Just Let Me Quilt: April 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023

It's Not Your Mama's Garden

The Sew Yeah brothers from Sew Yeah Quilting designed their own line of fabrics called, "Not Your Mama's Garden." The designs are very colorful, unusual, and fun.

My friend, Susan, and I bought the “Not Your Mama’s Garden” fabric at the Sew Yeah store at the same time and worked on how we wanted the quilt to look. She is almost finished with hers.

I love seeing my quilts stretched out on the longarm machine.

Enchanted Garden

You can find the pattern in my Etsy store HERE.

The border and backing are my favorite!

Charlie is learning how to be part of my quilt photo crew.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Benartex "Tutu Cute" Loves To Dance

Earlier this month I designed a quilt for Benartex's free patterns using the cutest ballerina fabric images, "Tutu Cute" by Nicole DeCamp. The fabric and free pattern will be released in September.

The designs have ballerinas of many nationalities, tiaras, and ballet words.

With the Benartex Virtual Fabric Show arriving soon, I was asked to sew the quilt to display during the live show. It was so fun to see the quilt come to life with the real fabrics. The colors and designs were beautiful! The dots look metallic but there aren't...I was surprised!

"Loves To Dance"

Another fabric I created a quilt design for was "Flamingal Pals" by Andi Metz.

This fabric will be released in August. I can't wait to use the fabric to make this...it is so cute!

You might recognize Beach Boy Freddy in there.

Sun, Sand, and Sew

If you missed the live Virtual Fabric Show, you can still watch all the shows from the Benartex Facebook page.

As always, thank you for stopping by!

Sunday, April 23, 2023

When Pigs Fly Blog Hop Challenge

Joan at Moosestash Quilting has taught me a lot of things over the years (some good, some not so good), but this new blog hop challenge had something I'd never heard of. Her challenge is "When Pigs Fly" and I thought it was all about pigs...those cute little pink curly tailed critters.

Nope! In this case, "PIGS" = Projects In Grocery Sacks. I'd honestly never heard that saying. Yes, I have plenty of PIGS in bags/sacks but I just called them my UFO's or I'll-get-to-you-someday-projects. Saying "PIGS" is much cuter!

I don't know any quilters (but I'm sure there are some) who don't have 1-20 PIGS in their closets. With just a quick glance I had five that were in Ziploc bags, not grocery sacks, but I think they will count.

Do you want to play along? Contact my wickedly crazy friend, Joan, at Moosestash Quilting to join the fun and finish some PIGS. Click HERE for more info about signing up.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Free Patterns At Benartex

We all love to find free patterns...or maybe it's just me? Those free patterns are out there in the internet world with no strings attached (usually), but you have to know where to look. When I became a Benartex Ambassador, I went to check out everything on their website.

There it was...a link that said, "QUILT PATTERNS"! It has so many free patterns there's bound to be something for you to sew.

If you look close, you might see a few of my free pattern designs in there, too. Some pictures of the quilt are there, but the pattern won't be released until the fabric is. Click on the graphic for "Dino Watchers" and "Safari Love" to get to the pattern on Benartex.

The fabric for this pattern is "Tutu Cute" and the pattern is called "Love to Dance." The pattern

won't be released until September, but you can see the quilt on the Virtual Fabric Tour next week.

I hope to "see" you there!

All ballerinas need a tiara, right!

Take a look at all those free patterns at Benartex.com!

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

It Is Time For My "Say What" Blog Hop Challenge

Joan at Moosestash Quilting picks her own wonderful challenges, but sometimes they either stump me or scare the heck out of me. "Say What?" was a little of both.

Her challenge explanation: You can share a story, or show us a project or technique that you can't believe you tried. Or how about a quilty word project.

Years ago I hosted a blog hop for paper piecing stacked bowls that included lots of people (like around 150) and several from Germany. I had never paper pieced and I definitely did not speak any German. It was a real "Say What?" moment. I conquered the paper piecing, but not the German language.

I chose to make a quilty word project to meet Joan's challenge. Way back in my fabric closet, I had a container marked "Poky Puppy" that had been there a very long time. It was time to drag it out of the dark corner.

It was meant to be sewn into a book, but I went with making it into a quilt. I cut up all the blocks, added sashing, and it became a wordy quilt. With the addition of an embroidered name and red minky on the back, it's a sweet gift for my granddaughter. The timing was perfect because she came for a visit along with her brothers and mom. I was a happy grandma!

Dottie was quite happy to model for the camera and even did a little fake snoring.

The quilt is 50" x 50"

I drug out the module to embroider "Dottie"...that's a challenge in itself.

The blocks are so cute and almost exactly like the book.

Dottie needs the real book, too, of course.

Don't take away my desserts!

The minky was Dottie's favorite part of the quilt.

Check out the other "Say What" bloggers participating this week:

Benartex is having a Virtual Fabric Show next week. I'd love to see your there!

Thank you for stopping by!

Monday, April 17, 2023

Sew It - Show It Blog Hop With Say What?

It's time for a Sew It - Show It with Moosestash Quilting's newest challenge...Say What?

Her challenge explanation: You can share a story, or show us a project or technique that you can't believe you tried. Or how about a quilty word project.

Look who's meeting the challenge this week:

Monday, April 10, 2023

Dino Danger In Glow-O-Saurus Precuts

With three choices of Benartex Glow-O-Saurus by Kansas Studios precuts to work with, I struggled to choose which one to use. I ended up using the Strip-Pies and a few fat quarters for "Dino Danger." They really do glow in the dark...so fun! I can't wait to use those 10"x10" precuts!