Yes, I know that Halloween is over and Christmas is coming 🙂 But I am months behind in posting pictures, and I am not going to wait for October to come around again before showing this gorgeous quilt that I quilted in July. “Vintage Trick Or Treat” is a Crabapple Hill design, and this version was made by Maryanne. I was delighted to custom quilt it for her. I find Crabapple Hill quilts much more difficult to quilt than for example Judy Niemeyer designs. It feels much more natural to me to come up with designs for geometric shapes than trying to figure out what to do with the beautiful hand embroidery that only needs stabilizing but not really any quilting. If you are wondering about the border, the quilt is supposed to have scalloped edges which will be cut after quilting. Maryanne had already marked where she was planning to cut, and after stitching the piano keys, I stitched around outside her markings to make sure the threads were secure after trimming. This quilt is truly a labour of love!
And here we go: It’s December, and this is the last block of my Penguin Promenade BOM 2020. This last little guy is going down the mountain on his snowboard. I went with the brown fabrics that I used for the sled but you can use your imagination and give him all kinds of crazy board colours. Dig into your scrap bins! I hope you had as much fun with this project as I did. Remember that I will email you the finishing instructions if you send me pictures of your finished blocks until the end of March 2021. My email address can be found on the first page of every pattern. (Edit: As announced earlier, the finishing instructions will be available for purchase in January for those who can’t meet the March deadline.) (Edit 2: You can send me your pictures anytime, and you will receive a confirmation email. The finishing instructions will be mailed out in January when they are published.) As for the new BOM, it’s coming along nicely, and I am almost ready to announce it but not quite yet. Stay tuned, it shouldn’t be long. I am also quite confident that I will be able to publish the first block in January. Probably on the first of the month, as usual, or if I need a bit more time, I’ll switch it to mid-month and publish all blocks on the 15th. Either way, I will announce the details soon.
Don’t forget that the Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop also starts today. I am going to post on the last day which is Friday. Head on over to Carol’s blog Just Let Me Quilt to see the schedule and visit the participants’ sites for yummy recipes and lots of fun stuff. And please come back on Friday for my recipe (lots of chocolate!) and a giveaway.
The last Penguin block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store in January.
EDIT: The Penguin Promenade BOM is now finished. Any patterns you might have missed are available for purchase in the store section, including the last block #9. I have also created another pattern bundle at a discount price. The finishing instructions are available separately for those who are not going to make the deadline for sending in pictures of their finished penguin blocks. And of course the pattern for the whole quilt is also available for purchase as of now. Don’t forget to check out my new BOM for 2021 “Monkey Business” and download the free patterns every month.
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.
When Sharon’s son got married last year, she prepared some muslin, cut it into heart shapes, embroidered the couple’s names and the date of their wedding and had the wedding guests write their good wishes for the bride and groom on it. For their first wedding anniversary, she turned the wedding wishes into this colourful quilt. What a great gift and keepsake! The heart panto I used for quilting it is called “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”.
This stunning quilt was made by Chere. She meticulously pieced hundreds of tiny bow tie blocks and put them together to form a secondary pattern. Truly a labour of love! The pantograph she chose is called “Jessie’s Swirls Simplified”.
A while ago I mentioned our guild’s “Cynthia Challenge”, named after one of our members who had donated a lot of 2″ squares.Gail’s “Scrappy Chains”was the first project I quilted that was made from Cynthia’s squares. Naida was also up to the challenge, and this lovely quilt is her result. This is another great pattern to keep in mind for using up scraps. I especially love the scrappy border, it pulls it all together nicely. The pantograph I used is called “Ginger Flower”.
Nola made this cuddly quilt as a gift for a little space traveler. Maybe a future astronaut? The fabrics speak for themselves, and the quilt is rather busy, so not much quilting was needed. The pantograph with the loops and stars we chose is called “Starry Night”, and I have used it on quite a few space-themed quilts. I only make one small change. The original pattern has a moon with a face which looks cute on baby quilts but is not really suitable for older space enthusiasts. I just quilt a curve instead of the mouth and nose shapes and turn the moon into a plain crescent.
This colourful quilt was made by Sandra. Don’t you just love quilts with alternating blocks that create a secondary pattern? Sometimes you have to take a step back to be able to see it. I always enjoy when something unexpected shows up after all the blocks are put together. Sandra chose a leaf pattern for her quilt, this one is called “Wedding Vine”.
Ruth made this quilt that she calls “Bella” from a Jelly Roll. What a neat pattern to use up strips! She started it a couple of years ago, and pandemic restrictions finally gave her the time she needed to finish it earlier this year. The pantograph she chose for her project is called “Ginger Flower”.
Can you believe it’s November already, and we have only one block left until the Penguins are complete? 2020 is a very strange year. Sometimes time doesn’t seem to pass at all with all the Covid restrictions and no place to go, and then you turn around, and it’s been eight months and we are getting ready for Christmas. With next year looming in the not so distant future, you are probably wondering if there will be another block of the month next year. The answer is, I am working on something but I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I might or might not be able to publish the first block on January 1, stay tuned for further updates, I will announce the start date as soon as I can.
Back to our Penguins, this month’s block features a snowball fight. That was one of the first winter activities that came to mind but it turned out to be more difficult than I thought to come up with a fairly simple design for the block. So here we go, our snowball-throwing buddy is about to get hit in the face by an incoming snowball. The block is available for free download until the end of the month and will be moved to the pattern store in December when the final block is re
EDIT: November is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the 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.
In 2019, the Canadian Quilters Association started a sew along with the theme “52 blocks in 52 weeks”. They posted a 6″ block every week, and quilters from all over the world made them and shared pictures of their projects. Several of my local guild members joined the challenge as well, and this is Ellen’s version of the CQA Challenge Quilt. I love the bright colours she used to accent the blocks and how well the background fabrics pull the design together. Ellen chose “Wild Wind”, a basic swirly panto, for her project.
