SewBaby.com has got what it takes

What Auntie or Gramma quilter among us doesn't dream of making a cute quilted comforter for that new baby in the extended family?

SewBaby.com offers patterns, snaps & tools, notions, ePatterns and delightful kid-focused fabrics designed to inspire your next creation.

So be it plush fleece (aren't they divinely soft?), woven cottons with tiny turtles, awesome knits, soft ribs, or something waterproof (always a necessity) check out SewBaby.com.

It's GREEN to shop online ~ saves time, gas, wear and tear on the car (and you!) and more importantly gives you more time in your design studio.

And who doesn't need more time these days?

Quilting & National Parks

How delightful to see that two of the national parks here in the US offer quilters unique souvenirs - vintage postcard quilt kits.

Above see the 4-postcard quilt kit (add your own borders, batting & backing) we picked up in the gift shop at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on Monday. The kit included four 4x6 inch cotton fabric imprinted with vintage postcard prints already mounted on applique media, directions for using the appliques, a pattern for making a nine-patch quilted wall hanging.

The company behind this venture is  Olde America Antiques. They'll have booths 211, 213 & 215 at the 2010 International Quilt Market held in Houston, Texas 30 Oct thru 1 Nov. (That certainly sounds impressive!) I surely hope some Genea-Quilters get to attend. The rest of us will have to settle for this company's wonderful website.

 We also picked up a smaller postcard kit from the same company while visiting Zion's National Park on Sunday.

Although Olde America  Antiques doesn't have postcard quilt kit designs for each of the national parks, their collection of vintage seasonal, patriotic, children, art nouveau and gardening graphics is impressive. You'll surely find something inspiring.

Why limit the appliques to a wall hanging or carrying bag? How about embellishing a jeans jacket, adding lace, ricrac and trinkets?

OLDE AMERICA ANTIQUES
512 S. 12th Ave.
Bozeman, Montana 59715
USA
(+1) 406-587-0937
NOTE: the contact page on the OAA website is here.

VIDEO: How to Tie a Quilt

Sometimes you need to whip up a thick, warm comforter.  Learning to tie a quilt is useful when using a high loft batting ~ much too thick for hand or machine quilting. Check out this video with CTQuilting's Karen Johnson demonstrating great ideas for getting the job done.

ModaBakeShop.com

Check out ModaBakeShop.com "a division of Moda Fabrics that provides online recipes which you can use with the wide range of Moda Pre-cuts."

What got me immediately was WHY NOT ADD ANCESTOR PHOTOS for one square in each of the color groups on the 14 X 30 inch City Windows "recipe" featured on the home page today?

The fabric manufacturers aren't dumb. They know that pre-cuts made it easy for quilters to purchase an array of mix and match fabrics without having to run all over the quilt shop (unless you want to!)

This website is a brilliant extension of their marketing techniques -- and BOY DO WE BENEFIT. We can have our 'scrap bag' and quilt it too, with the simple-to-follow, step-by-step patterns at this website.


Love those 'Jelly Rolls'!

Deseret News: Grandma makes genealogy quilt

Thanks to Annaleise Taylor Dearinger who submitted this link via Facebook:

Grandma Makes Genealogy Quilts
By Carma Wadley, Deseret News

and in my searching on that newspaper's website, I discovered:

Stitching quilts & friendship

Harvard University historian to speak about 1857 pioneer quilt

So apparently the craft of quilting is still making news.

AWESOME!

EASY Dresden Plate how-to video

GOSH, I was just scouring the web, and found this MUCH easier way to create a Dresden Plate design. I had previously used the "freezer paper" method. a GREAT big THANKS to the Missouri Quilt Company.







This is so simple, I think it would be worthwhile to make one up and put it on a fabric carry-all as a gift for one of my daughters for Christmas.

Christine weighs in with her Jan 2011 color choices

Via Facebook from Christine Sharbrough.

The second of our Genea-Quilters has provided a pic of the color choices for the January 2011 wall hanging, part of the 2011 Monthly Wall Quilt Project Challenge.

Don't you think the fuschia is a great mix with the dark blue background? AWESOME choices, Chris!

See also: My colors ~ January 2011 wall hanging.

Who else has chosen their colors?

It's not to late to get in on this monthly wall hanging challenge!

Portable Design Wall Instructions

Did you know our friends over at Bella Online have a quilting department? While browsing tonight, I discovered a nifty set of directions for making a portable "design wall" from Bella's Quilting Editor Judie Bellingham. This is a perfect idea for those of us working the 2011 Monthly Wall Quilt Project. Several of us have been attempting different color options than specified in the original pattern.

Having a design wall requires a fuzzy fabric covering so the pieces we lay out to look at from different angles can be switched around to arrive at a pleasing design before stitching.

So head on over to Bella, and see what Judie has concocted!
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4336.asp

Dutch Doors & Crazy Quilts

From WikiPedia we read:

"The term "crazy quilting" is often used to refer to the textile art of crazy patchwork and is sometimes used interchangeably with that term. Crazy quilting does not actually refer to a specific kind of quilting (the needlework which binds two or more layers of fabric together), but a specific kind of patchwork. Crazy quilts rarely have the internal layer of batting that is part of what defines quilting as a textile technique."

