One Hundred Small Quilts #3

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Trunk Shows

My trunk show called “One Hundred Small Quilts” contains three Hanky Panky quilts. This idea originated (as far as I know) with Cindy Brick from Castle Rock, Colorado. She visited Nebraska a few years back to teach her hanky quilt techniques.

Hanky Panky quilt by Diane Harris. Photo by Mellisa Karlin Mahoney. Used with permission.

I’d always loved vintage handkerchiefs, and my mom loved and collected them, too. So I come by it honestly, as they say. And when I learned how to combine them by layering and embellishing, I never looked back.

These three little quilts get the warmest welcome when I share them with quilt groups. It makes me so happy.

Hanky Panky quilt by Diane Harris. Photo by Mellisa Karlin Mahoney. Used with permission.

With Cindy’s permission, I wrote about the process for Quiltmaker, and now (with Cindy’s blessing) I teach others how to make these little treasures.

I think it’s good to get vintage hankies out of the drawers and closets and storage areas and put them into something beautiful where they can be enjoyed every day. If your hankies are very special, e.g. they belonged to an ancestor, or very valuable, then you might wish to pick others for your first project. There are some hankies that shouldn’t be cut up.

But there are millions, yes, millions, of hankies that are perfect for this kind of project. I’d love to share this class with your quilt group, so give me a call and we’ll set it up. Let’s Play Hanky Panky!

SaveSave

Everybunny: Scrap Quilt Lessons

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

I always pull out Everybunny this time of year—it’s one of my favorite finishes. There was a lot to learn about scrap quilts when I made it. Let’s pull some lessons from it. Today will be #1 and I’ll do a little series on making better scrap quilts.

Everybunny, designed and made by Diane Harris for Quiltmaker March/April ’16

Feed Your Creativity

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Quilt Lifestyle

I’ve discovered that creativity needs to be fed. Creativity has an appetite. It can be more voracious at some times than others, but we shouldn’t ignore its need to be nurtured.

Show and Tell can feed your creativity. This is Karen with her 365 finish at my retreat last fall.

Here’s an example: You attend a quilt show or a guild meeting with show and tell. You see some quilts you love and you snap photos to help you remember. You’re inspired to start on something new or get back to something you put aside—all because you gave your creativity a hearty meal. Sound familiar?

I recently discovered a new source of quilty “nourishment” I want to share with you. It’s a website called Issuu where magazines and books on assorted topics are published. You can look at them for nothing. It’s totally free. Here’s one example (click near the center to make it full screen, click escape to return to normal view):

 

 

When you put “quilt” into the search field, interesting things pop up. Take a peek at the British magazine Quilt Now.

 

Search “quilts” and you get a completely different set of publications. “Quilting” yields yet another batch. I love being able to peruse the pages with no commitment. I don’t have to buy or subscribe or give out my email. I just get to enjoy!

Some of the fabric companies publish their lookbooks on Issuu. It’s a way to see what’s coming soon to local quilt shops. I’ve been enjoying catalogs from Riley Blake. There is so much variety.

 

 

At the back of the lookbook are quilt pattern ideas from the designers, which are intended to show how the fabrics can be used effectively. There’s a lot to learn about color and value in those pages.

Pop over to issuu.com when you want to browse something quilty.

A few tips:

  • Search quilt, quilts, and quilting for different results
  • Click at the bottom right corner of the viewing pane to maximize to fullscreen
  • Click your escape button to return to normal view
  • Search for your other interests, too e.g. gardening, design, decor, vintage, history

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

One Hundred Small Quilts #2

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas

My trunk show “One Hundred Small Quilts” is popular with quilt groups. I’ve been giving it for six years and have added to the collection. I actually bring about 120 quilts with me. The quilts have lessons to teach us. This is Dresden Delight.

Dresden Delight by Diane Harris. Photo by Mellisa Karlin Mahoney. Used with permission.

How to Make a Scrappy Quilt Binding

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Quilt Lifestyle

Whenever I finish a quilt, I put the leftover binding into a shoebox in my closet. When I’m ready to bind a scrap quilt, I start by checking in the shoebox. Last weekend I wanted to bind my scrappy green and teal Patchwork Forest quilt, which I’ve named Can’t See the Forest for the Trees.

Can’t See the Forest for the Trees by Diane Harris

Collecting Older Quilting Books

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Quilt Lifestyle

Once every few months, I get to spend a day at International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, about 140 miles from home. Next to the quilts, the best part of these visits is checking out the used books for sale in the museum gift shop.

I always leave with my arms full of books, and not just any books. They’re the kind of quilt books that hold all sorts of treasures, sometimes literally and sometimes in the form of inspiration for my own work.

I collect books from state quilt documentation projects, and Florida Quilts by Charlotte Allen Williams is one I do not have. A steal at $4.

Double Wedding Ring made by Edna Earle McKee in 1931 in Cottondale, Florida, 78″ x 78″, pieced by machine, hand quilted in a fan pattern, cotton batting.

And if this Double Wedding Ring quilt photo was the only one in the book, it would have been worth ten times what I paid. I mean, have you ever?!? Quilts like this give me courage! Edna Earle McKee made it in 1931 in Cottondale, Florida. Edna was a woman after my own heart. Edna wasn’t too worried about whether the fabrics matched.

Texas Quilts, Texas Treasures from Texas Heritage Quilt Society goes into my collection, too.

