Carolyn
What beautiful weather we are having here in New Hampshire. It's the prettiest September I can remember in a long time. I am busy with my quilts, filling special orders. Below are the quilts I have been working on. I love these mice. They are an original design by my artist niece, Wendy Mierop. They have such character. If you haven't already done so, check out my Lovie Lap Quilts with Pockets. These make the best gifts for your Mom or Grandmother. Christmas is coming! I also sell the pattern for the Lovie Lap Quilt. I hope you give it a try. Until next time, keep quilting and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.
Carolyn
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I am in full swing quilting mode now that I am back home from spending the summer in Maine. I have just finished a patchwork quilt full of free motion quilting designs. Each of the squares has a different free motion quilting pattern. What fun I had. I have learned all my free motion quilting techniques from Leah Day with her online Craftsy (http://www.craftsy.com) classes and her videos from her website http://www.freemotionquilting.blogspot.com. I highly recommend Leah as a teacher. She has a great gift for teaching. Just recently Leah has started making her own videos for sale. Make sure you check those out too! I use a Janome 7700 for all my quilting, piecing and free motion quilting. The Janome 7700 has a larger work space (11 inches) for your quilt to fit in while you are free motion quilting. I love this feature.
I spend as much time quilting my quilts as I do piecing. I'm so glad I discovered free motion quilting. It's one of my favorite parts to making a quilt. I hope you give free motion quilting a try! Carolyn Summer is winding down for me. I've had a fabulous summer here on the coast of Maine. I was able to quilt quite a lot of the time. Here are some of the quilts I've made this summer. I was busier than I thought. While I was busy quilting, we had some construction going on. After 57 years of owning our camp, my family had a dock built! We are so excited! Below are some of the pictures. It's time to pack up all my fabric, sewing machine and quilts and move back home. I'm sad to be leaving this beautiful spot but excited to be going home to start quilting full time. I'm also excited to be with my husband full time as well. Until next time, Happy Quilting!
Below are the quilts I have made since being in Maine this summer. I have such a beautiful view while I am quilting that I really enjoy. The first quilt I made is a "Lovie Lap Quilt" with pockets. What a great gift for your Mom or Grandmother! The next quilt is a soft pastel pinwheel baby quilt. This quilt is great for a boy or girl. The next quilt is a sea creatures quilt. What fun! And the last quilt is a dinosaur quilt. It shows several different dinosaurs which will encourage imagination. ![]() This weekend in Maine there is the 38th Annual Quilt Show in Augusta, Maine. http://www.mainequilts.org/Quilt_Show/ I love seeing all the quilts and, of course, shop with the vendors. Each year I try out the long arm machines. Someday maybe I will purchase one but for right now I do all my free motion quilting on my Janome. I hope you are in the area and can go to the show! Happy Quilting! I hope everyone had a safe and happy "4th of July"! My weekend was spent with family at our summer house on the coast of Maine. This is our first summer without Mom but we feel her spirit with us at our cottage. She loved it here. I will be spending most of the summer here with the exception of going home on Wednesdays for my yoga class and to see my husband. Ken comes to Maine most weekends. The first thing we did this weekend was to put my sister, Sharon's boat in the water! This is our cottage. We had rocks put in front of it to help hold the embankment. The foliage is filling in and will look better soon. I love the new view we have! On Saturday we went to the Harpswell 4th of July Celebration where they read from the Declaration of Independence and shot off their guns and canon. Then back to camp for some outdoor games and a fantastic display of fireworks at night with patriotic music playing along. Sunday was such a beautiful day that we packed a lunch and took the boat for a long ride.
I hope you all had a happy 4th as well. Now I'm back to quilting! Here are my top ten favorite baby quilt patterns. They are all easy pattern to make. 1. Log Cabin Quilt Block 2. Northwind Quilt Block I love this quilt block. It doesn't look like much all by itself, but when you sewn the whole quilt together, WOW! Love it. 3. Square on Square Quilt Block 4. Beginners Delight Quilt Block 5. Cross within a Cross Quilt Block I think I like Cross within a Cross because of all the colors. 6. Louisiana Quilt Block Pinwheels are always a favorite for baby quilts. This is just one of many patterns for pinwheels. 7. Turnstile Quilt Block Turnstile is another great pinwheel quilt. This pattern has a double pinwheel. 8. Friendship Quilt Block This is a great pattern for a scrap quilt. 9. Four Patch Four Patch is a great beginner pattern. It works up really quickly. 10. Hearth and Home I hope you have enjoyed my Best Ten Baby Quilt Patterns! I hope you give one of these patterns a try. Make sure you send me a picture!
If you would like to follow my blog, just click on the RSS Feed button on the right. Keep Quilting! ![]() Last November I lost my beautiful Mother to a four year battle with a blood disease. We had a church service in Florida where she has lived for the past twenty years. A week later we had another church service and burial in New Hampshire, where she lived with my Dad before he passed away. On the day of her funeral, there was an ice storm in Maine so many of her relatives there couldn't make it. So... Last Saturday my Aunt held a Life Celebration Service for my Mom at their shared cottage on the coast of Maine. What a beautiful place. The picture above is the view we have there. All wee long the weather was showing as raining. I prayed all week for sunshine and we got it! What a perfect day. Mom loved butterflies so my cousin bought some butterfly wings for the children to wear. They looked adorable fluttering around. Mom would have loved them! As soon as the service started, a butterfly flew by. I think Mom wanted us to know she was with us. After the service we all paraded down to the water to place a floral wreath in the water and each person had a rose toss in as well. It was so nice to share Mom's stories and traditions with our family and friends. We kept the whole day upbeat just like Mom would have wanted.
Hobson's Kiss is another quilt block from my favorite quilt book, "Around the Block with Judy Hopkins". I am currently making a quilt from each of her 200 quilt blocks. Hobson's Kiss is quilt number 116. Here is what the quilt block looks like: I decided to change up the blocks, alternating the medium and dark fabrics. Are you visiting New Hampshire this summer? Here is a list of some of the places you might like to visit.
Doves in the Window is a beautiful quilt block with squares, triangles and rectangles. If you've mastered those three, you will have no problem with this quilt. It is quite simple. That doesn't mean it's not time consuming. Any time you have that many triangles, it takes time; time to square up all your triangles. Below is how you start constructing this block. After sewing four of these sections, you sew a rectangle in between two of these pieces and repeat. Then you sew a rectangle with a square and add the last rectangle. Sew this in between your other two pieces and you have your block. Alright now for the magic! Notice in the quilt block the black fabric in the half square triangles. Now look at the black fabric when all four blocks are sewn together. It makes it look like the white fabric triangles are sitting on a wide band of black fabric. What what happens when I put this quilt on its side. Now it really brings out the black band with the thinner white band, like double crosses. That's the magic of sewing these quilt blocks together that I love.
I did a little research and found a free pattern you could use. Just click on the link below. http://www.mccallsquilting.com/qb/mccallsquilting/pattern_407/index.html I also found Delaware Quilts Block of the Month you might enjoy. http://delawarequilts.com/BOMs/DoveInTheWindow/index.html I hope you have enjoyed "Doves in the Window" quilt block and will give it a try! Carolyn |
AuthorI have been quilting for close to 30 years and after loosing my job three years ago, I am now able to do what I love, QUILT! I specialize in baby quilts and have designed the "Lovie Lap Quilt" with pockets. Archives
October 2016
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