Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Snowman Christmas Tree

 Isn't this just the cutest Christmas tree?


The tree is at our veterinarians office in the lobby.  I tried really hard to get a good picture of my girl sitting in front of the tree.  But there was just too many distractions/smells.  She had to sniff every last inch of the entire building and the tree.  Which made me wonder how many cats had been in this tree.  HA!


I probably took 15 or more pictures and this was the best I could get, her backside.   We go back later in the month for a nail trim so we'll try again.











  


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Monday, December 4, 2023

Quilting The Tree of Life Quilt

Maybe I should have called this one The Redwood Forest.  Measuring 94 x 98, it's one of the largest quilts I've ever made.  And I'm pretty sure it's the largest I've ever quilted on the frame.


As with all of my quilts, I'm quilting using Superior Threads Microquilter 100wt. thread.  It's lightweight, strong and allows the quilting to shine without a heavy look of thread.  Not everyone likes this look, it's a personal preference thing.  Most quilters use this thread for stitch in the ditch or on quilts with lots of backtracking.  I find it easier to use the same thread all the time so I don't need to worry about tension adjustments and I just love the way  it looks on a quilt.


The quilting will be kept fairly simple.  My first thought was to feather her to death but my quilter only has a 15" throat.  These blocks are 16".  Feather quilting, when breaking up the design, is a little more time consuming.  It would require I do a ton of premarking before loading her onto the frame.  I'd really like to have this one quilted by Friday.  So I chose to go a different route.  I still need to do some markings but I can do them as I advance the quilt and straight lines are easier than partial feathers.  Well, at least for me.  To speed things up a little I'll be doing a free motion background fill in the body of the quilt and mixture of free motion and ruler work on the on the trees. Hopefully she will be done and on the bed by this time next week.


Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!




Just a reminder...You can get my Snow On The Farm quilt pattern as a FREE PDF. 
CLICK HERE to go the blog post where you will find the link to the PDF.





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Thursday, November 30, 2023

Snow On The Farm Quilt Pattern ~ FREE

 Hi Quilty Friends!  You read that right.  I'm giving you, my loyal followers and anyone else who loves this quilt the opportunity to download it for FREE.  Why?  Honestly, I've been feeling a little like the Scrooge lately.  And what happened yesterday put me in the mood to do something about it.  


So what happened?  My social media blew up!  Every platform was all a buzz about my Snow On The Farm quilt pattern.  I had private messages and comments on all of them, Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, this blog and my email.  What in the world was going on?

It was all afternoon. They expressed the love and need to buy this quilt pattern.   We've all been there, right?  We see that one quilt and have to have it right now!  

What was the sudden interest in this quilt?  So I followed the breadcrumbs.  It wasn't hard when one of the quilters told me where she saw the quilt. HA!

I'm not going to tell you where the breadcrumbs ended because it was a business page and the business can not control what is being said in the comments while they are off conducting business.  But I will tell you it was a longarm quilter  business page who posts customers quilt on social media.  It was gorgeous.  The picture above is not her quilt, it's my quilt made and staged for advertising the pattern.  

Anyway, when I found the social media post about my pattern, I started reading the comments to give my little ego a stroking.  What I found was more than I expected.  There was talk of recreating and making a pattern or a video because they couldn't buy the pattern.  Oh no!  I quickly took screenshots of the post and the conversation about the recreating.  What should I do?  All the big girls in the quilting industry get really nasty about this kind of talk so I followed their lead and let myself get all worked up inside.

Yes, I reacted, in private at first, then silly me sent a private message about copyright infringement to the one who I thought most offended my little ego.  I even made a post on my FB page about copyright law but didn't mention any names.  An over reaction to say the least. 

 After calming down I thought about everything and I remembered why I'm here on this blog.  It's always been the same.  I love quilting and sharing the love of quilting.   In the early days of my quilting blog, all my designs were free.  It was so much fun to share them and then see them being made by other quilters.

And you know what, I loved that this group of quilters loved my  quilt so much that they were going to make it come hell or high water.   I had to apologize for my reaction and removed my post about copyright laws.

