Category: Quilting

Sleeping Family Quilts

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Applique, Pets, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

Okay, these were really fun to make!

A while ago, I saw an image of a pillow that looked like a family of dogs sleeping under a quilt. Using this image as inspiration, I put together a couple quilt ideas.

The main part of the quilt is a pieced design with a border to make 72″ square. The top part of the quilt is 16-18″ tall with a “family” appliqued on so that they look like they are sleeping under a quilt. For the applique pieces, I used clipart images found on-line. These images were drawn out onto fusible medium, ironed onto fabric and then stitched in place.

Dog Family

For this quilt, I used several pieces of scrap fabric that had dogs or dog-related themes (bones, etc), cut into 4″ squares randomly sewn together.

Teddy Bear Family

For this quilt, I used scraps of hand-dyed fabrics, paired with various black print fabric scraps. These 6″ Half Square Triangles randomly sewn together.

Cat Family

For this quilt, I used scrap fabric left over from making a bed runner for my bed (see Millefiori Garden), cut into 4″ squares randomly sewn together. Of these five quilts, this one is my favorite – I do like cats and the colors just pop!

Owl Family

When sorting through my fabric scraps, I had lots of fall colors in the mix. So, I thought a leaf block quilt would be nice. For the animal family, I had considered turkeys. However, I really dislike the ones that hang out in my yard and make a mess of my sidewalks and lawn. So, I settled on owls, and they turned out really cute.

Snowman Family

In my collection of quilt ideas, I had an image of a snowflake design that I had been wanting to make. But, I kept putting it off because I couldn’t settle on a way to make the design fit the rectangular shape of a twin sized quilt. The sleeping family quilt idea gave me an opportunity to make this quilt. Adding snow people sleeping makes this a really fun quilt as well.

These five quilts were really fun to make and will be donated to Sleep In Heavenly Peace. Hopefully a few kids will enjoy sleeping under these quilts

Quilted Coat and other State Fair Projects

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Crochet, Family, Minnesota State Fair, Quilting, WeavingLeave a comment

A year ago, when one of my son’s was home for Thanksgiving, he showed me a picture of a quilted trench coat and asked if I could make something similar. The coat was made by a Japanese designer and would have cost nearly $2K to purchase.

So, while he was home, we found a Burda pattern that he thought would best match how he wanted the trench coat to fit and quarter yard of several cotton fabrics as well as some lining fabric.

After taking his measurements, I used some scrap fabric to make a mock up of the coat for him to try on when he came home at Christmas – no lining, no pockets, just the basic coat.

With some adjustments to the pattern, I got to work. This quilted part included 3″ squares arranged alternating print fabric with a shade of blue, 16 squares x 37 squares, quilted in a corner to corner straight line pattern.

The coat was then cut out and sewn together, using my serger machine on the seams to keep them from raveling.

I even added pockets that were matched to the patchwork so that they are somewhat hidden on the front of the coat.

The coat turned out nice and I entered in the MN State Fair this past August, where it received a blue ribbon and medallion.

I kept the ribbon, but the coat was shipped to New York for my son to enjoy when the weather dips this winter.

I also entered a few other items in the MN State Fair this year. I received a second place ribbon for a Pine Needle Woven Dream Catcher, a third place ribbon for a Woven V Shawl and a fourth place ribbon for a Crocheted Child’s Jumper.

Rhapsody Star

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn QuiltingLeave a comment

One of my readers recently asked about the quilt that is displayed on the left side of the banner of my blog. Somehow, I have not written about this quilt. Unfortunately, I have many projects that I have completed but then have neglected to write about. So, thanks to this reader for prompting me to make this posting.

My inspiration when designing this quilt was to use up two pieces of fabric that I had purchased on a clearance sale. In the picture, these are the purple and green florals. I had two yards of each of these prints.

The design included several types of Log Cabin blocks. The center star was made with asymmetrical diamond log cabin blocks. Focused on the acute angle of the diamond, these blocks were made with 1/2″ strips of beige and 1″ strips of various shades of teal (to highlight the teal flowers in the inspiration fabrics).

