Rock Star

Looking for my latest blog post? Check it out here on my new site, StashLabQuilts.com.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2017 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Got scrap strips? Perfect! Sounds like it's time for a string quilt and I have just the project for you! This is "Rock Star" and it's currently featured in the new October 2017 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. Check out the full blog post at StashLabQuilts.com

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

New Year, New Opportunities!

"Time waits for no one, but fabric stash hangs around a little longer...."

                                                                  anonymous

Happy New Year! I love January for the simple reason that I find it is the absolute best month to dive into some fun scrap sewing with no deadlines, no agenda, just good cleaning fun! There is actually some method to my madness. It's a great time to dig into my scrap bins and re-sort, clean out, make new discoveries and just have some fun in my sewing room after the craziness of the holidays.

With storage and organization in mind, I'm sharing this post again - not so coincidentally, from January 2014! - in case you are looking for some fun new storage ideas for your sewing space. I jazzed up some old hat boxes with selvages for a simple storage solution. And also because it's very timely...

You can listen here

Save the date! I'll be a guest on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio hosted by Pat Sloan - LIVE on Monday, January 11th!

Live Show time is

4pm - 5pm Eastern

3pm - 4pm Central

2pm - 3pm Mountain

1pm - 2pm Pacific

I'm excited but a little daunted by the live part...can't there be some lag time for editing in case I blow it?! No such luck. If you miss the live airing, it will linger on in the archives for posterity....forever!

Pat's topic for January and February is BIG IDEA: Solving storage and workspace woes! Every journey begins with a single step. We'll be talking all things Stash Lab, scrap quilts and anything else she throws at me. You can also enjoy all of Pat's past shows at creativetalknetwork.com/ available to download any time. They are great listening, especially while the scraps are flying under your presser foot. Hope you can join us.

Happy stash quilting,
Tonya

Guest blogging at McCall's

Hi all, I'm here, but not exactly! I'm a guest blogger over at McCall's Quilting Blog today. I'll be chatting more about my project "Pressed Leaves" that's in the Sept/Oct 2015 issue. More about the project inspiration and some tips for the actual quilting technique I used. Hop over and check it out!

"Pressed Leaves"

Happy quilting,

Tonya

Pressed Leaves and a Giveaway

With summer in full swing, it's hard to believe fall will be here before we know it! I want this beautiful summer in my Pacific Northwest to last forever, but I'm ready for fall for a couple of really good reasons - one of them is the upcoming issue of McCall's Quilting, September/October 2015 that will be hitting your mailbox and store shelves soon. One of my favorite recent projects is being featured - "Pressed Leaves" - and it even has its glamour shot moment on the cover!

It was such a fun project that used some of my favorite scraps framed by a really great neutral newsprint fabric. The one I used is from Collage by Carrie Bloomston for Windham Fabrics. If you can't find this one around, not to worry. Any great print neutral would be perfect for this project. Your favorite quilt shop probably has some already on hand, so check them out.

Pressed Leaves table runner

With so little actual snail mail these days, I'm always excited when something like this lands in my mailbox...advanced copies! So it must be time for a giveaway! Leave a comment below and share your favorite fall leaf color for a chance to win a free copy of the McCalls Quilting September/October 2015 issue. I'll pick a name out of the hat and mail off a signed copy to you!

Time for a giveaway! Leave a comment with your favorite fall leaf color to enter.

The other reason I'm excited for fall, of course, is because of this little beauty that I'm anxiously waiting for....

Just found out the release date has been bumped up from October 15th to October 6th. Nine less sleepless nights of anticipation for this first-time author. I can't wait to share it with you :)

Happy summer quilting,

Tonya

A garden of options

My garden inspired scrap project continues.

Have I mentioned yet today how much I love the log cabin block? One of the things that make it such a great block is that it works on it's own and in a big setting. I think it's very interesting how the effect of having only two rows has on a block. The overall design affect is very different than a big quilt that can carry a secondary pattern. Sometimes I look at a block design and think it's nice on it's own - or nice when there are a bunch of them and you get the overall effect. But the log cabin really works both ways for me.

