QuiltWoman.com Blog

Quilt Patterns using Marblehead Fabrics

QWBlog — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:47:41 +0000

MarbleHead

Ro Gregg

Ro Gregg has long been a friend of QuiltWoman.com. She has collaborated on a number of patterns with some of our designers. Because of this special relationship we have with Ro, we were able to get in on the ground floor of her new fabric line, Marblehead for Paintbrush Studios.

Because of our early knowledge of what these fabrics would look like, we gave our designers a task; design stunning quilt patterns based on this fabulous collection of fabrics. The designers did not disappoint us!

Cary Flanagan, designer of the very popular Take Four Placemat Pattern, has created two patterns that are distinctly Cary.

Here Comes the Sun

A Wreath for All Seasons

Barb Sackel, one of our most prolific designers, very quickly came up with eight (count’em…eight) patterns. Barb’s patterns are very geometric and will assemble quickly. As a bonus, the Mount Everest Quilt Pattern is AccuQuilt GO! compatible.

Mount Everest	Sand Dune
Transitions	Beach Fun
Down the Beaten Path	Safari Fun
Tidal Wave	Checkerboard Galaxy

L&L Studios is a collaboration between Lacey J. Hill and Lorraine Freed. Many of their patterns take advantage of the coordinating fabric panels from the Marblehead collection.

Heavenly Hibiscus	Spooky Fun
Rosie Romance	College Bound Sawtooth
Cascading Ribbons	Peppermint Twist

Ann Anderson has prior experience in designing quilt patterns for earthy looking fabrics. She has come up with a stunner for this new fabric line.

Marble Pools

Reeze LaLonde of Morning Glory Designs has created a pattern that uses the medallions on one of the panels as focus blocks on her design.

Market Place Mosaic

And last but not least, we have a new designer, Dawn Conery. Her inaugural pattern for QuiltWoman.com is a beautiful arrangement of easy curved pieced blocks.

Stargazer Nights

We suggest you pick out your favorite Marblehead pattern from QuiltWoman.com, then run to your nearest independent quilt shop and pick out your favorites colors amongst the 70 or so (we are showing just a fraction of the collection on the left). We would LOVE to see what you create!

Apron Patterns!

QWBlog — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:56:08 +0000

Aprons seem to be all the rage these days. We have patterns for adults, children, and one of our designers even created a FREE (love that word!) tutorial on how to make an apron for a doll. Let’s see what we have! Most of these patterns are available as downloadable ePatterns!

Adjustable Aprons Pattern

It’s appropriate that this apron pattern was designed by a mother and daughter team. These aprons fit adults and children. It’s a fun project for anyone!

FREE Matching Doll Apron Pattern

18" Doll Apron Pattern

As a bonus, Jen (the daughter) has designed a pattern for an 18″ doll (think American Girl Dolls). You can the FREE pattern here from Jen’s Blog. I’m betting her daughter’s doll has one!

If you want to go a little simpler, try out this next pattern.

Super Simple Apron Pattern

This pattern takes only 1 yard of fabric! Customize the pockets any way you want, have fun with this! Get the Super Simple Apron Pattern here.

Retro Clothespin Apron Pattern

“Retro” seems to be all the rage these days. Bring Retro into your kitchen! One size fits all. Get the Retro Clothespin Apron pattern here.

Tool Apron Pattern

Not thrilled with being in the kitchen? How about an apron that you wear in the sewing room? Get organized and have everything right at your fingertips! Get the Tool Apron Pattern here.

Sew It Goes Apron Pattern

If you want a sewing room apron that is tad fancier, then try Barb’s other tool apron. This one is asymmetrical with loads of pockets. Get the Sew It Goes Apron Pattern here.

Mommy, Dolly and Me Aprons

Molly, Dolly and Me Aprons Pattern

This is a cute trio of aprons. Mom can make one for herself, her daughter and her daughter’s favorite 18″ doll. Any little girl would love one! Get the Mommy, Dolly and Me pattern here.

Aprons are fun, and they don’t need to be plain and simple. Let your inner Martha Stewart out and create an apron that is uniquely you!

The Quilting Community helps a Girl Scout

QWBlog — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:17:07 +0000

One of our staff members is a Girl Scout leader, and one of her Scouts, Erika, was working on her Gold Award, the highest award given by the Girl Scouts. A variety of quilters in the QuiltWoman.com family were recruited to help.

