Quilting Review 2022 - Part 2

As promised, I'm finishing up my quilt review for 2022. These are my personal finishes. I'll share all my customer quilt finishes in another blog post. Please let me know in the comments which one is your favorite! Happy New Year!

Heartfelt Charity Quilt and Stitch Along

Something I've been working on most of the year is the Fatquartershop Heartfelt Charity Quilt and Stitch Along. The fabric collection is Beautiful Day by Corey Yoder of Coriander Quilts. She's a designer for Moda Fabrics. I have the top completely finished, but haven't pieced the backing yet. This quilt will definitely be on my list of WIP's (works in progress) to finish in 2023! Maybe I'll finish piecing and quilting it in time for Valentine's Day. : )

If you want to know more about this quilt, check it out at the Fathquartershop.

Flamingo Quilt

I made this Flamingo quilt for my granddaughter, McKenna, for her 14th birthday, which was actually last year, however, I just had to add it here even though it's not one of my 2022 finishes. I had so much fun making this quilt! This is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, and if you have ever seen her patterns, you know how awesome they are.

If I remember correctly, there's something like 67 pieces of fabric just for ONE block. I didn't care though. Seeing the flamingoes come to life was so much fun! This is the first time I've used minky (minky is a type of fabric, Cuddle is the brand name, you can find it here) on the back of my quilts and I had only longarm quilted one or two customer quilts with minky, so I wasn't too experienced. However, I just love the texture that minky provides when it's quilted. It's just gorgeous and makes the quilt so snuggly. Make sure you use a quality minky such as Cuddle brand. The quilt pattern I used to longarm it is a clamshell swirl from my Prostitcher on my Handi Quilter Amara.

Be prepared for picture overload, because this is a good one!

The fabric for the Flamingo quilt is Stardust from Beverly McCullugh of Flamingo Toes Quilts. I added in a few extra fabrics I had in my stash and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I even got this fun shout out from Beverly on her Instgram stories! Cool, huh?!

And . . . . McKenna is super happy with it also. : )

Shark Quilt

Ok, moving on! THE Shark quilt!! Oh man, was this a fun one to do. I love Elizabeth Hartman patterns, as I said before, even though there are a LOT of pieces in a block, it's just so fun to see the blocks come to life. These sharks are adorable and I knew this was going to be the perfect quilt for my grandson for his 4th birthday. He is super into sharks. His parents arranged for his birthday party at the aquarium in Newport, OR so he could see the sharks in person. It was a wonderful weekend at the beach, playing in the sand, and watching the ocean. The aquarium was the perfect place for a 4 year old to explore!

Back to the quilt. As I said before, this is an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, Social Sharks, and the fabric is Kitchen Window Wovens by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman fabrics and

Essex Yarn Dyed Linens by Robert Kaufman fabrics. I used a navy minky on the back which makes it super soft and snuggly. The quilting pantograph I used is Straight Line Meander which has the perfect jagged edges just like a shark's tooth. I love this quilt so much! It's freaking amazing! Can I toot my own horn!?!?!

Enjoy the pictures!

Trinkets Quilt

This is the Trinkets quilt I made for my son for his birthday in November of 2021, but it leads right into the Sprinkles on Top quilt (from the Jelly Filled book), which is next on my list to talk about. Both patterns are by Lella Boutique using her Smoke and Rust fabric line.

I was so happy to find both a masculine fabric and pattern because, sometimes, that's really hard to find. I love the grays and black with that pop of rust! It was so much fun to piece and seeing that secondary pattern show up as the rows were sewn together was magical. The quilting pantograph pattern I used is Alternating Loops 1 (with pointed tips) from my Prostitcher and I think it was a great choice for this quilt. It adds perfect texture without taking away from the piecing.

If you have a quilt where the blocks should be the center of attention, always choose a pantograph pattern that sits quietly in the background but gives great texture. When choosing a pattern to quilt out on your quilt, ask yourself, "do I want the quilting to be the star of the show, or do I want the blocks in my quilt to be the star of the show?" It will be easier for you to decide what to choose. My son was very happy with it and so am I!

Here are a few more pictures of this gorgeous quilt.

I had purchased a fatquarter bundle of this fabric and had so much left over after making my son's quilt, that I decided to make another quilt for my 4 year old grandson so they would have matching quilts. After I was mostly finished with the 2nd "bonus" quilt, I found out that my grandson was really into sharks. I remembered seeing a pattern by Elizabeth Hartman called Social Sharks (which I just talked about above) and quickly switched gears to make that one for him instead.

Bonus quilts are made from left over fabrics or fabrics from your stash that you don't have to purchase new fabric for. They're awesome. I'm starting to sew more and more "scrap quilts" from my stash. I was starting to feel so overwhelmed by the sheer number of scraps I have so this has been working great. I'll do a different blog post talking about scraps and bonus quilts, so watch for that!

This is the Smoke and Rust fabric line which is hard to find now. You could look on Etsy and see if any shops there carry it.

Sprinkles on Top Quilt

Ok! Now the Sprinkles on Top quilt. LOL. I got a little sidetracked there!

I was able to use all the left over scraps for the top of the quilt but didn't have enough for a backing. I was determined NOT to go buy any more fabric and ended up piecing the backing together. It didn't turn out too bad! The quilt pattern I used to quilt it with is Double Squared. I decided to keep this quilt for myself, although I did catch my daughter trying to sneak out of the house with it! LOL.

Beachy Flag Quilt

I had a lot of sewing going on in June and July trying to prepare for my grandson's birthday and for the 4th of July. I love patriotic quilts and although I have a ton of patriotic fabric I could have used for this quilt, I really wanted to buy the kit and pattern and do the washed out version or as Fijimama Quilts calls them - Beachy Flag kits. Check her out on Instagram! She sells out of these kits really fast and doesn't have any available at the moment but keep looking, I'm sure she will do more when it gets closer to summer. The quilt pattern is Stars and Stripes from Camille Roskelly of Thimbleblossoms.

