Meep, meep!

Posted on January 31, 2025 by nwquiltedcat

Last October, my husband and I traveled to New Mexico to see the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and to do some hiking at various national and local parks. I did manage to squeeze in visits to a couple of local quilt stores and purchased a couple of fun patterns.

I hoped to see a roadrunner during our visit, but, sadly, didn’t see one. I’ve only seen a roadrunner once in person on a visit to Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada several years ago. I decided to buy a little roadrunner quilt block called Marigold from Stitchology, a cute modern quilt shop in Albuquerque.

This block is 12″ and is a combination of traditional piecing and applique.

Here’s a close-up look at the applique feathers on the bird’s head:

I decided to finish this quilt block as a mini quilt to commemorate my visit to New Mexico. It’s quite a different bird than what we have here in the PNW!

I added a turquoise inner border with some decorative stitches. For the outer border, I used this fun roadrunner print designed by a textile artist in ABQ. She has a store front in old town called Desert Bird Mercantile where you can purchase her prints as fat quarters or by the yard.

Completed Marigold the roadrunner mini quilt

The next day, we took the tram up to Sandia Peak for some hiking. We did about 8 miles along various trails. It was a gorgeous day and the aspens were in their fall glory!

Here’s a stunning viewpoint from the top overlooking Albuquerque below. We had a little picnic lunch here while admiring the views.

Lunch time view looking down at Albuquerque

I’ll post some pictures of our hiking adventures from the trip in future posts. I love checking out hikes whenever we travel!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Meowville Finished Quilt

Posted on January 17, 2025 by nwquiltedcat

Last year, I completed work on my epic tiny house quilt. I started this quilt in 2023 as a weekly sew along with tiny 6″ foundation paper-pieced houses by Quilt Art Design.

When I last shared my progress, I was about 2/3 finished with the quilting. My goal was to finish this quilt so I could display it at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show last July. I realized that I never shared my finished quilt!

My husband and I hike and backpack regularly so I decided to take a picture of the final quilt at the start of a fantastic trail in the Columbia River Gorge called Eagle Creek.

Here’s a look at the finished quilt with all the beautiful greens from the moss and vegetation:

If you’ve never hiked along the Eagle Creek trail, I highly recommend it. One of the picturesque falls that is easily doable for most hikers is called Punchbowl Falls. It’s about a 5-mile round trip hike. It does have a few sections with steep drops so be cautious, especially with children and dogs.

I have hiked all the way to the top to Wahtum lake when I was a teenager, which requires either a car shuttle or backpacking. On this particular trip with my quilt, we decided to do a long day hike. We had lunch at Twister Falls and turned around at that point. Tunnel Falls is approximately a 12 mile round trip hike with Twister being about 1/2 mile beyond. If you do hike to Twister, there is a very steep drop often called the “Vertigo Mile” that might be challenging if you’re afraid of heights. There are cables attached to the rock to help you navigate that section if you need them.

A Section of the “Vertigo Mile,” the approach to Twister Falls along the Eagle Creek trail with my hubby and dog.

We hiked this in April 2024 so the waterfalls were flush with water. So beautiful!

I did enter Meowville into the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show so if you visited in July 2024, you might have seen it.

Here’s a look:

Meowville at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, July 2024

Each of those house blocks has a cat or two pieced into it. If you zoom in on the picture, see if you can find all of the cats. There are some really tiny pieces! I really enjoyed creating this quilt, and sewing one tiny house each week for 36 weeks.

Let me know in the comments if you saw my quilt at the show!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Month One Blocks

Posted on January 10, 2025 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

In my previous post, I talked about the new Vintage Christmas quilt along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop. This quilt along lasts 12 months and features blocks from Lori Holt’s book, Vintage Christmas. Each month, we’ll sew 4 blocks and you can join at any time!

Let’s take a look at my remaining three blocks from January (see my earlier post for details on the first block).

Candy Canes block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 2, Candy Canes

This block came together pretty quickly. If you’re using directional fabrics, be careful how you place the reds/pinks and whites so they are all facing the same direction.

Candy Swirl Block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 3, Candy Swirls

This block was the easiest to sew this month. Again, watch your directional fabrics if you want them to face the same direction. In this block, I kept the directional fabric going vertical for the outer ring. For the darker reds in the middle, I made two of the half-square triangles with the print oriented vertically and the other two with the print oriented horizontally.

Christmas Candles Block

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, Block 4, Christmas Candles

This block has some very tiny 3/4″ pieces! The are situated in the candle flames and in the greenery at the bottom. These small pieces are challenging so go slow. If I were to make this block again, I think that I’d foundation paper-piece those sections (by drawing my own pattern based on the block).

Vintage Christmas Quilt Along, First Four Blocks

You’ll notice that three of these blocks have a darker background fabric, and one block has a lighter background fabric. I’m using the kit from Fat Quarter Shop so these blocks will all pop nicely against the sashing when I put the blocks together.

Join me again in February where we’ll make four more blocks! Let me know in the comments if you are quilting along with this BOM. I’d love to see your progress. You can also follow my progress at Instagram at @nwquiltedcat.

