Irish Twist in Love Patchwork and Quilting / Beauties Pageant 173

Photo courtesy of Love Patchwork and Quilting

 

If you didn’t receive a 2021 holiday card from me, please do not take offense—I didn’t send any!—because back in December of last year, I was busy sewing a little bit of sunshine that I’m finally able to share.

Here you see Irish Twist, a bold and beautiful remix of the traditional Irish chain quilt block. Made up in an array of Bella Solids and quilted to perfection by Narda Junda, of Maz Q’s Sewing and Quilting Studio, it’s a quick project to usher in the summer.

EDIT: The pattern, originally published in Issue 111 of Love Patchwork and Quilting, is now available in my Etsy shop!
The pattern for my Irish Twist quilt and the accompanying pillow appears in Issue 111 of Love Patchwork and Quilting—available now! Click here to go to the Love Patchwork and Quilting website, where you can buy a printed magazine, digital version, or subscription.

See? I had a good reason for skipping items on my holiday to-do list! What can I say now other than … Merry belated Christmas? Happy not-so-new year? Perhaps it would be best to cover my bases and wish you happy holidays 2022—ha!

This was my first go at submitting to a magazine. (Hmmm ... Is that accurate? Maybe I submitted to one of the past QuiltCon magazines? I can’t recall.) If you’re interested in working with a magazine and would like more information, let me know and I’ll write a future blog post about my experience.

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Henlo Fren Pillow / Beauties Pageant 117

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ve likely clued into the dog obsession here at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters. We currently have one furry family member, a five-year-old Golden named Rose whose big personality demands that the rest of the household revolves around her. 

This obsession has only grown worse over the past year. My husband and I, in an effort to keep our wits about us during the monotony of the pandemic, have started following dog accounts on Instagram and TikTok. And let me tell you, there are dog lovers, and then there are dog lovers on social media.

In fact, that second group speaks its own language. Those people talk not of dogs and puppies but doggos and puppers, and greet each other with “henlo fren” instead of “hello friend.” Those hoomans feed their canine companions treatos and brush their doggos’ floof. And sometimes, when their pets are being extra naughty (see Rose in the pic above with my sock!), they just have to shrug and concede that’s just doggos being doggos.

Hello Friend Pillow Pattern Hack

The time spent on canine-friendly social media instigated a pillow pattern hack. Using the Hello Friend pattern Happy Sew Lucky released at the beginning of the pandemic, I made my own Henlo Fren pillow. All the letters I needed for “henlo fren” appear in the phrase “hello friend,” so there was little actual hacking to do; the only sacrifice I made for my version is forgoing the original’s cool letter spacing. 

My husband was pretty excited to receive this as a Christmas gift. Actually, I think it’s the most excited he’s gotten about any project I’ve made in the nearly 20 years I’ve been sewing!

A Past Pillow Debacle

It had been a few years since my last foray into pillow making. Pillows are supposed to be fun, satisfying sews, and a 2019 pillow project ended badly. I took some much-loved bits of Alison Glass fabrics and sewed them into this lumpy mess ...

What went wrong? Well, I quilted the pillow cover too densely, which affected its drape (or lack thereof). I couldn’t remedy the stiff cover, but I did try to get it to fit the pillow form properly. Multiple attempts to trim excess fabric were ineffective, and after banishing the pillow cover to a dark corner of my closet for a year, I chopped it up and resurrected it as two pretty awesome See-It-All Pouches. Nice, right? (I wrote more about this pouch pattern, from Aneela Hoey, and sewing with vinyl here.)

The Merits of a Zipper Enclosure

I knew I didn’t want to make the same mistakes with this pillow, so I swiped the quilting design directly from Happy Sew Lucky’s pattern: I started with a line of quilting along the perimeter of the word bubble and then echoed that shape every half-inch. It’s simple and elegant, and adequately attaches the pillow cover to the fleece lining.

The pattern provides instructions for both an envelope enclosure and a hidden-zipper enclosure. (For that matter, it also offers two options for sewing the words: traditional piecing or paper piecing. I paper-pieced my words.) Although I usually opt out of installing zippers whenever I can, I’ve sewn plenty of them (see more zipper projects here) and chose to follow the pattern’s zipper instructions, which created a clean finish. I did make my cover an inch smaller horizontally and vertically, just so there was a little more poof and a little less extra room once I inserted the 20-inch form. Together, the zipper enclosure and slightly smaller cover resulted in a pillow whose plumpness is evenly distributed and lump free. 

Words of Pillow-Making Wisdom, Perhaps?

