Blog Hoppin’ with Made By Marney AND a Chance to Win a Free Pattern

Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my website! I’m Mary; a mom, teacher, pattern designer and owner of Made By Marney. I use my blog to promote my new designs and for tutorials.

small version of mary by shedI retired from teaching art 5 years ago and took a job in a local quilt shop. The shop had no paper pieced patterns, which I love, so I started designing patterns to sell at the shop. Soon I found myself selling to other shops, then selling through a national distributor, and now I’m writing 2 books on paper pieced patterns that will be published in 2017.

IMG_1334One of my fun accomplishments for this year was being included in the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks magazine. I was thrilled to be included in this periodical because I am a newbie to pattern design, having only been doing it for the past 3 years.

I design paper pieced blocks for quilts, pillows, totes, potholders…you name it. Here are some of my favorite designs.

Cats N' Dogs Quilt
Cats N’ Dogs Quilt
Forest Friends
Forest Friends
Cow-Abunga Quilt
Cow-Abunga Quilt

As you can see, I love to design wonky animals! Probably from all those years teaching elementary art. Kids art really rubs off on a person.

I started designing paper pieced patterns after retiring from teaching art at an elementary school in Wisconsin. I enjoy the creative process. Paper piecing is like putting together a puzzle and I love puzzles. When creating a design, all the curved lines have to be changed into straight lines. That abstracts the design to some extent. See an example of this in the two monkeys pictured below. The second monkey is the way I would draw him normally. The first monkey has been changed to straight lines that can be paper pieced easily. You can even see that I have started to number the pieces in the order they could be paper pieced.

Scan0277

My friends are always asking me to make them really EASY blocks, that will go together quickly. The easier the block becomes, the more abstract it becomes.

If you leave a comment on this post this week, I will choose 1 commentor as the winner of a free pattern from my Etsy shop…the pattern of your choice! You must leave a comment to be considered in the drawing, so I will be able to contact the winner by email.

Please visit our fearless leaders this week, too.

AND visit the other blogs on the tour this week:

Blog Hop Week 4 – July 18th

Jennifer @Dizzy Quilter

Seven @The Concerned Craft

Mary @Made By Marney

Amanda @Quiltologie

Thanks for stopping by…and don’t forget to leave a comment if you want a chance to win a free paper pieced pattern of your choosing!

62 thoughts on “Blog Hoppin’ with Made By Marney AND a Chance to Win a Free Pattern”

  2. Those are such cute designs! I’m a big fan of paper foundation piecing as well. Look forward to seeing your future quilts.

  3. Wow. I love your style. I need a poodle pattern and I think you would be the person to make a block that would actually represent my wacky adorable standard poodles. We should talk! Have a great blog hop week. I’ll be back to visit often.

  5. Hi Marney! Your paperpiecing animals are sooo cute! I think my favorites are the black scaredy cat and the tuxedo kitty! Thanks for sharing your design process. Congrats on your upcoming book! That’s fantastic!

    1. Thank you, Paige. I know you are a very accomplished designer and that means alot coming from you!

  7. Mary,

    It was fun to meet you. I love how you design your patterns. I have not done paper piecing yet, but I would like to try it. I hope I am the lucky winner.

    1. Thanks for visiting today, Kathy. Try watching some of my tutorials and let me know if they help explain the paper piecing process. I always appreciate feedback.

  9. Nice to meet you, Mary! Paper piecing is still on my “to try” list. I just need to make up my mind to do it! Are you still in Wisconsin? I live about 35 miles north of Milwaukee. I love our rich quilting community here!!

    1. Hi Tami, Thanks for stopping by! I live in Oshkosh which is 1 1/2 hours north of Milwaukee. Where are you?

      1. Oshkosh?? Really? I live in Slinger, now, but grew up in Fond du Lac. Just a short drive down Hwy 41!!! How fun! I’d love to hear about your favorite quilt shops in your area, as well as other quilty happenings! If you are teaching any paper piecing classes, be sure to let me know! I’ll be following your blog, too.

        2. If you like traditional quilting check out the shop that I work at in Oshkosh, Quilt Essentials. If you like modern fabrics, my 2 favorite shops are The Bungalow in Ripon and Keep Me In Stitches in Appleton. I rarely have time to teach classes, that’s why I offer the tutorials on my website and You Tube. But I know Sew Many Stitches in Richfield offers paper piecing classes regularly. I designed their row for Row By Row Experience this year. Check it out on Facebook, it’s really cute. Mickey is the owner and she could tell you when her next class is scheduled.

