A Quilt Inspired by Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

I had another U.F.O. finish yesterday!  Yay!  This one is a quilt inspired by Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 5.  That is the last issue I had the honor of making test blocks for.

I loved the way this block came out, with the dark background and bright colors.  It's block #406, Fresh Flowers by Cheryl Haynes.  She is one of my favorite designers. You can visit her blog at Prairie Grove Peddler.

I knew I wanted to make a wall hanging featuring this quilt.  I started out by making these low contrast nine-patch blocks.

I sewed them into these zippy borders.

I pieced my quilt top together, quilted it, loved it, and then it sat up on the U.F.O. shelf.

This week in my U.F.O. finishing frenzy, I took it off the shelf, added some binding, using the blue fabric, and sewed this starry sleeve onto the back.  I used a lot of star fabrics in this quilt and did some star quilting, too.

Because the quilt block was designed by another quilt designer, I made sure I included her name on the label.  It is important to give credit to the quilt designer and the publication, too.  Plus it may be helpful to someone in the future doing research about your quilt, or wanting to make a similar quilt.

Here's the finished Fresh Flowers wall hanging!  I'm so in love with this quilt!  I have to find a place to feature it in my home.

Have you been finishing anything lately?  Get those U.F.O.'s out and see what you have!  You may be inspired again.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

A Quilt Homecoming

Last night I received a surprise visit from the men in the little brown truck.  My Fresh and Fancy quilt made it back home from Quiltmaker!  Yay!  It always feels so good when one of my "babies" comes home.

My two youngest boys got right to work, giving it a little love. 

If you missed it, this is the magazine issue the pattern appeared in, Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Spring 2013.

Here's a nice, professional photo of the whole quilt.  Love you, Quiltmaker Magazine!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Finishing a Quilt

I'm between projects at the moment, so I'm spending the remainder of June finishing up a few U.F.O. quilts.  It feels so good to finally finish.  I have quite a few quilts that are just waiting for the binding, sleeve and label.  I did this one over the last few days.

I chose this bright red, textured fabric for my binding.  It matches some of the reds in the quilt top and adds a nice punch around the border of my quilt.

In this picture, I'm pinning the binding to the top of the quilt.

Here I'm hand sewing the binding onto the back side, nearing the corner!  In the Summertime I enjoy doing my hand stitching outside on the porch while the children play in the yard.

Here's a close up of the mitered corner.

After finishing the binding, I made a long sleeve, also out of the red fabric.  Here is is before turning right side out.

In this photo it is pinned onto the back of the quilt.

And here I am, lovingly hand stitching the sleeve onto the quilt.  I like the way the quilt looks folded in this pic.  That might make an interesting quilt block.

And for this quilt, a super simple label.  Just the quilt's name, my name, the date I finished, and where it was made.

For once, the wind cooperated and let me take this clothesline pic of the whole quilt.  It's a Bear's Paw quilt that I started on soooooooo long ago.  It was one of those free patterns they send in the mail when offering a magazine subscription.  I'm so sorry, I don't know the name, the designer, or what magazine this is from.  It's just been too long.  If you know, please send me a message.  I would really appreciate it!

I named this quilt "William in the Woods" because I used all William Morris fabrics for the Bear's Paws.  It's even more appropriate now, because I have a cat named William who loves to play in the woods.

Here he is!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Feather Quilting Practice, Day 2

Day 2 of Feather Quilting practice.  I started out with a different kind of feather.  This type is quilted from the bottom, and there is a bit of backtracking.  I'm not the best at backtracking, but here's my result.

Then I practiced quilting some more of the feathers in the style I was working on during the last session.  This time, they went pretty well!  I'm happy with my results.  I was also able to successfully quilt these in a vertical position - yay!  I think they kind of look like seaweed, gently swaying in the current.  Peaceful little souls at the bottom of the ocean.  Have you read the book, "The Host"?  If you have, you know what I mean.

I wanted to keep on going, but my son, Gavin asked if he could have a turn.  

He has no idea I took this picture of him - hee-hee!

He quilted until the bobbin ran out.  Here's what he came up with.  He called it abstract art.

It's great to see my children get involved!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Machine Quilting Feathers...practice, practice, practice!

