Heather's halloween runner...

Morning all. 

Today's quiltstory post is by Me (Heather)

This is a story about a runner and a sister who threw the other sister under the bus.

And publicly called her a thief.  

This is a story of Heather and Megan.

If you read this post on Fresh Poppy last week. You will see that Megan accused me of taking more than my fair share of fabric. See my runner is smaller than she thought from my tiny text message photo.

Then she thought she saw piles of left over fabrics in the little corner of my text message photo.

She was sadly mistaken.

Our Mother was so offended by Megan's post. She wanted me to get mad at her. But I defended Megan (I have been known to be the nicer sister) And I told my Mom she must have been kidding. 

But my Mother kept saying how mean spirited it was. And I agree with my Mom.

We are not really in a fight. I have since forgiven Megan. We clearly have some issues to work on.

This is my version of the runner. While I had thoughts of appliquéd ghosts and goblins in my head.  I was afraid if I just didn't get it finished it wouldn't be done in time for this Halloween, and by the time next Halloween came around, I would be in love with a new line. 

So simple it is, but it makes my kids really happy.  That makes it worth it.

How to support your quilting addiction...

We've got another happy and bright quilt to inspire ya'll!  Danielle from Nacho Mama is sharing one of her many finished quilts with us today.  I love the prints and colors, it just seems so cozy!  She has recently revamped her blog so you must check it out.  She has a great collection of finished projects and quilts to go ga-ga over.  Here's her Mary Englebreit quilt:

Thank you, Heather and Megan, for having me on Quilt Story. The quilt shown does not have a name, nor does it have a label, and neither do any of the quilts I've made the last 17 years, unfortunately, but it does have a story that I'm proud to tell.

I've wanted a long arm forever, and finally, last December, I bought one. The inevitable happened. I found myself buying tons of fabrics for quilts that went together quickly (so that I could play on the long arm). In April, I looked at our family budget so that I could put us on an intense family savings plan (to buy a farm). I looked at our past two bank statements trying to get a gauge on how much I was spending and on what. The short version is that I was spending the equivalent of two car payments a month on fabric, consistently. Then the guilt set in since I felt like I was stealing from our family. At what point do you draw the line between hobby and addiction?

From that point forward, I decided that I must find a way for my hobby to pay for itself. I bought business cards, contacted the LQS about teaching for them, decided to take on machine quilting for other people, etc. Out of the blue, a friend of the family contacted me about a quilt that I had mentioned months before, back when it was just a top. She ended up buying the quilt, which wasn't actually for sale-- my first big sale since deciding to support my own hobby. After this happened, I was consigned to make ten quilts-- from start to finish. Along with all the long arming I'm doing, I'm definitely supporting my own addiction.

This quilt was one that was made using a layer cake (plus fabric for the border) in a mystery class at my LQS. This quilt was simple since it was just half square triangles, and it went together in very little time. The fabric used was Mary Engelbreit's Recipe for Friendship, and the quilting design is just a bunch of loops.

Thank you so much Danielle aka Nacho Mama :)  Linking with AmyLouWho.

Brooke from Pitter Putter Stitch, cute bright happy quilt!

Hi all, I found this blog when I was blog hopping around the little world we all share. This quilt caught my eye immediatly, I love the bright happy colors and prints.  Make sure to go check out Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch!

Thanks Heather and Megan! I’m excited to have my quilt featured here on Quilt Story.

I fell in love with the Make Life fabric line by Sweetwater the moment I saw it featured in a quilt online. I ordered the fabric and went to work on a baby quilt that I could use to practice free-motion quilting.

Since I used a charm pack (42 pre-cut 5” squares), I wanted to see what sort of variety I could come up with instead of laying the squares out in a simple grid or nine-patch setup. But, I also didn’t want to spend too much time piecing the top in case the free-motion didn’t turn out. (No one wants to ruin a quilt that they’ve spent so much time on, right?) I sewed the squares into a nine-patch and then cut them all in half once on the diagonal. I then paired each new triangle with a different triangle. You can see the entire process by visiting my blog, Pitter Putter Stitch.

The amazing thing to me about this quilt is that I was able to get it all pieced in one night. That never happens! Since I work full-time from home, my day is filled with work and taking care of my two little ones. I only get sewing and quilting in after the kids have gone to bed. Usually, my quilting process averages a couple months per quilt, so you can imagine how accomplished I felt piecing the top in one night and finishing the entire quilt within a week!

For my quilt guild activity that coming Saturday, two of the girls were going to demonstrate some free-motion quilting techniques. After the demonstrations, I thought stippling would be a piece of cake; after all, they made it look so easy. Boy, was I wrong! I brought the quilt home and, a little bit discouraged, put it away for the day.


I pulled it out a day or so later and decided to just tackle it. Stippling will be harder for me to master, but I think I can get loops down after a few more practice sessions. It turned out better than I thought – not perfect by any means, but certainly usable.

A few things that I learned making this baby quilt:

• Trying something on a smaller scale (a baby quilt) makes it so you can get a lot more done in less time. My quilting attempts before this were all on a larger scale.

• I need to be less arbitrary in my selection and placement of colors. Sometimes I think that if you use pre-cuts from the same fabric line it’s easy to think that everything will mesh together just fine without you having to make conscious decisions about where to place certain blocks or pieces. My quilt has a few sections that are too heavy with red, dark brown, and white.

• Pay attention to your binding fabric when you sew your strips together. The binding on half of this quilt only shows the dark brown, yellow, and green paisleys while the other half shows all the other colors too.

• When free-motion quilting, it was definitely easier for me to push the pedal all the way down and try to move the quilt slowly. This felt strange at first because I’m used to pushing the pedal down completely and then moving the fabric quickly under the needle when I’m piecing. It took a while to re-train my brain to take things slowly.

All in all, I think this “first” was a success for me. I enjoyed the process of making a smaller quilt and completing it within a shorter timeframe. If you’d like to see more of my quilts and check out what other sewing projects I try to tackle, come on over to Pitter Putter Stitch and say hi. I’d love to meet the rest of you quilting bloggers out there!