Friday, October 31, 2014

20th ANNIVERSARY SALE A BRATION

Oh my gosh,, I cannot be old enough to participate in Little Quilts 16th anniversary of the retail store opening!!  Anyone have their kit/top/quilt made from logs we cut from the first bolts we had in the store in ?
Well it is a reality.. Little Quilts Quilt Shop is 16!.  When we were a mere 6 years old...in 2004, we were acknowledged by American Patchwork and Quilting as a favorite quilt shop to be featured in their Sampler magazine.  Here is a blast from the past photo from that time.
To celebrate.. you can shop at 20% off Saturday, Nov. 1 and Monday, Nov. 3...(with a very few exceptions). Please join us in this unbelievable milestone. 



Quilt shop is not just for quilters. Boooo!

Halloween will be here soon, and Shirley finished this spooktacular cross stitch just in time! She came in to find the perfect border fabric to finish the project.
  

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

I'm back from the Houston Quilt Market, and what a fun time we had!  We saw lots of great new products and patterns that will be appearing soon in the shop, and the quilts in the show were absolutely stunning.  What I really wanted to share with all of you is the fabulous Patchwork of the Crosses quilt that was hanging in the show.
The blocks were all so beautiful and so different - I stood studying this quilt for a long time trying to take in all the colors, fabrics styles, and block patterns.  I can hardly wait to get my quilt finished now!
One of the new gadgets we saw at market is perfect for all of us Patchwork of the Crosses stitchers.
It's an acrylic Fussy Cut Finder.  They're available in all different sizes, but the perfect one for us is the 1" Honeycomb.  There's also a 1" Square.
As you can see, it's just a little gadget, but it makes it so much easier to see the exact unit you want to cut from the fabric.  Of course, when you're cutting the fabric you'll want to use the clear acrylic honeycomb template that has the seam allowances  on it, but this is so much easier to slide across the fabric to find the perfect spot to cut.  Keep one in your purse when you're shopping for fabric to make sure the scale of the fabric is right.
They will be on the website soon, but in the meantime, call the shop to order Fussy Cut Finders,  I'm getting two - one for my sewing area and one for my purse!
 One my favorite things about Patchwork of the Crosses is its portability.  I took a small sewing bag along with me to Houston just in case I had a few minutes to sit and sew.  This is a block I made from the left-overs of the Jo Morton fabrics that were in the October fabric packs and a fabric that was in my stash.  Your leftovers may be a little different than mine, but these were such perfect fabrics for fussy cutting there are lots of options for using them!  For the corner "frilly" units be sure to cut mirror image units.  With the new little Fussy Cut Finder we brought back from market, it should be even easier for you to design a great block of your own.

Be sure to send me pictures of your finished blocks to post on our Pinterest Board.  It's fun to see all the different blocks and it's a great place to get new design ideas for your blocks.

Shop on our website if you need paper piecing supplies or glue pen refills.  Watch the website for Fussy Cut Finders!


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Quilt Inspiration

One of the students in Wanda’s Advanced Baltimore Study Group finished another quilt top and brought it in to be basted so she can begin hand quilting it. Judy is a real artist and designed all the blocks herself. Her use of fabric and the creativity of the blocks is truly unique. Although you probably can’t make them out on this picture, the patriotic quilting designs for the quilt were also hand drawn by Judy and are stunning. Can’t wait to see this quilt finished!





Monday, October 27, 2014

I Scream ,You Scream... We all Scream for.....

Not long ago we featured one of our Hand Applique teachers, Anne, with one of her fabulous pictorial quilts from her trip to Europe. Here’s a picture of her most recent quilt made for her great grandson with lots of memories from her days in Chicago and especially the “Good Humor” Ice Cream trucks!
 

 

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

I've flown the coop ... as you read this I'm on my way to Houston for Quilt Market! It's always a fun time at market seeing (and buying!) what's new for the shop and I can't wait to see all the fabulous quilts in the show.  If I see any Lucy Boston quilts, I'll take pictures and post them when I get back. In the meantime, I hope you won't mind the abbreviated post this week.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the blocks others have done. Some of the blocks are done with fabrics from our kits, but many are done from stash fabrics.  All of them are absolutely beautiful.

These are some of the blocks done by Carolyn who says she has become very addicted to paper piecing:

Jackie has enjoyed using the fabrics from her kits in different ways:

Kathleen has been using fabrics from her stash:


I love this block Kathleen did with the "two-tone" blue.  This look is achieved by strip piecing two different fabrics, and pressing the seams open to avoid bulk.  Lay the center of the acrylic template on the seam line and cut.  Continue making the honeycomb shapes as you would with a single piece of fabric.
Sarah has a beautiful collection of blocks.  She, too, has become very addicted to paper piecing and is working on several hexagon projects at the same time.


