I make shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, 126 W. Second Street, Roanoke, IN 46783. Owner Deborah Roehm’s Victorian house is bursting at the seams with lovely fabrics, patterns, books, tools. Josephine’s Knot by Calico Carriage Quilt Designs is the latest top I have pieced. 63″ x 100″.
Quilt #2. I am currently working on four clothing quilts for a client. These will be memory quilts made of t-shirts, sweatshirts, dress shirts, ties, handkerchiefs, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. I’ve decided to call them Not Just T-Shirts Quilts because of the variety of clothing in them. They are similar in construction to t-shirt quilts. Several of the clothing types need to be backed with a fusible interfacing for stability. Theme fabric have been incorporated to add interest to the quilt top. Dog prints in this quilt top, theme Yorky Dogs. 67″ square finished quilt.
Because of the quantity of clothing, the piecing has spilled over on to the back. There is a pocket in the lower right corner that my client may use to tuck a personal note in for the recipient of this quilt.
I’ve signed up for the challenge for several reasons. I’ve played at FMQ for a long time. Sometimes being successful and sometimes not. I have been following Leah Day’s blog all year, but have not taken the time to play and practice to improve. Leah is one of the 12 teachers listed who will be teaching us how to FMQ in this challenge. I even took a class from a local quit shop – bought stuff, but haven’t used it. This challenge sounds doable! So I’ve signed up! Sign up here if you are interested. (Thanks to I’m Doing Stuff for posting about this challenge on her blog.)
I just found Lily’s Quilts: Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet. What two great ideas! So I am linking to her. See the links on my side bar if you are interested.
I’ve been working on clothing quilts lately. 4 to be exact. A clothing quilt is like a t-shirt quilt, only it incorporates a larger variety of clothing. The 4 I have been working on include t-shirts, dress shirts, ties, sweat shirts, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. Here is the first completed quilt:
I added theme fabric and just a bit of bright fabric that coordinate with the t-shirts to add visual interest to the top.
I had more clothing items than I could fit into the top – so they spilled over on to the back-
And in the corner I placed a pocket with yet another piece of clothing – denim from a pair of jeans.
Another project has been a baby quilt-
This quilt is for young friend Brianna, who is expecting her first baby in early January 2012. I have been taken by the simplicity in Victoria Gertenbach of Silly BooDilly hand quilting, and decided to try my own simple quilting of just straight lines by machine for this baby quilt. Brianna is going with an elephant theme for baby Hadyn. I don’t have a picture, but the back is the cutest ever animal print, Jolly Jungle Animals by Henley Studio.
I’ll share clothing quilts 2-4 as soon as I get the binding on!
Here are three of my most recent creations. I have been a fan of Jan Patek for a long time! Here is one of her wallhanging made with Lilac Hill Moda Fabric.
And for all the dog lovers in the world – isn’t this a cute quilt?! Go Fetch! is the pattern using Basic Grey Moda Max and Whiskers fabric line.
And how about some Sherbet Pips? I love this retro fabric and snowball pattern! Sherbet Pips by Aneela Hoey for Moda. Hmmmm. I’m seeing a Moda theme here.
I read somewhere that some gals like to see projects in progress, not just a photo of the completed project. That sounded like a good idea to me. I must admit, I do like seeing the progress on blogs myself, and at least some explanation of the process. That said, here is a photo of a few items I’ll be playing with this coming week. I’m thrilled to get to try out Leaves Galore quilting rulers created by Sue Pelland Designs. I’ll be making up some models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. And I love the Mistyfuse stabilizer! Have you ever used it? You need to use a teflon sheet with the Mistyfuse – oops forgot to put that in the photo!
I’ll try to show an in progress photo next. I have many ideas using these rulers swirling around in my head for quilts and also for paper crafting.
A little girl just might love this bright and happy bug quilt. Dancing Bug Fabric, Me & My sister Designs – Easy as 7 pattern.
This is a Ricky Timms pattern and fabric, line is Oodles of Doodles. 3D Flying Geese. This was a fast and easy quilt using the one-seam method to make the geese.
Sidelights Pattern, Orientals. I think this pattern would work great in a fussy cut kids print.
