Hand Done Cross Stitch

 Karen worked for years doing the cross-stitch on these blocks.  Then she stitched them together and asked if I would quilt the quilt for her.  It's a queen size and I didn't get a great "entire quilt" pix, but here are some pix of the quilting.  

Not a great shot of the entire quilt - but it's what I have...

Here are a couple of border shots.  I've done this a few times - where I continue the quilting that I've done in the body of the quilt into the borders.  I think it worked really well for this quilt.

Here are some "full on" shots of the the block (above) and the secondary design created in the space between the blocks.

The cross-stitch design was printed on the fabric, along with some quilting lines (specifically the outline of the stars).  I did use the quilting lines, but of course elaborated considerably!  :)

Show Off!

 Here is another pattern! Just released!  What the Hex?

Designed to use some travel themed prints I had collected over a few trips.  New York, San Fran, Seattle, other.  I called it Fantasy Travel because, well, made in early "COVID times", you know.  All travel at this point is fantasy.

Find the pattern at my Esty NoRulesQuilting shop or on Quilt Pattern Mart.

Above is the pattern cover quilt.  

I really like this for the secondary designs - a sort of lattice created by the coloured parts and sort of arrows in the black.  And it's fun to quilt - see below!

Not to put too fine a point on it - all my patterns have detailed step by step instructions with illustrations (not photos, actual illustrations!).  The photos are in the "support page" - the Show Off! tab on the home page here.  Also - all my patterns have been stress tested by other quilters of various skill levels.

And for this quilt I had the idea to put some travel themed machine embroidery designs in the black background.  If you do this, embroider first, then cut the block.

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Then to test the pattern, I made this "revenge quilt" for my sister.  It was her 60th birthday recently.  She is a master cake maker and for my 60th b-day she made me a fabulous flamingo cake with flamingo cake pops.  Then she and other relatives piled on with various other flamingo paraphernalia.  So now it was my turn to get even!  This quilt is the result.  All the embroidery is birthday related.  With a few cake references thrown in.

As it happens, I used black again for the background.  I plan to make a "not black" one in the future.  It will get its own post once it's finished.

What the Hex?

I decided to further develop the pattern for What the Hex?  It was published in Quilter's Connection a few years ago but the pattern was very abbreviated.  Now there is a fulsome pattern available from my NoRulesQuilting Etsy store and also at Quilt Pattern Mart.  If you are looking at both these sites, you will notice a difference in the pricing.  It's Canadian Dollars on Etsy and US Dollars on Quilt Pattern Mart - that's why the difference.  In the end, it should work out to roughly the same.  

Above is the pattern cover pix, which, if you have tracked my blog, you would have seen before - and at the moment it's also the "background" for my blog!

And then I made another one, to use up some fabric, but more importantly, to document a few things about making it, which appear on the "support page" - go to the What the Hex? tab on the home page here.

The hex/triangle combo is not new.  It's an ancient tile pattern and you have seen it in other quilts.  But I jazzed mine with these "empty" star spaced for some pretty awesome custom quilting.  And I've provided the templates for those fronds if you want to put them into your quilting.  And of course templates for the hexies and triangles if you don't have a special ruler.  And, as with all my patterns, step by step instructions with illustrations.

I have a third one made, but not quilted so it will get a separate post in the future.

T-shirt/Memory Quilts

Once in awhile, someone asks me to do a T-shirt/Memory quilt.  Sometimes more than one!  I enjoy doing them.  What's the difference between a T-shirt Quilt and a Memory Quilt?  In away, they are all memory quilts, but a T-shirt quilt uses only T-shirts while a memory quilt can use other types of garments as well.  So it's really just semantics.  

It's a challenge to maximize the presence of each garment in the quilt.  I don't just slap my 12.5" x 12.5" ruler on the front of the T-shirts to make 12" squares and turn those into even 5 column x 6 row quilts.  That is certainly possible to do in some cases, but that's boring to me.  So I have referred requests for that type of quilt on to others who will do it that way.  If you ask me to do a T-shirt quilt, I will cut each graphic component to a nice size - not too big, not too small.  Then I use the rest of the Ts to make fill in blocks and "puzzle" everything together.  I use all the graphics - logos on sleeves, front graphics, back graphics - all graphics.  I have even incorporated interesting labels.  

And recently I've started doing some little machine embroidery designs if I find I have too much "empty" space.  And of course I custom quilt each block.  

I have done a number of T-shirt/Memory quilts in the last year.  I have been negligent in posting about them so rounding up a few here.  I'm currently (Apr 2021) working on a commission for 5 quilts for a family.  These quilts have T-shirts, hoodies, jeans, other pant types, onesies, shirt shirts and even some boxer shorts worked into them.  Lot's of fun for me.  They will be a separate post once they are completed.

But for now - here are 2020 T-shirt/Memory quilts.

The above was commissioned by grandparents for their granddaughter who was graduating from university.  It was a 2020 "COVID Grad".  Apparently she liked it.

Below - two quilts.  Commissioned by a young woman whose husband died the previous year at the age of 29.  So sad....  Her late husband has a sister, who has twins.  She wanted a quilt made of her husbands T-shirts for each of the twins.  This was an interesting challenge - I wanted to get a bit of each shirt in each quilt.  In the end, I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  I apparently neglected to get better pix of the finished quilts but this will give you a sense of what they are.  These were the first where I started putting in some machine embroidery although it doesn't show up in the pix unless you know what to look for.

Oh here (above) you can see a row of embroidered designs.  Some little "monsters" because there are a couple of monster T-shirts and some Fire/Rescue as he apparently was a volunteer fire fighter.

More little monsters above.

Upcycle...

 Years ago I made my Mom a vest from old jeans.  I embellished it with tons of beads.  She asked me for another one a couple of years ago.  Well - I don't have that pattern any more, didn't have a pile of old jeans handy, and didn't really want to take the time to work out the logistics of making her a vest - I haven't done garment making for quite a long time now and the chops aren't what they used to be!  But at the same time, she asked me more than once and she's in her 90s so I figured I need to do something!  

In the end, I had the idea of checking out our local Value Village to see if there was a denim vest there that I could bring home and jazz up a bit for her.  I found a white Alia vest that looked roughly her size so I picked it up and brought it home.  Did some machine embroidery and some beading.  She loves it!  Whew!