Number two or number three?

I'm not sure whether to count this as the second or third holiday pillow as the last one wasn't finished.  I think "glow" is another good word for the holiday season.  It makes me think of all the pretty lights on trees and houses and candlelight.  Lights are high on my list of favorite things about the holidays.  I sympathize with people who like to leave them up year-round because they are so pretty.  But I also love the idea of keeping them special for the holidays.

These two are the only pillows in the series with words on them.  I plan to finish the trees pillow today and that will be it for now.  I designed two more that I really like and three that are not quite right yet.  I hope to revisit these well before the next holiday season.

I have so many ideas running around in my head for upcoming projects - including finishing some I started that got set aside.  I hope to spend some time tomorrow coming up with a plan for the new year.  Though, I must say that I am pretty good at coming up with plans - not always so good at seeing them through!

My best wishes for the happiest New Year to you all!

Advice for Beginning Quilters Part 2

If you are a new quilter who wants to increase his or her skill level, I have four suggestions:

1.  Make quilts

2.  Read books/tutorials

3.  Take classes

4.  See quilts

Make quilts - While this seems obvious to many people, if you are new to quilting, it can seem overwhelming to make a whole quilt.  So, start small.  Make a table runner or some placemats or a little wall hanging.  It really isn't so important what you make, just start.

Read books/tutorials - There are so many ways to do anything in quilting, you'll want to expose yourself to different methods.  I learned SO much as a new quilter by watching Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson.  That wonderful show exposed me to all kinds of quilting and quilting methods.  I didn't try most of them, but it added to my knowledge base to be aware of what options were out there.  Unfortunately, this show isn't being made any more, but there are lots of blogs and tutorials out there performing a similar function.

Take classes - If you have the opportunity, hands on classes with an experienced teacher are well worth the price.  Books and blogs will take you a certain distance, but there is no substitute for a teacher watching you and giving that small suggestion that makes all the difference.

See quilts - This is much easier with Flickr and the internet today.  However, if you can, see quilts in person too.  Try to get to local and regional quilt shows if you can.  Some of the quilts will blow you away!  Examine the ones you like and the ones you don't.  What is the difference?  Is it the colors, the shapes, the pattern on the fabric, the lack of pattern on the fabric, the level of contrast - thinking about what you like and what you don't will make it easier when you are ready to decide what quilt to make next.

The three quilts pictured here are ones I made and gave as gifts the first Christmas I was a quilter in 2002.  The star runner was a pattern in a magazine.  The appliqued trees were a class I took at my local quilt shop and the log cabin wreath was another class at the same quilt shop.  That one really taught me about quarter inch seams!  I undid quite a few of them :)

While my style has changed quite a lot since these early quilts, the enjoyment and satisfaction I get from quilting has only grown.  I am wishing you all wonderful quilting journeys in 2011!

Merry Christmas to all!

...with a picture of one of my uncompleted holiday pillows.  Oh well!  One thing I know for sure - Christmas will come again next year.  Maybe I'll be ready by then :)

I hope you and yours have the most wonderful of holidays!

Advice for beginning quilters

I'm so glad to hear there are a lot of new quilters out there!  Quilters like nothing more than sharing their obsession with others :)

During the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway several people asked which of my patterns I would recommend for beginners.  Three of my patterns are good for beginners so I'll give you the advantages and disadvantages of each. 

"A New View" is a great basic quilt pattern.  It is 98% sewing together strips.  This is a great way to start.  It is also put together using a typical quilt block structure, which I think is great experience for a new quilter.  The slight disadvantages of this as a beginner pattern are the size (it is big at 80" x 84") and that it uses a large number of fabrics that many beginners don't have.  But, if you choose this one, you'll have a lot of fun shopping!

"Bold" is another very easy quilt to make.  You only need two fabrics and it is a nice size for a beginner at 40" square.  The down side of "Bold" is that is not put together like a typical quilt.

