A Little "Prairie Journal" Progress

I'm continuing to cut and sew fabric from my Henry Glass fabric line, A Prairie Journal, and I thought I would post a few pictures of my progress so far.

First, I put a simple border on the tumbler quilt I started with my strike-offs a few months ago. I didn't have enough sample fabric at the time, so I just needed the yardage to cut a few borders, and sew them on.

A Prairie Journal Tumbler Quilt

What a fun little quilt this was to make!

Next, I machine appliqued a table runner using the strippy vine print from the line.

Prairie Flowers Table Runner

Once the appliques were prepared, it was a breeze to place the shapes and bias vine onto the pre-printed vine.

And lastly, while I was in the machine appliqueing mode, I appliqued four borders to surround the panel from the Prairie Journal line:

That's all for now! Back to sewing!

Until next time,
Martha

A Prairie Journal fabric arrival!

This summer I did something I've never done before - drive across the country - and by myself, no less! I had a very exciting destination. I was going to see my new (and first) grandson who was born in June! He was just about to turn 3 weeks old when I finally arrived. Of course, I could have flown to Virginia, but I wanted to see my sister in Oklahoma and my mother in the Kansas City area, so I thought driving would be in some ways easier. It was a great trip (except for the torrential rain on 3 of my driving days).

I left in June, and a month later was back home in July. While I was away, my Henry Glass Fabric collection, A Prairie Journal fabric arrived, so it was here when I got back. It's just beautiful to see on the bolts!

A Prairie Journal

Last week, I was finally unpacked, and ready to cut into the fabric and make my first quilt from the collection. I chose to make the panel quilt first, which is a free project to download you can find on both the Henry Glass Fabrics website and my website. This quilt is made using the panel from the collection, cutting out the large center portion, and the four small floral blocks for the corner sections. It's surrounded by plain borders and broken dishes blocks made from the red and blue coordinates. I'm just in love with the dark teal blue fabric!

Here are the pieces ready to put together:

And the top finished!

A Prairie Journal quilt

I have more quilts to make with the collection, so I'll post more pictures as I get them done.

Back to my trip - while I was in Kansas City, I did a trunk show at Quilter's Station in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Here are a few pictures that I borrowed from the many that their wonderful photographer took, and posted on the Quilter's Station Facebook page.

"Basket Quartet" quilt made from my Studio e Fabric line Elementary

"1776" from Betsy's Scrapbag

"Autumn Stars" from Betsy's Scrapbag

 

"Bricks and Boughs" table runner from my book Be Merry

 

And a few pictures from my drive cross country:

One of my overnight stays both ways was Paducah, Kentucky.

Downtown Clinton, Tennessee

I had heard that Clinton, Tennessee had some good antique shops, so I made a short side trip to do some shopping. I came home with some fantastic goodies from Corner Antiques.

And visiting my sister and brother-in-law in Oklahoma always takes me through the beautiful Cimarron country of Oklahoma:

Gloss (Glass) Mountains

We live in a beautiful country, and I loved seeing familiar places again, and places I've never been to before. It was a great trip, and I miss my new grandson already! But East or West, home is best, and I'm happy to be home and making quilts again!

Until next time,

Martha

Quilter's Station Trunk Show

Flag Day was just a few days ago, and in addition to hanging the stars and stripes on our flagpole outside, I have a year round Flag Day reminder hanging inside - my Flag Day wool applique hanging.

FLAG DAY

Flag Day is one of the wool applique projects found in my new book Betsy's Scrapbag. I used Aurifil Lana wool threads for the simple whipstitched applique and the embroidered tassels strings. I decided to bind this hanging as I would a quilt, with single fold cotton binding.

If you will happen to be in the Kansas City area on Saturday, June 25th, I will be doing a trunk show at Quilter's Station quilt shop in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I'll be showing all of the projects from Betsy's Scrapbag, as well as all of the projects from Annie's Scrapbag, and a selection of projects from my two Christmas themed books, Vintage Christmas and Be Merry: Quilts and Projects for Your Holiday Home.

Here are a few of the details:

You can also go to their website http://www.quiltersstation.com/ to find a map and other details on the Shop News page. I hope to see you there! 

After my Kansas City trip I'll be heading to Virginia to see my first grandson, who was born just yesterday! It will be a great trip, and hopefully I will have pictures to share!

Until next time,

Martha

Basting my Quilt

If you follow my Facebook page, you may have seen my post about marking my latest finished quilt top for hand quilting. A question was asked on Facebook about the stencil I used, so I will answer it here as well -- the stencil I'm using is from The Stencil Company, and it's a stencil for the Baptist Fan pattern. one of my favorite all over quilting patterns for pieced quilts.

So now my quilt is fully marked, and I thought I would share how I baste my quilts. The way I baste my quilts has gone through a few changes over the years. When I first began making quilts, I basted all of my quilts on the floor (luckily that was a younger me). But after I bought and read Harriet Hargrave's Heirloom Machine Quilting, I used the method she illustrates in the book on how to baste on a table using large binder clips. The table she recommended was one of those long catering type tables, roughly 24" x 8 ft., which I immediately went out and bought. I basted on that table for quite a few years, until I purchased a fold-able cutting table, and came up with another idea:

I bought another identical table, and created a wonderful basting surface, and sometime-design surface by putting the two tables together, and clipping them together where they meet with one large binder clip on each side. The binder clips hold the two tables together very securely, and the two tables together create a 59 1/4" x 71 1/2" surface. The height is just right, and I can lean across and just reach the middle when I'm basting (a taller person would have an easier reach). One of the advantages of using these tables, in general, is that when the fold up, they take very little space, and they are on casters, so they are easy to move around.

