Shirley Ratliff took my Birds in Toyland class, online on Creative Spark and she just finished her quilt! It’s wonderful! Shirley made changes to the original pattern that work great in her quilt AND she finished in time for the holidays!
Shirley wrote:
Had sew much fun making this quilt! Changed it up a bit because I wanted to quilt in the border lights. Love these little birdies! Thanks for your kind words about my quilt. You gave me the confidence to tackle this project and have fun doing it!
I love knowing that you all love my patterns and that the classes bolster your confidence. Yay! Thank you, Shirley, for your kind words.
Thank you, Becky, for your great classes on Creative Spark. I’ve never done wool applique, but your videos made it easy and fun. Sue
Sue, thank you for sharing your quilt with us! You did a great job and no one would ever guess that it is your first wool applique project. Well done, you! I hope you enjoy it this season and for many more :-).
If you are interested in making your own Birds in Toyland quilt:
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!.
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.
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 