Pattern quilt c. 1900 by Nancy Fredonia Chapman Sears, Rusk County, Texas

The color photos in this one just never end, and the quilts are from all sorts of people. I can’t get enough of it. This sampler, called a “pattern quilt” in the book, inspires me to make a sampler from all the extra blocks filed away in my studio.

A slightly damaged America’s Quilts and Coverlets was just $1. It’s by Carleton L. Safford and Robert Bishop.

Inside the book were some interesting things: A triangular cardboard template, an advertising card for coffee, and some clippings with quilt patterns.

I wonder who clipped these out and tucked them inside the book. Did he or she use the Grandma’s Wedding Ring quilt pattern? What happened to that quilt? I hope it went to a good home.

Here’s an example of the quilts pictured inside.

Patchwork quilt, unnamed design, c. 1800.

No maker is listed in the book for this quilt, and isn’t that heartbreaking? I view this quilt as a permission slip to do whatever works in the moment. Notice that there are full blocks, half blocks, and even a quarter block up in the corner. How fun! We worry too much about everything. If your quilt isn’t quite long enough, then just add another border along the bottom and presto! Just right.

A woven coverlet

I’m also interested in weaving, so the coverlet section of the book intrigues me. I’d love to be able to weave something like this someday! I was given a floor loom a few months ago (for free!) but that’s a story for another day.

And if these vertical sashes aren’t the happiest, yellowest, staunchest pillars you’ve ever seen…! And consider this: There is hardly any other yellow in the quilt. I think we can all stop stressing over our sashing choices.

This black and white photo from the book is especially useful. You can see the values (lights and darks) without being distracted by the color. Isn’t it curious that this quilt maker used diamonds to create fan blocks instead of sewing the sections together to make a bursting star? I love this idea. It will probably show up in my own work.

 

Contemporary Quilts from The James Collection is from 1995, two years before the quilt treasure-store of Robert and Ardis James (New Yorkers with Nebraska roots) came “home” to establish International Quilt Study Center and Museum. Now boasting the largest publicly held quilt collection in the world, it has grown into an international phenomenon with quilts and related items dating from the early 1700s to the present and representing more than 50 countries.

The booklet is based on an exhibit at Museum of American Quilter’s Society curated by Penny McMorris, whose name you may recognize. She has worn many hats over the years, and today she is one of the owners of The Electric Quilt Company, where the quilt design software Electric Quilt originates. Quite a peek into the last 30 years of contemporary quiltmaking.

Whether your quilting library has new books or vintage titles like these, pull them out regularly. Browse for inspiration and soon you’ll have so many ideas, you won’t know where to begin.

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

A Bitty Blocks Row Quilt (Almost) Finish

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, How-tos and Ideas, Quilt Lifestyle

I finished piecing my row quilt from Quiltmaker’s Bitty Blocks this week. We offered these small blocks as freebies when I was working for QM, and even though I made lots of blocks at that time, I had never finished my quilt. 

When I pulled out this UFO to try again, I had stars, baskets, bow ties, hearts and houses. I made the triangle-squares at the bottom, above, as a quickie row to take up space and to warm up a little.

My friend Paula Stoddard made the quilt that QM published as Little Bitty Love in a newsstand-only special called Quiltmaker’s Row Quilts. I love her version, but I wanted to make it my own so I decided some creativity was in order.

I made a bunch of Flying Geese, a checkerboard, Housetops (third row from the bottom), and bricks (fourth row from the bottom).

I thought I had a pretty good handle on things, so I began sewing rows together. But when I looked again, everything felt very congested near the bottom. There wasn’t room to breathe. So much checkerboard going on and on and on. And the bottom row of Housetops just didn’t feel right.

This is often the price you pay for veering off in your own direction. It’s always easier and quicker to make your quilt look just like the one in the pattern, but for me, it’s more satisfying to add my own twist. That’s why I do it, in spite of the extra headaches.

In order to give it room to breathe, I wanted more background, so I made some improvisational trees using Amy Smart’s tutorial at Diary of a Quilter. I cut my patches 5″ x 6″ but pared them down a lot in the end. They’re the only wonky row in the quilt, and I worried that they’d look out of place, but I think they’re okay in the end.

As I stood back and looked again (always stand way back, across the room), something else was bothering me. I realized that the pinwheels would look a lot better below the trees than above them. More unsewing. Possibly bad words. Resewing. Good thing I was home alone!

I moved the trees up and I switched the triangle-squares with the row I call Dribble. Now Dribble is at the bottom. I also eliminated the Housetops—they seemed way too heavy for the quilt. Now we’re getting somewhere.

You can hardly see it here, but the horizontal aqua sashing is scrappy. I only had small pieces of aqua: fat quarters or less.

I wanted this to be stash sewing, so I found aqua prints that read about the same, pieced the length I needed and called it good. Some are brighter aqua prints but I used the back side—one of my favorite tricks!

For the side borders, I used up the leftover aqua strips. I think it looks fine.

I auditioned at least 10 fabrics for the final border. Nothing seemed to work. The idea is always to have something with interest that does not compete with the center. You don’t want to go to all that work in the middle only to have the border detract from it. I think this border works, and I had it in my stash!

Once it’s quilted, I may put a bright pink or red binding on it. It would be like an exclamation point!

This quilt goes into my trunk show, “Make Extraordinary Scrap Quilts.” It gets great reviews and I think your guild would enjoy it! Get in touch today.

To see what I’m working on from day to day, follow me on Instagram, where most of the magic happens: @stashbanditquilting

Links to QM Bitty Blocks

Sawtooth Stars

Flying Geese Pinwheels

Hearts

Houses

Bow Ties

Baskets

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave