Made by: Carla C.
Isn’t this just a fantastic quilt? I was thrilled when Carla asked me to custom quilt it. There was so much negative space to fill. I had the idea of using shadow circles to complement the pieced design right away, but it took some time to figure out how to make it work. This is one of my favourite quilts ever, and I am so happy with how it turned out.
Thread: Glide 10000 White
Made by: Lyn R.
Pantograph: Squiggle Wiggle by Christy Dillon
Thread: Glide 17543 Light Grey
There is a tiny bit of custom quilting here, Nate’s name has been quilted into one of the upper corners of the quilt which is mostly visible from the back.
I am still catching up on pattern writing, and here is a design I came up with in 2022. You might remember my Happy Hippo Hop quilt—the original was made for a friend who is a square dance caller and was expecting her first baby. It was inspired by the song I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, which she loved to sing during dances in December.
But her true love are Holstein cows. She has a huge collection of stuffed cows and cow-themed items, and for her birthday, the hall is usually decorated with cows while everyone wears black and white. So after her son was born, I said to my husband, If Heather ever has another child, I am going to make her a Holstein cow quilt.
In the summer of 2022, she announced that she was expecting again… and guess what? She was expecting twins! The Holstein cow theme was actually perfect for twins—black and white pair well with any colour. I ended up making two quilts for her and one for myself as a pattern sample, each with different feature colours. Her twins, a boy and a girl, received the turquoise and orange quilts, while I kept the purple one as my sample.
When I thought about a matching pillow, I could not decide whether I liked the full cow block or the smiling cow face with the daisy better. So, I ended up with two different pillow designs—and I love them both!
All three patterns are now available for purchase in the pattern store! I have created a discount code—enter MOO20 at checkout to receive 20% off. The code is valid until February 21, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PST and applies exclusively to The Moo Crew quilt, the A Whole Lotta Moo pillow, and the Blossom Belle pillow patterns.
Diese Anleitungen sind auf Deutsch nicht verfügbar, und auch zukünftige Anleitungen – einschließlich des Safari BOM – wird es nicht mehr auf Deutsch geben. Bisher habe ich zumindest für kleinere Projekte noch deutsche Anleitungen mit metrischen Maßen geschrieben, aber mit der Schließung von Makerist zum 1. April fällt mein Hauptvertriebsweg weg, und der Aufwand lohnt sich für mich nicht mehr.
If you would like all three patterns, I have also created a discounted bundle, which will be available until further notice.
The two pillows are also available as a bundle with a discounted price until further notice.
While I usually sew my own designs, occasionally a pattern speaks to me, and I just have to have it. I have always admired McKenna Ryan’s beautiful and intricate designs but never ventured to make one of her quilts. About ten years ago, I came across a kit for a wall hanging from her And On That Farm quilt. This block, titled She Had Some Chicks, immediately caught my attention. Being a cat lover, I thought the design was absolutely adorable. So I bought the kit, and into a drawer it went.
I finally decided to make it last year, and the process was surprisingly frustrating. The kit, unfortunately, was not complete. It was missing all of the red fabrics and a few others, and one of the background fabrics was the wrong colour. Since this kit was supposed to include the original fabrics McKenna Ryan designed for the quilt, I found it a bit disappointing. However, this was not the designer’s fault, and luckily, I had enough batik scraps to find suitable replacements, and I bought a new background fabric that I thought matched quite well.
I knew, of course, that McKenna Ryan’s designs involve a lot of small pieces. You all know I love doing machine appliqué, but it turns out my designs do not have pieces that small after all. McKenna’s patterns include some incredibly tiny pieces that can only be handled and placed with tweezers. Thankfully, I have a Brother ScanNCut, so I didn’t need to worry about precisely cutting all those tiny curves. However, since I have never used the Brother for scanning—my own designs are converted into a file format the machine accepts—I discovered its scanning capabilities are rather limited. It recognized maybe half of the pieces, and I had to manually edit the rest. Still, I would much rather edit them on the computer than attempt to cut them out by hand.
I ran into another hiccup when I realized I had not thought things through properly. I should have reversed the pattern templates to match the way I cut my pieces with the Brother ScanNCut. As a result, my quilt ended up being a mirror image of the original design. There are worse things, though, so I didn’t overthink it. I simply flipped the placement guide and carried on.
