A Swine Evening
We are excited to announce that we have donated a quilt to be put in A Swine Evening silent auction benefiting A Childs Place organization. If you're not familiar with what good work A Childs Place does, then hop on over to their website! They are fully funded by donations and fund raising, providing school lunches, uniforms and organizing volunteers to mentor Mecklenburg County homeless children.
Did I mention there were over 4,900 homeless kids in Mecklenburg County last year alone? Truly hard to believe so many kids and parents have no permanent address. That's why we have also decided this will be our local organization that our Charity quilts will be donated to, I can think of no better place than helping out these local homeless kids!
Here is the quilt we donated for the silent auction.
The fabric is Kaleidoscope by Northcott Studio, featuring a Dresden Plate pattern.
We used a feather pattern in a white thread color so the quilting flows nicely between the white background and the dresden plates.
I was told this will be placed with a set of rocking chairs that were donated as well as a celebrity decorated pig! I would love to see all the donations and can't wait to hear how much money they are able to raise! What an awesome job!
Jenn
Hugs and Kisses
A couple weeks ago we had a customer come in searching for blue, orange and green fabrics. She was going to make a quilt for a wedding gift. We were so pleased when she brought in the finished quilt top for us to quilt! I love seeing final projects our customers have made.
The pattern is called Hugs and Kisses by Jay Bird Quilts. It uses my favorite ruler ever, The Lazy Angle Ruler. Easy to use, quick projects, endless deigns. If you haven't heard of it before, look it up, you won't be disappointed! You may remember this Summersville Spring quilt I made with it.
We went with an abstract vine quilting design. One of our favorites, not too stitch intensive to take away from the design of the quilt.
I love all how all the blues, greens and oranges she selected play so nice together! It's amazing to me how almost none of these fabrics are from the same line, but sticking to three colors gives it such a nice cohesiveness.
Jenn
A Very Mini Tour
I sure do love this time of year, when the trees start blooming and the sun is shining so bright through the windows. I was in our store the other day and noticed how light and cheery it looked. Then I thought about all the people that shop with us online have no idea what the inside of our store looks like. So it's not much, but here are a few pictures of our little store in Belmont.
Here is the front portion of our store.
A few of the mini charms, these are Tapestry by Fig Tree.
Don't forget to check out our end of the bolt remnants, there are some real gems in there!
Hope you enjoyed the tiny tour, if we're lucky maybe you can visit us one day in person. Until then, we enjoy seeing you online!
Jenn
Fireworks Quilt
There are so many lovely quilts that I wish I had time to make, but let's be real... there's not enough time in the day to make every quilt that I want to. Lucky for me we longarm, so I'm fortunate enough to be able to live through other peoples quilts. Emily recently brought in her quilt she made for her mom's birthday. (Lucky mom!)
The pattern is Firecracker by Thimble Blossoms.
She used a balanced mix between Vintage Modern, Ruby and Marmalade.
The quilt turned out so nice and cheery, we quilted it with a feather design.
Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it helps me seeing this beautiful quilt done or not, I now have a overwhelming urge to make one myself! Oh well for that theory...
Jenn
Summersville Spring
Have you seen the new line out by Lucie Summers called Summersville Spring? It looks exactly how it sounds; warm spring days, birds chirping, butterflies fluttering by... it's the perfect fabric for the last gloomy days of winter. In fact, the rare occurrence of when we got snow I decided to sew this bright, cheery quilt while it was blowing flakes like crazy outside.
I have to admit, I really did enjoy the beautiful evening of snow we had. So pretty, and it was the perfect snow for snow balls! I also have to admit I was happy to see it leave the next day.
This quilt was so easy to put together! It just takes 2.5" strips so it's prefect to use that jelly roll that you've had your eye on! Best part is, a small size like this one only takes half a jelly roll... soooo, you could make a large one or two small ones!
The pattern is called Unwind, it uses that fantastic Lazy Angle ruler that I'm in love with! In fact, this is my third pattern using the Lazy Angle ruler. I suggest you check it out, you won't regret it!
I used a quilting pattern called meandering feathers. It's fantastic, just the right amount of space left between the feathers. This won't be the last time you see me use it!
I had so much fun making this! I will be keeping this pattern in mind for my next baby quilt I need to make.
Jenn
Wonky Block Tutorial
I love making these wonky blocks for quick baby quilts and charity quilts! So here's a tutorial on how I make them.
What you will need to make the featured 31" x 46" quilt:
- Fabric - 10" x WOF (width of fabric) of six different colors
(we used four colors, cut 20" x WOF and this made two of these quilts!)
- Rotary Cutter
- Ruler
- Coordinating Thread
* Featured fabric is Now We're Goin' Places by Monica Lee (excuse all my iPhone pictures)
Step one: Cut 24 10" x 10" squares.
Step two: Layer four 10" x 10" squares in a stack.
Step three: Lay ruler at an angle,
Step four: Cut so there are four sections.
Step five: Place cut pieces in desired layout (we selected to have one color in each block, you could always double up on colors too!)
Step six: Sew cut pieces together and press seams open.
Step seven: Block will have jagged edges from the cut angles. Square up block, we started with 10" x 10" square, our squared up block measures 8.5" x 8.5".
Step eight: Place blocks in desired arrangement.
Final quilt should have four blocks across and five blocks down if you are using the 24 10" x 10" blocks.
Hope you enjoy making them as much as I do! We would love to see some pictures of ones you make, find us on facebook or e-mail us at admin@quiltedthimblecottage.com
Jenn
Birthday Mug Rugs
I have a dear friend who I have had the pleasure of working with for many years retire last week. While I'm thrilled for her, and I know this is not goodbye, it makes me sad when things that were once ordinary now become unordinary. It is her birthday this week and I wanted to make her some mug rugs to go with some cool soup mugs I bought her.
She has seen this fabric and mentioned that she likes it. Of course I like it, you may see another posting in the near future about the case I'm going to make for our mini I-Pad.
These were so easy to make and I really enjoyed working with the fabric. The typewriters are from a line called Type, and the small chevron background is from Reunion by Sweetwater.
I did a straight stitch with about 1/2" spacing, this is the first time I have quilted on my sewing machine in I don't know how long... I hope she likes them, maybe if I'm lucky I will get invited over for some delicious butternut squash soup we both used to love eating together at lunch!
Jenn