Friday, May 31, 2013

Sally's Mystery Quilt-A-Long Top - Finished (almost!)

Hooray!  Here we are at the end of Sally's First Mystery Quilt A Long.  It's been a fun few months.  I can hardly wait to start on her next mystery quilt.  I believe it's starting tomorrow, June 1st.  If you'd like to quilt along, you can get more info at my Facebook group, Quilters Show and Tell.  I thought for today, I'd show how my quilt top came together.


First we made these classic Jacob's Ladder blocks.  Lucky me, I messed up and got to sew these twice.  I went with an orange theme, as I've really been into orange lately.  Weird for me!


Then we made these fun Mexican Rose blocks.  I did mine in fusible applique, my favorite. I love how playful looking they came out.


Things got even better for me when I saw we were going to sew four Nebraska Tulips blocks!  This is one of my all time favorite applique blocks.  I've made some of these before.  I used two different greens in a couple of the blocks for a little bit of whimsy.


These blocks can form a really neat pattern when you put them together like this.
It would make a nice center for a medallion quilt, or a you could sew a few borders around the edge and call it a table topper.


Here's my quilt before borders.  Lots of white space to practice my feather quilting.  
I need lots of practice, so this will be good for me!


Close up corner shot with the first border on.


And my traditional clothesline shot of the quilt top.  Trent just had to get into this picture.


I thought I was finished with the top, but after I posted this photo on Quilter's Show and Tell, one of the awesome members pointed out that I had a four patch oriented the wrong way!  Oh no!  See it?  I circled it in the above pic.  I'm going to have to go back and fix it - Ugh!  Why can't I be perfect?  Oh well.....Maybe we can do another post on how to fix a mistake in the middle of your quilt.  

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Craftsy Memorial Day Sale!



Memorial Day Sale
This Memorial Day weekend, join Craftsy in honoring the brave men and women who have served in the US Armed Forces. For every class sold this weekend, Craftsy will donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit a veterans' organization. Select classes will be on sale up to 60% off! Have all the classes you want? Consider gifting a class to your favorite service member! 
Awesome!  I'm really learning with my class Free Motion Quilting with Feathers.  I took another lesson yesterday.  My time is really limited, because I have a 3 year old at home, so it's great to be able to watch as much or as little as I want at at time.  I love how Craftsy classes offer that feature!  Plus you can go back and re-watch as often as you like.
Click on the banner below to visit the Craftsy sale.

Craftsy

What a great sale, over half off and it benefits a good cause, too.

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Product Review: Curve Master Presser Foot

I've been really enjoying both looking at and sewing curvy quilts.  I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to them, Curvy Quilts.  So far I've sewn one curvy, Improved Nine Patch quilt, Romantic Quilt #1, yet to be quilted.

 Romantic Quilt #1


Romantic Quilt #2 is going to be much larger, with 64 blocks.  I decided to invest in the Curve Master Presser foot, shown above.  It's a funny-looking, stumpy little foot, but it works wonderfully.  I'm sewing smooth curves without any pinning or preparation. They have a video at their website, Just Curves, that shows how it works.


It comes with all these little doo-dads so you can attach it to nearly any sewing machine.  Handy.  


Now on to Romantic Quilt #2.  For this quilt I'm using mostly vintage fabrics.  Here's one of the Nine Patch blocks before I cut the curves into it.


And here's a few of the blocks with one melon sewn on, via the Curve Master foot.


I still need to press these, but so far they are looking good!


The 1/4" seams came out nicely, too.  I started adding the second melons at my quilt group, last night.

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Craftsy Free Class Today!

If you've never taken a Craftsy class, before, today, Saturday, May 18th, is your day!  They are offering one free class today only for anyone who has never taken a Craftsy class.  The selection is great for this offer, too.  Everything from Quilting to Knitting to Jewelry Making, even Baking classes!  I'm currently taking my second Craftsy class, Free Motion Quilting with Feathers and it's just wonderful.  Plus, if Craftsy hits their goal of 10,000 new students, they have pledged to make a $5000.00 donation to DonorsChoose.org., so you'll be helping others at the same time.  Click here to link to the Craftsy free class page and get started! Craftsy Until next time...Have a super day! Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Thursday, May 16, 2013

House Cat Quilt Block Pattern


Just as promised, the House Cat (I love the pun!) Quilt Block has just been added to the Curlicue Creations Shop.  This is block 11 of 12 in the popular Basket Cat Quilt Block Series.  Here's a link to the pattern:  House Cat Quilt Block Pattern

Meow!

Have a super day!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Basket Cats Quilting

My quilting time has been so limited lately.  But here's what I've been working on.  This is the top for the Basket Cats quilt, minus the dark brown outer border.  I somehow neglected to get a photo of the completed top.  So sorry.


Ten of the Basket Cat block patterns are available in the Curlicue Creations shop in the Quilt Block Patterns section.  The last two patterns, House Cat, and Liberty Coins Cat should be coming soon.


