Easy Paper Piecing Quilt Patterns
Quilt Embroidery And The Endless Options For 2012, the name of the game is Quilt Embroidery! Well, it is for me at least. While I am an accomplished quilter, the ease that the embroidery machine adds is a wonder to behold.
When making quilts, there are many techniques to learn, from simple patchwork to intricate appliqu. Foundation piecing and English paper piecing are also interesting ways to create quilts. What is even more interesting is that all types of quilting can also be created in the hoop with machine embroidery quilt designs!
Quilt embroidery is quite the rage right now. Ive had lots of fun with foundation piecing, which would normally be done on a paper or muslin foundation. Creating these types of blocks simply takes a bit of spare stabilizer, which is quite economical. Simple blocks like Rail Fence or Sunshine and Shadows are great blocks for beginners.
The first embroidery quilting designs I had ever seen were simple appliqu shapes like squares. This type of quilt embroidery makes it super easy to complete the intricate Grandmothers Flower Garden with hexagons and diamonds, which is normally done with the English paper piecing technique, or the very traditional Dresden Fan or Dresden Plate with petals and circles. Having my own choice of fabrics and thread colors makes sure that each of my quilt blocks is unique!
Of course, we cant forget the beautiful quilting stitches that hold the quilt itself together! There are many fabulous embroidery quilting designs available to add intricate feather designs, fun florals, and elegant center motifs.
Honestly, the options are endless with quilt embroidery! I can stitch a beautiful machine embroidery design on plain pieces of fabric and then stitch them into a quilt. I can stitch small designs onto pieced or appliqud blocks within my quilt. I even create complete blocks in the hoop! Once my quilt is sandwiched together, I can use embroidery to finish the artistry! That is quite a bit of versatility from one machine!
Its quite easy to begin to do quilt embroidery. It doesnt require any special quilting supplies and we all have a variety of stabilizers to experiment with. For piecing in the hoop, it is helpful to have one of the wand-style mini irons, and a bit of glue stick can work miracles. Because only small scraps of fabric are needed, we dont even need to worry about that!
This year, I will be using machine embroidery to add the final decorative quilting stitches to several quilt tops that Ive put together over the years. Using embroidery quilting designs is so much easier than trying to create these beautiful, intricate designs with regular sewing. Even my long-arm quilting machine isnt as easy!
The best part of finishing my quilts this way is that I do not need to use any additional stabilizers. The quilt sandwich (back, batting, quilt top) provide enough stability that it just isnt needed. However, if I want to float my quilt sandwich, I will hoop a layer of sticky-backed water soluble stabilizer and then simply stick the quilt top to it instead of hooping the quilt. Both methods are equally easy, efficient and enjoyable.
If you havent yet given embroidery quilting a try, what are you waiting for? Why not join me in making 2012 the Year of Quilt Embroidery? Youll be glad you did!
Frequently Asked Questions
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QUESTION:
I need a light house quilt block pattern?
I am looking for several options of lighthouse quilt blocks, especially an easy pieced pattern, that can be found online. I have some paper pieced and applique from quilterscache, but need some easier ones for beginner quilters. Thanks!
Specifically, I'm looking for one that is NOT paper pieced or foundation pieced or appliqued. Those are too scary for my newbie quilting friends. Thanks!-
ANSWER:
I couldn't find any pieced lighthouse blocks that didn't use foundation, but you could try creating your own. Make a simple rail fence block for the base and the background, then make a one seam flying geese for a pointy top. Add a square to either side to match the background, and you're done.Here's a link to the one seam flying geese (there's a PDF tutorial - it's amazingly easy!):
http://piecemealquilts.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/one-seam-dimensional-flying-geese/Make the geese first so you know how wide to make the base. You could even make the base in alternating strips to give the lighthouse dimension, or make it slightly angled instead of straight up and down.
Here - check this link to see how I made a basic pieced lighthouse block using the one seam flying geese:
http://piecemealquilts.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/pieced-lighthouse-block/
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QUESTION:
Is my product idea good, and who might be good to talk to about making it?
