A Favorite!

I liked this FREE quilt pattern so well, I made two. Then I quadrupled it and made a big one. First of all, I have a thing for stars in quilts - all kinds of stars. When I saw this simple star design, I had to try it. Where did I find this wonderful pattern? At Bonjour Quilts when I signed up to receive Kirsty's newsletter via e-mail. You can fine it here: https://www.bonjourquilts.com/when-you-wish-baby-quilt-pattern/

So here are pictures of my versions. I used solid broadcloth as it is cheaper. I know it contains some polyester, but I donate these quilts so I have to watch expenses. This star was done in pastels. I used a walking foot and did some straight lines about half an inch apart.

 

The next one I made in primary colors and this was my husbands favorite. He especially liked the quilting which was also done with a walking foot and gold thread.

The sunlight shining through.

Close up of the quilting from the back.

Now for the big one! It finished at 72 inches square. I quilted it the same as the one above with shiny gold thread.

I combined the colors in the smaller
quilts.

Close up of one quadrant.

Closeup of other quadrant.

The backing was nothing special,
 just something I had on hand.

The finished quilt!

Impulse Buy While Recovering From Surgery

Close up of fabrics.

About 10 years ago, more or less, I was still very new to quilting and kind of naive when it came to fabric requirements. I didn't use patterns, only my own designs. To this day, I often design quilts based on the fabric I have on hand. I guess I put the cart before the horse in that I start out with fabric and build my quilts based on what I have. The whole idea of reading a pattern and buying fabric accordingly was very foreign to my way of thinking.
Between Christmas and New Year's, I had emergency gall bladder removal surgery. (I'm sure there's a medically correct term for it.) During recovery I spent lot's of time on Ebay looking at fabric - mostly pre-cuts. One day I succumbed to a GREAT deal - 400! yes 400 4" blue on white squares. I think this was before 5" charm squares became an industry standard. Anyway, into a drawer they went never to be seen again... not for a long time anyway.

Final layout before borders.

Backing.

Last year, when I decided I really wanted to concentrate on making Josh's Hugs Quilts, I pulled them out. I was learning all about HSTs (half-square triangles). There was a yellow with blue roses fabric in my stash and that dark/medium blue fabric. So of course, I made MORE 4" squares. Then I made a ton of HSTs. I chose to lay them out in a chevron pattern. I added a border of denim looking cotton also from my stash. I had found the backing fabric in a thrift shop and it seemed perfect. I quilted it with my walking foot - yes, even the curves. This quilt is what I came up with. It measures 42.5"x57.5". And now I think I only have 300! little blue/white squares left. Yeah, I barely made a dent.

Close up of quilting.

Finished quilt hanging in my garden.

Modern Fat Quarter Quilt

One thing about sewing charity quilts is that you always look for ways to save money - after all, I'm giving the quilts away without financial backing from anyone except my wonderful husband. I'm not selling patterns or fabric lines which seems to be the case for most quilting blog sites. I found this free pattern at Pieces By Polly website. She called it a Modern Christmas Quilt, but since it's not made for Christmas and I used fat quarters, I just changed the name. (Here's a direct link: http://www.piecesbypolly.com/2014/11/simple-christmas-fat-quarter-quilt-free.html?m=1 )

I purchased these fat quarter bundles at JoAnn's and felt they were perfect for this pattern. It's a very simple HST quilt. I think I spent more time arranging the squares than it took to sew them up. I backed it with a turquoise solid and made the binding of turquoise/white gingham. Quilting was done with the walking foot on a diamond grid. It came out about right for a throw-sized quilt. I didn't get any final pictures and I've already delivered it to Golden State Family Services (foster care). 

Here the squares are on my design wall.
I love saying design wall when it really
just a flannel-backed table cloth.

All sewn together in the final layout.
Note it's not the same as above.

Joyful Quilt - Aptly Named

This quilt was made using a free pattern entitled "Joyful Quilt" by Tamara Kate Designs. She used a completely different colorway and I think my quilt actually is more aptly named "Joyful" than the original due to the bright pinks, oranges, and metallic accents.