O.K. My eight blocks are made. Decisions, decisions. Here are some possibilities for the layout of my table runner:

Option #1

Option #2

Option #3

Option #4

Option #5

Option #6

Option #7

What do you think? Hard to pick just one, I know!

And how are we doing in the Christmas category? When I pulled out the scraps for this project I was pondering whether I could do a red/white/green project and not have it scream Christmas. I think the jury is still out on this project but the tipping point may come with the quilting and the binding. Stay tuned...

Happy scrap stitching,

Tonya

Practice makes....not quite perfect, yet.

I have been quilting for about 10 years now and I have a love/hate relationship with free motion quilting. There. I said it. I want perfect stitches, smooth curves, even patterning and balanced tension. Right now. Is that too much to ask? Probably. After all, even after 10 years of making quilts, I haven't spent all that time honing my free motion skills. It's usually the part of the process that I have enjoyed the least - and spent the least amount of time on (so why am I surprised at my results?!) So I've been trying to take my own advice and spend some little snips of time practicing.

I have done my own quilting on many projects in the past up to twin size and I have also loved, loved, loved the talents of my favorite long arm quilters (and will continue to!) But I still want to improve my free motion skills and my main motivator is simply so that I enjoy it more!

Nothing big, nothing stressful. Sometimes just extra orphan blocks I have left over from a project, sandwiched up. I like these little minis because there's no stress and I can practice quilting designs without stressing about ruining a bigger project. It's a good time to test the thread color effects on different fabrics and block patterns. And the small size makes them very manageable under the machine.

Free motion practice, meandering with  loops

Here's the back (just batting, I didn't add a backing fabric on this one) but you can see the design better.

Under the machine, grippy gloves on - this means business!

For me, part of the success or enjoyment of free motion is becoming one with the machine! I basically have sewn on two different machines. They each seem to have distinct personalities, thread they like or don't like, certain stitches that go smooth as butter, and then others that are a thread-breaking nightmare.

This is what happens when I get too impatient and get lead-footed on the pedal.
 Tension issues!

This was the second pattern I practiced on today - kind of like a shark's fin, palm tree kind of motif. 

So to all of you fellow aspiring free motion quilters, I say, practice, persevere and may the force be with you! You are not alone! If you are anything like me, cut yourself some slack. At the end of the day, you are probably way more critical about your work than the folks that are receiving the lovely quilts you are making for them.

Happy stitching!

Tonya

Kitchen Chicken

Time for a little Spring spruce up. I'm almost too embarrassed to even show you the before picture of my much-loved, over-used pot holders that have been residing in my kitchen since forever. I decided it was time to do something about them so I whipped up a couple of new potholders recently.

Super easy and I really cannot think of a reason I haven't done this before now! Here's what you need to get started:

Front fabric, backing fabric and some special heat-resistant batting - in my case, Insul-Bright.

Cut an 8" square from the front fabric, backing fabric and the batting (I like to use 2 layers of batting because nothing is worse that taking a hot pan of lasagna out of the oven and having the heat start to get through before you get to the table!) I also, fussy-cut my chicken down a little and added a strip of the backing fabric for her "nest" because the rectangles I was starting with just didn't work for me.

O.k., now you layer and pin the layers all together.

(yes, I know this picture is upside down but oh well. Friday technical difficulties.)

 Time to quilt! I just used my walking foot for some straight grid lines.

See how I cheated and used a cross-hatch patterned fabric for the backing? No marking for the quilting lines necessary!

Trim them up, add some binding and voila! I didn't even bother with the little hanger loop on the corner because never in my life have I actually hung a potholder! They get tossed in a drawer in my house.

Now, to get these babies broken in and maybe I'll be ready to let the old ones finally go.....

