Magpie Quilts

Here's a quick and easy project when you have an hour or two and want to finish in one sewing session. I'm assuming you have basic knowledge of sewing and piecing a quilt top. Pressing as you do each step is expected but not mentioned! Have fun! Sudoku Mini Quilt Fabric Requirements: You will need nine different fabrics, minimum 4.5" x 4.5" (I used nine 5" charm squares from the same fabric line) Plus 1" wide strips for sashing. You will need six pieces 1" x 3.5", and two pieces 1" x 10.5". I usually do NOT cut them until I am ready to sew them on and use the actual measurements of the blocks I am sewing them to as sometimes my 1/4" seams are not as accurate as they could be. And 1.25" wide strips for borders. If you are really accurate, you will need two at 10.5" long and two at 12" long. Again, I don't cut these until I've measured - it makes the difference between a quilt that has wavy, uneven ...

Many of the ornaments on my tree have been handmade by me over the years. In 2015, I added two more to my collection. The first is made from layered strips with a piece of cardstock sandwiched between two contrasting pieces of fabrics. I chose a red print for the one side and a gold print for the other. I may make these again, but maybe with some of the great decorative paper available on either side rather than the fabric. Snowflake Ornament from Fabric & cardstock  The second handmade ornament was this wreath from tiny (3/4") hexagons. I had originally thought to leave it just plain, but I just needed to add some embellishment. Wreath ornament from little hexagons  So I looked through my button box and found some little red buttons. It looked better, but was still missing something! Hexagon Wreath with buttons added And I dug into my embroidery floss bin for some red floss and outlined each hexagon with a running stitch. Hexagon Wre...

I love Irish Chain quilts - they come in all sorts of colours and the diagonal chains can be single, double or triple. Simple single Irish Chain baby quilt Triple Irish Chain Quilt Top A year or so ago, I started sewing small 1.5" squares together into these blocks for a double Irish Chain quilt. The main diagonal chain here are scraps of yellow. I didn't have enough in my scraps already cut, so I happily cut into some fat quarters and larger scraps to get what I needed. Block A  The first block is all background (white in this case) with four scrappy corners. You will need four 1.5" scrappy squares, one 3.5" square white, and four 1.5"x3.5" rectangles. Block B The second block is made up of twenty five 1.5" squares. Four white squares, Nine yellow (or other dominate colour to make the main chain) and twelve assorted scrappy squares. Building a quilt There are just two simple blocks to this quilt - keep making blocks unti...

I love collecting charm square packets and often will pick them up at quilt shows or quilt shops when I don't have a shopping list of fabric I actually need! Charm Square quilt top & backing These little 5" pre-cut squares are a real time saver if you need a quilt done quickly. Here's a quick little pattern for you that uses these charm squares. I started with 2 packs of charm squares of the same fabric line, but you can use coordinating fabric lines, squares cut from your own fabric scraps or from yardage of your favourite fabrics. Using a design wall to lay out the pieces The white strips between the charm squares are cut 2.5" x 5". Lay out your squares in a pleasing arrangement - on a design wall where you can step back and look at it overall, or on the floor or bed if you don't have a design wall. Sewing the rows together Each charm square pack had 42 squares in it, so I did my layout with 7 square per row and a total of 12 rows. The...

Craft sales are not my most favourite thing about my quilt business. I'm an introvert at heart and the full day of meeting and interacting with people wears me out! And at most craft sales vendors are limited in the amount of space they are allowed. That makes it hard to display larger quilts, so I tend to make up smaller items that are easier to display. I find that buying a bed size quilt is a large purchase & most people are not willing to purchase a large quilt unless they've thought about it for a while or unless it's a custom quilt that is a perfect match to their décor. This past year (2015), I only booked myself into 2 in-person shows. And this year (2016), I have had some health issues that led to me cancelling all 3 sales I was booked for.The first from last year was way back in September 2015 and was the Etsy Made In Canada Day Sale in Calgary. The second was in November and is one I've done for a number of years and I've built u...

Last fall my mom was making a few of these for her local quilt show and sale. I thought they were pretty cool and have been keeping my eyes open for fruit themed fabric just in case I wanted to make a few. Pear Pie Hot Pad or Pot Holder At the end of May at Calgary's Heritage Park's Gathering of the Guilds quilt show, I found some great fruit fat quarters and they followed me home! I already had a tan colored fabric that could be used for the lattice pie crust, some insulbrite and cotton batting and a quick trip into Fabricland netted the shining heat resistant fabric (normally seen on ironing board covers) that would be the pie pan backing. Cutting Directions: I'm not much for finding a pattern for something that I can figure out, so I made a circle template from a piece of cardboard that was about 9" in diameter. For each pie, I cut 1 fruit fabric, 1 insulbrite batting, 1 cotton batting and 1 shiny fabric from the circle pattern. Pieces cut for pie pot hol...