Around the center star are eight square rose log cabin blocks and eight more diamond log cabin blocks, these focused on the obtuse angle of the diamond.

The completed design included several interlocking strips and some additional diamond log cabin blocks around the center design.

I then had lots of fun creating more design elements with my quilting, featuring some rose buds, feathers, chains of pearls, and various line designs.

This was a fun quilt to make and I like how it turned out.

To match the quilt, I also made a doll quilt.

A matching pillow sham with rose log cabin mini blocks.

And, a paper pieced decorative throw pillow.

Pencil Quilt (and a couple doll quilts)

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, QuiltingLeave a comment

A friend recently asked me whether I had stopped making quilts since I haven’t posted about any new quilting projects for several months. This is definitely not the case. In fact, last year I gave away nineteen quilts to various organizations. Most of these nothing fancy, just easy scrap quilts to use up fabric I have been given over the past couple of years. I still have a lot of fabric yet to use, so I will continue to make quilts to give away.

In talking with her, I realized that I have made a couple interesting quilts that I forgot to post about.

Pencil Quilt. The idea for this quilt came after seeing an advertisement for an adult coloring book with pencils. These books were sold a a way to reduce stress. Not needing any more crafts, I did not purchase a book. But, I did make my idea become reality.

To make the pencil tips as precise as possible, I used a variation of a technique called Paper Piecing. However, to avoid having to remove the paper, used dryer sheets were a better alternative. When ironed and taped to a blank piece of paper, these sheets of thin unwoven polyester can be used in any regular printer. But, since the softener sheets are lightweight, the sheets do not need to be removed.

After sorting through my batik fabrics, the quilt top was pieced in a color gradient order. For the quilting, I pulled different doodle designs into a graphics program and settled on how I wanted the quilting to look.

The end product was very close to the idea I originally had in my mind – a fun, colorful quilt.

I also made a matching doll quilt.

Another Doll Quilt. When my niece graduated from high school, I made her a quilt as a gift. She now has a two year old daughter that is using this quilt.

For Christmas, I made a doll quilt to match the original quilt. So, my niece’s daughter and her Baby Lissi doll have matching quilts.

Oceans of Glass (and some fabric)

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Fused glass, Home Improvement, QuiltingLeave a comment

I really enjoy my many hobbies. However, to keep making new items, I need to have a reason to do so. With most of crafts, I have found organizations to donate items to. This allows me to keep trying new techniques and ideas. The quilts I make are donated to Sleep in Heavenly Peace. The hats and scarves are donated to Hats and Mittens MN. Some of my glass art has been donated to charity auctions.

Unfortunately, I have not identified an organization that I can regularly donate glass art to.

This spring, while wanting a reason to work in my glass studio, I walked around my house looking for places that could use some new art. One of the areas I identified was our upstairs bathroom. About 15 years ago, I remodeled this bathroom and decorated with inexpensive coastal themed wall art. Since the pictures were starting to fade, it was time to redecorate again.

Keeping with the coastal theme, I made a couple underwater scenes for the tub room.

The background was made by contour fusing turquoise/clear steaky glass for the water and beige glass with medium frit of various shades of brown for the bottom of the under water scene.

I made coral with strips of beige glass and with fine frit shaped and then coated with frit powder.

Various types of sea life murrini and vitregraph stringers were added to create bottom of the sea the scene.

A second scene was made to create the top of the sea. White and blue frit was used to designate the top of the ocean. Clear and blue dichroic frit was formed into the body of a large jellyfish and clear dichroic stringers were shaped and placed for the tentacles. More murrini fish were added. Each of these pieces were contour fused and mounted in white frames.

To update the art to the sink room, I incorporated a couple of my hobbies – glass and quilting.

