This quilt was made for the Brooklyn Quilters Guild’s third outdoor quilt show that took place in October 2021. The theme of the show was “Come Together,” inspired by the Beatles song. I call this quilt Convergence. It is by far the most quilting I’ve ever done on a quilt, so I’m sure glad it was only 36″ by 36″! Watch the video to find out more details about how this quilt “came together.”
Tag Archives: Rainbow quilt
BMQ YouTube Series – Ep. 23: Virtual Trunk Show #12
I’ve made a few quilts this last year, so I’m starting up my virtual trunk show videos again. This video showcases a quilt I actually made in late 2019, but I wasn’t able to show it earlier because I didn’t have it in my possession when I was making my original trunk show videos. But never fear! Here it is now! I call this one Spectrogasmic Therapy. Watch the video to hear more about it!
BMQ YouTube Series – Ep. 20: Virtual Trunk Show #11
BLACK LIVES MATTER — Please click on the link to find out what you can do to help end the oppression and killing of our fellow human beings.
I completed this quilt in October of 2020. What should have taken me a couple weeks ended up taking six months because my creativity mojo has been hit hard by this sh**storm of a year. This quilt is playing with the contrast of traditional and contemporary styles. I have named it Traditional Decay. Watch the video to find out what inspired me to create it!
BMQ YouTube Series: Episode 3 – Rainbow Chevron Tablerunner
My latest YouTube video is just me talking about my quilting process for my latest project, which is this quick-and-easy chevron tablerunner using 2.5″ precut strips of Dit Dot Evolution fabrics. Enjoy the video and be sure to click on Subscribe so you don’t miss out on any future posts!
My Christmas Tree Skirt
My Christmas tree is the most beautiful Christmas tree in the world. Many people disagree. They are wrong. I was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, which is the Glass City due to its history of glass manufacturing for the past several decades. Luckily, that means there are amazing glass artisans throughout the area, and the Toledo Museum of Art houses one of the most impressive glass collections in the world. Many years ago, my mom began gifting my siblings and me with a glass ornament each Christmas, so I have an AMAZING collection at this point and I am deeply in love with each and every one.
One of the most beautiful characteristics of glass ornaments is the way they interact with light. Because of this, I decided I wanted a tree that allowed the natural sunlight to fully shine through them during the day and the Christmas tree lights to cause the ornaments to twinkle at night, which meant I wasn’t interested in a traditional tree with pine needles that would block the light. After MUCH searching, I finally found the perfect tree — a simple birch-style tree with built-in lights at the tip of each branch. I truly love how my ornaments shine and sparkle hanging from this tree.
This is all a very long build-up to explain how I came about creating my Christmas tree skirt. One of the ornaments my mom gave us a few years ago was a fused-glass star, which I use as my tree topper. It’s super modern and colorful and awesome, and it inspired me to create an improv-pieced tree skirt using up some of the billions of scraps I’ve collected over the last few years of quilting.
Because I have a very non-traditional tree, I decided I wanted a very non-traditional skirt. I really love Justin Stafford’s Squareburst quilt, and I thought a square tree skirt would work really well with my tree. So I took some of the craft paper that’s been used as packaging and that I save for moments like this. I decided on the size and drew out the pattern. I then cut it all up to use as templates.
Then I had to go through all of my scraps and sort them by color. That was a process. Oy. However, it was necessary and made the piecing process so much easier. I wanted to use all of the colors that are on my tree, which is pretty much everything, so I decided on red, orange, yellow, chartreuse, green, blue, purple, and pink.
I set up my improv piecing station, consisting of my Martelli Round-About Cutting mat and Rotary Ergo cutter on one side of my sewing machine and my ironing board on the other. At that point, it was just a matter of sewing, pressing, and slicing, sewing, pressing, and slicing, sewing, pressing, and slicing, over and over again in each of the colorways until I had pieced enough scraps to fit with the triangular template.
The trickiest part of this tree skirt was binding the center hole. I have never sewn a curved binding before, so I needed to look up a few different YouTube tutorials to figure it out. Other than that, everything went together pretty quickly and easily, resulting in what I think is a pretty darn gorgeous Christmas tree skirt!
This will most likely be my last blog post of 2019 as I will be traveling to the Glass City in a couple of days to visit my family for the next couple of weeks. Happy holidays to all and have a very happy new year!!
My BQG President’s Challenge 2020 Quilt
If you read last week’s post, you know that I’ve been working on my entry for the upcoming Brooklyn Quilters Guild President’s Challenge for our March 2020 quilt show. I finished up the final stitch of the facing this weekend, so this week’s post is just going to be pictures of the finished quilt. I’m so happy with the results! Enjoy the pics and happy crafting!!!
Quilting 201: Preparing for FMQ
If you’ve read some of my past posts you already know how much I love free-motion quilting (FMQ). I find it not only visually stimulating but also completely freeing when I sit down at my sewing machine to finally stitch all of the layers of my quilt together. I pretty much FMQ all of my quilts these days with rare exceptions, and I love whenever I have the opportunity to FMQ a mini quilt because I’m able to quilt more meticulous designs without taking hours to finish like it would take on a larger quilt.
Continuing the trend that the co-presidents began in 2018, the Brooklyn Quilters Guild will have a President’s Challenge for our upcoming biennial quilt show in March of 2020. The prompt is a quote by Maya Angelou.
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
The quilts must measure 36″ x 36″ and incorporate six to seven of the colors of the rainbow in some way. Otherwise, they can be any style, pattern, etc. I decided to take this as an opportunity to go a little crazy with my FMQ by creating a quilt top that is mostly negative space which can be brimming with free-motion quilting.
The pieced portion of the quilt is quite small, so this is almost a whole-cloth quilt. Some of the quilters I follow suggest using a double layer of batting for whole-cloth quilts or any quilt where you want the quilting design to really pop. The general suggestion is a layer of 80/20 cotton batting and a layer of wool batting, so I’m going to give it a shot.
Once I pin baste my quilt sandwich, I start thinking about the thread color(s) I want to use. I’ve decided to extend the pieced design onto the negative space of the quilt, so I’ve picked thread colors that match each of the pieced stripes.
Before I start quilting any project, I like to plan out my quilting designs. I get out my sketchbook and start doodling. Not only does this help me clarify some ideas before putting thread to fabric, but it also starts getting those designs into my muscle memory.
Once I’m ready to actually start quilting, I set my machine up by installing my FMQ presser foot and bobbin case, lowering the feed dogs of my sewing machine, and placing a Supreme Slider mat over my needle plate. I want as little friction as possible when I’m sliding my quilt under the needle, and the Supreme Slider really helps me with that.
I also always make a tiny quilt sandwich out of scraps of my actual quilt to test the tension before I ever start quilting on the real one. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. ALWAYS TEST YOUR TENSION BEFORE STARTING ON YOUR REAL PROJECT!!!
And now I’m ready to start quilting. I can’t wait to see how this turns out! I’d love to hear any pointers you have to share when it comes to FMQ prep. Add them in the Comments section below so we can all benefit from each other’s experience. Happy crafting!!
Boy Meets Quilt 