Cutie Madness -- week one

Today is the last day to vote for this week's Cutie Madness contest where readers choose their favorite of my Cutie Quilt Patterns.

This week's quilts are:

Jack's Star

Forever in Peace:

Vote for your favorite HERE

Baby Came Back!

One of my quilts was returned to me this week!

I designed my Field of Flowers Cutie Quilt with Sandra Clemons' In Bloom fabric for Quilt Market in May:

After Quilt Market, my quilt went to a show in Belgium.  Although I'm glad it's home, a few insects found their way into the mailing box:

Are these the cutest butterflies you've ever seen?

Obviously, I immediately bought the pattern.

I see many more butterflies in my future!

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Are you following the Cutie Madness?  Each week readers will pick their favorite of my 16 Cutie Quilt Patterns.

This week's quilts are:

Jack's Star

Forever in Peace:

Vote for your favorite HERE

Quilt Finish: Irresistible Placemats

Some types of quilts are simply irresistible.*

These placemats are exactly that:

These are leftover from my Irresistible Cutie Quilt:

It's a simple four-patch quilt, but the quilting makes it special:

Would you believe that this quilt pattern was inspired by a simple spool of thread?  Meet my FabuLux Be Cool:

I picked all of the fabrics to match this humble spool of thread, and am absolutely delighted with the quilt as well as the scrappy placemats.

Quilting is Irresistible.


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*You are welcome for the earworm.

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Are you following the Cutie Madness?  Each week readers will pick their favorite of my 16 Cutie Quilt Patterns.

This week's quilts are:

Jack's Star

Forever in Peace:

Vote for your favorite HERE

MAIL CALL: The Letter "Q"

I recently visited Little Boy and we were discussing the quilt that I gave to Little Boy #2.

Grandma: "What do you call this?"
Little Boy:  "A blanket."
Grandma:  (wince) "Do you call it anything other than a blanket?  Like when you sleep under it?"
Little Boy:  "Covers."
Grandma:  (eye twitches furiously) "Little Boy, when Grandma makes you one of these filled with her love, it's called a Quilt!"
Little Boy:  "Well, Mommy calls them 'Covers' when you aren't here."
Grandma:  (instant migraine)

Once I recovered from the trauma, I decided that the next postcard that Little Boy needed was a Q:

Of course it had to be made with a patchwork quilt on it!

I pressed the seams open so that the fabric would fuse flatly to the Peltex.

I make a lot of quilts with bright colors.  When many bright colors are in the same quilt and I am going to quilt the quilt with only one thread color, I choose FabuLux Mellow Yellows 99% of the time.

It's one of my most-used thread colors for machine quilting.

Do you think Little Boy will learn to call them quilts now?  If not, what else can I do to convince him?  I'm not above bribery.

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Are you following the Cutie Madness?  Each week readers will pick between two of my 16 Cutie Quilt Patterns.

This week's quilts are:

Jack's Star

Forever in Peace:

Vote for your favorite HERE

1000 Postcards for Peace -- #2 With Thanks

I was away for half of June and desperately needed to put thread on fabric.  It just feels wrong when I don't quilt, y'know?

I grabbed a pack of bright InvisiFil threads:

I really wanted bright-yet-subtle quilting on white fabric and this package of 100-weight polyester thread fit the bill!

I threw a Deco-Bob bobbin in my Sweet Sixteen and started stitching some of my favorite quilting motifs in some of my favorite colors

After I stitched the motifs, I echoed everything with lime green thread:

When I had quilted enough fabric, I cut a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" section to make a postcard by fusing it onto stabilizer:

I satin-stitched the edge with FabuLux In The Pinks because... well... pink!

I sent this card as a much-overdue thank you note to a family member.

Cutie Quilt: Squared Away

It's no secret that I love Cutie Quilts.  I eat, sleep, and dream fat eighths and spend most of my time devising new ways to cut and piece them together to design new Cutie Patterns.

Squared Away was my first published Cutie Pattern and I've made many different versions of this quilt.

I recently finished a low-volume version:

I quilted this exclusively with ribbon candy and only quilted the brown strips.  I used wool batting so that the unquilted areas would pop up and make this quilt dimensional.

I was teaching in Utah for 10 days and managed to finish binding a few quilts in my hotel room in the evenings.

