Invisible Machine Applique: Simply Amazing

Last week, I took a workshop from fabric/pattern designer and quilter Kim Diehl. She came to our quilt guild for two days of workshops to teach her method of invisible machine appliqué. In case you're not in the know, appliqué (in quilting terms) is a method used to create designs on a quilt with pieces placed on top of the fabric and then sewn in place--either by hand or machine.

There are several different ways to appliqué, but I prefer the look of needle-turn for it's clean edges and no-show thread. However, needle-turn takes a lot of time because it is all done by hand. Well, Kim's invisible machine appliqué method is just what the name implies: appliqué attached by sewing machine where the thread is pretty darn near invisible. When done correctly, it looks fabulous. And that's what I've been trying to perfect on my project all week. Here is a picture of Kim's wall hanging (and the one I'm working on as well). I'll post a picture of mine when I'm finished.

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The Little Mermaid

I just finished making 13 of these Little Mermaid blocks for our quilt guild friendship block exchange. The theme this year was fairy tales. I had several fairy tales to choose from, but I had all kinds of ideas about the textures and colors you'd find under the sea, so Little Mermaid it was. At first I was unsure if I could translate my ideas to a quilt block, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm excited to go to the exchange this morning and see all the blocks I'll be getting back!

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Shooting Stars

Two years ago, I took a class from Nancy Raymond at Whimsy Cottage in Salt Lake City. She taught the class at our quilt guild spring retreat and also treated us to an amazing trunk show that showcased her fabulous whimsical and funky style.

When I signed up for the class, I had only seen a picture of the quilt and so I could not tell the amount of work involved in the piecing. What the picture doesn't show you is that the stars are hand-appliqued to the background squares, and the cream colored bursts in the middle are 3-dimensional pieces sandwiched in between each star piece. I did all the star piecing work by hand, then finished the piecing with my machine. It was also the first quilt I did on my new Fusion.

It was more work than I thought I had signed up for, but I am very pleased with the finished quilt. I recommend making this one only once. Here is a full picture of "Shooting Stars":

And a couple of close-ups to show the quilting detail:

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Valentine Wall Hanging

I finally finished this wall hanging I've been working on since last Valentine's Day just in time for this Valentine's Day!

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Grandmother's Garden in Progress

I like to have a hand-work project to keep me awake while riding in the car on road trips. And last weekend was quite a road trip as we made the 6 hour trek to and from St. George, plus the all-day trip to the Grand Canyon! Here is my progress so far, and maybe in another 10 years, I'll have enough for a whole quilt :)

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Jessi's Bedspread

Here's another quilt that is a couple of years in the making. I saw this pattern online here and made it in pinks and browns rather than the bright colors on the original pattern. I also used pink and brown chenille for the flower petals. I loved this line of fabric called "In the Pink" by Buggy Barn and thought Jessi's room would be the perfect place to put it.



I'll have to put pictures of it on her bed when I get the pillows and dust ruffle finished, walls painted, etc. In other words, don't look for it anytime soon.

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Halloween Friendship Quilt

Just in time for Halloween...

This quilt is one that I made from friendship exchange blocks from my quilt guild two years ago. For anyone not familiar with friendship exchanges, here is a brief run-down of the rules. Someone in charge chooses a theme, color, block size, etc. and organizes the exchange. If you choose to join the exchange, you will make one block for each person who participates, including yourself. For example, if 24 people join, you'll make 24 identical blocks and trade them with everyone else on swap day. It is a fun way to make a few blocks and get a bunch of different blocks in the end. Participation is optional. Creativity is encouraged.

So, this Halloween friendship exchange quilt is two years in the making and finally finished. The only rules for this one were a halloween theme and block sizes that were divisible by 3. It was fun to do--kind of like putting together a puzzle, and I am happy with the end result.

Head over to A Soft Place to Land for some great fall/halloween ideas!

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Twist and Shout

Here's a fun pattern I got for cost from my online fabric swap group. It's by Pat Speth of Nickelquilts fame and is fat quarter and charm pack friendly. I haven't checked the pattern lately, but I would imagine it could be made using a jellyroll as well. Anyway, when I saw the pattern I thought it would be fun to use charm squares from Moda's Tiddley Winks line. Even though I finished it a while ago, I haven't posted it on my blog yet. So--here it is!

