New weekend Wool Lovers group meeting/Bertie's Fall Quilt

Wool....wool...and more wool! Lots of new wool arrived on the bolt. Perfect for your wool appliqué projects! Just wash...dry...ready to use!

 Mark your calendar....our first Sunday  Wool Gathering Class meets this Sunday, Oct 4 
1:30PM - 4PM in the classroom. Call  770-578-6727 to register. Come hang out with others 'who love wool!'

Maybe you would like some company while you work on this beauty...Bertie's (that is the bird) Autumn Quilt.  You can still sign up for this new 4 month Block Of the Month.  Button and floss sets also available. See LQ website for details. How adorable is this one?

another beautiful day for a Second Saturday Sampler show and tell

Danita and her friend, Louise, finished the Women of the Bible quilt for a fund-raiser for their church.  Danita has been collecting Jo Morton fabrics for a long time - this quilt gave her a chance to use many of them!  Of course, no quilt is complete without a label...

Jean made this beautiful quilt for her Mother-in-Law. 

This is Marlene's second quilt and what a stunner!  It's a good example of how dramatic simple blocks can be.  Marlene made the quilt for her husband who graduated from The Ohio State University and continues to be a huge Buckeye fan.  We love the way she pieced the back, too...such a simple idea with an eye-catching result.

Happy Anniversary to Jaftex!

Congratulations, Jaftex, on your 85th Anniversary in the fabric industry.  What a milestone! Jaftex is the parent company of  Henry Glass Fabrics, Studio e Fabrics, and Blank Quilting Corp. and has been a family owned business  for all 85 years - Jaftex actually stands for company founder Jacob A 
Fortunoff Textiles.  As many of you know, Little Quilts has been designing fabric for Henry Glass for over 15 years and we can tell you from personal experience...Jaftex is the best!  We're so excited to have been welcomed into their family and we're honored to be part of their anniversary celebration.
We're very grateful for the support from Robert, Scott, & Greg Fortunoff, and the help from our Design Director, Lisa Loessel and her talented staff of artists who help us coordinate, refine, and prepare the new fabric collections Little Quilts presents to you.  Our newest collection in the 'Reflections of the South' series is "Roswell Mill". It features warm, rich reproduction fabrics with three beautiful toiles picturing  a working cotton mill in the South that will be perfect for backings and backgrounds. See the collection on the Henry Glass website along with free downloadable projects for quilts and  a table runner using this beautiful line of fabric. When the fabric arrives in the coming months, we'll also have kits available on our website. Sign up for our email newsletter and you'll be among the first to know  when it arrives in the shop!
We hope you've been enjoying the Anniversary Blog Hop and all the beautiful quilts the designers have made,  with Jaftex fabrics.  We love stars here at Little Quilts so we chose a great star pattern for our anniversary quilt and isn't the quilt even more gorgeous photographed at one of the libraries in New York...

 We were thrilled to open our box and find it filled with brightly colored fabrics from the Folio collection by Henry Glass.  We love using Folios as blenders and backgrounds and stock most of them in the shop!

We wanted a project that would showcase the vibrancy of the colors and decided on a Hunter's Star pattern.  We call it Anniversary Star in honor of Jaftex's 85th.

Our Hunter Star quilt is 42" x 56" - a good throw size.  

Making a Hunter's Star Quilt is easy using the  Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler by Studio 180 Designs! We began by dividing the fabrics into warm and cool colorways.

and cutting into the appropriate size pieces.

Following the easy directions with the Hunter's Star Ruler, we stitched these odd looking units.

After pressing, the units were subcut using the ruler, as shown. 

Units were trimmed...

and pieced into the Hunter Star units.

Don't you just love these bright, rich colors?

The units were stitched into blocks...

The blocks are over-sized so we trimmed them to the exact size we needed using the 'square-up' end of the Hunter's Star ruler. The Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler has all the measurements for oversizing the units and trimming them to the exact size to sew 5" - 8" star blocks

and when the blocks are stitched together, the stars just magically appear and they're perfect every time!

