Some nifty quilty services, free online!

 Have you run out of a fabric and just need a bit to finish the project? Try Find My Fabric. Upload a picture and this website will search a database of thousands of prints and help you find an online source for it, or a good substitute. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it sounds really cool.

To prevent fabric shortages, try this Free Online Fabric Calculator from QuiltsShops.com. It's rather simple, but if you want a rough idea of how much to buy before you hit the quilt shop, this will be helpful.

If you're a coupon fan you might try Quilter's Daily Special. It offers online coupons for participating quilt shops. Everyday a new offer. To get a sample of what they're up to go to the Quilter's Daily Special Blog.
 
Till next time....Happy Quilting

Cut GlassDish

I just saw a post on facebook where Mark French was asking the name of a pattern. I knew the name, since I made one for my next door neighbor's baby. He just turned 1 last month. Mark's post reminded me that I had never posted Isaak's quilt. So here it is, my version of the Cut Glass Dish.

Happy 4th of July.

Last night I went to my SIL's for a yummy Hawaiian barbecue and to view the fireworks over Sylvan Lake. It was fabulous! We walked from SIL's house down to the lake and shared the experience with her whole neighborhood. The beach was packed, boaters, kayakers, pontooners were on the lake and kids were in the water. It was a pure Michigan moment. And the fireworks were spectacular. The breeze off the
lake kept the mosquitos at bay. I didn't get a single bite, and I'm a notorious mosquito magnet.

To celebrate the holiday here's a quilt I made with my friend Norine for my Charm Quilts book. The shape is the braid and I love the way it tessellates. Norine has been having serious health problems lately, so I'm posting this with a little prayer for her.

 Since I've already seen fireworks this weekend I'll be spending my evening with a James Cagney double feature. Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Roaring Twenties.





It starts tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 8pm EST.

Till next time....Happy Quilting

Another UFO, the tale of many Lone Stars.

In 2001 I worked on the book Great Lakes, Great Quilts for the MSU Museum and C&T Publishing. It was my job, with my colleague Mary Worrall to reproduce 12 quilts from the collection and write the patterns, too. One of the quilts I reproduced was this Native American Lone Star from the Museum's collection.

Below is the reproduction quilt that I made (with fabulous machine quilting from Kari Ruedisale).

I strip pieced the diamonds and had extra left on each strip. I used them to make this little quilt. It measures 28" x 32".

 I still had more diamonds left so I put them together. Just last week I got the star out, added the setting triangles and rectangles to come up with this.

The center diamond is 36" x 36". I pinned it to my design wall to admire it and noticed I put one diamond in backwards. Now I don't believe in putting in a mistake on purpose to appease the quilt gods. I error all on my own. So I took it apart and fixed it. Another of my goals is to master my EQ7 program. I went to my computer, created the center lone star and played around with the borders. I came up with this.

This week I'm on vacation from work. I was going up North, but the weather is bad so DH decided to delay our trip one day. That gives me today to sew. I'm working on the corner blocks in the border. I'll post when the top is done.

So 10 years later, I'll get this project done. Did I mention, I'm only using fabric from my stash? Bonus.

Till next time....Happy Quilting

Old Favorites

In 1995  I wrote my first book, Block By Block. My favorite quilt from the book is Ships That Pass in the Night. The boat block is traditional and the star is my variation of the Ohio Star. Add to that four patch cornerstones and you get diagonal squares running around the boats.

That quilt was made over 15 years ago, so I was delighted when Debbie Dean from North Carolina sent me this picture of a quilt she made for her grandchild just last week.

It's so fun to see this in other colors. I love the red, beautiful job Debbie, thanks for sharing.

Till next time.....Happy Quilting

Graduations

Last night, Tom, Katy and I took Colleen out to dinner to celebrate her graduation with a bachelor's degree in Psychology. It's been a long haul for Colleen and we're very proud. She chose Weber's Inn in Ann Arbor for our little party. We had a wonderful time and I highly recommend it. Also yesterday, my block exchange buddy Terry had an open house for her daughter Erin's high school graduation. For this year's block exchange Terry has requested 12" quilt blocks based on her daughter's favorite musicals. Terry and Erin planned to display the blocks at her open house. I didn't finish the block until today, so it didn't make it to the display. I chose Beauty and the Beast and made the block below.

I used the logo from the Broadway version and did reverse applique for the beast and the rose and hand embroidery for the letters. I'm pleased the way it turned out. I've seen some of the other blocks for the quilt and it's going to be a stunner. 

