Stitch Pattern, Paisley

This is a stitch pattern I use in my long-arm quilting

My Teacup

| Cindy Anderson

Block Magazine

I was once a subscriber to Missouri Star Quilt Company’s Block magazine. The magazines I received are still resting on the reclaimed cabinet in my office. Shown below are some of them.

Block-Magazine
Some of the Block magazines that I own

I’ve spent many hours browsing the pages of each one of those books. On the back covers I wrote the names of the quilts I might oneway like to make.

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Back of Block Magazine

One of the many quilts I fell in love with was the Teacup quilt, published in the Fall Vol 1 Issue 5 magazine. As you can see by the above photo it was one of the projects I listed on the back cover.

Teacup Quilt Pattern
The Block magazine that has the Teacup pattern

Let’s Make It!

Having fallen in love with the Teacup pattern I set-out to make one for myself. After browsing the Missouri Star Quilt Company’s website I chose a grouping of fabrics to purchase for my project. Buying the fabric, for me, is always the easy part. Finding the time to make it is what’s hard.

I had the fabrics for the quilt sitting in a tub for more than a year. Last summer, on one of my sewing retreats, I finally was able to get started. The quilt was a fun and easy quilt to assemble. Unfortunately the pattern has an error. It wasn’t until I had all of the blocks made that I discovered it.

A Pattern Error!

As I laid out the blocks to decide on their placement I realized I only had half of the blocks the quilt pattern called for. Being puzzled by this revelation I went back to the book to figure out where I went wrong. As I studied the pattern I realized that the quantity of fabric called for in the pattern was incorrect. The pattern listed only one package of 10 1/2″ squares (aka layer cake). In order to make the correct number of blocks I should have purchased two packages.

Letter to the Company

I contacted the company to point out the error.  They thanked me for the information and credited my account for $5. I guess the $5.00 was supposed to make me feel better. $5.00 was not going to make it possible for my quilt to ever be the size I was anticipating.

No Longer Available!!!

Since I waited so long to actually start making the quilt the fabrics had since gone out of print and were no longer available. On top of that I had purchased enough fabric to make the quilt backing to the correct size. Obviously I can use the extra fabric on another project, but that’s not the point. Had I known that my quilt would be much smaller I obviously wouldn’t have purchased as much. Thus, their $5.00 compensation paled in comparison to my level of disappointment and the amount of money spent on this quilt.

MSQC’s Pattern Corrections

Missouri Star Quilt Company publishes a list of pattern corrections for its subscriber to refer to. As of today the error that I found is not listed on that Missouri Star Quilt Company’s pattern correction list. I’m disappointed that my revelation has not been shared on their website. If you decide to make the quilt yourself make sure to adjust the amount of fabric that you purchase. Otherwise you too will be disappointed.

Ok, enough about my disappointment! Let’s get back to my very pretty quilt.

Moving On

In December of 2017 I was able to finally find time to finish my Teacup quilt. Using a straight-line geometric pattern, swirls, a paisley design and white thread I quilted my Teacup project on my longarm machine. Here’s how my sweet little quilt looks now.

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My Teacup Quilt Top
Teacup-Closeup-of-Quilting
A closeup of the geometric meandering
Teacup-Another-Closeup
A closeup of the binding, and border quilting
Teacup-Backing
The back of my Teacup Quilt

Conclusion

Throwing aside the disappointments associated with my experience, I must say that this darling little project sits very high on my list of favorite quilts. I am so pleased to have it in my arsenal of finished quilts. 🙂

Thank You so much for visiting with me today. I look forward to our next encounter.

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Note: At the beginning of this post I mentioned that I was once a subscriber to the Block magazine. My experience with one of their patterns and the company’s failure to correct the issue had nothing to do with cancelling my subscription. I made the decision to stop receiving the magazine because I felt I had more than enough ideas for possible quilts to make in the future; let alone finding the time to make them all. I’ve also found improv quilting to be my preferred avenue to follow. I’m not saying I would never make a pattern quilt again; it’s just not as likely as it once was.

Karen M’s Bow Quilt

| Cindy Anderson

A while ago I had the pleasure of quilting Elisabeth B’s beautiful Christmas quilt. The quilt, with its unusual design, was a joy to work on. I had a blast creating an explosion of surprises from top to bottom and side to side.

Elisabeth B’s Quilt
Now fast-forward to November 2017 when I received a surprise email from Elizabeth’s Mom. I’m always thrilled when my customers share my information with friends. This gesture is the nicest compliment I could ever receive.

Karen had made a quilt top for her granddaughter. Her initial plan was to do the quilting on her own. She had even decided on and purchased the thread for stitching but then Karen had a change of heart and decided to entrust the quilting to me.

Karen and I spent a great deal of time exploring her project discussing the possible stitch designs as well as colors of thread. By the time Karen left we had created a carefully orchestrated, detailed outline. The number of stitch patterns as well as the volume of thread colors meant the quilting process would be slow. From start to finish I invested 28 hours in Karen’s project.

It wasn’t until the final stitch was applied and I was able to remove the quilt from my machine that I could finally absorb the quilt’s gorgeous appearance. Karen’s quilt top would have been magnificent even without my stitching but the plan we mapped out together complimented her project in a way that I never could have imagined. I was so in awe!

I’ve been patiently waiting to reveal Karen’s beautiful quilt until after Christmas since the quilt was meant to be a surprise. Now that the coast is clear I am so excited to share my photo’s.

Please enjoy!

Karen M-Bow Quilt.jpg

Karen M-Back of Bow Quilt.jpg

I can’t wait to hear how Karen’s granddaughter reacted!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed seeing Karen’s quilt. Let’s do this again real soon!

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A Quilt for Lola

| Cindy Anderson

My friend Deb entrusted me with two more of her quilts. One was destined for a female friend and the other for a young man. The first quilt, which was assembled for Lola, carried with it a very special message. You see Lola was going to receive treatment for breast cancer.

Deb wanted Lola to have a home-made quilt to wrap herself in while she received chemotherapy. The window of opportunity for the quilt to be completed was small so I bumped it ahead of my other waiting candidates.

I tried getting a little extra creative by stitching words of encouragement around the outside perimeter of the quilt, in the border. Among the words that I used were hope, joy, love, courage and strength. In the body of the quilt I stitched a flowing design of swirls along with Lola’s name and one flower.

Here’s how Lola’s quilt looked when I was finished.

Lolas Quilt

A Quilt for Lola

Lolas Quilt Back

The Back of Lola’s Quilt

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A Swirl on Lola’s Quilt

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Thank you Deb for allowing me once again to add pizzazz to one of your works of art!

Cindy Anderson of In A Stitch Quilting