Tracy May wrote to say that she finally finished her Lorna’s Vine quilt. This is her third hand quilting project; slow but steady.
She made her quilt with all re-purposed fabric.
Well done, Tracy! And thank you for sharing your lovely quilt with us. I hope you stay snug and warm beneath it for years to come :-).
AQS Members are invited to join me at a very special event: AQS Seam Quilt Retreat – Paducah, KY: Session 1 September 30–October 5, 2025
I’ll be teaching hand applique techniques used to make this 36˝ square quilt that features layered appliqué. Techniques include the invisible stitch, inner and outer points, curves, cutaway appliqué on small shapes, and much more. All skill levels are welcome! You’ll learn everything from creating templates to mastering invisible appliqué stitches. I will guide you through each step, ensuring you leave with a delightful project and the confidence to tackle more complex hand appliqué in the future.
I hope you can join me, September 30–October 5, 2025, in Quilt City, USA! Visit this website to learn more: https://www.americanquilter.com/seam Not an AQS Member? Join Today! https://www.americanquilter.com/2022-2023-aqs-membership
Enjoy this tour of Gingiber tea towels currently in my store, and scroll down for the special tea towel deal info. Have them for Christmas, gift them and/or use them as holiday gift wrap (video at bottom)!
Three brand new Christmas tea towel designs + Cardinals! Make your kitchen merry and bright.
Made of 100% flour sack cotton that is both absorbent and nice to touch, but my favorite thing about these towels is the denseness of the designs. When you use towels in the kitchen (and you should use them!), they will eventually get dirty, and stained. These towels stay prettier longer because they hide some of that. Not to mention, they really are very pretty.
Just flowers:
I’ve pulled a Blue Blossoms into my kitchen, and it’s even more lovely in person.
Add birds:
I do love my own chicken towel :-).
Dogs & cats make great gifts:
More creatures:
The Tea Towel Deal is easy! Buy 4 towels, save $8 (that’s $2 off of each towel). Just load up 4 towels in your cart, and the discount will be taken automatically at checkout (no code needed!).
If you happen to order more than 4 towels, the deal does indeed keep going, but it’s a bit glitchy. Lorna will issue a refund where necessary when she’s processing. You can aways email her with questions at lornabethgoldsmith@gmail.com.
Furoshiki and bojagi are popular right now, and you may have seen “gift wrap fabric squares” popping up various places. My video below makes it simple to understand.
A Gingiber tea towel is a perfect, truly reusable, sturdy, gift wrapping. So this holiday season, enjoy happy tea towels in your own kitchen, give them as little gifts, tuck them into stockings, and use them as a sustainable choice for wrapping under the tree. Click here to see them all in the store.
PS: This special set of 4, below, is not part of the special deal, but comes with it’s own pretty tin, and it’s own special price. This is the only way to get the beautiful Seasons towels, and the set makes a wonderful gift.
Julie Edwards sent me this photo of her newly finished, very pretty quilt that features a block from Aunt MIllie’s Garden as the center medallion.
Julie wrote:
This quilt was a round robin and completed by multiple people in 2015-2016. I belong to an online FB group, and we do swaps and other quilt alongs often. I completed the center block and then sent it to another quilter, she completed a border on that quilt, and off it went to someone else, etc. until it was completed and returned back to me. I finally quilted and finished it in January of this year.
Round robin quilts are always interesting and this one is no exception. The borders don’t overshadow the block at the center, the focal point of the quilt. Very nice!
Thank you, Julie, for sharing your quilt with us!.
If you are interested, you can find the Aunt Millie’s Garden ebook here :-).
Margaret Heller just finished her Simply Delicious quilt—it’s amazing!
From Margaret:
I followed the techniques taught in your books, except for the grapes and raspberries. For them I modified Karen Kay Buckley’s techniques for Perfect Ovals by laminating the front and back of the template (put the number of the template on the back side). Then I gathered the seam allowance of the grape or berry around the template, starched it/pressed it, and removed the template when it was time to sew it to the block .
I substituted blocks from the Beautiful Berries pattern for blocks from Simply Delicious so all the blocks illustrated my favorite fruits.
It was custom machine quilted by Christy Gray. (And she told me it’s the last custom quilting she will do.) I’m grateful that she quilted it for me; I doubt otherwise it would ever have been finished.
Thank you, Margaret, for sharing your lovely quilt with us all and I know you will enjoy seeing it hang in shows.
This quilt was one of our blocks of the month and the patterns are still available in a downloadable format. If you are interested, click here to find the Simply Delicious epatterns.
My quilts begin with an idea, then sketches. What you see below is the final sketch before I moved it to the computer.
This new quilt is going on my bed. Steve’s Birds, the current 2024 BOM, is for Steve’s bed. (Yes, we sleep in different rooms because—snoring 🤣. In our case, a good night’s sleep leads to a very happy marriage.)
The new BOM patterns will be available on their own, in January 2025. The downloadable patterns will not come with fabric—you can use any fabric that suits you. However, I am doing my best to make it easy for you to color your quilt like mine, if you want to.
I am using medium blue backgrounds cut from a variety of Laundry Basket fabrics. This is what I have so far, there may be more. We will offer a kit with similar background fabrics, in a few months, for those who want it.
I am going to use many Liberty of London quilting weight cotton prints in my applique. The prints are iconic, the colors make me smile. I have started gathering fat quarters, but it takes time. You have to get the fabric when it is available and it sells out fast. Some fabric that we have on order won’t be released until next year. Patience is a hard virtue 🤣.
Knowing that some of you will also want to start building a palette of fabric, we are offering a Liberty Stash Building Club that will start soon. If you are interested, please get on the Waiting List. There are a limited number of slots and being on the Waiting List does not guarantee a spot—but you will get an email when it’s time to really sign up.
You don’t have to save this fabric for the 2025 BOM—you can use it for other projects. In fact, you will have Liberty left over after the BOM to use in other projects.
I need to start my quilt soon and will probably have to supplement with other fabric from my stash. Happily, Liberty plays well with other fabrics ☺️.
Piece O Cake Blog 