Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Quilt As You Go

Quilt Pics from Linda & Christine

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Christine made this bright and lovely Crazy Shortcut Quilt. She had emailed me a while back asking how to handle some oddly cut fat quarters and I gave her my best suggestion: use them as they are (badly cut, very uneven sizes) and trim the quilted blocks to a uniform size. This is something I’ve had to do myself and it results in smaller finished sized blocks than I had originally planned, plus extra scraps (the trimmings) in my scrap-basket, but it still works.

Christine sent this message with the picture of her finished quilt:

I had so much trouble with my fat quarters I had purchased from Jo Ann Fabrics
not measuring properly. I wound up buying few half yard pieces to replace some of those
fat quarters that were so severly off. I had a hard time squaring up at the end and had to cut
my blocks down to 15″. All in all it came out great and looks so nice in my son’s bedroom.
I really enjoyed the process of crazy quilting and have already bought more fabric to make
another one, this time I bought better quality fabric in half yard pieces so I will be off to a
better start.

Christine's Quilt

Linda sent pics of two of her quilts, and you can see that she modified the sashing strips slightly to suit her own design tastes – yay for her!

Linda Swartz's Red White & Blue Quilt




Linda's first Crazy Shortcut Quilt




Thank you Christine and Linda for your quilt photos and stories!

Michelle Made the Jelly Roll Quilt!

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Michelle's Jelly Roll Baby Quilt

Michelle and Joan are about the two most prolific Crazy Shortcut Quilters that I know, besides Sarah and myself and I love the fact that each of them sends me photos!!

This is Michelle’s version of the Jelly Roll Red & White Quilt that I made (video here) and I just love her soft colors. There’s a special place in my heart for grey and she managed to make that difficulty to work with color just sparkle.


Back of the Baby Quilt


She also sent a peek at the back of the quilt – soft and dreamy for the baby!

Click on the photos for larger images. I just love the striped fabric and I had never thought of that! She’s a genius 🙂
Now I can’t wait to try some striped fabrics too!

And here’s the kicker – Joan just moved to the same town that Michelle lives in and they had a meet-up a few weeks ago. I believe I need to go there too!


More Quilts!

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I love to receive photos in my email!!

Angie in Canada sent me these of her quilt, and she blogged about it!

Angie's Quilt

Angie's Stitches


















Diane B in Eugene Oregon posted her quilt to her blog and sent photos of her pink quilt and this note:

First of all, I have had your book for ages just kept reading it and going over it. I finally just told myself to make it. I did not do fancy stitching, too time consuming and I’m impatient. I just straight line quilted or made up my own designs as I went along. Love, love, love your method. It was so easy, I don’t know why I was intimidated by it. Enough leftovers to make a 18 x 18 pillow cover.

Diane's Pillow


Diane B's Quilt

Diane's Quilt - Back


































Gayle sent me this note and her photo:

Hi there! This is the 2nd quilt I made with your Crazy quilt book, I sent you the first one and thought I would send the second as well! I also purchased your new book,read it cover to cover! Awesome tips and book! Getting ready to use the Roly Poly 2 pattern to make ME a quilt! LOL Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! Happy New Year!

~Gayle

Gayle's Second Crazy Shortcut Quilt




















Bonnie sent a photo of her gorgeous, bright baby Shortcake Quilt:

Dear Marguerita,
Yesterday I finally finished the Crazy Shortcake Quilt for my newborn grandson (born 12/31/11). It was so much fun to make! I used a bug theme for the quilt squares. I had many challenges with the binding, trying to figure out how to do the final joining, so I kind of jury-rigged it. Here’s the photos…

Bonnie's quilt for her grandson


Bonnie's quilt back

















Lottie Sue posted her quilt to her Flickr account!

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

Borrow Crazy Shortcut Quilts Book from Amazon.com!

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If you have a Prime Membership to Amazon.com you can borrow our book, Crazy Shortcut Quilts, for free!! Download the sample to your Kindle (or Kindle for PC app, or Kindle for iPad app) and you’ll be offered the chance to borrow the book – then start reading!! Again – you must have a Prime membership to borrow books from Amazon. Here’s your chance to share the book with a friend or view it on your PC or tablet.

I must admit that I bought a Kindle Fire (the new color one) JUST to see how my books look but -WOW- I am enjoying this device!

Do you have an Amazon Fire Tablet?

Stella’s Quilts and Story

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Stella sent me photos of three quilts and a story about one of them. Her first email had the words that I love to hear:

Hope they are useful and will add to your web site if you can use them. All have glaring mistakes but I love each one mistakes and all.

I just love her attitude because it matches mine – “It’s just PERFECT to me, sewing & quilting mistakes and all.”

The first try. Was thrown over the back of our settee and has stayed!

Guest Bed Quilt
















Shortly after sending me her pics, Stella emailed with an update that you’ll just love:

Hello again, Marguerita

I just had to tell you the latest about my favourite blue and greeny quilt, on the guest bed.

We have our grandson visit after school – he is four and a half. He likes to watch a DVD – usually Nanny McPhee. I was downstairs getting him a snack and all of a sudden everything was quiet – unusual when he is here!

