Do you dread the words “quilt as desired”?  Here’s help! 501 Quilting Motifs  is a collection of quilting designs from more than 25 years of Quiltmaker magazine.  The designs are indexed by size and style so you can easily find what you need.  Flowers, vines, children’s themes, feathers, seasons, and more are included.  Helpful diagrams for combining designs guide the beginner, and make projects easier for the more experienced. Use the designs as shown, or use them for inspirations.  You’ll refer to this book often.

Brandywine Designs Clip Art for Quilters includes over 75 designs that you can freely use for a variety of projects.  Embroidery, redwork, applique, labels, and stencils are just some of the uses.  Flowers, animals, hearts, baskets, and more! Since they are drawn in the same style, combining several into one project will create a cohesive look.  Combine, separate, or use just the way they are.

If you ever feel like you want to go one step further with your quilts, Embellishment Potpourri will give you the confidence to do so.  Techniques are covered with fabric, thread, beads, and more. Plus there are instructions for two quick and easy fabric embellishment projects so you can “get your feet wet”!

Do you know any quilter that does not have scraps?  We all have them! And they just grow and grow!  Never fear, Scrap Assassin Saves the Day!   Instructions are included for four quilts – and yardage is given just in case you don’t want to use scraps.  You can make these over and over again as each bundle of scraps will give you a different look.  Plus you get the added bonus of using at least SOME of your scraps – that makes room for more new fabric!

If you are looking for a few books to start your quilting library, these might be the ones to choose.  But don’t stop here – check out the rest of the books in our quilting book section.

Several nine patch blocks separated by some sashing will make a large lap quilt.  Include an extra wide sash and applique your child’s (or grandchild’s) name on the quilt to make it extra special.

Make an I Spy banner for your kitchen eating area, or for a child’s room.   Use a solid fabric for the back of the banner pieces.  From 10 I Spy squares cut 10 triangles.  Cut 10 triangles from a solid fabric.  With right sides together sew along each long side.  Turn right side out and press.  From the same solid fabric, cut a 3″ wide strip about 60″ long.  Press in half and then fold each side in to the center and press again.  Tuck each I Spy triangle inside this strip about an inch apart and sew right along the open edge the entire length of the strip.  Fold over each end of the strip a few inches and tack it down to make a loop for hanging.

I Spy placemats can create a fun activity for the kids as they are waiting for their meal to be ready. 

Many patterns can be modified to create I Spy quilts. 

In Patch of Posies, replace the color centers of the squares with I Spy fabrics.

Ribbonworks will frame your fabrics nicely.

The charm pack pattern, Baby Charms, is ideal for I Spy squares.  It would make a great quilt for tummy time.  

A fun way to collect enough different pieces is to find a swap – or start one yourself.  Search yahoo groups, or blogs, or suggest it at your next guild meeting.  If you want to start one yourself, here’s how it works:  Find 10 quilters (including yourself) that are interested.  Each person selects 10 different fabrics and cuts 10  4″ squares from each.   You should be able to get 10  4″ squares from one fat quarter.  One person (you?!) collects all of these squares, deals out one of each of the 10 fabrics into 10 separate piles.  When finished each of the 10 piles should contain 100 4″ squares of different fabrics, which are then distributed to the participants.  You may get a few duplicates but most of your fabrics should be different.   Then you are ready to choose a project and sew!

Washing your fabric will let you know ahead of time if a color is going to run.  It’s so upsetting to put hours and hours into finishing a quilt and then have a color bleed and ruin your work.  Tossing a color catcher in the wash water with your fabric or your quilt can prevent a disaster…. it’s a small price to pay.

A pretty red fabric.... much prettier if the red stays where it belongs!

The wash water (and it can be just plain water, you don’t really need to add soap) will wash out the chemicals added when the fabric was produced.   If you are sensitive to this kind of thing, washing first is a good idea.   Both the washer and the dryer will cause the cotton fabric to relax and to shrink a bit.  Your finished quilt will be more true to size if you have pre-washed.