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  11. Great post! I like the way you stated the goals of your blog right at the top. Your fox pattern is my favorite, I think. Showing your process creating a pattern was interesting, too. It’s always good to glimpse all the work that goes on behind the scenes. Enjoy your week on the hop!

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  15. Mary, Your quilts are so fun and funky! Love them…I enjoy paper piecing and would like to know more about making patterns, just not sure where to start. TFS.

  16. Wow, Mary. You have a wonderful talent and your patterns are so nice. I hope your book is a best seller.

    1. Thanks for the words of encouragement, Rochelle. Writing the book was a huge undertaking!

  19. I love your wonky animals, they have so much character & personality! I would love to make a paper piecing pattern of my tumbleweed that I use in my logo, but I can’t wrap my brain around how to do it. I love puzzles too, and I think of piecing quilts as puzzles so that’s why I love quilting so much.

    1. Hi Sharla, I took a look at your tumbleweed…that has lots of overlapping lines and would be a real challenge to paper piece, unless you would really abstract it. Is that possible?

  20. Your paper piecing is perfect! I’ve always admired designers who can “see” where the lines exist in the design, and can create the puzzle you mentioned. Very , very well done.

  21. I love the style of your art and patterns. I had fun making a couple things from your Forest Friends pattern and they turned out so cute. I enjoyed learning a bit more about you from this blog post and I wish you much success with your patterns and books!

  22. I really. Like paper piecing so I was interested to see your 2 monkey pictures to show how to get to a paper pieced design.

  23. I’m crazy about your Cats and Dogs quilt. I hope you’ll keep us updated about your book on your blog.

  24. Very talented. I love the cats and dogs quilt. I hope I win so I can try out your patterns.

  27. I love your patterns! Your post is great and it’s been fun learning more about you. It must have been fun teaching elementary school students art as all kids love art, math not so much.

  28. Your animals are adorable! Paper piecing isn’t my favorite, but I’m going to keep these in mind!

  29. I love your quilts! I also love paper piecing, but most of my sewing is regular piecing, and I just took an applique class, fun.

  32. I love your “wonky” animals with the crazy eyes. So cute! Congratulations on your accomplishments in design. That is awesome! I haven’t yet attempted paper piecing but it is definitely on my list of things to do. It is a pleasure getting to know a fellow 2016 New Quilt Blogger! I am looking forward to you announcing your books coming out.

  33. thanks for showing and describing the process of designing the paperpiecing pattern from a normal drawing; I found that very interesting and am interesting in trying it myself.

  35. Hello Marnie. I loved your quilts and it is lovely to see your smiling face first. This time last year I took part, and enjoyed it so much. Your quirky wonky animal quilts are lovely, you obviously enjoyed the children’s art classes!

  36. Great post Mary, you have made some lovely quilts and so deserve your success, no matter how long you have been pattern writing for, congratulations. It is wonderful you have found your niche. I particularly like your Cats N Dogs quilt, its great.
    Smiles
    Kate

    1. Thanks so much, Kate. Getting your positive feedback is very motivating and will more than likely have me sketching tonite on some new and fun design!

  37. I just love all your quilts. The little raccoon block is my favorite! Congrats on the magazine entry! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at block designing… but I know it’s a lot easier said than done. I’d like to learn paper piecing too! Adding them both to my never ending list of quilting goals!

    1. Amanda, Thanks for stopping by! Watch my tutorials and see how easy paper piecing can be!

  38. Great blog post! Thanks for sharing your work, it’s really great. The animals make me smile. I look forward to hearing from you. 🙂

  39. So great to meet you, Marney! As a fellow retired elementary (and middle school) teacher, I’m amazed by all that you’re getting done–I’m doing a lot of vegging out, I confess. Your patterns are just so delightful. Once I get off the couch 🙂 I am going to have to use some of your designs!

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  41. Just catching up with my blog hop visits since I’ve been out of town. So nice to meet you Marney! I’ve met so many nice quilters through this hop, it’s a bit sad to see it end. I love your designs, they are so adorable! So wonderful that you are still inspired by the children you used to teach.

  42. Just saw you at PTQ meeting in Schofield! All of your items are gorgeous and can’t wait for your new “tote” book coming out in Jan! Would love to own any of you patterns!

    1. Beth, I emailed you the name of the charm pack used in the Later Alligator quilt.

  44. I don’t think my first try at comment came thru. Luv your designs. I also design patterns, but do traditional pieced runners & quilts. My grandson loves curious george, so a monkey pattern would be a nice surprise for him. Thanks for all your great designs.(

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