Placing all those tiny pieces was a nightmare, and I absolutely hated it. I was so relieved when I finally finished. When I purchased the background batik, I had also chosen a backing fabric, so I quilted it right away. I started with some stitch-in-the-ditch around the borders, outlined the main design, filled the background with a swirly pattern and added a different swirl to the outer border. The rest of the quilting secured the appliqué with free-motion stitching along the edges of the pieces. It required many thread colour changes, but that is my favourite way to appliqué small, curvy pieces and, I believe, also the method McKenna Ryan recommends for quilting her designs.
I was contemplating giving the finished wall hanging away because I did not want to be reminded of how much I hated assembling it. But this was last summer, and it took me until December to actually do the binding. By now, the memory has faded, and I am quite happy with the result. I will probably keep it after all and even put it up on the wall once I find the right spot. That experience, though, has made it unlikely that I will try another of McKenna Ryan’s designs anytime soon.
Made by: Darlene T.
Custom Quilted – Quilt Pattern by Lorna Shapiro
Darlene requested her quilt to be quilted in a style similar to Lorna’s sample, featuring parallel lines arranged randomly across the surface. To achieve this, I noted down several spacing options and used an online random number generator to produce a truly unpredictable pattern. Overkill? Perhaps… but since my mind naturally gravitates towards symmetry, this method felt like the best way to ensure a genuinely random distribution.
Thread: Glide 10401 German Granite
In the middle of the Monkey Business BOM in 2021, someone left a comment on one of my posts, hoping for a cheeky monkey jumping on the bed. At the time, I was not familiar with the nursery rhyme and had no idea what they meant. Of course, that was not the motif for any of the blocks, as my BOM designs are always completed before I begin promoting them. However, their suggestion intrigued me, so I looked it up. The idea stuck with me, and I eventually created a quilt and matching pillow inspired by it. Both were finished quite a while ago, but I only found time to write the pattern this past summer. The monkeys can be boy or girl monkeys—or a mix—depending on your preferences. Customizing them is as simple as adding or leaving off a bow. Aren’t they adorable, having so much fun jumping on the bed? We will just imagine no one ever falls off or bumps their head!
When someone inspires me to create a specific quilt and write a pattern for it, I like to thank them by sending the pattern for free. Of course, there is no obligation to ever make the quilt. The Little Monkey projects were inspired by a comment left by Stacey B. in August 2021. I sent both patterns to the email address associated with the comment a few months ago, but I never heard back. It is possible the email address is no longer in use. Stacey, if you are reading this and have not received the patterns, please get in touch, and I will be happy to send them again.
Both patterns are now available for purchase in the pattern store. I have created a discount code: enter JUMPING at checkout to receive 20% off. The code is valid until January 17, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. PST and applies exclusively to the Five Little Monkeys quilt and the One Little Monkey Pillow patterns.
Die Anleitung für den Five Little Monkeys Quilt ist auf deutsch nicht verfügbar. Für die deutsche Version des Kissens mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
If you would like both patterns, I have also created a discounted bundle, which will be available until further notice.
When I visited Germany to see my mom this past summer, I took eight little preemiequilts across the Atlantic with me. I had completely forgotten about them until I came across the pictures a few days ago. I still make them using the same basic approach: selecting a suitable feature fabric for the outer border and back, then adding squares from my leftovers until the top is complete. They are quick and fun to make, and I am happy to continue supporting this project even from a continent away.
The complete pattern for the HedgeHUGS quilt, which was last year’s Block of the Month, is now available. I finished this quilt some time ago, and it was showcased at the 2023 Chilliwack Quilt Show. Although I had not taken proper photos or compiled the pages until now, I am pleased to announce that it is finally complete.
For all twelve blocks, I used the same background pattern: a pantograph called Fall Leaves by My Creative Stitches, resized to about 4 inches to serve as a background filler. The sashing design, Swirling Suzie, also by My Creative Stitches, features a simple leaf motif that complements the sashing and border fabrics, which are already quite busy and did not require elaborate quilting. Since there was no matching corner pattern for this sashing, I selected Simple Leaves Block #3 by Jessica Schick for the corners. The outer border pattern is Fall Foliage by Patricia Ritter.
If you missed most or all of the blocks last year, you can now purchase the complete pattern, which includes all twelve blocks and finishing instructions. Use the code HUGS20 at checkout to receive an additional 20% discount. This offer is valid until November 22, 2024, at 11:59 PM PST.
