4-H Summer Quilt Camp!

Each summer, I get to teach 4-H Quilt Camp in our county.  Held four consecutive afternoons, Moms are invited to come and it's definitely a team effort!   We teach these kids (ages 9 to 14) how to take perfectly good fabric, cut it up, then sew it back together again, with super fun results!

BRICKS & CHECKERBOARDS

This year, there were 6 kids and their Moms or big sisters who would help to pin and press.  The kids had a choice of three different quilts to make:   (Some of my pictures were deleted, but maybe you can get the idea...)

BRICKS

Cut 10 @ 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" rectangles from 9 different prints, 1/4 yard each.  

Lay out and arrange blocks.

Have Mom help, then take a picture to help you remember the layout. 

Stitch 7 bricks together end to end to make 6 rows.

Stitch 8 bricks together end to end; make 4 rows.

Stitch 3 rows together to make a set.  Use 2 rows of 7 bricks and 1 row of 8 in the center.
Scoot to alternate the middle row (like bricks) and trim off the excess.
 Make 4 sections.  

Karissa stitches her sections

Cut 5 @ 8-1/2" x width of fabric strips (1-1/4 yards) for sashing. Join short ends together.
Measure the width of all the sets, and cut three sashing strips to that measurement, about 56".
 Stitch an 8-1/2" x 56" strip of coordinating fabric between each row

to grow the quilt to a nice twin-size quilt, 56" x 72".

Shelby's 1st quilt!  BRICKS: envelope finish, tied with rainbow yarn.

Using a walking foot

Mom helps...

Straight Line quilting!

Kaimbry's BRICKS:  A good start to a great finish!

JELLY ROLL RACE

Stitch 42 @ 2-1/2" x 42" strips of fabric together, end to end, using a diagonal seam. 

Cut that in half and stitch together (just keep sewing, just keep sewing...);  

 If you lay it out in the hallway, it will reach to the end of the building.

 

Cut that in half and stitch back together.

REPEAT the process as many times as needed until you get a decent-size, cool-looking quilt!

Lizzy's JELLY ROLL RACE, 52" x 64" quilt top, ready to send to the longarm quilter!

CHECKERBOARD

Cut 12 sets each of 3-1/2" x width of fabric light and dark strips (1-1/2 yards each light and dark, or 1/2 yard cuts of six different coordinating prints).  Stitch together into sets of 3 strips, alternating Light-Dark-Light for half, and Dark-Light-Dark for the other half.  Always press toward the dark.  Cut into 3-1/2" sections; PIN to nestle (kiss) the seam allowances (have Mom help), then chain-piece to sew those back together until you have a checkerboard with 3 x 21 squares.

Make 4 sections (just keep sewing, just keep sewing...)

Cut 5 @ 5-1/2" strips x width of coordinating fabric and join short ends together (7/8 yard).

Measure the length of each section, and cut 3 strips to that measurement;

Stitch 5-1/2" strips between the checkerboards for the perfect size lap quilt.

CHECKERBOARD lap quilt top 51" x 63"  

Since Lizzy's Jelly Roll quilt went so fast, she shopped in her Momma's stash to make a checkerboard too!

Lizzy's CHECKERBOARD -  60" x 72"

LOVE, love quilt camp!  I am continually impressed with what kids can create - well, any new quilter, for that matter.  They're pretty much fearless.  The kids had a blast, Moms also learned some great tricks.  Now it's nearly time for the County Fair!  These quilts will look great on display - Blue-ribbon winners, every one!

Prizes and Surprises! Congrats and Thanks!

It's "Fair Days" around here.  Beautiful, sunny days, long shadows, afternoon thunderstorms, leaves thinking about changing colors, cooler nights, garden harvest, spectacular sunsets over the mountains; the beginning of the end of Summer.

It's time for the county fair, quilt shows, art festivals, and the State fair -- "Show & Tell" events for grownups, with prizes and ribbons too.

