BOM Sashings and Setting Triangles

It's time to put all 13 blocks together into a quilt top and this month's FREE BOM includes the directions and foundation patterns for the sashing and setting triangles.

Click on the BOM PAGE and download your free patterns.  They will only be available for free during the month of  November so be sure to print off this pattern right away.

Please post pictures of your blocks on the JEWELS BOM Flicker page.  I have a FREE Moda Charm Pack for this Month's Winner!!!  Hemming House by Brannock & Patek for Moda.

It is so inspiring to see what everyone is doing.  Your colors and fabrics are so yummy.  I just love all the different versions of the blocks, and the way you personalize the colors and patterns to make them uniquely yours!

I just got back from a quilting retreat and wanted to share a few pictures with you from the retreat.  I didn't get as many things done as I hoped.  Do we ever??  Haha 

But here is something I did complete.  It is a Blue Willow Teapot Quilt I did as a commission.  I am not all that pleased with the proportions and arrangement of elements in this quilt and plan to re-do it. 
I want to resize and move the lower text further down and increase the size of the upper text, moving it upward. The lid and handle of the teapot don't show up and I need to outline them in darker thread so they are visible.  And the birds just don't look right to me.  Maybe I need to simplify them or move them above the welcome.  Just not sure.  Any suggestions?

Current Projects

I have completed several projects in the past few weeks, but have not posted much since I have been sick with pneumonia.  I am finally starting to feel a bit better and am ready to try to get back to my normal schedule. . .hmmm, do I have a normal schedule?
Recently I did a commission for a blue willow table runner.  I just love making these and this one was especially fun to make and quilt.
You can see the McTavishing I did in ends in the first photo.  I really love doing that.

In the next photo you can see the whole quilt.  I don’t have much blue willow fabric left, but I still have lots of the stripe medallions.  I bought a bolt of that last year from a quilt shop in Texas. but the regular blue and white print is pretty scarce.  Last time I saw some on eBay it sold for $150.00 for two yards.  Egad!
I have also been working on the next two sets of blocks for my Sylvia’s bridal sampler quilt.  I will post those pictures as soon as I get the blocks finished and pictures taken.
My April Sweat Pea quilt just came back from Keepsake Quilting Catalog so watch for that pattern being offered in their next issue.  I am very excited to finally get one of my patterns in their catalog.  Also watch for another of my patterns coming in the October issue of Quilter’s World magazine.  It will be a great fall sunflower pattern called Spinning Sunflowers.  I am finally getting some of my work published in magazines and books this year and trying to finish up my Charming Botanicals Series.  I just sent the March pattern off to the publisher and will start working on the last two, May and June this month. 
Before I got sick I had planned to have all my pattern quilts professionally photographed to redo my pattern covers.  That got derailed when I went into the hospital.  Now that I am recovering I am going to get back to that project and have those quilts photographed by a local photographer whose wife is a quilter!!  Look for lots of new things coming in my blog including the next BOM block coming soon!

Blue Willow Teapot Quilts

I love all things blue and white. Raised by a mother obsessed with Blue Willow China, I naturally picked up the eye for seeking out chards of blue and white china poking out of sale boxes under tables at garage sales and antique shops. To celebrate my mother's collection I made a few Blue Willow teapot quilts featuring Kay Mackenzie's wonderful Appliqued Teapots. The result was this little wall hanging. I gave this quilt to my friend Gail to thank her for helping me finish up a series of these in time to attend the International Willow Collector's Society annual convention, where I sold these. My mother has been gone for many years now, but my sister inherited her collection and still attends the IWCS meetings. I go along now and then just to sate my blue and white fix.

It was fun to find fabrics that would go with the blue willow fabric I purchased (Lakehouse produced a willow print in several color ways a few years back and I bought a bolt of it!) It also gave me a chance to use some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to quilt these little quilts.

I enjoyed combining elements from other patterns or inventing my own elements to embellish these quilts. I especially like using gold thread for some of the decorative stitching.

The quilts with the "welcome" headings were the most popular and I sold quite a few of them. I did a number of custom quilts in special sizes or colorways (including pink willow and blue with yellow) for specific collectors.

If you are a willow collector and would like a Willow Teapot Quilt, I still have a few left -- or could make up one just for you!

They were such fun, and gave me a chance to enjoy the memories I shared with my mother, all those years ago.

This is a quilt I made in honor of my mother's love of blue willow. That is a picture of her in the center, printed on fabric, holding her favorite teapot. Don't you love the little tea bags in the corners? This quilt was a round robin and several friends put rounds of teapot inspired motifs around the center block.

I just finished this quilt this winter, and it hangs in my sewing room to remind me of where my love of blue and white came from. How about a cup of tea?

I hope you have beautiful things in your life that reminds you of your family and friends.