Free Class from Craftsy featuring Quilt Treasure Jinny Beyer!

The Quilt Alliance is thrilled to have Craftsy as a Platinum sponsor for Quilters Take Manhattan 2015. Don’t miss this free online video class, 2015 Block of the Month, featuring Jinny Beyer. The Quilt Alliance, along with our partners at Michigan State University,* is proud to have documented Jinny for the Quilt Treasures project. Watch a mini-documentary about Jinny, see a photo gallery, a biography and much more on the Quilt Alliance website here. *Quilt Treasures is a join project of the Quilt Alliance, Michigan State University Museum and MATRIX: Center for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences at MSU. Bring a gorgeous quilt to life one block at a time with my free online video class 2015 Craftsy Block of the Month, created in partnership with RJR Fabrics. Join me, quilter and designer Jinny Beyer, and learn an array of my signature techniques as we sew a stunning, Craftsy-exclusive quilt. Once you enroll, you’ll enjoy a new lesson on the first of every month. Watch it at your own pace, and discover everything you need to know to put together 13 beautiful blocks and finish this captivating quilt! As we sew, you’ll have the option of hand or machine piecing a variety of basket and flower blocks. I encourage everyone to try out hand piecing at least once – it’s one of my favorite techniques, and enables you to create perfectly precise points and sew set-in seams with ease. I’ll also demonstrate how to use templates and specialty rulers, and reveal how to fussy cut border stripe fabric for magical effects inside pieced blocks. Border stripes aren’t just for borders anymore! I selected the fabric for this quilt from several of my best-selling collections, and I know you’ll adore the luminous hues, captivating prints and gorgeous border stripes. To make an exact replica of the quilt I’ll be working on throughout class, purchase the exclusive 2015 Block of the Month Quilt Kit on Craftsy! We’ll begin class with my secrets for using color in quilts, and then dive right into our January block: the May Basket. Learn how to use templates and a few simple tricks to easily cut the necessary pieces, and find out how to join a string of triangles and maintain their precise points – without cutting your thread. In the next lesson, assemble the lovely Basket of Fruit block as you discover how to mark and join black and brightly colored half-square triangles. Then, learn how to sew set-in seams both by hand and by machine for the beautiful Ash Basket block. The Cherry Basket is up next, and we’ll use the golden ratio principle and bias strip curved appliqué to assemble this block. To create the crisp points in our Pine Needle basket block, we’ll dive into a lesson on foundation piecing. Next, learn how to use partial seams to make complex-looking blocks a cinch as we sew the White Oak and Birch Basket blocks. Appliqué has undeniable visual appeal, and I’ll show you how to use Apliquick tools to create polished appliqués faster than ever for our Beech Basket block. Paper piece the Basket Full of Lilies block, then learn how to apply log cabin construction techniques to complete the Dahlia and Daffodil blocks. Before you know it we’ll be sewing our final blocks! Work with five and then eight foundations at a time to create the eye-catching Harlequin and Foxglove blocks, and find out how to frame each for easy paper foundation removal. Put the finishing touches on this exquisite quilt with a few of my favorite methods for sashing and cornerstones. Use perfectly proportioned border prints to harmonize your quilt, and finish with a crisp miter for clean, professional corners. Sign up today for 2015 Craftsy Block of the Month, and join me in sewing a quilt that’s sure to become the prized jewel of your collection! I sewed my first quilt in 1972, and the rest is history! I spend my time designing fabric, writing, teaching and quilting, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve authored 12 books, been inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame, and have had my Ray of Light quilt named one of the “100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century” by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine. I love sharing my passion with fellow quilters, and teach classes around the world – and now, right here on Craftsy! Build your skills and a breathtaking quilt, one fun block at a time! Enroll in the free online video class 2015 Craftsy Block of the Month…

Quick, Henry – The Flit!

On this day in 1904, Theodor Geisel, better known to the world as Dr. Seuss, the author and illustrator of children’s books as “The Cat in the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham,” was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Before he started writing children’s books Geisel created artwork for a very successful whimsical ad campaign for Flit insecticide. This quilt (detail view), titled “There’s a Bug in My Computer,” was made by celebrated quiltmaker Helen Kelley in 1978. The caption, “Quick, Henry — The Flit!” is hand quilted into the top, referencing the slogan for Geisel’s popular ads. View this quilt on The Quilt Index to find out! Read more about its history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view or click the “See full record” link to see a larger image and all the data entered about that quilt. Source: http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…

Quilted Presidents.

Weary of the winter weather? I hope this parade of Presidential quilts will cheer you up on this Presidents Day! These quilts were made between 1917 and 2000 in Arizona, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and West Virginia.   You can Browse and Search more fascinating quilts in The Quilt Index at www.QuiltIndex.org Watch a video tutorial on using the Browse by Pattern feature in The Quilt Index here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mN9DaW6UQ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…

Thirteen Quilts–Lucky Us!

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is one of forty museums who have contributed quilt records to The Quilt Index as part of the Michigan Quilt Project (see a complete list here with links to quilts in each collection). Included in the Henry Ford permanent collection are thirteen quilts made by Susan McCord (1829-1909), “…an ordinary Indiana farmwife with an extraordinary genius for quilt making.” McCord’s quilts range in style from crazy quilts to an intricate hexagon mosaic to an original design of thirteen hand appliqued strips of vines. This text is included in all of McCord’s quilt records: McCord, like other thrifty housewives of the era, sewed her quilts from fabric she had on hand, mostly clothing scraps. Her everyday life was filled with household and farm chores; her “scraps” of leisure time were filled with masterful quilt making. Susan and her husband Green McCord farmed an eighty-acre farm in McCordsville, Indiana. Here Susan McCord kept house, brought up her children, sewed clothing for her family, knitted accessories, practiced homeopathic medicine, read her bible through each year, participated in sewing bees, gardened, took care of the cows and chickens–and found time to make at least thirteen extraordinary bed quilts. McCord used traditional materials, techniques and patterns—but her considerable skill at manipulating fabric, color and design turned the traditional into something exceptional. McCord’s bed coverings stand as the extraordinary legacy of an otherwise little-known Indiana farmwife.   Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…

Wednesday Weathervanes.

Weathervane is one of more than 200 Browse by Pattern categories users can select to Cruise & Use the Quilt Index. Here are four of the 22 Weathervane quilts that I browsed. My favorite (today): this machine pieced and hand quilted pink beauty by Ethel Tew of Lake Odessa, Michigan in 1945. The quilt was documented in 2005 as part of the Michigan Quilt Project. You can Browse more Weathervane quilts in The Quilt Index here. Watch a video tutorial on using the Browse by Pattern feature in The Quilt Index here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mN9DaW6UQ Posted by Amy E. Milne Executive Director, Quilt Alliance…