Category Archives: Tips and Techniques

Freehand Shell Meander and Black Fabric

Freehand Shell Meander and Black Fabric

It’s important to think about all parts of your quilt when selecting fabrics for your quilt.  For this quilt, the top is a black, red and white and the backing fabric is solid black.  Normally with solid black backing fabric I would use Quilter’s Dream Midnight black but the quilt top had white fabric which the black batting would shadow through.  So, we used Quilter’s Dream 100% cotton select natural, which can peak through the needle holes.  Luckily, it only pokes through a couple of places and after it’s washed should show even less.  I love the red thread on the black making this a reversible quilt!  The thread is Superior Threads So Fine #50.

 

Terry Twist Plus

Terry Twist Plus

Double 4 Patch

I love how Candy of Double Nickel Quilt Challenge keeps creating quilts that are fun to quilt!  She’s challenged me to use different approaches that compliment the quilt without being heavily quilted.  While a pantograph would have been okay for this quilt, I really felt that would take away from the secondary pattern of the block set.  I decided to do a type of Terry Twist continuous curve with an added line through the middle in each block and small 4 patch block.

Terry Twist Plus

As you can see it creates it’s own secondary patterns which give texture and movement.  I wanted to keep the pattern going into the border so I just imagined that the border was a block and continued the pattern.  Let me know what you think!

Border detail

The batting is Quilter’s Dream Poly select and the thread is OMNI by Superior Threads.

Corner, Middle, Corner, Middle

Corner, Middle, Corner, Middle

Here’s a quilt by Candy showing the breakdown of the quilting pattern, corner, middle, corner, middle (c, m, c, m).  The first time I used this design on one of Candy’s quilts a few years ago, I loved it and wanted to do it again!  In fact, I made 2 of my Bucket List quilts just so I could quilt this design again!   When she brought me this quilt, we both knew it would be a good design for all these triangles!

The One block photo shows the stitching sequence – c, m, c, m – until you are back where you started.  And yes, you must say those words as you stitch, “corner, middle, corner, middle”!  The block is about 8″ and I use a ruler, stopping at each corner to reposition the ruler with the needle down.

The Four block photo shows the secondary pattern starting to emerge.  This is where I start the stitching, in the center of four blocks.  I can stitch out four blocks before having to break my thread.

The Partial and Whole quilt photos show the secondary pattern that is created with the “stars”.  Isn’t that awesome?!  This design works well in cornerstones and blocks when they are separated by sashings but I love it when they are all together creating another design.

The batting is Quilter’s Dream Poly select and the thread is OMNI by Superior Threads.

Do you have a treasure in your closet? Part I

Do you have a treasure in your closet? Part I

Do you have a quilt top in your closet that needs to be finished?  Deb had one of those!  Her grandmother started the quilt by making the butterfly blocks and her mother finished it.  According to Deb, the butterfly fabrics are from the 60’s and 70’s.  I was very excited and honored to have the opportunity to finish this quilt for Deb from the quilting to the binding!  And now she’ll be able to give her daughter a completed heirloom!

What if it’s not sewn very well or is not high quality fabrics?  What if it has holes from being stored?  These imperfections are noticeable when it’s unfinished but after some repairs and quilting it can become an heirloom!  Here’s Deb’s Antique Butterfly quilt before quilting.

One thing that I noticed was that it had side borders but no top borders, maybe they ran out of fabric?  There were small holes in some of the pink areas that I repaired by snipping small amounts from the seam allowances.   I then placed the snipped pieces under the holes and used Stitch Witchery to adhere them.  The blocks were not accurately pieced, resulting in some puckering of fabric.

In the next post, I’ll show the quilting process and the final product!

A clothesline works!

A clothesline works!

Thanks to my wonderful husband I have a clothesline in my family room to hang quilts for photographing!  It’s really quite simple, a hook in each wall and a coated wire clothesline!  We added a hook from the ceiling for additional support.  So far, so good, I’ll let you know how it works!

Trying out the new clothesline

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