Tag Archives: quilting

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

 

 

 

More Dog Paper Piecing Patterns

One of my favorite projects is highlighting a paper pieced dog block in a toss pillow. It’s such a great way to add a bit of color to a couch, chair, or bed. It’s also a great conversation piece.

 

 

 

 

This PUG pillow is the first dog pillow I created. I just love it so much! Not sure if it is the huge eyes, the little tongue, or just all the neutral gray colors, but everytime I walk past this little guy, I smile.

This sweet COLLIE pillow was made by Julie. I absolutely adore the bandana fabric she used for the background. It’s the perfect compliment to the Collie’s black fur.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Kelsey’s awesome creation! She made a great rendition of an “Andy Warhol” pillow, using my CORGI pattern. I LOVE this pillow.

Here are a few more of my newest dog designs. BICHON FRISE

CAIRN TERRIER

BLUE HEELER

WEIMARANER

And, last but not least, the RED MIN. Needless to say, some of these breeds I had never heard of until a customer requested a design. So please, keep those requests coming. It is such a fun challenge, and I am learning a new appreciation for the subtle differences between different dog breeds.

Linking this week with:

Super Scrappy

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Tish N Wonderland

Kathy’s Quilts

Sew Can She

Love Laugh Quilt

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Needle and Thread Network

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Fresh Quilts

 

Unicorn Paper Piecing Patterns

Once again, my sweet customers have steered me in a fun direction. “Unicorns” keep popping up in conversations and so many people want them for pillows and quilts.

Here is my Unicorn Block that measures 8″x 8″ square and is perfect for a pillow, as pictured below.

I love the 1 block version because its fast, but I also wanted a full body unicorn.

This Large Unicorn is constructed with 6 blocks and measures 15″ wide x 22.5″ high. My intention is to use this unit in the center of a quilt and add some borders. I haven’t gotten around to doing a complete quilt pattern yet, but I can envision some paper pieced butterflies as cornerstones. How would you complete this unicorn into a quilt?

“Watercolor” by Moda inspired me to make the unicorn mane very colorful. This is a lovely fabric line and comes in scrumptious colors.

For the horn, I stitched some stripes with silver metallic embroidery floss, but a fun striped fabric could work, too.

I also want to share a photo from Edith of a cute tote she designed using my Easter Bunny 2 Block.

She did a great job! Keep your photos coming. It inspires me to see what you are doing with my patterns.

Linking this week with:

Kathy’s Quilts

Elm Street Quilts

Cooking Up Quilts

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Emsscrapbag

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Needle and Thread Network

Silly Mama Quilts

Sew Fresh Quilts

 

Easter Paper Piecing Patterns

Easter is just around the corner. Per my friend Marilyn’s advice…I have been designing lots of Easter blocks.

My Easter blocks measure 8″x 8″ unfinished and can be used in table runners, potholders, gift sacks, pillows, or even quilts. This photo was shared from Marilyn who used my patterns to teach a class on paper piecing.

The bunny and chick blocks can be purchased as a total pattern: Easter Table Runner and Potholders. Some of these blocks are also available for single block purchase.My Happy Easter Bunny and Happy Easter Ducky are another popular set of Easter blocks. Find a really cute fabric to use for the egg, and you are all set!

Isn’t this table runner adorable? Lisa England used my Happy Easter Bunny pattern and made the cutest Easter runner ever!

If you are into Easter Bonnets, this is the block for you.

And here’s a block to make your mouth water…Chocolate Bunny.

Here’s a real simple block, Easter Egg. Find a cute striped fabric to make this super easy pattern.

It’s time to “think spring”!

Linking up this week with:

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Cooking Up Quilts

Love,Laugh,Quilt

Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

The Needle and Thread Network

Silly Mama Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Fresh Quilts

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Super Scrappy

 

 

 

New Paper Piecing Dog Patterns

I spent last Saturday vending at the West Bend Quilt Show in Wisconsin. So much fun! So many sweet customers! The most popular item in my booth was my “Dogs Only” quilt.

This pattern offers 11 different breeds, but that has not been sufficient to please the many dog lovers out there who love to paper piece. Since creating this pattern, I have designed about 50 more dog blocks. Well, true to form, I had 2 lovely customers request breeds that I don’t currently have. So, thanks to my clever customers, I have added an elegant Maltese and a cute as can be King Charles Cavalier.

Maltese

King Charles Cavalier

These 2 were so much fun to design. Do any of you have a request that is not already pictured on my Etsy shop? Just let me know…I love a challenge.