Für die deutsche Version mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
So where do we go from here? You might have noticed that I didn’t announce anything for 2024 after finishing the HedgeHUGS BOM. And that’s because I need a break. Even though I pretty much stopped posting and abandoned some social media platforms, it feels like I didn’t get anything done this year. I have pattern samples finished that have been lying around for almost a year and a half with no time to actually write and publish the pattern. And let’s not even talk about the long list of half-finished designs and design ideas. Longarm quilting is still my main business and eats up most of my time but I also have quite a few medical appointments and am involved in the two local guilds. And I did quite a lot of traveling which of course I don’t want to give up either.
I have also not come up with “the” idea for a new BOM. I have played around with several ideas but I found nothing really satisfactory. So here is where you come in. I would like to start another project later in 2024 but I haven’t been hit by inspiration so far with anything that might work as a block of the month. What would you like to see? Leave a comment, and maybe inspiration will hit me.
So instead I will show you a few of the things that kept me busy this fall. I did the registration for the quilt show again and organized the quilt intake and return which is a huge, very time-consuming task. But I love a good spreadsheet and well organized events, and I had a lot of fun doing it. The guild had not enough people for setting up the frames, so this year the quilts were displayed in the sanctuary of the church where we hold the shows.
I usually don’t participate in the show challenge (if the day just had more hours!!). But this year inspiration suddenly hit me in late September, and I whipped up an entry in a few days. The theme was a “song with a colour”, and I suddenly had this vision of “Red Roses for a Blue Lady”, and it turned out pretty much the way I saw it in my head.
Two guilds means two Christmas parties with lots of activities. At the Chilliwack Quilters Guild we played Bingo with fabric cards, and the blocks were collected afterwards and will be turned into donation quilts.
We also made a bobbin blossom brooch which is a very quick project, especially when you use a magnet instead of a pin. It looks really nice and is easy to do although the instructions looked quite intimidating at first.
And then we played the “Left, Right, Centre” game. Everyone starts out with three Jelly Roll strips, and the one who ends up with the last strip(s) when all the others have been placed in the centre wins the whole pile. Only that this year the winners of each table played a final round against each other with the winner taking all the strips. Well, guess who the (reluctant) lucky winner was… yes, I went home with about 120 strips of fabric. There is a huge variety of patterns and themes, and nothing is coordinated. I folded them, and they found a home in my big Fisherman’s Friend tin, and I have decided I will make (probably three, depending on how many strips there actually are) Jelly Roll Race quilts and donate them back to the guild’s We Care program.
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The Chilliwack Piecemakers Christmas Party was even more hilarious (you would have loved it, Joanne). We played some games, had lots of door prizes, and the President made all executive members sing a quilty version of “Twelve Days of Christmas”. I was lucky (and maybe everyone else too because I can’t sing very well publicly) and managed to get the twelfth verse that I only had to sing once.
We also made Healing Heart blocks for a member going through some rough times, and a nice collection was gifted to her as a “fabric hug”.
And then my husband needed a new Dinkelmaus (the German version of a bean bag, if you want to know more or download the free pattern, check here). His was wearing thin after about 15 years, and he would leave kernels of spelt all over the house. Since they make such great gifts and don’t take long to sew, I made a whole collection and gave them away to my quilty friends.
Last but not least I spent almost all of November on my Christmas Cards, they were all finished in time and mailed out in early December.
I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday season, take some time to slow down and relax and enjoy your friends and family. See you all in 2024!
I was so busy in January that I didn’t even have time to take a few detail pictures of the Hunny Bunnies blocks in the finished quilt. I published the full pattern on January 1st together with the last block and the bundles but I never got around to actually announce it here. So here we go, the complete pattern with all twelve blocks and finishing instructions is now available both in English/Imperial and German/Metric. I only added a crosshatch for the background of the blocks, I thought the background fabric provided enough texture. The sashing fabric was super busy, and the quilting doesn’t show much but I went with some spiral pattern that looks a bit like a stylized rose (at least if you have my imagination). For the outer border I used a pantograph design called “Let It Bloom!”. I finished the quilt a long time ago and it was actually displayed at the quilt show last October.
For those of you who missed most or all of the blocks last year, this is your chance, and if you enter HUNNY20 during checkout you will get an additional 20% discount. The code will be valid until February 12, 2023 11.59 PM PST.
Für die deutsche Version mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem Kauflink unten für die englische Version folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung in der gewünschten Sprache.