Love the unique setting Joanne achieved with fabrics from the first kit we sent in April.
These are just a few of the blocks posted on our Pinterest Board.  Check out the board to see many more stunning blocks.

If your're in need of more paper piecing supplies, click here for our website.

See you next week with a report from Houston!  Hopefully I'll have time to get some blocks pieced on the trip.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Touch of Baltimore interpreted.

Judy is working on a gorgeous new project featuring Dresden Plate blocks using our new line of fabric, “Touch Of Baltimore” The clear, bright colors of the fabrics are perfect for the blocks!  


Monday, October 20, 2014

Grand Prize Winner

Jane Opp was very excited to be the grand prize winner of the Sweet Home Marietta Shop Hop. She’s shown here picking up her Cameo Cutter. How “Sweet” it is… Congratulations, Jane! 


Friday, October 17, 2014

Show and Tell Encore!!!

Purses were big at our Second Saturday Sampler event today. Elsie and Janice both shared their favorite bags.

Janice also brought in a quilt top she’s working on. The center of the quilt is a preprinted panel, Janice pieced the star border, and she brought it with her to find the perfect outer border to finish it. 
  Eloise is almost finished with this quilt – just the binding to go, but with two small children at home it’s hard to find time to stitch.  
 

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

Another new block this week -this block is fabulous!

Here are the main fabrics I used (colorway of the two fabrics in the kits varies - mine was a different colorway than the one shown):


The fabrics are from "Amelia" by designer Jo Morton for Andover Fabrics and are absolutely perfect for fussy cutting.  The other fabrics are from my stash.  You might recognize the blue moire fabric - it was leftover from the stripe fabric we used for the very first block we made back in April!   There are so many ways you can use these fabrics that I can hardly wait to see the variations you come up with. Send me pictures!

I finally figured out, thanks to one of you, that blog posts can tagged.  Sorry I didn't know this sooner, but all the posts are now labeled "Patchwork of the Crosses" so it should now be easier to locate past posts.

Click here to check out lots of beautiful blocks on our Pinterest Board.

Click here to order additional paper piecing supplies or glue refills from our website

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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Second Saturday Sampler Show and Tell - best day of the Month.

 Our current trunk show features some really cute quilts that the favorite children in your life are going to love! All the quilts are from the book “Animal Parade” by Cheri Leffler. They’re even cuter in person, so stop by the shop and get an up-close look while they’re still here.
 
One of our award-winning applique teachers, Anne, is well-known for her pictorial quilts. We thought you might like to see the quilt she created after her trip to Europe. Ann does all her own design work for these quilts and has showcased several of her trips in quilts. What a fantastic way to remember a great trip!
 

  We loved this quilt that Amy brought in. She wanted to use up scraps – mostly Kaffe Fasset and 30’s – and decided to try using them in the same quilt. We decided she needed to title the quilt “Amy meets Kaffe and Aunt Grace for lunch”! Isn’t it amazing what you can do with scraps?

During the Sweet Home Marietta Shop Hop last month we gave everyone a small kit and pattern for making a Fall Hexagon Pin. Here’s a picture of the first two customers to come in wearing their completed pins. One of the pins features wool applique acorns and the other pin was embellished with Big Stitch. Very cute, ladies!

 Tamara has a huge collection of wool she loves using. She just finished the rug braiding class using wool strips. These are a few of her other wool creations. 

Monday, October 13, 2014

FREE!!! Women of the Bible Sampler

Don't miss out. The starting line is approaching....tomorrow.. in fact...
Women of the B-i-b-l-e. (yes that's the book for me) free block of the "every two weeks", downloads. Get two blocks every other week.. but you must be an email newsletter subscriber.  If you haven't signed up, you can do so on the home page at www.littlequilts.com
Each pattern begins with historical references and devotional reflection.
At the end of each pattern section, space is provided for your own personal notes.
You can use this space to recall personal thoughts of the Bible character described, or to reflect on your progress when constructing the quilt.
Your complete journal will become a cherished treasure to accompany this finished keepsake quilt.



Thursday, October 09, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

Another new block!  I love the way this turned out and it all came from a single fabric.


This is the fabric I used.  It was such an unusual fabric, it really caught by eye and I was curious to see what I could come up with.  The fabric was designed by Terry Clothier Thompson for RJR.


There are so many possibilities for blocks with this fabric - be sure to send me pictures so I can see how you used it.