Happy kitchen stitching,

Tonya

Stamp of Approval

Sharing a new quilt - what a great way to start the new year! I can't believe we're almost in February already! This is "Stamp of Approval" and it will be featured in the April 2014 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting. It's my take on a postage stamp quilt - well, half-ways anyway!

“Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

I love antique postage stamp quilts but find the million-plus little one inch squares a little daunting. Our quilting predecessors were champions of using every last scrap, right down to the little one inch squares that would be scrimped, saved and stitched together. A postage stamp quilt was a badge of honor reflecting its maker's frugality and resourcefulness during hard times and could take many, many years to make.

Mine, not so much. I came up with the center blocks that are inversions of each other so I would only have to make half as many! I also used strip-set piecing to make them go together a lot quicker. Lazy, maybe, but I do like the result. Originally, I only had planned to make the center but once I got that far I felt like it just needed a little somethin'-somethin' so that's where the leaf and vine border came in. It framed whole project and gave just enough curve and flow to an otherwise very linear grid design.

“Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

Just about any project that will eat up some of my scraps is sure to be one of my favorites and this one was no exception. After falling for the aqua blue in a previous project, I was bound and determined to use it again, this time in a big dose. I pulled out all of my 1 1/2" scrap strips (the smallest size I usually keep) and then filtered them down to just the ones that looked like colors you would find in an Easter basket. To up the scrap-factor in my quilts, I usually expand my search to a color category instead of a single color and I am usually pretty pleased with what the additional scraps bring to the party.

The finished quilt measures 63"x 63" and the lovely quilting was done by my friend and wonderful, long-arm quilter Tracey. Thanks also go to my quilting buddy Yvonne, who gave me the idea for stitching down the yo-yo "berries" in the border using decorative embroidery stitches on my machine. There is a nice detail shot and also a quilt diagram in the magazine spread.

I have been told that this issue hits the newsstands and goes out to subscribers the first week in February. So while "Stamp of Approval" is not a cover girl, she's still one of my favorites! Hope you enjoy it too!

“Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2014 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”

Happy stitching,

Tonya

Selvage storage story

Once upon a time, there was a happy quilter with a possible hording anxiety that had an over-abundance of fabric selvages (and other massive quantities of misshaped scraps.) You know, those lovely little strips of dots and print that are just on the edge of your fabric that are considered to be juvenile delinquents by the quilt police where tension and shrinkage are concerned, but just too good to throw away. The possibilities!

With the new year demanding out with the old and in with the new - she couldn't bear it. So she devised a plan that would (a) hide/store some of her selvages (b) be quick and easy to make and (c) actually use some of the precious beauties in a fun way for her sewing-room-that-is-really-the-guest-room.

One day (about four years ago - but we'll forgive her this) the happy quilter picked up some plain brown stacking hat boxes at a garage sale for a song. With a dream and a vision for what could become of them, but not exactly a lot of determination to get it done, she took them home and there they sat on the shelf, plain, brown and sad, until.....

Armed with some of her precious selvages, some decoupage glue and foam brush she set to work...

Just a little glue on the back of the strips, overlapping and cutting as she saw fit. (A protected work surface is highly recommended. Wax paper does the trick.) Covering the top of the strips with another coat of glue to seal the deal...

The tops were a cinch, now to tackle the sides! Oh, the joy! The selvages were flooding out of the box at an exhilarating pace!...

When the plain, brown, sad boxes were completely covered and transformed by the lovely selvages, she let them sit overnight to dry. In the morning, she awoke to beams of sunshine and the sound of robins on her windowsill (not really, it is winter on the tundra after all!) She proceeded to add some die-cut chalkboard label stickers (she found in the wonderful land of Target) so she could actually look even more organized in her sewing-room-that-is-really-the-guest-room.

 

With her project complete and labels for jelly rolls, fat quarters and charm squares secured, she stuffed them full with a smile on her face and a song in her heart. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Of course, those selvage-lovers among us know what was really inside the little gems, but we'll just let that be our little secret. And she lived happily ever after.

Happy selvage-stitching!

Tonya