A Quilt Story...

Doesn't every quilt have a Story?

Recently, someone saw this quilt or one of its other versions on the interwebs (maybe in my binding tutorial) and sent an email to inquire about the pattern/fabrics, etc.  There's a story behind this quilt, and it is one that has made a serious impact on my quilty world!

Chapter I
It was 2004, when my then-14-year-old daughter, Lauren, decided that she wanted to make a giant dragon quilt.  She had read 85 Fantasy books that year, and when she spied an adorable dragon quilt at a local quilt shop, she knew it was perfect!  The pattern was Not All Dragons are Scary by Allicia Politis. 

We super-sized the pattern using an overhead projector at our local 4-H office, then Lauren used fusible web and a blanket stitch to appliqué the dragon, and pieced the border with prints she had collected.  Prairie points for his spine added the perfect touch.  In the original pattern, the dragon was watching a little jalapeno pepper grow.  Considering all the books she read, her Dad suggested that the jalapeno plant be replaced with a book!  It was perfect!  Lauren's quilt won the Sweepstakes Prize in the youth division at both our County and State Fairs that year!  It's a treasured quilt and still hangs in her house to this day.

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Chapter II
2010.  Riley Blake Designs, a local fabric company just starting out, donated fabric from one of their very first designer lines of fabric (Sublime by Shari Butler of Doohikey Designs) to feature in the Home Machine Quilting Show's (HMQS) annual Design Challenge contest portion of their show.  Kits of 8 fat quarters each were distributed to 24 groups or individuals who signed up for the challenge to create a quilt to hang during the show.  At the end of the show, the 24 projects would then be sold in a live auction to benefit a local charity group of the show's choice.

 
Lauren's adorable dragon quilt seemed the perfect fit for the show's theme (Every Quilt Has a Story), and the wild print seemed suitable for a cute little dragon.  I fussy-cut the dragon to give it scalloped lipstick!

The little quilt was a collaboration with my friend Debbie and her daughter, Kami.  I tucked in scallops for the Dragon's spine, Debbie appliquéd the pieces, she and I pieced the top together, using the extra pieces in the collection as books on a shelf to feature all of the fabrics from the collection, and Kami designed the lamp based on motifs within the fabric itself.  I then finished with the machine quilting and binding.  We were thrilled to learn that it won third place in the contest.   Our little quilt sold at auction for the unbelievable amount of $825.00!!  

The original Design Challenge Quilt:  Every Quilt Has A Story

A school teacher won the auction, but the folks at Riley Blake Designs loved it so much that they commissioned me to make another for their new office.  I ended up making three more quilts with the fabrics they supplied.  One for their office:

Version #II was also a Sweepstakes prize-winner at the county fair!

One for Collette at the RBD warehouse (she loved the brown colorway),

Version #III

And there were enough scraps to make a final one that I hang in my quilt studio.  ♥ it!

Version #IV

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Chapter III 

2013.  This quilt began my relationship with Cindy Cloward, co-owner with her husband, Bret, of Riley Blake Designs.  Knowing I was a 4-H volunteer sewing/quilting teacher, Cindy invited me to write a monthly column of sewing and quilting basic tutorials for their website, "Cutting Corners College".  These tutorals evolved into a series of "How to Quilt" video tutorials, and opportunities to go to with them to Quilt Market several times to demonstrate Make & Take projects at their booth.  Love this company - the people and their products!  And next September (2013), I'll be teaching several classes at RBD's Fabric Fest in Las Vegas!  Hope to see you there!

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Chapter IV
2025... The story continues!  Fifteen years from that original Design Challenge, here is another addendum to this story....  That little quilt started an amazing quilting trajectory for me.  I ended up writing regular tutorials for Riley Blake for nearly five years. Still a relatively new company, they were growing in the industry, and after a couple of web host changes, all of the Cutting Corners tutorials I had written were lost!  Nearly 40 of my tutorials and projects had disappeared!!  My daughter Lauren, working on her Library Science Master's degree, came across a website that helped me to retrieve my tutorials and repost them on my own website.  You can find most of them under the "Tutorials" tab or "Snippets" tab.  It was a miracle!  web.archive.org saved me!  

For another five years, I was a project designer on their fabric influencer team, making quilts and projects, still writing tutorials, but also developing quilt and project patterns featuring and directly inspired by the fabrics of Riley Blake Designs.  They now have a Quilt Show and Convention of their own, Garden of Quilts, hosted at the beautiful Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.  I've participated as a volunteer or teacher each year since the show began in 2019, and will teach again this coming September.   Classes are almost full for my Starflower class and Binding Workshop.

While attending International Quilt Market in Houston a couple of years ago, and realizing that I had over 23 different tutorials that featured different ways to finish the edges of quilts, I proposed the book idea to the Acquisitions Editor at Fox Chapel Publishing.  Those tutorials, written over the years, along with many of the projects made for Riley Blake Designs are now featured in my BOOK:

Ultimate Binding & Edge-Finishing Guide for Quilting & Sewing 
To order a signed copy, click on the photo.
Ask for it at your local quilt shop, or find it online.

The book, released in February 2024, is now in its third printing, and has been Fox Chapel's top seller in Soft Crafts for the past year, and continues to do well, with another printing on the horizon this fall.  It has taken me across the Intermountain region, including Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Wyoming, teaching classes and presenting trunk shows for guilds, quilt shops, and conventions. This year, on a visit to see my daughter in Hawaii, I packed an extra suitcase and presented a trunk show for the Honolulu Quilt Guild.  I just returned from h+h Americas, a Craft Expo in Chicago, where I met with fabric companies and designers, took orders for my patterns, and made connections that will spur my activities for the next few years. Later this Fall, the Evening Star Quilt Guild in Birmingham, Alabama has invited me to be their featured guest artist for a Trunk Show and workshops.  The following week I'll teach at International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.  Meanwhile, I am continuing my longarm business, but it is definitely slowing down, as I make time for my family and spend time with my sweet grandbabies.

Who knows what the next chapter will bring?

~Deonn