Friday, May 24, 2013

Craftsy Celebrating Memorial Day by Donating to Vets

Have you taken a look at the Craftsy site? They have all kinds of online classes, projects, even supplies!

And, this Memorial Day weekend, Craftsy is honoring the brave men and women who have served in the US Armed Forces. For every class sold this weekend, Craftsy will donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit a veterans' organization. 

Select classes will be on sale up to 60% off!  Take a class, or consider gifting a class to your favorite service member!

Check it out! In addition to quilting classes, there are classes in cake decorating, sewing, knitting and more.



Happy Memorial Day!

Mary

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Spring Tulips - Blogger's Quilt Festival - Appliqued Quilt

If you are new to my blog through the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  I hope you enjoy my blog, and come back to visit again!

Spring Tulips is my submission in the Appliqued quilt category.  The quilt is 60" x 60".  


This quilt was adapted from a pattern called Windblown Tulip Garden. The fabrics were floral and tonal cottons in shades of blue, green, yellow and white, the green border was a basket-weave pattern, and the background was a white on white patterned fabric.


The applique was needle turned, and the tulips were outline quilted.  The rest of the quilt was quilted in a different overall pattern for each border. 


I liked the idea of narrow borders on this quilt, it added a lot of interest to the quilt.


I hope you've enjoyed seeing this quilt, it's one of my favorites.   To see more of my quilts, check out other posts on my blog, my Quilt Gallery or my Mary Manson Quilts web site!



AmysCreativeSide.com

Mary

"Butterflies" Quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival

If you are new to my blog through the Blogger's Quilt Festival, welcome!  I hope you enjoy my blog, come back to visit any time!

This "Butterflies" quilt was one of the first quilts I made, and it is still one of my all time favorites. The colors are so pretty and cheerful, and I love the appliqued dragonflies and butterflies!   When I made it, I wanted to make something bright and summery, and it was a wonderful way  for me to learn patchwork, applique, binding, and hand quilting techniques. It's 42" x 42"
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The flower bud patchwork pattern was made with solid and tonal fabrics, in blue/purple, green, turquoise and yellow. with a white on white fabric for the background.  The border and backing were a print in greens and blues, with a dragonfly pattern.
I hand quilted it with a pattern of butterflies around the border, stitched around the colored areas, and did a geometric design in the larger white areas.

I appliqued the dragonflies and butterflies that I cut from the backing fabric, leaving the wings of the butterfly unattached for a three-dimensional effect.

I've made a lot of quilts since I made this one, but this is one of my favorites  and I wanted to share it for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  To see more of my quilts, check out other posts on my blog, my Quilt Gallery or my Mary Manson Quilts web site!

Mary
AmysCreativeSide.com

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Woven Ribbons Quilt

Woven Ribbons is finished!  I usually design or adapt my own quilt patterns, but I purchased this pattern "Weave it to Me" by Judy Dohrman, and having the instructions made it much easier :) :)



The fabrics were part of fat quarter packages I had gotten at the Loving Stitches quilt shop.  Grey and yellow aren't my "colors", but the combination really turned out pretty!  The white background was a good contrast, and really set it off.


For the machine quilting, I just quilted in the ditch around the ribbons, and did a feather design around the border.  Between the border and the ribbons, and between the ribbons I did a fill of pebbles.

It makes a really pretty bed runner, or twin sized quilt!

Mary

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Purple Butterflies finished - Quilt #100!

After several stops and starts, the Purple Butterflies quilt is complete.   This is the 100th quilt I have made!!


Back in January, I signed up to do the Paint Chip Challenge.  Cindy sent me a red-violet paint chip as my challenge color,  and I decided to use up some of the purple fabric I had in my stash.  

The Tessellating Star was a new design for me, so I made a Tessellating Star tutorial for my blog, once I figured it out.  I didn't like the look of the quilt top, so I took some butterfly fabric I had and cut out DOZENS of butterflies, attached them to the quilt and sewed them down with invisible thread.  

I wanted to try a new technique, so I machine quilted very heavily on the white areas, and put different designs in each "star".  I sewed around the butterflies, so they stood out. 


This was a real challenge to make, I'm glad to say I've finished it, and I think the end result was worth all the effort.  What do you think?


Mary