Monday, June 22, 2015

The Temptations

It's time to start tempting you with our Quilt MN projects!  We have numerous samples in the works that highlight the possibilities with this group of fabric.  Here are a couple for starters:

Mary of MH Designs has 2 embroidery designs that are pure Minnesota (even though she lives across the river in Wisconsin!).  The Lady's Slipper is a makeover of a previous design, now using the fabric that is printed all over with the flowers.  A perfect combo!  

And since there are loons on some of the prints, she went to the drawing board and created a picture for embroidery for the loon lovers!  This one even has the little baby loon on the back of the adult, and this is exactly how they take care of their little ones.  I've been reading up on the loons, and found out that the baby loons have poor body temp control, and because the northern lakes tend to stay quite cold, they get heat from the mother or father by riding on their back in between swims.  Other loon trivia:  they don't necessarily mate for life, but they do usually migrate back to the same lake; they have only 1 or 2 eggs each year; survival rate of the chicks is 0.7 chicks per adult pair per year.  Anyone who has heard the wail of the loon echoing across a still lake knows that it is a special experience.  There are some recordings of their various calls on the wikipedia site in the link above.




I have succeeded in getting all of the blocks for my new quilt design sewn together and borders attached!  Yeah!  Now to get that quilting and binding done, write the directions and get some patterns printed!  This is a pretty simple block, very achievable for anyone who wants to give it a try.  I will include a class for it on the fall schedule.  The borders are mitered to get the best effect from the printed fabric, and the technique really isn't intimidating.  But for anyone who doesn't feel up to the challenge, I will include tips on making the border without miters.  I have several different size quilts that can be made like this, so it can go anywhere from a tablerunner to a queen size bed.


Some of the Quilt MN Shop Hop "swag" this year--


shopping bag, t-shirt and pins are all available.

More projects will be shared with you as I collect pictures from our sample makers.  Many of them will be available in kits, so you can pre-order (call 651-429-1039) the kits or yardage or pre-cut packs (5" squares, 10" squares, 2 1/2" strips) anytime you want, and they will be ready for pickup when the Hop starts July 31.  It will be a fun time at the Patch!

2 comments:

MissesStitches said...

Thanks for all the loon information. I went to the links to hear the loons' calls. Lovely! Those embroidery pieces are really pretty.

Pam said...

Have you done any of the crayon coloring with your embroidery? That's what these designs use to achieve that nice shading.