Showstoppers Quilt

I love getting to share a new scrappy pattern with the Stash Artists members every other month! For the September pattern, I designed a fat quarter-friendly pattern called Showstoppers.

There are so many things I love about this quilt! First, the big, bold flower blocks. They make me think of the biggest, showiest flowers in the garden, which is how the quilt got its name.

Then there's the shape of the negative space around the flowers. I love the curvy diamond shape on each side, but more than that, I love the way the four curvy diamonds around a flower seem to create the illusion of a larger black shape behind the flower. Can you see that?

And then there's the partial flower blocks that create the border around the full blocks. They give the quilt a more interesting look than if the quilt were entirely made of full flower blocks. I made the baby quilt, and the pattern includes instructions for throw and queen size, both of which also have the partial blocks on the edges.

If you're not comfortable sewing curved seams yet, I have a tutorial for how to sew Drunkard's Path blocks. I promise they're not as scary as they look!

That being said, something was going crazy in the sewing room when I sewed mine because every single one turned out wonky. Every. Single. One. There was no way I was redoing them, so I eased in fulness as needed and there were a few ¼" seams that weren't as precise as usual as I assembled the blocks. The blocks turned out surprisingly well, though, and then I didn't need to fudge things much to put the quilt top together. I've always said I could never be a carpenter because there's no 'easing in' when you're working with wood. Fabric, on the other hand, is quite forgiving! And remember, finished is better than perfect 😊

The folks at The Warm Company sent me a shipment of Warm and Natural batting recently (it's my favourite!), and this was the first quilt made with the new batting. Yes, I still have an abundance of batting scraps, but they're all pretty small now and I was getting tired of piecing multiple scraps together for everything. I have a plan for a series (or two!) of mini quilts next year, though, and those scraps will be perfect for that.

I wanted to use black solid for the back of the quilt, but didn't have enough. I did have enough navy, though, and that was neutral enough for me. Especially on a scrap quilt, I don't feel like the back has to be a perfect match. 

As a bonus, the navy does a nice job of showing off the purple quilting thread! With so many colours on the front, ranging from black to almost-white, it was hard to choose a thread colour for the quilting. Black was out, because it would be too dark on the light fabrics. White, beige, and light grey were all out because they'd be too light on the black. I tested teals, blues, pinks, medium greys, and purples (all Aurifil 50 wt), and 4225 (Eggplant) ended up being my favourite. As you've probably noticed in the pictures, the purple does show up, but there was really no way to avoid that unless I switched thread for every flower and the background, which didn't fit the all-over quilting I wanted to do.

I chose an all-over flowery meander, which makes me think of the smaller flowers in the garden. It felt like the perfect complement to the big flower blocks.

We went to the beach Friday for one last picnic supper before school started, and I wandered around taking pictures of Showstoppers while Paul barbecued. I love the light in this picture.

If you love scrappy quilts as much as I do, join the Stash Artists waiting list to be notified when the membership doors open again later in the fall. 

What colour would the background of your Showstoppers quilt be? I'd love to see it with a white background or a pale green. This is one of the many, many reasons I love quilting - there's always another option you could try, even when making the same pattern again!

My First Quilt with Becky Jorgensen

It's the last Friday of the month, so I'm here with a new My First Quilt interview! I love getting to share these stories of quilt industry folks and their first quilts! Today Becky Jorgensen is sharing the story of her first quilt(s).

Becky Jorgensen is a quilt pattern designer, author, business coach and award winning quilter. Since beginning her blog and pattern design in 2007, she has also launched Patchworkers Plus- an online quilt group connecting quilters from around the world,  and the Patchwork Planner - helping quilters track and organize their projects, calendar, classes and more. 

You can connect with Becky at her website, and learn more about Patchworkers Plus here.

And now, here's Becky's first quilt (maybe 😆)!

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

Oh - I don't even remember!  I have been a sewer for quite a long time. I have a little X-stitch from when I was 8 and for a few years stitched for stitching store, Shepherd's Bush before I became interested in quilting. I even sewed up some shorts and such when I was a teenager. I believe though that my first quilt was a table topper that had alternating four patch blocks and a square. 

I am a lover of libraries so I'm fairly certain that the pattern I used was from a book that I had found there and checked out.  

I'm thinking that I just wanted something to do.  I had gotten a sewing machine from someone and needed a project so I could use it. 

Another contender for the first quilt was a baby quilt for my first daughter Jerika. It had nine patches and then pieced people in the border. I remember that not being easy! I vowed never to sew people again. lol 

I'm pretty sure that my journey and interest in quilting was pushed by having children, which is very similar to other quilters. 

Neither quilt is perfect. I look at them now - especially that table topper and think. Wow. Those four patches are not even the same size. I totally didn't care! They needed to work and so they got trimmed to make that happen. I don't mind.

The other candidate for Becky's first quilt

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

They are traditionally pieced. I don't remember if I had a rotary cutter when I began. I did quilt it myself. Straight lines - nothing fancy and on my own sewing machine. No hand quilting.  

Who taught you to make the quilt?

While I was the one who followed the instructions from the pattern and did everything, my mother is a quilter and grandmother is also creative. I believe since I had experience in hand stitching from very young, I picked up the sewing machine and quilting pretty easily and quickly. 

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

Yes! The baby quilt - while bright in colors wasn't aghast or offensive. lol The table topper was more civil war fabrics.  Both I still enjoy.  