I really love the muted colors of this quilt and was super excited to find an equally "beachy" looking backing for it. The backing is a Minick and Simpson woven from their Northport collection. I did a 1" wave pattern to quilt it on the longarm using my Prostitcher and Handi Quilter Amara. I love how this one turned out.

Flags and Cherries Quilt

Here's another fun patriotic quilt. It's small and I like to use it as a table topper for my kitchen table. Here's a link talking about this fun pattern. It's a combination of blocks from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage 1 book and there's a tutorial from Erica, Confessions of a Homemaker, on how to put the star sashing together. I used fabrics from my stash (another bonus quilt!) and the longarm quilting pattern is a meandering star edge-to-edge pattern from my Prostitcher.

The Waterhole Quilt

I made this quick little quilt as a gift for an extended family member for her new baby boy. It's a free Riley Blake Designs pattern - The Waterhole, which is also the name of the fabric line by Gabrielle Neil. It uses a "cheater panel for the center fabric, (I didn't sew all those squares together!), plus borders which makes it an extremely quick quilt to put together. I used the Animal Crackers pantograph from Urban Elementz and quilted it on my Handi Quilter Amara. I about died over how stinkin cute it is. I'm pretty sure Melissa loved it as well. : )

I also made 3 burp cloths out of the rest of the scraps. I buy cloth diapers and lay an 18 x 22 fatquarter on top, sew around all the edges, leaving an opening for turning at the bottom. Turn them right sides out and sew two straight lines down the middle of the diaper (burb cloth) and top stitch around the outside edges which closes up the opening where it was turned. Then I fold them and wrap them up with the quilt. It makes for a very cute baby shower gift and they are super easy to do.

Hello Pumpkin Quilt

This quilt is technically a 2021 finish, but I couldn't resist. Sorry! I know I cheated a little and added a few more 2021 finishes. : O

If you know me, you know that I LOVE Fall. I love pumpkins, leaves, hay bales, corn stalks, hot apple cider, hot chocolate, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin waffles, etc. Anything pumpkin, I'm down for. I also love orange and teal! SO . . . this was the perfect combination of all of it together.

I made this pattern up myself with the exception of the checkered pumpkins; those are Lori Holt's pattern from her Farm Girl Vintage 1 book. I knew I wanted each of the pumpkins to be different sizes and alternating and I think I did a pretty good job. Not too shabby! I really need to spend some time learning EQ8 (which is software for designing quilts). I would like to dabble a bit into designing and see where that takes me.

I added the embroidery "hello pumpkin!" where I had some extra white space and I love how it looks. Again, I used fabrics from my stash for another "bonus" quilt and even had enough backing for the entire quilt. That IS a bonus!

The pantograph I used is called Field of Flowers from my Prostitcher and it's probably one of my favorites. I've used it on a few other quilts as well. It just gives a really great texture and a little femininity to the quilt.

I'm almost done! Two more quilts and then I'll quit boring you to death!

Leaves of Change Quilt

I've probably said a million times that one of the hundreds of quilts I've done is "my favorite quilt!" Is it possible to have too many favorites? I always tell my grandchildren, "you're my favorite blond, blue-eyed 14 year old," or "you're my favorite ginger," or "you're my favorite blond with brown eyes (most of them are blonde)! LOL. In truth, they are ALL my favorites! I LOVE my grandkids more than anything and I hope they know it and feel it. They're just the BEST.

Anyway, that's how I feel about my quilts. They're all my favorites. It's hard to pick one over the other. This is one that's up there for sure, though. Probably because I love Fall so much and the changing color of the leaves. This quilt has all the goodness of Fall, but the icing on the cake?! It has to be the gold thread I used to quilt it. YUM! It just takes the level way up. The pattern is from Lella Boutique and the fabric is Golden Days by Fancy Pants Design House for Riley Blake Designs.

What do you think?

Sacagawea Quilt

This quilt has a long history (pun intended!). Almost as long as it took me to piece, applique, and hand quilt it. It's been 3 years and 8 months in the making!

My husband saw the book for this quilt and knew immediately it was one that he wanted me to make for him. I've always loved Minick and Simpson patterns and fabric. They are a work of art and this one is no exception. The name of this quilt is The Spirit of Sacagawea, A Tribute to an American Heroine. I've always loved the story of Sacagawea and the Lewis and Clark Expendition, so this was a perfect quilt for Ken.

Each block tells the story of her and the expedition. For instance, the bird and nest block represent Sacagawea and her infant son John Baptiste Charbonneau. In the Hidatsa language, Sacagawea means "bird woman." The crossed canoes represent the vessels used by the Corps of Discovery in the journey to find passage to the Pacific Ocean. The horses block represents the trade made with the Shoshone indians for horses to cross the Continental Divide. The Mariner's Compass block represents Sacagawea's role as a guide.

I wish I had the time and space to tell you about all of them, but you get the idea. You can always ask me if you have a question about one! It was her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau who was actually hired as the guide and translator, but he had never been as far west as the expedition needed to go and he did not speak Shoshone. He knew his wife was better equipped. Once they got further westward, they depended on Sacagawea more and more. She truly was an American Heroine. How many of us would pack our new babies and go with strangers across the country - walking, in canoes, and on horseback?!

I was finally able to finish up the hand quilting on this while Ken was isolating with Covid. With him working from home, it's been hard to do anything so I could surprise him. And surprised he was! You can see his reaction on my mama.j.quilts Instagram account.

Enjoy!