In the Paper

Posted on November 11, 2018 by Norma Hanson

While doing my string quilt demo at our local quilt show, I was asked a number of questions by the public as they passed by. One woman in particular stopped and had a number of questions–my little featherweight – Charlotte – had caught her attention. After speaking to me for quite some time she told me that her husband worked for the local paper and he had told her to get some pictures of people looking at the quilts in the quilt show. She said she had so enjoyed our conversation that she made a decision to take my picture instead. And here you have it! This was a nice surprise to see it actually made the paper. This was a nice little bit of promotion for our guild’s show.

Mountain Strings – Flimsy

Posted on November 10, 2018 by Norma Hanson

This is my latest finished flimsy. These blocks were pieced on a broadcloth (not 100% cotton) foundation. I piece blocks until I have enough for a project or two and then decide on the layout.

A fabric foundation makes the blocks heavier. In order to reduce the final weight of the quilt, I decided to add some unpieced fabric to the design. Once the blocks were pieced into squares, I placed a light grey Kona solid square on top of them and drew a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner across the block. Then I sewed 1/4″ from the drawn line on both sides of the line. By cutting on the line after stitching, I ended up with two string pieced half square triangles. (Say that a few times quickly!)

I played with layouts and after searching the internet for inspiration, I came up with this layout. The Quilted Twins blog is a great source of inspiration and free patterns. I ended up with a layout inspired by the quilt that Becky designed called, Stringles. I have inverted my “mountains” and I have not included the half triangle bits on the end of the rows or at the bottom of the quilt. I think my “mountains” look more like they are floating on the grey background.

Mountain Strings finishes as a flimsy at 59.5″ x 65″ which makes a nice lap size quilt.

Matt’s Strings

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Norma Hanson

This flimsy was finished Sept 30, 2013. I was in need of some sample quilts for a demo I was doing for our guild’s quilt show and so I decided now was the time to quilt this.

I quilted this one with the Circle Lord Swirls design as I think it makes one of the most durable quilts. The stitching lines are close enough together to provide dense enough quilting to make the quilt durable for multiple washes without such dense quilting as to make it stiff like a board.

Because the blocks were pieced on a muslin foundation, the blocks are heavy. I know a lot of quilters will leave out the batting on a quilt like this because of the weight. However, I like the cuddle factor that a batting adds to a quilt. I used Hobbs Thermore batting in this quilt which was perfect. Because the batting is 100% polyester and it is super thin, it added minimal extra weight to the quilt. I found Thermore to be easy to quilt – very unlike some other 100% polyester battings. I found a short video on YouTube that describes Thermore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAAw4DJ-W3o

A while ago I told my kids to let me know what quilt tops they liked and would eventually like to have as finished quilts. This was a top that my son picked out so I have named it, Matt’s Strings. One day when I have finished using it as a demo quilt, I will gift it to him as he put his name on it. 🙂

This quilt finishes at 54.5″ x 63.5″.

#ModernSummerQuilt

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Norma Hanson

From Jackie’s Art Quilts’ blog page:

The Scoop:

Create a 12” x 12” modern quilt complete with your choice of binding.

Think modern when designing your quilt, ie. minimalism, negative space, and use of colour, to name a few design concepts.

Must be completed by August 15^th. All participants will be able to upload their project from July 15th until August 15^th at Jackie’s Art Quilts blog (here).

Judging will take place and winners will be announced August 20th. Open to anyone.

This is my entry in the #ModernSummerQuilt challenge.

The pieces of this quilt were constructed in a Terry Aske Circles, Circles, Circles workshop that our guild held on March 22, 2018. Although Terry taught us the technique, the design is my own. When I brought the four quarters of the block home from the workshop I almost discarded them as they sure didn’t look like much. Once I gave them a good press and trimmed up the edges, I could see the potential and when Jackie announced the challenge, I was inspired to finish the piece into a 12 in square miniature quilt.

STS #3 – Purple Plus – Finished Flimsy

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Norma Hanson

PURPLE PLUS – 65″ x 77″ – May 21, 2018

Today I finished my purple plus quilt to the flimsy stage. This top is currently 65″ x 77″ which makes it a nice lap/cuddle size.

This is the third quilt in my STS (Slash the Stash) series and the second purple quilt in that series.

Two quilts that Cora posted on her blog, Carla Quilts were the inspiration for my quilt. She had made a green colorway and a blue colorway of this same design. The pattern is from a Modern Plus tutorial by Jeni Baker of In Color Order.

The pattern utilizes 4.5 inch cut squares. I over cut and so I have a stack of purple squares leftover. Those squares will likely find a way into a baby quilt at some point in the future.

I am back looking for suitable patterns for the next STS quilt.

Silver Thimble Quilting

Every quilt has a story to tell; if you are quiet and listen, you will hear it.