Now, if you don’t prewash, you get to play with your fabric right away!  Washing will usually require that you press the fabric…. no washing = no pressing (unless it was really wrinkled on the bolt).   The fabric will also be a little stiffer because of the chemicals and because the fibers are still stretched from the manufacturing process.  This means it will be easier to rotary cut.

And when you finish your quilt made from unwashed fabrics and run it through the washer and dryer it will come out all crinkly and puckery…. a ready made vintage look!

So which camp are you in?  Do you prewash?  Or do you just jump right in?  Do you have any other reasons for which rule you prefer to follow?

Morgan Weisling’s Quilting Bee brings you back in time to an old fashioned quilting bee with all the women, young and old, sitting around the quilt frame.  You can almost hear them chatting away as they sew.  And little brother is under the frame listening and probably pestering his sister.

Several prize-winning quilts are being admired by attendees in The Quilting Show Circuit Jigsaw Puzzle.

Several of the puzzles combine quilt images with landscapes.  Here’s two of those…

The quilt in Cactus Flower And Quilt Jigsaw Puzzle uses colors found in the desert landscape. 

In Floating Quilts Over Sisters Jigsaw Puzzle quilts hang on a line in the foreground while quilty hot air ballons float in the sky in the background.  There are chairs just waiting for you to “set a spell” and maybe do some hand sewing.

And here’s one where the quilt IS the puzzle.  Well, the quilt AND a couple of playful kitties.   Wedding Rings And Kittens Jigsaw Puzzle has 1,000 pieces and looks challenging!

This was just a sampling.  There are more than three dozen Quilt Jigsaw Puzzles to choose from.

A Handful of Fancy Placemats has five different borders, and they’re EASY to sew!  Get ready to dress up your table.  Also included are matching coasters and “party dresses” for your glasses. 

Now that your table is covered, here’s A Handful of Cushion Covers for your chairs.  You can skip the pillow pocket portion of construction and use these as little table toppers.  They finish at 16″ square.

Handy Bags have three compartments and two pockets.  Perfect little bag to add to your purse collection.  They’d make great gifts too!

Pretty Aprons have five deep pockets and four different finishing options.  And they are EASY to make!  Make one for each holiday or one for each season.  Another great gift.  You have started sewing for Christmas already, haven’t you?

 

It seems a year doesn’t go by that we don’t have a baby to sew for whether it’s a friend’s baby or a new grandchild or maybe your own! Quilted Baby Gifts includes instructions for bibs in two sizes, a baby quilt, a blankie and a pillow.  Designs To Share With You’s “magic mitering” technique makes these quick and easy.

Give that refrigerator artwork a decent frame! Fridge Quilts & Magnets has instructions for a magnetic quilt with a slide in pocket for artwork, a calendar, or anything you want!

Now, that was a lot of variety and you STILL haven’t seen everything that Designs To Share With You has to offer.  Browse through the rest and don’t forget to check all the other quilt patterns before you leave!  Happy sewing!

This storage box is perfect for storing WIPs (Works In Progress), or patterns.  If you are new to quilting and just starting to build your stash, it might hold all of your fat quarters of one particular color.  Or if you’ve been quilting for a while, perhaps it would store all of one color of fabric scraps.

 

The Multi-Craft Rack Storage will hold all your pins, needles, thimbles, quilting marking pens, extra bobbins, seam rippers, and more.   If you like to embellish your quilt projects, think of all the materials for embellishment this will hold.

 

Are you on the go with your quilting?  Do you head out to a quilt day at your local quilt shop or to an evening of sewing with your quilt guild?

The Total Tote will hold everything you need to take with you.  It has storage on each side with adjustable elastic bands to keep things organized and in place.  There are several interior pockets.  You also have the option of removing the center divider to provide bulk storage.

 

If you are taking your sewing machine along with you this wheeled sewing machine bag will be sure to hold it and still have room for your projects.  It has an inside pocket to hold your quilt patterns.  When you are not on the go, it collapses and stores easily.

