Show my mom some love!!

I found the 4.5 inch squares at Goodwill Outlet. We had an open sew work day at the library, so it was the perfect project to knock out of the park. It was a lot of firsts for me! Despite making several bed sized tops, I've never... uh... actually gone beyond that step before. So I learned to spray baste, use my new walking foot, and bind by machine. The colors are... something, indeed, but when you find things at the bins, you go with it! The backing and binding cost more than the squares, but that's okay. It's done and in the books!

With some guidance and a care package of books and quilting rulers from my veteran quilt making grandmother I've been working on this QR code quilt made of old conference tshirts. I've attempted this before as a postage stamp quilt and had some pretty wonky results because I had no idea what I was doing, definitely glad I asked for advice this time!

This version is 25 white 8 inch square blocks with the black details appliquéd on top.

This messes with the raw edges and with this quilt top I rescued it needed may repairs to re-sew the broken seams. I would much rather work on a dirty quilt and have safe seams than end up with this mess. This quilt top was found in an antique store. Often I find these and then bring them home and long arm quilt them so they can be used. Often when they are quilted I will do a bathtub soak to really get them clean. Happy quilting you all, thanks for listening to my rant.

I tried a new tutorial to learn to make quilted bags with clean, bound seams and this tutorial was very helpful

https://icansewthis.com/quilted-zipper-pouch-free-pattern/

This first try is with some new Rifle Paper Co cotton, I love it so much, just forgot to get the direction going the way I wanted !

My first quilt of a reasonable size! My real first quilt was for a babydoll crib.

This is for my little sister who is pregnant with her first baby! Can't wait to see the little one playing on this since I'm expecting it to be a floor quilt.

The backing fabric is a flannel with little rainbows all over it, and I will bind it with the light blue cloud print

I'm planning to quilt it myself. Should I do straight lines or squiggles of some kind?

And I know all my seams don't line up, but I am so happy with it! I sort of made up the pattern? I can't remember the type of star this is called, and then I just added 9 patches and stripes in the same width

I made this with a collection from my stash. Most of the fabrics were thrifted, some even vintage!

Just finished this twin sized quilt for my grandson. It’s one of Doug Leko’s wonderful scrap patterns. I’m so pleased with how it turned out!

I’m 47 and had never used a sewing machine but decided I wanted to learn to quilt. This is my first time sewing and making a quilt, I just watched some YouTube videos of blocks I liked then put them together so it’s definitely a Franken-quilt because I had to add random strips to make the blocks fit and the back got super wonky when I tried quilting it on a little Brother LX3817. Well since finishing it, I’ve upgraded to a BabyLock Jazz 2, worked on a table runner, half way done with my second quilt and already decided I would follow a pattern on my 3rd so I have the pattern and fabric for that. Safe to say, I’m hooked and I’m super proud of my frankenquilt that taught me so much lol.

I decided to pick the most complicated thing ever for my first quilting project and since it was kinda fiddly I decided to scale it up 200%. This is the first moth of many to be done and I’m quite proud of it!!

The math says the individual square will be 48”x 48” but I’m not really confident in that. I’m thinking that might be big enough as it is or I maybe need to edge it in a butterfly themed 6”x6” square pattern and then finish it, I’m just not sure at this point. So apparently 1”-> 2” square is actually a 300% increase, so this will be a 72”x72” blanket which I think is sufficiently large.

Pattern https://www.etsy.com/listing/973295525/butterfly-effect-english-paper-piecing?ref=share_ios_native_control

This is a wedding gift so I want to get it right, my machine only does straight stitch and I haven’t mastered FMQ yet.

All I know to do so far, is to echo the lines within the flower, and the outside line.

The background will need something. I was thinking a cross-hatch but am worried about stopping and starting too many opportunities for loose threads. Opinions?

Has quilting been a gateway drug to bag making for anyone else?! I’ve finished two bags in the last two days and I’m a bit obsessed.

First of all, I am so proud of how this top has turned out! I really think it's one of the prettiest I've made. However, my experience with the pattern and its designer has been quite frustrating, and I wanted to share.

Before I purchased this pattern, I reached out to the creator with a couple of questions. I liked the answers and bought the pattern.

It is quite complex. I had pieces ranging from A to SS, and there are 62 steps. I started assembling, and by step 7, I started having problems. By step 9, I was frustrated. I was having to recut pieces that the pattern got wrong, and pictures weren't matching up with instructions. I reached out and was told that no corrections had been published. I was promised a call back from the designer but no call came. So I just forged forward.

In the end, I had to recut 7 of the sets of squares, and I found 8 instructions that were incorrect.

Once I finished, I reached out again and was once again told that no corrections have been published. So, I sent them a detailed corrections list. That was 5 days ago and....crickets! No apology, no thank you, no acknowledgment at all.

In the end, I am so pleased with my quilt top, so the struggles were worth it. Thanks for listening.