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Button Up Buttercup

Wow, is Jessi a lucky girl! She got two quilts in a matter of three days. First, "Clara", and now "Button Up Buttercup". Someone in my quilt guild showed this pattern about a year ago, and I loved it. So, when Moda's Spring Fling line came out, I thought it would be perfect for my girls. (Now, keep in mind this quilt is a year in the making--that's about how fast my kids get their projects from me because I take on too many personal projects and am busy quilting for customers.) Anyway, after I was sufficiently tired of hearing Jessi whine for her "Clara" quilt, I decided to push myself to get this one done. Maybe if she had this one, she wouldn't be so anxious to get the one from the LQS, right? Well, I finished this quilt about the same time she finally was reunited with "Clara". Go figure.






This is a closeup of the ragged flower in the center. I did mostly a stipple and swirl pattern in the center of the quilt, the borders were flowers, leaves, and swirls.






The back is minkee and I did it in Jessi's other favorite color: blue. Mmmmmm . . . blue minkee, so soft.






And finally, here is a close up of the borders.

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Jessi and "Clara"--BFF

Can a quilt and a little girl be best friends? Possibly. Actually, yes. I did this quilt sample for my LQS, and it's called "Clara" from P&B's Clara line. As soon as I opened the fabrics, Jessi wanted the quilt. I explained that the quilt shop wanted to display the quilt for a while because it was a new pattern with new fabrics, and they wanted to show people a finished quilt to try to sell their fabrics. I promised her that as soon as they were finished displaying the quilt, it would be all hers. We returned the finished product and waited. And waited. And waited. For a while, it hung in the middle of the shop. Then they moved it to the front window. Every time we drove past (which was a lot because it is on the way to dance lessons), Jessi would shout "There's my quilt!", and then she would ask when she could have it. I again, reassured her that she could have it when they were done displaying it. After a couple of weeks, a new quilt was being displayed in the front window. Jessi was sure they were finished and she and her quilt could finally be reunited. Not so. When we went into the quilt shop, we soon discovered that it had been moved once again. I told Jessi to be patient, and she would eventually get her quilt. She waited through several trips to the store, but finally couldn't take it any longer. Seemingly out of nowhere, she started to cry. Now, I know it was weeks and weeks of waiting finally building up, and soon she was sobbing. She begged me to ask someone, anyone, who worked there if she could have her quilt back. I asked when they were going to be finished with the display, and as soon as Judy saw Jessi's red eyes, she took the quilt down, carefully folded it up, and presented it to it's grateful owner. Jessi happily took "Clara" home and hugged her friend constantly so she couldn't get away. Here is a picture of the two friends reunited:

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Quilts from Fall 2007 to March 2008

"Hip to Be Square" sample I did for local quilt shop. I had an offer to buy it, but decided it's not for sale.

Baby quilt for Jayme A.

Valentine Table Topper for Laura H.

Country Threads Star for Laura H.

Half square triangle wall hanging for Becky S.

Another "Aggie Star" for Utah State University.

This is the back of the "Aggie Star".

"Hip to be Square" for Angela D.

Back of "Hip to Be Square" for Angela D. She used a microfleece blanket, and it turned out nice.

Fall table topper for Bette G.

Baby quilt for Laura L.

Baby quilt for Laura L.

Quilt guild friendship quilt blocks for Mary Ann D.

Buggy Barn Christmas Tree Skirt for Melissa S.

Buggy Barn Christmas Tree Skirt for Melissa S.

Baby quilt for Jill B. The white background was corduroy--very cute!

Lap quilt for Bette G.

One of two "English Roses" twin bedspreads for Bette G.

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My Quilts

I thought it was about time to work on my quilt blog, so here are pictures of some of the quilts I have done either for myself or as gifts--and keep in mind that these pictures are displayed in no particular order.

This is a Valentine's Day table topper that I made from a free pattern I found online. I thought it was different how the pieces looked like they were woven in and out of each other.

This is a quilt I made for the humanitarian quilt project in my quilt guild last year. I believe it went to an orphanage in Mexico.

