Quilt Project Inspiration

March is National Quilting Month, and so to celebrate — and since we were not a vendor at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival — I want to share a number of our shop samples Artistic Artifacts would have had on display in our booth at the show.

Last month we held our Third Thursday Live Sale titled Quilt Projects Inspiration that shared these quilts. Christine Vinh and I not only showed the quilts, but talked about the patterns and tools we used along with several fabric options that participants could purchase through our special Artistic Artifacts CommentSold store. If you weren’t able to join us live, you can still watch the video from the sale on our Artistic Artifacts CommentSold app, where you can purchase the products directly, or from our Facebook page. A benefit of using the app is that you can fast forward to see just the projects/products of interest. Download the app, available for both Apple products or Androids, or by searching Artistic Artifacts in your app store. Now let’s show off a some quilt inspiration!

We kicked off the evening with two quilts made using the Happy Chance by Laura Heine Fat Quarter Bundle + Panel. Pictured above, Chris bordered the printed dress form panel that is included in the bundle using strips of many of the fabrics for a keyboard style border. Simple straight line machine quilting allows the bright colors and designs to stand out.

Above, a close-up view showing how Chris also fussy-cut several of the flowers and dragonflies to fuse on the wall hanging to make the panel her own.

With all the extra fabric from this huge bundle, I cut 10 in. square in creating one of my favorite patterns, the Emma Quilt Pattern by GE Designs — you’ll see more Emma quilts in this post! Stripology XL Creative Grids Quilt Ruler, designed by Gudrun Erla, makes it so easy to cut precise pieces for your blocks. You can learn more about using Stripology rulers in this video demonstration that features Chris, one of our regular Saturday morning Facebook Live presentations.

Above, this Emma quilt was made by Chris using the Alfie by Este Macleod Fat Quarter Bundle. Chris varied her layout with several solid blocks that used the feature cat fabric, seen in this detail photo:

Chris used her extra blocks in an improv quilt class, so none of these fun fabrics went to waste!

I also shared my Scrap Crazy blocks quilt made using all of the 10 in. squares included in the Enchanted by Valori Wells Fat Quarter Bundle. I used the five templates in this Crazier Eights Template Creative Grids Quilt Ruler. We’re thinking we might try this pattern using the 10 in squares in the Handmade Block Printed Bundle.

You might enjoy another of our prior Saturday morning presentations Cutting Crazy Quilts with Rulers on our YouTube channel! You see the start of my Enchanted quilt, and I used the Creative Grids Scrap Crazy rulers to create a variety of other blocks our own Batik Tambal Exclusive Batik and even vintage handkerchiefs! The Scrap Crazy rulers designed by Karen Montgomery for Creative Grids are ideal with precut fabrics and are a great way to use your scraps too. I found that using an OLFA Rotating Self-Healing Rotary Mat really speeded up my cutting, as it rotates to keep your cutting angle directly in front of you, so no need to turn your either your project or body. All of the Creative Grid Rulers products come with thorough directions and include a QR Code to watch a video demonstration of the ruler.

Stella from the Stripology Mixology book by Gundrun Erla is our next featured pattern. Using select fabrics from the Pearl Light Fat Quarter Bundle, which includes 28 pieces with a total of seven yards of fabric, Chris chose to make two wall hangings utilizing the darks and lights in different color ways (pictured above and below). She plans to use the leftover fabric for a bargello quilt.

In our presentation we mentioned that the Spring Shimmer bundle and the Chalk & Charcoal bundle, both by Jennifer Sampou would make ideal Stella quilts too. (And based on Chris’ reaction when she saw these two together, she might have a future project planned for combining the two bundles!)

Above, one of my recent quilt projects uses the Algorithm pattern from the Striplogy Squared by Gundrun Erla. I paired it with Boscage 10 in. Squares pack, with Sue Bentley doing her usual beautiful job longarm quilting it. Boscage, designed by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabrics, is also available in a Fat Quarter Bundle. We think Pollinate by Jessica Swift precuts would be beautiful in an Algorithm quilt too.

We recently added quilt patterns by Slightly Biased Quilts to our shop, and Jennifer Worthen of Slightly Biased is creating a sample of her Vertex pattern for us using our Hand-Dyed Indian Cotton solids. We’ll all get a chance to see her results when she joins us on Saturday, March 12 for our morning Facebook Live presentation! Pictured above is a quilt that Chris created using the Exponential Quilt Pattern, a free jelly roll quilt pattern at Slightly Biased Quilts that’s currently hanging in the shopt. One standard design roll of 2.5 in. strips makes one lap size or two baby sized quilts. We love how the Tula Pink fabric is showcased!

Also created using Tula Pink fabrics, these two quilts were created by shop staffers Dudley Shugart and Kathy Edwards. Both used the Yellow Brick Road Quilt Pattern, and you can see how you get a completely different look depending on your fabric placement.

Hope you enjoyed seeing these quilts! There were more samples and lots more fabric selections you can see on our Quilt Projects Inspiration video, including our batik panel quilt kits (remember that while products remain, you can still shop prior Third Thursday Live Sales through CommentSold and our app. I encourage you to check out our patterns and books for ideas with many of the patterns calling for FQ Bundles, 10 in. charm squares, and design rolls of 2.5 in. strips. Check out all our precut fabrics for something that calls to you and have fun creating your own quilt!