Another finished Block of the Month top from the Chilliwack Quilters Guild found its way to me, this one was made by Janet. Members were free to choose their colours which makes Janet’s quilt very different from Ellen’s. In fact, without knowing these two were part of the same group project I probably wouldn’t even have noticed. Janet has a pretty floral feature fabric, and we went with “Ginger Flower” as the quilting pattern.

This lovely quilt in blue and white was made by Janet. After stitching all the Dresden Plates by hand, she chose an unusual block for the outer borders. I am not sure if it has a name but I like the chain look it creates. The pantograph I used for this quilt is called “Paisley Curls”.

This is Mary’s version of the popular “Labyrinth Walk” quilt. I have quilted some before, and Mary looked at the pictures and liked the “Overlapping Crop Circles” as a quilting pattern for her project. It is my favourite for the Labyrinth quilt, all the corners and angles and straight lines need a curved design that brings some motion and texture, and the Crop Circles are perfect for that.

Another month, another monkey. Time sure flies even though we are not having as much fun as we would like to with the pandemic still going on. But vaccinations are underway, and we all have to hang in there just a little bit longer. With spring around the corner and warmer weather coming, it will hopefully get a bit easier. (My apologies if you are in the southern hemisphere, when I start rambling about the weather, I often forget that half the globe is in a different season.) Anyway, this month’s monkey is looking forward to dessert, he got hold of a nice cup of ice cream. Luckily he is also wearing a bib, the way he is swinging the cup around makes it quite likely that not all of it will end up in his mouth.

As always, the pattern for this block will be available for free download until the end of the month and then move over to the pattern store when April’s free pattern is published.

Click to download Monkey Business Block #3 pattern (English/Imperial)

I finished another scrappy donation quilt this month, using my favourite scrap pattern. I often custom quilt donation quilts as well, they are great practice objects but I didn’t have time to play around, so I used a pantograph instead that I have wanted to try for quite a while. It is called “Chiffon” and I have used it in a smaller version as a background filler but never in the default edge-to-edge size. That’s another really neat thing about scrap quilts, almost any quilting design will work. This one has already been donated to the guild, and I have started making another donation quilt, a great way to use up leftovers and do something useful.

Edit: Every time I post a picture of one of these, people start asking for the pattern in the comments. There isn’t a pattern that you can purchase. This is something that one of my German friends came up with years ago.  I’ll try to explain, maybe you can figure it out by just looking at the pictures. You alternate light and dark fabrics and always press the seams away from the light pieces. I put it together in rows, I find that easier than looking for blocks. The big squares are 4″ squares (including seam allowance, so 3 1/2″ finished size). The small squares are 2″ squares, the rectangles are 2″ x 4″. This means you can just start with 4″ squares and cut them into the smaller pieces (halves and quarters) as needed, without having to worry about seam allowances. They will fit together. You can actually do this with any size squares… if you start out with 5″ squares and cut them in half or quarters, you can put it all together without having to worry about the math.

This might sound a bit confusing but just take a few 4″ squares in light and dark values and give it a try. It’s super easy, and you can make the quilt as big or small as you want to.

Sonja made this pretty quilt using batiks and donated it to a silent auction. “Ground Cover” is actually the name of the pantograph that I used for this quilt, one of my favourite leaf patterns. The warm earth colours of the quilt remind me of a walk in the woods on a sunny autumn day.

“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.