"Summer Sudoku" is also a great beginner quilt.  It is based on the traditional nine-patch block which any quilter should have tried at least once.  "Summer Sudoku" requires small amounts of nine different fabrics so it is a lot of fun to shop for too.  At 36" square, it is a great beginner size.  The only real disadvantage is the applique in the border which a beginner might not feel comfortable tackling.  If that is the case, you can just forget the applique and leave the border plain.

None of these disadvantages are serious.  My best advice is to find a pattern you love, some fabric you love and have fun!

I have more to say on this subject, but I'll wait and make it a separate post so it doesn't get too long.

The SMS Giveaway Day Winner is...

Denise!  I have sent Denise an email notification of her win.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered.  I hope some of you come back from time to time to check in with me on this wonderful quilting journey!

Several people commented that they were brand new beginning quilters.  We quilters are so glad to have you join us!  I'll be back in a few days with some advice for beginners.  For those of you out there with some experience:  do you have a favorite tip or piece of advice for beginners?

One Holiday Pillow!

Click HERE for the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway post.

I designed a series of holiday pillows and have been working on them.  However, as so often happens this time of year, life keeps getting in the way of sewing.  Anyway, this "Gather" pillow is one I have managed to complete. 

I am a huge fan of words on fabric and quilts so I wanted to include some words on my holiday pillows.  As well-loved as words like "joy" and "hope" are, I was looking for something different.  Not long ago, I was in Panera with one of my friends when she needed to take a call from work.  While I was waiting for her to finish her call, I noticed a large advertising poster in the restaurant.  It included lots of words describing yummy food and drink.  I got a few ideas from there and then did some more brainstorming and came up with a few words I could use.  In addition to gather and glow (pillow coming soon :)), the list was bliss, share, magic, warm, glisten, glitter and glee.  I thought the alliteration of four pillows with glow, glisten, glitter and glee would be fun if you like that kind of thing.

I hope to be able to get a couple more pillows finished this weekend.  How is your holiday sewing going?

Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day is today!

Welcome to those of you from Sew, Mama, Sew and, of course, to my regular readers! It sounded like such a fun idea when I read about the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day.  How great to have people doing giveaways at the same time and a central place to connect to them all!

For those of you here for the first time, my name is Debbie and I design quilt patterns as Esch House Quilts.   My design sensibility might be described as modern minimalism, but I love the way my designs can be modern or traditional/contemporary when different fabrics are used.  Isn't that one of the best parts of quilting? 

Anyway on to the details of the giveaway!
I will be giving away two of my patterns to a winner chosen at random from among the comments left. You get to choose which patterns you would like to win.  The patterns pictured in my Etsy shop link at right are:
An Evergreen Bias and Shadow Boxes
Bold and Prairie
Third Street and A New View
Traffic Pattern and Raindrops
also available are Summer Sudoku, Urban Trail and Check Out These Daisies. 
If you would like more information about any pattern, just click over to my Etsy shop.  If you'd rather let me choose, just say so :)

Please be sure I can contact you.  International entries are welcome.  The giveaway will remain open until midnight, Friday December 17, US eastern time.

Good luck!



Quilt Inspiration!

One of the things about the internet that is so exciting and wonderful, yet sometimes frustrating, is all the outstanding inspiration out there.  Who hasn't spent hours hopping from one site to another soaking it all in.  The frustration comes in not having time to chase down all the leads.  Well, Quilt Inspiration has done the work for you!  I only discovered this site recently, but am amazed at the wonderful quilts and quantity of information provided.

Quilt Inspiration posts are done around  a theme.  Their current theme is "The 12 Days of Christmas Trees."  They have searched the web and found some of the most wonderful quilt interpretations of Christmas trees. Each entry includes information about the maker and links to websites and patterns (when available).

 Previous themes have included quilts as varied as red and green applique quilts, black and white quilts, New York Beauty quilts and cat quilts.  The sidebar on this site is treasure trove of information!  There are links to previous articles, fabulous quilts and lots of tutorials and free patterns.

