East Meets West and a Giveaway

East Meets West

Beautiful fabrics from the Sakura Collection by Benartex

Today I am blogging at the Benartex site and give a great tutorial for how to make these lovely circles without any hand work. I put them into a small quilt that I hope will inspire you.

Butterflies remind me of Spring. Are you coming, Spring?

You can find out about the giveaway at the Sew in Love with Fabric blog. They will create the parameters for the contest. I will be giving away a set of fat quarters of the Sakura Collection. Good Luck!

Ruffles and Stuff

First attempt at a skirt for my 6 week old granddaughter!

Welcome to my day for the Ruffles Blog Hop. Many thanks to Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy and Madame Samm of Sew We Quilt. They do their best to keep us all in line.

I spent several weeks sweating bullets over this hop. I didn't want to do another quilt, another pillow, or another apron. I got inspired by a tiny applique block I've had for years (I share it later) and then when my daughter Audrey asked me to make a dotted skirt for my new granddaughter Eva last week, well - I remembered the 10 yards of ruffled eyelet I bought at a thrift shop a few years ago. BINGO!

The first skirt went down to her ankles. Ooops! Back to the sewing machine.

Second skirt. More ruffle than fabric.

Well, you really can't tell how cute it is until you see it on my cute granddaughter, Eva. (That is pronounced A-va, not E-va; my son in law is from Spain)

Aren't I just the cutest little girl? And how about those shoe/sox?

Audrey brought her friend Leah and her baby, who's about 6 months old. I made her a skirt in orange, with ruffles of course!

Orange with the same ruffle.

And what did Audrey and Leah make while I was busy making ruffled skirts? Ruffled headbands!

This was my daddy's t-shirt yesterday. Today it's my ruffled headband!

OK. Now to what I made FIRST with the little, tiny block I have had here for at least 15 years.
 

Tiny Sunbonnet Sue block, 3-1/2" square!

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OK. What did I do with her, hmmm? Well, first for the construction of the ruffle:

Cut two strips about 2-1/2" wide and joined them along the diagonal

Trim away the excess. The diagonal line makes for less bulk when it's folded

Note that I pressed this seam open

See how the diagonal seam makes for less bulk

Time to gather this double-fold strip. Love those 1930s prints!

Long basting stitch by machine

Yes, this is messy, but it will be covered by a backing and stuffed with polyfil

 

Isn't she the cutest? Please don't look at the corners. I really struggled with this tiny thing!

 And how does she look stuffed?

Tiny little Sunbonnet Sue pillow

I pulled out two of my oldie-goldie Sunbonnet Sue quilts and had my new little pillow pose with them. Wanna see?

Applique Sunbonnet Sue from at least 10 years ago

These are machine embroidered Sunbonnets. A LOT OF THREAD!

The quilt above uses authentic feedsack in the border. The blocks are embroidered with a bazillion stitches each (maybe 14,000). But I truly love this little quilt. It's at least 15 years old.

Now, I'm done. Hope you enjoyed my ruffling and stuffing. Please visit the other bloggers who share my day. I'm sure there will be a lot of inspiration!

March 6^th 

Lily Patch Quilts

Hill Valley Quilter

Missy's Homemaking Adventure

Quilt in a not-Shell

Debby Kratovil Quilts (that's me)

Quilt Doodle Designs

 QuiltnQueen

On the Road Again!

Twisted Hexagons Table Mat, option #1

I'm starting my teaching cycle for 2014 with the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo and it begins on Thursday, March 6: 4 days on, 3 days off for 6 weeks in a row! Yikes! Can someone check on my husband and dog? Actually, it's a good arrangement and I work with some of the most wonderful people on the planet. What are my classes?

Twisted Hexagons, see above pic. And this class has the option to select to make the table runner:

Three Block Table Runner

I share various other projects of inspiration. But, I have to move on to my next classes . . .

English Paper Piecing: Grandmother's Flower Garden Blocks

No sewing machines. No hurry. No kidding! Handwork and relaxation. Never thought I'd say those two words together, but this class is a wonderful addition to my busy sewing machine schedule of classes. What else do I show?

Double Hexie

How to applique this to a background square!

Now for the machine quilter:

Free Motion Quilting within a stencil outline

Free motion various shapes:

Pebbles? In a circle?