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

I believe that while I had breaks, I do remember that after exploring those I began attending a block of the month with my mom every month. Sewing up blocks and learning a bit more and paying attention to a few rules - like trimming up and pinning at seams to make sure they aren't off.  After that I found a quilt group to attend and began to sew even more.  

Where is the quilt now?

I have both of these quilts still! In fact, the table topper I even use. I don't mind them not being perfect. I enjoy the layout, the fabrics I chose and the end result. While they could offend a lot of quilters, I like having them around still. 

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

Go for it. Try it out. Cut that fabric. Sew whatever you want. If you want to use crazy fabric, use crazy fabric. While listening to others opinions is great - you still need to allow yourself to do what pleases you and makes you happy.  

Don't worry about making others happy or worrying over your points. Enjoy the process. 

And - if you don't like it.... change it! Don't finish it. Make it into something new. Figure out what you can do so you do like it. 

Anything else you want to share about your first quilt?

Not really about my first quilt, but just some thoughts. 

Quilters tend to be such givers. We sew for charities, babies, graduations, weddings, birthdays... any kind of celebration that could include a quilt - we sew for it. But don't forget about yourself. I love having quilts all over my home. I allow myself to keep them if I want to. Sometimes I make something extra special just for myself. 

Don't let the cost of fabric keep you from quilting.  I still shop thrift stores.  I cut up clothes and men's dress shirts and woman skirts. They have wonderful cotton and they can be used in quilts and don't break your bank. Look outside of the quilt store if those prices don't fit your budget right now. 

Also- Use Them! Wash them and get them crinkled and snuggly. Toss them on beds and chairs and couches and in your car. I don't intend for my quilts to last for 100 years. I would really rather them be used to threads, that's why I sewed it in the first place. 

I feel the same way, Becky! Quilts are meant to be used and loved! Thank you, Becky, for sharing your first quilts with us 😊

Summer Dreamin'

Welcome to TGIFF, the party where we celebrate our finishes! Around here, the quilts sometimes get finished in a timely manner, but then the blog post doesn't 😅 This week I'm finally getting around to sharing a quilt that I finished near the end of February, which means it has taken me almost 6 months to take the time to sit and give Summer Dreamin' its rightful place on the blog.

Summer Dreamin' was the Stash Artists pattern for March, so I was working on these blocks in January and February, when the world outside was snow and ice and cold. As I sewed the blocks and added them to my design wall, they felt like a little pop of summer in my sewing room. The more blocks I put up, the more summery it felt, until I knew I had to reference summer in the name somehow. Since it was the dead of winter, Summer Dreamin' felt like the perfect name. It's not often a quilt name comes to me so easily, so that was a nice change.

All the fabrics came from my stash and they're a mix of new and old, batiks and regular quilting cotton from a bunch of different companies. Most of the white pieces were cut from my white scrap box, so there are a few brands of white mixed together to make the background. Do you have your scraps organized in a way that makes it easy for you to actually use them? If not, check out my Escape Scrap Overwhelm guide!

Those scrappy blue pinwheels are probably my favourite part of the whole design. Blue and pinwheels always make me happy! 

I took a bit of a shortcut making the flying geese for the pinwheels. I've been making blue and teal flying geese as leaders and enders for the last while so I can eventually make a quilt of scrappy blue and teal Flying Together blocks. I knew I had a nice stack of them that hadn't been sewn together into blocks yet, so I raided that for this quilt, leaving me needing to piece only a handful more to have enough for all the pinwheels. Of course, that means my Flying Together quilt is pushed even farther into the future, but I'll get there someday (maybe).

Since the quilt felt so much like summer to me, I knew I wanted to quilt flowers on it. I considered the loop and flower meander I used on Ombre Twirl and New Life and this Formal Garden baby quilt, but that wasn't quite what I wanted. At some point while I was piecing and thinking, I noticed the daisy chain banner I have on two of the sewing room walls. Could I replicate that as a quilted flower? I tried drawing it on a scrap of paper and was excited that it had exactly the vibe I wanted for this quilt.

Now the only question was, could I quilt it large enough? I tend to quilt small, even when I'm trying to quilt bigger. I blame it on learning to free motion quilt on a Kenmore machine with a 5" throat space and no extension table - I didn't have room to quilt big back then! I wanted these flowers to feel big and showy, though, so I had to really focus on keeping them from getting smaller and smaller as I went. I'm happy to say I was successful at keeping them big, so that most of them finish around 4" across. That's huge by my quilting standards!

In keeping with wanting the flower to be showy and summery, I used yellow Aurifil thread (2135) for the quilting. From a distance, you can't see the colour of the thread, but as soon as you get close it becomes noticeable.

I didn't have quite enough of the sky blue for the whole back, so I added a chunk of royal blue to make it big enough. Here's a picture I took in the backyard in February. The yellow thread really shows up on the royal blue, even from a distance!

A bright pink binding felt like the perfect choice. 

I had to take the cover picture for the pattern in the snow in our backyard in February, but then Zach and I took Summer Dreamin' to the beach for these pictures in April. It wasn't exactly warm (in the one picture I took of Zach he has his coat zipped up, the hood of his hoodie pulled up, and his hands in his pockets!), but the snow and ice were gone, so this summery quilt looked right at home.

Summer Dreamin' has since found its forever home with our niece Julia, who sent me a picture this week of her cat draped over it, saying George loves it. I love when the quilts I make get used, even by the cats!

That's my (finally blogged) finish this week 😊 What have you finished that you want to share? Link it up below so we can celebrate with you.

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