Stay at Home and Shop Hop - Day 4

It's the final day of the Stay at Home and Shop Hop! I hope you've enjoyed hopping around the world to new shops, all from the comfort and safety of your own home 😊

If this is your first time visiting Devoted Quilter, a special welcome to you! I'm Leanne, a quilt pattern designer in Newfoundland, Canada. You can read my introduction here.

Right now I'm planning something new that involves live video, so I'm equal parts nervous and excited, lol 😅 If you're interested, sign up for The Bulletin so you'll get all the details later this week.

Sign up!

All of my patterns, printed or PDF, are on sale now through April 2nd, so it's a great time to pick up a new pattern or two.

Shop the sale!

Some of my patterns are especially good for sewing from your stash, which is great in these days of staying home as much as possible. I recommend Friendship Galaxy...

Scraps Squared...

or Love Birds.

I want to say a big thank you to Linda, at Colourwerx Designs, for organizing this hop and making sure it all ran smoothly. It is a big group to keep on track, but she did a great job 😊

Here's the final list of shops for you to visit:

Studio R Quilts
https://www.studiorquilts.com
Toadally Quilts
https://www.toadallyquilts.com
From Blank Pages
https://www.fromblankpages.com
Cotton Street Commons
http://www.cottonstreetcommons.com
Puppy Girl Designs
http://www.puppygirldesigns.com
Phoebe Moon Quilt Designs
https://www.facebook.com/phoebemoondesgins
Christa Quilts
https://www.christaquilts.com
Stitched by Susan
http://www.stitchedbysusan.com
Tamarinis
https://www.tamarinis.com


And just in case you missed any of the previous three lists, here are those shops again. Happy hopping!

Bequilter
https://www.beaquilter.com/shop
Presto Avenue Designs
https://www.prestoavenuedesigns.com
Cheryl Lynch Quilts
http://www.cheryllynchquilts.com/home.html
Love to Color My World
http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com/
 Hissyfitz Designs
https://www.hissyfitzdesigns.com
Canton Village Quilt Works
https://cvquiltworks.com/blogs/blog
Anjeanette Klinder Designs
http://www.anjeanettek.com
Pat Sloan – The Voice of Quilting
https://www.blog.patsloan.com
Said With Love
https://www.saidwithlove.com.au
Orange Blossom Quilt Design
https://www.orangeblossomquilt.com
DaySpring Quilt Company
https://www.dayspringquiltcompany.com
Ms P Designs, USA  
https://www.mspdesignsusa.com
Stitchin’ at Home
http://www.stitchinathome.com
Sew Joy Creations
https://www.sewjoycreations.com
Ships & Violins
https://www.shipsandviolins.com
Patti’s Patchwork
https://www.pattispatchwork.com
Your Sewing Friend
https://www.etsy.com/shop/yoursewingfriend
The Geeky Bobbin
https://www.geekybobbin.com
Colourwerx Designs
https://www.colourwerx.com
Kate Colleran Designs
https://www.seamslikeadream.com
Lone Star Pattern Works
https://www.lonestarpatternworks.com
Powered by Quilting
https://www.poweredbyquilting.com
Cottage Rose Quilt Patterns
https://www.cottagerosequiltshop.com
The Cloth Parcel
https://www.theclothparcel.com
Faith and Fabric
https://www.faithandfabricdesign.com
Linen Closet Designs
http://www.linenclosetdesigns.com
Designs by Sarah J
https://www.designsbysarahj.com
Rona the Ribbiter Quilts
https://www.ronatheribbiter.com
Quilt Fox Designs
https://www.quiltfox-design.com
Seam to Be Sew
https://www.seamstobesew.com

Quilting Wisdom

Devotion for the Week...

I have been very grateful lately to have quilting to occupy both my time and my mind. It's easy to get caught up in spending too much time reading news or just scrolling social media mindlessly. Neither is helpful right now as everything is dominated by Covid-19 and too much of that is unsettling, to say the least. Quilting, on the other hand, helps to settle the mind. It also helps to occupy the time spent hanging out at home.