A large design wall will help with color placement of the blocks...

We used the left-over fabric to make a fabulous pieced  stripe binding for the quilt.  Different length strips were pieced together. For a wider binding to show on the front of the quilt we cut the strips 

3 1/2" wide.

Attach the binding strip to the quilt...

Trim the binding evenly around the quilt (notice we trim 1/2" - 3/4" away from the fabric, leaving extra backing and batting to make the binding a little wider to show off the pieced strips)...

And look at the beautiful result!

We'd like to help you start your own Hunter's Star Anniversary Quilt.  Let us know if you've ever attempted a Hunter's Star Quilt or if it's on your bucket list and we'll randomly select someone, and send one lucky winner a bundle of 20 fabulous Folio Fat 1/4ths!

The Rapid Fire Hunter's Star Ruler by Studio 180 is available on our website .  It comes with detailed, easy-to-follow directions for making the quilt! We used the Petite Star ruler (makes blocks 5" -8") for our quilt.

And don't forget about the great anniversary prizes being given by Jaftex - there are many ways to enter and lots of chances to win! Check out how here...  85th Anniversary Giveaway

There's another great designer being featured today.  Find out more about  Mary Jane Carey, at Holly Hill Quilt Designs.  She designs small seasonal projects that will make you smile.
Continue the Anniversary Blog Hop tomorrow...we think you'll love the whimsical, improv designs of Daisy Aschehoug of Ants To Sugar.

Thanks for visiting our blog - we hope you'll check back with us soon!

Patchwork of the Crosses

I thought you might enjoy seeing this quilt that won Best of Show in the 2015 AQS Show in Chattanooga last week.

Look closely and you'll see that these are Lucy Boston blocks in a very original setting!
And look at the close-sup to see some of the exquisite quilting...

 
The quilt, Bouquet Royale, was made by Margaret Solomon Gunn of Gorham, Maine, and also won Best of Show at the 2015 Home Machine Quilting Show in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Has this inspired any of you to try something different with your blocks?  This stunning quilt used only twenty-five blocks.

If you'd like to pin these pictures, they're on our Pinterest Board.
Check our website to order more paper piecing supplies.
Don't forget we have the three paper piece shapes you'll need to finish the outside border of your quilt.  They're available here on our website.

Quilt and Quilting Masterpiece

Michelle, our custom quilter brought in Wanda's "Twelve Days of Christmas" quilt, designed by Laura Reinstatler many years ago. Michelle does  custom quilting  for Wanda, to showcase Wanda's spectacular hand applique. Here's also a close-up to show some of the gold lame fabric that she used to embellish some of the applique.  We told Wanda to get the binding on in time to enter it in the AQS Show in Paducah next year, and also the 2017 East Cobb Quilters Guild Show! Wanda teaches the Advance Baltimore Album classes here at the shop, and has quite a following. We're sooo lucky to have her here at Little Quilts.

An heirloom

Quilting isn't all we do at Little Quilts!  One of our staff members just finished an heirloom stitched Christening gown for her new grandson.  We thought you'd enjoy seeing pictures of the gown...

The gown is 36" long and features tucks, pin-tucks, white-on-white embroidery, and lace work.

Hopefully in the close-up you can see the embroidery a little better.  It features shadow work, a gazillion French knots, and Bullion roses.
Muriel combined several patterns to make the gown.  The embroidery pattern came from a Christening gown pattern by Martha Pullen.  A Vogue pattern was adapted for the gown.  The pattern was so old the instruction pages were all yellow and Muriel had to keep taping them to keep them from disintegrating before she was finished sewing.  The gown bodice was Muriel's original design.
Made of Swiss Batiste and yards of lace, Muriel hopes the gown will be passed down for christenings of future grandchildren and great grandchildren, too.  Each child's name will be embroidered along with the date on the gown's slip.  

Sweet Home Marietta

The weather is perfect, fall is in the air, and we're celebrating, so hop on over and join us for the Sweet Home Marietta Shop Hop...

