Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Finish Any Quilt

Quilt As You Go Quilt Retreat!

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If you are in (or coming to) Alaska and want to take an exclusive class with me, here’s your chance! Only 10 people will be able to sign up for this weekend retreat, which is a fundraiser for a friend. I’ll be bringing quilts from my first 2 books plus quilts I have made for the next two books – a little exclusive sneak peek!

We’ll spend the weekend making a Shortcake Quilt – 36″ x 45″ – and covering the basics of quilt-as-you-go and then jump into adapting the QAYG techniques to work for other quilt blocks – not just the Crazy Shortcut Quilt style.

It will be a little bit of everything 🙂 June 8, 9, 10th, 2012 in Palmer, Alaska — $100 per person — email me to sign up — MMQuilts @ gmail.com

If you are (or know of) a quilt shop owner in the area of Anchorage to Palmer, and you want to host the Trunk Show, please let me know. I am looking for either Thursday June 7th or Friday, June 8th, from about 7-9pm.

Crazy Shortcut Quilt Retreat

New Quilt Pics!

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Stella made her fourth Crazy Shortcut Quilt! On this one, she writes:

I have shown the back as it has a rather lovely fabric with ‘wols’ (owls) on it. I went a bit over the top and added two more designs which I knew she would like. One of the seaside to remind her where she comes to stay and her favourite hot air balloons. She lives in the middle of the Swedish countryside where there are a lot of lakes but no seaside.

Stella's Quilt for grandchild Cayley


Back of Caley's Quilt
















Linda Rheault sent two views of her Jelly Roll Crazy Shortcut Quilt! Check out these colors – I want one like this!

Hi! After fighting with machine quilting a large quilt I found your site and decided to give it a try. I was especially inspired by your red and white jelly roll quilt and the directions you gave in your video. I did get your book in addition to watching the video. I had never heard of jelly rolls since I haven’t quilted for many years. I just finished the quilt which is a gift for friends.

I needed a big queen size quilt so my borders were added last like an envelope and then filled with batting and quilted on my machine.

I have enjoyed your videos especially the one on thread which was enlightening.

I will attach some pictures but I’m afraid they aren’t very good because the quilt is so large

I do want to do one more short cut quilt wall hanging out of Alexander Henry’s Freida Kahlo fabric.

Have a great day! Linda Rheault

Linda's Jellyroll Quilt

What a gorgeous border!






































Nicky Lowitz is an expert at re-inventing quilting! She recycled Hawaiian Shirts to make the quilt below and Nicky also made a Tee Shirt Quilt! – click on the Tee Shirt Quilts tab above to see them. About her Hawaiian Quilt she writes:

I love your method, and it was wonderful to do the whole thing myself, and avoid the machine quilting expense. This one is 90 x 90, and made from recycled Hawaiian shirts from the local thrift stores. I also bought all the threads from the thrift stores, as I was not working when I started the project. My Hawaiian quilt was in the Quilt Faire show at Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys CA this weekend. Several ladies in the Guild asked me how on earth I joined the squares! I gave a demonstration with pieces of paper and they both asked for your name and the name of the book, which I was pleased to give them!

Nicky's Hawaiian Shirt Quilt

Gorgeous matching shams!






Back of the Shams

Beautiful Stitches

Book Giveaway!

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Hi Quilters, my friend and quilt artist Gene Black is having a book giveaway of my new book, Finish (almost) Any Quilt. Gene even wrote up a review of the book, so you can see what he thinks of it 🙂

Gene Black is one of the many quilters who inspired me to write this book. Several years ago he bought our first book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts, and he followed some of the quilt-as-you-go process but, being an artist, he changed it up to suit his style and what he wanted to accomplish with his quilts. Here’s another peek.

Quilt artist Mary Couch also changed the process to suit herself on Tanners T-Shirt Quilt and a quilt for her daughter. Mary’s daughter’s quilt is featured on page 12 of the book – you can peek inside at Amazon.com.

Mary’s friend Elizabeth Haines also changed our quilt-as-you-go techniques and her quilt is featured on page 19 of the new book. Elizabeth and I started chatting about changing some measurements in January of last year and she very graciously allowed me to use both her measurements, photograph and her quilt story in my book.

Truthfully, I am in awe of the kindness and creativity of the quilters who have shared their projects with me. I don’t know how got so lucky, and I am deeply grateful to everyone who sends me their quilt photos or posts them to their blogs or Facebook.

I hope that you’ll click some of the links above (I’ll be posting more soon) and see how easy it is to adapt your projects and finish your quilts. My word for 2012 is FINISH and I’ve still got a lot of projects on the design wall. I’ll be posting about them and uploading videos for them as I finish each one.

What are your finishing goals for 2012?

Using Kindle Fire to Read Quilt Books

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I’ve been working on two new quilt books for a year. One is done and available as a print book and as a Kindle Book, specifically formatted for the Kindle Fire. While testing the book on the Fire, I found out how to make the photos bigger so I made a video about it. The official announcement for the book is here. I’ll be posting photos of quilts from the book soon. Sending Happy Holiday Wishes to all, Marguerita