the setup to my dining room.   But several weeks ago I saw a YouTube video with someone using this setup; and I thought if she can do it, so can I, right?  So off I went to put the shelf back up then to search for the pantograph patterns. Here is the pattern I chose because it looked very simple and easy. And this is the result of my first effort using the pointer and pantograph. It's not perfect and it definitely takes practice.  Plu

  My quilt center sewn together! After my marathon scrap cutting and organizing last week, I jumped right into making the Appalachian Autumn quilt by Bonnie Hunter. This is my first maple leaf block with a gray background. By Monday evening, I'd completed all eight maple leaf blocks with a gray background. The eight maple leaf blocks with a cream background, completed by Tuesday evening. All 16 maple leaf blocks laid out in a checkerboard design.   And today, I added the sashing strips and cornerstones.  I'll add the inner border tomorrow, then I'll put it aside until next week to add the outer pieced border. Here are all the parts for making the maple leaves, ready for Monday's sewing.  I worked on these over the past weekend and I can't believe how fast and easy it was to make the HSTs using my Go! Big Cutter. I had to use my rotary cutter and Shape Cut mat to make the stem units and the side rectangles ... and this happened: In the 20 years that I've been qui

  No weekly Friday finish today.  I have been busy all week doing some marathon cutting with my new "toy" the Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and major scrap organizing.  After its initial stumble, the cutter has been working great.  And I love it! I posted about the basketful of scraps that I wanted to tackle; and my first step was to dump the contents on the bed and sort/separate each scrap by size. There was a little bit of everything. Cut strips in one basket and strings in another. No cutting needed for these. Any scraps that I thought I could use in the Appalachian Autumn quilt by Bonnie Hunter went into this basket.  I set this aside for now. This bin holds bits-and-pieces (aka crumbs), some smaller than 1.5".  I was not interested in crumb quilts in the past so I never kept those tiny pieces.  But I see that's quite a bit of fabric that I can't seem to toss out so for now, this is also set aside. A few years ago I went through another scrap therapy marathon and