Merry Christmas!
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!
Twinkling Bright by Diane Harris for McCall’s Quick Quilts Dec/Jan ’18
Posts Tagged ‘scrap quilts’
Christmas Figs Done Scrappy, Part 1
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.
Bonnie Hunter Comes to Nebraska
Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame visited three guilds in Nebraska last week, and it was such fun to reconnect with her. Bonnie has had a long-term working relationship with Quiltmaker, where I worked for 11 years, and that’s how we first met. I hadn’t seen her since we both taught at a Quiltmaker event about 10 years ago. She’s as warm and outgoing and funny as ever.
Bonnie’s quilts always look great in photos, but when you see them in person they’re even better. Such energy! This is the original Wild and Goosey that took the quilting internet by storm, and it’s a gobsmacker. You have to see it to believe it.
Scrap Quilts in Indiana
At the very beginning of summer, I drove to Lafayette, Indiana to share a trunk show of scrap quilts and teach a class on Dresden Plate. It was delightful! One of the quilters in the class emailed with big news last week, and it reminded me to blog about the Common Threads Quilt Guild.
This cool old barn was in the same parking lot as their meeting place in Lafayette, at a spot called Jenk’s Rest. I love old cupolas and someday I’m going to have one in my yard.
Petit Patchwork Autumn Retreat
You’re invited!
Autumn Retreat: “Petit Patchwork”
co-hosted by Stash Bandit and Wagner’s Quilts & Conversation
September 13 to 15, 2018 in Arapahoe, Nebraska
I’d love for you to join me for a skill-building extravaganza during three days of quilting, laughter, great food, fun and relaxation! Here’s the little quilt we’ll be using to beef up our toolbox of quilting tricks.
Petit Patchwork, designed and made by Diane Harris
It’s about 36″ x 40″. The blocks are from 2″ to 8″. The techniques we’ll be learning include Dresden Plate, fusible applique, stitch-and-flip with accuracy, options for making HSTs, mitering, paper foundation piecing (optional), how to create scalloped borders for any size quilt, serpentine stitch quilting and binding curves and scallops. Doesn’t that sound like fun?!
It will be a busy three days. Wagner’s is planning delicious food in abundance, and you can treat yourself to a massage on site if you wish.
New quilting friends and uninterrupted sewing time at one of the most beautiful times of the year! We’ll take short walk-breaks, weather permitting. Arapahoe is a lovely little town, a perfect example of life in rural America.
Get ideas for improving your machine quilting. Learn my easy mock-hand binding by machine. Gather gusto for labeling your quilts with a finishing flourish! All included in the retreat price of $200, which includes meals, three days of instruction and a kit for the quilt in your choice of three color stories: primary (shown), 1930s and Civil War. Lodging is available separately, and you’ll be given details when you call Wagner’s to register at 308-962-8458.
See how friendly and fun they are? From the left are Sarah, Gretchen and Ruth. We’ll all make certain you have a wonderful time. Please join us! Call Wagner’s to register: 308-962-8458.
Vintage Sewing Treasures
A while back I was with quilting buddies in Holdrege and there was a garage sale at the senior citizen’s center. I spied a beat-up brown grocery sack with “50¢” scrawled on the side.
The sack was full of old fabric scraps, and a quick look told me they were mostly small pieces. But for a price like that, I wasn’t about to leave them behind.
Strange (Fabric) Bedfellows
I taught a class in Shenandoah, Iowa last week, and my hostess treated me to the progress on her guild challenge quilt. It’s remarkable so I wanted to share it with you. She started by drawing these four fabrics randomly, and at first glance, you might think that was disheartening.
Carolyn began with these four seemingly unrelated fabrics.
But Carolyn is nothing if not an adventurer, and she soon found the common element. What do you think it was?
My friends, the commonality among the fabrics was orange.
And with that, Carolyn went to town.
She made a medallion for the quilt’s center, repeating the fabrics several times to create cohesion.
She made Pinwheels and framed them with triangle-squares.
She added a little of this and a little of that, continuing to repeat the oranges and adding in some deep chocolate brown.
Can you imagine how exciting it was to sew this? It’s the kind of quilt where you make decisions as you go. You don’t worry about the end result while you’re doing it. You just make one decision at a time. The quilt pulls you along.
This is how the quilt looked when I visited at the beginning of April, but she’s not finished yet. More blocks will be added to the top and bottom, but knowing Carolyn, that plan could still change.
It was great fun to hear about her process and to see how well this project is shaping up. I love it. I don’t know if I could have made those four fabrics work this well!
Takeaways for Quilters:
• Something has to tie a scrap quilt together. In this case, it was a variety of orange fabrics.
• Make decisions as you go. No need to visualize the end result. Be along for the ride!
• Stand back to audition fabrics—way back, across the room, with the fabrics on a vertical surface.
• Be brave. It’s only fabric.
Thanks for all the inspiration, Carolyn! I had a wonderful time in Shenandoah.
Everybunny: Scrap Quilt Lessons
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
Four-Leaf Clover Quilt: Free Pattern
St. Patrick’s Day is nearly upon us, and that put me in the mood to sew something green last week. This is a free quilt pattern for a four-leaf clover design I named Lucky.
Machine Quilting Practice: Christmas Chevron
Around Christmas last year, I started piecing a simple chevron quilt made from triangle-squares. I sewed from my stash and was pretty excited with how it started coming together.