I've always considered quilting, sewing, embroidery, cross-stitch, etc, to be great skills, but I never thought about them being part of what I consider 'wisdom' until one morning last week. I've been reading Exodus lately and in the midst of the instructions for building and furnishing the tabernacle there is a section about the garments that were to be made for the priests. It says, "Make sacred garments for Aaron that are glorious and beautiful. Instruct all the skilled craftsmen whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. Have them make garments for Aaron that will distinguish him as a priest set apart for my service" (Exodus 28:2, 3).

I love that God specifically says He has filled the craftsmen with the spirit of wisdom to enable them to create beautiful things. Lots of times we think of crafty pursuits as being not very important, or we downplay the skill required. But here is God saying that these skills are a gift from Him.  Just let that thought settle in your mind.

The ability to put a quilt together is a gift from God. Knitting skills? A gift from God. Sure, we may have learned from Mom or Grandma or Youtube, but no matter how we learned, the skills were given to us by God. That makes it hard to brush them off as nothing special, doesn't it?

Background quilt is Flower Path

God wanted our world to contain things are that are functional AND beautiful, so He gave us the wisdom needed to create them. What a wonderful gift!

Stay Home and Shop Hop - Day 3

Welcome to day 3 of the Stay Home and Shop Hop! I hope you've been having fun hopping around and visiting new quilting sites around the world, all from the comfort of your home (pajamas optional, but encouraged!).

If this is your first time here, an extra big welcome from snowy Newfoundland 😊 We're currently being buried under an expected 15-20 cm of new snow (so 6-8" approx.), on top of the several feet we already have on the ground. Spring may be coming, but it's always slow getting here, lol. I'm okay with it, though, as it means more time to get out snowshoeing.

Here's a peek at my current project, an inventory quilt made using my Churn pattern and one piece of each of my blue and teal fabrics. Now I need two accent colours. Yellow will be one, but I'm having trouble choosing the second one. Pink, orange, red and grey have all be suggested and now I think I need to just start pulling out fabrics and see which I like best.

My Anniversary Sale has been extended through April 2nd so shop hoppers can save 25% off all printed and PDF patterns in my Etsy shop, no coupon code required. The prices are already marked down 😊

Shop the sale!

I've set myself a goal of releasing 10 new patterns this year. So far I've released three - Hollow Jewels, Formal Garden and New Life. If you'd like to follow along to see if I reach my goal and if you want to know when new patterns are released, sign up for The Bulletin, my monthly newsletter. You'll also receive my Wind Farm pattern, which is only available to subscribers.

Sign up for The Bulletin

Now on to today's list of shops! Have fun checking them all out 😊

Lone Star Pattern Works

https://www.lonestarpatternworks.com

Powered by Quilting

https://www.poweredbyquilting.com

Cottage Rose Quilt Patterns

https://www.cottagerosequiltshop.com

The Cloth Parcel

https://www.theclothparcel.com

Faith and Fabric

https://www.faithandfabricdesign.com

Linen Closet Designs

http://www.linenclosetdesigns.com

Designs by Sarah J

https://www.designsbysarahj.com

Rona the Ribbiter Quilts

https://www.ronatheribbiter.com

Quilt Fox Designs

https://www.quiltfox-design.com

Seam to Be Sew

https://www.seamstobesew.com

Is this the first you've seen of the Stay Home and Shop Hop? Or maybe you missed a few shops along the way. Here are the first two lists, so you can be sure to see everyone. I'll be back again on Monday with the final list of shops.