Glass “waves” have been a very popular by other glass artists, and something that I really wanted to try to make. After cutting an 8″ circle of clear glass, I used scraps of blue and turquoise glass along with coarse and medium frit. After placing the pieces of glass, the project was contour fused. The result was amazing and fit the intended area really well.

For one of the other walls in the bathroom, a couple of sailboats seemed like a good idea. And, after seeing several glass sailboats designs on-line, I really wanted to try to make one. I did, however, take a slightly different approach than those that I had previously seen. I purchased an inexpensive wooden boat ($9) from Amazon.

After removing the linen sails, I used a bench saw to cut the boat in half lengthwise, and added new masts to each boat.

The wood was painted with copper colored “Hammered Metal” spray paint. The glass sails were made with blue, green and white sheet glass and glass noodles, full fused. And, the sails were rigged with waxed sinew.

To enhance the look of the boats on the wall, I created a couple small “waves” (2″ in height) to match the larger wave that I had already made.

These pieces of glass art created another nice scene for the bathroom.

Lastly, I had one more wall to decorate in the bathroom. And, while thinking about this redecorating project, a small quilt that I had previously made matched the theme of the bathroom.

In 2018, I entered the Quilt On A Stick competition at the MN State Fair. The theme that year was “Up North” and I had made a sailboat with a mariners compass design. Unfortunately, the quilt did not receive a ribbon at the fair. And, since being made, I had been using it as a mug rug in my sewing room. But, now I had a much better use for this little quilt.

Because the quilt was small, I created a couple paper pieced lighthouse quilts from some photos. These quilts depict Split Rock Lighthouse in MN and the lighthouse at Harbour Town in Hilton Head Island.

These were all really fun projects to make, and a nice update to the décor of the rooms.

Scrap Quilts 2023

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Quilting, Scrap Quilt1 Comment

Most of my quilting friends know that I make quilts to give away to various charities. So, each year, I have friends that give me quilting fabric that they are not planning to use. Most of these are fabrics amount to less than a quarter yard, but occasionally there are larger pieces of fabric.

These fabrics are great for making scrap quilts. And, scrap quilts are a fun way to try new block ideas. So far this year, I have made nine scrap quilts. Each of these quilts will go to benefit young children, through an organization called Sleep in Heavenly Peace and to various people that I meet.

Weave – this quilt was made with thirty seven 3″ strips of fabric cut and sewn to appear like woven fabric on a black background.

Modified Eight Point Star Block – there may be another name for this block, but I unsure.

Double Square Star – each block was made of four coordinated fabric colors sewn with a 4″ square and a 2″ half square triangle on a white background.

Spinning Friendship Star Block – I really like this quilt! Each block was make with a 4″ square and eight 2″ HSTs radiating around the center square.

Bright Hopes Block – each block was made with four 2″ x 4″ rectangles. Another great way to use a lot of small scraps.

Chinese Lanterns – each quarter of the lanterns used 12″ x 2″ of fabric.

Zig Zag – this quilt was made with 2″ squares and 4″ half square triangles. It was a great way to use up small scraps!

Crosses Block – for this quilt, I had larger pieces of fabric – two yards of print blue fabric, 2 yards of a matching yellow, and a yard and a half of orange fabric. To complete the quilt, I found a matching blue fabric.

Links – this quilt used forty 3″ strips of fabric cut and sewn in a pattern of interlocking links on a white background.

Furry Family Friends

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Pets, Quilting1 Comment

One year ago today, I had to say goodbye to the best quilting buddy I could have ever wanted. My cat, Onyx, had been my constant companion for over thirteen years and I have missed having her around.

When the weather was warm, her favorite place to sit was looking at my flower garden through the screen of our front door. Unfortunately, I never thought to take a picture of her sitting there while she was alive. So, this summer, I decided to make a wall quilt that depicted the scene.

After sketching out my idea, I hand painted fabric dye onto a piece of white fabric. The gold color on the fabric below is a dye blocker to keep some areas from dyeing.

Next, I quilted the fabric, stitching out the sun, clouds, tree, flowers and brick garden edging.