Happy quilting!

Jen

A New Year and A New Quilt Along!

Posted on January 3, 2025 by nwquiltedcat

Wishing you all a very happy 2025! We started the year off with a short hike through a beautiful forest. The trail contained so many hues of green from the giant sword ferns to the mosses to the trees. The trail was quite muddy from all of our recent rain, but we were fortunate to have cloudy conditions and no rain during our walk.

For 2025, I’m doing a themed quilt along with the Fat Quarter Shop called Vintage Christmas. For this sew along, you’ll need this quilt book by Lori Holt. You can use your own fabrics or you can buy the quilt kit once it is restocked.

Each month, we’ll make 4 blocks, each finishing at 6-inches. The quilt along runs until December so you’ll have a beautiful quilt finished in time for Christmas 2025, assuming you can finish the quilting, ha, ha!

I’m using the quilt kit, and here’s a look at my book with some of the beautiful fabrics.

Vintage Christmas book and fabric kit for the quilt along

I do starch my fabric, usually one block at a time because I don’t have the time or space to starch the entire kit all at once.

When I work on these smaller 6-inch blocks with many pieces, I like to label them with Alphabitties and place them on little design boards. You can make design boards by using a foam board, batting scraps, and fabric scraps for the binding or purchase them here.

Vintage Christmas block one with Alphabitties on a design board for easier piecing

When sewing these blocks, go slow and careful to maintain accuracy. I do lower my stitch length slightly and backstitch where the pieces will be exposed on the edges. I don’t like to use steam in my iron so I do a final press when a hot, dry iron and Flatter spray. I also use wooden clappers and let the blocks cool completely with the clappers on top.

Here’s a look at block one called “Away in a Manger.”

Away in a Manger block – Vintage Christmas Quilt Along

I hope you’ll join me along in this festive quilt along. I’ll post the other month one quilt blocks this week to inspire you.

Happy quilting!

Jen

Epic Tiny House Paper Pieced Quilt, Part 2

Posted on April 2, 2024 by nwquiltedcat

I last blogged in January, but I have been working on various projects to submit to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I have some quilt tops that have been pieced for a while and need to be quilted plus I wanted to submit some post cards for the annual fundraiser at the show.

For the tiny house project, I had to decide how to piece the top because there is no pattern for the final layout.

I decided that my “Meowville” quilt needed the pieced name to be on the top, but the quilt was still missing something. Hmm, what could I add? How about a giant cat face peeking out at the viewers? I found a great pattern from Quilt Art Design called “Cat Helper” that would fit my idea with a few modifications.

A partial cat head, perfect for mischievously peering down at the Meowville tiny houses

I now had the final blocks of my quilt assembled and ready to be set into a layout! I thought about a layout for a few weeks, and decided to place my tiny houses in rows without sashing strips. I set the blocks using a fun Ruby Star Society from their Starry line. I used Starry in the Smoke colorway, which is a beautiful deep blue with black stars. Finally, I added an outer border using a black print from my stash to give the quilt a nice frame and to meet the minimum width requirements for the quilt show.

Last weekend, I loaded Meowville onto my frame to start quilting. I’m using Glide thread in Celery in the giant cat head and letters, and using Glide thread in black for the remainder of the quilt. I’m going to keep the quilting very simple to keep the focus on all of those wonderful tiny houses!

I’m about 2/3 of the way finished with the quilting, and I expect to finish this week. I’ll post a picture of the completed quilt soon! I have 2 more quilt tops ready to be quilted for the show so I need to get to it!

Happy quilting,

Jen

Visiting Center Diamond Quilt Store

Posted on July 16, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

This weekend, I went on a camping trip with my 2 favorite guys – my husband and our son. On the way down to the campground, I managed to convince them that I needed to stop at a quilt store. Lucky for me, they didn’t mind waiting for a few minutes while I browsed inside Center Diamond in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Center Diamond is a great little quilt shop along the Oregon coast. I particularly love their collection of batik fabrics. It’s definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

I was searching for a turtle batik for a while and happened to find one while visiting. I picked up several coordinating fabrics that just feel summery to me. Wonder what I’ll make?

Turtle batik and other fabric

Aren’t these little turtles just wonderful?

Happy crafting!

~Jennifer~

August Mystery BOM

Posted on July 12, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

I’m a member of the Carol Doak Yahoo group. She recently started (in May) a new mystery block-of-the-month (BOM) program for her group members. Why is it a mystery? Because we get one block each month and won’t know how the blocks fit together until the last month!!

The August block got posted a little bit early due to Carol’s teaching schedule – yippee for us!

I was able to work a bit on this block over the past couple of days and finished it this evening. I absolutely love the fun pattern in this block, and I think it works so well with my star-themed fabrics!

Paper piecing is so much fun, and I encourage you to give it a try if you haven’t already. Carol has some great books and DVDs to get you going. Plus, the gals on the yahoo group are really fun and have great advice!

Don’t you just love how simple triangles can combine to make such great blocks?