Till next time......Happy Quilting

A Quilt for Cruz

My daughter's best friend from high school had her second baby. I decided to use a UFO to make her new baby boy Cruz a quilt. The pattern is The Lattice and you can get a free pattern for it by clicking here. I had fun with the machine quilting. In each of the white squares you will find, a letter from the alphabet, the letters in Cruz' name, the numbers 1-10, or an outline of an animal, fruit, or other fun thing.

Photos by Pearl Yee Wong

Till next time.....Happy Quilting.

Busy Month

This has been a busy month for me. Along with working full time, I gave a lecture on the history of quiltmaking for the CAMEO Quilters Guild in Madison Heights, MI.  I arrived a couple of hours earlier so I could see the show and shop the vendors mall. The quilts displayed were wonderful and I'll share a few of my favorites.

Here's a rarity, a beautifully hand appliqued and hand quilted quilt.

Unfortunately my pictures of the quilt labels weren't all clear, so I don't know who made this quilt, but I remember one of the CAMEO members telling me she designed it, too!

This elephant was made by Ruth McCormick..

I really liked this Michigan sampler, but again didn't catch the makers name.

So, thanks to the CAMEO Quilters for a great show and for the great audience for my talk. I promise next time to do better with the credits on my photos.

Michigan Quilters Win Big in Paducah.

Michigan quilters take the top two awards, Best of Show and Best Wall Quilt in the American Quilters Society Show. Well done!

Janome Best of Show

Paisley Peacock
Pat Holly, Ann Arbor, MI

























Moda Best Wall Award

Port of Cassis
Lenore Crawford, Midland, MI

Till next time...Happy Quilting!

And the Winner Is....

The book giveaway is over.
From my blog the winner is...

Susan said...
S is for Stitching, which all quilters love to do!

From the Quilting Gallery the winner is
Kylie from Swan Hill, Australia!
W is for wedding rings. I have to make a wedding quilt but I’m not sure a wedding ring pattern is for me

The books are in the mail.

Thanks to everyone who participated. It was fun to read all your posts. I hope you'll come by and visit my blog again.

Guest blogging and Super Modeling

Welcome to my blog to all the new visitors and old friends. I’m featuring a project I was lucky to be involved with. The illustrations below are from the new children’s book F is for Friendship: A Quilt Alphabet by Helen L. Wilbur, illustrated by Gijsbert (Nick) van Frankenhuyzen. Last summer when Nick was researching with local quilters, some of them suggested he call me. A huge THANK YOU to them.










The blue and white quilt is one I made for my book, Block By Block.













The quilt the kitty is perched on was for an article on pieced borders for the (now defunct) magazine Traditional Quilter. To see the book cover, another illustration (my favorite one) and read more about the project, go to this page where I’m the Guest Blogger!



To celebrate the release of the book (you can find it on Amazon or your local bookstore) and being a Guest Blogger, I’m giving away two books. To enter the give-away, leave a comment below. Starting with A is for appliqué, B is for bobbin, C is for... leave a comment that follows the next available letter after the comment above yours. When you make it to the end, start over again. One book will be chosen randomly from the comments on this page, and the other will be chosen from comments left on the Guest Blogger page. If you’re new to my blog, check out my free patterns, leave a comment here, then go to the Guest Blogger page for another chance to win.

Till next time….Happy Quilting.

Victorian Trade Cards

The heyday of the advertising trade card was 1880-1900. By 1900, postal rates made mailing magazines cheap and most business people moved their ads to magazines. When sewing machines were first on the market, they were used mostly in factories and sweat shops. Sewing machine manufacturers recognized women homemakers were a vast untapped market. Singer offered their machines on a payment plan, making them affordable. The other hurdle was to convince their customers that women could run the machine. The trade cards helped to persuade consumers (or their husbands) to purchase by putting the machines in familiar settings.

Ladies could sew together,

or with their family. This reminds me of those happy times with my girls happily playing at my feet while I sewed. LOL!

In fact sewing was so easy, even babies riding bikes could do it.

People were sewing everywhere, in the Sunny South

the Far West

in Italy

and Russian peasant households.

Even in Heaven!

And if you chose the right wedding gift

You could avoid a lot of heartache later on. The first caption reads, "I will have a 'New Home' Machine." and the second, "A 'New Home' or a divorce, Take your choice sir!"

Till next time.....Happy Quilting!