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 .

 

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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.

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone– I hope you all had a great holiday season. I was so busy learning new things. I made my first scarf over the holidays and then made one for everyone on my list. I used a biased tape maker for the first time and it really worked! And I made my first American Girl outfit which my daughter loved but was a little bit wonky.

Now I’m back to my real love, quilts!

Here is my newest, just made in 2013 quilt and pattern:

It’s called “Little Handstand Bear” because the bear is doing a handstand. My 7 year old said “Mommy, you made a mistake, the bear is upside down”. I said it was supposed to be like that. She said I should let everyone know , so that’s where the name comes from.

Modern Quilting Means Less Cut and Piece

Ok, maybe most of you will disagree with me on this, but sometimes it is a waste to cut up a big beautiful piece of fabric just to sew it back together again. I know back in the day pioneer women cut up old clothes and grain sacks and used the best pieces for quilts. I think that’s still a great way to reuse your scraps and worn clothes. But what about the new yard and half you couldn’t resist from the quilt shop? Why not make it into a whole cloth quilt blanket?

Here are 2 of my “couldn’t bear to cut up the fabric” quilts:

 The flying geese and the trees have such a wide open field feel to them, who would want to interrupt their flight?

 This fabric from Alexander Henry reminds me of a Mexican horse blanket. It had to stay in one piece!

These are simple 3 layer whole cloth quilts with embroidery floss ties keeping the quilt together. It is so enjoyable to make these quilts. Peaceful, too.

My Very First Quilt Kit is For Sale!

When I started making quilt patterns, the idea to sell kits was not far behind. I’ve been waiting for the perfect quilt to sell as a kit and here it is:

The first picture is the kit with all the parts, the second photo is the kit all bundled up to mail. The green flower in the center is a coaster, one of the little gifts I like to add to surprise the customers. ( I usually include a bookmark, but of course, being me, I got tired of making them and switched to coasters. The only problem with coasters is I’m not sure if it is obvious what they are so maybe I need to include a tag that says “coaster”?)

Back to the topic, my first quilt kit, is the star fish quilt. So now I have the quilt, the pattern, and the kit available. I hope someone besides me likes them…
Here’s how I described the kit deciding process:

love this quilt! It was such fun to design and make, I thought someone else might want to try it. Then I thought, it might be a hard for someone to gather all the little pieces for the star fish. Then came the great idea to assemble it all in a kit. I had enough fabric left over except the mermaid one, which was easy to order from my new favorite Etsy fabric store, Baileygirlsfabric.

I knew if I were buying a kit I would want everything to complete the project, including the batting layer and the back. So everything is here, except for the thread and the sewing machine. The kit is available, of course, in the shop for $42.00.

Mermaids and Star Fish Quilt from Sarah Jane

I love Sarah Jane fabrics for kids. The designs say childhood antics, old fashioned fun and lots of imagination. Her newest design set is called Out to Sea. I’ve already made some quilts from her ship fabric and map fabric, now it’s time to take on the mermaids and octopuses.

I’ve had the mermaid fabric around the sewing a room awhile. I wasn’t sure how to make it into a quilt. There’s a lot of motion in the pattern with a red haired mermaid swimming and playing. There is also lots of open ocean, so to speak, or open space with just some tiny fish and water bubbles.

My last few kid’s quilts have had large appliques to the side with most of the quilt left to show off the main fabric design. With the mermaid fabric, it seemed that the print wasn’t telling the story by itself, it needed more. The problem then was that my mind needed to get out of the groove of single large appliques into something else. Finally it came to me.

The mermaid is holding a star fish, so I thought, why not add some more star fish to the quilt? Now the ocean spaces have bright star fish in them:)

The finished quilt and the pattern are available at Maryland Quilter. http://www.etsy.com/shop/marylandquilter?ref=si_shop