Lucy Boston Patchwork

Carolyn stopped by to show us her almost finished Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses quilt and it was stunning! She decided to make a much smaller quilt than the original making only twelve of the cross blocks. If you’d like to make one of these beautiful quilts, join us every Thursday here on the blog starting in April. Muriel, one of our staff members and a teacher at the shop will be giving tips and techniques as well as showing her completed blocks for her Patchwork of the Crosses quilt. Also check out our website, www.littlequilts.com, for information on ordering a starter kit and fabric for this fun “blog along” event.

A Charmer!

It’s always fun to take an old pattern and see it done in new contemporary fabrics. Many of you have used charm packs to make the “Chock Full ‘O Charms” quilt. We used two bright and cheery charm packs and one solid charm pack to make this sunny version. Love it! 

 

Prolific Quilter Show and Tell

Christine is trying to get all the unfinished “objects” off her sewing table because she just found out her daughter is getting married and she needs to have the wedding dress finished by June. On Thursday, she brought in her beautiful Dahlia quilt made with quiltsmart fusible pattern

 

She also finished several folded star potholders.

The binding is almost finished on her Second Saturday Sampler quilt.

 

And, she’s totally finished with this beautiful star quilt for her daughter Jackie. Whew! Her machine should be all “warmed up” for that wedding dress by now! Isn’t it amazing what deadlines will do for your productivity?

 

Starring.....drumroll please....

Laura wasn’t able to attend the Second Saturday fun today, but her mother was so excited about her current project she brought it to show us without Laura! The star diamonds are all intricately paper pieced.

Mom reported the hardest part was finding setting and border fabrics because Laura only bought enough fabric to piece the center star. But the “hunt” for fabric is part of the fun, isn’t it? We think they found the perfect fabrics!

 

 

Makes me feel a touch of the "blarney". Need to kiss a stone..?

Lisa finished this great quilt using the “Twister” pattern.

 

When the quilt top was finished, Lisa used the leftovers to piece the backing. What a great way to avoid adding more fabric to the stash!

If you don't enter, you can't win!!!

We’re so excited to be celebrating the 15^th year of the Greater Atlanta Shop Hop! Many thanks to all our wonderful customers who have visited the shop and continue to make Shop Hop such a fun event for us! Of course, no celebration at Little Quilts would be complete without the red, white, and blue so we’re also celebrating the 200^th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner. We’ve got a beautiful prize basket waiting for some lucky customer. We think you’ll love our Star Spangled Basket of goodies!

 

Today is Worldwide Quilting Day

Today is Worldwide Quilting Day and Violet gets the award for traveling the longest distance to visit us – all the way from Burkina Faso,West Africa! Violet has opened Centres of Hope Sewing and Learning centers to teach local women how to sew and applique. 

SHOP HOP IS HERE AND it is a full week....

Look at some of the fun projects you can make with this years’ Greater Atlanta Shop Hop fabric. 

The batik fabric was designed by Timeless Treasures with magnolia blooms and the word Georgia in three colorways especially for the 2014 Shop Hop and will be available at all the participating shops.

 

  The versatile Boho Shoulder Bag is perfect for shop hopping, but just as great for taking to the beach. And, it’s reversible! Pattern is by Sew Fun.

The Classmate comes complete with pockets and vinyl zippered pouches perfect for carrying all your supplies to quilt classes. Pattern is by Atkinson Designs.

 Make the Cash & Carry bags in three sizes out of the rainbow batik and our bright, fun zippers – The small one is perfect for holding all your Little Quilts receipts! The Zippy Strippy Bag is one of our best-selling bag patterns and is perfect made up in any fabric, but especially in bright colors for the summer! Both patterns are by Atkinson Designs.

 You’ll love the compliments you get when you use one of our Ten-Minute tablerunners. Fun, easy, and fast (literally 10 minutes to make)! Get a free demo and pattern during Shop Hop.

 The Shop Hop fabrics make great quilts, too! Our free Shop Hop pattern this year is a Disappearing Four-Patch pattern. You only need twelve blocks to make this 54” x 72” quilt. We love it made up in the rainbow batik and bright solids. Get the pattern free when you visit Little Quilts during the Shop Hop or, if you can’t attend, get the pattern on the free pattern page of our website.

 “Georgia On My Mind” uses the lighter batik colorway of the Shop Hop fabric with a scrappy variety of greens and a very simple quilt block pattern to make a gorgeous 62” x 74” throw.

The Sit and Stitch will be your favorite sewing companion when draped over the arm of your chair. Never lose needles, scissors, or thread again! Pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates.

 

"Girl on Fire"

The East Cobb Quilt Guild challenge this year was titled “It’s All About Me.” Part of the challenge was to use lime green fabric and polka dot fabric in the quilt. We just fell in love with Nicole’s entry! You can’t see it very well, but the fabric used for the inner border and backing has fire flames all over it. Even if you don’t know Nicole, her quilt tells the whole story – she’s an “on fire” quilter!  

 

 

Second Saturday Sampler Stunner

Madeline brought in her version of the 2013 5” Saturday Sampler Blocks.  Another creative interpretation!

 

Quilting makes the quilt of our Second Saturday Sampler 2012

Julie found a really interesting setting for her 2012 Second Saturday Sampler blocks. It looks complicated, but Julie said it was a really easy block. Julie had the king-size quilt machine quilted by friend, Mary Dunham, in Missouri, who uses her home sewing machine to do the quilting.

 

An up-close look at Julie’s block shows just how easy block setting was! Look close at the quilting – it is exquisite!

 

Knockout Neutral

Judy is almost finished with a beautiful quilt from “Knock Out Neutrals” by Pat Wys.

Orphan Blocks? Not so!

In French, the word etude means study - and what a great title that makes for a quilt focusing on new techniques you’ve never tried before. Amanda brought in her quilt top featuring twelve blocks featuring techniques that were new to her like English Paper Piecing hexagons, apple cores, Baltimore-style appliqué, twister technique, and double wedding ring. What a great way to showcase all that we love about quilting! Why not look for all those orphan blocks from classes you’ve taken where you just made one block in the class (and never made another one!) and turn them into your own “Etude”!

 

 

 

Warning: Looking at this post may cause shortness of breath

Heather was in town visiting this week and stopped by for… you guessed it – More Fabric! She’s working on two beautiful appliqué projects. The first is Heather’s center medallion for a Mystery Quilt by Di Ford for Quiltmania magazine and Heather was looking for just the right stripe fabric to frame her beautiful work. 

  

 

The second block is part of another exquisite Di Ford project featuring appliqué and brodrie perse. All the appliqué and the detail are absolutely stunning!

 

If you want to work on a project of your own, come in and ask someone to show you the book, Primarily Quilts by Di Ford.

Contemporary Show and Tell

One of our Saturday Sampler participants shared a quilt she just finished. Love the clean, contemporary look of this quilt.  The quilting changes it entirely.