Fun Things To Come…

Watch for 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop starting this Saturday, July 14. Many thanks to Sarah Craig at Confessions Of A Fabric Addict. She has spent countless hours organizing this fun filled event. Visit Sarah for the entire schedule on Saturday, July 14.

Christmas is my favorite holiday for designing. I have created many different paper pieced Santas, but on Tuesday I will be sharing a tutorial on how to paper piece my favorite Santa pattern. Visit each of these 29 designers between July 14-29.

Each designer is offering something fun and exciting for Christmas… perhaps a free tutorial or a pattern. AND…some of us will also be offering GIVE-AWAYS.

I will be giving away 1 free copy of my latest paper piecing book, Sew Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  This book offers 16 adorable paper pieced blocks AND 8 cute holiday projects to use the blocks.

This Polar Bear table topper and gift sack are both included in the book, along with so much more.

Join the fun! My day to post is Tuesday, July 17. I will be including a full schedule on Tuesday. See you then!

 

 

More Woodland Animals

Often, my customers like to substitute different animal blocks in my patterns to get a more unique quilt. Here are 2 new paper pieced blocks that would work well in my Forest Friends quilt pattern.

This friendly Brown Bear is an 8″x 8″ unfinished block. Most of my paper pieced blocks are this size and can be mixed and matched into any of my patterns.

This Fawn would make a cute addition as well. I designed the fawn after finding a newborn fawn curled under a tree in my yard at the cabin. It was resting there for the day, and was later reunited with it’s mother.

So adorable! It laid in this position all day, never moving. Mother deer came in the night to gather her offspring and move on.

It’s always fun to be creative and make your own composition using the animals of your choice. Are there any other woodland animals that you would like to see in this quilt?

Linking this week with:

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Free Motion By The River

Clever Chameleon Quilting

Love Laugh Quilt

Stitch All The Things

Quilt Fabrication

 

 

 

Paper Pieced Woodland Animals

This is definitely “cabin” time of year. I’ve been spending many weekends “roughing” it in northern Wisconsin and it has inspired me to design some paper pieced woodland animals.

This is my “Forest Friends” quilt pattern. It includes 6 different woodland animals. These animals are super easy to construct.

The pattern also includes directions to make a table runner.

Here are close-ups of some of my favorite blocks:

My son is crazy over Hedge Hogs, so he wanted me to include this cute guy.

This wise Owl inspired one of customers to construct this adorable tote.

This tote was created by another sweet customer, Mary E. She likes foxes. Love it!

Thanks for visiting today!

Linking up this week with:

Kathy’s Quilts

Love, Laugh, Quilt

SoScrappy

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Cooking Up Quilts

Ems Scrap Bag

Free Motion By The River

Clever Chameleon

Stitch All The Things

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Show and Tell Monday

My Quilt Infatuation

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

 

 

 

Northwoods Paper Piecing

Enjoying my mug of chai on the deck. What a lovely view! After spending the weekend at my cabin in northern Wisconsin, I felt excited to share this table runner pattern. I designed it with the northwoods in mind.

This is “At The Cabin” , which measures 16″ wide x 40″ long.

Included in the table runner is a grinning wolf…

a lumbering bear...

a crafty fox

and a majestic moose…and some trees, of course!

“At The Cabin” is adorning my dining table in my rustic cabin, and always makes me smile.

Visit me at Etsy or Craftsy.

Linking this week with:

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Silly Mama Quilts

Free Motion By The River

Kathy’s Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Adorable Tote Pattern

Believe it or not, once in a while I design a pattern that has no paper piecing. This tote is one of those patterns. Besides designing patterns, I also work part-time in a local quilt shop. Every year I design a tote pattern that works well with the Wisconsin Shop Hop fabrics. Lots of states offer a yearly shop hop featuring fabric about their state.

The Wisconsin 2018 fabric includes a panel fabric with 6″x 6″ square floral panels (the fabric pictured in the top left corner). I used the panels for the outer pockets.

The Plenty Of Posies Tote features 6 outer pockets and 2 inner pockets. It measures 14″ high, 16″ wide, and 4″ deep. This is a nice generous tote bag size! It is great for going to the market, using for a project bag (sewing or knitting), a beach tote, or an airplane tote(large enough for a lap top).

Here’s a closeup of one of the outer pockets. Each floral panel is a different Wisconsin state flower. This panel fabric could easily be substituted with any floral fabric, but if you want this exact fabric, you can call the shop where I work to order, beginning June 8: Quilt Essentials at (920)230-3680.

The pattern is designed for an easy/intermediate sewing level. It is a great pattern to learn how to sew a tote with a boxed bottom.

This pattern is available on Etsy and Craftsy.

Linking this week with:

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Clever Chameleon

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

 

Farmyard Stars Paper Pieced Quilt

Growing up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin has instilled a life long love of animals. The “Farmyard Stars” quilt was motivated by all my lovely memories of animals and pets that we saw on our farm every day.