Everyone has his or her own preferences when it comes to making pillows. Happy Sew Lucky has me sold on zippers. What are your words of wisdom for the pillow-making masses?

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Tester Parade! / Beauties Pageant 115

Photo courtesy of @simplyjesiquilts

Perhaps the most important step in pattern writing is enlisting a group of quilters to help test. I worked with six testers to release Love Boldly, each of whom made a few blocks and got back to me with critical feedback on how to improve the pattern. Because it’s not just about getting the numbers right ... It’s about writing instructions that different people with their own take on the quilt-making process can use successfully.

I adore the projects that came out of these testing experiences! The pattern provides instructions for a single block and three quilt sizes (baby, small throw, large throw). A few testers made the four-block baby-size quilt, and I can’t blame them: It makes for a satisfying sew. (I know this because I just finished piecing my own baby quilt!)

Photo courtesy of @joandesan

Photo courtesy of @chrysalisknits

One tester transformed her three blocks into a table runner, which I love so much that I’m making my own. I think the orientation of the blocks and the two-color palette are brilliant!

Photo courtesy of @angesullivan

Another quilter made a pillow from a single block in her mom’s favorite color. Gosh, a two-toned heart doesn’t get bolder and happier than this!

Photo courtesy of @simonerigden

And another still tested the bonus block design included in the pattern—an American flag heart block—which she’ll be making into something for her sailboat. Beautiful, right? I’m crazy about the dark background fabric.

Photo courtesy of @mjordan_101

Each tester’s Instagram feed is linked in the caption corresponding to her project. I encourage you to check out these quilters’ other makes over on Instagram!

Love Boldly is available exclusively at Quilt Pattern Mart. (The introductory price of $7.50 is available through February 14!) Love Boldly is available in my Etsy shop. If you make your own Love Boldly blocks, please let me know by dropping me an email (frombolttobeauty [at] gmail [dot] com) or by using the hashtags #frombolttobeauty and #loveboldlyquilt on Instagram. You can also upload finished blocks posted on blogs or in Instagram to a future Beauties Pageant. : )

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Finishes Big and Small / Beauties Pageant 75

Buy the Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern here!

It’s been fun to have my family around during this hunker-down-at-home pandemic. All four of us get to have dinner together every night and talk more than usual. I have ample time to do whatever the kids want me to do with them. Mom, do you want to watch a show/read a book/talk about video games? The answer is almost always yes—although to be truthful, when it comes to talking about video games, I just smile and nod in agreement with whatever my 11-year-old is saying.

But sometimes it’s not fun. Sometimes I find myself—quite literally—running away from that same 11-year-old, locking doors behind me, yelling, “Leave me alone!” For as much as I love my family, I am an introvert who recharges by spending quiet time by herself. That’s where my sewing hobby comes into play.

I am often quilting for sanity these days. After all, my sewing machine doesn’t talk back to me. Actually, it makes few demands of me at all, apart from the occasional drink of oil and new needle. And it lets me think without interruption; I feel smarter when I spend time with it. Also, when a project is finished, it stays finished. I wish I could say the same about the state of the laundry, the dishes, or the house in general.

As a result, I am making good progress on a lot of projects. Some of them, like the quilt at the top of the post, were among the 21 WIPs I identified back in November. (For the record, that list has been whittled down to 15. Yahoo!) That is my Warm and Cool Coin Quilt, the first official From Bolt to Beauty pattern, sewn with Kate Spain’s Canyon collection. It’s with a team of great testers now. I will be sharing more pictures of and details about that pattern in upcoming weeks. : )

Other projects are small and satisfying. Remember my See-It-All Pouches? I made two more. The latest pouches started out as a pillow cover that was over quilted and, as a result, rather stiff. I cut it up to make two lovelies that went straight to guild friends. Here are the before and after pics ...

Yes, that’s much better.

Have you had the luxury, like me, of getting extra sewing time these days? If you have finishes to share, please add them to the linky below!

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Throwback Thursday (on Friday) / Beauties Pageant 42

It’s been just me and my little guy here at home this week, and the relative quiet has afforded me time at my sewing machine. The goal with every project I’ve picked up, however, has been to clean up the joint.... I pieced piles of fabric into backs so I could get them on hangers. I made franken batting so I could put my smaller Janome, which has a zigzag stitch, back in the closet. I basted quilts so I could fold them up and get them out of the way.

It’s been productive in a I’m-less-likely-to-trip-over-something kind of way and not in a this-would-make-a-great-picture kind of way, so I found myself looking over projects from the past five summers to remind myself that tackling these little tasks will eventually result in a finish (or 14).

