GIVEAWAY - Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks - 3 Winners

The new collector's edition of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, Volume 2 will hit the stores on Tuesday. Leave a comment below to enter a drawing for a free copy. There will be 3 winners.

The block above is my contribution to this issue. It's called "Upcycle" which means, of course, making something cool out of "throw-away" stuff.

Selvage quilters can tell at a glance how to make this block, but to show the newbies, I took some in-process photos. Machine stitch along the bound edge of each selvage. The stitching is easy to see on the red selvage in the photo below.

I like the little boots on the Moda selvage. That's one of my favorites.

Trim the block as shown above. Make three more, then sew them together, as shown below.

Add a selvage to the top and the bottom of the block, and then add one to each side. I think it will look really interesing when all the blocks go together. The long selvages will appear as if they're woven together. So far, I've only made one block, so this is just speculation.

I like the soft shaggies on the Moda acorn selvage below.

I was delighted to see another block in this book that included a selvage. Patty Young designed both the fabric and the block design for "Flutter." Isn't the hummingbird shape nice? Great colors too.

Okay, here they are, ready to be mailed to three lucky winners who will be chosen by our friend Mr. Random Number Guy. So leave a comment.

Wasn't it interesting to read about what we quilters wear (or don't wear) on our little feet when we sit down at the sewing machine? Who knew?

Harry Potter Theme Park and Quilt

If you're familiar with the Harry Potter books/movies, you'll recognize Hagrid's cottage above. Barb from New Jersey just visited the theme park at Universal Studios in Florida and she posted about it on her very interesting blog: Fun With Barb and Mary.

Barb made the quilt above using HP fabrics and batik stars for her daughter Hanna. To see all the new Harry Potter fabrics, click here.

Do you sew with your shoes on?

I don't sew with my shoes on. Never have. I have more control over the foot petal when I'm just wearing socks, and for some reason, I can think better! Sewing with shoes on is like sitting by a fireplace that has a glass panel between you and the fire. So I always kick off my shoes when I sit down at the machine.

Of course if I'm hand-sewing, it doesn't matter if I have shoes on or not. Haha. So, do you sew with your shoes on or off?

Veteran's Day Patriotic Quilt

Today we stop to honor our veterans.

If you are a veteran, we thank you for your service to our country.

This antique patriotic Tree of Life quilt was made around 1835, possibly in West Virginia. It measures 64" x 82." The red triangles are 1 3/8" on the long side. It's covered with dense hand-quilting. This quilt is offered for sale at Rocky Mountain Quilts in Maine (she used to live in the Rockies) for $4,400. Wouldn't that price astonish the maker of this quilt!

Bari's Little Red Zinger Quilt

This beautiful "Little Red Zinger Quilt" was made by Bari Berger of Missouri and featured in the Blogger's Quilt Festival on her blog "My Crazy Quilting Life." See more photos there.

Wow, I really like Bari's curved feather quilting! And the corner blocks look great too. Awesome job, Bari!

Want to make your own Zinger? Check out the tutorial in the sidebar, below right. They're not hard. Have fun.

Selvage Quilt Gets Honorable Mention

Diana Sharkey of Mt. Kisco, NY made this quilt called "That's Graphic." It won Honorable Mention in a recent show. I'd like to get a good close look at this. Beautiful quilt, Diana.

Thank you to Victoria of Bumblebeans for this photo.

Kelly's Basket and Spider Web Blocks

Kelly at the Pinkadot Quilts blog in Downingtown, PA had a recent post showing how she makes the handles for her basket blocks. (Zig-zag machine applique, sew inside curve first.) I laughed when I read her comment: "If it's a little off, so much the better." Haha. I think the handle is right on the money; it's the basket that's off! I like it.

It seems we all love spider web quilts, and we've seen some wonderful ones on the blogs this year. I love Kelly's version: in the area where we often use a "background" solid fabric, she used the "stack and whack" concept and repeated the same image in groups of four. What a great idea! And the rick-rack emphasizes it. Nice job, Kelly!