Click here to go to the first Patchwork of the Crosses post.  It started in April and posts every Thursday.

Our Pinterest board shows lots of pictures of blocks that you have sent us.

Go to our Website to reorder supplies.


Thursday, October 02, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

Many of you have asked what to do with the scraps that are accumulating from fussy cutting the fabric.  Like you, I'm accumulating quite a pile of “swiss cheese” and, since I don't like to throw away fabric, I've decided to use mine.  Today, I'm going to share one way to use lots of little bits and pieces!

When I have fabric that looks like this
I first cut off any parts that may still have potential for future fussy cut blocks and put that back into my Lucy Boston stash.

With what's left, I cut strips, if possible.  I keep all my strips in containers sorted according to strip width.  I have several strip “collections” in separate containers.  When a container gets full, it's time to start a new strip quilt – maybe a log cabin, or a rail fence, or one of many patterns available for jelly roll size strips.
The problem is what to do with all the little bitty pieces that are left.  Many people choose to throw them away, which may sound wasteful, but if you're just going to collect them and never do anything with them that's probably the best solution.  Most of us have sewing rooms already filled to over-flowing.  There's no sense in keeping things we're never going to use. 

When my scrap bag started to overflow, I decided to make a quilt using Baby Bow Tie blocks.  I chose Baby Bow Ties because they are so easy to make and they use even the tiniest pieces of fabric.  Each of my blocks finish at 2”.

The block I'm making requires no inset or "Y" seams.  Here's what you need to make one block:
  •  Two 1 1/2” squares of background fabric – this can be scrappy, but I chose to use solid white because I wanted a strong emphasis on the bow ties, and, also, white allowed me to use even the lightest scraps in my scrap bag and my bow ties still showed up.  In addition, my bag of white scraps was overflowing and getting rid of two bags of scraps at the same time sounded really good to me!
  •  Two 1 1/2” squares of colored fabric.               
  •  Two 1” squares of colored fabric – I tried to keep these the same color as the 1 1/2” squares, but if you don't have enough fabric to do that, just substitute something similar  – it's called “making do” and  adds a lot of interest to your blocks.

I organize the cut colored squares on paper plates – ten or twelve sets per plate – and then stack the plates by the sewing machine.  Each day I try to sew at least one “plate full”.  It's amazing how fast the finished bow ties start stacking up!

The sewing is simple.  Using a sew & flip technique, sew the two 1” squares across the diagonal to a corner of the two white squares. 

 Press over, and trim off the bottom layers.  (You have my permission to throw away the little snippets – even I have a limit to what I'll save!).

Next step is to sew the white squares and the 1 1/2” colored squares together into four-patch blocks making a Baby Bow Tie block.  Square up the block to  2 1/2”.
 
When you have a fairly large collection of Bow Tie blocks, start piecing them into larger Bow Tie blocks.  I'm using sixteen Baby Bow Ties all sewed together in the same direction to make  larger 8” finished Bow Tie blocks.
These will be the building blocks for my quilt.  They can be turned in different directions to get some really interesting, and sometimes abstract, designs.

I don't have my quilt finished yet.  I don't even have many 8” blocks made, but I do have a collection of Baby Bow Ties that is growing larger every day.  Here is a picture of all 1,343!
As you can see, my container is overflowing and, by now you know my philosophy – if it's overflowing, do something with it!  My goal is to make 1550 Baby Bow Ties which should be enough for a large lap-size quilt.

This is what I hope my quilt looks like when I'm finished.
I saw this picture on the Temecula Quilt Co. blog and loved it!

There is absolutely nothing more beautiful than a scrap quilt!  The best part is that you can combine fabrics from a lot of different genres and they'll all work together.  You can even use the ugliest fabric in your stash – if you cut the pieces small enough, even ugly fabric is beautiful!

Now, here's the best part!!!  When I had 1,000 little blocks made, I started wondering how much fabric I had used, so I got out the calculator.  It takes 4½ yds. of colored fabric and 3 yds. of white fabric to make that many blocks!  And that was ALL out of my scrap bag!!  Fabric that many people would have thrown away.  I couldn't believe my scrap bag would even hold that much fabric, but, believe it or not, I haven't even used up half the bag.  There's still another quilt waiting to happen in there, which I've already started – this time with baby Four-patch blocks.
I would love to hear what you've been doing with your scraps.  Comment below or send me pictures and I'll share them in future posts.

If you're new to the Lucy Boston Blog Along, click here to get to the beginning of the posts which started in April and post every Thursday.

Click here to check out our Pinterest board to see pictures of blocks that others have made.

Check out our website here if you need more paper piecing supplies.