Illusion Quilting

The most eye-catching designs are those with more than one pattern going on, like this Squares Squared quilt by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts. Featured in The Quilter magazine, this cool design is made using strip sets, so it creates the illusion of woven strips, but it's easier than it looks! The blue and yellow colorway of Ro Gregg's Vibe collection pops on the white background for a refreshing quilt you'll love to use all year round. 

"Squares Squared" by Pine Tree Country Quilts;
featured in The Quilter Aug-Sept 2014

Can you pick out the block in the flat shot of the quilt below?

See the entire Vibe collection here.

Find the kit for Squares Squared here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.

Owl Love

Judy Hansen has created three different designs using her adorable Nite Owls fabric. If you're a frequent blog follower, you've likely seen the free pattern available on our website, but we'll include it again in this post for easy access. 

Baby Owls

She designed "Baby Owls" for Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine, a quilt that was also featured in the Love of Quilting tv series. (Watch the show for tips on how to make these blocks more accurate through the use of oversized blocks.)

"Baby Owls" by Judy Hansen;
featured in Love of Quilting May/June 2014

About the quilt design: 

She says, "I had my new grandson in mind when I designed this. I definitely wanted it to be a baby quilt. Four-patches are one of my favorite designs, and I love putting them on point. It makes the quilt more interesting, and makes it look more complicated than it really is."

About her design philosophy:

"After I've initially designed a quilt, I always try to look at it and say to myself, 'don't stop there—you can make it better.' Have I done all I can do to make it better? What would make it more interesting? This quilt is a great example. I took an easy quilt and made it more interesting, first with the on-point setting, and then by adding the inner border of green around the owl sashing strips. I also fussy-cut the outer border--the tree print--and then appliqued fussy-cut owls onto it."

About the owls:

Aren't they cute?!?! "I put fusible on the back of the owl print and cut them out--I like using Heat n Bond Lite. Then I fused them in place on the border of the quilt top and used invisible thread and my free motion foot to zigzag stitch them in place." 

Find the kit for this project here.

Find the magazine here.

Owls' Playtime

Judy has had babies on the mind with the arrival of her new grandson last year! She designed another baby quilt using Nite Owls that was featured in The Quilter magazine.

"Owls' Playtime" by Judy Hansen;
featured in The Quilter December 2013/January 2014

About the chevron design: 

"I have found that I like the chevron better in a design than in a fabric. A lot of people struggle with how to use a chevron print, but we like the design. And it's so simple--just half square triangles!"

On the scrappy look:
"Since rows of half-square triangles use a lot of pieces, you can use many different fabrics and create a scrappy look, even when all the fabrics are from the same collection, like in my quilt."

On the black and white background:
"Black and white with brights--you can't beat it! The colors really stand out against the white and black eyeball print. Plus, with my background in education, I know that research has shown that the stark contrast of black and white is really great in baby things, as its what the baby can see first."

Find the kit for Owls' Playtime here.Find The Quilter magazine here.The pattern in The Quilter also included the templates for making the coordinating owl pillows. Find the templates for the owls here.

See the entire Nite Owls collection here.

Learn more about Judy here.

Download the Peekaboo Nite Owl free pattern for Nite Owls, also designed by Judy, here.

"Peekaboo Nite Owl" by Judy Hansen

Ahh...Sea Glass

This gorgeous wall hanging in the June/July issue of The Quilter, made from Ro Gregg's Marblehead Venetian Glass collection, is so aptly named "Sea Glass." Looking at this quilt, it's easy to imagine you're enjoying a relaxing day at the beach.

"Sea Glass" by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar, Pine Tree Country Quilts

The aquas, the greens, the blues of actual sea glass. 

Read more about it and how it's becoming more scarce in this Smithsonian article.

Photo credit: Celia Pearson

Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts used the focal globe fabric (below) in an unexpected way--as setting triangles around the five main blocks. It really makes the blocks pop, doesn't it?

Then, adding to the unexpected, the main border features this beachy print, framed in a soft cream.

See the entire Marblehead Venetian Glass collection here.
Find the kit for this project here.
Find The Quilter magazine here.

Garden Time!

With spring here, it's time to get out into the garden! And for those of you who prefer to admire gorgeous florals rather than get down and dig in the dirt, consider this fabric version. 

"Garden Party" by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar; featured in The Quilter April/May 2014

Garden Party, by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts, features Ro Gregg's Block Party collection, and what a party it makes! Roses, iris, tulips and sunflowers bloom in fussy cut blocks and a pretty all-over floral that has a scrapbook feel. 