A soft Shannon fabric quilt (like Minky fabric) sewn with the sew and flip method.
And Purses! This orange print with black cats is a friend’s favorite fabric. She loves it! I call it the scary cat fabric. The pattern is called “Multi Tasker Tote.”
This next purse uses the “Peace Bag” pattern. But I did not put the peace symbol on the purse. Front, showing off the lady fabric:
Back of bag.
That’s all folks! Till next time!
Alas, my running record of 21 years without a rotary cutter mishap has just ended. 
I was busily working away on a quilt, when Yikes! I shaved off the side of my finger with the rotary cutter. There are way too many capillaries in one’s finger tips, I think.
Here are some quilt tops that might make you smile. Hope so!
This quilt is made with Dilly Dally Fabric by Me and My Sister, the pattern is Got a Feeling by Abbey Lane. I like the large rick rack used as flower stems. Rick rack is making a come-back in the sewing world.
This fun quilt is made with Love My Dog fabric from the Playful Pups line by Benartex. The top is similar to a pattern found in the Fall 2010 Fons and Porter’s Magazine by Debby Kratovil. I just changed it up a bit.
And this quilt is made with Peek-a-Zoo fabric by Henry Glass Fabrics.
These three quilts are shop models for Fabric and Friends Quilt Shop, Roanoke, IN. 260-676-2149.
2010. My Fav quilt tops of the year.
Funky Monkey – Monkey’n Round Fabric line by Moda. The pattern is an enlarged version of Hullabaloo. They are sock monkeys! I think the finished size was 62″ x 62″.
And my second fav is another monkey quilt. Pattern by Blue Meadow Designs, Monkey Business Baby Quilt, Finished size: 38″ x 47″. This quilt reminds me of the old Barrel of Monkeys toy. Do you remember the red plastic barrel that came full of primary colored monkeys that could hand on each other in a long chain? I think this would be a fun toddler quilt in those colors along with a Barrel of Monkeys. The quilt is hanging in a quilt shop, half on the wall and half on the ceiling, so not the best pic but you get the idea.
Happy New Year Everyone!
I thought I’d bring in the New Year by giving a little tour of my studio. I am mainly a quilter, which shows up here! Over the past couple of years I’ve played with some fiber art and this year I’ve signed up for Mary Ann Moss’ Remains of the Day on-line class. Find info for her classes on her blog, Dispatch From LA. I’m so excited about taking her class! I’m also joining Julie of Balzer Designs for her Art Journal Every Day project. I’ve signed up for January and will consider doing so one month at a time. This year will find me dabbling in art journaling. I’ve seen many bloggers proclaiming “I am an Artist!” Don’t think I’m there yet, but hope to be able to proclaim that one day!
Enjoy the tour!
My studio is in a former bedroom with built-in bunk beds, two built-in desks and one dresser. As you walk down a long hallway here is the view into the room.
I’ve divided the 14′ x 24′ room in half with an office partition. As you enter the room, on the right is the ‘office’ area. The computer table backs the partition. The bunk beds on this side of the room serve as a daybed on the bottom, (great for late night computer movie watching) and the top bunk is storage for fabric and supplies for commissioned quilts waiting my attention.
As you look to the left, this is my sewing area. My cutting table/cabinet is backed up against the partition (I’ll show another angle of it later in this post.) Here you see the sewing machine on a desk, and shelves with quilt books, thread rack, misc love items. The most recently completed quilt top hangs at the bunk beds and nicely covers up a jumble of supplies!
Moving on around the room to the left of the bunk beds, is the ironing board (not in photo) at a back window (where I can watch the wildlife activity in the back yard). Just to the left of the window is a walk-in closest used mostly by my husband and housing some of my batting, you can just see the closet door on the right of the photo. Then there are two book cases, the books are my hubby’s and the fabric collection is mine! (The dark hallway on left is our starting point of the tour. Photo taken looking back across room from where the sewing machine is located.)
Standing at the ironing board and looking across the room, you can see the large white cabinet in front of the office partition. The cabinet top is my cutting area. Perfect height for me! Love it! I was able to purchase the cabinet from a quilt shop that went out of business. File cabinets hold patterns, etc.
Tis the end of the tour! Hope you enjoyed it!
