A few years ago I had the great pleasure of taking a class on color value instructed by Cheryl Arkinson at QuiltCon. I brought a pretty random selection of fabrics to the class and this quilt top was the result!
I had fun quilting this one with feathers and bubbles. Oh I do love to sit down at my Sweet Sixteen with a smallish quilt and just play.
I just finished this fun quilt for my nephew and his wife who were married in front of their restored classic Air Stream trailer (that now sports a lime green door).
The pattern is the Up North Quilt by Pen and Paper Quilts. I added a flamingo to the quilt to match the newlyweds decor at the wedding. The bird is a foundation paper pieced pattern by PatternBrat.
Keeping with my goal of using long hoarded fabrics, the trees are from a fat quarter bundle of Succulents fabric by Heather Givans purchased at QuiltCon maybe 7 years ago.
I used minky for the backing that yielded not only a lovely, heavy, cozy quilt but also showed off the wandering leaves I free motion quilted.
This was intended as a one year anniversary gift and I was only 6 months late!
The fourth and last quilt I gifted this past holiday season is this quilt by Gingiber featuring her Merriment fabric. A few years ago I had purchased the panel with all the adorable forest animals and some fabric from this line. When I decided to focus on making Christmas quilts at the beginning of last year, I knew I wanted to do something with this panel. But alas I did not have enough of the Merriment fabric for this pattern. Thanks to a very sweet quilting friend who had just completed this same quilt and gifted me her scraps (!!), I had what I needed for the quilt.
It was gifted to my son and daugher-in-law who have many framed Gingiber art pieces in their home. Perfect!
Although it took many months from beginning to end to complete the quilts I gifted this year, I am thrilled with each finish and so were the recipients!
The next quilt gifted this past Christmas was the Falling Snow Quilt by Quilting for 4.
This version is the large throw and honestly sews up surprisingly fast. Given the heavy backing I kept the quilting style simple with an all over meander.
I think this winter quilt with plush minky backing will work well for many months in my son's Chicago home.
One of the people who had a major impact on me when I started quilting ten years ago was Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts. Her patterns are fun, well written and impactful. I looked forward to Lorna's regular blog posts, back in the day when I was actually good about following blogs and posting regularly myself. At the same time, I was falling in love with modern fabric designers and couldn't get enough Tula Pink in my modest fabric collection. Well, the stars aligned, Lorna published Sweater Weather using Tula's Holiday Homies line and I knew I had to make this quilt some day. Right before my local quilt store (Keepsake Quilting!) closed, I did something I'd never done and still is a first, bought the quilt kit.
Generally I am disciplined when it comes to discretionary fabric purchases except for a few categories such as Charley Harper prints and Christmas fabric of any style. At the beginning of the pandemic (can anyone remember that far back?) I spread out my Christmas fabric collection in all its various shapes and forms and concluded that it was time to actually USE these precious slices of cotton.
The Plaidish quilt is a FREE pattern by Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting. It is an exercise in color value that yields some pretty great quilts as evidenced by many beautiful finishes.
This quilt was gifted to one of the most important people in my life who is battling pancreatic cancer (like a super warrior!). I have a goal to give everyone I love a quilt and she was long overdue for one of my creations.
Regarding my Christmas fabric collection, this is what it currently looks like after finishing three quilts this holiday season and several last. In conclusion, I am at zero risk of running low on this category.
Of course, in the venn diagram of my fabric purchases is my growing Charley Harper holiday fabric. No apologies!
One quilt designer whose patterns I find consistently wonderful is Suzy Quilts. This is my fourth quilt using her patterns and I love each one. Here is the Glitter and Glow quilt made for my grandson. Here is the Maypole quilt. And here is the EPIC Modern Fans queen size quilt for my son. This is Suzy's Mod Mountain pattern.
Straight line quilting for a change from my usual free motion quilting.
And so soft and crinkly after being washed.
This was a fun quilt to make and I can see more in the future!
