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

Machine Applique Versus Hand Applique

I've been using my strike-offs to get a start on making my Sentimental Stitches quilt in both colorways (free pattern download).

Sentimental Stitches Quilt - Green Version

Sentimental Stitches Quilt - Red Version

I love both colorways, so my plan is to try to make both after I receive more fabric. Each quilt is about 56" square with 6" appliqued blocks, so I'm hoping I can get both done.

Here are the blocks I've completed so far. Three blocks for the red version and one block for the green version:

Just for fun, I decided to have a little competition between machine applique and hand applique while making the blocks. I timed how long it would take to make one by machine with turned under edges, and how long it would take to make one with the needle turn hand applique method.  I held out a little hope that needle turn by hand would reign supreme, but unfortunately, it really lost big time. Of course, I have to admit, I was watching a movie part of the time, but during the parts when I had my nose to the grindstone, I would have already finished one by machine.

Why did I want needle turn to win out? Most importantly, I find it so relaxing, and love working with a needle and thread. Second, the preparation of needle turn is a breeze. But, I added the preparation time into the total time, so unfortunately, it didn't make up for the difference in how fast a machine can stitch around the shape versus my hand!

Luckily, they all look nice in the end. Can you tell which one I stitched by hand?

Until next time,

Martha

How to Make Perfect Circles and Berries for Hand Applique

Last month, at International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, I offered two demonstrations for quilt shop owners in the Henry Glass Fabrics booth. The first demo was how to make skinny stems for hand applique. The second demo was how to make perfect circles and berries for hand applique. We recorded the second demo to share with you!

Turn up the volume, I need a microphone!

This is the method I have used to make hundreds of circles and berries for a multitude of projects, and which gives the very best results!

Until next time,

Martha

Mission Accomplished - International Quilt Market Pittsburgh Spring 2014

It was three weeks before I was scheduled to leave for International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. My challenge was to design and construct a small quilt using fabric from my new new line, Sentimental Stitches, to display in the Henry Glass Fabrics booth. The strike-offs (samples of fabric to test the printing) I had just received, were small, all of them around 11" x 13" in size. It would have to be a mostly appliqued quilt, given the amount of fabric I had to work with.

Here is the design I came up with:

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the golden beige seed print for the background, nor the olive tonal lacy bouquet for the stems, so I had to substitute a similar solid for those two fabrics.

I was in such a rush, when I put together the center motif, I didn't pay attention to the placement of the inner green wedges. Darn! I would have to make another one!

Here is the second and better attempt placed onto the solid stems and background. The flowers are in the process of being stitched down.

I finished the quilt top on Tuesday night. Now to quilt it! I pieced together a backing, basted the quilt and began machine quilting. First I outlined each shape, then I finely stippled the background. The dogtooth border I quilted in continuous curves. Finished at 5 pm, Mission Accomplished. Time to pack and leave in the morning.

Here it is displayed in the Henry Glass Fabrics booth:

I also prepared a little sample piece for my demo on how to make skinny stems and perfect appliqued circles:

In between demos at the Henry Glass Fabrics booth, I had a chance to visit the booths of some fellow Arizona designers at quilt market.

Angie Steveson, of Lunch Box Quilts, specializes in machine embroidered applique. Here we are with her newest pattern, Mixed Mutts, behind us:

Nancy Shamy, whose pattern company is Kenzie Mac & Co., designs patterns for quilts, totes, aprons, and home dec., many using jute upholstery webbing:

And last, here I am with Cindy Oates, of Taylor Made Designs. Cindy is a thirty year veteran in the industry, and this year her focus for quilt market was the beginner sewer, with a revamped Pajama Pant and skirt pattern as her latest pattern additions.

Be sure to ask your local quilt shop to bring in Sentimental Stitches!!!

 

Until next time,

Martha

Sentimental Stitches! - My new fabric line with Henry Glass Fabrics

 

 

My Sentimental Stitches fabric line has a subtle sewing theme, with shades of red, olive green, gold and tan. I received strike-offs of the line this past Thursday! They need a little adjusting, but are looking good!

 

 

Here is another print from the line, with little sewing strawberries:

To see more of the line Click Here. The delivery to quilt shops is scheduled for October. Can't wait!

Tomorrow (April 28th) is the first day of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour to kick off the release of Volume 9!

My block is on the cover! Woo Hoo! Here is a quick link to begin the blog tour. Be sure to check in with me on Wednesday, which is my day to blog about my block, and to offer a chance to win a free copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Vol. 9!
 
http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/

Until Wednesday,

Martha