I made this as a gift for Miss Turpin, Alison's 4th grade teacher, from all the students in her class as a teacher appreciation gift. The kids got to choose their fabric from some of my scraps, trace their own hands, cut them out, and sign their names. So, in a way, they helped make it, too.

This is a 4th of July sample I did for my local quilt shop. They supply the fabric, and I do the labor. Then, they keep the quilt to display for a few weeks or months, and after that, I get to keep it. The pattern is called "Cherry Cheesecake", and the fabric is Moda 76 Trombones.

I wanted to do a quilt with a variety of quilting stitches so I could show customers some ideas of what I can do on the machine, so I made this quilt that I call "Spring Pinwheels". I didn't have a pattern for it, I just sort of made it up, and I like how bright and cheery it is.

I wanted to try quilting on my regular sewing machine, and this was my attempt at doing just that. I found it is definitely much easier to quilt straight lines on the regular machine as opposed to the long arm, but it is more bulky to work with shoving and turning the fabric around as I go. This is a pattern from Thimbleberries called "Sticks and Stones".

Thanks to Jayme for organizing the sister's quilting weekend (no, not Sisters, Oregon, which I would like to do someday, but all the Kartchner sisters got together and made our own variation of the same pattern). This pattern is "Turning Twenty", and is a great pattern for beginners.

Here is my halloween table topper/wall hanging that I made with Jayme and Margene a couple of years ago.

This is another sample for the local quilt shop. The fabric line is "Mistletoe Manor" by 3 Sisters for Moda, and the pattern is called "Checkerboard Posies". It doesn't look very much like Christmas, but it is anyway. I liked the different textures in the fabrics--and they were a challenge to quilt around.

This is a sideways view of a quilt I made from McCall's Quilting Magazine some time ago. It was one of the very first quilts I machine quilted, and if you look closely, I'm sure you can tell.

This is Alison's first quilt she ever pieced. She entered it in the county fair, and it won a blue ribbon! We call it "Bubblegum Picnic" because the colors are bright like bubble gum.

This is a baby quilt I made for my friend Marianne's cute baby, Alex. Then they moved. We miss you!

This is "Winter Blooms" by Buggy Barn. I made only one row, but the pattern actually has 3 rows. It has lots of little pieces, and I am hereby announcing I will never make it again. I am happy to have this one, though.

I like to find projects to use the 5 inch square packs (charm packs) that the fabric stores sell. It is a good and inexpensive way to get a piece of every fabric in a new fabric line. This fabric line is "Chocolat" by 3 Sisters for Moda, and I just sewed the squares together, added borders, and voila!--instant table topper!

Speaking of 5 inch squares, this is a "Nickel Quilt" that I made for my sister, Christine, when she got married a couple of years ago. It is made from 5 inch squares (aka "nickels"), and the patterns in this book are a great way to use up scraps, too!

Here is Jessi's princess quilt. She loves the bright colors, espcecially the pink, and the pretty princesses, castles, and puppies in the centers of each square.

This is Alison's bedspread--the pattern is "Yellow Brick Road".

I pieced these two wall hangings a long, long time ago, and they were among the first projects I experimented with on the long arm machine.

This is a wall hanging I made a while ago--I believe it is called "Home Sweet Home" by Bareroots.

I took a class to make this quilt several years ago. It was the first quilt I ever pieced, and I was hooked! The pattern is called "Minnesota Pinwheel".

This is another Bareroots pattern. I worked on the embroidery while watching and cheering for my kids at their soccer and baseball games. It is hanging in Alison's room.

After I made the flower wall hanging for Alison, I felt like Davis needed a wall hanging of his own. This is the "Bug Jar" quilt I made to go on his bedroom wall. The only problem, though, is it never really got finished, Davis grew up to quickly, and it isn't actually hanging on his wall. :( Note to self: never take on a project that won't be finished in time for it to be used.

These two quilts are "friendship" style quilts that we made with all the Kartchner girls. The rules were that you had to pick out your own dark and light fabric and make enough 9 patch blocks for everyone. Then, we exchanged all our blocks so we each got one from everybody. I put one together for Alison (on the top) and me (on the bottom). It was fun to see how everyone's quilts turned out differently.


More to come. . .

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