Pictures of quilts

Some new pictures showing how the patterns look on actual quilts:

Clamshells on a panel quilt:

Criss-cross on a t-shirt quilt:

Criss-cross again:

August Rain:

Pizzazz:

Vining For You:

Baptist Fans:

More IQ patterns

Here are the latest patterns available with the Intelliquilter:

Our new playhouse

Just had to post some non-quilting related pictures of the new playhouse that Mr. Quilter built for the kids. It's too cute, something I would've been ga-ga for as a kid. I think I like it as much as the kids do. Yesterday I sat in there & read a book.

Last week little miss C picked out CareBear fabric for curtains, so now there is even a little decor on the inside.

Latest patterns

Showing you some of the newest patterns available:

Fern pattern

This is a newer pattern, I've found it is one that works well with batik quilts. The pattern is stitched using the IQ, but it looks very freehand & artsy. It's one of my favorites. It is quite a dense design, and takes a little more time to stitch out, so it's priced a little higher than the basic all-over price.

more recent quilts

Have some pictures here showing some recent quilts. The first one is using "Wildflower". This is a really versatile design, that works well on alot of quilts.

 

The next one is a pattern called "Vining for You". I think this is very pretty, a nice swirly pattern that work well on leafy or floral quilts.

 

This next one was a batik quilt, and I thought something geometric would work well. It's quilted using double spirals. Very graphic & bold, like the fabrics in the quilt. And, this last one is Puzzle Pieces by Ellen Munnich. Very fun for a kid's quilt. I can't wait to use this one a quilt that' I've pieced. Especially cute with variegated thread. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but the thread color changes from medium to light blue & to white.

 

Baby quilt with fan border

Here's an example of using the baptist fan pattern in a border....

Speedy 1/2 square triangles trick

I found this trick on the internet lately, called tube-strip piecing. I am working on a quilt that needs hundreds of half-square triangles, and this is a really neat time-saving trick.

You put together 2 strips, right sides together, and sew a 1/4" seam on both sides of the strip:

The cut at a 45 degree angle. A ruler with these markings make it easier. I am using 3" strips here, and it will yield 3.5" squares. There will be a little waste on the end with the first cut.

Keep cutting at a 45 degree angle, alternating directions. The cool part is you will be cutting off those pesky little dog-ears while you're at it.

You'll end up with thirteen 3.5" squares, from a 44" strip of 3" wide fabric.

Finger press them to the darker side, to get lots of these:

Another nice thing is that the diagonal seam is not on the bias, and will not stretch. This makes the block a little more stable.

Give this technique a try- it's really a time saver. I made hundreds of these little guys in no time. And they're much more accurate than cutting all those pesky triangles before you piece them together.

Quilt using the Peace pattern

This quilt was the reason I found the "peace" pattern. It was made out of cordurouy, and it quilted up just fine.

My summer schedule & custom quilts

I've been thinking about my schedule this summer... It's Chloe's last summer at home before she starts preschool, and I want to make the most of the time I have with her & the boys at home, especially with the short summers we have here in Iowa. I like to garden, and do quite a bit of canning, and enjoy evenings outside by the fire pit.

I've decided that I will only be taking a limited number of custom quilts from now until school starts again in the fall. I already have 2 large custom quilts booked (one for April and one for May), and so there will only be room for one or two more this summer.

I will still be taking quilts that require an all-over pattern as usual.

New patterns

Here are the latest patterns that are available using the Intelliquilter:

Feathered Star quilt

I'm starting a feathered star quilt.... I've always wanted to make a feathered star, and came across a pattern that I had saved out of an old quilting magazine quite a long time ago.

The feathered sections are paper-pieced- I wouldn't attempt this any other way. The little triangles are less than an inch wide. It really went together easier than I had expected. The magazine pattern showed a full-size quilt with 9 or 12 of these blocks (they're 18 inches square), but I think I am just going to show case the one block in a small wall-size quilt.

It was a fun challenge- lots of "Y" seams in the LeMoyne-star center block area.

I'm thinking of adding a sawtooth border with the red fabric, and another plain tan border.

Freehand swirls

Here's a customer quilt that I thought would look good with some freehand swirls on it... I was happy with how it turned out. I tried to mimic that green swirly fabric in the 2nd picture.