I went up to have a look to see what mischief he was getting into. He was tucked up under the said quilt, hands behind his head, totally relaxed watching the film. As he saw me come in he said, ‘This is ever so nice and cumferbull, Grandma. I’m going to stay here tonight.’
So top marks for the quilt as we have been trying to get him to stay over for a long timeto give his mother a rest, but he usually wants to go back home.

kind regards
Stella
from Bexhill – on – Sea, England

The third. I love the piece in the middle and couldn't bear to cut it up. I have free machined round the paeonies in bronze metallic thread.




Many thanks to Stella for sharing her her quilts and her story 🙂

Crazy Shortcut Quilt Stories!

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My friend Sara, in Abu Dhabi, made a childs tee shirts quilt. Sara has made so many CSQ quilts that I think she can make them in her sleep!! Here’s the story on her newest quilt:

My sister was visiting and brought with her her children old tee shirts
and asked me to put it in a quilt. This is my very 1st tee shirt quilt and
I choose to use your method. It went really fast and is so cute.

Sara's assortment of children's tee shirts















Sara's finished quilt!














From Louise

I have recently met with a few very nice women in our community who also love to sew and quilt..We started a sewing/quilting night in one of the ladies’ home…We have a blast I bought your book and made two quilts…then other ladies made quilts also..and one of them bought your book too..
With this little group I don’t feel so alone here and they are a great bunch of ladies..Sometimes we sit and chat and other times is progess ..we just love to show off our work and we love to see each others work..and it’s great to bounce ideas off each other and well it’s just great fun..
My daughter even made herself a quilt and she barely ever sewed before..Thank you it certainly has brought us together..Here are the pictures of the quilts I did..
One I gave to a friend cause it really matched the colors of her living room, the other is pink with pink ribbon for the cure a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted it to comfort her..She is far away from me..So she can cuddle up in the quilt and think of me..

Oh, I just love stories like these!! I receive emails regularly from quilters, not just about our book, but about all kinds of quilting, and the best ones are the emails that tell me a story of connection, reaching out, teaching and sharing of ideas!! What a huge smile they give me. Sara and Louise just made my day, week and month with their stories 🙂

Quilt Photos!

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Amy Henry's Shortcake Quilt

I have a great email from Amy Palmer Henry, showing off her second Crazy Shortcut Quilt! Amy said that this one features a zigzag stitch, but she’s just gotten a new sewing machine with tons of decorative stitches and they sky’s the limit for her next quilts 🙂

Almost immediately an email came in from Margie Kitzman with the following story:

Sweat, Tears and a little bit of Sally!

My daughter and I made this quilt for my dad. It was our first bed-sized quilt (queen) and I was so thankful for the quilt-as-you-go method. (I simply cannot understand how anyone can quilt a bed-sized top on a sewing machine! They are truly amazing in my book!) Anyway, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results and am itching to try the pattern again.

The only thing we did different was to quilt each block–in addition to the seam quilting–each piece of fabric sports a different quilting design. This quilt will have to stand up to many washings and I thought more quilting would be a better idea. That significantly increased construction time–I think about 1.5 hours per block–but will be worth it in the long run.

Gorgeous back of Dad's Quilt

My daughter is the first and only person I’ve actually known who has sewn through her finger with the machine! I will be missing the 48 fat quarters I pulled from my stash to make this quilt but they say that gives me reason to go out and buy more. (I’m feeling something akin to mourning as it seems I can remember picking out, taking home and lovingly stashing each and every one of those lovely pieces!) The name is a little strange, I know, but I think it helps to tell the story of the quilt! It took quite a little work, I’ll be missing the FQs and Sally really did bleed on it when the machine bit her!

Thanks for the wonderful pattern and the inspiration!
Margie Kitzman/Sally Kitzman

Sarah's Shortcake with grosgrain ribbon


And lastly, Sarah finished up a quilt just before going into labor with new daughter Violet! Here’s her newest Shortcake quilt, quilted with grosgrain ribbon instead of decorative stitches! So bright and pretty, just like baby Violet 🙂

A New Quilt Design

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Red & White Crazy Shortcut Quilt

Hi Quilters, we found some quilt inspiration on YouTube! This quilt was inspired by a video that I watched on YouTube and that I talked my daughter Sarah into making. She loved it so much that she made about five different tops! Check back here regularly because I’ll be playing with new designs on the rest of her tops all summer 🙂

Below are all the videos – mine on how I made this quilt, and Heirloom Creation’s “Jelly Roll Quilt Race” video and link to their pattern. If you can’t watch video on your computer, give me a few days and I’ll have a pattern for download on our “New CSCQ Patterns” page.

Here’s the link to the Jelly Roll Quilt Race Pattern -it’s important to follow the instructions to cut off the first 18″ and sew as instructed.

For this quilt, you’ll need 20 Fabric Strips – 42″ long & sewn using the Jelly Roll Race Method”
51″ of complementary fabric (or buy 1 & half yds) – this is the white fabric portion of our quilt
3 yards of backing
50″ of 90″ wide batting
1 yard of complementary fabric (this is the extra red fabric that I mentioned for sashing and binding)