Sure, I could have made a few bucks yesterday. It would have been nice to put that money towards a embroidery machine for making quilt labels.  But what the heck, tis the season!   So I let the longarmer know that I would be posting it for free and she could let her followers know.  I'm sure she too will be visiting this post today and is welcome  to put her business information in the comments below.

EDITED to add....  The business owner did the right thing and deleted the conversation. She's a super nice lady and I hold no ill will towards her or her followers.   I did not tell this story to make her or her followers look bad.  I wrote it because it's the truth and we found a way to make everyone happy.

Okay, enough of all the drama.... Are you ready for  A little Podunk Merry Christmas?  

Snow On The Farm
will be free to download until Dec 31, 2023. Midnight EST.

 Oh but there's a catch...to pay me for the pattern all I ask is...
  1.  Share with your friends on social media, tell them where you got the pattern.  Provide a link to this blog post so your quilting peeps can download it too.  PLEASE DO NOT SELL OR SHARE THE PDF FILE.
  2. Leave a comment below, just say Hi or Thank You, any comment will do.
  3. When your quilt is finished and bound, send me an email with a picture, it would tickle me pink! My email is in the pattern.
When you click on the link below I get an update on how many of you have downloaded the pattern.  It'll be fun to see how many quilters download and leave comments.

Thanks to all of you for the quilty love.  Merry Christmas!




Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!











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Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Easy Setting Triangles For On Point Quilts

Hi Quilty Friends!  It's been awhile since I've shared how I make large triangles for on-point quilts.  The smaller the block, the easier it is to make those triangles.


The blocks in this quilt finish at 16 inches.  It's not an impossible task to cut a large square to make triangles as suggested by EQ8.  The hardest part would be finding a ruler long enough to make those long diagonal cuts. In the past I would use a yard stick or several quilt rulers butted end to end.


The corner triangles are a little easier to cut. 


They are smaller so they can be cut from a smaller square with one diagonal cut.


Many quilters don't like and won't cut odd sizes such as 12 13/16".  They will round up and hope for the best.  I understand this, I did it for years.  It taught me a lot about how deal with not so square quilts and how to deal fullness when quilting.  And then one day about 10 years ago, I spied this ruler at our local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts.


It came with a little instruction booklet that can be hung with the ruler.  If the dog chews up your instruction booklet, no worries, there's some basic instructions printed on the ruler.


The Large Diagonal Set Triangle Ruler cuts the triangles from strips of fabric.  Blocks as small as five inches and as large as 16 inches without cutting an odd 16th this or that.


Here's how to use this ruler.  Use the finished block size not the unfished size.  My blocks before sewing them into the quilt are 16.5".  Finished and in the quilt they are 16".  So 16" is the number I need to use on the ruler and that is the very bottom of the ruler.  I'm cutting from width of fabric right off the bolt.  Well mine has been washed an refolded.  Line up the folded edge of the fabric with a line on the cutting mat. And then make straightening cut to the end.  Now I line up the ruler on the 16" line, then add the 6.5 x 24 ruler to the top of the triangle as shown below.


In order to make sure my ruler is properly positioned I line up the horizontal lines on the ruler with the horizontal lines on the cutting mat.


Carefully remove the triangle without shifting the 6.5 x 24 ruler and make the cut.


Trim the selvedge off the end and unfold the fabric.


 The first triangle cut will be  the corners of the quilt, the smaller triangles.  Line up the flat top of the ruler with the top of the fabric and the bottom of the fabric with the line on the ruler for your block size.


Trim off the little ears at the top and bottom.


At this point you could flip your fabric or flip your ruler, whichever makes it more comfortable for you to make the next cut.  I chose to flip my ruler, line it up with my finished block size on the ruler and the previous cut edge.  


Then make the cut and trim off the ears.  Repeat as many times as you can on one strip of fabric.  


You may or may not be able to get another corner block at the end of your strip of fabric.  Don't cut your small triangle like this.  It will make those outer edges very stretchy. 


Flip the fabric and cut it like we did at the beginning of the strip.


The only downside to using this ruler to make set in triangles is, sometimes, depending on the quilt, there is a lot of scrap fabric.  I don't mind a little extra scrap, maybe I can use it to make some pillows or the binding.


The triangles are all in place and ready to become a quilt! YAH!


Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!














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