We love our renters. They bring in such lovely quilts. The one downfall for me is after seeing all these lovely quilts I now have a long list of quilts that I have to make now. I don’t know if it’s the colors or the piecing that draws my eyes more. You can tell me exactly what […]
I’m a big fan of block of the month quilts, especially for new quilters. Taking on a quilt in small, monthly bites keeps it manageable and motivating. Take a look at Jodi’s Festival of Stars quilt, a block of the month she picked up at a local quilt shop. It’s gorgeous and I immediately fell […]
There are a few quilts that every quilter should make at some point in their quilting career. Everyone should make a scrappy quilt, because of all the remnants that we gather over the years. What else are you going to do with them? Everyone should make a quilt for charity. It is just good for the soul. […]
Women, and some men, have been making patriotic quilts since the United States began. When we make a quilt with red, white, blue, stars, stripes, or eagles, we have made a patriotic quilt. Quilts of Valor and other similar organizations give patriotic themed quilts to veterans as a show of gratitude for their service. Bobby […]
Quilting can be a very solitary activity. But isn’t everything better when you can do it with a friend? Here at Quilted Joy, we have five longarm quilting machines that we rent. We will often get pairs of ladies that come in together to quilt. They each have their own machine, and they’ll chat and […]
How sweet is this patchwork sampler quilt Nancy asked me to quilt for her? I’ve had the opportunity to see many different sampler quilts over the years. I still believe sampler quilts and blocks of the month are a great way to learn piecing. New quilters get the opportunity to learn in small bite sized […]
We have all seen a sampler quilt. These quilts contain many different blocks to create a beautiful modge podge of color just like Mary Jo’s sampler quilt. These quilts also had a purpose beyond being pretty. Before the internet and a plethora of quilting books and magazines, a quilter would make and keep a single […]
A lot of quilts come into this studio, but what really gets everyone “oohing” and “ahhing” tends to be bright and colorful quilts. What can I say, I love color! Quilts are excellent spaces to explore and use color to the extreme. These quilts were chosen for this post because the quilters had some fun […]
Everyone likes the classic quilt made up of simple square blocks. But fancy blocks can be a lot of fun, too. These quilts from my longarm renters break the mold on the simple square blocks. We’ve got stars and circles, and crazy log cabin creations. Debbie needed to make a sample quilt for a class […]
Learning to quilt is so much fun. The different quilts we make are a road map of how far we’ve come. Sometimes these projects are very impressive on their merit, but then add in the fact that the creator was still new to quilting and learning, and they are that much more amazing! Today I’ve […]
The Card Trick is one of the newer traditional blocks. With the oldest known examples dating from some time in the 70’s, the Card Trick has been a favorite for a couple of decades. Though not from the pioneer days of quilting, it is fast becoming a classic and will be considered a “traditional” block […]
Samplers are a type of quilt that has been around for a while. Originally, before there were books of patterns and the internet, women would stitch together a single block as a way to store a pattern. Many people have found stacks of these blocks in attics bound by string, some stitched on one side […]
The great thing about quilting is that you never have to make the same quilt twice. Even when you mean to, they will often grow and develop into different designs. Melanie had intended to make five identical memorial quilts, one for each of her siblings and herself. Instead she had five slightly different quilts with […]
Besides stitching, there is real beauty in a quilt when you look at color and what fabrics were chosen to complete an effect. We have the pleasure of seeing all sorts of designs and color schemes from the artists that rent our machines. For Janet’s rental certification class, she brought in this beautiful pink quilt. […]
If you follow Bethanne Nemesh on Facebook you’ve seen her teasing new books for a while now. (By the way, if you’re not keeping up with Bethanne on Facebook, you really need to start! She’s an amazing quilter and is always sharing pictures of such beautiful quilts.) Well, those books are finally here! She debuted […]
Karee was practicing with triangles when she made this abstract sampler quilt. If you look closely you can see some familiar blocks, like pinwheels and friendship stars, stretched out and warped just enough to look new and different. We think she made this with a specialty ruler for playing with triangles. If you know which […]
Karee was busy this summer and fall working on quilts for Christmas. These two sampler or block of the month quilts were two of five(!) quilts I quilted for her in just the last few months. On this blue and purple quilt, it looks like Karee was playing a lot with triangles and half square […]
Here’s some more shots from the Mystery sampler quilt I just finished up for a client. Be sure to click over and see the first post about this quilt for more photos of the different areas. I’m so impressed by the creativity shown in the layout of this sampler quilt. The piecer gets lots of […]
I have a number of really great quilt shops in my area. I’m fortunate that I get to quilt many of the tops created in classes that they offer. This quilt top was made in a mystery quilt sampler course over at the Smocking Shop. I’ve never participated in a mystery quilt but I think […]
This quilt makes me want to drink something fruity on a sandy beach. Diane made this quilt for a class she taught at one of my local quilt shop gems, The Smocking Shop. She did this as a part of an AccuQuilt class to show off how to use the dies. I recently purchased a […]
This quilt is from a new client and it reminds me of a sleepy field of flowers. Its watercolor palate is very calming, isn’t it? My client is a relatively new quilter and has a friend that owns a quilt shop. Her friend’s quilt shop is […]
