Nov
26

Piecemakers Row Quilt 2013

Posted Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

My quilt group, Hicksville Piecemakers, completed this row quilt recently. We are going to raffle it to raise money for a friend who has been experiencing serious medical issues. You can buy tickets at the Village Christmas event. We will have a booth in the multipurpose building at the Defiance County Fairgrounds on Dec. 6,7,8 and 13, 14, 15.

The pattern is from a mystery quilt in McCall’s Quilting magazine in 2005. We divided the rows among the quilters and used fabric from our group fabric stash. Some of the rows had as many as three people working on them. We made the rows at home and brought them to quilt group meetings to assemble the quilt top. I quilted it on my short-arm machine and frame. This is our best quilt ever! I had no issues with loading it on the frame and quilting it. Good job ladies!!!


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Nov
25

Quilty Fun Sew Along

Posted Monday, November 25th, 2013 in Scrap Quilts | Read More

Last summer I pre-ordered Lori Holt’s book, “Quilty Fun” from the Fat Quarter Shop. It arrived in October while I was visiting  Jennifer in Columbus.It has instructions for a row quilt and several small quilted projects using the blocks in the row quilt. The book also has lots of pictures of Lori’s studio where she displays her collection of vintage items. It’s a lovely book with a spiral binding.

A sew along began on November 11 to make a sampler quilt using the the “Quilty Fun” book. (You need the book for block instructions.) Each Monday a different blog will give cutting instructions and photos showing how to make the blocks for that section of the quilt. You can still join the Quilty Fun Sew Along by clicking here.

I have made the first four sections from fabric scraps. Most of the scraps are from the polka dot quilt I made last year. I will be adding more dot fabric from fat quarters I have collected. Stay tuned for more blocks in the coming weeks!


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Nov
10

5 Little Monkeys

Posted Sunday, November 10th, 2013 in baby quilt, Five Little Monkeys | Read More

I finally get to share a baby quilt that I have been working on this year. This quilt is for my daughter’s baby, due in a few weeks. I worked on it in spurts. I did the small embroidered blocks first, then worked on the blocks with multiple monkeys. Some of the larger blocks each took about three hours to stitch out on my Janome Memory Craft 10001. When I finished two of the large blocks, they were too large for the quilt and had to be redone. I used those blocks to make pillows. The borders were the part that intimidated me. I had never stitched any item that had to be re-hooped and stitched on one long piece of fabric. I did a trial on a piece of muslin to get a feel for how far apart to start stitching the words. It is not perfect but it is finished!

Jennifer helped me pick the fabrics used in the quilt but she did not see the finished quilt until the shower on November 9. She has decorated the nursery with this quilt as the inspiration for the theme.  I can’t wait to see it hanging on the wall!

And here it is….

and the pillows….

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Oct
27

These are a few of my favorite things…

Posted Sunday, October 27th, 2013 in Quilting tools | Read More

I buy my batting by the roll and cutting it is not a lot of fun. I roll it out on my living room floor and try to line it up with the lines in the parquet floor. It is hard to see the line when you are half way across the width of the batting. So.. I bought a laser level to mark a cutting line. IT WORKS!!!!

To make the cutting easier, I asked for a pair of batting scissors for Christmas last year. Santa came through and here they are.

I still cut the batting on the floor but it takes much less time with my new tools.

The laser level was purchased through Amazon and the scissors were ordered from IHAN (I Have A Notion).

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Oct
7

I Won!

Posted Monday, October 7th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

I follow the “Moda – The Cutting Table” blog and last month they held a discussion about rulers with guest bloggers. The guest bloggers each demonstrated the use of a different ruler. By leaving a comment, you were entered in a contest to win that ruler. Guess who won one of the rulers! Me! And to top it all, my prize arrived on my birthday. I received a ruler shaped USB device and a snail shaped retractable ruler. How nice.  You can see the article here.


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Aug
30

Eli’s Tractor Quilt

Posted Friday, August 30th, 2013 in Accuquilt Go cutter, baby quilt, Quilting | Read More

Our grandson loves tractors. When he visits us, he likes to ride on the old pedal tractor that Grandpa played with as a child, and ride with daddy on the John Deere lawn mower.When I saw how much he loves tractors, I had to make him a tractor quilt.

I had several John Deere fat quarters that were a Christmas gift from Jeff and Christina several years ago. I also had a tractor panel that I bought to go with the FQs. I cut the FQs into six inch tumbler blocks with my Accuquilt Go cutter and joined them to make borders around the panel. I quilted it with a meandering design.


When I showed the quilt to Eli, he pointed to it and said, “Tractor!”. We put the quilt on the floor and he danced on it and then rolled on it as he wrapped it around himself. Next he stood up and dragged it behind him as he went to the bedroom. I think he likes it! LOL

I’m sorry for the poor photography but he was on the move!










