Show and Tell Quilts in Kansas City

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

My latest trips to guilds in New York, Florida, Texas and beyond have featured amazing quilts by guild members.

Chris Jacobs with Stars and Stripes by Cherry Guidry

At Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild on Oct 10, Chris Jacobs displayed her Stars and Stripes finish. The overall impact is really strong but hone in on that background piecing. It adds so much to the design! This is a complimentary pattern by Cherry Guidry. Wouldn’t it make a great Quilt of Valor?

Beth Gude and her quilt of scrappy exchange blocks

I fell in love with Beth Gude’s quilt, too. She made blocks for an exchange one year and then created the quilt from blocks she received back from friends. Find Beth on Instagram @gudegoods.

Some of the blocks feature a large square at the center, but a few makers put patchwork there instead. This would be such a fun quilt to make! I love being able to feature larger scale prints in big patches. The design is Crumb Coat by Tara Evans @taraleequiltery.

Nicole Moore’s Drunkard’s Path quilt made with AccuQuilt.

I love the rainbow effect in Nicole Moore’s finish, above. Nicole is an AccuQuilt ambassador and she cut the Drunkard’s Path blocks with her Go! cutter.

Nicole Moore

She also brought AccuQuilt dies for a bowl cozy and a bucket hat, and she’s already made items from both. Bowl cozies for the microwave make great Christmas gifts. I use mine all the time!

An abstract design based on real-life experiences

Tia Curtis brought a fabulous quilt, above, that was inspired by what she sees while swimming laps: ceiling and floor tiles.

Tia Curtis and her quilt

This is a beautiful piece but my photos don’t do it justice. The colors are wonderful!

Original design by Nikki Woolsey

And maybe my favorite of the night was this quilt by Nikki Woolsey @sassypearlquilts. Look at that quilting!

I love how it changes from one section to another. Nikki is president-elect of KCMQG and if her energy is any indication, next year will be one to remember.

Nikki Woolsey

Also I’m a fan of her shirt. It’s the kind of thing I’d put on for church and my husband would raise his eyebrows.

More show and tell from other guilds still to come. Quilt on, friends!

If you’re looking for dynamic programs for your quilt group, check out my offerings here!

New Talk: Build a Scrap Quilt Brick by Brick

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Classes, How-tos and Ideas, Inspiration, Open Classes for Everyone, Quilt Lifestyle, Trunk Shows

You’re invited to an online presentation I’m giving soon:

Build a Scrap Quilt Brick by Brick, tickets $20 on Eventbrite

It happens live Sat Aug 24 but it will be recorded to watch at your convenience, too.

Brick Block baby quilt by Diane Harris, EQ rendering

If you attended the Conquer Your Fabric Scraps Summit and upgraded to the bundle, then a ticket to this talk is included. But if you didn’t and you’d like to come, you may purchase a ticket any time this week.

Just Bricks by Diane Harris

One of my interests is taking simple ideas and seeing how far I can run with them. I love designing quilts that feature just one patch, such as a brick.

In this talk, some of the things we’ll cover include:

  • What IS a brick
  • What sizes to cut
  • Many ways to use bricks for scrap quilts
  • The Brick Block
  • The L Block
  • The Frameup Block
  • The Windmill Block
  • Pictorial quilts with bricks
  • And more!
Basic Baby Windmills quilt by Diane Harris. Photo by Kristin Laing Photography.

And the best part? I’m creating a handout that will show you how the bricks are arranged for many of these ideas! You can print it and have it at your fingertips as you begin your own journey with bricks. Normally, each quilt idea would be developed into a pattern for sale, which would retail for around $12. So if you get 10 ideas worth $12 each, that’s $120 worth of content that is included with your $20 ticket to the talk.

Trust me when I say that you’re going to get excited about making scrap quilts with bricks!

Get your ticket now and I’ll see you on Saturday. And remember, you can watch the recording if you can’t attend live. 😊

Home for Christmas is a brick quilt by Diane Harris.

Rotate That Baby and Conquer Your Scraps

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

I finished a quilt top this week but before we get to that, here’s an invitation to a free event for anyone with scraps.

I’m sharing a new talk called Smashing Sashing during the Conquer Your Fabric Scraps Summit.

And I’d love it if you’d be there. A ticket to the summit is complimentary. There will be 21 teachers all sharing their best tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration for diving into your scrap fabrics and making good use of them in wonderful ways.

You’ll find all the details and registration (it’s free!) on the Summit’s main page. I hope to see you there!

Full disclosure: You’ll be offered the option to upgrade your ticket for a fee, which gives you extended access to all of the presentations as well as a bundle of goods: patterns, classes and more. If you upgrade, I will earn a commission. But you can take in all of the Summit at no charge and it’s fine if that’s what you prefer. 😊

Here’s the scoop on my latest project.

Early this year I decided to jump in for the Tiny Nine Patch Challenge, hosted by Taryn @reproquiltlover on Instagram. There were three sizes from which to pick and I decided on the middle size. The squares are cut at 1-1/4″ so the Nine Patch will finish at 2-1/4″ x 2-1/4″. Small enough to be super cute but not so small as to make me miserable.

Make a Summer Splash on The Quilt Show

Written by Diane Harris on . Posted in Blog, Classes, How-tos and Ideas, Inspiration, Open Classes for Everyone, Quilt Lifestyle

If “sampler” makes you think of blocks in rows with sashing, let me introduce something new!

