Save 30% at Quilt In A Day!

As a thank-you to all participants in the Symphony of Quilting Challenge, Eleanor Burns is offering 30% off all non-sale items on her websites. Use the code BABYLOCK in the coupon code when you check out. Plus orders of $100 or more ship free, and orders of $50 or more get a free gift. This offer is valid through October 30, 2010, and can't be used on furniture, classes or retreats.

Her websites are QuiltInADay.com and EleanorBurns.com, where you can find books, DVDs, fabric and kits, thread, patterns, and many other quilting supplies.

Also, visit her website to download a free pattern. This page is updated regularly, so visit it often.

New BasicGrey fabric by Moda

I'm thrilled to see that new BasicGrey fabric will be available this month (May 2010) by Moda. It's a lovely Christmas collection that matches their scrapbook paper line, called Fruitcake. Wonderful vintage colors and prints, the sample I show here is of course the property of United Notions/Moda.

Other fabric lines that are also available by BasicGrey are Eva and Blush. Eva is a lovely combination of brown, pink, rose and a pop of lime green. They contain prints such as stripes, woodgrain, florals, dots, large pheasants, lace, and paisley.

Blush is a wonderful blend of large leaf prints, florals,  birds, dots, swirls, feathered paisley, and elegant script. The colors are an antique feeling: blush, rose, powder blue, chocolate, burgundy, and just a hint of mint. Here is a link to a free pattern that uses the Blush collection.

More free quilt block patterns at Quilt Blocks Galore

There are lots of free quilt block patterns for private home use on the pages of Marcia Hohn of The Quilter's Cache.

Please be sure to read the Terms of Use page before downloading any of the patterns. You won't have the license to make any of your quilts for sale, or any other commercial use, when using these patterns. Read them carefully, and make sure you understand.

BasicGrey fabrics by Moda

I'm in love, love, love with a new fabric line by Moda. Designed by BasicGrey, an industry leader in the world of scrapbooking, these often muted tones carry over perfectly to quilts. Two lines are available, and I recommend them for any beginning to advanced quilter! The prints range from Asian-inspired collage to simple brush-stroke solids.

1. Urban Couture: An ultra-modern collection of orange, gold, browns, deep red, periwinkle and mint that will remind you of autumn. Moda has a fun, paper-pieced PDF quilt pattern to try for free listed on its website.
2. Sultry: A springy collection of roses, greens and browns make up this soft, feminine collection. You can even try out this fun pattern for free. (I've made braided quilts before, and they are fun, fast and easy to do!) It is a PDF file, and may take some time to download.
3. Figgy Pudding: A Christmas collection of traditional colors but contemporary prints: aqua, juniper, brown and burgundy. I get a warm and toasty feeling when I see these prints--I just adore them!

These delicious fabrics are available by the yard, in yard assortments, in fat quarter assortments, in Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes and charm packs. So far, I've only managed to pick up Urban Couture, and I've started my first quilt using Jelly Rolls. I'm adding silk to my design as well. I can't wait to post my results!

Bargello Christmas Tree Quilt

This is a Christmas quilt I made for a friend of mine, and almost didn't finish in time for Christmas. It was easy, though a bit time-consuming to come up with right fabrics (particularly the large and small scale pine prints), though that might be because I'm picky about my fabric selection. You can download the PDF file for the pattern for free here (it will take time to get it, since it's a full-color PDF file). I should note here: this is an outside link to Timeless Treasures' website, as the free pattern is copyright by Karen Montgomery and Timeless Treasures, complete with fabric recommendations and yardage requirements.

As you can see, I chose slightly different fabrics for a different feel for this quilt. My tree turned out a bit darker than the pattern, and I chose burgundy and lots of metallic prints for a little flair. (I also skipped the nutmeg colored tree shadow at the base of the tree.)

For quilting, I did a free-motion leafy pattern for the tree, and then a stipple pattern for the background. The back of the quilt is a Michael Miller Fairy Frost in dark brown. (I added a personalized label before quilt assembly.)

I also added some iron-on rhinestones for embellishment as a star topper ornament, and also throughout the quilt, after the quilt was complete.

