Quilting Linda: A Quilting Blog by Linda West

May

16

My next big project…

Posted Thursday, May 16th, 2013 in Five Little Monkeys, Quilting, baby quilt | Read More

On Mother’s Day, my daughter and her hubby announced publicly that they are expecting in December. That means that grandma has to make a quilt! They plan to decorate the nursery with a monkey theme and I have just the quilt pattern for that! In 2008 I saw a cute “Five Little Monkeys” pattern in Quiltmaker’s Quilting and Embroidery magazine. It incorporates the 5 Little Monkeys rhyme in the blocks and border. Last summer I started the embroidery. Some blocks take over an hour to stitch out.

Last week I went to Columbus for a few days and Jennifer and I went fabric shopping for the rest of the quilt fabrics. I am changing the colors a bit, with orange as the predominate color. This is the fabric I bought.

May

10

Quilty Barn Along – 6

Posted Friday, May 10th, 2013 in QAL | Read More

Block 6 is Sunny Sunflower! It sounds happy, doesn’t it?

A tutorial for this block can be found here.

May

3

Between Heaven and Texas Blog Hop

Posted Friday, May 3rd, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

One of my favorite authors, Marie Bostwick, had a new book released this week.  The Quilting Gallery is hosting a blog hop with free star patterns each day to celebrate.

On Tuesday I went to The Quilt Shop in Bryan, Ohio with my friend Kris and purchased turquoise and orange batik fabrics to make the star blocks.  I made three of the blocks to date. I don’t want to make my blocks scrappy so I am drawing them in EQ7 using a background fabric and the two colors.

Stay tuned for more turquoise and orange blocks!

Apr

25

2013 Relay for Life Quilt

Posted Thursday, April 25th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

Hicksville Piecemakers, my small quilt group, has made a quilt for Relay for Life each year since 2006. Last year we were given four yards of a bright pink fabric to use in our quilt. We made a black and white Disappearing Nine Patch quilt with the pink in the center block. It was so well received that we decided to use the black and white palette again this year. Each quilter was given a piece of the pink fabric and a fat quarter of white with black polka dots background fabric. We each chose two block patterns and made two 12 inch blocks. Colleen purchased black fabric to frame each block and a white on black print for sashing.

We made our blocks at home and took them to our weekly meeting. As a group, we trimmed them all to 14 1/2 inches. Five of us met on a Saturday to assemble the top. I brought the top home and quilted it, added the binding and made a label. Colleen will hand stitch the binding to the back of the quilt.

The quilt is twin sized, 66 1/2 X 82 1/2 inches.

Apr

24

Quilty Barn Along – 5

Posted Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 in QAL | Read More

The block on the barn this week is called Maple Leaf.  Click here for the block five pattern.

Apr

20

My Favorite Things

Posted Saturday, April 20th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

Last year I attended the AQS quilt show in Columbus, Ohio with my daughter. I purchased a pattern for a trio of quiltlets from Quiltricks. The previous year I bought the pattern for the “Pin Up” quiltlets. I made the pin up pattern as soon as I returned home and planned to do the same with the new pattern. I chose the fabrics and traced the pieces onto Wonder-Under. For some reason this project was set aside and forgotten until I cleaned out my sewing room last week.  So…yesterday I fused the pieces onto the background and machine blanket stitched around each piece. Today I hand stitched the binding to the backs of the pieces.

I will display the quiltlets in my sewing room.

Apr

16

Another Mini Quilt…Tabitha’s Trinkets

Posted Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

One of my favorite quilt books is “Simply Charming” by Tara Lynn Darr. My goal is to make each of the quilts in the book. The quilts are made from scraps, including left over charm squares. I love to buy charm packs because of the variety of fabrics in each pack. The mini quilts do not use all the squares in a pack, therefore lots of scraps for another quilt. Tabitha’s Trinkets is made from charm squares left over from “Off the Beaten Path”. The border fabrics are from my stash. I used some of the border fabric in the blocks to add some color to the quilt.

Apr

12

Hello Moon – Blocks 3 & 4

Posted Friday, April 12th, 2013 in Hello Moon Block of the Month, Quilting | Read More

These are fun to make! The patterns can be found at Making Ends Meet. There is a tutorial for the raw edge free motion applique here.

Apr

11

Quilty Barn Along – 4

Posted Thursday, April 11th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

I made the fourth barn today.  Sorry about the photography but it has been raining and gloomy all day. Again, the pattern can be found at Bee In My Bonnet. It’s not too late to join the Barn Along. A new barn is posted every other Wednesday. There will be a total of 12 blocks. I am waiting to add the sashing until I have all the blocks finished.

Apr

5

The Quilty Barn Along – Block 3

Posted Friday, April 5th, 2013 in QAL, Quilt Blocks, Quilting | Read More

This is the third block in the series. The inset block is called “Postage Stamp”. It is made of 36 one inch finished squares. I used 36 different fabrics in the block.  The block tutorial can be found at Bee In My Bonnet.

Mar

20

Hello Moon – Block 2

Posted Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

The second Hello Moon block was posted  at Making Ends Meet today.  I got busy and made it this morning. The next block will be posted next week.

Mar

19

Quilty Barn Along

Posted Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 in My Projects, QAL, Quilting | Read More

My friend Kris told me about another QAL (quilt- along) that I could not resist. Lori Holt at Bee In My Bonnet is hosting the QAL with tutorials.

This is the first barn with a Weathervane block made from 1930s fabrics.

The block in this barn is “Farm Fresh Flower“.

I made the first block twice. I had used fabrics from my scrap basket the first time. When I made the second block, I decided to use 1930 reproduction fabrics for the inserted blocks. I took the first block apart and inserted a new “Weathervane” block made from the ’30s fabrics.