You can see more at the Sewing Expo web site listing of cities and classes.

And the 4th class that seems to be a Blockbuster in each city: The Modern Vortex . . .

The Modern Vortex Quilt. Block Size: 20" x 20" . Quilt Size: 28" x 28"

And is there another color, or do we really all have to make it in red?

You can make blue, or black or purple, or . . .

And where did you get the idea to make such an awesome quilt? How about a quilt made a century ago by a quilter who didn't have a computer or a compass; probably just a dinner plate and a piece of paper!

Only God knows who made this quilt. And I bet she sits on a special throne in heaven!

While I will be busy flying or driving from city to city, I do enjoy being with my students in the classroom. I love my fellow teachers and my roommates (Helene and Nelly). I eat too many hotel meals and some junk food. We share a glass of wine in the evening and tell funny stories about crazy classroom happenings. Then I head back home to make sure my husband and dog are fine, do a few loads of laundry, a quick trip to the grocery store and repeat - again and again!

Wait until you see the next season's listing of classes. I absolutely love that I can create new classes and teach brand new things. I can't ask for anything better! If you are taking a class from me, I am honored!

Where Am I Now?

Flower Pots and Stars, circa 1920

I have looked for this quilt off and on for years. It captured my heart over 3 decades ago. I found it in Metropolitan Home Magazine, January 1982 on a page titled: Design Portfolio, Moderne Quilts.  The caption said: "Flower Pots and Stars, circa 1920. Pieced in carnival pastels, this original quilt has the verve of early Disney animation." No kidding! The quilt was courtesy of American Hurrah of New York, which is no longer in business. I did contact a few quilt historians to see if they remember the quilt, but alas, nothing.

I called it Metropolitan Home Star and used it as the basis of a quilt featured on the cover of my second book, Supersize 'Em Quilts. I wanted to call it Metropolitan Home Star, but my publisher nixed that idea. I just called it "That Spikey Thing . . .

That Spikey Thing on the cover of my second book

Those are 21" blocks so I could paper piece the spikes on a regular piece of paper (7" printable section). You only paper piece 4 units per 21" block. The other 5 squares can feature a nice, large scale print.

I also made this quilt as a class sample using batiks

That Spikey Thing with a staggered block setting

Lastly, I found a picture of a quilt featured in an April 1996 issue of Quilter's Newsletter that reproduced Flower Pots and Stars, eliminating the top row with the single pot and two sets of spikes. It was made by Miriam Allen and she called it Joy of Spring.

Why have I posted about this today? Well, I was cruising the Pinterest boards and came upon the Antique and Vintage Quilts board of Darra Williamson (a professional quilter, famous in her own right for a few decades). It just took my breath away. She has over 750 pins of the most glorious quilts and you can bet where I'm spending my Pinterest time in the next few weeks!

I think that Flower Pots and Stars quilt is enjoying living in a private home somewhere. She will surface one day and capture more hearts with her exuberant colors and come-look-at-me attitude! Until then, if you happen to see her, will you tell her I'm looking for her?

Improvisational Quilting and More

From my No Sneaky-Peeky class

I partnered with Windham Fabrics a few years ago to "pattern" 8 of the Gee's Bend quilts (with permission, OF COURSE, from the original quiltmakers). From that I created a class called - are you ready? - No Sneaky Peeky. Each student got a brown lunch bag, stapled shut, filled with strips, strings and various pieces of these Gee's Bend hand dyed batiks. From there we had to put our hands in, pull out a few strips and ONLY sew with what we got without peeking. Crazy, huh? But a lot of fun and everyone's quilt was so different.

(You can see several of my Gee's Bend quilts on my Craftsy pattern site; look on right  sidebar >>>>)

Fractured Jewels - on my way to a second class

Then I was asked by the Sewing Expo (for whom I teach in 16 cities a year) to create another improvisational class, which I called - are you ready? - Improvisational Adventure. My first attempt was making the Fractured Jewels pattern you see above. But the Education Director wanted something even more creative. But this Fractured Jewels quilt went on to inspire the Marketing Director for Windham to use it as the basis for one of their patterns called - are you ready? - Fractured Jewels. (Look - if I sweat bullets naming my 3 daughters, how in the world can I name quilts?)

