Appleton Dance

Trompe l'oeil buffalo-chex patchwork This buffalo-chex pattern in black, teal-blue, and gray is created by using a cross-weave printed fabric along with black and a coordinating color. I learned how to do this on Shay Henderson's Empty Bobbin Sewing School weblog post titled "Buffalo Check Quilt Pattern". (Note: this post is no longer at the original link, but the free pattern is available online. I love this, and think it's like magic to watch the fabrics transform into the buffalo-chex pattern. The secret is in using a "weave" printed fabric as the foundation of your design. The teal-blue "weave" print pictured below makes the "gray" blocks in the teal colored, buffalo-chex, patchwork I demonstrate here.   Moda Rustic Weave -- teal color, purchased from Missouri Star Quilt Co. This "Rustic Weave" fabric looks like it is course woven, but it is actually printed to look like a woven fabric of a teal color wit...

Jan Frank's adaptation of a bird motif in the Kantha style of India Jan Frank shares stitch expertise on GAAQG quilt day Ann Arbor stitcher and fiber artist Jan Frank offers a free embroidery mini-toot at each Greater Ann Arbor Quilters' Guild quilt-day meeting. She said, "I have been doing every kind of stitchery under the sun since I was five-years-old -- that's 70 years!" At last Saturday's GAAQG quilt-day Frank displayed her adaptation of motifs in the Indian Kantha style that prominently features chain-stitchery. Her favorite stitch guide is Marion Nichol's Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches Including Crewell , published by Dover and available in Kindle and paperback from Amazon. Frank may be contacted by email: janfrank at sbcglobal dot net. Pat Wagner's fabric box Fabric boxes GAAQG member Pat Wagner was also on hand at May quilt day demonstrating how to make a clever fabric box that she discovered online at: Laura Coia...

Quilted eye pillow by Linda Theil by Linda Theil I always thought eye pillows were only for Thirties-era starlets until I learned in yoga class how nice a weighted eye pillow feels when you are resting. For this eye pillow that I made, I used an old worn sheet that I love, but you can use any soft scrap you have available. Old flannel p.j.s would make nice eye-pillows. An eye pillow is also a warmhearted gift for travelers and visitors. You can download a printable PDF file for the "Eye-pillow pattern 2016"  by clicking on the link. Or you can draw your own pattern using the drawing shown here. Each block should be 1/4-inch. To make an eye pillow, you will need: 4 pieces of fabric 11-inches wide by 5.5-inches high 1 piece of cotton batting 10-inches wide by 4.5-inches high one elastic hairband, available in drug stores one cup buckwheat hulls or rice Cut one eye-pillow piece from cotton batting, do not add seam allowances to pattern piece. (Use sol...

Tulip block from Moda Bakeshop I love this little tulip block from Moda's Bake Shop . You need scraps of a tulip fabric, background fabric, and a leaf fabric -- plus any fabrics you want for borders. For the tulip and background, I used fabrics from the Strawberry Fields Revisited line by Fig Tree Co. for Moda. I used strips of the background fabric for the first border, as instructed in the Moda how-to. All seams are stitched with fabric right-sides-together with a 1/4-inch seam allowance and using a 1/4-inch presser foot with 1/4-inch seam guide. Composition of the pieces for the tulip. To construct the block, you will need: One scant 3" square of leaf fabric Three 2.5" squares of background fabric Two scant 3-inch squares of background fabric One 1.5" square of background fabric One 1.5 x 2.5" rectangle of background fabric One scant 3" square of tulip fabric One 2.5" square of tulip fabric One 1.5" square of tulip...