Category Archives: Quilting and Sewing

Orange and Gray Quilt Block…

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One of the members of the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild was having a baby and our group decided to make a baby quilt for her. Everyone who participated was asked to make a 12″x12″ block (finished) with orange and gray fabrics. I think orange and gray was her favorite color combination.

Orange/Gray 12x12 Block Construction

I was in the process of making my Habitat Arrows quilt inspired by Marianne Haak’s (MariQuilts) Analeigh’s Quilt 2010… which was inspired by the pattern Follow the Arrows from Quick Quilts Magazine. Since I was in the “arrow” mood… I decided to make my orange and gray block using this pattern.

You can see some of the construction photos on Flickr.

Dusty Sakura Quilt is Now in Tokyo…

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I just read that the quilt I donated to Quilts4Japan.org has just arrived in Tokyo :)

Quilt4Japan-Arrived-in-Tokyo

StellarQuilts…

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I was searching Vimeo for quilting videos and happen to stumble upon Jimmy McBride, a really talented quilter, in the Etsy.tv’s video “Handmade Portraits: StellarQuilts“. I followed a link to his Etsy shop, stellarquilts, and found some pretty amazing quilts.

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I then followed a link to his blog, Intergalactic Transport, and read some of his entries about how he made these space-inspired quilts. I love how he uses old shirts from thrift stores and it looks like he paper-pieced most of the quilt. That’s one thing I really want to learn.

I’m inspired and want to try out Jimmy’s techniques, so I’ll trying to think of a small project that I can possibly do… maybe a Christmas present for someone. Hmm?…

Quilts4Japan’s Photo of My Quilt…

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I just saw Quilts4Japan post a photo (on Facebook) of the “Dusty Sakura” quilt that I made and donated to their organization. I feel so proud… Like my kid is going out to college. I hope it fines a good home.

First Time “Quilting”…

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I’m almost done with my very first quilt… but before I start quilting it, I wanted to practice on something else to get the hang of quilting or stippling (I’m not sure of the correct term)… So I made a small 10×12 inch quilt to practice using the Walking Foot and Stippling Foot that came with my sewing machine.

Sewing Feet

I’ve never used a Walking Foot, nor a Stippling foot, so this was new territory. So armed with my sewing machine manual and the help of some YouTubers, I gave it a try.

It was pretty neat!!!… both me and my Mom (who was watching) were excited. At first, the stitches were messy and I couldn’t coordinate moving the quilt and pressing the sewing machine pedal… so I had areas where there were tons of stitches and areas where you can tell I moved the quilt too fast.

After a while, I think I got the hang of it… We’ll see on the actual full size quilt.

After quilting/stippling, I searched and watch YouTube videos on how to bind a quilt. I cut 2.5 inch strips and joined them together the way several tutorials showed me. I then binded my practice quilt and I think it came out nice. My Mom was impressed :)

Practice Quilt (Front)

Practice Quilt (Back)

I even hand sewed the back of the binding… though I’m not sure how well I did.

Now comes the moment of truth… Time to finally start quilting my first full size quilt. I’ll post photos later of the completed quilt.

One last thing… when I was at the 99¢ Only Stores, I happen to find these rubberized “Deluxe” Gloves which will be perfect for quilting… and they were a deal at 99¢.

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Quilt 03: Sakura Dusty Bone Quilt Concept

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I finally drew up a plan for a quilt I had been thinking about for a while now using the Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton Dusty 5″ Charm Pack Fabric Squares that I got from the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild Meeting back in February.

Sakura Dusty Bone Quilt Concept

At the East Bay Modern Quilt Guild March meeting, Kristen showed her quilt (that I really loved) using the charm pack. I wanted to sew something similar… Later at the same meeting Sharona talked about an organization called Quilts4Japan that was collecting quilts for the people affected by the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant breakdown. That sparked an idea.

My plan is to make a quilt that alludes to the flag of Japan and donate the quilt to Quilts4Japan. I’ll separate the red/reddish squares from the charm pack and sew them (similar to Kristen’s design) with a dark cream background. I’ll use these to form the “red” circle. I’ll then use the remaining squares and sew them with a lighter cream color to create the “white” background.

For the actual quilting (stitching), I was thinking of a large sakura or cherry blossom (which always reminds me of Japan) design. I’ll also quilt wavy lines emanating from the center circle. You can see this as the dotted white lines in the photo above.

Isn’t that too big for your bed?

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So, I showed my Mom a portion of the quilt top I’ve sewn together and she says, “Isn’t that too big for your bed?… because, if it is, it’ll fit perfectly on mine.“… hahahaha

Alicia Merrett…

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I just happened to stumble upon the contemporary art quilter Alicia Merrett on YouTube and watched her tutorials about sewing curvy lines. I use to think that they were hard to sew (i.e. making the edges match)… but after watching her, it actually doesn’t look so complicated. I want to try it myself and I think I’ll use this techniques for the Rossie’s Kelp/Brunkrissla Remix Quilt (Quilt 02) that I’ve been thinking about doing.

I also did a search on Google and found her website, www.aliciamerrett.co.uk, which show some beautiful contemporary quilts. I especially like her Mapping Earth and Mapping Earth 2 Quilts on the Mapping and Recording gallery page.

Here are the three video I watched:
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