At the end of last year I decided I would make a climate quilt to record the high and low temperatures of each day in 2019.
I would use Baby Windmill blocks, which have a way of creeping into everything I do.
I messed around with some ideas.
I built a picket fence yesterday! Here’s the scrappy story.
I’m making a sampler quilt for my new Triple Crown program for guilds. It’s a pattern from the Jen Kingwell folks called Girl Next Door. This house is at the center of the design.
The house is surrounded by a picket fence. I’ve seen lots of Girl Next Door quilts online as people have made them. The picket fence has been problematic in many of them. There isn’t often enough contrast to make it stand out.
I fell hard for Dresden Plate about 10 years ago and there’s no hint that this love affair will end any time soon. I offer a lecture and a workshop and they’re very different but both are a lot of fun. I wanted to share a few of the quilts with you.
All Drezzed Up by Diane Harris
All Drezzed Up is the quilt that started it all. I bought 20 vintage Dresden Plate blocks for 20 dollars at an antique mall in Ogallala, Nebraska. Their points were raw-edged, and if I had known more about Dresdens at the time I might have left them behind.
The latest edition of American Patchwork & Quilting went on sale this week, and I’m delighted to share that I have my first quilt design in its pages. This is Color Coded from the June 2019 issue.
Color Coded, designed and made by Diane Harris. Quilted by Julie Lechner @beenquiltin. Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting®. ©2019 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.
I’m so pleased with the photography! That yellow door makes my heart sing. And the rainbow bookshelf? Oh my word. I love it so much. Jay Wilde was the photographer.
Partial seams strike fear in the hearts of quilters but it needn’t be. Let me help you understand the idea with a Valentine quilt I finished this week.
I’ve been working on a new quilt design to add to the Windy Wonders trunk show. That program is booked for Omaha Quilters’ Guild next week and I want to give them lots of eye candy. I thought a few more quilts would be nice, and since my sketchbook is overflowing, it wasn’t hard to do.
I grew up near a little town called Battle Creek here in Nebraska. Our colors were purple and gold so I spent many days in those colors.
I’m making a quilt of my own design that will become part of two guild programs,* but it’s not going well. I’m undecided about what to do. I know what I should do but I’m unwilling to do it.
This is it. It’s actually prettier than it looks here even if it is giving me fits. The biggest problem is this:
My lifetime adventures with Baby Windmills have led to quite a few quilt designs. Some of them have been sewn and some are still only on paper.
Christmas Dance by Diane Harris. Photo: Kristen Laing Photography.
The first designs were just sewing blocks together using a particular color recipe. Nice little scrap quilts like Christmas Dance, above, but pretty simplistic.
During the early fall and again after Thanksgiving, I’ve been piecing a scrappy version of Christmas Figs by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts, published by the Fat Quarter Shop.
Their quilt features the Christmas Figs fabric line by Fig Tree for Moda Fabrics. I had a fat quarter bundle of those fabrics that I’d purchased, and that’s what I used for the first few blocks. But I began to wonder if the blocks would be interesting enough with just those fabrics.
I’ve been working on a new holiday quilt called Christmas Figs. It’s been so much fun!
The folks at Fat Quarter Shop sent me a review copy of the Christmas Figs book, and I could not wait to dive in.