Herb Garden Quilt

Draped over the scuppernong vine arbor

I made this quilt top last year, and at the time was not sure that I liked it and had no idea how I would quilt it, so I put it away in the closet and forgot about it.

Herb Garden Container 

Then this spring my husband build me an herb garden container using an idea from pinterest - Stacked Herb Garden by the Taste of Oregon. I normally grow my herbs at the front of our house in a little area, but he wanted me to be-able to enjoy the view of the herb garden from my kitchen window and when we sit outside. He went one step further and made it with 4 tiers instead of 3 and used decking composite lumber so that it will last us many years. It has a footprint of 4 x 4 feet, with 13 planting areas and is 24 inches tall.

Herb Garden Quilt Front 62" x 82"

That got me to thinking about this quilt top and that the fabric is Kona cotton in Tarragon - an HERB!

So I dug through my marinating box of misfit quilt tops and blocks and found it. Also with my recent adoption of a Voyager 17 long arm quilt machine and frame I knew this was going to the first quilt I would quilt on it!! (I will post soon about my new machine :)

Herb Garden Quilt Back

The fabrics are 'Origins' by Basic Grey and Kona Cotton in Tarragon, quilting thread cotton in the color Kiwi 50wt from Connecting Threads (which is a perfect match to the Kona Tarragon).

Herb Garden Quilt Close Up

I quilted it using a free-motion loopy pattern not sure what it's called. My quilting is not perfect by any means but I really love the look of the quilting because it looks like little buds sprouting all over the quilt.

The pattern is from the book Simply Charming Collection by Moose on the Porch Quilts (I think I picked up the book at JoAnn's with a coupon) the pattern is called 'Charming Old Maid'.

Which I think is the quilt block called 'Old Maids Puzzle' or a variation of. It is a basic HST block and when 4 are sewn together it creates a secondary pattern. This was an easy quilt as you are making 2 HST blocks at once and then cutting them apart just like the Quilted Valkyrie does here.

Herb Garden

Our herb garden is full of delicious herbs and a few little flowers and the solar lights are so pretty at night. BUT- don't look to close at the weeds as I am to busy having fun quilting to have noticed ;)

Sharing the Mug Rug Love...

Erin at 'Two More Seconds' is hosting 10 days of mug rug madness. Now I have known about mug rugs but never made any, well Erin got me excited about these cute little quilts. Also a friend's birthday was coming up and she loves turtles, sooooo ta da.......

Two little turtles

I used Moda Spirit by Lila Tueller that I had in my stash.

Machine pieced, raw edge appliqued and quilted all in one afternoon.

I drafted the shape of a sea turtle and then re-traced the individual shapes, as in the head, body, two arms and legs - are they called arms and legs or flippers?  anyhoo...   onto card stock to use as templates.

I fused the fabic for the turtle shapes with paper backed fusible web and traced all the pieces, cut them out and then removed the paper and fused onto a strip pieced base rectangle of 9" by 6.5"

Freemotion outline stitching on all the turtle shapes and then made the quilt sandwich (you know layer the backing, batting with top and pin) and freemotion quilted the background.  Trimed to 8.5" x 6" and rounded the corners, then added bias binding.

They were quick easy and fun to make!!

(blurry pics from my cell phone)

Now, I kinda like the idea of mug rugs!

Even in the heat of summer you can have some quilty goodness with you where ever you go!

Watermelon Shoefly Quilt Pieced

The top is pieced and ready to go. It is really a quick and easy quilt. But after this I will have had my watermelon fix for the summer. I used all fat quarters and even for the background in the shoefly blocks to give it a scrapy look but used a black with white polka dot for the sashing to tie it all together.

Now I am pinning and pinning it so the the next step up is quilting. I use to do this on the floor but my knees can not handle it anymore so I put it on a large table and worked from the center out. Not to sure what type of quilting, line or free motion quilting. So hopefuly this weekend I will get it quilted and the binding on.

Watermelon Shoefly Update

Went by JoAnn's on my way home from work and picked up a stack of fat quarters to start the Watermelon Shoefly quilt. I started cutting for the shoefly blocks and did some piecing, but at this point I need to get some sleep. I will post pics tomorrow when I get home from work and can show some of these cute little blocks.

Next Project: Watermelon & Shoefly Quilt

I am thinking about a quilt from May/June 2010 issue of Fons and Porter: Love of Quilting. The quilt is called Watermelon and Shoe Fly.

This is the picture in the magazine. It is 42" x 56" and done in flannels, I on the other hand would like to use cotton prints. It is a small throw size which is perfect for summer when it's realy to hot to be under a quilt but a great accent on the couch.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy is hosting the third blogger's quilt festival

Please go check it out, lots and lots of eye candy in the flicker group pool.

Braid Placemats Part: One

Well it all started with this disscusion at Block central on a strip pieced table runner. I found a pattern at Quilters Cache

It's so pretty and I thought that it would make great placemats.

I went to a quilt shop and picked up these 3 charm packs. I ended up with a lot of pretty 5 inch squares and in a lot of colors.

I figured that I could get 2 strips out of each square and save the scraps for other fun projects. My strips are 2 inches wide.

Here are a few of the strips before sewing.

After I sewed the strips together in the length I wanted I then took it to the rotary cutter.....

Trimming the ends first. I lined up the seams with the 45* mark on my ruler and cut away.

This is one trimmed end.

After trimming the ends, I then trimmed the top and bottom.

This is one braid that is 16" long by 5.5 " wide. I am going to use two per placemat.

A good tip; after trimming the ends save the scraps to start you next braid.

To be continued..................................

In the mean time check this out:
Check out Bonnie Hunter's cool braid ideas.

Here's another tutorial.
For anyone with EQ5 check out this great tutorial from Patti Anderson. I took a class with her once and she is a wonderful teacher.

Block Central's BOM 2008 Block 1

There she is! The first block was great, I really doubted myself on the colors, but they are playing together very nicely. The new Feb. block is up: http://blockcentral.com/bom2008-2.shtml

You really should try this it's great fun and everyone at the Block Central Forum is wonderful! At one block a month - Who Couldn't Do This!!!!

Block Central's BOM 2008

If your a quilting fool like me, you have to see the new Block Central's BOM . I have gathered my stash and here's what I am going to start with :
Focus fabric: These are the pretty players:Here is a test in EQ5:

I am not one to follow the rules, and you can see my colors and fabric styles are very different than the original.

Soon I will have my pants finished from the chocolate brown roma ponte and will post my adventure with the pants pattern.

Quilt Star Motif

I was asked about the quilting I used in the baby quilt. You can click on picture to get a closer look.


Well, for starters I used the same quilting as in the pattern 'Tennessee Waltz' for all but the snowball blocks. Inside the snowball blocks I used a simple star, made into a continuous line. You can see here my crude cardboard template, I scanned it to show. (you can save this, re-size and print it out, if you would like to use it).



You can easily create quilt motifs out of any simple shape. And with time, patience and practice even some complicated designs.

Babies and the Tennessee Waltz

Well, here it is.
This is the baby quilt made for a special friend. I used the pattern called Tennessee Waltz. It turned out wonderful, although this is not the first time I have used this pattern, but in these bright colors it was wonderful!! Quick easy pattern designed for beginner to intermediate quilters. The use of the snowball blocks makes this a very interesting quilt.

I used all cotton fabrics, batting, and threads.
I had a heck of a time deciding what to quilt in the snowball blocks. I ended up just mimicking the stars using a primary variegated quilting thread, which turned out great.

The backing is a cute flannel with stars and dots. I can't wait to
see pictures of the baby crawing across the quilt.