“Forest Friends” has been such a fun quilt to design. It reminds me of all the wonderful woodland walks I took as a child on the farm. Spring was always the best time to explore the woods and there were all manner of animals, hedgehog, deer, raccoon, owls, foxes, and rabbits. I have a lovely friend, Sue Kerr, who does machine embroidery for me and she chose the perfect font for “Forest Friends.” Thanks, Sue!
“Boots the Fox” and “Bandit the Raccoon” are 2 of my favorites. The tiny black flange around the animals makes a striking outline which I love.
“Blinky the Owl” looks very intelligent. And I’m using buttons to create that wonky eyeball look. If this quilt were being used for a baby blanket, I would switch the buttons to appliqued circles of fabric or wool.
The finished dimensions of the quilt are 37″x 45″ and the runner measures 16″x 40″. The pattern can be found on my Etsy shop, “Made By Marney”.
Writing this post has inspired me to go for a nice long spring hike through, High Cliff, our local state park. Have a great day!
I am thrilled to be part of the Quiltmakers 100 Blocks Blog Tour. There I am on the cover of Volume 13. This is my first time in a magazine, so I was tickled to see my block included on the cover with so many other great designers. To win a free copy of the magazine, make sure to leave a comment below!! AND include your email address so I can communicate with the winners. I will be giving away 3 free copies. I lucky person will win a copy of my new booklet, “Marney Cards”, filled with patterns for paper pieced greeting cards. To win my booklet, you must subscribe to my website. Subscribe to my website to win this booklet. It’s a great way to use up all those scraps! If you are using a cell phone, scroll all the way to the bottom to “Subscribe to Made By Marney by Email”.
Let me introduce myself. I am Mary Hertel, and I grew up on a dairy farm in the midwest. After teaching art for 35 years in Wisconsin, I started designing paper pieced patterns. That was five years ago, and now I have a growing business called “Made By Marney”. I am loving my “new career” and I am so glad to meet you! I love designing wonky animals, but for the magazine competition I did a flag design.
Here’s my paper pieced block, “Four Flags”.
I am a retired art instructor. My idea came from a project I used to do with my first graders in art class. I had them construct a paper flag, then cut it apart and reassemble it to make it look like it was waving. Here’s one of my thumbnail sketches of the flag, as I was playing around with the idea. I like to start my designs small, about 3″x 3″. Then, after I like them, I blow them up larger. Drawing thumbnail sketches allows me to draw my designs anywhere, laying in bed at night, on napkins in a restaurant, or whenever I get an idea.
After a few tries, I came up with this finished flag, but wanted to repeat it so the block would get bigger. When I joined the four blocks, a nice diamond shape appeared in the center, but wasn’t very straight, as you can see below!
So it was back to the drawing board to get those flag poles to line up perfectly to make the diamond. The appliqued red star was the icing on the cake.
I work in a quilt store part-time now that I am retired from teaching. When this line of patriotic fabric came in from P&B fabrics, I new it would be perfect for my flag.
This is a cute quilt idea using my paper pieced blocks along with some large appliqued stars.
Here’s an idea for a patriotic table runner. The stars on the ends are flat quilted shapes that are sewn together in the corners to resemble lace.
Here’s a quilt idea combining my block, “Four Flags” with one of the other blocks in Volume 13, “American Star” by Lynne Schwarz. There are so many clever possibilities!
Visit my etsy store, Made By Marney, to see more of my patterns and don’t forget to leave a comment or subscribe or BOTH to be eligible for prizes!
Don’t miss the Blog Tour for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks. I’ll be giving away free issues of the magazine to some of the lucky visitors to my website on the day of my tour: Tuesday, May 3
This is my salute to all dairy farmers. I grew up on a farm where we raised cows and chickens. This reminds me of my father loading the milk cans into our trusty old blue truck in the early morning.
Paper Pieced Cow BlockPaper Pieced Milk CanPaper Pieced Barn
This was before the days of using a bulk tank to hold the milk. It meant a trip to the milk plant every morning in our old truck. As a kid, I loved to ride along on that bumpy early morning trip.
I am soooo excited to announce that I will have a paper pieced block featured in the Vol. 13 issue of Quiltmaker’s 100 BLOCKS magazine. This magazine features 100 lovely 12″x 12″ blocks in all varieties…paper pieced, appliqued, pieced, and mixed media (buttons, embroidery, etc.). The magazine only comes out twice a year, so don’t miss it! It hits the stands in early May, and I will send more information your way towards the end of April. The magazine in the photo is volume 12 from December 2015.
Gray and pink are such a lovely combination, especially in a child’s room. This adorable paper pieced elephant has a child like quality and is perfect for “Enough Elephants”.
Six Shades of Pink
Finding 6 soft shades of pink was so much fun. The quilt went together in no time!
It all started with this crazy gator. OK, it actually all started with the Moda Charm Pack “For You”, which I fell in love with. All those gorgeous cool colors! And the textures reminded me so much of gator skin.
Later Alligator Quilt
Of course, 1 crazy gator was not enough. The greatest fun came from making the outer border using the charm pack squares. After a little math, I figured out how to use almost the entire pack for the border. Don’t you hate wasting any squares in those charm packs?
Later Alligator Pillow
I saw some nice long skinny pillow forms when out shopping, so I had to make Later Alligator into a pillow! This pillow measures 14″x 28″. My good friend, Jan, likes a shorter pillow, so she made her Later Alligator to fit a 12″x 22″ pillow. Isn’t it adorable? I LUV the colors she chose! The pattern for the Later Alligator Paper Pieced Quilt and Pillow is in my Etsy store now!
“Forest Friends” has been such a fun quilt to design. It reminds me of all the wonderful woodland walks I took as a child on the farm. Spring was always the best time to explore the woods and there were all manner of animals, hedgehog, deer, raccoon, owls, foxes, and rabbits. I have a lovely friend, Sue Kerr, who does machine embroidery for me and she chose the perfect font for “Forest Friends.” Thanks, Sue!
“Boots the Fox” and “Bandit the Raccoon” are 2 of my favorites. The tiny black flange around the animals makes a striking outline which I love.
“Blinky the Owl” looks very intelligent. And I’m using buttons to create that wonky eyeball look. If this quilt were being used for a baby blanket, I would switch the buttons to appliqued circles of fabric or wool.
The finished dimensions of the quilt are 37″x 45″ and the runner measures 16″x 40″. The pattern can be found on my Etsy shop, “Made By Marney”.