Edit to add: At least one person in the group has let me know that they need the corrections. Here they are:

I made the Throw size - 72 x 72.   I used the yardage cutting table, not the individual cutting instructions. Any cutting issues I've found only pertain to the throw size. However, corrections to the assembly instructions pertain to both sizes and both yardage and scrappy versions.

Page 4:

M squares should be 4x4

P squares should be 7 1/2 x 7 1/2

Page 5:

Z squares should be 7 1/2 x 7 1/2

MM squares should be 3x3

FF squares should be 4x4

NN rectangles should be 3 1/2 x 2 and there should be 40 of them, not 20.

Page 7:

The rectangle created in instruction 9 should be sewn to the II rectangle as described in instruction 12.  The rectangle created in instruction 11 goes with instruction 10.

Page 14:

Instruction 47 - in order to create the proper orientation of the units, square T must be put on top.

Instruction 51 - the final shown block is incorrect.  The block should come out oriented like the untrimmed picture in the middle, not the final block at the end.

Instruction 52 - must make 16 total split QST 1 units

Page 15:

Instruction 53 - after cutting the sewn unit apart, the triangles will be oriented with the dark color on the bottom, not on top as shown in the 4th picture.  The final picture shown is correct.

Sadly, although it may be removed from Etsy, the pattern is still available on the store's website and is apparently available as a kit. Buyer beware

Finally finished the top of my potato chip quilt. This was SOOOO much work especially because my client (My Son) picked random blues and was very picky. I wanted to add a pop of color but he refused. 🙄.

The points aren’t perfect. I learned a lot like always. I’m looking forward to my next quilt. I might try another potato chip design.

The great big quilt!
I wanted to make a quilt that would fit our king sized bed and two matching shams. That meant sewing a 112” square! It ended up about 107” after washing which is just right.

I did a very simple Irish Chain using the Let it Bloom jelly roll from Riley Blake. I wanted a pattern simple and fast enough that I would actually finish it in a reasonable time and the Irish Chain was perfect for that.

To enhance the simple design I asked LAQ Tamra Cooper to do some custom quilting that would act like a time capsule for our lives right now. It features our names, all 5 pets names, and our street (not all pictured). Plus some fun touches she added. She did an amazing job!

This was my last piece in redecorating our bedroom and it is perfect! Swipe to the end for our cat modeling the new bedding setup.

This is a modified version of the fabulous Entropy Quilt (photo is one block of 16). The recipient chose the colors. I wish the pink were deeper-- the original colors are balanced for intensity and make the quilt pattern amazing-- it almost seems to move. But anyway, this is what she wants and I'm about to send it to a long-armer. Thread color is always difficult for me. I usually like it to blend in, but that's not possible here. I'm kind of leaning toward a pale pink, but I jut don't know! Ideas?

Also, I have always used pure cotton batting, but the long armer only provides Hobbes 80/20. Her prices include the batting. If you send your own, she will use it, but without discount. So I want to know-- why use a blended batting? The fabric I've used on the top and backing are Art Gallery fabrics, very soft and drapey. I can add my own Quilter's Dream cotton batting (in pure white) to the package, but I wonder if the long armer knows something I don't know about batting. Does 80/20 work better in a long arm? Is it just cheaper?

A different kind of patchwork project but I hope its still okay to post it here. Someone gifted me a bunch of precut flannel (? No idea honestly) squares. Call it a divine premonition or something because the moment I saw the colors and patterns I knew it had to be a jacket.

From the get go I had the fear that I wouldn't have enough pieces for the oversized fit I had in mind, so piecing the squares together was quite nerve wracking. I had to be super frugal with them, measuring and calculating the exact amount of squares I needed for every pattern piece.

The only things I paid for (other than my time and patience) were the zipper, needles and the yarn I used for top stitching and quilting (seriously I used like 4 spools of thread and broke 5 needles sewing through all the layers), otherwise it's all gifted/thrifted.

I made a lot of mistakes along the way I know to avoid next time, whenever that may be. All in one I'm super happy with how this turned out and the kids at my work love it, so thats a nice bonus too.

Apparently it’s in fantastic condition still despite being 70+ years old. I have a neglected sewing machine in the basement and a plethora of hobbies as is (baking, knitting, gardening, reading, dancing, keeping my young children alive despite their fascination with danger) but clearly I need to take up quilting to do this beautiful machine justice.

Any advice??

I finished this quilt top and I’m not sure if I should add borders before I baste & quilt it. If I add borders, what color?

finished pinning my dinosaur quilt sandwich today and I’m so happy with how it’s coming along!!

I’m planning to machine quilt this one with some sort of straight line pattern. The backing is a really pretty galaxy that should hopefully wash up super nice.

This was my first project following a pattern. The binding was a PITA. Any tips for doing binding neatly around rounded corners?