I had a little "quilter's block" when it came to the cat's faces.  My friend, Lynne McFern helped me out with the quilting design.  Aren't they cute?  I'm so grateful to her, and happy to have met her on our Facebook group, Quilter's Show and Tell.


I'm quilting these curly vines on the green vertical strips.  It's my first time doing a vine and I really like it.  They are fun to quilt!


The baskets are getting a tight back and forth line pattern to look like a woven basket.  I did the same thing with the basket handles.  I just stitched in the ditch for all the block designs featured on the baskets, and added a clamshell to the basket bands.


Here's my dark brown outer border.  I'm quilting a happy little loopy design there.  I love doing loops.  It's my current favorite to quilt.  I have some of these in nearly every quilt.


This cat is a little different from the others.  He has a little extra hair on top of his head, so I made him look a little fierce by quilting a pointy zig zag.  He's just a little bit crazy!

I'm on the last row of cats now.  Hopefully I'll be showing the finished quilt soon!

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Craftsy Class!

I've just enrolled in the Craftsy class, Free Motion Quilting with Feathers.  I'm so excited!  I've been wanting to improve my feather quilting technique.  I practice every time I'm quilting something, but I'm still not happy with the results.  I hope this class will give me the added tips and technique I need to learn to execute beautiful feather quilting!  I want to have something beautiful to quilt in all the white spaces on Sally's Mystery Quilt-A-Long quilt.  I showed the top in my last post, but here it is again:


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

Get Creative

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!


Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there!  Take the day off and relax!

Have a super day!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Sally's Mystery Quilt-A-Long

Hello my quilty friends!  If you are a member of my Facebook group, Quilter's Show and Tell, you've heard about the Mystery Quilt-A-Long we're sewing with Sally Ann Johnson.  If you're not part of Quilter's Show and Tell, come on over and join in on the fun!  Here's the link:  Quilter's Show and Tell.


In this step of the quilt-a-long, Sally shows us how to sew the blocks together for the quilt top.  


Here's a couple of the Jacob's Ladder blocks together.


And here's Row One.  You can get all the instructions to make this quilt at Sally's blog, Sally's Quilting Corner.  It's never too late to start!  


Here's one of the center rows, with the Mexican Rose blocks.  I think it would make a pretty table runner, too.


And here's my "little helper".  He just loves to have his picture taken!
What a pose, eh?


This is how my top turned out.  I love all the white space.  It should be a lot of fun to experiment with the quilting on this one.  

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Quiltmaker's 100 Block Blog Tour Winner!

Good morning!  Sorry I've been a little slow to announce my winner, it's been busy around here!  Lesley Carruthers of Nova Scotia was chosen by the highly scientific method of my 8 year old choosing a number.  Yep, we are really high tech around here.


She will be receiving a copy of my Lady of the Lake Cat Quilt Block Pattern - Meow!


And a brand new copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 7!  You can find this on sale today at your local newsstand.  I also have a few copies available in my shop at this link: Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 7.

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

Get Creative!

Jennifer Schifano Thomas 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour, Day 3!

Hello!  I hope you have already been busy this morning, visiting all the terrific designers for day three of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 7, blog tour!  I was out running errands this morning, so I'm going to try to visit them all this afternoon.  


Here's a little peeky at my 100 blocks BIG button collection.  I have these on the wall next to my sewing machine.  They are fun to look at and great for quilting inspiration, too.


Yesterday, I came across one of the quilt testers for 100 Blocks, Volume 7.  "Aunt Marti" as she calls herself, did a lovely, Spring-like version of Summer's End, and graciously allowed me to show it here on my blog.  I just love it.  She did a fantastic post yesterday showing all 14 of the blocks she tested for the magazine, plus a quilt she made using one of the blocks.  You can see it at her blog here: 52 Quilts.


Be sure to visit Quiltmaker's Blog, today, too.  They're giving away a big bundle of quilty goodness every day of the tour.  Visit their blog, here:  Quilty Pleasures.

And here's a list of all the designers on day three of the blog tour:

Today’s Featured Designers

  1. Amy Ellis  amyscreativeside.com
  2. Arlene Neely  quiltingwithrabbits.com
  3. Cherry Guidry  cherryblossomsquiltingstudio.com
  4. Melissa Peda  100billionstars.com
  5. Lindsey Rhodes  lrstitched.com
  6. Margie Ullery  ribboncandyquilts.blogspot.com
  7. Dodi Lee Poulsen  sashgals.com
  8. Corey Yoder  littlemissshabby.com
  9. Marcia Harmening  happystashquilts.com
  10. Martha Walker  wagonswestdesigns.blogspot.com
  11. Susan Geddes  quiltersnewsletter.com/blogs/insideqn
  12. Heidi Foltz  handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com
Time to go get some quilty inspiration!

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

Jennifer Schifano Thomas