Like many great designs, this quilt looks more complex than it really is--all you need are pieced strip sets, flying geese, and two kinds of floral blocks. The fussy-cut focal squares, cut from this fabric,

take center stage are connected by a lattice look of green strips. Squares cut from the secondary main floral print, this one,

appear to be blooming out of pink petals (easy flying geese units!). Put it all together, and you've got a gorgeous year-round garden that's easy to make.

Which is your favorite flower?

See Ro's entire Block Party collection here.
Find the kit for Garden Party here.
Find The Quilter magazine here. 

Baby Talk x 2

Is there a baby quilt on your to-do list? Whether the little bundle of joy is a boy or a girl, Michele Crawford of Flower Box Quilts has a pattern in The Quilter magazine that we think you'll love! It uses our Baby Talk collection--fussy cut squares of sweet baby items, like rocking horses, rubber duckies, and rattles, and easy one-block piecing for a quick finish. 

Here's "Baby Talk" in blue/green:

"Baby Talk" designed by Michele Crawford and quilted by Kay Kimball;
featured in The Quilter magazine April/May 2014

and in pink/lavender:

And here's what Michele has to say about her design:

Q. Can you talk about the versatility of the main print you used for the borders and in the blocks?

Michele: I fussy cut designs from the main print as the corner squares of the quilt block. I like to use a border print in quilt blocks and then "frame" the quilt center with the outer border.

Q. Can you tell us about the block design? The frame around it really enhances the basic four-patch.

Michele: The magazine editor asked me to design a quick and easy template-free block for this quilt, and I thought the framed border offered a different look to a simple four-patch block.

Q. We have to ask—blue/green or pink/lavender?

Michele: I do like the blue/green colorway best.

Q. Any tips for fussy cutting the squares?

Michele: I cut a 3-1/2" square from template plastic and then positioned it on the border fabric to see how the design would look after being fussy cut.

Q. Tell us about the machine quilting.

Michele: Since the quilt design is so angular, I asked my machine quilter, Kay Kimball, to stitch an allover circular type design to "soften" the look with white thread.

To see the entire Baby Talk collection, click here.

To purchase the kit for either colorway and learn more about Michele, click here.

To find The Quilter magazine, click here. 

A Bedroom with Drama and Intrigue

Spice up your bedroom...add drama and intrigue with the elegant "Black Tie Affair" bed quilt, designed by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts.

"Black Tie Affair" by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar;
featured in The Quilter February/March 2014

This stunning design uses, what else, the Black Tie Affair fabric collection--sophisticated black and white prints with touches of red added in for extra flair.

While the quilt seems complex, it's actually quite easy: large black and red half-square triangles surrounded by a simple checked border. The on-point setting creates interest and motion, and a variety of thin and wide borders create beautiful drape for the sides of the bed.

See the entire Black Tie Affair collection here.
Purchase the kit for this quilt here.
Find The Quilter magazine here.

Meet Ollie

Meet Ollie, Heidi Pridemore's favorite Octopus! 

Inspired by her Under the Sea fabric collection, Heidi designed this lap size throw for The Quilter magazine, and today she's hear to tell us about it.

"Ollie Octopus" designed by Heidi Pridemore and machine quilted by Doris Pridemore;
featured in The Quilter February/March 2014

Q. What made you decide to do an octopus applique?

Heidi: I designed the Octopus for our fabric Under The Sea and he was my favorite character, so I wanted to showcase him. I made him overlap the pieced portion of the quilt because I like to extend appliqués across borders to break up the grid of the background and soften the edges.  

 

Ollie appears in Heidi's Under the Sea fabric

Q. How did you decide on fabric placement?

Heidi: I like to use the cooler colors for the larger areas and add a splash of the warmer colors in the blocks. 

Q. Love the use of that wiggly stripe for the binding! Did you design that fabric with bindings/borders in mind?

Heidi: Yes, I like using stripes on my quilts and don’t always like to fussy cut the stripe to be straight. So I designed a wavy strip to make it easier to use. 

No need to worry about straight stripes with this wiggle!

Q. How did you choose the two alternating blocks used in this quilt?

Heidi: I like to mix and match blocks in my quilts. I always look for the relationship between the blocks and any secondary pattern it will create when selecting blocks for a quilt.

Q. What do you like best about this quilt?

Heidi: I love Ollie, he just makes me smile and hope he does that for others as well!

Q. Any tips for appliqueing the octopus?

Heidi: When applying the octopus to the background, start at the head and gently push the tentacles down with your fingers to make sure they are positioned in the correct place before pressing them down. 