Erika’s project involved Art Therapy. She led the construction of 60 “Doodle Bags” and filled them with crayons, coloring books, and a “Feel Good” booklet that she put together.

60 Doodle Bags!

The design for the Doodle Bag came from one of our designers, Jen Eskridge. A while back, she had posted on her ReannaLily Designs website a tutorial on constructing a fat quarter drawstring backpack . We remembered that and let Erika know. That took care of the need for a pattern.

Fat Quarter Drawstring Backpack

Fat Quarters were needed next. A local quilt shop donated over 50 fat quarters. The rest of the fabric came from donations from various church sewing groups.

When it came time to sew the bags, Erika tapped a number of groups. One group included some QuiltWoman.com designers. Alison Vandertang and Ann Dudek joined forces with other local quilters and helped sew the Doodle Bags.

Sewing the Doodle Bags

The final contribution from the quilting community came from QuiltWoman.com. Erika needed to get her booklet published, and we just happen to be publishers. Nancy Dill, our company president and herself a former Girl Scout leader, subsidized printing of the booklets (shown below under the coloring book).

Doodle Bag Contents

The Doodle Bags were donated to the Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Young patients there will use them to help make their stays a little more pleasant.

It is always great to see a young lady succeed at a major project that gives back to the community. It is equally great to see the quilting community step up and help out. We’ve always said “Quilters are the best.” This proves it! Congratulations Erika on your Gold Award. All of us quilters were glad to help!

The Whirlwind Whiz Tool!

QWBlog — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:09:04 +0000

Sometimes, the best ideas are right in your own backyard. The Whirlwind Whiz is one of those bright ideas! It is the brain child of Nancy Wilson of Nancy’s Quilt Designs.

Nancy took up quilting seven years ago. Quilting was a perfect way for her to combine her passion for creating art and engineering skills (she has a degree in Chemical Engineering).

One day while making quarter square triangles for a whirlwind block, Nancy’s engineer brain decided there had to be a better way. The traditional method of making quarter square triangles is to cut your squares, slice them into triangles, and then sew your triangles together. See the diagram below.

Traditional method for making quarter square triangles

What if you no longer had to cut square into 4 triangles and then sew them into pairs? There must be a better way. And there was! Thus the Whirlwind Whiz was born! This new tool let’s you make four identical quarter square triangle pairs by sewing 2 squares together and then doing the cutting.

The Whirlwind Whiz Tool

We caught wind of this nifty little tool when we saw it mentioned in a newsletter from a local quilt shop, Amelia’s Fabric & Yarn Shoppe. A few phone calls later and we have a new product to offer you!

How does the tool work? Check out the short video as Nancy demonstrates it.

By cutting out 2 squares, marking them with the Whirlwind Whiz, then sewing and cutting, you end up with four matching triangle pairs!

Four identical quarter square triangles from the Whirlwind Whiz

We are currently offering two patterns that use the Whirlwind Whiz. This is the Cosmic Commotion Wall Hanging. It could easily be scaled up to make a larger quilt.

Cosmic Commotion Wall Hanging Pattern

The second pattern is Whirlwind of Fall. It looks complicated, but it’s not!

Whirlwind of Fall Center Piece Pattern

More patterns are sure to be forthcoming. You can also use the tool for any patterns you already own that use quarter square triangles. Of course, the Whirlwind Wiz tool and the patterns are all available from QuiltWoman.com! Happy Sewing!

Help us fight Heart Disease!

QWBlog — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:10:05 +0000

Fight Heart Disease in Women

National Wear Red Day is February 3, 2012

In February, QuiltWoman.com will donate 50¢ to the American Heart Association for every order* received.

Why? The American Heart Association is our favorite charity because our owner, Nancy Dill, was diagnosed with heart disease in 2010.

Heart disease is the #1 killer of women and women ARE the heart of our company.

Learn the signs of cardiovascular disease. We want our customers to be healthy! We care about you!!!

*Online retail orders placed by customers in the United States only.

Randall Cook – a Stitched Star!

QWBlog — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:57:53 +0000

Have any of you seen Stitched – The Film? The tagline for the film is “Behind every Stitch, there is a story.” To quote from the Stitched website,

“Stitched is a fun-filled documentary following three quilters racing to complete their entries for the International Quilt Festival, the largest quilt show in the nation.”

It IS a fun-filled documentary! We have watched it a number of times and never tire of it. Watch the trailer below and you will understand why. You can get your copy from the Stitched website.

We are lucky enough to have one of the stars of the film live in the Rochester, New York area where we are located. In fact, Randy Cook is a friend of our web master. Upon the occasion of Stitched being shown in Western New York, Corinne called Randy to catch up and find out what’s been happening in his life as an art quilter.

Randall Cook

QW: Let’s start with the film. Where and when is Stitched going to be shown?

Randy: The screening is being presented by O’Susannah’s Quilts and Gifts in Watkins Glen, New York on Sunday, January 29, 11:30 a.m. at The Glen Theater. I will be introducing the film and doing some Q&A at the screening. (Tickets are $20, and include lunch. See O’Susannah’s events page for more details.)

QW: How does it feel to be a quilting celebrity now?

Randy: In my daily life, I don’t notice much at all. There was an article in the paper this morning about the screening. When I went to the gym and walked into the weight room, people were calling out to me. Prior years at the International Quilt Festival, I could walk around the convention center and a few people familiar with my I Remain piece stopped me. But last fall, after Stitched was screened, I was constantly being stopped. “Hey, you are the guy in the movie!”

QW: Congratulations on winning an Honorable Mention in Houston for Fractured Self. I was thrilled to hear that!

Randy: Thank you. So was I.

Fractured Self by Randall Cook

QW: You and the gang from Stitched have another DVD out called Stretching for Quilters. How did that come about?

Randy: As you know, Hollis Chatelain is my mentor. She works with small regional groups for a 5 year (and sometimes longer) period. I am in the New England group. Since I am also a part-time fitness instructor, I volunteered to teach some stretching exercises to the group. People really liked it; Hollis said I had a calming voice. So when Stitched started happening, I pitched the idea of doing a stretching DVD to Jena Moreno (the Director and Executive Producer of Stitched) and her husband Tom Gandy (Director of Photography). They liked it!

QW: Someone must like it! I keep seeing it sell out on it’s Facebook page. So what are you working on these days?

Randy: I am working on two pieces. I may submit them to Quilt Festival this fall. One is completely abstract and the other is abstract with some figures. It’s completely bizarre. I don’t know how well received they will be, but I like them. I need to finish them first, then show them around. One of them uses a new technique incorporating knit fabrics. I don’t think I am ever going to do it again!

QW: What if you don’t like the pieces you are doing? Then what do you do about a submission to Quilt Festival?

Randy: Since I work full time as a project manager plus have my part time teaching fitness, there is not really time to start anything new from scratch. So this is it. One piece is large, quite large! It is 92″ x 95″. It might be able to be used as bed art, as a very large bed quilt. Or it could be wall art. It is 3/4 of the way done.

QW: Now you have me intrigued. I may have to sneak into your basement to take a look! What about your Dance series. Did you finish those yet?

Randy: Three of the five panels are done. Panels 1 and 5 were accepted at Festival. The third one hung in the Stitched booth at Quilt Festival. But when I was in Houston, I was thinking about the final two panels. I considered finishing them right off, but they seemed too similar to last year’s pieces to submit. So I postponed working on them until after I get done with my current projects.

Dance 1 with Dance 5 by Randall Cook

QW: Let’s get back to Stitched again. I think they did a really great job on the film.

Randy: I think they did an outstanding job! I had seen it before the showing in Houston, but never in a crowd. But it was great to be in the audience and see the reaction by over one hundred people.

QW: What was your favorite moment in the film?

Randy: Definitely the outtakes at the end. I was very self conscious about the fact that my sewing studio is in my basement. There seemed to be a lot of footage of me with the washer and dryer. In the outtakes, there is a scene where I am talking and the sump pump kicked on.

QW: I remember that! That was funny.

Randy in his basement

QW: I also thought the skiing pine cone was hilarious. To take this story about an elementary school art class and turn it into an animated stop action scene was great.

Pine cone skiing

QW: Since QuiltWoman.com is in the business of selling patterns, have you ever thought about doing a pattern?

Randy: No, I have never thought about it. Most of the things I do have are more art, the fabric has been dye painted. They aren’t pieced, they are whole cloth painted, one of a kind sort of pieces. But that might be something I should consider at some point. I really would like more time to quilt, definitely more than 5 hours a week!

QW: Good luck at the screening down in Watkin’s Glen. I can now say I know a Quilting Celebrity!

Check out all Randy’s work; art quilts and traditional pieced quilts, at http://RandallCookStudios.com.

