Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  In honor of the patron saint of Ireland, here are a few green items available at Maryland Quilter:

The dragon above reminds me of another famous saint, St. George, who slayed the dragon and rescued the princess. My green dragon is part of a quilt, the pattern and quilt are available in the shop, here.

Wouldn’t a green kitchen set of 2 pot holders and 2 tea towels be the perfect way to welcome spring in your home? You can find them here

What a lucky baby or grownup if they get a blanket like this one! Beautiful green and so so soft. It’s available at Maryland Quilter.

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A Valentine for You

Yesterday as I was going through my daughter’s book bag, I found a crumpled information sheet for a class Valentine’s Day party. Yippee! I smoothed the paper and started to get excited. Valentine’s Day is almost as fun as Halloween- I mean, you get to eat chocolate, right. In fact, Valentine’s chocolate is even better than trick or treat chocolate. I love a big heart shaped assortment of candies, yum yum.  Enough day dreaming, it’s back to work, back to dieting. Here is a kitchen set that reminds me of Valentine’s Day without the calories:

The kitchen set is in the shop here

My Valentine’s gift to you is free domestic shipping through February 14 on any purchase.

Just use coupon code “val2015”.

Starting Renovations on a Haunted House Quilt

A few years ago I constructed a haunted house quilt. It was so much fun to sew, this year I thought I would build on the basic design and nail down a new, more detailed version. I also wanted to write and publish a pattern, since the original house was built before I was writing patterns and there was no blueprint for it.

Here is the historic haunted house:

The original structure has good bones, but like most modern homeowners, I want more amenities. So the renovated haunted house will have lots of  bells and whistles. I’ve begun with improved landscaping. Here are the rough plans for the front lawn:

Next week, I should have more details to show you, including additions to the main structure 🙂 Meanwhile, here is the link to historic haunted house for sale in my shop: Haunted House Quilt

More housekeeping: here is the link to the pattern for the Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket that I promised a few weeks ago : Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket Pattern .

 

Every Day Can’t Be Full of Sunshine

Every day can’t be full of sunshine. Sometimes its nice to enjoy a dark night with a bit of rain. That’s kinda how I see Halloween. It’s a time that reminds me life has a bit of the unknown, even a bit of spooky darkness.

Here is a new quilt I finished this week. It’s called  “Spooky Raven Halloween Quilt”. It is made from a really cool Halloween print called Raven by Rosemarie Lavin Design for Windham Fabrics. The fabric was such a great pattern, I decided to just add some lines of reverse applique and leave the rest of the quilt to display the iconic Halloween motifs.

Here is another photo:

The quilt is available for sale in the shop here

Creating Takes Courage

Yesterday I broke out a brand new fat quarter pack of  21 pieces of Riley Blake Halloween Kid’s fabric. I bought it at deep discount last spring and squirreled it away until I was in a Halloween mood. Yesterday was perfect. The kids were back to school, my day’s schedule was open to design and sew and be creative. So I pulled the pristine bow off the perfectly wrapped cotton squares and laid out all 21 pieces of fabric.

Then I hit a roadblock. Or maybe it was a mind freeze. Anyway, I hit hours of paralysis where I could not decide what to make out of this perfect fabric.  A big part of me loved the fabric in its untouched rectangular state and did not want to change it by cutting it. Another, more creative part of my mind was exploding with possibilities so much so that they all  jumbled together and caused dizziness along with the paralysis.

Eventually I committed to a design but the quilt did not get finished in time for this week’s blog.  Here is the work in progress:

One project I did finish last week was the pattern for the Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket. It is available in the shop here.

 

 

 

 

 

I Know It’s August, But I’m Thinking Halloween

Autumn is my all time favorite time of year. I love the crispy cool days and the changing leaves. I love the smell of brand new loose leaf paper and freshly sharpened pencils. I also love just a bit of scary. I’m mostly a wimp, so no horror movies or blood or gore. I like Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin or maybe the Wizard of Oz if I close my eyes for the flying monkeys part. 

Here’s my most popular Halloween pattern:

It’s called Ghastlie Halloween Crazy Quilt and it’s available in the shop here The quilt is so easy to make– start now and you’ll have it done for Halloween!

Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket 2

Here I am enjoying the unusually cool Maryland summer, taking it easy with some more Easy As Pie stroller blankets. I love the name of this pattern because every time I read it I imagine a large slice of cherry pie and I can almost taste it! All the indulgence without the calories!  I don’t think I’ll ever name a quilt about broccoli or Brussels sprouts.

Here is the newest Easy As Pie stroller blanket. I chose a black patterned binding because I like the contrast to the sweet pink and blue inside.

The stroller blanket is available in the shop here. The pattern is still in the works.

Easy As Pie Stroller Blanket

This week I’m still having fun designing quilts with precut fabric. My newest project is a stroller blanket with charm pack 5 inch squares and fat quarters. I decided to make the back of the quilt as special as the front, so that any way you toss the quilt in the stroller it looks great!

Here is the first stroller quilt I made. It has free motion quilting and hand sewn mitered binding. I wish I had a stroller to use as a prop for the photo, but a rocking chair had to make do.

The quilt is available in the shop here . I’m making a few more samples, then the pattern should be available in the shop in a week or two.

A Day in the Life of Harold the Sloth

Last week I made George the Elephant. This week the next in the series is Harold the Sloth. The name came courtesy of my second grader the “Queen of Naming Imaginary Creatures and Stuffed Animals”, Evelyn.  After the fiasco of googling elephant names, I just went straight to the expert this time.

I have been considering a sloth quilt for awhile now because sloths are such interesting characters. I wanted to emphasize their laziness so in this quilt Harold is sleeping, then waving hello, then sleeping again. (Add food and Netflix and that’s my kids on spring break this week:)

I have most of the quilt planned, but I will probably enlarge Harold a bit and add some detail. Here is the first draft of “A Day in the Life of Harold the Sloth”:

I Love Love Love this Pattern

I’ve been having fun all week with this pattern. I had some leftover ovals from Kelsey’s wedding quilt and was moving them around, trying to fit them into a lap quilt. Here is the result:

I liked it so much because the center pieces are the pieces that are cut out of the ovals, so there is no waste when you cut out the applique AND you get twice the reward from your efforts. I love that! In fact, I loved how the quilt looked so much, I made 2 more of them, each one a bit different:

I often like to make batches when I fall in love with a pattern, then I’m done and don’t make any more, ever.

If any of my readers would like a free pdf copy of one of these patterns, just mention it in the comment box. Include your email address and which quilt you want to make, I’ll send it to you 🙂 They are also available to purchase in my shop.