I finished a hawg this week. That’s my new term for a quilt you love and hate as you make it.
It wasn’t the quilt’s fault. I think it was a difficult project because of the bias edges on hundreds of small pieces and on a bunch of big pieces, too.
A while back I wrote about some quilts that were in trouble with me for a post called “Quilts in the Doghouse.” I just finished piecing another top, a recent UFO (which means I started it in the past year or so), and near the end of the process, I had what you might call a full-on hissy fit.
First I want to say that Hexie Framed is a great design and a well-written pattern from Emily Dennis of Quilty Love. None of this story is the pattern’s or the designer’s fault. This is all on me.
Another recent finish is my Bitty Blocks row quilt. I started this years ago when I was working as an editor for Quiltmaker. We had this idea to create 3″ and 4″ blocks and post them for free on our website. There was no such thing as a marketing team so we had to market ourselves, and this was one of the ways we did it.
The thing about Bitty Blocks is that they’re addictive. You make a few, and then you make a few more, and you’re having so much fun that pretty soon you have 50 little 4″ stars or 70 tiny houses at 3″ x 3″, and then what?
Hey quilters, how are you holding up? I know. Me, too. Things are starting to open up here in Nebraska, and I wonder if my friends would want to head out to a quilt store this week. I am ready!
I have sewn like a crazy woman during the pandemic. I’ve finished up some things, started a bunch of new things, and practiced machine quilting a LOT.
In December I dug out and shot all the UFOs I could find, including these little baskets.
I almost never weigh in on contemporary issues online. For a business owner, I believe it’s better to be silent. But today I’m going to post some quilt images that I took in February 2019 at Quilt Con. They were awful, and in the time since, I couldn’t bring myself to write about them.
I think it’s because I don’t know what to do with so much pain. I can’t fathom the depth of anguish that would move people to create art like this.
Yesterday, online learning platform Bluprint, formerly Craftsy, sent an email to instructors saying the company would be closing over the next few months. This was at once surprising and completely unsurprising.
When Craftsy began about 10 years ago (because a guy received a quilt from his aunt), the quilters I knew loved it. It provided something new in the form of online learning, and it was well done. You could interact with the instructors, get answers to your questions, post your progress and make friends with others in your classes. It was amazing.
I’ve been machine quilting much more than usual during this extended time at home. I’m learning a lot. I am so happy to have finished My Wild Garden recently.
It’s an improvisational quilt, which is a fancy way of saying I made it up as I went along. You’ve never had so much fun as improv quilting allows.
I’m not going to talk about the pandemic. We’re all frustrated. So…
I’ve been finishing up some things the past few weeks. I have a lot of UFOs squirreled away in closets and cupboards and it would feel great to be done with them. And, BONUS, some of them can go into trunk shows! I have extra time because my engagements with guilds have been cancelled for April, May and June.
Two quilts I finished this week gave me pause. One was My Christmas Album, above. It’s a great design by Tina Curran with fusible applique and a border of Christmas sweaters. But when I took the final stitch, I didn’t feel anything good. I felt all manner of royally ticked off.
I’m doing a lot more machine quilting these days and boy, am I learning a lot.
I’m using the HQ Capri stationary longarm with its Insight table, which provides stitch regulation and support for the quilt.
In my search for ideas of what to quilt on Wild Garden, an improv throw-size UFO, I pulled out my books on machine quilting.
Thank you to everyone who has viewed the mini trunk show from the Quilt Candy event. I really appreciate your time. I wanted to follow up with a few things and put all of the links in one place.
Nine Patch Jambalaya is a quilt that gets a lot of attention during the Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts trunk show.