Showing posts with label Batik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Batik. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Edyta's visit, part 2--Antique Inspirations

We had blog posts all ready to go after Edyta's visit last May and never posted them, so here goes!

We recently welcomed Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts for an afternoon of fun, fellowship, and quilts!  Edyta started with this charming little quilt made from leftovers.  This is a traditional tumbler pattern, but Edyta used her acrylic template from her pattern Lollipops to rotary cut the scraps.  What a great memory, and a beautiful quilt!

Edyta loves antique quilts, and shows here how she used a vintage find as inspiration for other quilts.  You can see the similarity between the first two quilts...






...but what if you change the design a little and use batiks in stead of reproduction cottons?


This sweet little quilt is a great Lone Star quilt for starters.  Add applique and your quilt becomes a unique wall warmer.


Edyta has exchanged a lot of strips with other quilters around the world, and finds that she gets a lot of variety this way.  When the strips weren't uniform in size, she came up with a solution of alternating the pieced diamonds with plain ones.


She also strips pieces together, then cuts out the diamond shapes.


This is the cover quilt of her book, Scrappy Fireworks quilts.  It's a more ambitious version of the small quilt above,  but also includes appliques.  The diamond pieced border makes this quilt unique.


And you can use the smallest pieces to make a fabulous quilt!


Edyta finds inspiration all around her, from museums to vintage shops.  A unique antique quilt was the jumping off point for this fabulous quilt, made in Edyta's fabrics.  This sampler quilt really creates a lot of excitement, and yet the blocks flow into one another.


This sweet quilt contains a lot of Edyta's favorite things.  She uses triangle papers to make her half square triangles, and her papers come in 1-1/2" and 2" sizes.  These are perfect for a triangle exchange if you want to get together with your friends and make any of Edyta's quilts from her book, Friendship Triangles.


Even Edyta gets to do English Paper Piecing--in her spare time!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Edyta Sitar visits Back Door Quilts part 1


Earlier in May, we had a wonderful visit from designer Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.  Edyta took  time out of her busy schedule to help us celebrate our 40th anniversary, bringing lots and lots of quilts for our viewing pleasure.  Here are pictures from that special day.

The room is all set up for our guests, and the quilts are spread out on an antique iron bed.







Excitement is high as we all settle in for a fabulous show. 



Darlene has made several of Edyta's quilts, and helped her with the bed turning. 


Linda and Teri had met Edyta years ago at her first retail show, and immediately wanted to show off all her quilts!  Here are the three friends over 10 years later, and we still love all her quilts and her fabrics!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Judy Niemeyer Wedding Rings

Our brains are about to burst! Garnet and Teri spent three days with Judy Niemeyer, learning her techniques for speeding up paper foundation piecing. Judy had lots of samples for us to drool over, and even showed us how she chooses fabrics for her quilts.



















Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Small Business Saturday



 Welcome to Small Business Saturday!  Come join us from 9:30-5 and pick up project sheets for making the projects shown here, among others.  At the top, make a Ten Minute Table Runner from just 1/3 and 1/2 yards of fabric.  We have beautiful Christmas metallics that would make any table proud! 

It only takes a small amount of fabric to make the scrap catcher that doubles as a napkin holder or handy basket to collect your small sewing pieces.

The Reversible Tote is the perfect gift for teachers, but it also is a wonderful gift bag for anyone.
 Pick up a charm pack or two and make this cute quilt as big or as small as you want.  We have directions, and we can show you a story board for this clever quilt.

We also have patterns for quick baby quilts and a larger flannel or cotton cuddler.  There's still time!
This Hopscotch quilt was formerly available only in a kit, but for this weekend, you can get the pattern when you come in.  Bear not included! 

We'll also have demos on English Paper Piecing and making Fabric Bowls from leftover yarn or fabric strips (or both).  Come be inspired!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

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.

Monday, April 2, 2012

More pictures from Fran Sargent's seminar

Back Door owner Linda Hale shares a moment with teacher Fran Sargent during a lull in the action.  Students were kept quite busy trimming, sewing, and pressing.  Fran stopped to demonstrate and students gathered round, and there was lots to eat!  And real plates and bowls!







Fran will return to Back Door Quilts in November 2012 to teach the Coxcomb, which was designed for her shop by Judy Niemeyer.  It looks like it's mostly appliqued, but the entire quilt is foundation paper pieced with long curved seams, and the applique is added at the end.