Appleton Dance

  Linda Theil's sample "Goose Pockets" in Moda's "Garden Fruits" line designed by Tim and Beck -- note the bottom geese were not inserted properly in the fabric sandwich and so will have their points eliminated when they are sewn into a hanging. Please see instruction below to avoid this problem in your goose pockets. I watched Jenny Doan's "One Seam Flying Geese" tutorial on the Missouri Star Quilt Company YouTube channel and was intrigued by the little pockets her one-seam method created on the surface of her work. I thought the pattern would be cute made up as an Advent calendar; and sure enough, Doan included in her video an Advent calendar that she created using her one-seam Flying Geese method. Doan also provided a four-color PDF of a "Christmas Bucket List" of little cards to print out and tuck into each pocket. I thought I remembered how Doan made her geese from the video, but discovered it wasn't as easy as I th...

Detail from Annette Ornelas' "Meet the Peeps!" quilt. Annette Ornelas speaks at GAAQG Quilt designer and teacher Annette Ornelas of Fayetteville, NC presented her work March 19, 2016 at the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild's  "quilt-day" meeting held bi-monthly at Washtenaw Community College. At the lecture, Ornelas described her idiosyncratic method for creating curved images in her quilts: "It's a little like Cathedral Window, but it's not as fussy." In an interview featured in the GAAQG blog  Ornelas said: My curves are dimensional. They are achieved through folded inserts, which are peeled-back, smoothed into a curvy shape and top-stitched. They are all done through straight-line piecing -- with curved results. Central motif of Annette Ornelas' "Meet the Peeps!" quilt. Ornelas taught two classes to guild members during her visit. GAAQG member Janet Rost was in Ornelas' Friday class, and shared the work sh...

Marilyn Knepp's Spellbound tote made with Knepp's unique fabric created at  design-your-own-fabric site, Spoonflower. (Front panel shown) Ann Arbor quilt artist Marilyn Knepp shared her latest project -- a totebag promoting her daughter's tech firm, SpellBound Books -- with fellow members of the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild on Jan. 16, 2016. Knepp used features of the SpellBound logo to create an original fabric from the design-your-own-fabric website, Spoonflower . She also created a coordinating, striped fabric for the totebag. Knepp said: This was my first foray into Spoonflowering and now I can think of many reasons why I'll be making more -- even though I am not a fabric designer. In addition to admiring my bag, I hope your readers will look at the Spellbound website (address conveniently highlighted on the tote bag), and consider Spellbound's  Indiegogo Campaign to fund a pilot project at Mott Hospital. Reverse side of Marilyn Knepp's S...

Screenshot of GAAQG's new website designed by Hoyden Creative Group, live Jan15, 2016. Unveiling the brand new Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild website  by guild president Sonja Hagen was the highlight of Saturday's bi-monthly, quilt-day meeting. The new site, created by marketing firm Hoyden Creative Group based in Adrian, Michigan, went live Friday night, Jan. 15, 2016. Hagen and the new webmaster Mary Beth Donovan, along with blogger Kathy Schmidt and several members of the website team have been working for months with Hoyden to create an up-to-date, interactive site. "Our goal was to build something that would serve as a valuable resource to our members and the wider community," Hagen said. They hit the bullseye; check it out! Quilt day speaker, Frieda Anderson Fiber artist Frieda Anderson   presented a lecture on the topic of "Free motion quilting" and gave some tips that I am going to try: 1. Use an open-toed, hopping foot instead ...

Mini-house, pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co. Runner created by L. Theil 2016. I love the look of a house block, but most I've seen seem complex and more suited for paper piecing than traditional piecing, so I was intrigued by this simple little house block demonstrated by Jenny Doan on the Missouri Star Quilt Company channel on YouTube. Doan uses raw-edge applique for the door and windows and cuts the roof pieces using a half-hexigon template. The only tricky part of the piecing is matching the roof half hexigon to the roof-background half-hexigon. If your seams are not accurate, the roofs -- which are made in a long row separate from the houses -- may not fit their houses nicely. Using a quarter-inch seaming foot can help with this difficulty. Learning to match those hexi angles neatly comes with experience. Quarter-inch seam foot with guide edge for Janome sewing machines Doan offers videos on how to make this simple house block in two different sizes: a larg...

French Braid patchwork technique in "Mistletoe Lane" by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. This fall I bought a jelly-roll of "Mistletoe Lane" fabric line by Bunny Hill Designs for Moda. The fabric was a half-price, Daily Deal from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  I wanted to try the tricky  French Braid patchwork design  that Susan showed me how to make when she was here in August.  (The directions linked here from Quilter's Cache are simple and clear.) I cut each 2.5-inch strip from the jelly-roll in half and alternated dark and light until I had a piece of patchwork about 27-inches wide and a yard long, after trimming. I used about half of the jelly-roll, or 46 2.5 x 22-inch strips of fabric.  I made a tote front from half of the patchwork, and a standard-size pillow sham from the rest. I machine quilted the sham using my new Sew Steady table made especially for my old Jenome machine, a teflon mat, and top-feed, quilting foot. Patchwork tote in "Mistl...