I've been taking the Craftsy class,  Free Motion Quilting with Feathers, and thought I'd better start doing some practicing!  So here's what I've got so far:

                                 

Here are some funky looking feathers with fillers, a few pebbles, some curly quilting, some clam shells.  These first few came out pretty rough.  I added a little inside detail to one half of one of the feathers, and added a stray feather growing out of the middle of another.  I found out I am better at quilting feathers in a horizontal direction than in a vertical direction.

This one was fun, though a little overkill.  Too much backtracking.  I'm sure it could be quilted with less of that.  I like the fun curlies coming out of the top side of this one.  It would be good for a whimsical style quilt.

And finally, here I quilted one that I kind of, sort of, actually like!  See the way the feather on the left curves around the curlicue and the petals fit into the space?  I really like this one.  It made me feel like I am getting better.  I can do this.  Practice, practice, practice.  As long as I don't have a quilt loaded into the machine, I am committed to practicing one bobbin's worth of quilting per night.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Raleigh Sewing and Quilt Expo

Here's just a few of the lovely things I saw while I was at the Raleigh Original Sewing and Quilt Expo on Thursday.  I wanted to share them with you.  

The first thing I was was this fabulous quilted car cover.  Here's the view from above.

And here's a side view.  I want one of these for my van!

This is an overview of the shopping area.

Curvy quilting close up.  I like this quilting idea.

Really colorful quilt with New York Beauty style blocks.

Simple, but effective quilting.

Sweet little pastel sampler quilt with scalloped edges.

Close up of some quilting by Angela Walters - Wow!

Here's a pic of the whole quilt.

Thanks for visiting today!  Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Free Quilting Patterns on Craftsy

I'll bet you know that Craftsy is the place to take great online quilting classes from all your favorite instructors, but did you know you can also get fantastic Free Quilting Patterns at Craftsy ?  Sign up for your free Craftsy account today, and start browsing all the fabulous free quilt patterns.  Just follow this linky to get started: Free Quilting Patterns at Craftsy .  Have fun!




Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Black Tie Blitz Today!

Black Tie Blitz all day today, Friday, June 7th from Midnight to Midnight to celebrate the Pattern Patter Team's 2nd Anniversary.  We are having a customer appreciation sale, with new items added all day long.  Come shop and get inspired to do a little garment sewing!

Click here to visit the sale:  Black Tie Blitz

I've been doing a little dress sewing myself.  I don't sew garments often, but I really liked this New Look pattern and decided to give it a go.

Here's my dress!

It features striped ribbon straps, and I made the ruffle on the bottom out of some blue fabric to give it a little kick.  I think it came out pretty romantic.  This will be fun to wear over the Summer!

I also have a nice stock of dress patterns available in the Curlicue Creations shop, in the Dress Patterns Section, 60 and counting!  Come on in and browse for a while.

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Accuquilt Go!

Yesterday I took the big plunge and purchased an Accuquilt Go die cutter.  I've been looking at these for a while and thinking things like, "That would be fun to have", but "I don't really need one", but "imagine being able to cut all that fabric without a rotary cutter", but "I can cut all that fabric with a rotary cutter", but "it is kind of pricey", but, in the end, I stumbled across an unbelievable deal on Craigslist and I went for it.

So here's the machine.  It's in beautiful condition, and included the original box with all instructions, a book of quilts you can make, and a helpful DVD, which I viewed last night with my oldest son, Gavin.

After viewing, we both had to go try it out with some scraps.  It was really fun and super easy to do.  We cut out the four flowers all at one time.  Gavin made the star.

It came with nine of the dies, including two long strip cutters, this handy storage rack, and lots of cutting mats, too.

Besides the handy and standard squares and triangles, I got these nifty hearts, stars, and flowers.  Fun!  You can even press some fusible web onto your fabric before cutting.  Great for all the fusible applique I like to do.

It also came with a bonanza of quilt shop quality fabric - Woo-Hoo!  

The above pieces are two rows deep.

Pretty pale yellows and creams.

A nice variety of greens and some rich purples.  There was about 100 yards of fabric in all the colors of the rainbow, plus some whites and browns, but no black.  Weird to me.  I like to use black in some of my quilts because it makes the other colors pop.

Anyway, I'm off to go roll in the fabric.  Yippee!

Until next time...please visit the Curlicue Creations Shop...and have a super day!

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas