If you haven't guessed by now, I really love patriotic quilts -- or at least quilts in patriotic fabrics. This quilt is one I made for Mom and she has it on her door at her assisted living center. The half block corner layout can be a little tricky to draft in Electric Quilt. Let me share my secrets with you in this week's video. For those that would prefer to just have the foundation patterns for the blocks, they are included here. Just click on the following links. Please double check the sizes of the foundations and adjust as necessary. I find that different printers may make minor (but potentially problematic) changes to the sizes. You will want to make sure "fit to page" is not checked on your printer settings. The star block is 4 inches finished (4-1/2" unfinished). One edge of all the stripes should also be 4 inches. If you decide to make this quilt, I would love to see photos. Row by Row Experience Shop HopFour Seasons Quilt Shop asked me to write up instructions for their row quilt for the Row by Row Experience Shop hop. Their quilt is a Maple Leaf quilt. You can pick up a copy of the pattern in their shop during July and August. I was reading about the Row by Row Experience. There are 1250 shops from all over the country that are participating. The idea is that while you travel during July and August, you can stop at one of these shops and pick up the original pattern for that shop. There are prizes if you are one of the first to actually complete a quilt using eight different rows. Are you planning to participate? I have a couple of mini-trips planned during the next couple of months. I am looking forward to visiting some of these shops. Happy quilting. Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt.
Back in my early years of using Electric Quilt, there were a number of "letter" exchanges. This was before the Text Applique feature was added to EQ. This was a chance to get an entire alphabet of a particular font, while only drafting a couple of letters. The other bonus of the exchange was that it gave us a chance to practice using the applique drawing features in EQ. Through Art and Stitch (the program I use for creating digitized designs for my longarm), I was introduced to a font called Hawaiian Quilt. Each letter is a Hawaiian Quilt block. Click on the photo for a pdf of the entire alphabet. I was realizing this week that my applique drafting skills in EQ have gotten a little rusty. To challenge myself to relearn them, I decided to start tracing the Hawaiian Quilt block alphabet. I decided to start with E, as I liked the block. Check out my video on how I drew this block using Electric Quilt. I would love to hear any additional tips for drafting this block in EQ. Please post in the comment section. Sun RaysI just released my latest pattern. The Sun Rays quilt is based on a favorite antique block. The quilt may be completed with seven fabrics or may be scrapped. I suggest using just one background fabric for continuity. On the cover quilt, I used a controlled scrap technique. For this technique, I used the same fabric in each of the main blocks, but used different fabrics for each of these blocks. (For example, I had 12 different Medium Tans – one for each block.) Size options include: Wall Hanging (34” x 34”); Lap (66” x 82”); Full (82” x 98”); Queen (98” x 98”). Here is my cover quilt. It will be on display at the Minnesota Quilt Show next week -- as part of the faculty quilt exhibit. If you will be in St. Cloud for this event, you can check the quilt out in person. Here is a draft of the wall quilt version in Electric Quilt. There are two recommended tools. V Block Trimmer™ from Studio 180 Design is used for cutting pieces and trimming down finished tall star point units. Diamond Rects™ is a new tool from Studio 180 Design that is used for cutting pieces and trimming down elongated diamond units. This unit is used for the border. Alternate instructions are also provided if not using the tools. The Sun Rays Pattern is for sale on my website. Retailers can contact me for wholesale orders. I want to say a special thank you to both Rose and Kathy. These women tested the pattern and gave me great feedback. Happy Quilting -- and I hope to see some of you in St. Cloud next week. Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt.
Last week I shared a few photos of quilts that my friend Tana pieced that included a graphic that was printed on fabric. She mentioned to me that she finds many of her graphics at "The Graphics Fairy". So I decided to check it out. Now that we finally have a hint of spring, I've been able to get outside and use my bicycle. Since bicycling was on my brain, I decided it needed to be the subject for my next mini-quilt. A search of "bicycle" revealed this wonderful vintage print. I knew I wanted to incorporate this into a project. So I started by printing this on an 8-1/2" x 11" piece of fabric. I also saved a copy of the image on my computer. The image is actually larger than that, but I just shrunk it so it fit on one sheet of paper. (If you need some help on how to print on fabric you can check out my video -- Secrets to Successfully Printing Words on Fabric). Here is my Electric Quilt Design. Do you want to know how I got this image incorporated into Electric Quilt? Check on this video tutorial. I've also included information on how I drafted the rest of the quilt as well. This is a simple quilt to piece.
To quilt I did swirls around the outside of the quilt. I stitched in the ditch around the graphic and I filled the background space with "Fracture Fill" -- a pattern within Art and Stitch's Creative Fill library. With my Intelliquilter, I used both No Sew Zones and Clipping blocks for this part. I still need to add binding. Happy Mother's Day -- and Happy Quilting. Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt.
Do you ever finish your quilt top and then agonize over "How should I quilt this?" In my most recent quilt pattern, Smiling Irish Eyes, I played it "safe" with quilting one of the samples. I quilted in the ditch around the shamrocks and stitched a few lines through the Irish Chain. For the other quilt in the pattern, I decided to spruce it up a bit. Click on the photo to see the quilting close up. I created a swirl in/out design for the shamrock blocks. I also drafted a couple of shamrocks to use in the background spaces. I also wanted to incorporate shamrocks in the border. I even came up with a Shamrock wreath to use in the Celtic block. If you would like to use these designs for quilting your St. Patrick's Day projects, I have included pdfs of each of the designs in the "Free Stuff" page or you can click on any of the photos above. You will want to check the size before using and resize as necessary. Some of you may have "Art and Stitch", a program used to draw digitized designs. If so, you will be interested in my video "How to draw a shamrock in Art and Stitch". The video covers drafting a basic shamrock. Happy quilting. Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt.
Go For the Gold Go for the Gold -- the final reveal. Here is the free layout for those quilt blocks that have been presented over the past two weeks. Refer to earlier blog posts for cutting charts for each of the blocks in this quilt. The quilt finishes 80" x 92". As you can see I used the Olympic Patchwork flags as color inspiration for this quilt. This layout would also work very well with blocks from a BOM (Block of the Month) program. I hope you have enjoyed this short series. I would love to see photos of any finished quilts. New Pattern - Smiling Irish Eyes I am announcing the release of a new pattern - Smiling Irish Eyes. This pattern incorporate three Irish themes -- a shamrock block, an Irish chain block, plus a Celtic block, The blocks are small (6" finished) -- however they are easy to piece with techniques for over-sized construction with trim downs of various units. Release special -- The pattern normally sells for $8. However, if you purchase before St. Patrick's Day (March 17th), the pattern will be on sale for $6 (a 25% discount). Happy quilting. Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt.
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Kari SchellElectric Quilt Expert and Educator and Pattern Designer. Categories
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