Visit With Quilters in Oman

Alia took this photo at a recent meeting of the Muscat Quilt Guild in Oman. You can see many more on her blog: Coffeebean's Dailies. This colorful quilt by Samira is one of my favorites.

Isn't it interesting that in every corner of the world people are creating beautiful quilts and getting together to share ideas. I love it that we can "visit" together via blogs. Thanks, Alia!

Nancy's Doll With a Selvage Shirt

Nancy in Florida made these adorable dolls for needy children. You can read about it on her blog: Quilted Potpourri. Now that's some shirt! Nice job, Nancy.

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Today is the final day of the Blog Tour and we go to Kathreen Ricketson's blog: Whip Up. Scroll down and you'll see a skirt made from a broken umbrella! It's cute too.

Cutting Edge Japanese Selvage!

Today the Blog Tour stop is Kathy Mack's blog: Pink Chalk Studio. Look what I found when I went there. A Japanese selvage with the best color windows I've ever seen! All different animal shapes. Yayy, Kayo Horaguchi!

You Are Needed to Make a Heart Block

Please make a healing heart quilt block for Myra who is battling cancer right now in New Zealand. Her friend Karen Jones says it will be a big encouragement for Myra to receive heart blocks in the mail from us. Karen should know. When she had cancer all her quilting buddies made the blocks for the quilt shown above. Karen is doing well now, and this quilt is a very special keepsake. (By the way, Myra made three of the blocks in Karen's quilt.)

Here are the details. Blocks should be applique heart(s) on a 6 1/2" square background of white on white, or cream on cream. Any applique method is okay, and if you like, any kind of embellishment is fine too. Please write your name on the front of the block, and your country (or state) too. That could be written in pen or embroidered. The hearts should be pastel shades of pink, blue, or purple. Or floral prints in any of these colors. When you're ready to mail your block, email Karen Jones to get Myra's address: karen_jones@xtra.co.nz. (There's a _ between Karen and Jones.)

So, all hands on deck! Hup, hup! I'm going to make one. I'll show you when it's done. I'll add your block photos to this post too, and put a link in the sidebar so we can follow our progress.

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The Blog Tour destination today is Kim Knight's blog: True Up.

New Asterisk Quilt for my Mom's Alumni

I just finished this Asterisk quilt which will be raffled to benefit my Mom's nursing school alumni association. I designed this block which was the Empire Quilter's Block of the Month last year and appeared in Quiltmaker magazine too. The link to a tutorial is in the sidebar at right. (I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this one!)

One of the nurses made this label. Didn't she do a great job? She also made another little one with my name on it, and I put it in the other corner of the quilt.

My friend Jackie Kunkel of CV Quiltworks in Canton, CT did the machine quilting. Isn't it beautiful? Jackie is a fabulous quilter; one of her customers sends her quilts all the way from Spain to have Jackie quilt them!

It's challenging to make a quilt that you think will appeal to a large group of people that you don't know. But I like how the solids go with the bright Kaffe prints and the quiet background prints. I think it looks modern, but not too wild. Mom likes it too.

Today the Blog Tour takes us to Amber Carillo's blog: One Shabby Chick.

This is Post Number 1,000!

This is how I feel about my 1,000th post. I love doing this!

Like a big pile of selvages, the Selvage Blog blog now contains 1,000 posts! Hard to believe, especially since I worried that I wouldn't have much to say when I started. That obviously hasn't been a problem.

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I love it that you email me with photos of your selvage projects so I can share them here. It's so cool that this is selvage "inspiration-central." Your creations are amazing!

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Also, making friends with quilters in blogland is wonderful! Some, like Jackie at CV Quiltworks, Kathleen C., and Barb L. live right near me, and others like Karen Jones live in far-away, exotic places like NZ. And I met them all (and many more) on this blog!

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Finally, writing a blog makes me more alert to the creative and interesting things around me. Now I stop, take a photo, and get some additional info to share with you.

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Plus, if my DH does anything annoying, I threaten to write about it on my blog. Heh heh. Just kidding; he's a good guy.