 It looks really complicated, but it's basically made of of HSTs (half-square triangles). Some are cut from jelly roll strip sets cut on the diagonal as you can see in these closeups. I did try to follow the layout according to the pattern.

The backing was made up of a checkerboard print with a strip of orange fabric down the center. I also used the orange fabric to bind it. I was quilted with a walking foot on a diagonal grid. It took about 12 hours to quilt and finished at approximately 46"x56". 

Scrappy Four Patch Quilt

That's a lot of tiny squares! When I started quilting, I swore I would never work with anything smaller than 4" squares. Well never say never because I had a ton of 4 inch squares that I purchased - very scrappy. I came across a technique in which you sew squares together, then cut the squares in half forming two joined rectangles. Then you join two more rectangles, cut them in half and form 4-patches. Now as I think about it, I probably did it wrong, but hey, it worked. I tried to combine opposites on the color wheel, making purple/yellow, blue/orange, and red/green. 

Can you see the different
colorways on the diagonal?

Here's a close up.

Close up of the back.

Here's a close up of the quilting.
I just quilted a grid with my walking foot.
And then parallel lines about 1/2 in apart on the border.

The back with the sun shining through.

I like taking pictures in my garden.

This quilt finished about 45"x48".

Panels From Coloring Books

 You can purchase panels to make quilts, but I decided to make my own panels. I found giant coloring books at Dollar Tree - perfect starting point. Next I traced the pictures on white muslin and then I colored them in. I used crayon on some - when you iron to set the colors, there can be a lot of wax residue so be sure to sandwich your picture between paper towels. Crayon also has a tendency to bleed over the lines. On others I used permanent markers - these markers are alcohol based and their colors can also be set by a hot, dry iron. One other method of coloring these panels that gave  the brightest colors was acrylic paints thinned with fabric medium.

I called this my Kitten Series. Once I had several panels created, I set two (so far) into quilts.

This panel was done with crayon.

This one I decided to frame with some green fabric. The background fabric is actually from some pillowcases I picked up at a thrift store.

 I built an outer border using half-square triangles in a random zig-zag pattern.

 Then the next border was a pale pink. The quilting was done with a walking foot except for some Free Motion when the curves got a little tight. Final size is 49"x41".

Another panel I used was this grey kitten with bright flowers done with crayon.

I made I-spy blocks (the technique used to make these blocks cuts off your points so it's not a true "square-in-a-square") from various calico 5"charms that I had in my stash.

  I realized after making this quilt that I should have done a better job of contrasting colors.

  This quilting is also done with a walking foot. Final size: 38"x38.5".

Frustration Quilt (It has a happy ending.)

This little quilt is the result of some frustration and disappointment. In 2018 when I decided I wanted to focus on quilting, I knew I needed to organize my craft room. Once I had most of my fabric organized, I wanted urgently to start making a new quilt. I have a Brothers Embroidery Sewing Machine that my husband bought me several years before when I started quilting with my church quilting group. I set up my machine only to find it didn't work! The tension was off and possibly the timing. I had serviced it not that long ago, so couldn't figure out what was wrong. Just to have it serviced cost $100 and I was afraid repairs would cost even more. (One other thing of note - I seldom used the embroidery feature.)

I did what I've done in the past - I called my mother to borrow her sewing machine. She had received her's as a gift from a friend. I had it in my head it was a Bernina which I knew was a good brand. She loaned me the sewing machine, but it wasn't a Bernina. It was a basic Kenmore and it was old. But it worked!!! With this machine I was able to piece the quilt featured here.

In the meantime when hearing my frustration David, my husband said, "Buy yourself a new sewing machine." Well you didn't have to tell me twice. I went shopping for an inexpensive machine that would meet my needs. I ended up ordering a Eversewn Sparrow 20. It came just on time to quilt this little patchwork giving me an opportunity to check out the decorative stitches.

What makes this quilt special to me is the "friend" who gave the Kenmore to my mother, is also the administrator of Golden Valley Foster Care, one of the organizations to which I donate Josh's Hugs.