Mar

9

Midi Bag with Quiltsmart panel

Posted Saturday, March 9th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

Last year I made a Mondo bag using the pattern and  panel from Quiltsmart. The Mondo bag is huge.  It is great for shopping or travel but too large to use for a hand bag.

Last week I bought a panel for a Midi bag, the same style as the Mondo bag, but smaller. I had two Moda candy bars (2 1/2 X 5 inches) that I bought on sale. I cut them in half and used them to make the Midi bag. I used  fabric leftover from a quilt for the handles and lining of the bag. Fusible batting is also used in the bag and I had a piece of it in my stash.

I also made a key strap that is attached to the top of the bag.

Feb

9

Hello Moon BOM

Posted Saturday, February 9th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

April Mae Designs has started a new free Block of the Month. I enjoyed following and making the Hello Sun BOM last  year and have started the new Hello Moon BOM.

I made this block using fabrics from my stash. The gray fabrics are scraps from an Ohio State quilt I made for a friend and the background fabric was in my stash. I am excited to start this quilt and have already started planning how to set the blocks together.

I invite everyone interested in making this BOM to click on the above link and join me in making a Hello Moon quilt.

Jan

26

Saturday Afternoon Project

Posted Saturday, January 26th, 2013 in Quilting, table runner | Read More

I bought the first issue of Quilting Quickly by Jenny Doan this week. As I was reading it today, I found a pattern for a Valentine’s Day table runner. I shopped in my stash and pulled out five red fabrics. I had a piece of leftover white fabric sitting on my cutting table that was just the right size for this project. I plan it quilt it with red thread in an over all meander pattern.

Jan

20

Gingerbread House

Posted Sunday, January 20th, 2013 in Gingerbread House | Read More

We celebrated our family Christmas on December 28th. All of our children arrived home just before noon that day. Jennifer and Tristan said we were to expect a delivery from UPS. Just as we sat down to open our gifts, the UPS truck arrived with a box addressed to the West family.

This is the surprise…

Some close up pictures of the details of the house.

The gingerbread house was Tristan’s idea. This was the first gingerbread house for all of us.

Aunt Jen wrote “Eli’s First Christmas” on the Santa ornament and it was sent home with Eli for his Christmas tree next year.

To see larger images, click on the pictures. Jeff took these pictures for my blog. The cake balls around the house in the third picture were made by Jennifer. Thank you to both my talented kids!

Jan

9

Hello Sun BOM Quilt

Posted Wednesday, January 9th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

I finished the quilt with the blocks from the Hello Sun block of the month from 2012. Each month I enjoyed making a six inch block for this quilt. I love the black stitching that gives it a child-like appearance. I’m not sure who will receive this quilt. For now, it is going into my quilt bank.

Today I am loading it on the quilt frame. I will quilt it in a meandering pattern with white thread. The back is a bleached white muslin.

I hope you enjoyed following my progress with this quilt last year. The blog Making Ends Meet will be removing the Hello Sun block patterns when she starts a new block of the month this year.

Jan

5

Happy New Year 2013

Posted Saturday, January 5th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

After resting a bit from making the Christmas quilts, I am ready to sew again! I want to finish some projects that I started last year. I made the “Hello Sun” boms each month until November. I was too busy working on the Christmas quilts to do them in November and December. So, my project this week has been to catch up with my blocks of the month.

November

December

To set all the blocks together, I am making Variable Star blocks, using the Hello Sun squares as the center of the star. Stay tuned for the finished quilt.

Dec

31

Christmas 2012

Posted Monday, December 31st, 2012 in Quilting | Read More

It has been a long time since I have posted. I have been very busy working on quilts for Christmas gifts for my family. I even made a wall hanging for my grand-dog. I hadn’t planned to give quilts this year until I found some new patterns that were perfect for Jennifer and Jeff. I decided I had to make a quilt for each person. I originally was going to use the same pattern to make quilts for the guys but Jennifer convinced me that Tristan really wanted needed a Zelda quilt. She designed the blocks for it  and I started  working on it in December. I burned the midnight oil making quilts the last two weeks before Christmas.

Please ignore the mess in the background. These pictures were taken after all the gifts were opened. The guys stood on the couch to hold up the quilts for pictures.

Tristan’s Zelda quilt

Jeff’s Mario quilt

Christina’s City Girl quilt

Jennifer’s Bowling Green Falcons quilt

Eli’s Berenstain Bears quilt

Back of Eli’s quilt

And last……

Banana’s wall hanging

(Bananas is our black lab grand-dog)

I am taking a break from quilting to put my house back into order and to give my sore fingers a rest. I received some really nice quilting books and notions for Christmas that I am excited to use soon. Give me a couple of days and I will be back in the quilting mood!

Nov

30

Thanksgiving 2012

Posted Friday, November 30th, 2012 in Quilting | Read More

I haven’t been posting much this month because I am working on several secret projects for Christmas.  The quilt tops are all made except for one. I did take a break from sewing to go to Jennifer and Tristan’s home for Thanksgiving. We drove down to Gahanna on Thanksgiving morning and came home the following Monday afternoon. Jeff, Christina, and Eli were also there from Thursday until Saturday.

Tristan outdid himself with the Thanksgiving dinner. He smoked a ham, roasted a turkey , made two kinds of stuffing and other side dishes. It was amazing! Christina brought a sweet potato casserole and a 7 layer salad. I took pumpkin pies and wassail. We had enough food to last all weekend!

Jennifer made macaroons and cake balls and a delicious pecan pie for dessert. Tristan made real whipped cream for the pumpkin pie.

The center of attention all weekend was Eli. He is 8 months old and crawling everywhere! He and Aunt Jennifer dressed in scarlet and gray for the OSU game on Saturday.