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Jul
15

Quilty Barn Along – 9

Posted Monday, July 15th, 2013 in QAL, Quilt Blocks | Read More

The name of the block inside the barn is Country Crossroads. You can find the tutorial for this block here.

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Jul
14

Piecemakers Row Quilt – 2013

Posted Sunday, July 14th, 2013 in Scrap Quilts | Read More

Piecemakers Quilt Group made two row quilts in the past. We chose a color scheme, background fabric, and pattern. Each person chose the row they wanted to make and we added our own fabrics to the row. This has been a favorite project for the group and we wanted to make another row quilt.

I found a pattern in an old magazine and took it to the group. The pattern was approved by the group but there were not enough rows for each person to do an entire row. We divided the rows to fit the number of members. Jeannie and I are working on the same row. I am making the people and she is making the hearts.

We didn’t care for the pattern for the people in the pattern. I found patterns for boys and girls in a quilt book by Nancy Johnson-Srebro  and used them for my blocks. Jeannie and I used the same fabric for the background but the other fabrics are from our fabric stashes.

Jeannie’s hearts will go between the children in our row.

Stayed tuned for further updates to the Row Quilt.

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Jul
13

Barn Quilt Along – 8

Posted Saturday, July 13th, 2013 in QAL, Quilt Blocks | Read More

Sorry for the bad photography. The center points are a light blue against the white background.

We were given a pattern for a barn with a silo beside it and the pieced block in the barn door. I want to make a few of those in different colors.

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Jul
5

First Quilt Top in July

Posted Friday, July 5th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

"Topsy Turvey"

I am hoping this will be the first of several quilt tops I make in July. I have been away from my machine for too long!

Last week my daughter and I attended the  NQS show in Columbus, Ohio. I bought a 3 yard bundle at the Fabric Cafe booth and received this free pattern with my purchase. Yesterday I cut it out and began sewing it. I would have finished last evening except for the fact that I wanted to watch the fireworks that my neighbors were shooting off. This morning I put the last border on it. It is 46″ X 53 1/2″.

We also purchased a quilt kit with Richard Scarry’s “Busytown” fabric. I have cut it out and want to begin sewing it soon. The third quilt kit from the show is a Bali Pops pack of handpainted batik strips. I purchased plain white fabric to use for the background to make a Cozy Quilt Designs pattern “Simplicity”.  Jennifer bought the Strip Tube Ruler for me to use with the pattern.

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Jun
13

Quilting Dry Spell

Posted Thursday, June 13th, 2013 in Magazines, Quilt Guilds | Read More

I have hit a bit of a dry spell in my quilting life. I have not sewn any quilt blocks for about two weeks. I did spend a lot of that time going through old quilt magazines and tearing out patterns I want to keep. Some of the magazines are from 2005 and newer. Most of them were Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting, Quiltmaker, and McCall’s Quick Quilts.

One of the patterns that I found in a McCall’s Quilting magazine is the mystery quilt by Robert Callahan in 2005. Each issue in 2005 had another pattern for a row in the quilt. Piecemakers quilt group has been talking about making another group row quilt and this is the one we chose to do this year.

I have now finished looking at all the old magazines and my cutting table is cleared and ready to cut quilt blocks. I plan to make the new Quilty Barn Along block and the May and June “Hello Moon” blocks soon. Stop in at the blog to see the finished blocks in the near future.

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May
28

Piecemakers Challenge

Posted Tuesday, May 28th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

My small quilt group, Piecemakers, has a fabric stash that we recently organized by refolding. Everything is now folded to the same size and is more accessible. We were challenged to take a few pieces from the stash and make a quilt. The finished quilts will be put in  our quilt bank for emergencies.

I chose a panel of fabric and used my fabrics to make a pieced border for the quilt. The panel was not an even measurement that matched the size pinwheels I made. I added solid black to the left side and bottom of the panel to make the border fit the panel. My idea was to only border the sides on which the black fabric was added.


I put the quilt top over my frame and left it there for a few hours. Every time I walked by it, I thought it looked unfinished. I decided to add pinwheels all around the quilt for a finished look. I think I like this better.

Which do you prefer?

My next decision is to choose a thread color for quilting. I am thinking of a bright variegated thread.

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May
26

Between Heaven and Texas continued…

Posted Sunday, May 26th, 2013 in Quilting | Read More

I made a few more blocks. The patterns show the blocks done in scrappy colors but I am using the turquoise and orange fabrics.

Six of the twelve blocks are finished. I haven’t decided how I will set them together.




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May
25

Quilty Barn Along – 7

Posted Saturday, May 25th, 2013 in QAL, Quilting | Read More

I am still enjoying the barn quilt-along. This is the 7th block in the series.

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May
16

My next big project…

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

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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.

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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.

Between Heaven and Texas Blog Hop


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!

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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.


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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.


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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.

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