Using Inktense Dye pencils, I then colored in the leaves, tree trunk, flowers and bricks.

I then secured some nylon mesh over the “door” section of the scene using MistyFuse Ultraviolet. I selected this type of fusible web because it is very sheer and is treated to prevent discoloration and aging when exposed to UV light. I used a strip of shiny organza to create the “sidelights” of the scene, cutting out the diamonds where our sidelights have clear glass.

The leading of the sidelights was created using a tight zigzag stitch.

To replicate the umbrella basket next to the door, I used 1/8″ leather strips woven into the shape of a basket and hand stitched onto the quilt. The umbrellas were hand dyed silk fabrics stitched onto wires that were attached to a heavy wire. The heavy wire was bent and the end covered with polymer clay to create handles. These umbrellas actually open like real umbrellas.

To replicate the ceramic vase near our front door, I embroidered a design onto another piece of hand dyed silk fabric, shaped it into a vase form and hand stitched the vase onto the quilt. The Eucalyptus branches were made by hand painting fabric dye onto Lutrador Mixed Media Fabric. The painted fabric was folded over, glued to copper wire, cut into small circles and twisted into branches to go inside the vase.

I used more polymer clay to make the hinges and knob for the door.

Onyx was made from hand dyed heavy wool fabric, washed to cause felting and stitched onto the quilt. Her eyes were made using fused glass.

I am very happy with the result. I may not have Onyx to keep me company when sewing, but I do have a reminder of her on my wall.

And, while we are now a pet-free home, we have had several other furry friends in our household. So, this fall I decided to add them to the wall as well. Using some photos taken of these pets, I created paper pieced 6″ x 6″ tiles of Striker (German Shorthair Pointer), Squigglez (Orange Tabby), Comet (Orange Tabby) and Duke (Yorkshire Terrier).

Mounted above and below the Onyx quilt, the pets finish off the décor of one wall in my sewing room very nicely.

Quick Quilts, Scrap quilts and a State Fair Ribbon.

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Quilting, Scrap Quilt1 Comment

Knowing that I love to quilt, various friends and family have gifted me with fabric for me to use. Usually this happens when they are moving to a new home, or downsizing in anticipation of a move. When I receive larger pieces of fabric, I wash each piece and add them to my fabric stash.

This summer, after moving my mother into assisted living, I returned with even more fabric. Running out of space to store my fabric, it was time to use up some of the fabric. Having seen some really simple quilt ideas, I decided to make some quick quilts. These will all be donated. And, by doing large quilt blocks, I could use up fabric rather quickly.

Using the Tri-Recs tool, I made a pair of matching quilts with large 6″ blocks and two different color schemes. These quilts used about a half yard of each color in the gradients.

The next two quilts were made with some larger pieces of fabric that I had been given. The pink quilt started with a floral fabric that was pink, purple and yellow. I had a large piece of yellow fabric, but no large pieces of pink or purple in my fabric stash. I did, however, have a piece of pink fabric that I had originally dyed to use as backing for a baby quilt. Since this matched the floral fabric, I decided to use that.

The teal and yellow floral in the second quilt was some that I have had in my stash for a while. While packing up my mom’s excess craft supplies to be donated, I noticed the teal polka dotted fabric and thought it would match nicely, so I added it to the box of things that I was taking home with me. It matched the floral fabric nicely.

I’ve had this avocado green fabric for several years. Being an unusual color of green with a rather large print, I really was unsure how to use it. And, I had several yards of it. I chose a simple tumbling blocks pattern with a beige contrast fabric.

A split four patch design used up large pieces of three other fabrics that were in my stash.

My mother had a lot of scrap Christmas fabrics, which she would no longer be able to use, that I also took home with me. From these a made a Christmas Cats sofa quilt. I really like how this one turned out and may make a twin sized cats quilt out of some more of my larger scraps.

