Off the Chart is another quilt from my book, Every Last Piece.
This design was inspired by colorwork knitting charts. I love this design idea because there are so many different ways to interpret it. Here, the different size circles represent different colors of yarn that would be used when knitting from the chart.
The the pattern is made of three kinds of blocks; blank, small circles, and large circles.
The scraps used in this quilt are all "light" fabrics. The background is a rich teal print from Carolyn Friedlander's botanics line.
It is quilted in a design that mimics the look of the knit stitch at a size equal to the applique "stitches".
Finished Size 58'' by 81''.
In addition to being published in the book, this quilt was in the QuiltCon 2015 show.
The pattern and directions for Off the Chart can be found in chapter three of my book.
You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me here.
I was inspired by an antique bow ties quilt I had seen in a magazine. I love the way the placement of light and dark fabrics varied in each block and wanted to create the same energy in my own quilt.
I am glad that I took the time to make the block the traditional way with the set in seams. The square set on an angle in the center of the block really looks like a knot in the bow, especially with stripe, plaid, or checked fabrics.
This quilt is a real trip down memory lane for me. I'm having a bit of a 1970s flashback here.
My grandmother hand quilted this quilt and I gave it to my oldest son for Christmas back in 1993. I'm secretly glad that he hasn't taken it to his apartment.
Finished size 71'' by 100''.Bow Ties can be found in the gallery section of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me 
Bar Scene, a quilt in chapter three of Every Last Piece, features a strip of hourglass blocks made from some of my favorite scraps. The column of color is set of by the surrounding solid paprika fabric.
I had fun with the wavy, loopy quilting.
Finished size 51'' by 68''.The directions for Bar Scene along with some suggestions for other variations of this design are in chapter 3 of my book.You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me 
The background is string pieced with sandy colored neutrals.The beach balls are string pieced using color coordinating scraps.
I had fun digging through my scraps and building the color wedges.
The binding is pieced from a variety of the background fabrics.
This week's feature quilt is Paris on a Shoestring. It is a variation of 
I had this fabulous Paris Maps print that I wanted to use and I wanted to keep it in the largest possible pieces. Instead of making four large star blocks, I pieced this quilt in rows leaving each area of the map print as a single piece of fabric.
There are a lot of ways to put together quilts using the string pieced triangle units.
This quilt also features a scrappy binding. I cut lots of scrap pieces to the 2 1/4 size that I like to use and sewed them together as usual.
Finished size: 47'' by 47''.There is still quite a large pile of string pieced triangles and squares that I plan to combine into one quilt.
I love this design; even small scale it is a great way to showcase quilting motifs.
Rather than loading it on the longarm, I quilted it on my domestic Bernina. I stitched in the ditch around each of the little 1/2 inch half square triangles.
The tiny stippling around the wreath helps give the feathers and triangles a bit more definition.
After cleaning up in the barn I think I have located another quilt photography location! What do you think? I'll try some larger quilts there and see how they turn out.
The finished quilt is 12" by 12".Quilted with Aurifil #2021.The Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild is participating in a mini quilt swap with the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. This quilt is for my secret partner in the swap. I hope she likes it.
The base blocks were built and squared up with a 6.5'' square rotary cutter ruler. A triangle was stiched to the corner of each square and four squares are sewn together to make a wind mill block. When building the blocks I used all but the lightest lights and the darkest darks from my scraps.
I like the way the blue fabric in the blades shows continuity throughout the quilt.I'd like to make another one with less variation in the value of the fabrics making up the string pieced blocks and higher contrast of the windmill blades and the background.
My sister and I made a second string piece quilt for my nephew's high school graduation in 2012. We each built half of the background blocks from our scrap stash. I then, added the corner triangles and put the quilt together. This was a great design to work on together. My sister and I live across the country from each other and have very different scrap stashes. By mixing all of the blocks together, there is still a cohesive look for the quilt.
In this variation of the design, the triangle corners are pieced the same way as the blocks for my 
You can purchase an autographed copy of the Every Last Piece from me 
The featured quilt this week is Square Root, another from the gallery section of 
There are no patterns in the book for the quilts pictured in the "gallery." They are there to provide inspiration and ideas for the designs presented later in the book.I chose this quilt to share with you now, because my friend 
I really enjoyed making these string pieced melons throughout last year. It was fun sewing and I was able to make some of them with the 
Here it is, all of that frantic and late night sewing last year was for this. A BOOK! I can hardly believe this is really almost a reality. My love of using scraps led me to write a whole book on scrap quilting!A huge thank you to all of you who encourage me to do what I love and try to use Every Last Piece of fabric in my scrap pile. There are scrap quilt designs in the book that you can use no matter how big your scrap pile is. The first quilts in the book are full on all scrap quilts. As you work your way through the book, the designs use fewer scraps the idea being that if you make all of the quilts in the book you can actually use up your scraps.The book, 
is now available on amazon for preorder and will be released next May. 