Yes, you can have the free pattern. Go here: Fractured Jewels

I created a class whereby the students got 12 fat eighths (9" x 22") of different Gee's Bend solids. I walked them through making simple log cabin blocks, variations of log cabins by cutting them up or adding extra strips and we got my Improvisational Adventure Quilt (appearing in the Winter 2014 issue of Modern Patchwork) . . .

Improv Adventure Quilt - my son in law Dani's FAVORITE quilt, hanging in his foyer

Now, you are probably trying to figure out where one block ends and another one begins. Allow me to show you:

9 Blocks in the Improv Adventure Quilt

I disguised the blocks with sashing and strips, etc. Fun!

Allow me to show you another quilt from a third class which I called Modern Quilt Blocks. I used solid reading fabrics with a khaki/gray background. Strip piecing, slicing and trading units with classmates and we got this:

Modern Quilt Blocks #1

And this . . .

A single block using the same pattern as above

What would they look like with a dark navy background with different piecing?

Navy background. Not crazy about it, but I have to audition fabrics before I know what's going to work.

I have more quilts to share at another time. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my quilts from past classes.

Happy Birthday, George - and a giveaway

George Washington - the first president of the United States of America

Today is the zillionth anniversary of the birthday of George Washington. Not really, but you get what I mean.

George was a man of integrity and never lost heart as he led our fledgling country to independence back in the 1700s.

I was listening to NPR this week and the announcer said on "President's Day" - February 17 -  that "today was the birthday of  George Washington . . .". Dude - just because we celebrate both Lincoln's (Feb. 12) and Washington's (Feb. 22) birthday on the same day - to conserve holiday time off - doesn't mean that it's literally the ACTUAL day. And this guy was not young, so he had to remember when we had both days off from school.

I remember when I was in school (a hundred years ago) that we actually celebrated BOTH days as holidays. Sigh. We've lost sight of how important each man was to the founding and birth pangs of our new country.

Those who don't live here - just overlook my tribute. I LOVE AMERICA and wouldn't want to live (for an extended period of time) anywhere else. America: the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE.

Happy Birthday, George. And thanks to Windham Fabrics for that awesome fabric released several years ago (Old  Glory). Gotta love it and find something awesome to do with it. Maybe give it to my daughter who is a high school teacher? Hmmm . . .

How about a giveaway? Only to USA residents. Just leave a comment and I'll have a giveaway of 1 yard of this fabric (this guy's head is HUGE on this fabric).

Tell me what you'd do with it!!! Contest over Monday, February 24 at midnight.

Mardi Gras, Staggered Stars Quilt and Free Pattern

Staggered Stars Quilt - 64" x 64"

Just in time for Mardi Gras and all the purple and gold! This quilt reminds me of New Orleans and the raucous celebrations that take place there for Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler. (Don't ask me what that means; I'm only quoting from my friend Jeannine, who has a Mardi Gras party every year about this time). There is a story here about this quilt and how it made its way to New Orleans . . .

I made this quilt over 10 years ago and it appeared in Quilt Magazine while I was an editor. It was simple to make - yes - even that center star. It's just an illusion of weaving, all done with color placement. Simple squares and triangles easily rotary cut - and very large patches - make for a fun block to sew.

And who says that rows of stars have to line up like cookie cutter shapes? Stagger your blocks for visual interest. There are 3 sizes of blocks: 24" center star (wow!), 12" stars surrounding the center, and 6" stars for the four corner sashes.

Do you remember our Hurricane Katrina back in the early 2000's? I was living in Atlanta then and heard about a family of four who were staying temporarily with a neighbor because their home was literally underwater outside of New Orleans. They had escaped to Atlanta to find shelter and my neighbor took them in for a few weeks. A little voice in my head (I like to think it was God) said that I should gather up a quilt for each one and this one was included. Why? It was for the dad because gold and purple are popular colors down in that part of Louisiana. I gave the mom a quilt of houses - with the promise that she will have a home again soon, I believed. The two girls got girlie quilts (I can't even remember which ones).

You can have the free pattern for this Staggered Stars Quilt just by clicking the link. I hope you enjoy it and whoever you gift it to (even yourself), smiles are the result.