See the entire Under the Sea collection here.

See more of Heidi's work and purchase the kit to make Ollie Octopus here.

Find The Quilter magazine here. 

Romance for Two

With the Christmas season over, Valentine's Day is the next  holiday on the calendar. Get started now on this red and white table topper from the February/March issue of The Quilter, and when February 14th rolls around, you'll be ready! Let this quilt set the scene for a night of chocolate, wine and cupids, either for a romantic night with your special someone or chick flicks with your favorite girlfriends.

"Red Rose" designed by Diane Arganbright and Patricia Sue Nelson;
pieced by Patricia Meek and quilted by Shawna Crawford;
pattern featured in The Quilter magazine February/March 2014

Diane and Patty Sue of The Quilting Hen talked about their decadent red and white table topper design:

Q. What attracted you to the Roses are Red collection?

Patty Sue: Red and pink are my two favorite colors.  It is a rare find to have so many beautiful, complimentary shades of these two colors together in one collection.  And who doesn’t love roses?

Q. What’s the challenge/advantage of working with a single color collection like this?

Diane and Patty Sue: The challenge is placing the fabrics in the project so that they maintain their distinct values and do not mush together too much.

The advantage is that you can use all the pieces from the collection without the project becoming too busy or too overloaded with color.

Q. Looking at the first block—it's got such great detail with the pieced ''frame.'' What made you decide to do that as opposed to just using one fabric?

Diane and Patty Sue: We felt that the alternating light/dark strips made a simple block more interesting without adding too much difficulty.  It also gave us the opportunity to incorporate more of the fabrics into the project.

Q. Tell us about your border choices What prompted you to use four borders?

Diane and Patty Sue: We did not set out with four borders in mind. We simply kept working with different options until the quilt seemed complete.  We also liked the optical illusion that four borders give this quilt.  By designing it the way that we did, the finished quilt appears to be a rectangle, but is actually a square.

Q. Can you talk about the second block design?

Diane and Patty Sue: We wanted to choose a block design that would showcase the large floral rose piece without cutting it up too much and without simply using a large square or triangle in the quilt.  Since we were also thinking of Valentine’s Day when we were designing this project, the block design seemed to be perfect.  It reminded us of the shaft of an arrow, and by placing the blocks in the four strategic places, they appear to be pointing to the center, even without tips.

Q. What do you envision this quilt being used for?

Diane and Patty Sue: This quilt was definitely designed for holiday use.  We see it on a table or at an angle on the back of a davenport or recliner to add festivity.  It is large enough to be used as a picnic or lap blanket by a couple wanting to spend some quality time together.

Q. Can you talk about the quilting that was done on it?

Diane and Patty Sue: Patricia Meek did a fabulous job of piecing this quilt for us.  Her perfectly matched seams keep even the most difficult points sharp.  Her strict attention to proper pressing kept any seam from being visible under the white or light fabric. 

With a flawlessly pieced top, it was easy for our long arm quilter, Shawna Crawford, to create a fabulous design on this project.  Her unique, original quilting design complemented the vision we had for this project.  The flowing swirls and feathers provide a feeling of carefree gaiety.  The unending string of circles in the pink border is reminiscent of the circle of love.

Find a post about the Roses are Red fabrics here and see the entire collection here.

Find the kit for the Red Rose table topper here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.

(Frosty) Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

We all love a good red and green holiday project, but by the time January rolls around, are you starting to tire of those holiday colors? 

The solution? 

Choose blue and white for a design that can last all winter (and beyond)! 

Then add in diamonds, and you'll have a project no woman could refuse!

Diane Arganbright of The Quilting Hen saw the frosty palette appeal in our Summer Breeze collection and designed the "Winter Breeze" table runner, featured in the December 2013/January 2014 issue of The Quilter magazine. 

"Winter Breeze" designed by Diane Arganbright,
pieced by Denise Combs and quilted by Shawna Crawford;
featured in The Quilter December 2013/January 2014

We spoke with Diane, who explained how she came up with this cool runner design and even shares some tips for working with diamond templates!

Q. What do you like about the Summer Breeze fabric collection?

Diane: We didn't want to cut up the beautiful designs in the fabrics and the colors blue and white have become so popular for Christmas decorating. The fabric looked stunning, with great contrast, so we were excited to sew with it.

Q. Why did you decide to use diamonds in the design?

Diane: Our quilt shop has noticed that templates are experiencing a strong comeback with customers. We chose to use diamond templates to create something slightly more advanced for our quilters, but also easy enough that a newer quilter could give it a try.

