Prairie Pop Art

The inspiration for Prairie Pop Art, a new mini quilt pattern in the Little Quilts from the Prairie collection, is an 1855 quilt shown in one of the first quilt magazines I bought years ago. You can see that quilt in the magazine in my blog post here.

Prairie Pop Art, 24" x 29", is sewn using all of the small scale companion prints in my A Prairie Journal for Henry Glass & Co. fabric line.

Because of it's small size, this was a fun quilt for me to machine quilt. I loved quilting the orange peel design in the center of each square, and it's so easy to mark. It seems to be a design I go to again and again for quilting the center of squares of all sizes.  

When machine quilting, my preference is to use a thread to match the fabric in the quilt. So for the squares, I did need to change threads quite often (I always try to match the thread in the bobbin to my backing fabric). After the quilt was pin basted, I marked the orange peel pattern on the squares using a chalk wheel, which is fast and easy to remove. You could certainly mark the pattern before basting, with a chalk pencil or water erasable marking pen. 

I mark the orange peel pattern for quilting using a circle stencil, which can be found at hobby stores in the drafting department or office supply stores. The stencil below has circles from 1 1/4" to 3 1/2" in diameter. You'll also need the marking tool of your choice.

No math needed to determine which circle size is right for your quilt block. Just lay the stencil over your quilt block, move it around, and find the one the fits best! For this block, I will use the 2 3/4" circle stencil. Each circle has hash marks for each quarter section of the circle.

Align the hash marks on opposite sides of the circle with the bottom edge of the square to be quilted.

Use your marking tool (I'm using a chalk wheel, pictured), to mark a semi circle (the top half of the circle).

Rotate the stencil to align with another side of the square, and mark another semi circle.

Rotate the stencil two more times to mark the remaining two sides of the square.

And, voilà! You now have a marked orange peel pattern to quilt!

After quilting, I remove the chalk marks with a toothbrush I keep handy for just that purpose.

Prairie Pop Art is now on the website as a PDF pattern download. You can find the pattern HERE.

Until next time!

Martha

Fox and Geese

Back again to show you another quilt from Little Quilts from the Prairie collection. Fox and Geese is one of the larger quilts in the collection, although still only 35 3/4" x 44 1/2". Here at our house, wall space is limited (too many big windows), so I have to find creative ways to display all of the quilts I love to make. Fox and Geese just happens to be the perfect size to hang over this cabinet door!

Fox and Geese uses seven of the prints from A Prairie Journal, with the bird and berries print on the border.

As with the other quilt patterns in the collection, Fox and Geese is a PDF pattern to download. You can order the pattern HERE!

Until next time!

Martha

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Blueberry Crumb Cake is one of the six new patterns in the Little Quilts from the Prairie collection. More blue and beige - yay!

Almost ten years ago when it came time to decide upon a name for my design business, I thought about my great-great grandmother Mahala, and my great grandmother Laura, who both traveled west on covered wagons to settle in Kansas on the prairie. And so "Wagons West Designs" came to mind!

I am so fortunate to own my great-great grandmother Mahala's rolling pin, pictured above with Blueberry Crumb Cake, which I am sure made many a pie!

Blueberry Crumb Cake, just like the Blissfully Blue quilt, uses the blue and beige fabrics from A Prairie Journal.

Blueberry Crumb Cake is an e pattern you can purchase and download HERE.

Of course, I had to make the real thing - blueberry crumb cake, to utilize those berries in the photo!

Blueberries and walnuts are healthy for you, right? haha!

Until next time,
Martha

Tumbleweed

You won't need any special rulers to make my new pattern, Tumbleweed, from the Little Quilts from the Prairie collection. I give you a quick cutting method for cutting the patches, and you might want to make an even bigger quilt after you start cutting!

Eight of the A Prairie Journal fabrics were used in Tumbleweed. Almost a red, white, and blue color scheme, but beige instead of white. It still works for patriotic decor!

You can find the Tumbleweed quilt pattern HERE.

Tumbleweed is so quick to make, I'm thinking of changing up the color scheme to orange and black for a quick addition to my Halloween decor.

Until next time!