I was pleased for many of my clients who displayed their prize-winning quilts at the 4th of July Small Town Quilt Show, and at the county fair.  (One of them won a Sweepstakes prize!)  My little Hexagarden even received a blue ribbon. :)

Mostly, though, I was so proud of all our 4-H kids from this summer's Quilt Camp, whose cute Pixelated Chevron quilts stole the show at the county fair.   I adapted the Rainbow Baby quilt pattern by Cynthia Brunz (Quilty magazine), to use with charm squares for our 9- to 12-year-old beginning quilters.  Wish I had more / better pictures of these cute kids and their adorable quilts, but here are a few.  Super quilts, super kids!

Now for more THANK YOUs!!
Last week, I taught a couple of classes (Snippets, Hexagami)  for my local quilt guild.  Susan, the guild president, sent me home with this lovely jar of Lavendar from her garden.

Mmmmm, I love that Summer scent!  Thanks, Susan!

photo courtesy of Amanda Herring

THANK YOU to my friend Amanda @ The Quilted Fish, who sent this sweet little necklace, just for making some projects from my favorite fabrics, Sugar & Spice, which she designed.  I love it!

She's a terrifically talented designer and wonderful person.  Here we are at last year's Sewing Summit - she gave a lecture on Believing in Yourself - finding your passion... and she made a sweet pincushion for everyone who attended her class. Her current line of fabric is Madhuri, featured at Quilt Festival in Portland, where she had a prize-winning booth.  Her next fabric line?  An adaptation of my favorite line, Twice as Nice.  Awesome!

A big THANK YOU also goes to Madame Samm and to OLISO for sponsoring a giveaway at SewWeQuilt... and CONGRATULATIONS to my daughter Lauren, aka La-Li, who won one of these beautiful irons, which I immediately commandeered borrowed for use in a zipper tutorial the very day it came!  I mean, I had to - it matched the fabric!!

But we've been putting it to good use in the days since, working together to make a special project for Lauren's special someone... more on that subject later. ;)

And finally, I borrowed my son's quilt submitted A Soldier's Star for the AQS Go! Have Fun quilt challenge.  The quilt was juried into the show, and I sent the quilt on its year-long tour around the USA.  I used AccuQuilt dies to make it.  The 6" half-square triangle die is my favorite, making it possible to piece the quilt together just perfectly (and so quickly!).  It won 2nd place in the pieced category last week at the AQS Quilt Show in Grand Rapids!!  That was a fun surprise to learn from a friend on facebook!

A Soldier's Star
> PATTERN <

I promised my son we would split any premiums. :)

Soldier son with his quilt and his dog, Christmas 2012.
p.s. Can you tell we live with quilts??

Thanks for making it to the end of this post!  Now it's back to work for me... getting ready for Fabric Fest - It's my job to make all the nametag lanyards...

Chevron ribbon...

...200 down, only 150 to go.

A Quilt Story...

Every quilt has 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.

While attending the International Quilt Market in Houston a couple of years ago, I realized that I had over 23 different tutorials featuring various ways to finish quilt edges.  I then proposed a book idea to Amelia Johansen, 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 fourth printing! (I may have cried when I opened my latest box!)  The book has been Fox Chapel's top seller in "Soft Crafts" for the past year and continues to do well.  Every quilt deserves a good finish, and it's my hope that all quilters will use it as a resource.    
The book has given me opportunities to teach my "Binding & Alternate Endings" workshops, and present trunk shows for guilds, quilt shops, and conventions, mostly in my local intermountain region of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Arizona.  Over Spring Break, on a visit to see my daughter in Hawaii, I packed an extra suitcase and presented my trunk show for the Honolulu Quilt Guild.  

I also had the opportunity to attend and teach at 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.  Next year's lineup is starting to fill in already.

Meanwhile, I continue to teach locally, play with new quilt pattern designs, and I am still doing longarm quilting for clients.  That part of the business has slowed down quite a bit - no more custom quilting - to make time for family and love on my sweet grandbabies.

Who knows what the next chapter will bring?  

~Deonn