Quilt Inspiration is put together by Marina and Daryl.  I so appreciate all the time and effort they put in to search out and research such wonderful quilts to share with us all.  Visit them soon - you'll be glad you did!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day is coming!

 The wonderful Sew, Mama, Sew is sponsoring a Giveaway Day on December 13.  I will be participating and giving away two of my patterns to the lucky winner.  Those who enter will get to choose which patterns they would like to win.  So be sure to check back here on December 13!

If you aren't familiar with Sew, Mama, Sew, you should definitely take a look!  They have a great online store with lots of fabric and patterns.  In addition to quilting fabric, they have all kinds of other fabric too, including home dec, knits, linen and much more.  Their blog is very active with lots of tutorials, links and giveaways.  It's a great place to spend a little fun downtime during this busy time of year.

Frustration...resolved

See this little bit of text?  You don't even want to know how long it took me to do this!

As many of you know, if you are using fusible for applique, you need to reverse your image.  With the software I have, this is very easy for pictures, but not for text.  It just ignores you when you tell it to flip the text.  I spent nearly two hours yesterday trying to figure out how to do this in MS Word or Publisher.  Nearly twenty years ago, I worked with PageMaker on the Mac and it was a snap to reverse text.  (Although I have no idea why I was doing it then, since that was long before my quilting days).  I know you can do this in Adobe Illustrator - unfortunately I don't have a spare $600 at the moment!

Then, this morning it hit me - try it in Photoshop!  Worked like a charm!  Now I can get on with making the project!

Facing a Quilt

As I was quilting my Project Modern quilt, Ephemeral Elegance, I decided on a facing for the finishing instead of a binding.  For those of you not familiar with this technique, it is similar to a binding, but it is all turned to the back so you don't see it from the front of the quilt at all.

I think this clean finish suits some quilts.  You can see at left and in the picture here, that the table edge and the tulip go right off the edge of the quilt and are not interrupted by binding.

I have faced a few quilts before, but it has been a while and I couldn't find the directions I had written down.  So, I googled "How to face a quilt."  Susan Brubaker Knapp's tutorial was the first one to pop up.  I followed the tutorial and I think her method is fantastic!

The other method I had used before involved adding the facing to each side of the quilt separately.  Since the facing was also double fold like most bindings are, I always had trouble with the corners.

Susan's method uses a single thickness of fabric and mitres the corners on the back.  Doing this was a little more complicated than the other method, but I like the results MUCH more.  My corners stayed much flatter and the whole facing was smoother and cleaner.  Thanks Susan!

Give it a try sometime and check out Susan's quilts at http://bluemoonriver.com/.

Ephemeral Elegance

Ephemeral Elegance is my Project Modern entry.  The challenge was to make a quilt from an inspiration photo.  I showed my photo in my last post. 

I chose this photo because I have wanted to do a modern version of a traditional floral applique quilt for some time.  When I first began quilting it was the floral applique quilts (and the Amish quilts) that I loved the most.  Another early quilting love of my was Celtic applique.  I made several small projects and really enjoyed working with bias strips.  I've also been thinking about ways to use bias in modern quilts.  (See also my Evergreen Bias quilt).

In addition to the obvious vase of flowers, what really inspired me in this photo was the transparency of the glass vase and the glass table.  It felt to me like the transparency conveyed something of the ephemeral nature of cut flowers.

I really would have liked to have hand appliqued this quilt - it is all machine appliqued - but, given the other deadlines and activities in my life, I decided that wasn't a realistic option.  The fabrics I used are all Kona cottons in greys, greens and white.  It is hard to see the quilting in this shot, but it is all straight line quilting about one inch apart.  Directly behind the flowers, the quilting is at a 30 degree angle.  Near the two flowers on the right, the quilting changes to straight vertical lines.  The table is quilted with straight horizontal lines.

I understand that Project Modern will be putting all the Challenge 1 entries into a Flickr group.  I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!  Did you enter?