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While we're chatting about the blog, tell me what kinds of posts you enjoy most: selvage projects, other quilt photos, interesting quilts for sale on eBay, creativity topics like the airbag helmet, finding fun new blogs, links to tutorials, book giveaways, fabric giveaways, my family stuff like the dump dinner, asking for advice (like top load washers vs. front load), reader's photos like the view from your sewing room, show us your stash...any suggestions?

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I'm glad you're here today. Special hello and hugs to my regular visitors and new visitors too!

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Today's Blog Tour stop is Rossie Hutchinson's blog: rOssie.

Brand New Website: Learn 2 Quilt Online

Visit Chris Dahl's brand new website : Learn 2 Quilt Online.

Check out the Grand Opening Giveaways too.

She'll be offering a copy of Quilts from the Selvage Edge

and lots of other cool stuff. Good luck.

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Today's stop on the Blog Tour is Melissa Burt's blog: Connecting Threads.

Take a look at Kelly's blog: Pinkadot Quilts. (This is a correction from a few days ago.)

She's the winner of the most recent book giveaway.

Selvage O'Lantern Quilt

This creative Selvage O'Lantern Quilt was made by the talented Riel Nason of "The Q and the U" blog from Canada. She really knows how to manipulate those selvages, doesn't she? She talks about working with selvages on her blog. It's interesting. Riel, you are a selvage rockstar!

To view Riel's recent selvage sampler quilt, click here. I think she likes orange :)

The winner of "The Practical Guide to Patchwork" by Elizabeth Hartman is Kelly from Downingtown, Pennsylvania of the Pinkadot Quilts blog. Yayy, Kelly!

Today the Blog Tour brings us to Alissa Haight-Carleton's blog: Handmade by Alissa.

One More Day to Email a Photo for the Quilt Challenge

"If you were a quilt, what would you look like?"

Have you made a quilt in response to this challenge, or do have a quilt "that's really you?"

Email a photo to me today or tomorrow at karen@onlinequiltmuseum.com. Put "Challenge" in the email title. Include your name, the state or country where you live, the name of your quilt, and a few words about how you and your quilt are alike.

I'll post them here, and create an exhibit for the Online Quilt Museum too.

This should be interesting!

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Today is Day 4 of the Blog Tour and we're visiting Jacquie Gering's fabulous blog: Tall Grass Prairie Studio. (You'll remember she made the mint green spider web quilt shown here.)

I made the quilts in the above illustration, but my entry isn't there. Stay tuned.

Book Give-Away Today

When I told Megan at C&T that we were following the Blog Tour on the Selvage Blog, I asked if they'd like to provide a copy of The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman for a give-away here. She said, "Great idea!" So leave a comment today to enter the drawing. Winner announced tomorrow. The quilts shown above are from this book.

Day three of the Blog Tour brings us to Rashida Coleman-Hale's blog: i heart linen.

Blog Tour Starts Today - Follow it Here

C&T is coming out with a new book: The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman, and they're sponsoring a Blog Tour which starts today and runs until Nov. 6. There will be lots of give-aways, interviews with the author, and some surprises. You can follow the whole thing right here by clicking on the Blog Tour link each day.

This book presents a relaxed intro to quilting for new and intermediate quilters. The quilts are fresh and modern. Click on the title above to see some of the quilts.

The first stop on the Blog Tour is Kristin Link's blog: Sew, Mama, Sew.

Free-Motion Quilting Blog by Leah Day!

If you've seen my quilts, you know that I really put my heart into the piecing. But when it comes to the quilting, I just want to get the job done without ruining a good top. So I use my Juki 98Q to sew parallel wavy lines across the quilt. I'm afraid that if I tried to make them straight, some would be wavy. So I just go with wavy right off the bat. If I plan to enter the quilt in a show, I make the wavy lines closer to each other. That's my idea of heavy quilting.

But look at these awesome free-motion filler designs by machine quilting genius Leah Day! She has challenged herself to come up with a new pattern every day! And you can watch videos about how to do them. Her website is Day Style Designs. See 365 different patterns like the ones shown in this post: The Free Motion Quilting Project. For the latest on what Leah is up to, visit her blog. She has an excellent post on buying sewing machines too.