Bequilter

https://www.beaquilter.com/shop

Presto Avenue Designs

https://www.prestoavenuedesigns.com

Cheryl Lynch Quilts

https://www.cheryllynchquilts.com

Love to Color My World

https://www.lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com

Hissyfitz Designs

https://www.hissyfitzdesigns.com

Canton Village Quilt Works

https://www.cvquiltworks.com

Anjeanette Klinder Designs

http://www.anjeanettek.com

Pat Sloan – The Voice of Quilting

https://www.blog.patsloan.com

Said With Love

https://www.saidwithlove.com.au

Orange Blossom Quilt Design

https://www.orangeblossomquilt.com

DaySpring Quilt Company

https://www.dayspringquiltcompany.com

Ms P Designs, USA  

https://www.mspdesignsusa.com

Stitchin’ at Home

http://www.stitchinathome.com

Sew Joy Creations

https://www.sewjoycreations.com

Ships & Violins

https://www.shipsandviolins.com

Patti’s Patchwork

https://www.pattispatchwork.com

Your Sewing Friend

https://www.etsy.com/shop/yoursewingfriend

The Geeky Bobbin

https://www.geekybobbin.com

Colourwerx Designs

https://www.colourwerx.com

Kate Colleran Designs

https://www.seamslikeadream.com

Stay at Home and Shop Hop Day 2

If you're here for the Making Us Laugh hop, click here.

Welcome to day 2 of the Stay at Home and Shop Hop! We're staying home to stop the spread of this virus, but we can still share the love of quilting with friends all around the world, right?

If this is your first time here at Devoted Quilter, I'm Leanne and I'm thrilled you've hopped over! Click over to this post if you'd like to read more about me. The super short version is that I'm a quilt pattern designer in Newfoundland, Canada and I've set myself the goal of releasing 10 new patterns this year 😊 You can see all of my available patterns in my Etsy shop and all of the patterns are 25% off through April 2nd.

Want to follow along to see if I reach my goal of 10 new patterns? You can sign up for The Bulletin so you'll always know when new patterns are released.

I'm a huge fan of free motion quilting. My most recent finish includes hundreds of teeny-tiny pebbles. That post includes a tutorial for using crayons on your quilts, which is a great project for kids to do, too.

I recently quilted hearts and loops on one version of my Formal Garden pattern...

and flowers and loops on another version.

I quilted the same flowers and loops on my New Life quilt, too, though at a much smaller scale. That one uses old jeans for the machine applique flowers. You can find the pattern here.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to sign up for The Bulletin - you'll get my Wind Farm pattern when you do. It's only available to subscribers 😊

Remember, all of my patterns are currently 25% off, so now is a great time to pick up a new pattern or two so you'll have something fun to make while you're staying home.

Visit my Etsy shop!

Now go visit my quilting industry colleagues - other designers, teachers, shop owners, and more 😊 I'll be back again on Friday with another list of fun places for you to visit.

DaySpring Quilt Company

https://www.dayspringquiltcompany.com

Ms P Designs, USA  

https://www.mspdesignsusa.com

Stitchin’ at Home

http://www.stitchinathome.com

Sew Joy Creations

https://www.sewjoycreations.com

Ships & Violins

https://www.shipsandviolins.com

Patti’s Patchwork

https://www.pattispatchwork.com

Your Sewing Friend

https://www.etsy.com/shop/yoursewingfriend

The Geeky Bobbin

https://www.geekybobbin.com

Colourwerx Designs

https://www.colourwerx.com

Kate Colleran Designs

https://www.seamslikeadream.com

I'm Quilting Today Mini Quilt and Tutorial

Welcome to my stop on the Making Us Laugh blog hop, hosted by Joan of MooseStashQuilting 😊 Joan first proposed this hop ages ago, but the timing couldn't possibly be better as I know we need all the laughs we can find these days.

I knew right away when I signed up that I wanted to make a sewing related mini quilt for this hop, so I headed to Pinterest to see what I could find for memes. There are so many! The more I looked, the more I realized that my mini was going to need to include words. I didn't want to piece letters, but I didn't want to applique them, either, or do reverse applique. I briefly considered doing something different altogether, but then I remembered the crayon quilts I've seen. I had never tried the technique before, but it certainly sounded simple enough.

I had my technique and a theme, but I still couldn't decide what the mini would say, until Laura posted a picture of a tshirt in her Sewing and Quilting Deals fb group (Are you a member? You should be! She shares lots of great deals in the group). The phrase on the shirt was exactly what I was looking for!

