I didn’t use a pattern because a churn dash is fairly simple.  Look at it as a nine patch grid.  Start in the center with the smallest block, and work your way out.  It was way fun to make, and in the event you’re planning a quick mystery quilt class for your friends, this would be an easy way to go, and everyone would leave with a finished top!  Let me know if you give it a whirl.

This quilt is being shipped to it’s forever home this afternoon.  It was a fun t-shirt quilt to make because it was full of orange!  If you aren’t from Texas, then you may not know (unless you’re a college football fan) that students from Texas A&M (Aggies) aren’t fans of   The University of Texas (Longhorns).  In fact, Aggies have made serious strides to eliminate orange, the school color for The University of Texas, from their lives.  Hence, the maroon carrot.   The distaste for all things orange was even represented in the town’s fabric stores.  Neither quilt shop carried orange fabric.  And this very town was where I spent my first seven years of my quilting life.  Now, any chance I get to sew on orange fabric, just makes me feel a little bit naughty because Aggies, like myself, just aren’t supposed to do things like that.

But if you know me, you know I can’t follow rules.

And truthfully, I love when people love their schools, no matter what school they attend.  And nothing makes me happier to have people love what I created for them.

This quilt is for some other treasured grandparents.  My husband’s grandparents live across the pond in England, and this is for them.  Grampy is a savvy fashion icon in the family.  He wears loudly colored suits and ties.  When Grandma tells him the colors don’t work well together, he tell her that they do in the garden.  So when I saw these fabrics, Amy Butler’s Soul Blossoms, I knew they had to go in a quilt for Grandma and Grampy in Enlgand, since Grampy loves all the colors of the garden, and because Grandma loves Grampy and all his colorful ways.

When I saw the book Free Form Quilts, I just knew I had to get started on a project.  And here it is.  This quilt was so fun to make.  The minute I finished, I wanted to make another.  And I will.

If you’re interested (and local to San Antonio) in making something like this, I’ll be teaching the class at Las Colchas on Saturday, April 21.  If you have a traditional background, I can’t tell you how liberating it is to make something like this (without a ruler!).  If you are new to sewing, it’s a great project because this project is more about design and letting go of precision.

This commission has been in the works forever!  My client wanted a quilt that was mauve and sage green, which aren’t my usual colors.  When I have a commission, I always want to put quilts out there that I love, and so that I can stand behind them knowing I did my best work.  When this quilt came along, I knew I had to find a way to make mauve and sage green work with my somewhat modern aesthetic.

I finally found fabric that I knew would work for this quilt–Garden Party by Blackbird Designs.  The fabric was a jellyroll and a piece of yardage, so I had to find a way to turn it into something queen size.  I chose the pattern called Basket Case, and then I built out my borders.  (Side note: Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew writes a great pattern— and I’m VERY critical since 75% of the patterns I read are so poorly written.)

But my favorite part of the quilt is the back.  Yes, definitely the back.

Now I have to figure out how to make a king size double wedding ring using the colors red, blue, green, and yellow work for me.  That’s going to be an even bigger challenge!  Suggestions welcome.

I pretty much followed the pattern, except that I elongated the quilt and added some larger squares for visual interest.  The pattern was hard to follow because my brain wanted to cut and piece the quilt differently than the author.  The design, though, I truly love.  This will definitely not be my last quilt of this design.  I have some Tula Pink Nest waiting to have this treatment, I think.  I loved this design from the minute I saw it on Pinterest.  By the way, are you all on Pinterest?  If you aren’t, we need to rectify that.

She opened an Etsy shop, so convo her if you have to have one.

My friend Jessi, also from our quilt guild, also opened an etsy shop.  She’s selling felted wool needle books that come with an embellishing kit so that you can bead it any way you want.  I love that idea!  Jessi thrifts for and felts her own wool.  I love my resourceful friends.

Seeing what my friends are making really makes me want to get in  my studio and make some stuff!

A couple months ago, I was at a longarm quilting club meeting at a LQS.  You’d think there would be about 5 of us there, right?  No.  More like about 25 or 30.  Anyway, someone was asking about stitching-in-the-ditch.  They asked one quilter if she always stitched in the ditch on custom work.

Let me back up.  You might need to know some quilting terms:

edge-to-edge:  one design throughout the whole quilt.  It can be free-handed, machine generated, or a pantograph.  Maybe it’s a heart motif being stitched all over quilt.  Whatever it is, it will be all over it, edge-to-edge.

Custom:  This is not edge-to-edge.  It kind of means each “section” of the quilt gets a different treatment.  The quilter/designer determines what a section is.  Maybe it means that every star on the quilt will have design A. And maybe it means all the background will have design B.  And then maybe borders will have design C.

So, anyway, someone was asking if the quilter if she always stitched in the ditch when doing custom work.  Her response was, “Yes, how else would you anchor the quilt?”

An epiphany for me.

I had no idea I was supposed to be doing that.  The quilter who asked the question didn’t know it.  Another longarm quilter who showed a sample of her work (no, I’ve never brought a sample of mine!!) clearly didn’t know this either.

You’d think that would be one of the first things I’d learn as a quilter, right?  So, the hardest part about longarming is building a community because it’s solitary work.  Learning the trade is hard when you work by yourself.  There is no book to teach the “rules” of how you’re supposed to do it.

So, all you newbies, stitch-in-the-ditch on your custom work (prior to doing the “real” quilting).  This is labor-intensive and adds several hours to each quilt, but the results are definitely worth it.

It’s no secret that I love thread.  All kinds of thread for all different machines and projects.

For sewing and piecing on your domestic machines, many of you probably use Guterman.  Not a bad thread until you try Metler Silk Finish, the thread I’ve been using for years.  It’s like going from RoseArt to Crayola– a little better, but the other will do in a pinch.  In fact, the other will be just fine if you haven’t tried the other.  I mean, thread is thread, and who wants to spend a fortune on thread?

But I recently bought a box of Aurifil since one of my clients talks so highly of it.  I wasn’t expecting a life changing experience.  It’s just thread, remember.  But Wow!  There’s no comparison.  It runs through the machine like butter. Or like silk.  Or like air.  Or like something that is smooth that goes through a machine.  In fact, it makes me tongue-tied and completely lost for words.

I love falling in love.