Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Quilts

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)

A Whole Lotta Crazy Shortcut Quilts!

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Ok, I had some setbacks and I didn’t finish a quilt, but I have a list of quilters who did!! Hurray for them!
Judy of KS sent this one, Derek’s Quilt made with Teenage Ninja Turtle Fabric!

Judy of KS made Derek's Quilt

 




























Amanda made these two as Christmas presents:

Amanda's Quilt #1


Amanda's Quilt #2






























Sara from Abu Dhabi made a RolyPoly

Sara's Roly Poly

Sara's Roly Poly Quilt

Sara's Roly Poly











































and Marie Bartels from the Netherlands made this lovely blue and white quilt:

Marie and her Crazy Shortcut Quilt






















Cheryl in Texas made this lovely Christmas Quilt!

Cheryl in Texas made a Christmas Quilt

My Design Wall Trinkets

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I watched a video that made me start thinking about all the things that I keep up on my walls in my quilting area. As a response to the video I watched, I made this video which thanks the original artist, Margaret Fabrizio, and shows some of my cherished bits and tells their story. The more I think about it, the more I want to turn those “bits” into a quilt that I can keep forever. Here’s the vid and if you have a “design wall” story, I’d love to hear it! Also, if you go to YouTube you can see the comments (and the channels of the commenters)….I just had a super time exploring channels and blogs!

UPDATE – My friend Margie Wallace posted a video response to MY video! This is like a chain reaction! If you post a video response would you let me know?

Jean N and her Hawaiian Tee Shirt Quit

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Jean wrote to me a while back about her collection of gorgeous tee shirts – she made a gorgeous quilt from them!

Jean's Hawaiian Tee Shirt Quilt

The shirts on the quilt represent 16 years of taking my fourth grade students on an annual study tour of the Big Island of Hawaii. Although there are only 15 blocks all 16 years are represented. If you look carefully at the center block of the bottom row you’ll notice an area that’s a little pinkish.

Gorgeous School Tee!

That little piece was taken from the missing shirt and stitched onto the blue one. Except for the printing of the piece being of a different color the design and shirt color were exactly the same as the shirt that it is on.

Our shirt designs were done by various people… one by a parent who was a scientific illustrator at the university, several by local tee shirt designers, and others by our students. Some designs were of a more general nature while others focused on a highlight of the year’s trip. For my backing I used a fabric that I found on the Big Island. It features the honeycreeper birds that are endemic to Hawaii.

I’m pleased with the result and glad that my shirts did not just end up in a rag bag. btw… I actually had 48 shirts since for each year we had one shirt for the 3 days of our trip.

Again, thank you for sharing your shortcut quilting method and for allowing me to share my experience with you.

With much aloha,
jean n

Three Quilts …

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… but none are mine! Don’t I wish I could take credit for these 🙂

First, Michelle’s Quilt (her second Crazy Shortcut Quilt) and here’s her message:

I love this technique – it is very easy and quick.

I like the shortcake pattern because I like working with the smaller squares.

I am ready to do another one.

Michelle's Shortcake Quilt

Judy S. from Creston, BC, Canada sent pics of her newest CSQ project – Placemats for her younger sister.

Judy S. In B.C. made placemats for her sister


Gorgeous Fabrics and Fabulous Stitches

AND, Sara in Abu Dhabi, started a blog! She’s got some GORGEOUS fabric postcard photos and an update on her newest Crazy Shortcut Quilt posted. Please visit her blog and say hi 🙂

Sara from Abu Dhabi is making a Tablerunner!

Selecting Fabrics for a Quilt

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I just discovered that I choose fabrics based on the mood I am in, which is often affected by the weather! It’s been raining for about two years here and I long for spring or summer.

These fabrics remind me of summer and warmth

Soft, summery colors is what I went for when I checked my fabric stash for this quilt. I first had pulled out a pile of retro-reprints, but I found that I could not make myself even take a picture of them, never mind envision what type of quilt I wanted. I puzzled over this for a while and then went back to the stash and found these!

Those retro reprints went back into the stash bucket so fast that I’m surprised they didn’t catch fire.

I have 12 Fat Quarters to work with, and I want to use the cutting design (four cuts) that Sarah used on her “Bright Idea” quilt.

It’s Quilting Time! How are you doing on your quilt?