For example, in July 2014, I was making these sweet pouches. See that dark blue fabric on the middle pouch? I am still trying to use up that yardage, five years later, in this quilt and this quilt.

In July 2015, I finished a Social Tote, by Carolyn Friedlander. I remember that making experience very differently than the post indicates. It is a brilliant pattern but a pain to sew. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve given away the pattern since coming to my senses.

Three years ago, in July 2016, I finished piecing the top for my Park Bench Quilt. Man, I love that quilt. (I’m not sure how easy it is to find the Park Bench pattern book. I know my local quilt shop has a few copies if you need one.)

Two Julys ago I was working on my Ode to Art Gallery Quilt. The corresponding post is worth a read. It talks about why I think that quilt, in all its scrappiness, works and explores Tara Faughan’s idea of bridge colors.

And just last July I made my first hexagon pillow, which prompted me to make another pillow and then another and then a Market Tote, all adorned with hexies.

What have you been doing at your sewing machine this week? The rest of us would love to hear! If you have a finish from your blog or Instagram feed to share—a completed block or flimsy counts in my book—please add it to this week’s linky. : )

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Let’s Be Honest / Beauties Pageant 27

Bernie, over at Needle and Foot, recently asked her readers to get honest for a moment. In a social media world where quilters curate their Instagram feeds and post finish after finish on blogs or Facebook pages, it’s easy to think, I don’t measure up. But is anyone’s social media presence an accurate portrayal of reality? We all make mistakes. Perhaps our interactions online would be richer if we owned up to them.

My pillow-y finish from last week is a perfect example ...

The wrench in the works here was the quilting. Originally, I was going to quilt simply—just along each side of the seams—but after I did that I kept quilting. And the more I quilted, the more I realized how difficult and time-consuming it would be to rip out those stitches, and I kept quilting anyway. In the end, I matchstick-quilted the entire front of the pillow, and although it looked lovely, I had a problem: The dense quilting affected the drape and fit of the pillow over the 18-inch pillow form I had purchased. I subsequently concocted and implemented various solutions ...

First, I basted around the pillow to gauge how the pillow form would fit in the pillow as is. There was bulk—a lot of bulk.

So I increased the seam allowance, thinking that would be the solution. (It was not.)

My pillow at this point was looking floppy, especially at the corners. I like my pillows nice and chubby.

So I took the rather drastic step of tapering in all four corners, a tip I had read long ago over at Granny Maud’s Girl.

This was the outcome of my seam-allowance fudging and corner trimming ...

The project now had 12 sides and was rectangular-ish! But I finished it off anyway and bound the edges ...

In the end, I think the pillow is fine. The process didn’t go as I anticipated and the final product is different from what my original vision, but live and learn, right?

To add your latest finish to the latest Beauties Pageant—all imperfections accepted and applauded!—click the link below.

Please note: InLinkz now requires a login for all photo-based link parties. I know that’s a pain. My apologies for the inconvenience!

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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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Fab Five Ruler Remix

I am always looking for small projects to intersperse among all the quilts I have in the works. Quick projects like a pouch or bag give me the thrill of a finish without the time commitment of a quilt.

So when the Fat Quarter Shop offered to send me a Fab Five Ruler and pillow pattern to try out, I responded with an enthusiastic yes. A pillow project was just what I needed to get out of my current quilty doldrums!

This ruler, created by Abbey Lane Quilts, makes cutting out tumbler shapes easy. Using bits of various Alison Glass lines, I auditioned a few different layouts and asked Instagram friends for feedback. I decided on a rainbow-like gradation with what I consider to be a more modern tumbler layout. (Instead of orienting my tumblers so that short ends of blocks line up with long ends, I laid them out so that short ends butt up to short ends and long ends butt up to long ends.)

To finish my pillow off, I quilted it and bound it in the same way I bind my quilts. I love how the dark gray Alison Glass print frames and unifies the patchwork!

To see others’ pillow projects, head to the Jolly Jabber, the Fat Quarter Shop’s blog. If you have a favorite FQS project, I would love to hear about it in the comments. I have sewed along in the past. Check out my Bring on the Dancing Horses Quilt, Mini Charm Mix Table Runner, and Odori Quilt.

For more on my experience matchstick quilting this project, look for a post next week. : )

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, and Needle and Thread Thursday ...

Pssst ... I’ll also be linking this bit of loveliness to the new monthly finish linky at Meadow Mist Designs, slated to launch on March 31.