From Bolt to Beauty by Michelle Cain: October 2022

Friday, October 21, 2022

Patchwork Ghosts / Beauties Pageant 191

I’m not a fan of celebrating Halloween, but The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt is a seasonal story I can get behind. Are you familiar with this picture book? Written by Riel Nason and illustrated by Bryon Eggenschwiler, The Little Ghost is the charming story of a ghoul whose patchwork sets him apart from his friends. The happy ending and it’s relatable message make it an enjoyable read for kids and adults alike. Take a peek at one of the book’s illustrations, below. Super sweet, right?

Another quilter transformed the book’s hero into stuffies last Halloween, and with this year’s holiday on the horizon, I knew I needed to follow suit!

Construction was super easy: I sewed 3-inch squares into 4-by-6 panels, quilted them, added the mouths and eyes, and squared the bottoms. I then stuffed the bodies with a little polyfill and whip-stitched the bottoms ... Voila! Two cuties!

Rooting through my scraps and selecting fabric for the patchwork was fun, as was making the felt faces. A circle die on my AccuQuilt Go made cutting the eyes easy, and a little embroidery added some life to them. I will be shipping both stuffies, with a copy of The Little Ghost, to my nieces.

Are you sewing anything for Halloween? If so, I’d love to hear about your project in the comments.

My Halloween sewing is over. I’m in the mad rush to finish up QuiltCon submissions (which happens some years despite my best intentions to avoid it) and working on a new pattern release. If you enjoy testing patterns, this one is easy. More details are in my latest Instagram post here.

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The pageant rules are simple:

Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

Friday, October 14, 2022

A Free-Motion Quilting Success! / Beauties Pageant 190

Longtime readers know my heart belongs to straight-line quilting. I particularly like parallel lines on a diagonal, but I also love a good cross-hatch or something slightly fancier a la Jacquie Gering (see the list of links at the bottom of the post for examples of past projects). When a project warrants a quilting design with soft curves or something intricate, I usually opt to “quilt by check” and send the project to a longarmer.

Free-motion quilting appeals to me in theory, but up until now, I haven’t free-motion quilted frequently enough to master anything more than a simple stipple, which makes my current project noteworthy.

I’m not ready reveal anything more than a peek or two of this quilt. It’s slated to be submitted to QuiltCon, and if it’s accepted, I like the idea of withholding it from blog readers and social media until after the show. But the gist of the project is this: I pieced large-scale blocks using my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern and then free-motion quilted a series of words horizontally across it. To practice quilting the words, I composed them in a Word document and printed them out on newspaper. Then I experimented using small quilt sandwiches. Doing so improved my muscle memory and helped me get better at stopping and starting midword. In fact, the paper worked so well that I decided to quilt the entire 62-inch by 70-inch project with the technique.

As you can imagine, it’s been slow going. I’ve been pinning a word to the sandwich, quilting it, and then pinning the next one. The picture above shows me a few lines from the bottom of the project (I started at the top and worked left to right). At this point, there is so much bulk. I have to pivot the quilt to be able to smooth it out and pin the next word, and then I pivot it back under the arm of the machine to do the actual quilting. It’s been quite the wrestling match.

I think the results are worth the hassle, though, and honestly I don’t know if I’d be able to get this caliber of quilting text any other way. Ripping out the paper, however, has proved to be a headache. Tiny fibers of newsprint are getting caught underneath the stitches, and I’ve resorted to using a seam ripper and tweezers to tease them out. : /

Slow and steady will win this race! Wish me luck!

Examples of quilting designs I’ve used to date:

Parallel lines: Thimbleblossoms’ Norway Quilt
Fancy-for-me straight-line quilting: She’s No Angel
Straight-line quilting a la Jaquie Gering: Elizabeth Hartman’s Neighborhood Quilt
Stippling: For a Special Little Dude

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The pageant rules are simple:

Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

Friday, October 7, 2022

Postcard from Sweden / Beauties Pageant 189

Picture by Sandra Walker of MMM Quilts. Used with permission.

Every year or two, my fabric stash starts to feel more like a burden than a blessing, and I have to prune. Sometimes, my preferred strategy is to sell off fat quarters and larger cuts that no longer excite me at FeelGood Fibers. Other times, I home in on a stash-busting pattern or two and start cutting. With my guild’s fall retreat on the horizon, I decided to cut up a 38-piece fat quarter bundle I won last year at a monthly guild meeting.

Now would be the appropriate spot in the post to show you this bundle in all of its pristine, uncut glory, but I took a rotary blade to it before the lighting got good for photos. So you’ll have to take my word for it: These fabrics are all bright, happy solids from Free Spirit. Especially assembled together, they are gorgeous. In fact, they were so beautifully curated that I couldn’t bear to break them up and instead decided to sew the Postcard from Sweden pattern with them.

Do you remember this design? Kelly Liddle, of Jeli Quilts, based it on a postcard she bought at Ikea. The free pattern was super popular about five years ago, and it’s still pretty easy to find kitted. (Download the pattern or buy the kit at Stash Fabrics.) The picture at the top of the post is the version Sandra Walker sewed up earlier this year.

I decided to make two of the smaller throw sizes because, again, this was all about busting stash. The instructions call for subcutting squares into triangles, but I figured I would simply cut squares and make two half-square triangles at a time. If I’m going to cut and sew a quilt out of 30-plus different fabrics, I may as well cut and sew two!

Of course, the colors in my bundle didn’t match up perfectly to the ones in the pattern. I made it work. I found the required Kona Cottons in the Kona color card I cut up years ago and then paired them with fabrics from the bundle, focusing on color family and value. Sometimes, I pulled a needed color from my stash; other times, I chose to use two fat quarters of slightly different colors to give me the necessary yardage.

Mark my words: I am not going to overthink this project! I will not use a design board to vacillate over the final layout! I think I’ll sew the quilts at the same time, making one row of half-square triangles and then promptly sewing the row together. It’s Operation: Just Get Them Done!

UPDATE: This bundle is no longer available. Sign up for the From Bolt to Beauty newsletter to be the first to learn about future bundles!

Quick Quilts Pattern Bundle

If you saw my post on Wednesday, you know I’ve joined forces with 19 other designers to create the Quick Quilts Pattern Bundle. This collection is available for a limited time—just through October 9!—and includes my own Pretty in Pluses design. You can buy these 20 quick-to-sew PDF patterns for just $19 (that’s less than $1 per pattern!).

~~Are you looking to ...~~

~~Start—and finish!—a project before the holidays?~~
~~Bust through your stash fast?~~
~~Discover new pattern designers?~~

~~Then this collection is for you!~~

Click here to view the entire collection! Click here to purchase your bundle!

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The pageant rules are simple:

Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Quick Quilts Pattern Bundle

UPDATE: This bundle is no longer available. Sign up for the From Bolt to Beauty newsletter to be the first to learn about future bundles!

I’ve joined forces with 19 other designers to bring you the Quick Quilts Pattern Bundle, which includes my own Pretty in Pluses design. For $19 (less than $1 per pattern!), you’ll receive 20 PDF patterns that you can get started on today.

~~Are you looking to ...~~