After completing these, and other quilts that I made this year, my scraps baskets and buckets were again over flowing. On my fabric shelves, I only store fabric that is larger than a quarter yard. Mid-sized pieces of fabric, larger than 6″ x 6″ but smaller than a quarter yard, are placed in either a plastic bucket. And, smaller pieces are placed in some decorative Longaberger baskets. Because these were over flowing, I sorted out the fabrics and made a few scrap quilts.

I started out making the black quilt. When cutting the colored fabric, I mistakenly cut too many pieces of each fabric. So, I realized that I would need to make a second quilt. For the second quilt, I decided to change it a bit. I used white as the background color, changed the order of the colors to highlight the zigzag effect of the pattern, and added another column to remove the need for a large border.

The white quilt came together nicely, so I entered it in the MN State Fair scrap quilt category, where it received a blue ribbon. I was surprised to see it prominently displayed at the fair. This quilt was donated to the MN Dental Foundation. At the One Smile Gala on Friday, the quilt was successfully bid on by a couple people and raised funds to support the dental outreach programs in the state. I hope the person who purchased the quilt enjoys owning it!

Songs In My Head

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn QuiltingLeave a comment

My father-in-law, Bruce, was a wonderful improvisational piano player. I have fond memories of his visits to our home or our visits to his home, where he would sit at the piano and play some of the classic old hymns at all times of the day. While he did take piano lessons and did learn to read music, he realized early on that he preferred to play pieces “his way”. As an adult, he did not use sheet music, but rather, he would play by ear.

Even though Bruce passed away over ten years ago, we are fortunate that he gifted each of the family members with a CD of him playing the piano. Listening to this CD brings back memories that seem like they were just yesterday.

When my youngest son moved into his own apartment last year, I was left with a room with blank walls. What art should I put up in this additional guest room? I played with many ideas in my head. None seemed to “strike a cord” with me until this spring when I was listening to some classical music. Since I hadn’t listened to Bruce’s CD in a while, I pulled it out to play. While looking at the cover, I realized that the cover work would make a beautiful wall quilt that I could hang above the bed. And, since the bed in this new guest room was covered with a guitar quilt that I made years ago, a piano wall quilt would go well in the room.

I played around with the design for a while. And, once I had something that looked good on my computer, I projected the image onto the wall above the bed to see if I liked it – I did.

For the background, I cut an adhesive stencil featuring with some music from the song that Bruce wrote for my wedding, and a few stray notes (because life always have moments that don’t “follow the path”). The stencil was filled with Color Magnet and the fabric was dyed with Antique Gold dye.

All of the fabrics were custom dyed cotton to match the colors of the graphic, and the pieces appliqued with needle-turn technique. For the “leading” of the stained glass image, I considered several ideas. I finally settled upon couching with a hand dyed wool yarn dyed grey to give the illusion of leading that I was looking for. Machine quilting and a piped binding then finished off the quilt. The result matched my design very well.

To fill the space on another blank wall in the room, I made a strip guitar quilt using scraps of batik in my stash. I do have one more blank wall to add some art to – perhaps a pine needle weaving art piece.

Aeroplane Mode

On By Erickson's HeirloomsIn QuiltingLeave a comment

A couple years ago, I was asked to proof read and test out a quilting pattern for another designer. The pattern was a fun, playful design – paper airplanes – great for a child.

The pattern is available from Blueseum Quilting out of Australia.

When testing out the pattern, I used the colors as described in her design, a bright palette of primary and secondary colors.

My test quilt was one of the quilts that I have donated to Sleep in Heavenly Peace. So, hopefully there is a young child enjoying his/her quilt.

After making the test quilt, I really wanted to make one with sky colors. For the center section, I snow dyed white cotton fabric with dyes in various shades of blue.

For the quilting, I used PatternCAD to create a couple paper airplanes with jet streams surrounding these planes.

For the side color, I sorted through my fabric stash and selected four blue and four green fabrics for the design. This quilt was really fun to make, and was sold prior to Christmas to someone whose business logo includes paper airplanes.