The Hop started today, but there are still two days left to get in on the fun and prizes!  Remember, we're open from 9:30 am - 6:00pm  for this event.  There are only three shops in this Shop Hop and they're all in Marietta, so it's very 'do-able'!

Our theme this year is "Let's Set the Table" and we've got lots of great ideas to get you inspired to make the perfect table runner, placemats,  napkins, or aprons for your holiday celebrations. 

Get a free table runner pattern... 

and holiday napkin/ornament pattern in your goody bag just for stopping by.

Get inspiration from our trunk shows by Plum Tree Quilts...

and Table Settings With Charm.

There are great prizes to win by visiting all three shops, like... 

1st prize: a $100 gift certificate to each of the shops, 

                                       2nd prize: a Gidget II Sewing Table, 

                                       3rd Prize: a $50 gift certificate to all the shops.

Can't make it to all three shops?  Visit Little Quilts and register for a special tote bag  prize filled with all kinds of notions, books and fabric...

If that's not enough, we have demos, food, and we'll be wearing vintage aprons to add to the excitement. 

It's so much fun and it's a great way to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather - we're looking forward to seeing you on Friday or Saturday!

Patchwork of the Crosses

I love the way this block turned out!

I used the great stripe fabric, below, for this block.  The gold fabric is from a previous block -  if you don't have enough left, check your stash for something suitable.

Cut and stitch this block carefully.  I actually reversed two of my honeycomb units.  Do you see the mistake?  I may go back and correct the problem before I stitch the block into the quilt, but right now I'm thinking it doesn't look too bad and I may leave it for my humility block!

Check the website if you need to reorder supplies.

Check the Pinterest Board for other unique block designs.

Fun Block of the Month for Fall

We're starting the cutest wool applique Block of the Month in October.

Bertie's Autumn was designed by Bonnie Sullivan of All Through The Night Designs.  The wall hanging features all the favorite fall holidays and the colors are so rich done in wool applique on a flannel background.  We even have button and floss kits for embellishing your quilt.

This is going to be so much fun and there's still time to sign up!   Go to our website  to order or call the shop!

Patchwork of the Crosses

While I was on vacation this summer, I had great plans for catching up on Lucy Boston Blocks.  I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd planned, but I did get a lot of corner blocks constructed...

This was actually a great accomplishment for me because when I'm connecting blocks, I hate to stop to make the corner units!
I found that I was able to use a lot of the scraps from my blocks to make the units, and I also raided my scrap bag to use up other odds and ends of pieces.

The corner units are so small it's easy to make several from the same fabric and get a completely different look for each one!

The other thing I found is that if you have a  design area you don't want to cut up, you don't have to make four tiny 1" squares to make the corner units.  I just cut a 2 1/2" square of fabric and basted it to a 2" paper square.  So quick and easy to get corners finished in a hurry with this method!  These corner units were finished using the shortcut technique:

2" Paper Squares are available, but are not on the website.  Call the shop (770-578-6727) to order. Visit the website to re-order other paper piecing supplies.

Have any of you started making corner units yet?  Send pictures and we'll post them on our Pinterest Board!

Winter Holiday Projects done in a Jiffy

These are kits we have for Christmas/winter quilts.  Most are quick and easy.    All three are made using fabrics from the "Winter Song" fabric line from Henry Glass.  

First idea uses with a snowman center panel 33"x 51".

Second quilt starts with a winter scenes collage panel 42"x 52".  Keep you warm and toasty while the cold wind blows. 

This one starts with a great fabric from the line, add nine-patch block border, 54"x 66". We have a pattern for it called "Chill Chaser" 

Pineapple and Pumpkin?

Susan is  ready for Fall putting finishing touches on her table runner. She shared its with the gals at our monthly Wool Works gathering, the second Friday of every month. She foundation pieced the pineapple log cabin blocks and added the wool appliqué pumpkins and leaves for the borders.