I love everything about this design. The animals are bold and bright with whimsical expressions. The black and white border presents a calming, yet quirky frame to the colorful animals. The animal sounds were machine embroidered in the sashing, but could also be satin stitched, appliqued, or skipped altogether.

I have a hard time choosing my favorite animal, but “Demi Moo” the cow is right up near the top. Remember, these are farmyard STARS, so each is named after a celebrity.

Here’s “Kitty Purry” the cat.

“Pig-Casso” the pig…

“Lady Baa Baa” the sheep…

And, another one of my favorites, “Pony Danza” the horse. Love those teeth! I have designed lots of horses, but he is precious.

To see the names of the other animals you will have to check out the pattern at Etsy or Craftsy.

Linking this week with:

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Kathy’s Quilts

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Love, Laugh, Quilt

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Clever Chameleon Quilting

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Silly Mama Quilts

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Tish’s Adventures In Wonderland

So Scrappy

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

 

Spring Birds

Finally it appears that spring is here. The birds are up early singing and busy building their nests. I have some lovely paper pieced bird patterns to add to your collection.

The Hummingbird is one of my favorite patterns. They are so fascinating to watch.

This Yellow Finch is stunning with it’s gold and black coloring. Finding a fun striped fabric for the wings adds some punch.

 

The Blue Jay is a bird that I don’t see very often around my hometown of Oshkosh.

 

The Cardinal is always a lovely addition to any bird collection.

The Parakeet is sweetly looking over its shoulder.

 

And this colorful Robin completes my collection of paper pieced bird patterns thus far. All of the bird blocks measure 6″x 6″ finished, are super easy, and can be found on my Etsy shop.

 

This wall hanging was a simple way to incorporate some of the birds into a project.

Would you like to see any other additions to this collection? Just leave a comment!

Linking this week with:

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Ems Scrap Bag

Koka Quilts

So Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Tish’s Adventures In Wonderland

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

 

Made By Marney’s Newest Designs

One of my favorite quilt shops, Keep Me In Stitches, is showcasing my latest, newest paper piecing designs now through April 30. Visit Jacqi in Appleton to see samples of my newest creations.

Homeward Bound is a great quilt for Quilts Of Valor projects. It incorporates paper piecing, applique, and piecing all in one project. What a great way to use up red and cream scraps.

I love this paper pieced eagle. He is made from 2 square paper pieced blocks.

3 Cats And 1 Dog With A Bone is one of my newest whimsical table runners. This is so much fun to make! I love a pattern where all the blocks are different.

This dog is goofy but loveable.

I always love a calico cat!

See these projects and more at my Keep Me in Stitches trunk show now through April 30. You will be amazed with all of Jacqi’s adorable fabrics. I never walk out of this shop without a new treasure to add to my stash.

Linking this week with:

Super Scrappy

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Sew Fresh Quilts

Silly Mama Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Nina Marie Sayre

 

 

 

More Paper Pieced Water Birds

Thanks for all the “water bird” suggestions you shared with me this week. I was inspired to create enough blocks to put together a lap quilt.

This Flamingo will measure 8″ wide by 16 1/2″ high, unfinished. I decided not to limit myself to just birds from the northwoods of Wisconsin. Since I adore flamingos, I had to include 1 in my collection of water birds.

This Heron also measures 8″ wide by 16 1/2″ high, unfinished. I like to have an assortment of block sizes, not all square.

The Pelican measures 8″x 8″ square. We actually get pelicans in Oshkosh during the summer!

Here’s my mock up for the lap quilt. I plan to use a 1 1/2″ wide sashing, but not sure what color fabric to use. Actually, the white isn’t too bad…any suggestions? Do you think I should limit this quilt to ONLY water birds from Wisconsin? I love getting your input 🙂

Linking with:

Kathy’s Quilts

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Free Motion By The River

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Fresh Quilts

Busy Hands Quilts

Crazy Mom Quilts

 

Paper Piecing Water Birds

A few weeks back, I designed this LOON ON THE LAKE paper piecing pattern.

Every year 2 loons inhabit the lake near my cabin in upper Wisconsin. I love to listen to them singing at night.

I liked my loon block so much that I decided to design more “birds on the lake”. This is SWAN ON THE LAKE. The dragonflies add some depth to the block.

GOOSE ON THE LAKE reminds me of all the Canada Geese that come to visit in the fall.

And finally MALLARD ON THE LAKE. It’s always exciting to see my first mallard of Spring.

I haven’t actually used my blocks in any projects. I plan to make a set of pillows for my cabin. I would also like to add more birds to this collection so I could complete a full quilt. I am working on a PELICAN right now. Can you help me think of any other “water birds”? They don’t have to be specifically northwoods. Which is your favorite block?

Linking this week with:

Kathy’s Quilts

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Cooking Up Quilts

Love Laugh Quilt

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Needle and Thread Network

Silly Mama Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Fresh Quilts