Dutch Door - used with permission.

While I didn't inherit a crazy quilt, I remember visiting the elderly lady who lived next door to us on Perkins Lane in Seattle circa 1954. She had a crazy quilt of brilliant satins and black velvet draped across the baby grand piano in her living room. I remember all sorts of fancy hand embroidery stitches holding the pieces together. It was like nothing I'd ever seen.

Just going to visit this woman was a treat. She had a "Dutch Door" which simply fascinated me, particularly since my parents espoused an affection for the mid-century modern. I'd never seen such a door, and initially thought it was broken.



She also had a full-sized harp, and lampshades with all sorts of tassels and trims hanging down. I wasn't more than 5 years old, because we moved over to a home on Lake Washington by 1st grade. But my recollections of our neighbor's wildly colorful, crazy patched quilt still stick with me.

(I was always afraid that harp would fall over on me!)

Rag Quilt Video

With the cooler weather coming on, you might be interested in making a quick and easy "rag quilt".

As I was searching the web (for comic relief as I'm currently tending 4 grandchildren for 2 nights!) I came across this great video on YouTube - Rag Quilt Video from Beverly's. You can also download the written directions. I prefer to do my rag quilts in long strips, but these directions are fine.

My colors ~ January 2011 wall hanging

OK, so I thought if I've just set-up the 2011 Monthly Wall Quilt Project Challenge, the least I could do is get started on January 2011's entry, so that I can take it easy in December with all the planned holiday events. I thought about purchasing the fabric combination suggested, but ended up using these scraps from my sewing room. (Imagine that!)

These colors reflect my preference for various shades of aquamarine. I think the light background is much like the air on a snowy day.

So far, six of us have committed to the 2011 wall hanging challenge. 

I'm wondering what colors you've chosen. Drop me a line, or upload a pic of your color swatches to our Genea-Quilters Facebook page.

 

 

 

2011 Monthly Wall Quilt Project Challenge

Whilst on our 1st Semi-Annual Genea-Quilters Field Trip to Mamaw's Thimble & Quilt Shop last month in Knoxville, Tennessee, I picked up this kewl pattern booklet and full-size patterns ~  Kim Schaefer's Calendar Quilts: 12 Months of Fun, Fusible Projects. I am not usually into fusible quilt projects, but see this as a way to make 12 wall hangings to brighten a corner of my kitchen dining area.

HERE'S THE CHALLENGE:

1. Order your own set of the pattern. (It is a little over $12 at Amazon today.)

2.  Create each monthly wall hanging by the 1st of the month in question. (January's needs to be completed 1 January).

3. Submit  a pic of you with each month's completed project to me so it can be added to our Calendar Quilts Hall of Fame that will appear in this blog.

4. Have fun!

What say ye, fellow Genea-Quilters?

This may be the first time I'll actually complete a quilt project and keep it! (I am prone to giving each quilt away!).

Bookshelf: A People & Their Quilts

One of the Federation of Genealogical Society 2010 Conference evening events was a trip to the Museum of Appalachia for some down home cooking and delightful music. We strolled through the collection of old log cabins (purchased and moved there by curator and historian John Rice Irwin). We felt like we were getting closer to an  understanding of a bit of the Tennessee history. We chose to walk throughout the park, as the music was carried by the summer breeze to the blacksmith shop, and various display barns on the museum grounds.

During our tour we discovered this woman demonstrating hand quilting, until the light grew to dim to continue. She sat just outside a small log cabin, where she had draped some smaller quilts on the porch rail.

On our arrival at the Museum shop, I had occasion to meet Mr. Irwin, and I picked up his book A People and Their Quilts. More than a book about quilt patterns, it is about the people who made the quilts. John visited with quilters in far away spots throughout Appalachia, and tells the story of their lives and how quilts figure in. I spent every spare moment reading about the quilters in John's book, during the week that followed FGS.

John writes "When a person admires the beauty, art, and workmanship of a quilt he surely wonders about its background, the people who made it and the location and type of home from which it came. Yet it is often impossible to learn anything about the history of old quilts."

Perhaps that is the lure -- the reason we love old quilts.

Even those who don't quilt can clearly see the tiny hand stitching, and marvel at the patterns and designs.

Quilt in a Day

One of the most influential quilters in my life is Eleanor Burns who invented the "Quilt in a Day" process. Since I was a young mother, with little extra time for sewing, Eleanor's shortcuts inspired me to quickly assemble my first log cabin quilt, in the days before we had rotary cutters. (I am STILL hand quilting it though, but I digress!)

El' offers a free pattern for a nifty and cute APPLE A DAY bag, a green alternative for shopping quilters. This is something our friends in California will need if the initiative to outlaw plastic bags is passed.

With Halloween coming up next month, perhaps you'd like Eleanor's Pumpkin Grins pattern. Diane Giannini (who won those two Halloween patterned fabrics at the 1st Semi-Annual Genea-Quilters Raffle at Knoxville last month) might make note! Just what you need, Diane, another quilt project, eh?  LOL!

I've got Eleanor's large Flying Geese ruler, but have yet to use it. Looking for the right fabric I guess.




Eleanor's even got her own Facebook page. Check it out!