Optical Illusion quilt

Inspired by an optical illusion book belonging to (and challenge by) my son, I designed the following pattern and quilt. I haven't used many batik fabrics before, so I thought I'd try my hand at these. Feel free to download my pattern and try it yourself. Let me know if you make one. I think mine came out pretty cool.
Keep in mind your dark and light fabrics have two have good contrast and they need to read as solid, or your quilt will blend. Your quilt will probably turn out pretty cool if it blends, but it won't have the same illusion quality.
Now, the construction is fairly straightforward, but I'm not the best at butting seams. So I used a cheater method and some Quilt-Fuse, which is used for watercolor and grid quilting. I pieced the entire quilt in an afternoon. See a product review here. It's a great shortcut, and it works like this:

1. Cut your squares (in my case, squares and rectangles) to size.
   
2. Line them up, right sides up (pin them in place if desired) on the Quilt-Fuse background (Quilt-Fuse is fusible lightweight interfacing with a printed grid, so it's easy to line up the rows).
3. Fuse in place with an iron.
   
4. Fold the fused quilt over on itself (with the interfacing on the outside, right sides together), and sew each horizontal seam. Be careful to keep an even seam allowance, using your 1/4" seam guide. Don't press yet.
   
5. Clip your seams at the intersection of the grids before making the vertical seams. This will allow you to to butt the seam allowances, alternating one allowance up and one down, at each intersection.
6. Now sew the vertical seams, maintaining the same 1/4" inch allowance, and being careful at each intersection that the seam allowances are butting as planned, as it goes under the presser foot (the top and bottom allowances should be going in opposite directions).
7. Finally, press the entire quilt.

I made half the quilt at a time and sewed the two halves together. The interfacing makes for very easy machine quilting--the needle slides right through--but it may be too thick for hand quilting, and this quilt is doesn't have the same soft drape that other quilts have. So be aware of this in your planning.
I added thin dark, medium and light borders, and then one larger medium border, and rounded the corners. I've never done this before--I used a rotary cutter and dinner plate, and pre-done binding by Moda (so easy it feels like cheating!).
It was also hard to figure out how to quilt this thing, without blending it too much. So I found some Sulky variegated thread and quilted a straight starburst pattern off-center throughout. You can see the center in the large, lower, left, light square. (And you get extra points if you can say that out loud.)

Sayuri quilt

Here is another quilt I finished a few days ago. It's called Sayuri, after the main character in Memoirs of a Geisha. It's for my sister-in-law, and I started it on Sunday of last week, discovering I only had a week to finish it. It's about 65"x 80".
I didn't use a pattern for this quilt. I picked up these four great prints from Joann's in the beginning of the year. All four of these are by Alexander Henry, and you can see some of them online, but I will list the three large scale prints here as well:

• Koto (in blue)
• Dancing Cranes (black)
• Lady Yang (black)

I had originally intended to make a kimono quilt, but since I only had a week, I decided on a more simple design.
I used about 1.5 yard lengths of the large three patterns, cutting the blue center panel the widest, and then the other two more narrow. I added the small gold star print as borders, which really helps blend the overall look of this quilt. Since the scale is so large, it was hard to decide how big to make the blocks, but it seems to work well.
For the back, I found a cute print by Michael Miller with a black background printed with large wheelbarrows filled with flowers. I think the print is discontinued, but you can find tons of Asian inspired prints on the Michael Miller website. I used an 80/20 cotton/synthetic batting, which is light and fluffy.
When it came to quilting, I was surprisingly at a loss. I quilted in the ditch along all the borders to keep the large quilt together. Then, I quilted loops on the crane fabric--using black thread, only in the background, blends in well and emphasizes the cranes just a little. I used a light blue thread in the background of the center panels, and red thread in the bamboo rushes as well. Then, I loaded up my machine with fuchsia silk thread, and set my machine on the eyelet program. I sewed an eyelet in the center of every flower in the floral and center panels.
I bound the quilt by machine with Moda bias binding (I love that stuff) in burgundy. Then, to finish the quilt and add flair, I sewed Swarovski crystals into the large flower centers with invisible thread. It adds just a touch of sparkle to a pretty quilt, and it emphasizes the metallic gold on the prints.

Beautiful Batiks

My husband has two baby showers at work this week, and asked if I might consider whipping up a couple of baby boy quilts for his coworkers.  Of course, I tend to collect girly fabric, so I searched through my entire stash to find something that would work for a baby boy.  I have decided it's probably worth my while to make up several baby boy and baby girl quilts in advance for just such an occasion, since I tend not to work as well under stress.

I was able to find a fun strip set in my stash, however, and I I loved working with them.  (I did get the first top finished today!)  I didn't use the pattern, so I will upload a picture of my finished project later.  You can find this great kit at Cozy Quilt Shop.

Stack the Deck Quilt

This is my first attempt at a Stack the Deck quilt. It's a simple design, which I saw in a quilting magazine. I found some fun fabric (Lingerie on the Line by Alexander Henry) and combined it with several colors of coordinating cotton jacquard by Robert Kaufman. I also added several other prints from my stash.

