Patchwork of the Crosses

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Little Quilts!  We're so thankful for all of you!  We hope you'll enjoy this day with your family.

This will be the final Lucy Boston - Patchwork of the Crosses blog.  I've enjoyed making the blocks, but most of all I've loved your enthusiasm and excitement over the quilt and the blocks! Thank you all so much for following the blog over the past two years - I hope to see a lot of finished Lucy quilts in the near future.

Remember!  You can continue to order paper piecing supplies to finish your quilt through Dec. 1. There are three variation pieces for finishing the outer edge of the quilt to make it rectangular.  This is what the variation pieces look like...

You will need at least one package of each variation (Variation 1, Variation 2, and Variation 3). You can order them on the website or call the shop (770-578-6727), but all orders must be in by Dec. 1.

I hope you've enjoyed the Lucy Boston journey as much as I have.  I will continue to present Lucy Boston/Patchwork of the Crosses lectures for quilt guilds that are interested.  I will also continue to teach English Paper Piecing classes, 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Patchwork of the Crosses

Another new block:

This is the stripe fabric I used:

The light blue corner honeycombs came from my stash.  It's an old Jo Morton fabric.

This is another fun stripe to work with.  There are so many different things you can do with a great stripe!  Experiment and see what you come up with. 

I'm using some of the scraps from this fabric to make a corner unit.  I haven't stitched it together yet, but you can get the idea...

Finishing the outer edges of your quilt will require some very odd shaped paper pieces (see below) to make the quilt rectangular. . .  

Finishing papers are sold as Variation 1, Variation 2 and Variation 3 and you will need all three shapes.

We have the finishing paper pieces available - you will need at least one package of  all three shapes.

We are trying to make sure all of you get the paper pieces supplies you need before the shop closes.. You must have your order in by Dec. 1 to be assured of getting the supplies.  Order from the  website or call the shop to order.

If you're lacking enough blocks to finish your quilt, check our Pinterest Board for ideas and then go to your stash and make use of some of the great fabrics you'll find hiding there! 

Completed Dear Jane!!!!

We are always amazed when we see another Dear Jane quilt come in for Show & Tell. With the Wall To wall Retirement Sale at Little Quilts going on now, good friends and customers come in daily to wish Mary Ellen well.  Gretchen shared  her Dear Jane Quilt completed, with us...hand quilted ... and even the triangle sections for the borders. Great job Gretchen... wonder what her next master piece will be!

Wool applique table runner

Carolyn loves wool applique.  Here is her newest table runner.

Patchwork of the Crosses

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As most of you have probably heard,  Mary Ellen is retiring and Little Quilts is closing.  The last Lucy Boston fabric packs will be shipped out on Nov. 17 and the last blog post will be on Nov. 29. It's been so much fun making the Lucy blocks - I hope you've enjoyed the journey with us.  I know you will have a lovely quilt when you're finished!

If you still need to order paper pieces to finish your quilt, call us soon - we will make sure you get what you need to finish.  Don't forget we have the papers for finishing the outer edges available - it takes three different paper variations for the outside edge.  You will want to order at least one package of each of the variations.  You can still order all the paper pieces supplies on the website.

I wish I had a picture of my quilt all finished to show you, but I'm not quite there yet.  I've got a start...

but still a lot of work ahead of me.  Now that the shop is closing I should have lots of extra time to finish it.  Watch for it in the next quilt show!

Thanks for all your support, for sending pictures for the Pinterest Board, and, most of all, for your enthusiasm with paper piecing!  Finish your Lucy Quilts and then start a new paper piecing project!

Bird Parade

Wool applique is hot, hot, hot. No wonder. Look at this adorable project. Diane made a variation of Bonnie Sullivan original design called "The Gathering".

Bright scraps turned into Lollipop Trees

Sarah is working on this beautiful Lollipop Trees by Kim McLean.  The blocks are 18" square and Sarah is doing it all in batiks. She is planning for 16 blocks. Everyone here at the store wants to start one now!

She brought her blocks in the neat tote she made from selvages also shown here. Sarah has also made a Lucy Boston Quilt! Way to go Sarah!

Second Saturday Sampler Show and Tell

Carol Ann's been getting lots of quilts made...both starting and finishing UFO's. She brought this to Saturday Sampler for our monthly outdoor 'Show and Tell'.  It's never too late to join Saturday Sampler -the 2nd Saturday of the month. We're in the 9th month...but you can catch up with past months patterns easily!  

Patchwork of the Crosses

A new block for November:

This is the fabric I used.  

Be careful cutting the stripe.  You will need to cut four and then cut four reverse.  To make cutting easier, pay close attention to the placement of the corners of the acrylic template on the stripe.  To cut the reverse, flip the acrylic template upside down, place the  template corners in the same placement on the stripe and 'voila' !  The perfect reverse cut!

Order Paper piecing supplies on our website - they're on sale now while supplies last!
Check our Pinterest Board to see more block ideas.

