I WAS IN STITCHES!

Why did I not know...there was a fabulous quilt shop in Cincinatti OH

Called STITCHES?

When my friend Kathy Guenter took me there, 

my first thought was..."man this is small"

Nope...don't let that storefront fool ya!

It was narrow but deep...lots of rooms all the way back.

We found lots of notions.

Modern patterns/designers

3 Shelves of Charley Harper fabrics

Solids on Sale!

A great sale area

with these 1/2 yd cuts at $6

And I found a remnant of a Charley Harper

Racoon Christmas print

Yes...I was in STITCHES and will go back!

CHARLEY HARPER DREAMS

Seems like a long time ago...

I found a love of Charley Harper fabrics.

I kept collecting them, and made a few smaller projects.

All became part of my guest bedroom.

Then I collected more...and found a pattern I thought

could work for a king size quilt, for the queen size bed.

I cut a lot of blocks and worked on them at intervals.

I didn't like the pattern churn dash corners...

so I just made regular Churn Dash blocks.

Fussy cut centers of many Charley Harper fabrics.

I made 36, 16" Churn Dash blocks

White GRUNGE framed all of them and I selected

a color from the fussy cut pieces for accents.

The background was a Gray with Black Polkadot.

Added a 4" drop of the background fabric

 so it would fit the Queen bed, like a comforter.

It finished at 85 x 89"

I selected Dream Cotton batting

and off she went to my friend Patty Estadt for quilting.

Here you can see the backing...a print called Stitched

and it was perfect for this backing.

I used the background fabric for the binding.

As you can see here...Patty did a beautiful E2E  free-hand 

long arm quilting desgin....not a pantograph!

I made a couple pillow cases out of the backing fabric

and here she is in all her glory!

I still have a ton of Charley Harper fabrics.

Oh gee....what will I make next?

TESTING!!! TESTING!!!

Recently I was interviewed to become a pattern tester for 

The Frannie B Quilt Company.

Two rounds of survey questions and I was in! 

Corinne Wells is the owner and 

has a staff of excellent artists and designers. 

Riley Blake is one of her fabric sponsors. 

Corrine also has released her own fabric designs.

Like this Rocky Mountain Wild

for Riley Blake

Their mission is to take vintage patterns and fabrics 

and give them a Modern feel. 

Just perfect for me!

First up…I did a read only test!

Corrine said I provided excellent feedback

on the written pattern! 

Next test, I made a quilted Christmas Stocking.

Corinne sent me these Riley Blake prints to use. 

I will be mailing this back for a Charity effort

to provide Foster kids a Christmas Stocking. 

I am currently testing on a new pattern 

for Frannie B Quilt Company

 ‘Stargazers’ 

Sizes from crib to full size and precut friendly. 

Pattern drops November .23), 2021 

My fabrics are Zen Chic, Quotation 

with a lot of scrappy Low Volume for the background. 

A stack of stars!

If you like making Flying Geese…

This pattern is for you. 

And here is my stargazers top!  

GHASTLIES IN THE GARDEN

I love a good pumpkin quilt.

HOCUS POCUS by The Pattern Basket

ended up in my sewing room.

Well Pumpkins are still around in November!

Sew take a peek!

I pulled fabrics and began to read the pattern.

I was quite disappointed to learn the instructions had

you cut and make one block at at time.

I don't always follow rules...I don't like rules.

Sew I cut the block pieces,

but did not sew them.

Sew many tiny pieces....I am not happy!

I put it away for awhile.

I had an idea, since I first saw this pattern,

 to incorporate something else into the pumpkins.

Look closely, there's something Ghastlie about to happen.

YES! I designed each Pumpkin with a piece of Ghastlies fabric in them.

There are 3 sizes of pumpkins for a total of 20 pumpkins

I was tired of making the pumpkins.  I put the stems and leaves aside

and made 7 black stars next.

After more fussying around with very tiny pieces....

and adding a border...

The top was completed!

My quilty friend, Kim Hensley, just got a Innova Computerized longarm machine.

She wanted to quilt this for me.

Well...she said...the Ghastlies demanded to be quilted!

She used a quilting design called Fall Surprise...

It's pumpkins and a vine with leaves.

Her long arm skills are moving forward like a tornado!

Binding was a black and white Ghastlies weave print.

And the Ghastlie Pumpkin Patch quilt was done!

It's sew darkly devine!

The backing is just orange yardage from my stash,

This is the 'obligatory" pic of my Hubby, Phil

with the finished quilt over him...in his recliner.

I have been taking these pics for years!

I hope your Pumpkin Patch is full of great color and dark shadows!

PUMPKINS AGLOW 2021

Franklin Park Conservatory always has a great display of Pumpkins. 

The Pumpkins Aglow  is a lighted tour at night. 

I made it to the day light version with my Pumpkin Quilt I made in 2018.

They say a picture is worth a thousands words…

Hope your pumpkins were aglow…too!