A few years back I designed Petit Patchwork as a way to teach several techniques to quilters at a retreat. It was fun to make and it’s an attractive little quilt.

Petit Patchwork by Diane Harris

Fast forward to last year when I was a guest on The Quilt Show with Ricky Tims (Alex Anderson was recovering from surgery) and crew. They’d seen Petit Patchwork and invited me to design this year’s summer quilt project. When I learned how it would work, another small sampler seemed like the right choice. And that’s how Summer Splash was born.

Early sketching for blocks and layout ideas

If you’re new to Stash Bandit, welcome!

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

You’ll find lots of scrappy fun, tips, tricks and ideas for making diverse fabrics work together beautifully.

I’m Diane Harris and I think of myself as a scrap quilt specialist. I like to let the fabric do the work! My patchwork is usually simple. The way the fabrics play together is a little more complex, but totally achievable if you know a few tricks!

Star Silhouettes by Diane Harris
Quilting by Julie Lechner

Star Silhouettes is a simple design that packs a punch. It’s made from just one patch size and it features a little unit I call a StarQuar because it’s one-fourth of a basic star block.

It appeared on the cover of American Patchwork & Quilting’s August ’22 issue, and you can still get the pattern here.

Lingering Effects by Diane Harris
Quilting by Julie Lechner

I designed Lingering Effects in response to a rough patch I went through coming out of the pandemic. The idea behind the red crosses was “send help.” I almost gave up on that border but now I think it’s the most striking feature of the quilt. This design appeared on the cover of Quiltmaker’s Jan/Feb ’24 issue. You can get the pattern from the publisher here.

Scrap quilts to love: Ideas and fun by quilters!

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

There was a wealth of scrappy inspiration at the guilds I visited recently.

This quilt, made by Becki in Arlington, Texas, was one of my favorites. She worked with third graders after a guild friend hosted a similar project for her grandchildren.

Becki’s finished group quilt ready to gift

It exudes joy and I fell in love with it. Becki is on the left during show and tell at the Trinity Valley Quilters’ Guild meeting, where I shared One Hundred Small Quilts.

Becki observed that it was pretty easy to tell which blocks were made by girls and which ones were by the boys. I think that’s a fascinating part of human nature.

Make a Scrap Quilt: Brick by Brick

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

Welcome to Stash Bandit! Let’s talk about bricks!!

I’ve been playing with bricks for years and some of my favorite quilts feature this simple rectangle which is twice as long as wide. Let’s start simply. This is the easiest scrap quilt ever!

Cut a wide variety of fabrics into patches 2½” x 4½”. Pair a lighter brick with a darker brick. Sew the patches together along the long edge to form a unit. Press toward the darker brick. Now you have a unit:

Arrange the units into Row 1 by rotating the second unit and then every other unit as shown below. Sew the units together and press seam allowances to the left.

Make Row 2 in a similar way, but rotate the FIRST unit, and then every other unit. Sew those units together and press seam allowances to the right.

Brick by Brick: Favorite Sizes

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

I love to make quilts from bricks! A brick is a rectangular quilt patch that finishes twice as long as wide.

My favorite brick sizes are listed below as finished size first, followed by the dimensions you’ll need to cut the patches.

Finished size: 1″ x 2″…..Cut 1-1/2″ x 2-1/2″

Finished size: 1-1/2″ x 3″…..Cut 2″ x 3-1/2″

Finished size: 2″ x 4″…..Cut 2-1/2″ x 4-1/2″

My favorite bricks are the three in the middle of this display.
Their sizes are listed just above.

The tiniest patch above is cut 1″ x 1-1/2″ to finish at 1/2″ x 1″. It is little!!

The largest patch above is cut 4-1/2″ x 8-1/2″. The largest brick I have ever used was cut 6-1/2″ x 12-1/2″. It was used in a 24″ block.

To figure out your own custom brick sizes, first think about the finished dimensions you want, for instance, you want a brick that’s 9″ long. Since it has to be twice as long as wide, half of 9 is 4-1/2.

So you know the brick will finish 4-1/2″ x 9″. NOW add 1/2″ to each of those numbers to get the cut size. In this case the cut size would be 5″ x 9-1/2″.

One of the first bricks quilt I ever made featured Baby Windmill blocks. I created darker windmills to get the effect of “borders” for this design I call Framework.

Framework by Diane Harris

Somehow this helps to organize all the scrappy chaos and the quilt is more pleasing to the eye than it would be without the false borders.

When the patchwork is very small like this, you can use all types of cotton quilt fabric together: reproductions, batiks, florals, novelty and so on.

Baby Windmill 4″ quilt block: Patches cut 1.5″ x 2.5″

I use contrast in most of the blocks so that the windmill is easily visible. Most blocks outside of the border areas have a windmill that is darker than the background.

The windmills in Framework are made from patches cut 1-1/2″ x 2-1/2″. Each block finishes at 4″. You can find instructions for these little blocks in my Baby Windmills basic tutorial post.

Here’s another small quilt made from Baby Windmills. It’s called Christmas Dance. I went scrappy within a limited palette. This is a very entertaining kind of sewing!

Christmas Dance by Diane Harris.
Photo: Kristen Laing Photography.