Paper towel is one of the better substrates for a lot of reptiles, especially young ones. It's cheap and disposable, making cage cleanup both easy and fairly thorough. It can't be swallowed (at least, by things not capable of digesting it). It's non-toxic. Things don't catch on it.But, it has at least 2 problems, even in cases where it is a good substrate.
It's kind of ugly. The best you can usually manage is something like (un-printed) Viva, which is plain white without any dimples or quilting. Usually, you have a pattern of dimples, and a cheerful kitchen motif or something. Not exactly natural-looking.
It's not quite the right size. The dimensions of a typical paper towel don't match the dimensions of any standard cage size I'm aware of. This means you have to either cut them into pieces (thus negating much of the "quick and easy" advantage) or overlap them and/or have them sticking up on the sides.
The solution is obvious. Get some pet supply manufacturer (possibly teamed with a paper product company) to make rolls of paper towel, without quilting, in "natural" colors (tan, grey, black), and (for the deluxe version) patterns like sand, pebbles, or grass. You'd need a non-bleeding, reptile-safe color, but I suspect that wouldn't be that hard to figure out.
Make the rolls in sizes to fit one or a few standard cage sizes (10-gallon, 20-long, and so forth). Using different perforations, it would probably be fairly easy to make rolls that could accommodate a few different cage sizes.
Any significant flaws I'm not seeing in this idea? If it is, in fact, a good idea, what might be a good company to talk into making it?...
Garden: Viva paper towels don't have any quilting, and they seem to absorb things just fine.
But, at any rate, the base idea is a roll of cheap, at least moderately absorbent paper product, sized for a cage, with a color and/or pattern that looks at least vaguely natural...
And, if there has to be quilting, I'd bet they could come up with a quilting pattern that looks a bit like sand...
Jeanette: there are ways to handle the heat pad issue (you can use multiple layers, or stick the heat pad on a tile so there's a bit of air between the cage and the pad). And if people are using paper towel anyways, they're already dealing with this issue one way or another...
galliano: I'm mostly thinking about lizards, who can get impacted by particulate substrates like sand, and I've heard of them getting toes caught in reptile carpet with damaging results. There are a lot of reptiles for which paper towels are one of the safest possible substrates. Obviously, there's no substrate that is ideal for every herp (for example, I suspect paper towels would be too dry for most frogs), but for several very popular herps, most knowledgeable keepers recommend paper towels, at least for juveniles.-
ANSWER:
While it's a good idea, you saying that they can't swallow it and things don't get stuck on it is incorrect. I know of at least one snake that died after grabbing a paper towel up with the prey and suffocating on it. Teeth get stuck very handily in paper towel. I'm very carefult when feeding on paper towel, especially with the arboreals that grab downward to capture their prey and often catch up the paper towel while wrapping the prey. I rarely use it for babies anymore except the cornsnakes and then I make sure no one has grabbed the paper before leaving the room. The idea of making it so that you can use different lengths is good although now a lot of paper towel rolls come with the half sheet options making it easy to fit most cages. I'd like to see a heavier, smoother paper towel though. If you could make it like that it would be great although denser paper towel increases the cost.
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QUESTION:
transferable pix?
For my three year anniversary with my boyfriend I wanted to make him a quilt, with some of our pictures on some of the fabric pieces.
I’m not an advanced quilter, but I have been making cute little rag quilts for 5 years now. I wanted to kinda tweak my pattern and make it a solid blue back with the squares only on the front, and I want pictures on them.
I use flannel and 9x9in square fabric. What are some methods or suggestions for getting the pix onto my fabric, and is transfer paper just a messy easy way out?!?Thank you
b
The back would be blue && I would have the pix on the front with the squares... so i'm planning on the pix being on top of white, but the blue boarder sounds awesome!-
ANSWER:
The best thing to do is print pics on fabric using bubblejet set 2000. I don't think you could it on blue fabric, the ink won't come out against it. It would be the same thing with transfer paper, but that would make the fabric stiff. You could make white blocks with blue borders.
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