Memory Quilt revealed

It’s time to reveal the finished memory quilt!  It took me months of standing and staring, calculations, deep breaths, and actual sewing time to create this special quilt.  This isn’t a show-stopper, or a ribbon winner. Initially, I rolled my eyes in despair at the mix of fabric prints I had to work with.  I [...]

Memory quilt tutorial part 7

Thanks for sticking with me!  The quilt parts are all finished, and now it’s time to put it all up on the design wall and start sewing it all together.  Cross your fingers that all the blocks play together nicely!
See how adding the floating dark green corners helped create an easier-to-use sized block?  The on-point [...]

Memory Quilt tutorial part 6

I have most of the components finished for the quilt, but I need one more:  sashing to separate the Basket blocks.  I decide on  flying geese blocks, to tie in with the points from the baskets.
Flying Geese blocks call for a special Flying Geese ruler in the Wild Onion Studio!  I love this ruler because [...]

Home again

I am home from teaching at Quilting with Machines, tired but exilerated! What a terrific experience; the show is packed with wonderful classes, terrific teachers (ahem!) and lots of interesting vendors. I overheard that next year, there will be quilts on exhibit, too.
I did not even take my camera out, I was so [...]

Memory quilt tutorial part 5

Put on your big girl panties, ’cause it’s time to make some basket blocks!  I chose a fairly simple basket to make, as basket blocks go.
My original background fabric was a cream colored floral that the customer had pulled from my stash.  She loved that fabric, and I made  all 4 basket blocks using it [...]

Memory quilt tutorial part 4

Now that the Irish Chain blocks are ready to go, I turn my attention to the alternate block for the Irish Chain blocks, which would be a Square in a Square block (SNS).
For these blocks, I used the lighter colored dresses, and in case you were wondering, the gauze dresses with the fusible stabilizer worked [...]

Memory quilt tutorial part 3

After washing and cutting apart all the dresses, I had a nice useable stack of fabric.  Cutting them apart at the seams also rendered them a bit less intimidating; after all, if I messed up the dress, I was ruining a bit of the family history.  A stack of fabric?  That’s comfortable and reasonable!
I thought [...]

Memory quilt tutorial part 2

After several weeks of staring at the bag of dresses, wondering how to work with these precious fabrics so that the end result was pleasing, I decided to treat them as I would a scrap quilt; that is, instead of trying to view the fabrics as a collection, I would view the fabrics as scraps [...]

Memory quilt tutorial

Last spring, an acquaintance hired me to create a quilt for her mother’s 80th birthday. Her mom was a sewer, and I was given several dresses that she had created for her granddaughters over the years.

The parameters of the quilt were to use as many of the dresses as possible, make it [...]

Interview in Wardrobe Refashion blog!

I have been interviewed!!  Click here for the interview!!
In the midst of working on my classes for Quilting with Machines, I was also  interviewed for Wardrobe Refashion!
Wardrobe Refashion is an online community of fashionistas who pledge to sew or refashion their clothing for a set period of time.  The list owner, Nichola Prested, is based [...]