Quilting journals bring your quilts to life.  They are a cross between a scrapbook and a journal.  Beginners and expert quilters can enrich their quilting experience by creating quilting journals.

You might be asking what are quilting journals.  Quilting journals are made from acid-free journal books.  Inside the journals, quilters write notes about the project.  In addition, they place sample pieces from each quilt.  No journal should be without photos of the finished project. 

As you can see quilting journals help to broaden the quilting experience.  You can save these journals to read through later in life.  It is a terrific way to have memories and keepsakes from the each quilt.  In addition, if you share your quilting journals with others, they too will get to enjoy the process and history of each quilt that you create.

I know of some people that give a quilting journal with gift quilts.  The gift recipient then truly knows everything that was involved in making the quilt and learns the rich quilt history.  It is a great way to have the other person involved in the quilt and brings the quilt to life.

Quilting journals are not difficult to make.  They enrich the quilting experience.  There is no right or wrong way to create one.  You can do a separate one for each quilt or put several quilt projects in one.  The choice is totally up to you!

When you know the mattress size, you will know that the quilt will completely fit the bed.  Perhaps you’re making a quilt for a gift and don’t have that size bed in your home?  What are you to do?  There are some standard size dimensions that will help you.

Mattress Sizes:

Crib Mattress Size: 28″ x 52″
Twin Mattress Size (Single): 39″ x 75″
Full Mattress Size (Double): 54″ x 75″
Long Twin Mattress Size: 39″ x 80″ Read the rest of this entry »

The Jacob’s Ladder quilt pattern is quite popular.  According to Barbara Brackman from “Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns”, many people know it by other names such as Underground Railroad Pattern, Road to California Pattern, Off to San Francisco, Gone to California, Stepping Stones and Trail of the Covered Wagon. The Jacob’s Ladder quilt is one that suggests travel or journeys.  Just look at all the names to see this!

This quilting pattern originated shortly before the 20^th Century.  It is created with triangular shaped pieces put together to form a path or ladder in the middle section of the quilt pieces.  It is believed that the actual design for the Jacob’s Ladder originated from a Civil War pattern.  In this pattern, one of four contrasting patches was set on point in long strips giving the quilt a sense of paths.  Read the rest of this entry »

I can close my eyes now and smell the made from scratch biscuits that my grandmother used to make.  The entire house would have such wonderful smells from her baking.  It was great to wake up under a warm quilt she had made and smell those delicious biscuits! 

Biscuit quilts are also known as puff quilts.  They originated in the 19^th century.  Individual squares were filled with recycled nylons, pieces of wool, and old scraps of cloth.  There was no concern about uniform texture, weight or sizes of the quilts.  You would find some that were sleeping and others that were made as pillows.  Biscuit or puffy quilts were heavy and typically did not have uniform sizes or shapes.  Their popularity quickly faded.

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Trapunto really adds to your quilts.  It gives an extra touch that will make others wonder how in the world you did that!  Trapunto is sections of your quilt that are puffed up, making a classy and three dimensional effect for your quilt.  What is nice is that even a beginner quilter can add these sections to the quilts.  Trapunto makes an excellent addition to wall hanging quilts.

The trick to trapunto is to use high-loft batting for the section of the quilt that you will be outlining and making puffy.  Purchase a small bag of batting since it really goes a long way!  Of course this is wonderful for your quilting budget. Read the rest of this entry »