The blocks are constructed first by cutting the final shape you want. Then, you shuffle the fabric, so each block has one of each of your desired fabrics in it. It's easy to do, and you can do all kinds of fun things with this technique. You should check out Karla Alexander's books for more ideas using this technique.

To make the blocks go a little further, I alternated them with full-size blocks of another print. This is the first time I've set a quilt on point, and I love the effect. Upon the advice of one of the sales women at the Cozy Quilt Shop, I added a red border to the top and then followed with a second in blue print. The red really makes the blocks pop, I think. To add interest to the quilt top, I added some red chenille strips to the border as well.

I used no batting for this quilt, and a polka-dot minky for the back. It has very light loft and wonderful drape, perfect for a bed topper. (My bed is a California king size, so this quilt is a bit small, but perfect for a topper.) This is a great technique for putting together a larger quilt, and it's fail-proof for beginners.

Emerald Oceans - my first art quilt

Here are some photos of a quilt I just finished (after getting my machine back from the shop).  I'm still working on the binding, and it's the first time I've bound a quilt using anything but my machine. I've used only two fabrics for the top: a brown marble Moda fabric for the border, and feathered print by Robert Kaufman.  I saw the green print at my local quilt shop and fell in love.  On the bolt, it starts with the lightest shade of celadon and fades to a deep forest green.

I didn't use a pattern, but imitated a borgello style of quilt.  If you're not familiar with these, I suggest you check out this book by Marge Edie. They are very fun and easy to do.

It only took a day to assemble the quilt top. The technique I used follows:

1. I used about 1.5 yards of the green printed fabric, and started slicing in strips.  I cut an equal number of 3", 2.5" and 2" strips for this quilt.  
2. Next, I sewed each strip into a loop, end to end, so the lightest part of the print met the darkest part (I pressed toward the darkest end).  
3. Then, I arranged the loops on the floor, and straightened the seams out to make a horizon.  
4. After I was pleased with the arrangement (I used alternating widths of loops for interest), I cut each of the loops open at the top, and straightened them out.
   
5. After numbering the strips carefully with chalk, I sewed them together.  For some reason, my strip-style quilts tend to warp slightly upon assembly.  To fix this, I alternate the sewing direction (that is, sewing from top to bottom and from the bottom to top) when assembling the quilt.
6. I added a border when I was finished.  This also helps some with getting the fabric to behave itself.

I used a soft 100% cotton batting with low loft, and a fun modern print by Michael Miller for the backing.  For the quilting, I wanted to try my hand at a few free-motion styles.  I used five different colors of thread, including silk and variegated thread. My machine is happiest with Mettler silk finish 100% cotton, but I was also able to use the silk thread without incident.

I marked the quilt with chalk before beginning--simply three wavy lines across the quilt, about where I decided I would switch thread color.  The sky area is quilted in ivory in a meandering curls pattern.  I did wavy lines for the next two shades, echoing each other and becoming more flat as the approach the bottom.  

The last two shades at the bottom of the quilt are in landscape style free-motion, which is a little harder for me than the other styles, but I am pleased with the results.

Large Scale Prints

I finally found a pattern for some large scale Alexander Henry prints I have been collecting. I think I will borrow this design here for my project.

I've been trying to figure out a way to use mostly large scale prints without having the viewer get queasy.  You can see my concern in my fabric collection.  I'll be sure to post the results as soon as I can get something worth showing!

Free quilting patterns

Where is the best place to find free quilting patterns?  Please post your links in the comments below.  I've found many fabric distributors and supply manufacturers have free patterns on their websites.  Here is a summary of my favorites:

• Michael Miller 
• Robert Kaufman (scroll about half-way down the page for free patterns)
• Moda (United Notions)
• Bernatex
• Timeless Treasures (check out Solar Flate by Karen Montgomery--it's gorgeous)
• Free Spirit (Westminers Fabrics)
• Carol Doak (well, she doesn't sell fabric, but she does manufacture supplies)
• McCall's Quilting
• Lucy A Fazely (author of Quilt Style)

Often, many retail outlets also offer free patterns to download or view online.  And there are sites which will sell patterns and offer free downloads before you buy.  Another quick list of my favorites:

• Home & Garden Network
• Free Quilt Patterns.Info
• Victoriana Quilting block of the month
• About.Com Quilting
• Fat Quarter Shop
• Free Quilt Patterns
• Scrap Quilts.com
• Free Quilt Ideas
• Patterns from History
• eQuilters

Please feel free to comment and add your own.  Have a wonderful quilting day!