WIP Wednesday and my travels

Posted in Patterns for Sale, Work in Progress by lorimillerdesigns

Here is an update on some works in progress and an update on my travels. I just got back from visiting my hometown, Des Moines, Iowa and seeing my family. Everytime I go home, I take my mom on an adventure which usually involves quilting or fabric. This year, we headed about 2 hours southwest to Hamilton, Missouri. It is just a tiny rural town. My husband was actually born in Albany, Missouri which is just a few miles away. We went to the Missouri Star Quilt Company, a small business that has just about taken over the town. The week after our visit, they were named the 2015 National Small Business of the Year.

Here is Mom in front of the main store with lots of precuts! There are other shops in town with every kind of fabric you may have ever wanted. It was hard to leave. Everyone was very friendly and we ate BBQ at a new restaurant on the main drag. It was a fun adventure and definitely worth the trip. They have a building just for retreats too. If you are in the area, I would recommend stopping for a visit.

It is hard to tell in this picture, but I am making another pillow with a paper pieced bra on it for a Breast Cancer fundraiser. It does not matter where he is in the house, once I start to quilt something, Cookie Cat suddenly appears. I think he thinks every quilt is for him.

This quilt is a variation on a design from Robert Kaufman fabrics using the Boy Scouts of America fabric they produced a few years ago for the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America.

While I was traveling, my son Colin attended his board of review and passed to receive his Eagle rank, the highest advancement rank in scouting. As parents, my husband and I could not be more thrilled. We still need to wait for the official paperwork but I had made this quilt and had been keeping it for this occasion. I even embroidered an eagle in the center of the quilt. I think the fabrics are now out of print, but you can still find some if you dig around online.

I embroidered the scout law all around the quilt in my cursive handwriting, I think it adds a little something to the overall quilt.

Here you can see some of the fabrics. Maggie Smith quilted it on her longarm machine. I had her quilt the scouting fleur de lei symbol along with stars. There was even some fabric with designs of all of the badges. I gave the quilt to Colin to celebrate his accomplishment. We will have a formal Eagle Ceremony later, but I really wanted him to have his quilt.

My talented Sister-in-Law, Sue, requested one of my Dizzy Daisy Threadcatchers to use for knitting. She wanted the weighted pincushion to have it sit on the arm of her chair and to put her ball of yarn in the little bag so it would not roll around. She said she liked purple and green, so I made one for her. I had just enough to make another one with a needle book and tiny nine patch pincushion. I will be adding these items for sale in the shop soon. I had been using sewing themed fabric to make them, but this one turned out pretty cute. Make one for yourself, you can purchase the pattern as a PDF download. Go to MY PATTERNS tab and follow the link to My Etsy Shop.

Here is a sneak peek at my next post. I finally finished embroidering the sunbonnet sue nursery quilt blocks. It only took me 10 years to finish them! I only worked on them in the winter and I guess I was a little slow. More to come!

What quilty things have you been working on?

5May2015

More Charity Quilts and Facebook

Posted in Charity, Finished Projects by lorimillerdesigns

I am catching up on a few projects and sharing some updates for Lori Miller Designs.

First, I have a new business page for Lori Miller Designs on facebook. I would love for you to visit and like my page. You can get updates on when I post new quilty blog articles or when a new block is ready for my Grandma Town Block of the Month. If you have a moment, Won’t you stop by and LIKE my page?

More Charity Quilting

My quilt guild, the Detroit Area Modern Guild, makes quilts for charity. This year our quilts are going to a childrens critical care unit at Beaumont Hospital. I finished up three quilts to donate.

This first quilt is a stunner. Can you believe I made it with scraps from another project? These are the squares I cut off from my Kimberly Einmo’s Chainsaw Quilt. You can see and read about that quilt on my blog HERE. One of our guild members, Barb DeVilbiss, quilted this one on her longarm machine. Doesn’t her design really make the half square triangles look interesting?

This small baby size quilt is just strips of flannel with the raw edges out to fray and fluff up. Super simple to make and so soft.

This quilt I made a little larger in hopes of having something to give to an older boy who might be in need. This is the Ballerina pattern from JayBird Quilts. This setting happened because I did not have enough of one basketball fabric to do the whole thing. It really makes the quilt look special to have a basketball border at the top and bottom. Barb DeVilbiss quilted this one as well.

Here is a picture of the tag we put on our quilts. I really think it is a nice touch to add when we donate the quilts.

What kinds of quilts are you making for charity?

1May2015

Published – Pinwheel Pincushions

Posted in Finished Projects, Published by lorimillerdesigns

From Quick to Stitch Precuts Magazine 2015

Here is my second project featured in a new magazine, Quick to Stitch Precuts 2015. These super cute Pinwheel Pincushions are made using mini charms, in this case V & Co Color Theory. These colors are so bright and cheery. I used new and vintage buttons to set them off. The tiny newsprint fabric background makes a great neutral to make them pop. You can also find my Summer Harvest Quilt on the cover of the magazine. I blogged about that HERE. But I thought I would show you a few pics of my prototype and share some of my design process.

I was trying to come up with designs to use Precut fabrics for the magazine. Precut fabrics include mini charms 2 1/2″ squares, charm squares 5″ squares, 10″ squares or layer cakes, jelly rolls and fat quarters to just name a few. I had some extra mini charms floating around and started to play with them. I scribbled some designs on paper and had the idea to create a pincushion of some kind. This was the first prototype that I made. I ended up just sewing a fabric back to it like a little bean bag to start.

Now I knew that I wanted to use 2 1/2 ” mini charm squares, I wanted to find some fun fabrics. V & Co Color Theory was just coming out so I quickly ordered some packs. I went through the stack of squares and started to put together squares I wanted. The beauty of a coordinated fabric line is that the colors match and they all go together. I matched up the colors. When you make my pinwheels, you end up with two pincushions each spinning the opposite way. That was sort of cool.

From Quick to Stitch Precuts Magazine 2015

I liked the idea of a boxy pincushion, so I added the side pieces to my finished design. I had just bought the tiny newsprint fabric and it made it look so fresh and fun. I dug out some fun buttons including quite a few vintage ones from my stash. What a great way to highlight some special old buttons! The designing and sewing part is the best part to me, afterwards, I write up my directions and type them up. Then I use my directions to make the pattern again and make updates and corrections. If I have time, sometimes a sewing buddy with take my instructions and make up the project with a fresh set of eyes to offer suggestions and corrections. Those are great friends.

Then you wait for the magic day when the magazine comes out. I did not have an exact date, so I actually discovered the magazine while I was shopping in Kroger! And I got a big surprise to find my quilt on the cover. Have you ever whooped really loud in a Kroger store? I couldn’t help myself. People were wondering why I was trying to take a picture of the magazines with my phone, LOL.

There are a ton of great projects in this issue of the magazine. Look for it at JoAnn Fabrics, Kroger, Meijer or your local stores.

Happy Stitching!