The Great Depression was an era that created quite a challenge for women who desired to quilt. Not only was money very tight in households, but there were limited supplies nationwide. Women had to turn to creativity and resourcefulness in order to create beautiful quilts. Some popular quilts of today were actually born from The Great Depression.

Patterns such as the Star of Bethlehem, Wedding Ring, Grandmother’s Flower Garden and even Dresden Plate were actually the result of The Great Depression. Women magazines began offering similar quilting patterns for free with each issue to increase their readership. After all, most household budgets could not afford to purchase a magazine, yet alone several quilting patterns. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I thought I’d share with you one of my most favorite quilt shops. A friend, also a quilter, told me one day about this terrific shop she had visited while on a trip to East Texas called “Stitchin’ Heaven”. I went online to see if they had an online store that I could visit without driving to East Texas and I was really surprised.

You can sit at your computer and order everything you’d ever need right there at www.StitchinHeaven.com! You can order things even I had never heard of!

So I wrote to Debby Luttrell, the owner and founder of Stitchin’ Heaven and arranged to make a drive to the little town of Quitman to meet her and see her quilt shop. I was so excited to meet her and learn how she had grown this shop in a town of only a couple thousand people. I knew it would be quite a story. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone loves to browse through all the fabrics available for quilting.  It is exciting to learn about new fabric lines that are available.  I just recently found out Marie Osmond creating a brand new fabric line, which she displayed at Salt Lake City Quilt Market during mid-March of this year.

The collection is called, “Heirloom Gardens”.  According to an interview with Marie Osmond, the fabric line was inspired by her mother, who loved to quilt.  There are 8 designs with 24 colorways in the fabric line.  It was displayed but not available to the public for purchase until June of this year.  It is a very new line that has some exquisite designs in it.  The design will be sold to quilt shops worldwide.  If you’re interested in the line, you can ask your local fabric store if they have pictures or can order a specific pattern from the collection for you.

The focus of the patterns is a rich array of earth tones.  Combined with the earth tones floral, paisley, and other garden theme prints to compliment the collection.  There are also violets, lace, wine and aqua in the collection.  This beautiful collection of fabrics is sure to go great with virtually any quilting pattern.

A good way to honor and remember someone that has passed is with memory quilted bears.  You use the fabrics from items that belonged to your loved one.  This is a wonderful way to remember someone special and to have a family heirloom to pass down for many generations.

The first step in making memory quilted bears is to make a small patchwork style quilt from different fabrics that were used by or belonged to the loved one.  You can use towels, sheets, clothing, ties, and other accessories.  If you have enough materials, you can even make several memory quilted bears.

The next step is to find a basic bear pattern.  Purchase stuffing and the other items that you will need according to the pattern directions.  Instead of using standard, store-bought fabric use the quilted fabric that you created in step one of this project. 

To finalize your memory quilted bears, use jewelry and other accessories that belonged to your loved one.  For example, you can use buttons from one their shirts for the eyes. If the bear is large enough you can even accessorize it with personal items such as a necklace by using an anklet or bracelet worn by the loved one.  Tie tacks and cuff links make great accessories as well.

You can put a zipper on the back of the memory quilted bear.  Inside the bear you can place a picture of the loved one or other important small items that you would like to keep. 

Quilted memory pillows can be created in the same way. Whether it’s, a pillow or a quilted memory bear, it will help with the grieving process and be a wonderful heirloom treasure to pass down for many generations in your family.  

One type of quilting pattern used today is Edge-to-Edge quilting. As the name implies, Edge-to-Edge quilting is repeating the same pattern from one edge of the quilt to the other edge. Typically quilters will work from the top of the quilt to the bottom to create an Edge-to-Edge quilting pattern.

Novice quilters will enjoy Edge-to-Edge quilting because only one or two designs are used to achieve the effect. Traditionally, only one color thread is used and this makes it easier for beginners. Quilts made with this pattern have a more symmetrical look and feel to them rather than trying to balance various motifs and designs throughout the quilt. Read the rest of this entry »