Border/Wide Sashing Tute

I posted a picture of this border on my Facebook Crazy Horse Quilting page and was asked to provide instructions. So, here goes:

To get this:

Do this:

Measure the distance from one corner to the other and decide on the size of the diagonals. I believe mine were approximately 5"

Sew down one side and then...

Come back down the other side, making diamonds as you go. As you can see I stitched a line along the edge. It was necessary to make a complete demarcation to show where the diamonds stopped so that the corner design would be separate.

Below is a shot of the ruler I used and the placement to make the interior angled lines of the diamond. I didn't mark anything, I just used the marks on the ruler to make my lines end approximately 1/4" from the diamond points.

After making the angled inner diamond, I filled in the outside triangle with the lines. Again, I didn't measure and they aren't all the same; however, when you look at the overall effect, your eye will "self-correct" and you don't notice.

At the point of the next diamond, I filled in the inner lines and then continuedon with the vertical lines in the triangle.

This is what it looked like after completing the inner diamonds and the vertical lines on one side.

I was then able to come back, without starting/stopping, to finish the vertical lines on the opposite side. The best part about this was that if I got carried away and forgot to do an inner diamond (this happens when I daydream), I could fill it in on my way back and no one would ever know!

When you're finished, you have this:  

I was able to complete this design with four passes and didn't have to stop/start. I do think part of the reason this turned out looking so cool was the batting (wool) and the way the gold thread matched so well with the gold in the fabric. 

And that concludes today's tutorial. Hope it made sense!!!

Dory

A Beautiful Wedding Gift

One of my customers from Nevada contacted me with a huge project that she's undertaking: She's making wedding quilts for each of her nieces and nephews. Luckily, none of them has a wedding date scheduled yet, so she has time.

This is the first quilt in her project...a lovely log cabin. This one has an Asian flair to it.

 Initially, I was going to do the traditional feathers in the gold, but after doing the outside border, I was in geometric mode and kept it up with the line work.  

I loved how the gold thread really gave such great definition to the gold fabric.

This is how the center gold bits turned out. In all the purple, I did a design called heatwave, but it didn't show up well in the photos, so the gold took center stage.

Thanks for having a look!

Dory

A Birthday Gift

My neighbor and good friend, Annie, had a birthday last week and i made her this quilt. I'm happy to report that she loved it. See what you think.

This is the back of the quilt:

And a close up of the simple leaves I quilted to go with the floral fabric on the front. 

The pattern is called "Five Yard Quilt." Its free from Mill End Textiles and can be found by clicking HERE.  It really does take only five yards, less actually, of the focus fabric if you don't fussy cut it. 

Happy Quilting!

Dory

Bird Brain!!!

Yep...that's what this super cute quilt is called!  Silly name; but I love the quilt!! Its a Buggy Barn pattern, of course.

Norma sent this one up and I had such fun quilting it. Its going to be a gift for a friend that loves her chickens and her horses (the backing has horses). She had her friend with her in the quilt shop, helping her pick out fabric for a quilt Norma was planning to make for "someone else." The friend has no clue that at the next Quincy Crazy Quilter Guild meeting, she'll be receiving this adorable quilt! I just wish I could be there to see her face!!

Here's a couple of close-ups of the quilting. I did some swirls in the chicken and a funky flower in the flower. Lots of thread color changes, but so worth it for the texture.

This pic shows one of the open green bits on the end of a couple of the rows. I wanted to do something "organic" in there, in keeping with the chicken theme, so I did a leafy feather motif.  I think it works, where actual feathers would have been too fussy.

No pics of the back. It was too busy for the quilting to show well.

Hope you enjoyed the chicks!

Dory

Beautiful Hunter's Star

Carolyn sent this Hunter's Star to me a few months ago. I was finally able to quilt it up and return it. She does such a beautiful job; her fabric choices for this block were perfect.

Unfortunately, with the red/cream print being so busy, the quilting wasn't going to show. So I chose to do a basic continuous curve design in those parts, along with some line work on the edges.

Here's a closer look:

I tried another fun design in the border. It was a challenge since I had to quilt it in the red/cream and really pay close attention to where I was at at at all times. However, in looking at the back, I think I did okay. (I just LOVE plain backs!!!)

Here's another shot showing more of the quilting. Sorry the fabric looks so yellow; the one above is more true to color.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Dory