T-shirt Quilts with a Social Purpose

QWBlog — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:00:25 +0000

A lot of unsolicited email shows up in our QuiltWoman.com in-box, as you might imagine. Hey, that is what happens when your email address is plastered all over your website! Usually we ignore these emails. But we received one that really stood out!

We were asked to take a look at the website for Keepsake Theme Quilts and Wall Hangings. After poking around, all we can say is “Wow!”

Keepsake is a “non-profit organization designed to strengthen the potential of deaf and hard-of-hearing high school students and adults.” How do they do that? The staff, the majority of which is hard of hearing, is in the business of taking customer’s t-shirts and making t-shirt quilts! The profits from their hard work are then funneled into the deaf community.

What a wonderful idea! Most of us in the quilting world would find a job such as this a dream job. The fact that this group can do more than just provide a person with a dream job is outstanding!

If anyone out there decides to utilize Keepsake Theme Quilts and Wall Hangings’ services, we’d love to know how it goes. We don’t have any experience dealing with them. It’s how they are giving back to the community that we are applauding! Way to go!

Give a wreath or swag as a gift!

QWBlog — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:15:09 +0000

We like to support our fellow businesses here in Western New York. We also know the anguish of not being able to find a unique gift for a friend or business acquaintance. Little did we realize that we could do both at the same time!

May we introduce you to Jill’s Twig Wreaths!

Jill is right around the corner from us here in our little hamlet. But a small town doesn’t mean Jill does things in a small way. Far from it! She has been and is still taking orders for handmade wreaths, buck brush twig wreaths and twig swags with a primitive country look.

Cookie Cutter Wreath

She does not only wreaths, but she does swags too.

Twig Arch with Stars or Hearts

So no matter what the season or occassion, if you need a unique gift, consider a wreath or a swag. Give Jill a visit at Jill’s Twig Wreaths.

Meet Marje RhineProlific Quilt Pattern Designer

QWBlog — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:10:46 +0000

Marje Rhine has been associated with QuiltWoman.com for a long, long time. A former systems programmer and IT manager, she stumbled on to quilting quite by accident.

“In 1999 after my Y2K project work was done I decided it was time to switch careers. My friend, Julie, had a quilt shop at the time and gave me the chance to teach quilting for her. As a joke I took home some of her fabric that was not selling and designed a pattern using the fabric. Both sold out so my new career as a quilt pattern designer started.”

And thus, Quilt Design NorthWest was born!

Marje has developed patterns with a number of unique techniques. She was big into paper piecing before paper piecing was big. Many of her most popular patterns are paper pieced.

Dance Santa, Dance Quilt Pattern

Then came Marje’s Continuous Line Appliqué (CLA) desgins. What started as designs for her longarm turned into a series of patterns.

Dragonflies Too Continuous Line Applique Pattern

Click here to see how Continuous Line Appliqué works. You can see all Marje’s CLA patterns here.

Many of Marje’s patterns feature not just a quilt, but also table runners, placemats and wall hangings. Below is just one example of Marje’s seasonal patterns. See all the seasonal “Get Set” patterns here.

Get Set for Spring Pattern

Twelve years later, Marje is still designing and being an editor or American Quilter Magazine, but not doing much teaching. If you live in the NorthWest United States, you might see Marje and her patterns at one of the many quilting shows.

See all Marje’s patterns at QuiltWoman.com!

Helle-May Cheney’s latest accomplishment

QWBlog — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:00:52 +0000

We love to tout the accomplishments of our designers. Today we pay homage to Helle-May Cheney. Helle-May, a stay-at-home mom from Flemington, New Jersey, began designing quilts as a professional outlet for her creativity when both her sons were in school full time. Her background in engineering is influential—she enjoys creating challenging geometric designs and finding the most effective techniques to make them jump successfully from paper (or computer screen) to fabric.

Helle-May has a very popular pattern with us called Driftwood. This pattern is a consistent best seller and is also available as a downloadable ePattern.

Driftwood Quilt Pattern

She also has a series of patterns that mimic the style of Scandinavian sweaters.

Scandinavian Christmas

Scandinavian Sky

Folk Dance

Helle-May’s Driftwood pattern now has a cousin. May we introduce Wild Daisy.

Wild Daisy - featured in American Quilter magazine

Read all about this cousin pattern at Quilt Views & News.

Congratulations Helle-May on your newest pattern!