Appleton Dance

Anita Solomon's "Make It Simpler Star Variation/Square Star" block  pieced and hand quilted by Linda Theil 2018-2019 by Linda Theil I took  Anita Grossman Solomon's  class, " Make It Simpler Star Variation/Square  Stars", on March 27, 2018, hosted by the Western Michigan Quilters  Guild in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Anita Grossman Solomon, Wyoming MI March 27, 2018. Photo credit: Linda Theil Solomon is a New York-based designer and teacher who is known for her innovative approach to piecing. I was introduced to her work in 2011 when I took a class based on her "Arrowhead" block from her book  Rotary Cutting Revolution  (C&T Publishing, 2010). I posted an article,  " Arrowhead quilt block from Solomon's Rotary Cutting Revolution"  ,  about that class in August, 2011. I think she is a genius and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take her "Square Star" class last winter. I don't think that her method

by Alisa In 2016 I purchased supplies to make a quilt for a coworker. When she announced her retirement in the summer of 2018 it was finally time to get to work! The quilt is a throw-size Jelly Roll Race-style with angled seams. These two YouTube tutorials were my guides:   START YOUR ENGINES! Jelly Roll "Drag Race" Quilt by Jordan Fabrics  and Jelly Roll Race 3.0 by Missouri Star Quilt Company . The fabric from Sarah J Maxwell for Marcus Fabrics Primo Batiks in Desert Sky is no longer available. What I used was: one jelly roll in Desert Sky, 1 yard of the Desert Sky Dot Roses Greenish Gold  yardage for the binding and 4 yards Desert Sky Spiral Motifs Navy/Multi yardage for the backing and binding. The quilt was machine quilted and hand-bound by Material Obsession Long Arm Quilting Studio  in Tecumseh, MI. The custom label is from Border City Quilts on Etsy. I am very happy with how the throw quilt turned out but my favorite detail of the gift was the

by Alisa In the Fall of 2018 ADP held a volunteer blanket-making drive to benefit Project Linus .   I wanted to participate, so I pulled out a     Moda Grunge Seeing Stars by Basicgrey   layer cake I had originally purchased from Missouri Star Quilt to make a '54-40 or Fight' quilt . For the Project Linus quilt I wanted a simpler design because my goal was to piece and quilt it myself so I used the Emerald Isle tutorial from MSQC as a guide. I started by selecting 15 of the patterned squares and 15 white squares from my layer cakes and began making the 'easy 8' half-square triangles one color at a time. You can make many different designs with the resulting half-square triangles. I decided to make diamond shapes and sewed together the 8 smaller squares into two 9" blocks. It didn't take long to have 30 blocks compete and ready to assemble. I arranged the blocks into six rows of five blocks each, sewed them into rows and then connected t