Archive for December, 2010

Playing with Panels

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Panels. Some quilters love them. Some quilters avoid them with a passion! I suppose they do come in handy for whipping up a charity quilt, or to make a quick baby quilt. I was recently challenged to come up with a variety of designs for a pile of panels. So take a look for yourself and let me know what you think. Do you like panels? Do you ever use them for a quick gift? Do any of these inspire you to use them, if they have been something you have avoided? I’m just wondering and would love your feedback. These are all now hanging in a quilt shop, so the photos are not the best. I just didn’t think to take pictures of them while I still had them at home!

Strip piecing around the panel with four patches in the corners.

Noah’s Ark, using coordinating fabrics around the panel and then pieced diamonds top and bottom.

Noah’s Ark, pillow panel. Cut into fourths, and checker board piecing separating the panels, coordinating fabric for the borders, with 4-patch in a 4-patch in the corners.

Not easy to see this one, but star blocks in the corners from coordinating fabrics. Jungle panel.

Christmas puns! Pillow panels say: Here comes Santa Paws, Merry Beary Christmas, Baaaa Humbug!, Kitty Klaus, Up on a Woof Top, and I Herd the Bells on Christmas Day. I cut the pillow apart and pieced in sashing with corner stone 9-patches.

This sweet bear panel is a soft flannel and makes a nice baby quilt. I added the blue border and then the pieced stars in the corners and used a coordinating print for the outer border.

Alphabet panel. I cut the bottom row into four squares and placed them in the corners with a coordinating print for the border. Simple as it gets!

There are a few more, but tis all for now.  Hope you enjoyed the show and tell!

5 Finishes and Finishings

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Funky Monkey fabric by Moda. One pillow case, one jammy bottom child size 2, and one size 6.

Two ponchos. Child size 6 made from pre-quilted fabric.  Child size 4 made from 54″ wide fabric, lined.

I searched back to my years long ago in garment making to put a nice finished touch to the seams of the pre-quilted poncho. The photo above shows the finished look where one side of the inside seam allowance is trimmed to 1/4 inch, and using remaining 5/8 inch seam allowance, turn under to cover the seam and top stitch. You see the top stitching on the outside of the garment. I’m pointing to the top stitching on the red outside, and to the covered seam of the inside of the poncho.

To finish the inside seam of the hood, I used the bias-covered method. I made a single fold bias strip from a coordinating fabric, trimmed the seam allowance, and top stitched the bias strip over the seam allowance. The following picture shows the outside top stitching.

The lighting is not the best in these photos. But I think you can see the garments ok. I used bias binding to finish the outside edge of the hood, the hem of the poncho and for the ties at the neckline. I have not made a garment in years! And I have to say I had fun with these projects! But I think I’ll stick with quilting for my main outlet in sewing!

More Snow

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

What a pretty white December we are having here in NE Indiana! It is continuing to snow flurry with maybe an inch of snow on the way today.

This quilt is a woodland winter scene panel with hour glass blocks in three fabrics pieced around it. Deb of Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop has a huge selection of panels and asked me to ‘do something with them.’ I’ll be sharing them  with you this month.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Monday, December 6th, 2010

December greeted us with snow flurries and it has flurried on and off for 6 days now! We only have about one inch of snow, but it is pretty!

This quilt top  Santa’s Surprises, is a shop model for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop,

126 West Second Street, Roanoke, IN 46783 Phone: 260.676.2149. Pattern was a free download. (Not one of my favorite, and a quilt top that could benefit from quilting.) (And why won’t my words go below the picture like I want them?)