No need to make the entire quilt…here are some adorable pillows made from my Pit Bull block. Thanks to Edie for sharing this photo.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up this week with:

Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Love, Laugh, Quilt

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Needle and Thread Network

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

My Quilt Infatuation

Kathy’s Quilts

 

 

A “Love-ly” Blog Hop, FREE PATTERN, and Give-Away

Just Let Me Quilt
Thanks for stopping by to visit! Carol from Just Let Me Quilt has done a marvelous job organizing this Blog Hop. We want to add some hearts and love to your February. So…every pattern mentioned in my blog today has a “heart”.

My FREE block is “HEARTY PENGUIN”. This paper pieced block measures 8″ x 8″ unfinished. This block would make a great pillow, potholder, or could be used in a table runner.

My intention was to share a pattern that would not only be sweet for Valentine’s Day, but would last all through winter.
This is a very easy paper pieced block, and would work well for beginners. You may download this HEARTY-PENGUIN-MERGED.pdf (2254 downloads ) block here. Keep reading…my give-away is towards the end of this post.
Instead of giving you a finished project, I thought you might want to learn paper piecing basics. So…
Let’s do a tutorial on paper piecing right now. Here are the first few steps. If you want to see a post with the entire tutorial, visit “PAPER PIECING TUTORIAL #1: SEWING A SEGMENT” and “PAPER PIECING TUTORIAL #2: SEWING SEGMENTS TOGETHER”
Set the stitch length on your sewing machine to 1.5 (that’s about 20 stitches per inch).
Step 1 : Make 3 copies of the original pattern. (I use cheap copy paper.) Cut it into the 3 segments A, B and C, shown by the red lines. I like to add 1/4″ seam allowances between the segments. This is not a necessary step, but I find it a helpful reminder as I paper piece. If you prefer, you could just make 1 copy of the pattern and cut it apart on the red lines. Just make sure you are allowing plenty of fabric along the edges for the 1/4″ seam allowance as you paper piece. I will be paper piecing Segment C.
Step 2: Pin a scrap of fabric a bit larger than, directly behind, piece #1 . The right side of the fabric should be facing away from the back of the pattern. Another way of saying this is, place the wrong side of the fabric touching the wrong side of the pattern. Holding the pattern up to a light source makes this step easy.
This is what the pattern looks like from the back.
Now for the fun stuff…
I have more “heart” blocks available on Etsy and Craftsy.
This is my “SCALLOPED HEART BLOCK“. It measures 8″x 8” unfinished. I used it to make an adorable pillow. This is a challenging pattern with a lot of pieces.The SCALLOPED HEART PILLOW pattern will be given to 1 lucky winner. To enter for a chance to win this pattern, please leave a comment after this post. Be sure to include your email address 🙂 This give-away will end on Friday, February 9. The winner will be announced on Saturday.
Of course, in my usual fashion, I couldn’t stop designing blocks with hearts. “BE-MINE PUPPY BLOCK” is for the dog lovers. I am going to make a potholder from this block.
This is “PERKY PENGUIN BLOCK“. His face is shaped like a heart! This pattern does not include directions for constructing the pillow. It is a nice, easy block for beginners!
If you like these Valentine’s patterns, you might also like to check out my brand new St. Patrick’s designs.
Thanks so much for stopping by! Please visit other blogs today for even more FREE patterns. And don’t forget to LEAVE A COMMENT.  Let me know which of my “heart” blocks you like the best.

More Paper Pieced Dogs from Made By Marney

Everyone seems to have that special pet in their life. Here is a sample of my “Dogs Only” paper pieced quilt done by my sweet customer, Jan. Didn’t she do a great job? I love when my friends share their photos!

This quilt was designed using photos of real pets sent to me by my customers and friends. They were my inspiration.

Here is a charity quilt sewn by Faith. She used just 1 of my block patterns, then added lots of borders. Very clever, especially if you want a fast project! Thanks for sharing, Faith.

And here are 2 very cute pillows shared by Edie. These pit bulls are named Duece and Daisy, as you can see. Edie used my Pit Bull pattern.

Here are some other dogs that I designed from customer’s requests.

Collie Block.

Corgi Block.

Pomeranian Block.

Poodle Block.

And, 1 of my all time favorites, the Chinese Crested. When I was asked to design the Chinese Crested, I asked if that was a “bird”! No kidding, I had never heard of it. After finding out it is a somewhat hairless dog, I thought, “Oh my, this block might be really ugly!” However, it turned out to be one of my faves. It reminds me of a little fairy dog.

Thanks to all of my wonderful customers and friends who share their photos. It means a lot to see how much you enjoy your paper piecing. If there is a dog pattern you want, and don’t see it on my Etsy shop, please let me know and if you can share a photo of your pet, even better!

Enjoy your week!

Linking with:

So Scrappy

Stitch All The Things

Free Motion By The River

Silly Mama Quilts

Sew Fresh Quilts