I lay the backing right side down, centering the backing on the table. Then I use the large binder clips to clip the sides, stretching the backing as I go. I start in the middle of each side, and then work my way out from the middle of each side until I reach each of the corners.

The backing is stretched and clipped to the table on all sides with large binder clips

If my quilt is shorter than the table edges (smaller wall quilts), I use extra wide masking tape to tape the backing to the table.

After the backing is stretched and clipped, I lay the batting over the backing and gently smooth it flat. I'm using The Warm Company Warm Bond 80/20 bonded quilt batting that I won last summer from the Primitive and Folk Art Exhibit. I LOVE this batting! It has the thin loft that I like for my quilts, and it's soft and glue-free.

Last, comes the quilt top. I use my rulers to make sure every block is square and every border is straight. For hand quilting, I thread baste, and for machine quilting, I pin baste.

This was a fun quilt to make, and I enjoyed using prints from my first fabric line with Studio e Fabrics, Elementary, and mixing them in with a variety of prints from my stash. And I'm looking forward to spending more time with it as I hand quilt it. Time to start threading needles and get this quilt basted! 

Until next time,

Martha

Nancy's Quilt Camp

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend Nancy's Quilt Camp in Prescott, Arizona. There was a last minute cancellation, and I just happened to be at my dentist's office where Denise, a talented quiltmaker, and frequent quilt camper, works, and she invited me to the camp, which was just a week away. I was tired and a bit burnt out after having been immersed in completing my book, Betsy's Scrapbag. I thought maybe a quilt camp away from it all was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things, and motivate me to return to sewing with enthusiasm. So I signed up!

I had to hurry up and plan something to work on. For me, when I go to quilt camp, I like to have projects to work on that are more production oriented. I don't want to have to make design decisions away from home. So, I planned a few simple blocks to piece, and madly started cutting away for 2 days before the camp weekend.

When I arrived at quilt camp on Thursday afternoon, I was warmly greeted by Denise and Nancy, the camp organizer. I can't say enough good things about Nancy. She definitely puts her heart and soul into making the camp a fun and welcoming experience for all. She planned lots of fun raffles, and she went out on Saturday afternoon and generously bought enough foam core board and batting to make everyone a portable design wall. What a fantastic idea! And the amazing thing about Nancy - she was doing all of this, and with a smile on her face, while going through chemotherapy after having breast cancer. What an inspiration!

Portable Design Wall

I met so many nice ladies, and as always at quilt camp, I picked up some great ideas. My tablemate, Natalie, had some wonderful lights added to her sewing machine, and I just had to order the lights when I returned home.  Here are my new lights added to my machine, and what a difference they make!

You're supposed to cut off any excess length, but I looped mine around (you can see that on the left), because I wanted to use ALL of the lights, haha! Here is the box they came in, if you want to buy these lights for your machine:

Inspired LED Sewing Machine Light Kit

Back to camp - It was just what I needed to kick start my quilting. I had a great time piecing my blocks, and I came home and haven't stopped having fun in my studio. My basket "bottoms" were completed at camp, and all I had to do when I came home was sew on the handles:

Thank you, Nancy and Denise, for a great time! 

Until next time,

Martha

Betsy's Scrapbag Giveaway Winner!

Betsy's Scrapbag

Congratulations to Tay Satterfield, the winner of the
Betsy's Scrapbag giveaway!

Thank you to all who entered, and left your comments either here or on my Facebook page, and thank you for your patience with the comment section not working on the Rafflecopter widget. I will be having another giveaway one of these days to see if we can get that section to work next time!

Until next time,

Martha

Betsy's Scrapbag

Today is the first official release day of my new book, Betsy's Scrapbag! It's now on our website, and we have a lot of work to do to get it out and about to your favorite quilt shops.

The first of my Scrapbag Girl TM series began with Annie's Scrapbag, a pattern book of quilts and projects inspired by my fictional seamstress, Annie, a girl living in the early homesteading days of the American frontier.

Annie's Scrapbag

Book 2, Betsy's Scrapbag, follows with quilts and projects inspired by the American Revolution, and Betsy's story of her family's role in the fight for American independence.  And just as in Annie's Scrapbag, Betsy's Scrapbag includes FULL size applique placement diagrams for all of the projects, including the wool applique projects. No drafting on your part needed - whew!

Betsy's Scrapbag

Just like in Annie's Scrapbag, Betsy's Scrapbag includes patterns for quilts, wool applique, and this time a punch needle project, Lady Liberty, one of my favorites! Lady Liberty is made primarily with Valdani 3-ply floss, with the addition of DMC embroidery floss. I also have instructions for my easy method for finishing punchneedle, that "stiffens" it for hanging or applying to a platform, such as a box, or basket, but it's archival, meaning no glues are used.

Lady Liberty

Autumn Stars is one of the five quilts in the book, and is the largest quilt, - a queen size 89" x 89". 

Autumn Stars

There are 10 projects in all, with four wool applique projects, one of which is the Liberty pillow, appliqued using my favorite Aurifil Lana wool threads, which you can also find on our website:

Liberty pillow

To celebrate it's release, I'm having a giveaway for one copy of Betsy's Scrapbag! Just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter box below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, and I hope you find Betsy's Scrapbag soon at a quilt shop near you! I will announce the winner of the giveaway on Monday, March 21st!

Until then,

Martha