Martha 

My Soddy Home

If you have attended one of my trunk shows, you know how much history, women's history, and sometimes even family history, play a big part in the inspiration for my designs.

One night I was talking to my Grandmother, when she was in her mid nineties, and I started asking her questions about her parents, and what it was like growing up on their Kansas farm. It was then that she told me that after her "Ma" and "Pa" were first married, they lived in a "cave", or in other words, a dugout, in the last quarter of the 1800's. I was amazed. It wasn't until later, when I read Willa Cather's My Antonia, that I got a bit of an idea of what that may have been like. In the novel, Antonia and her family are immigrants, living in a Nebraska dugout during the homesteading years.

I haven't seen any photos of prairie dugouts, but there are many photos of the next best thing, the sod house.

My Soddy Home, one of six mini or small quilts in the Little Quilts from the Prairie collection, has a low contrast color palette using seven of the prints from A Prairie Journal. I love the way the cheddar print glows in the sashing and border!

My Soddy Home is available as a PDF pattern you can purchase and download HERE. 

 

Do you have ancestors who lived in a sod house or dugout? I'd love to hear your stories!

Until next time,

Martha

Little Quilts from the Prairie

Since last June when I received my shipment of my fabric line A Prairie Journal, I've been having so much fun making quilts using the line. I had the quilts all designed on the drawing board, and all I needed was the fabric!

I have a collection of six new patterns now on the website, the Little Quilts from the Prairie collection, and in the interest of time, they are offered as PDF patterns for quick and easy downloading.

One of the mini quilts in the collection is the 26" x 32" Blissfully Blue mini quilt. The baskets are pieced, and the tiny sawtooth border is foundation pieced for accuracy.

Blissfully Blue uses the blue and beige prints from A Prairie Journal, and I just love the way they look together!

I also have a limited number of kits available to make Blissfully Blue (which includes the printed pattern). Otherwise, a quick check searching online, and there are several online fabric shops that still have A Prairie Journal fabrics available.

Click here to buy the pattern!

Until next time,

Martha

Happy New Year! The Year in Review

Happy New Year! I've been an absentee blogger the past few months - maybe my New Year's resolution should be "I will be a better blogger in 2017". LOL!

When I look back on this past year, I'm amazed at all of the things that have happened, or changed, all in one year. Some of those happenings have been personally challenging, but I'll skip those, and just stick to quilty happenings!

First, in 2016, I published my book, Betsy's Scrapbag, the second in the Scrapbag Girl® series in March of 2016. Betsy's Scrapbag is near and dear to my heart, and if you've read the introduction to the book, you'll know why! 2016 marks the 240th anniversary of the year of this country's independence, and I'm so happy that I was able to contribute to the celebration of that very important year, in cloth and thread.

And, to go along with the publication, my registered trademark, Scrapbag Girl® was approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Yippee!

A collage of projects from Betsy's Scrapbag by Martha Walker

Next in 2016, my fabric line for Henry Glass Fabrics,  
A Prairie Journal, was delivered to quilt shops in June. When I returned from my big cross country trip in July, I was finally able to start making a bunch of quilts with the beautiful fabric. Some of those projects I've yet to show, and I'll be talking more about those after the first of year.

I have just recently added a free pattern for one of the projects, Prairie Flowers Table Runner, to the website to download. And, I have kits for the table runner, just listed as well:

http://www.wagonswestdesigns.com/shop/Kits/p/Kit-Prairie-Flowers-Table-Runner-x23145638.htm

Prairie Flowers Table Runner

Next up in 2016 came another big happening - --Wagons West Quilt Shop & Studio in Wickenburg, Arizona. I had been wanting to move most of my business out of the house and into a small space where I could teach classes, and house a small shop to carry some of my favorite materials for creating beautiful, quality works of art, in cloth and thread. The opportunity arose, when we stumbled upon a building that had formerly housed another quilt shop, M's Quilting Inspirations, in Wickenburg, Arizona.

If you've never been to (or heard of) Wickenburg, it's just a short drive northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Here's a link to the Google map:

https://goo.gl/maps/jsrJpAX2sQT2

My husband and I were busy most of the summer getting the building ready to open the shop by November. We're open Fridays and Saturdays, and if you're in the area, please stop by!

