“Cat-I-Tude” is the name of the fabric line by Ann Lauer for Benartex that Sherri used to make this quilt. (There is also a similar line for dog lovers called “Dog On It”). The cat blocks are a panel, Sherri cut them apart and put them into a chain setting with star blocks. Isn’t it great how the black background makes the colours pop? It was quilted with paw prints, the name of the pantograph is “Puppy Paws” but they sure look like “Kitty Paws” to me 😉
Lyn made this quilt using Tula Pink’s “Modern Blocks” and the Skyline Layout. She wanted to leave the sashing between the block rows unquilted, and I stitched in the ditch along the seams to secure them in place. I put the quilt sideways on the frame and then used the “Champagne Bubbles” panto to fill the rows. To me it looks like gases bubbling up in test tubes, but that might be my pharmacy background speaking.
Lyn made this cute quilt for her granddaughter, using a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. She asked for custom quilting, and with all this negative space to fill it was a longarm quilter’s dream! I quilted it using a technique I learned from Angela Walters. She recommends picking four or five different background filler designs and then just start quilting them, alternating them as needed, quilting whichever one you feel like at the moment. This creates interesting texture and keeps me from overthinking. I usually pick pebbles as one of my designs because they make it easy to fill smaller spaces and allow me to travel wherever I need to go. I think you can tell how much fun I had with this project!
Another year, another Row Along! Thank you so much, Marian of Seams To Be Sew, for all the work you put into this, it is very much appreciated. This year’s theme is “Seaside Adventure”, and I just signed up again to design a row. This time I don’t have a design in my head yet, just fragments and ideas. So many things I could do with this, I am very much looking forward to this one. Ah, the possibilities! This is just a post to let you know what is coming. If you want to join the blog hop and download the free patterns in September, then there is nothing you need to do right now, there is no sign up required. But maybe you feel inspired by the theme to come up with your own design? You don’t have to be a professional pattern designer to join the Row Along but in this case you have to let Marian know you would like to participate. More information can be found here on her website.
If this quilt looks familiar to you and you are wondering if I posted these pictures before, you are not entirely mistaken. Last year I posted pictures of Cynthia’s version, and a few months later, her friend Lisa had her version of the top ready to quilt. Both ladies love stitching by hand, and they often choose the same patterns and work on them together. For quilting, I went with the basic plan I used for the first version but changed a few things for Lisa’s quilt. A huge amount of work went into this quilt, and I feel honoured that both ladies asked me to quilt their masterpieces.
I am sure you all sometimes wonder where all those scraps are coming from that keep piling up in our drawers, bins and boxes. In an attempt to conquer hers, Patricia took her bright batik leftovers and created this stunning quilt. The black background fabric was the perfect choice, don’t you love how it makes the colours pop? Inspired by the leaf and vine designs of many of the batik fabrics I quilted it with a “Tropical Leaves” panto.
Donna used a panel to make this elephant quilt as a gift. The colours and the elephants made me think of Africa and the setting sun, and we chose a pantograph called “Sun Scallops” for her quilt. Isn’t it just perfect? I love how the curved echo around the spikes creates the illusion of clouds, a very clever design.
This gorgeous quilt called “Blooms” is a design by Jason Yenter of In The Beginning and was made by Debra. These are the original fabrics for the quilt, and I thought at first they were batiks but they turned out to be digital prints. Debra asked for custom quilting. While the white background seemed to ask for swirls and pebbles, any ambitious quilting would have been lost in the colourful strippy parts, and we went with a Tropical Leaves panto for these areas instead. This is such a beautiful quilt, and I am quite happy with the way it turned out.
Welcome to February! Isn’t it nice how much more light there is in a day already? After the winter solstice it takes a little while before it is noticeable but by now I have been commenting on it at least every other day. I have stocked up on vegetable seeds, and I am eager to go. I will try to grow everything from seeds this year. If my attempts fail, I can always buy seedlings later. A very long time ago, maybe 25 years or so, I grew hot peppers on my balcony back in Germany. I started the seeds in a little windowsill greenhouse and then transplanted the seedlings later on. I had a huge success rate and a great harvest during the two years I did it, I produced many jars of hot sauce back then. It was a lot of fun, and since the pandemic will be around for quite a while longer, this will give me something productive to do (other than quilting, of course).
On to this month’s block: The dancing monkey was a lucky accident. I was manipulating the basic monkey body shape, trying to do something entirely different, and suddenly I thought, hey, that looks like the monkey is dancing! And with one arm overlapping the rest of the body piece, meaning I had to cut it as two separate pieces, I needed something to cover up the part where the two pieces meet. So I added a lei and declared the monkey a hula dancer. And yes, I know that hula dancers can be both male and female, and while I have never really thought about my penguins as male or female, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have an explicitly female monkey and added the little bow that picks up the lei colours. Some of the later blocks could actually be monkey children, so this year’s BOM will have the whole family pictured on their summer vacation. As always, the pattern will be available for free until the end of the month and move to the store section when the March block is published.
EDIT: February is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. If you just need the finishing instructions, they are still available for free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
Wer nur die Anleitung zur Fertigstellung sucht, kann diese nun auch auf Deutsch kostenlos herunterladen.
And here we have another Rail Fence quilt, made by a different Mary. Sometimes it is funny how these end up in my queue next to each other. This one was made from cozy flannels and is a gift for Mary’s grandson. The pantograph is called “Overlapping Crop Circles”, and I love how it creates movement across the quilt.