Closing Sale

As most of you have probably heard, after 17 years in the retail business, Mary Ellen is retiring and Little Quilts is closing.  The plan is for the shop to close its doors for the final time on Dec. 24, 2015. Tomorrow, Nov.5, starting at 10 am sharp we will be having a huge Wall-to-Wall Retirement Sale and we hope you'll stop by to take advantage of the special prices.  If parking is a problem, you can use the parking lot in the strip shopping center next to us.  Please use the top of the parking lot away from the Dollar General and the other shops in that shopping strip. There will be lots of prizes to win and great prices on everything in the shop so we hope you'll stop by so we can say "good-bye" in person.  17 years is a long time and you've all become friends to us - closing the shop will be hard. We appreciate all your business through the years and value the friendships!

A Memory From Little Quilts

We have a few more vintage Little Quilts models that are looking for a good home.   I hope you'll find something you like!  Be the first person to call us with credit card information and the quilt will be yours.

"Neighbors II" is 26" square and is from our "Little Memories" book.  Such a sweet quilt with cheery colors. It's machine quilted.  $35

This quilt is a special treasure. "Sunbonnet Sue Sampler" is from our first and most popular book "Little Quilts All Through The House"  Many people learned to quilt from this book!  The 16" x 22" quilt is hand appliqued with a blanket stitch and is hand quilted.   $35

"Flannel Folks" is such a darling little quilt.  It's 20" x 23" all done in flannel. It's hand appliqued with a blanket stitch and hand-quilted with a "Big Stitch".  $35

If you're interested in one of these vintage treasures, call (770-578-6727)!

Whole Cloth Machine Quilted Quilt

Cindy recently attended a Gammil Statler Stitch seminar in Atlanta and stopped in to show her wall hanging piece that won Best Machine Quilting at the East Cobb Quilters Guild show this past June. To see it up close was just amazing! This quilt was all hand guided on her long arm without the help of a computer program!

A Memory From Little Quilts

As part of our 17th Anniversary Sale, we have decided to open up the vault and sell some of the models from the original Little Quilts patterns and books.  We know many of you learned to quilt from our books and patterns and we think these quilts will bring back many memories for you.  These are all vintage Little Quilts.  Most were made by Mary Ellen, Sylvia and Alice and a lot of them are hand quilted.  If you're interested in purchasing any of the items offered today, be the first to call the shop (770-578-6727) with credit card information and the quilt will be yours!

Today, we have three special quilts and an out-of-print book we think you'll love...

The first quilt is "Sue and Bill Stitchery" featuring four of the popular embroidery patterns from the Month-by-Month Stitchery Cards.  The 16"x 16" quilt is hand embroidered and hand quilted.  $25

"Follow The Leader" was one of the quilts in our second book "Celebrate With Little Quilts".  The Overall Bills are all buttonhole stitched and the quilt is hand quilted.  A 21" x 25" quilt perfect for a little boy's room, and all patriotic celebrations.  $55

"Bunny Harvest Quilt" is one of the quilts in the book "Bunnies By the Bay Meets Little Quilts".  This great 16" x 21" quilt is perfect for fall.  It's hand-embroidered and hand-quilted.  

It will come with a hard cover copy of the "Bunnies By The Bay Meets Little Quilts"!  The 8" x 9" book (perfect for a little 'coffee table'!) features the whimsical styling of collectible bunnies from Bunnies By The Bay displayed with our charming quilts.  There are lots of fun projects including the pattern for the quilt above, included in the book. Mary Ellen will autograph it personally to you or a special friend!

Call now to get the Bunny Harvest Quilt and the book, both for $45.

If you'd like one of these quilts, call the shop.  We want the quilts to have happy homes!  Watch the blog this month for more offerings of special vintage quilt treasures.

Baltimore Album Design consult

These show and tell photos were taken in Wanda's Advanced Baltimore Album class.  Paula  brought her blocks for design help.  Only 4 more blocks left to make!  She's decided not to use the eagle block and the basket block on the far right - she felt they didn't fit in with the rest of her blocks that are wreaths.  She's thinking about framing those two blocks since she's not going to use them in this quilt.

Patchwork of the Crosses

I was trying to do some reorganizing in my sewing room a few weeks ago and in the process I found some fabrics in my stash that I thought would make beautiful Lucy Boston blocks...

These were Jo Morton fabrics.  All the honeycombs for the center of the block came from the same gorgeous stripe.  The red corners came from a separate Jo Morton fabric.  When I was looking through my Jo Morton stash, I was amazed how many beautiful fabrics I have in my stash!

Another block... the fabric used for the center honeycombs was given to me by someone who thought it would make a great Lucy block.  I think they were right!

These fabrics were left over from the very first Lucy Boston block we featured on this blog. The fabric, designed by Judy Rothermel, continues to be one of my favorites.  I didn't want to leave any unused scraps of these gorgeous fabrics in my stash!

This is a block in progress.  When I was looking through my collection of finished blocks, I decided I wanted a little more purple and green in my blocks.
Unfortunately, my sewing room reorganization came to a halt once I found the fabrics and sat down to make the blocks!  I'm so excited about all my blocks.  I have a sizable number now and am beginning to visualize a finished quilt - it's getting there!

