Disappearing 9-patch

This is a pattern I've made many times before and it looks completely different when different fabrics are used.

 Apple green and navy are always a good combination and I just love how this one turned out.

Made with more subtle colors, this blue and aqua baby quilt without borders is hard to recognize that it's the same block and technique.

And made with watercolor prints, the pattern in this yellow and orange baby quilt just blends into the white background and the pattern become secondary to the actual fabrics.

Simple and versatile, this technique and block is one of the most pulled out tools in my quilting toolbox. 

Do you have a go-to pattern? Or a go-to line of fabrics? 

--Ann

Disappearing 9-patch Baby Quilts

Sometimes I pull fabrics from off my shelf and my closet and put them together in different combinations. These are a couple I did back in June.

Blue Green Baby Quilt - FOR SALE HERE

Pastel Baby Quilt - FOR SALE HERE

For the blue quilt, I pulled shades of light turquoise blue to minty green. 

 I found a blue solid that was just slightly darker than the darkest blue in the prints and used it for the smaller patches and the binding. Such a sweet baby boy quilt!

And then I took a bundle of lemony yellow to orange prints and had enough of them for the quilt top and matched them with a multi color stripe for the binding. Perfect for a baby girl!

Some all-over stipple quilting and they are done.

A beautiful sunny day for photographs. 

Disappearing 9-patch quilts are so much fun to make and depending on the fabric choices, they look completely different from each other. A good tutorial can be found here if you want to try your own.

--Ann

Repeat Customers

Repeat customers are the best! This customer is great to work with and pushes me gently out of my comfort zone to make quilts for her family. The first quilt is a baby quilt in teal blue and tangerine orange with a square in a square pattern.

Square in square Baby Quilt

And this one is a twin in oranges with smaller blue squares. We wondered if so much orange would make this look a little Halloween-wish, but it looks just great for a modern boy's room.

Orange and Blue Disappearing 9-patch

Baby quilts are always fun to make and this one was for a baby girl nursery decorated in a jungle theme. If you click on the photo, you can see the detail close up and the prints I chose. The dark brown one looks pretty dark in the photo, but is a great Heather Ross (I think) print of pink butterflies on a brown background.

Baby girl Jungle Quilt

I hope there will be a few more quilts to be made for this customer! It's such a satisfying feeling to know someone likes your work enough to come back and get one (or two or three) more quilts!

--Ann

It's Hard Running an Online Business without Internet!

After months of no internet at home, I'm finally back connected on a regular basis and ready to begin posting here a little more frequently. I have gotten to know my local coffee shops with free WiFi and have spent more time face to face and it's been a good summer.

I did manage quite a few finishes and this disappearing friendship star was one of them. I blogged about the block back in April here. I have been looking at many quilts online that have been "quilted to death" and thought I might like to try quilting with some dense quilting and practice my free-motion quilting at the same time. Click on the photos to zoom in closer if you want to see the quilting patterns more clearly.

Disappearing Friendship Star Table Topper

Corner detail

From the back

I am glad to have this one done and ready for use - it is up for sale in my Etsy shop here. Although I enjoyed the process of quilting this table topper, I still prefer my quilting to be less dense and a little more free form than this, but I will keep trying different things as I love to learn new techniques!

 

--Ann

 

Disappearing Friendship Star

At my Monday night guild last month, we had a lovely trunk show and class from fellow member Linda Hurd and her husband, Wayne Kollinger. Linda is a lovely lady and accomplished quilter - her machine quilting is amazing! Wayne is a pattern designer (Tuxedo Park Designs) and has been published in magazines and has a few books too.

The class was on taking a traditional block (in this case, the friendship star) and cutting it into 4 pieces and reassembling it into something new. The quilt it is based on is here in Wayne's Sketchbook Blog - a lovely blue & yellow quilt.

I looked through my stash of fabric and decided on quite a different colour selection - a muted pallet of greens and golds with some brown and red thrown in.

First, the original blocks are made - two with one colourway and two with the same fabrics, just different layout.

Wayne & Linda's instructions have details on how to press seams to avoid bulky seams at the end, but you can just press seams open for the same result.

Four simple blocks. Now the fun part! Cut each block into four pieces as shown.

 Take 2 pieces from one block and 2 pieces from the other and combine to make a new star block as shown.

And combine your four new blocks into a quilt top. I haven't added borders yet as I think this quilt turned out a little more green than I had imagined it would.

When I have a top that I can't decide how to finish, I just put the assembled blocks and related fabrics aside, come back to it at a later date and finish the top when I know what I want to do with it.

Thanks to Linda & Wayne for a great project!

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - November 26

This is what is on my design wall this week:

Four memory quilts made from the shirts of a customer's father. There's a mix of dress shirts, casual shirts and T-shirts in these quilts. I still need to add some borders to make them to the size wanted and the backs are going to be super soft Minky. I love Minky on the backs, just not the extra work required to ensure the quilt doesn't pucker and stretch while it's being quilted.

Memory Quilt 1/4 

Memory Quilt 2/4

Memory Quilt 3/4

Memory Quilt 4/4

 And a custom quilt made from Paris themed fabrics with disappearing 9-patch blocks randomly placed. This one will go to Marie from Blueberry Hill Quilts for quilting after it's pieced together.

What's on your design wall this week? 

--Ann

WIP Wednesday - July 18

Attaching the binding

 My sewing machine has been humming this week in between weeding sessions in the garden and the general duties of running a household! A few weeks ago, I sent a couple quilts off to my favourite long-arm quilter, Marie of Blueberry Hill Quilts in Chestermere, Alberta and I picked them up from her on Monday.

Jack's quilt

Greenlee's quilt

The bindings are almost done and then I will work on the pillow shams. My customer wanted her children's names incorporated somehow on the quilts and we decided that quilting the names in a border would be a great touch. Next time I should include Marie in that conversation because she was the one who had to figure out how to do it and make it look great. (And she did!)

Both quilts plus pillow shams awaiting bindings

 There's just one more quilt for this order - a baby quilt for the new baby expected this fall, and that will be next up on my to-do list!

Piecefully yours,
--Ann

Linked up here:

Quiltsy Team WIP Wednesday
The Needle and Thread Network
Freshly Pieced

Just Quilted!

Here's a quilt that started with just 2 pieces of fabric that were meant for something entirely different. I bought these 2 fabrics intending to make some crayon rolls for a Christmas craft sale, but when I took them out to cut them up, they politely told me that they would like to be in a quilt, please!

When fabrics speak to you, you have to listen! So I cut and sewed and sewed and cut and ended up with this beauty! It's now listed in my Etsy shop here: Modern Blue and Brown Quilt

It's not a large quilt, just perfect for on the sofa for watching TV (54"x54") and backed with wonderful soft Minkee fabric that even the guys like to touch! Here's my grandson rolled up in it - he loves it when he can cuddle up under a "blankie". Now, just to teach him the difference between a blanket and a quilt!

--Ann