Yes, we're small, but we have a very good selection of the hard to find Aurifil Lana wool thread, which I love for wool applique, and I just received a big shipment of beautiful Valdani hand dyed 3 strand floss and Perle cottons. Love! We also have the entire line of Mettler 60/2 cotton thread, which I use for both hand and machine applique, and many times machine quilting. We have wool fabric on the bolt, hand dyed wool fat quarters, and of course, quilt shop only cotton fabric!

I just added the classes that I'll be teaching in January and February of 2017 to my website, and you can register and pay for the classes online. Classes will be small, so please register early if you want to take a class! Click Here for classes.

Check back again to see if I made that New Year's resolution haha!

Until next time,
Martha

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

A Prairie Journal fabric collection, Part Two - The Strippy Vine Print

Applique for Beginners and Beyond

 One morning while I was working on my A Prairie Journal line for Henry Glass & Co., I was thinking about applique. I designed the main panel of the line for those quilters who want instant gratification - and maybe those who will never try their hand at applique. With the Prairie Journal panel they can make a small quilt that will give them that look. Here is my free quilt pattern that incorporates the panel pieces and easy piecing ... a cute little 40" x 40" quilt! (If you click on the image, it will take you straight to the free pattern download).

A Prairie Journal quilt

That morning I was thinking about the quilters who DO want to try applique, but are just afraid to get started. And in particular, I was thinking about vines... beautiful vines in the border of a quilt are so striking. But the marking of the vine border can be intimidating, and patterns don't always provide full scale diagrams. So, I'm sure some quilters look at the instructions and say "Maybe not".

I remember that fear well. In 1999 I designed a border to surround a pieced quilt center. I had never before appliqued a vine border at the time. It was a fairly involved design, and it took me awhile to overcome the fear and take the plunge. Below is a portion of my first appliqued border with vine.

Detail, "Summer Cottages" 2000

But I wanted there to be an easier way for the beginner. So I designed this print as a part of the A Prairie Journal line. I call it The Strippy Vine Print:

A Prairie Journal 9919-44

I designed the print as a kind of blank canvas for the applique beginner or student. The printed vine is your template to add shapes such as flowers, leaves, berries, birds, etc.

Here is the paper version of the Strippy Vine Print that I used at my Quilt Market Schoolhouse to illustrate the "Before" and "After" of adding appliques to the yardage:

The printed vine is also meant to be the placement guide for applying the bias vine after your shapes are added. There are several methods you can use to make bias vines. The printed vine on The Strippy Vine print is 3/8" wide. In a previous blog post I explain how to make bias vines using pressing bars. If you are using the pressing bar method, cut your bias strips 1 1/4" wide x the length you will need to cover your vine. To review my pressing bar tutorial CLICK HERE.

Another way to make bias vines is to use a bias tape maker.  Cut your strips 3/4" wide when using this method. Below I am using a Clover 3/8" bias tape maker to press under the edges of the strip:

If you don't have a bias tape maker handy, you can make one yourself. Cut a 3/8" slit in a piece of thin cardboard or chipboard. Finger press the edges of one end of your 3/4" wide fabric strip to get started, so that the raw edges meet in the center.Insert through the slit and begin pulling the strip through the slit, pressing the edges as you go:

Add your appliques and stems first to the vine, using any applique method you like:

Then place your vine over the printed vine to cover your stems:

I have designed four free to use patterns using The Strippy Vine Print that you can find on the Henry Glass & Co. website. Click on the picture below to take you to the page.

The Strippy Vine Print can also be used for a horizontal strip quilt. Here is another of the patterns I designed for use with the print that is a free download on the Henry Glass website. 

Folk Art Strippy

You can even cut apart the borders from The Strippy Vine Print to add a touch of applique to any project. There are thirteen coordinates in the A Prairie Journal line and here are a few of the coordinates that look particularly good with The Strippy Vine Print:

I can't wait to get the full yardage in June and begin playing with The Strippy Vine Print!

Until next time!

Martha