Ok, now, no excuses . . . get organized, then get sewing!

A scrapbook cover and totebag. Aren’t these just the cutest?! So festive. Use your buttons (you know you have a stash) or embellish your own way.
And for a baby. What new mom wouldn’t like this?  Both of these are by Briarwood Cottage, who also has a couple Block of the Month quilts, and several books.

Good Intentions has several sweatshirt projects, including this patriotic sweatshirt. There are a couple flower patterns, a couple winter patterns.

And this Log Cabin Sweatshirt. At Good Intentions you will also find several “Laps From Fats” quilt patterns and several books.

 

 

Cookie’s Creations has several pincushion patterns including these adorable chickens – so cute!  There are pumpkin pincushions in three different sizes and baby shoe pincushions.

Cookie’s Creations  has a count down calendar for Halloween with pockets for treats and pockets for photos.  Your little trick-or-treaters will love it.   It’d make a great holiday decoration.   You will also find a few quilt patterns including one that is a tribute to chemo survivors made out of bandanas.

Then there is Sew Baby, gee, I wonder what they have?  So many baby projects!  And most of the projects are unique.  There are cloth books, hooded animal towels, stuffed animals with attached blankets, bath puppets, bibs, car seat covers and more!

We’re quilters at heart but most of us enjoy other projects, too, and there’s no lack of projects available . . . check them out!

Let’s start with our newest creation, The ClaudieJo Bag. They were designed by Claudia Atchison and Jody Rosenhauer (hence the name). They’re made using charm squares and each bag is a mini art creation on it’s own. Naming a pattern can be a tricky process in itself. Sometimes you have the name before the sample is started. Other times, it takes hundreds of suggestions to get to the final name.

You need some variety when you have small items like these, plus you really want to show people the many possibilities. The first step is a photo of the sample. No problem, right? Well, not always. The lighting and setting needs to be just right. We tried several different settings – on a cute hall tree, flat on the ground and hung on a wall.

We thought the hall tree set up was great because you could see all of the purses at once. But, it was too busy, the background didn’t work, and you couldn’t see the purses up close……… What about the purse on the wall? Well, we just didn’t like how the handles looked…. So the winner was, the purse photo on the ground (center). We played around with handle positions and got some good shots.The next step in this process is designing the cover of the pattern using our photos. Our next blog will begin that process. Be sure to check back in next week….

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Amy Cotham & Judy Reynolds
Black Cat Creations

For us, the creation of a pattern can start with a doodle on graph paper or playing around on a quilt design program. Once inspiration came from a tile floor in a bathroom. Sometimes it’s the fabric that inspires us. The manufacturers today do a great job of creating gorgeous lines of fabrics that just leave us drooling. We have folders of designs that have never made it to the cutting table because they just didn’t work or we were waiting for just the right fabrics to come along. You start cutting and piecing and you know instinctively when something is good and will appeal to other people. Those are the ideas that come to life.

A big part of our inspiration are the quilt shops. Having worked in shops, we know what they need to sell fabric and lots of it. A good pattern can do that for them. They are trying to sell the fabrics put out there by the manufacturers – the same fabric that inspires us. It’s our job to make a product that will not only sell for us, but will also sell fabric for the quilt shops and the manufacturers. We all sort of depend on each other.

And, yes, we design patterns because it’s just fun, but also because we want to put a little money away. It’s been great to do something we love and be able to do it while raising kids and running a household. To be honest, Judy and I just wanted to be able to buy fabric whenever we wanted without dipping into the household stash. I think you can say we’ve accomplished that and more.

Once you have an idea that you think is doable, then comes the fun. Picking fabrics and deciding just how you’re going to put this thing together so that anyone can pick up your pattern and make one just like yours. No problem? Not always. Sometimes a design looks nothing like it’s original concept once your finished. They evolve and take on a life of their own.

Stay tuned. Each week we’ll make a new blog entry that will take you into the actual steps of creating the finished product – a completed pattern.

Amy Cotham & Judy Reynolds

Black Cat Creations