How often have I wished I could say that to get out of things! Meeting? I can't...I'm quilting today. Housecleaning? I can't...I'm quilting today. 😄 It's the perfect excuse for getting out of anything we don't want to do!

The crayon technique is super simple and would make a great project to do with kids. If you have kids, you probably have crayons and if you're a quilter you definitely have bits of fabric lying around that they could colour and turn into mini quilts. This would also work on any light coloured tshirts you have, too. Just don't go to the store and buy anything right now...these don't count as essential purchases. #flattenthecurve

I started by printing out my phrase. I've seen crayon quilts done with plenty of pictures, too, so this isn't only for words. If you are good at hand lettering, you could certainly do that instead, but my writing isn't much to look at, so the computer font is prettier. I chose a font called Harrington, which is the same one I use for the titles on my quilt patterns, and I think I set the size to be 100. It was most of a sheet of paper, anyway. Then I used my fancy-pants lightbox to transfer the outline to my Northcott solid white fabric. Yes, we still have a lot of snow.

I chose to trace my letters using a regular pencil because I wanted to have that dark outline around my letters. If you don't want to see the traced lines, you might want to use an erasable pen of some sort. Just be aware that you will also need to iron this, so that might be a factor in what you use.

Once the letters are traced, it's time to pick colours! I picked through our crayons, looking specifically for Crayola ones. I find when I'm colouring on paper other brands (especially cheap ones) can leave waxy globs on the paper and I really didn't want that on my quilt. One random brand crayon snuck in, though, so I guess I wasn't paying as close attention as I thought I was.

Then colour! No fancy skills needed here...just fill in the space. Because my crayons are mostly old and used, I sometimes needed to scribble on scrap paper to try to get a bit of a point on the crayon to make it easier to colour in my skinny spaces.

When it's all coloured, lay the fabric on top of a paper towel and put another paper towel on top, then iron with a hot iron and no steam. The heat will melt the wax and the paper towel will absorb it. Keep going until no wax is left on the fabric.

I found I couldn't really see the wax on the paper towel, except for the first press when a small amount of colour transferred to the paper towel, so I ran my fingers over the letters after I had pressed it a few times. When I couldn't see or feel any more wax, I pressed another time just to be certain I got it all and then figured it was good.

Since this is a mini, it was the perfect way to use up another bit of my abundant Warm and Natural batting scraps, plus another piece of Northcott white for the backing. And then it was time to quilt! Again, since this is a mini, and because I started the quilting the same day school was shut down indefinitely and I needed a bit of stress relief, I went all in with the tiny quilting. I started by outlining each letter and doing teeny-tiny stippling all around them in Aurifil 2024.

I purposely stippled an irregular shape around the words. I didn't want it to look rectangular, though I did try to keep it looking sort of even. After the stippling, I switched to mint green (Aurifil 2835) and made a round of tiny pebbles. After the green, I used blue (4140) and then purple (4225) to finish it off. I had thought I might do the first round of pebbles and then change to swirls or something different, but I really liked the look of just pebbles. Plus, it's a mini, so even with tiny pebbles it didn't take long. I love that it reminds me of cobblestones.

Did I mention the pebbles are tiny? Here's a picture with a bobbin for scale.

As always, I love the back.

 I love the pop of the letters, especially.

With the purple pebbles at the edge, I finished it off with a purple Island Batik fabric for the binding.

The quilt finished at 10 ¼ x 13 ½ and it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see it 😊

Before I send you off to see the other projects shared today for the blog hop, I'd love to have you sign up for The Bulletin, my monthly newsletter where I share fun things to make and news from here. You'll also receive my Wind Farm quilt pattern when you sign up.

Also, I've extended my Anniversary Sale for the Stay Home and Shop Hop, so you can still save 25% off all my printed or PDF patterns until April 2nd. The prices are already marked down, so no coupon code is needed.

Thanks for stopping by! Now, hop on over to the rest of today's bloggers to see what they've made to make us laugh.

Monday March 23

One Quilting Circle

Quilt Schmilt

Devoted Quilter (that's me!)

Tuning My Heart Quilts

Home Sewn By Us

Farm Quilter