Trunk Show from Edyta Sitar

Neppie and Marilyn brought back some of Edyta Sitar's quilts from Quilt Festival in Houston, and Edyta has graciously allowed us to display them for a few days before sending them back.  After the success of her original Silhouettes, which are prefused and precut, she has expanded her collection with new shapes and her latest product, Lasey.  The Laser cut designs actually look lacey, and all the pieces are connected so you don't have to worry over the layout.  Just peel the paper backing off, place on the background, press in place, and stitch around the pieces with matching or invisible thread.

Please join us Friday, Nov. 10 and Saturday, Nov. 11 from 9:30-5 for your exclusive sneak peek at these beautiful quilts. We'll also have demos and ideas from Quilt Market.  Come get inspired!

Lucy Boston in Texas

Our friends at Paper Pieces were at the recent International Quilt Festival in Houston, and posted these pictures to their Facebook page.  This is a gorgeous version of the Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses quilt, done in Japanese fabrics and hand quilted.  Check out the close-up and the accompanying artist statement.

Check out our new EPP page  http://www.backdoorquilts.com/nl.asp?p=0&c=19

More EPP addiction

EPP=English Paper Piecing, and we're definitely addicted!  We like it because it's easy and portable.  We have a couple things we do to make it faster: we glue the edges down rather than baste, and we use a size 11 Milliner's needle and Bottom Line thread from Superior for tiny stitches without a lot of hassle.  We also use Clover's Wonder Clips to hold the pieces, making it easier on our hands. 

Here are Marty's Lucy Boston blocks, almost ready to applique down on her backgrounds.  We love this unusual pattern, taken from the Patchwork of the Crosses book.  You can applique the blocks to backgrounds, or do the entire quilt with English Paper Piecing, as the original quilt was made.

We especially like to "fussy cut" some of the blocks.  It adds a lot of interest to the finished block, and even just planning a couple of the pieces makes the whole block more special.  We have acrylic templates that you can see through, and they make it easy to plan your pieces and fussy cut stripes, plaids or other motifs.

A group of us get together the second Monday of each month from 10-12 and work on projects.  Join us in November and December for just $5!  Even if you've never done EPP before, we can show you how, and you'll come away inspired!

Check out our new EPP page  http://www.backdoorquilts.com/nl.asp?p=0&c=19.



Our girls, Marilyn and Neppie, made it safely to Houston and set up a beautiful booth display.  Here you can see our most popular pattern, Basket Lattice, which looks great with batik jelly rolls, and just as good in reproductions or daiwabos.  Amish with a Twist is on the table, and we are offering it as a Block of the Month or as a complete kit.

One whole section of our booth was Laundry Basket Quilts from Edyta Sitar.  We have made quite a few of Edyta's quilts, and she loaned us her latest creations.  Some were made from her newest fabric, Dancind in the Rain cottons and batilks.  Others feature her next collection, Paint Box, which is due in April.

Edyta has pioneered working with Silhouettes, which are prefused and precut shapes that make it so easy to get a complicated quilt done relatively quickly.  We used Silhouettes on her Spring Bouquet quilt, shown at the bottom of this post.

Lucy Boston kits

We started cutting kits to make Lucy Boston Blocks.  Each one has one fat quarter that's perfect for fussy cutting, and 5 coordinated "twigs" (10" by 12").  The blocks as seen have 24 pieces, so you can get at least 2 or 3 blocks from every kit, and there's enough variety that each block will be different.  The first 300 kits are at the AQS show in Grand Rapids this week, but we've already started cutting more in the shop.  They're only $8.50!

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses

We are addicted to English Paper Piecing, and many of us are starting a Lucy Boston quilt.  This quilt, Patchwork of the Crosses, is composed of 1" honeycomb pieces, set with 1" squares.  The beauty is that you can make hundreds of different blocks with just the colors you choose and how you fussy cut the blocks.

Back Door Bundles

Edyta Sitar's latest book, Scrappy Fireworks Quilts is going to be released soon.  To get ready for the quilts in this spectacular book, we have created Back Door Bundles, which are 58 fat eighths inspired by the quilts of Edyta Sitar.  We chose regular cottons and batiks in shades of pink, raspberry, blue, gold, green, and brown.  The scale of prints includes large scales perfect for fussy cutting, as well as tone on tone blendables.  You will enjoy using our bundles as the basis for all of Edyta's quilts--just add scraps or trade with your friends for the amazing variety that Edyta uses.

Here, Neppie is working her magic on the bundles, rolling them so that most of the fabrics show.  We have Edyta's favorite snack, Skinny Cow, ready for her when she's done!

This shows the fabrics in one bundle.