I think discovering Leah's work will have a big influence on my quilting life by enhancing the appearance of my quilts and adding more fun to the process of making them. Wowzers!

The pattern designs are called "Fossil Bed," "Little Hands and Fingers," "Space Star," "Spaghetti and Meatballs," and "Elodea" (listed from top photo to bottom).

I've seen gorgeous machinie quilting before, but the difference here is that I think I can actually do these! I'll let you know how I make out. Thanks to Liz Broussard who made the brown selvage quilt (that was featured here a few days ago) for telling me about Leah. I love how inspiration spreads through cyberspace!

Now this Helmet Makes Sense, I think.

Hovding in Sweden has come up with an inflatable bicycle helmet that starts out like a protective collar (see below, left), but it has an airbag that inflates on impact. Actually, it looks like it inflates before impact, judging from the crash-dummy tests on YouTube.

We seem to be finding some interesting headgear lately: hat with attached beard, brain-hat, and now this! It's only a concept; not yet available for sale. (P.S. I like that black dress. The pony tail, not so much.)

Elegant Brown Selvage Quilt by Liz Broussard

This wonderful Brown Selvage Quilt was created by Liz Broussard from Houston, TX.

Liz says she didn't have the right shade of brown and neutral, so she overdyed some of the fabrics. She liked the results so much that she also overdyed the selvage blocks! For the sashing, Liz used the back side of the fabric because the color looked better. Wow, she was really thinking out of the box!

And look at that fabulous quilting! Liz says she's inspired by Leah Day's blog for machine quilting ideas. Leah has wonderful close-ups of machine quilting. I'll be visiting that blog again and again.

This is a charity quilt, to be donated through her guild. Wow, someone's in for a real treat!
Nice job, Liz!

Colorful String Quilt Includes Selvages

This wonderfully colorful scrap quilt was made by Nifty Quilts in the Northwest USA. She's a member of the 15 Minutes Play...Bumblebeans group. I want to make one of these. If you want to see the tutorial for this method at Bumblebeans, click here.

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Nifty's blog is full of inspiration. You'll be amazed at what she's made with men's shirts from thrift stores too. Take a look!

New Selvage Bench by the Cozy Quilter

The Cozy Quilter from Ontario, Canada has made another one-of-a-kind selvage bench. Selvages are nice and sturdy for a project like this too. Nice job, Cozy! (Remember she also made the Selvage Wedding Ring quilt and the selvage thread-catchers that sit on the sewing table. She's on a roll!)

If I Only had a Brain - Hat

When my buddy Jill Bunis in New Jersey saw the Beard Hat post here a few days ago, she said "I see your beard hat, and raise it..." Is this hilarious, or what! :) Does anybody else think it should be gray? Or maybe I'm being too literal.

This hat was designed by Flint Knits. The pattern appears in the Sept/Oct issue of Crochet Today magazine. (This link goes to a pattern preview. The actual pattern appears only in the magazine.)

Bird Fun With Barb and Mary

Barb Vedder in New Jersey made some clever little Sue Spargo birds, and this one is her favorite. Mine too. Take a look at all the amazing quilts on Barb's blog: Fun With Barb and Mary. Scroll down a page or two to see them all. She has some great quilt show photos.

Mini quilt cabinet give-away winners: Tina in Rhode Island and Tatkis in Russia. (See post.)

2010 Selvage Sampler Quilt by Riel Nason

This fabulous "2010 Selvage Sampler" quilt is the creation of Riel Nason, a writer, antique dealer, and selvage quilter extraordinaire from New Brunswick, Canada. This quilt is her own design. She free-pieced it without a pattern. Riel says it took her about 2 months to make it and she had fun making it. You can read more and see additional photos on her blog: The Q and the U.

This quilt was machine quilted by Tina Hanson of Town and Country Quilts. She quilted with a swirly design that looks great.

I love all the different ways Riel pieced the blocks! The butterfly in the bottom photo is one of my favorites.