Q. Any tips, either for cutting the diamonds?

Diane: In general, a good tip is you can cut a strip of fabric and then put the diamond template on that strip to cut it instead of working with the entire piece of fabric because the 2 long sides are on the straight grain.

Also, lay your ruler over the top of your template to give you extra stability when you are cutting.

Q. What do you like best about the runner?

Diane: The runner looks beautiful in the photograph taken for The Quilter magazine.  Many homes seem to have dark wood, and this blue and white fabric look elegant on that dark wood.

Q. Can you talk about how it was machine quilted?

Diane: This was machine quilted by Shawna Crawford of Lewistown, Montana, and she used holiday themes machine on the table runner.  I have used Shawna for all our machine projects and her work is stunning!

Q. What do you envision this table runner being used for?

Diane: This was designed for the holidays but could be created in many different fabrics for your needs.  It would make a great gift and by switching up the fabric, you could make it more masculine as this diamond style would work for the man in your life too, perhaps as a lap quilt.

See the entire Summer Breeze collection here.

Find the kit for this project here.

Find The Quilter here.

p.s. Can't get enough of this fabric line? 

Check out this free quilt pattern using it here!

Fall colors in all their glory

As the leaves start to turn, we can't help but be excited about fall! Those rich, glorious colors...

Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts used the inviting prints from our Fall Tapestry collection to create a table setting that brings those delicious colors into your home. 

"Autumn Tapestry" by Pine Tree Country Quilts;
featured in The Quilter October/November 2013

Q. What drew you to the Fall Tapestry prints?
Pine Tree: The richness of the colors. They all have a golden feel to them, and we loved the idea of bringing fall colors into the home through a table runner and coordinating placemats.

Q. Favorite print in the collection? 
Pine Tree: It's a toss-up between the large leaves on black and the circles.

 

Q. How did you decide on the design for the runner and placemats?
Pine Tree: We knew this was a fabric line that could do all the work in a visually simple design. Turning sashed squares on point adds an extra element to the design--sort of dresses it up a bit and creates movement. The arrangement of the different fabrics [rather than a random, scrappy layout] adds an elegance to the runner, too.

Q. And the decision to use black as an accent?
Pine Tree: The black sashing and binding really helps the prints to pop. They almost jump out at you! And the rust cornerstones bring in a little extra color since the prints we chose to use in the runner are primarily green and gold.

Find the kit for Autumn Tapestry here.
See the entire Fall Tapestry collection here.
Find The Quilter magazine here.

Love the Fall Tapestry fabrics? See another quilt made with these prints here. 

Feels like summer: Calypso!

Some quilts you look at just make you happy, simple as that. Michele Crawford's "Calypso," featured in the August-September issue of The Quilter magazine, is definitely one of those. She mixed two large focal prints from the Calypso Frogs collection by Ro Gregg with a white tonal and Marblehead Brights framing each block. 

"Calypso" by Michele Crawford;
featured in the August-September issue of The Quilter magazine

Q. Why did you choose the Calypso Frogs fabrics, and how did you decide which fabric to feature as the focal print?

Michele: I thought that the bright leaves print in the collection looked very summery, so I chose the leaves on blue and the leaves on white as the focal prints. I am a very symmetrical person and liked the leaves on blue as the border print better than the leaves on white.

Q. Favorite fabric in the collection?
Michele: I like the leaves on blue best.

Q. Talk about the fabrics you paired with the main Calypso Frogs prints.
Michele: I used six different tonals from Marblehead and Marblehead Brights that would pull out the colors in the two focal fabrics as well as a white tonal for contrast.

Q. Tell us how you designed the block.
Michele: I played around with design ideas after being inspired by some modern quilts on Pinterest which featured bright colors with white.

Q. We love the flange! Why did you decide to add it?
Michele: This is a 3/8" finished dimensional border to add a little bit of zing, color and contrast to the quilt between the blocks, white border and outer border.

Q. What is your favorite part of the quilt?
Michele: I love the overall feeling of the quilt with its bright summer colors. People have told me that it is a happy quilt and makes them smile.

Q. How was the quilt machine quilted?

Michele: I like to machine quilt the quilt in the ditch in the seams between all the blocks and borders before I send it to my machine quilter, Kay Kimball, to "set" the quilt and to keep all the blocks and borders straight. Kay did what I call the "fancy stitching" with her Gamill and Statler. I needed her machine quilting to be simple so she quilted four hearts which make a flower in the center of each block and then a "loopy" stitch in the border. 

Find the kit for this project and learn more about Michele here.

See the entire Calypso Frogs collection here.

Find The Quilter magazine here.