I have a new denim quilt pattern called Slats!  You can use a jellyroll of your favorite fabrics with this pattern.  I used mostly Maywood's Woolies Flannels, with a few Moda Wool and Needle Flannels.  I love the bright colors!

The Slats Denim Quilt pattern is available on my Etsy shop.  Here's a link.

The pattern gives six sizes, from a small rug to a queen size quilt.  Here are some more pictures.


 

Front of Planks Denim Quilt

Back of Planks Denim Quilt

Close-up of Planks Denim Quilt

 

 

Check out the pattern on my Etsy Shop at this LINK.

Denim Stars Template

I have some exciting news!  My Denim Stars Acrylic Template is now available in an 8-inch size.  A bigger template means less work.  My patterns on Etsy and Craftsy will now have instructions for using the 8-inch template to make 3 quilt sizes.

 

You can purchase the 8-inch template from Etsy at this link. 

Here's a picture of the Denim Stars Quilt.

 

New Denim Quilt Pattern!

Introducing my newest denim quilt pattern, 

the "Denim Waves Beach Quilt."

 

I have 3 sons, and they go through lots of jeans.  So, what's more natural than saving their old jeans to make denim quilts?  This is my 4th denim quilt pattern to be published.  It will only be available as a pdf download because it's 11 pages, and the printing cost would make it not so affordable.  You can find it on Craftsy, Etsy and YouCanMakeThis.

The Denim Waves Beach Quilt was fun to make!  I'd saved this hand-dyed fabric to make a special quilt, but didn't have a quilt in mind when I bought it.  It goes so great with the denim! The pattern includes 5 wave templates, so you can mix them up and get a random wave feel.  It's done with a quilt-as-you-go method.  And I actually did most of the quilting on the Handi Quilter Avante at the store where I work.

Denim Quilt Class

Tuesday, I got to teach my Denim Quilt Class.  It was a big class (10), but the ladies were all sharp, and we had a great time!  The students had a choice of Denim Stars, Brick Work or Windows.

Denim Stars

Brick Work

Windows

These 3 quilts are done in a similar way.  We work with a small section of the quilt at a time, sewing the blocks together and finishing the raw edges.  Then the quilt is done when it's done, there's no quilting or tying to do later, and batting is optional.

Here's some of the ladies and their work...

It's fun to see everyone's fabric choices!  Beatles fabric, polka dots, a soft girly print, cute bees, pirate fabrics, old fashioned charm and manly flannels.

New Denim Quilt Pattern

I'm working on a new denim quilt pattern.  I think I'll call it Denim Waves -- it's a beach quilt. 

Strips of denim are sewn together to make several long strips.  Then the top edge of the strip is cut to look like waves.  Every-other wave is denim, then I've put a hand dyed fabric wave in between.  And just to mix things up, I'll put a couple wedge shaped pieces in.   It's got a sheet for the back (I know... I don't use sheets for anything but denim quilts that will be used on the ground), and a thin cotton/poly batting.  It's quilted as-you-go, and I think this would be a great quilt to do on a longarm.  If I ever get caught up with T-Joe, I want to go do it on the Handi Quilter at the store.

Working Woman

My Dear Husband lost his job 2 years ago.  We're struggling financially.  The miracle is that we've been able to pay our bills and have "sufficient for our needs."  We've had a little help from family and friends along the way, which we are very grateful for.  And my health and mental state have never been better.  I've been strong and able to provide for my family.  I work 3 jobs.

Job #1 is working 4 full days per week at a quilt shop, which I LOVE.  I mostly work downstairs, where I get to help with sewing machine servicing and repair, and I do the shipping for Kathy Quilts.  Sometimes, I get to go upstairs and play with fabric, sell Bernina sewing machines and interact with the customers.  The people I work with are all really great people.  I feel privileged to be a "Bernina Lady."  Here's the store's blog:  Stylish Fabrics Quilt Shop

Job #2 is sewing pectus brace covers for T-Joe of Pectus Services.  T-Joe (Trainer Joe) LOVES the kids he works with.  He helps kids with deformed chests (pectus).  The way he does it is with a brace that he invented.  The brace, as you can imagine, is not comfortable.  When my son wore it, it really irritated his skin, and it got pretty stinky, pretty fast.  My solution was to make fabric covers for his brace.  It really helped his skin irritation and, we could remove the cover and wash it to keep it smelling better.

So, when we showed Joe the covers, he said, "I want ALL of the kids to have covers!"  I wasn't really interested in doing all of that sewing at first.  I even gave Joe the patterns and he tried to get a couple sewing companies to manufacture the covers.  It was a good thing they didn't end up being manufactured, or we wouldn't have the income that we so badly need right now.

When I say, "we," I mean our whole family.  DH and all 3 of our sons help with the production.  I still do most of the sewing, but our oldest son is using the sewing machine to sew Velcro on, and he's started to use the serger to sew the pieces together.  He's doing great!  The other Guys do the pinning, cutting, more pinning, singeing the threads and packaging.  We're very grateful to Joe for supporting our family in this way!

Here's the Pectus Services website:  Pectus Services  Check out the "before and after" pictures.

Job #3 is Quilted Sunshine.  I sell my patterns locally, and on a few websites as either pdf downloads or as paper patterns.  Check the links on the left side of my blog.  I also teach quilting and sewing classes.

I Love teaching classes!  There are a few classes that I teach over and over.  My Beginning Piecing Workshop is 4 days, and we learn everything from rotary cutting and scant 1/4" seams, to matching points and putting the borders on. I also regularly teach Beginning Binding and Sewing Machine Care and Maintenance classes.  I'd like to add a Beginning Paper Piecing Class, and a Fabric Selection Class.  I also teach my denim quilt patterns and all of my other patterns, whenever I can.

Here's the link to my website:  Quilted Sunshine  There are 3 FREEBIES on my website:  Binding Tutorial, Mitered Receiving Blanket pattern, and "The Simple Quilt" pattern.