"Windows" Quilt With Flannel and Minky

This has been my most popular quilt pattern at the store lately.  It's my Windows quilt from the pattern, "Brick Work or Windows Denim Quilts."

As you can see, it's not made with denim.  It's made with Flannel and Minky!  It's very fast to make, and it's oh, so snugly!  This one doesn't have any batting, and when it's done, it's done.  There's no quilting or tying needed!

I purchased 2 flannel prints, and the butterfly and green minkies.  But he rest of the minky was scraps.  It's a great way to use up those minky scraps!

I Joined A Quilt Guild!

I haven't joined a quilt guild for about 5 years, just because I'm so busy.  But I decided that I work too much and don't have any fun.  So I joined the "Sew Small" guild, whose focus is on miniature quilts.  I figured the projects wouldn't take as much time or $ because they're small, and it might be do-able.  So I signed-up for the Row Robin.  There will be 7 ladies participating, so I get to work on 6 other ladies quilts, and get 6 other ladies to work on my quilt.  

I'LL ADD UPDATES TO THIS POST EVERY MONTH SO YOU CAN SEE THE PROGRESS.

You can click on the pictures to see a bigger image.

Here's the start for my Row Robin.  This row's finished size will be 6" X 18."  The other ladies will add rows that will be 18" across, but they can be any width, up to 6."  I'm excited to participate!!!

The Row I received to work on at the October meeting is Donna's.  She started her quilt with the Ohio Stars.  I added the wave of circles.

This is Judy's Row Robin, that I got in the November meeting.  I added the basket with vines and flowers.

This Row Robin is Lyn's.  She is an expert embroiderer!  She put beads and embroidery floss in her kit for us to use.  I shrunk 3 of my Row By Row Experience, English paper pieced, snowflakes, and added the appliqued snowmen, and sewed beads on the snowflakes.  

This was a fun row quilt to work on.  I did the butterflies at the bottom.  The background was too stark, so I added some white embroidered flowers.

This row belongs to Anne.  Her theme is water and singing the blues.  In her introduction, she talked about enjoying Bear Lake and the surrounding mountains, so I made the bottom row, which is Bear Lake with the mountains.

 

We are also doing a monthly block challenge, which we can do "small or smaller."  In September, we were given the Spinning L's block.  I choose "smaller," and made my blocks 2" and the finished quilt is 11 3/4" square and has 24 blocks.

Our October challenge was 9-patches.  I've always wanted to do a 9-patch with Snowball blocks, so that's what I did.  The finished blocks are 1 1/2".  There are 12 9-patch blocks and 13 Snowball blocks, and the finished quilt is 11 1/2" square.  This quilt has a couple firsts for me.  #1, I did feathers in the border!  #2, I did a single fold binding.

The November challenge was half-square-triangles.  I have always wanted to make a feathered star, so here was my opportunity!  I drafted my own pattern.  A feathered star was harder than I thought it would be, but a fabulous challenge!  The 1/2" triangles are paper-pieced.  But the rest is pieced by machine.  There wasn't enough fabric to make the whole binding with the dark blue.  But it really needed some dark around the outside, so I pieced the binding.    It is 16" square, and has 216 pieces.

December's challenge was Churndash blocks, but I was still working on my feathered star, so didn't get that one done.

January's challenge was a Carpenter's Wheel.  I'm trying to follow a seasonal theme. Since next month is February, I wanted to make it for Valentine's Day.  I really like how this turned out!  This one may become a pattern someday.  It measures 10 1/2" X 15."

New Denim Quilt Pattern!

Introducing my newest denim quilt pattern, 

the "Denim Waves Beach Quilt."

 

I have 3 sons, and they go through lots of jeans.  So, what's more natural than saving their old jeans to make denim quilts?  This is my 4th denim quilt pattern to be published.  It will only be available as a pdf download because it's 11 pages, and the printing cost would make it not so affordable.  You can find it on Craftsy, Etsy and YouCanMakeThis.

The Denim Waves Beach Quilt was fun to make!  I'd saved this hand-dyed fabric to make a special quilt, but didn't have a quilt in mind when I bought it.  It goes so great with the denim! The pattern includes 5 wave templates, so you can mix them up and get a random wave feel.  It's done with a quilt-as-you-go method.  And I actually did most of the quilting on the Handi Quilter Avante at the store where I work.

Row By Row Experience

The Store where I work is participating in the Row By Row Experience.  Click here to find out more.  The theme is "Sew A Season."  Since I live in Utah, we would naturally choose Winter.  

Here's our row, designed by me.  It's called "Snowflake Collection," and is done with English paper piecing, hand applique, and hand embroidery.  You can click on the picture to see a larger image.

There are shops in 34 states, plus Canada, that are participating.  You can find a list of participating shops on the link above.  

When you go into a participating shop, ask for their row pattern, and they will give you the pattern for FREE.  If you make a quilt using at least 8 of the Free Row By Row Patterns, you may win a prize.  Sounds like fun for traveling quilters!  I hope to collect some patterns, myself.  The dates for this are July 1 through September 2, 2014.

The only way to get these FREE patterns is if you go to the shop in person.  That's the rule, and we want to keep the rules.  However, after October 31, it may be available for purchase. 

Now available for purchase at Craftsy and Etsy.

Last Minute Gifts

For Christmas this year, I wanted to make all of the ladies I work with, an Iron Cozy.  As I searched the patterns that are already out there, I found that they were for certain sizes.  Well, I don't know what size all the ladies irons are!  So I made my own pattern for a one-size-fits-all iron cozy.  Here's a picture...

They have a casing for an elastic cord, that gets drawn-up and is held in place by a spring cord clip.  There's a dart in the front, and 2 darts in the back corners to make them square.

 I made 7 Iron Cozies, and will take them to work to pass out today.

Chenille

A long time ago, I made some pot holders with denim and flannel.  I used 3 layers of denim and 3 layers of flannel, sewed them together with diagonal rows of stitching.  Then cut between each row with my scissors, to  make it chenille.  I loved how it turned out, but it was really hard on my hands. 

So, I've had my eye on one of those chenille cutters, 

and finally bought one.

Here's the new set of pot holders that I did with the new chenille cutter.

I also thought it would make a great rug!  I used yardage that I already had.  There's a blue denim on the bottom, with a yellow denim and a pink denim.  Then I had some dark blue flannel that went between each denim piece.

Here's the rug, and the close-up.

I love the feel, texture and weight of the rug.  But it turned out kinda wonky.  I'll have to figure out how to make it more squared.  Maybe I could do a couple sets of back-stitches at the beginning and end of each row, so I can square-up when it's finished, without the stitching coming undone.

Denim Quilt Class

Tuesday, I got to teach my Denim Quilt Class.  It was a big class (10), but the ladies were all sharp, and we had a great time!  The students had a choice of Denim Stars, Brick Work or Windows.

Denim Stars

Brick Work

Windows

These 3 quilts are done in a similar way.  We work with a small section of the quilt at a time, sewing the blocks together and finishing the raw edges.  Then the quilt is done when it's done, there's no quilting or tying to do later, and batting is optional.

Here's some of the ladies and their work...

It's fun to see everyone's fabric choices!  Beatles fabric, polka dots, a soft girly print, cute bees, pirate fabrics, old fashioned charm and manly flannels.