How are you coming with your blocks?  Are you using fabrics from your stash?  Send me pictures of stash blocks and I'll post them on our Pinterest Board.
Need more paper piecing supplies?  Order from our website.
Don't forget we have the finishing papers for completing the outside edge.  They are odd sized pieces and you'll be happy to have the papers!  They're also available on our website here.

Wool Gathering at Little Quilts this Sunday

...join us for wool club 1:30pm to 4 pm in the classroom this Sunday. Stitch in for anyone who enjoys wool: appliqué, felting, hooking, yarn punch and more. Share your show and tell. Don't be left  BAAA hind.  Fun group.

Little Quilts 17th Anniversary Party & Sale

We'll be celebrating Saturday the 31st, and Monday Nov 2. Come by and see our special memories as seen in our vintage display case in our Little Museum (aka - notions room!).

We'll have 20% off most everything in the store, and goodies for all. Can you believe we opened our doors on Nov 2, 1998 with a little more than 500 bolts of fabric! Stop by and help us celebrate..we promise we'll  have 'treats' and no 'tricks'

And the winner is...

Wasn't the Jaftex 85th Anniversary Blog Hop fun?  We had such a great time making our quilt and sharing our tips, but the best part was seeing all the comments from you!  Thank you all for participating.

Of course, there were lots of prizes given away in this event and we were so excited that the Grand Prize winner, Barbara Sokol, lives in our very own Peach State!  Barbara lives in Hartwell, Georgia,  and she normally shops at Annie's Pretty Pieces in Hartwell.  We know she's going to love that brand new Janome Skyline S5 machine!  Barbara...Congratulations!  
2nd Prize winner, Pat DeVore lives in Ohio and shops at Abigayle's Quiltery in Berea, Ohio.  She won the Aurifil thread box and  fifteen fat quarter bundles.
3rd Prize winner, Cathie Scanlon from Seattle won the Schmetz needle anniversary tin and six fat quarter bundles. Her favorite quilt shop is Karen's Quilt Shop in Seattle.

We had two lucky winners from the Little Quilts drawing. When we contacted winner Helen LeBrett from Hearldsberg, California  she shared that she started quilting more than 15 years ago with our book "Little Quilts All Through the House" published by Martingale & Company. Coincidentally, when we contacted our other winner, Debbie Miller, from South Carolina, she shared that she visits our store once a year as her son lives in a nearby town.  She also started quilting 20 years ago with our book!  She took hers to the copy shop and had it spiral bound so it would lay flat. She said she had made every quilt in the book! Both won a collection of Folio fat quarters to get a start on their own Hunter's Star quilts. You can see our step by step tutorial on the star and the unique striped binding  on the Hunter's Star on our  blog post from Sept. 25th.

If you'd like to go back and check out all the designers who participated in the Blog Hop, you can get a complete list here on the Henry Glass Blog.  You will love the creativity on the designer's blogs.

Congratulations to all of the contest winners - we can't wait to see what you'll create with your wonderful prizes!  Thank you, Jaftex, for a very successful and fun event and thank you to all of you for participating!

Row by Row Sunbonnet Sue

We thought this was the cutest Row x Row quilt we've seen - the title, "You Never Know What Lurks Below", is just perfect! 

Jane said she took some liberties with the rows and changed some of them up  slightly, to fit her quilt.  

The maker is an 87 year old quilter who loves to quilt.  She found a piece of fabric with the sky, water, lighthouses and boats in her stash.  (You never know what lurks... in the stash!) She also added a little label to the bottom corner of each row with the title of the row, and the name and location of each quilt shop.

Show & Tell

One of the best parts of working at a quilt shop is seeing the amazing quilts and "works in progress" you are all working on!  This has been a great week for Show & Tell in the shop and we thought you might enjoy seeing some of our favorites.

Sharon finished the applique on this project several years ago and finally decided it needed to be a framed work that will hang over the fireplace in her kitchen.  The framer did a wonderful job of keeping the border stripe perfectly straight and covered the project with museum quality glass to help keep the colors from fading.  Pattern was designed by Karen Mowery who worked at Little Quilts occasionally prior to her death several years ago and specialized in drawing folk art children...a very heart-warming show & tell for all of us here at the shop who remember Karen fondly.  If you have small quilt tops in your UFO stack, consider having them framed - even a single  block framed can become a beautiful work of art.

Amy brought in a stunning hooked rug that has been a "work in progress" for a long time (none of the rest of us have those, right?)!  Her children have been after her to finish the rug and she's hoping to surprise them this Christmas when they walk in and see it on the floor completed.  Pattern was designed by Amy and her husband, who are architects, over thirty years ago and Amy has been working on the rug off and on ever since.  We like the way the design and the colors have kept it contemporary even after all those years.

Allison finished a spectacular English Paper Pieced bed-size quilt with 1/4" hexies (sorry, it's a show quilt and we can't show the top), but Allison decided it needed a special back so she's piecing the back  with 1" honeycombs...unbelievable!  The piece she's holding is about half the size she needs and then she can start the quilting.  Wow!