Hourglass Quilt Block

Posted on December 22, 2016December 22, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Quilting, Quilting Community, Tutorial / 1 Comment

Have you received your fantastic Quilter’s Planner from Stephanie of Late Night Quilter? If you haven’t you can order a planner here. One of the amazing features of the planner is that there is a quilt block pattern for every week of the year. In addition to the original block designs by many talented bloggers, this edition of the planner includes patterns for several traditional blocks as well.

I have written up directions for creating an Hourglass quilt block. This design is in the planner for the week of August 27-September 2, 2017. These instructions include measurements for nine different size blocks, and you make four at a time so you can start combining these blocks into all sorts of fun configurations right away.

You can download the free instructions for the Hourglass block on Craftsy.

This block is used as a component in a lot of more complex blocks, but it can also be fun on its own. Here are a few layouts for this very versatile block.

Set the blocks together in the same direction for this configuration.

Offset the blocks by half to achieve a chevron appearance.

Or rotate the blocks to create a pinwheel effect!

This block is for the week of August 27-September 2. Check out my other tutorials included in the 2017 Quilter’s Planner!

Sand Dollar Star (week of January 15-21)

Ohio Star (week of September 10-16)

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day 2016

Posted on December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Giveaway, Quilting Community / 125 Comments

Sew Mama Sew is once again hosting the annual giveaway day, and I am so excited to offer a small giveaway of my own this time around! To make it even better, TWO winners will each receive two magazines and a digital pattern!

I have been fortunate to have my work included in several magazines this year including these issues of 100 Blocks and Generation Q. These are both packed with inspiration for all sorts of quilt-y projects!

For added fun, I will also send the winner a PDF of my pattern for my Rainbow Rotary Mini Quilt in three sizes.

Rainbow Rotary in Three Sizes

Here’s how to enter:

Leave a comment on this post. I would love to hear about a specific challenge you have encountered in quilting or a technique you want to conquer in 2017. Please note if you are inside or outside the United States. (Please see #3 for details)
The winners will be determined by a random drawing.
There will be TWO lucky winners of this giveaway. One winner will be drawn from all entries. The second winner will be drawn from US entries only. (I wish I could do an international drawing for both, but shipping costs can get out of control so easily)
The drawing is open through Sunday, December 11 at 5pm PST (8pm EST)
The winners will be announced by Wednesday, December 14, and prizes will be shipped by Friday December 16. The winners will be notified by email and listed on the blog. It is each winner’s responsibility to respond with their mailing address by 11:59pm on Thursday, December 15. If I do not receive this information by this time, another winner will be drawn.
Make sure you check out all of the other fabulous giveaways linked up at Sew Mama Sew!

Update: Thank you so much for entering! I normally do my best to respond to comments, but due to the volume of giveaway posts I won’t be able to respond individually. Your answers will help me determine what to blog about in the coming year! Thank you!

Felted Wool Needle Minding Mini

Posted on October 7, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilting / 1 Comment

This very little mini came about for a very practical reason- I wanted a place to put machine needles when I needed a different style of needle, but wasn’t ready to dispose of the one I had been using. Wool is ideal to store needles in since it doesn’t dull them, so I thought this would be a fun place to experiment using this fiber.

A friend has a needle felting machine, so I brought some neutral colored wool roving with me to create the fabric for the off white stripe on this mini. It was so much fun to see a bunch of loose fibers transform before my eyes into 100% wool felt! The coral colored wool was a piece of fabric my mom donated from her stash, and I used decorative machine stitching to appliqué the needle felted wool in place.

The stitching was done entirely with my mechanical machine, so it is all carefully placed straight stitches to create the boxes and lettering. My most used machine needle sizes are 10, 12, and 14. The specialty needles I tend to use are ball point needles for knits (K) and a Microtex needles (M). A couple rows of decorative stitching and a dense zig zag around the edges finish the mini.

Title: Needle minding mini

Techniques: Machine needle felting

Quilting: Machine quilted using straight and decorative stitches

Fabric: Felted wool and repurposed wool scraps

Batting: Warm and White

Thread: Mettler

Binding: Dense machine zig zag stitching

Crystalized Citrus: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 6 Comments

Crystalized Citrus is my second entry into The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side. I hope you will all set aside some time this week to look at all of the amazing inspiration provided by the festival entries- there is some amazing work on display!

Crystalized Citrus

I originally created this quilt for this year’s Hoffman Challenge which required the use of this digitally printed butterfly fabric. I enjoy transforming distinctively patterned fabric into something completely unexpected, so I was excited to transform the butterfly wings to the flesh of citrus fruit.

The center of each fruit is improvisationally pieced before being set into the surrounding “skin.” The entire fruit is then hand appliquéd to the background. I used matchstick quilting in a range of coordinating colors to ground the pieces on the white background.

For more about this quilt you can check out the original Crystalized Citrus post.

Columbus Skyline: A Blogger’s Quilt Festival Entry

Posted on September 26, 2016September 26, 2016 by thenotsodramaticlifeadmin / Posted in Finished Quilts, Quilt Shows, Quilting Community / 2 Comments

Every year The Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side brings tremendous inspiration to us all- I love seeing so much lovely work collected in one place! I am thrilled to submit “Columbus Skyline” as an entry into the appliqué category of the festival.

This project began when I was asked to create a “Row by Row” pattern for a local quilt shop. The theme for the year was “Home Sweet Home” so we embraced the unique skyline of Columbus, Ohio to develop a design specific to our area. (For more information on the design process, I hope you will take a look at the original Columbus Skyline post.)

Columbus Skyline

Hand stitched needle turn appliqué is used to create the city skyline. I selected bright colors to reflect the vibrant community within the city. This small quilt is finished with borders that provided a space to quilt in both the shop and city names. The quilting is done in thread to match each building so the design is reflected on the back of the quilt.