Snowfall in the snow

 I took some pictures of Snowfall after the snowstorm last weekend. 

You can see the quilting better in these sunny pictures, but also the wrinkles from being folded up. It was hard to maneuver it around on the snow by myself. 

I guess I need to throw it in the dryer for a bit to shake the wrinkles out and take more pictures. It did look pretty on the snow. 

Piping Hot Topper

 I've designed a series of tabletopper/runner style quilts that I'm teaching monthly right now. The first one was the Piping Hot Topper. I chose it to be first because it's an all around fun design and easy to make using just about any fabrics. Holiday prints and other novelties can easily be fussy cut and used in the square in a square blocks. We had a lot of fun checking out everyone's fabrics. I gave them a precutting list, so some of them finished the top in class. It finishes at 30". 

If you click on the pictures, you can see each one had a theme. The pattern can be used in different ways. I made these pillows by using the pattern but differently.

This pillow uses the center of the pattern only.

This pillow uses the whole pattern except the last border. It showcases the cute gnomes in the square in a square blocks too.  I like patterns that can be adjusted to make other things. This one does it very easily. Now that I've taught the pattern in class, it is offered in my Quiltinjeanie Designs Etsy shop for purchase. The others will be offered there as well once I've taught the class. Next up in class next week is Spicy Jars. 

my Piping Hot Topper

Family times

December was a busy month and we had a couple of family gatherings. It was nice to get together with family again. I got to meet my new great nephew, Hayden when he came to visit from Wisconsin. What a cutie and had lots of smiles to share. I had made him a quilt using 2 different block patterns from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I love her animal patterns and she offers quilt patterns and also some of the cute blocks as stand alone block patterns. I used the Love Birds block, the Elephant block and some half square triangles to make a design of my own. The patterns are easy to download and follow. I've used several of her other patterns to make similarly adorable dog quilts. I'm working on some cats now.

 

Do you label your quilts? I try to and have started adding a baby pic to the label for these family quilts.

Elephant Walk

This really has nothing to do with anything, but doesn't Conrad look warm and comfy? I made this basket a few months ago, but it was empty the other day and he claimed it.

I have been quilting and finishing some quilts I designed and taught classes on when I started teaching classes about 16 years ago. I gifted one each to my sisters and brother. (He was gone when I took this picture. I also gave quilts to my daughters and son-in-law for Christmas. 

This is my daughter Wendy with her quilt. I need to nudge the others to take pix with theirs so I have them. 

I bet there were lots of quilts gifted over the holidays!

Snowfall

 Last summer I received an email that a design I had submitted was going to be in the Jan/Feb. 2022 Love of Quilting magazine. The design was my version of clouds of snow coming down and ending softly on the ground. Living in the Midwest, snowfall can sometimes be really annoying, especially when you have to get somewhere, but it can also be really beautiful as it comes down, coating all the trees and landscape in a coat of white. 

It was exciting to hear and I got busy and started making it. The blocks at the top of the quilt are bigger and somewhat darker...then they get lighter as they get to the bottom. I didn't use ombre fabric, but gave it an ombre look by using the fabrics that I did.

I was on retreat when I finished it, so put a quilt on this large cutting table and used it press the quilt. I was worried it would get dirty...so much white! 

I asked a friend and local long arm quilter, Michael, to quilt it. I wanted snowflakes, but nothing too heavy.  He had an edge to edge he liked and came up with the idea to redesign the computerized pattern to quilt it heavier in the lighter areas of the quilt and lighter in the areas where the blocks were more pronounced. Sort of a reverse ombre to the pattern I had made with the blocks. 

He sent me pix as he worked and after it was finished. The ombre quilting doesn't show up well in the magazine pix, but you can see it better in these. I didn't get a lot of pictures taken of it before I sent it off, so hope to get some better ones of the quilting when I get it back. 

It was a great idea and finished off the quilt nicely. 

Piping Hot Topper

I started a new six month series of classes recently that focuses on smaller projects. Piping Hot Topper is the first one in the series and finishes at 30" x 30". I started with this one because it lends itself well to using focus fabrics in the corner squares and could be used for any seasonal fabrics. I made mine using some summery prints I have been eyeing for awhile. 

At the pattern size, it could be used to make a floor pillow top as well. I made a couple of pillow tops using the pattern as a guide. The holiday pillow above uses the pattern minus the final border to make a pillow that is 24" x 24". The batik version below uses only the center block, adding a border to finish at 12" x 12". I made both with an envelope style back so it's easy to wash if necessary.

I personally like a pattern that can be versatile with more than one use, so I think others probably do too. 

Everyone in the class chose such pretty fabrics. I neglected to get pix of all of them, so will do that next time. 

I'm also going to teach them how to make and attach a faux piping binding as part of this class. Since the projects are smaller, I thought it would be a good time to try it if they want to. The Piping Hot Topper pattern is now available in my Etsy Shop. 

Finishing a Stack N Whack

 

I've been working on getting some oldies but goodies quilted and finished this year. I made several Stack N Whack from Bethany Reynold's book and taught the technique in classes, but never got this Lemoyne Star top finished.

I know a lot of quilters make lists of UFOs and tick them off as they go. I like that idea, but didn't think of doing it with these tops. I realize the blue dots probably don't really go with the style of fabric on the front, but the blue sort of matches the blue in the quilt and that has to be good enough this time. 😀 

I ordered it along with 3 others when an online shop had a good sale. So I am set to quilt the next 3 ufos too. I think the quilt panto looks like cinnamon rolls.

 It's a whole lot of yellow, but I wanted the kaleidescope blocks to blend in with the background and 

do love the result.

I had a hard time finding a binding as the colors in this print are unusual, but I think this rusty burgandy works.