Eleven years ago, I gave my son's future brother-in-law a quilt for his wedding.  In those eleven years, two things happened:

1.  They are officially in-laws
2.  The bride and groom loved their quilt to pieces (as reported by my son)

I always tell people to use their quilts and that I'll replace them if they wear out.  So, this quilt was a replacement wedding gift to a shocked and delighted bride.

This quilt couldn't have found a more perfect home!

HQ Academy: Quilting Elevated (part one)

I was honored to teach at Handi Quilter Academy in Layton, UT in June.  I'm still recovering from all of the fun!

I was able to film a short FB Live video each day which was exciting, mostly the "when will the wi-fi drop me?" type of fun, though.  If you missed them, go to "Debby Brown Quilts" Facebook page; all of the videos are archived there.

I taught most of my classes on the Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen and my students were true champions!

My work:

Their work:

See?  I told you they were champions!

Quilt Finish: Forest Frolic

This quilt was chosen as a special quilt for Little Boy #2:

The fabric is called Forest Frolic and was designed by the amazing Heidi Boyd for Red Rooster Fabrics.

I made this quilt on my Stitch 210 machine in a hotel room in western New York:

I quilted loads and loads of ribbon candy in this quilt:

I quilted Elements swirls over the print fabrics:

I teach both ribbon candy and Elements swirls in one of my Craftsy classes (click HERE for a 50% off coupon).*

This quilt has been gifted, received, and is already loved.  It was the perfect quilt for Little Boy #2.

I already have Heidi's new fabric line, Country Days, and I can't wait to get quilting!

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*Get 50% off the full retail price of select Craftsy classes taught by Debby Brown - Instructor. Cannot be combined with any other coupons. Expires October 4, 2017.

MAIL CALL: Rocket Ship

I have been making and sending postcards to a special Little Boy.  He loves getting them in the mail.  I visited him in person and asked what postcard he wanted to receive next.  I expected him to answer "Q" or "K" or "Z."  Well, one should never think a three-year-old will answer predictably.  His answer was "A Rocket Ship."

OK, then...

I researched rocket ships and tried to find the simplest shapes that so I could easily applique them.

Once I picked the shapes, I tried to make mirror images wings but got them wrong not once, not twice, but three times before getting them right:

I added yellow windows because this card needed some color, but will three windows be too many?

I think in this case that two are enough:

I grabbed my handy-dandy Handi Quilter Stitch 210 machine for this project because it has a beautiful satin stitch:

The rocket ship is stitched with a plain cream cotton thread.  The wings are stitched with metallic silver.  Yummy!  I used my favorite FabuLux Mellow Yellows for the windows:

I stitched with FabuLux Majestic Sunrise for the edging because:
1.  Little Boy wanted flames on the rocket ship
2.  Grandma didn't want to stitch them
3.  This was close enough:

The card has been mailed, received, and loved.

I will next stitch the letters R-O-C-K-E-T-S-H-I-P before I again ask him what he wants.  I'm afraid to learn the answer!

What's the least predictable thing you've ever heard from a three-year-old?

1000 Postcards for Peace -- #1 Speak Peace

I just (re)mailed* my first postcard for peace to a dear friend.

This card was a fun one for me to make.  My sweet Sweet Sixteen named Hazel hadn't been feeling very well and she just got a check-up from Dr. Nick.  I threaded her with some 100 weight polyester InvisiFil after her check-up and she stitched like the true champion that she is!

I stitched flowers in various thread colors and then echoed around them.  Then I stitched feathers along the bottom of the piece and swirls along the top:

I trimmed it to a postcard size (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") and you can see the subtle nose and beautiful flowers where the mouth should be:

On the back, I wrote the inscription from the Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima:

When the news in the world gets distressing, my fingers itch to stitch.  I'll show more postcards soon
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*When addressing a card, it is useful to include the street address and not just write

"Name"
"Town, State Zip Code"

If you do so, the post office may return that card to you with a note encouraging you to try again.

...Or so I've been told.

Quilt Finish: Karma Baby

Long, long ago* in a quilt shop far away, I bought a quilt kit.  As 2017 is "The Year of the Baby" for anyone and everyone that I know, I pulled out every baby quilt kit in my abundant stash.  

Karma Baby is now pieced, quilted, bound, and ready to greet baby Kathryn:

 

I quilted the entire quilt in white thread, quilting the border of each panel with ribbon candy:

I have many more baby quilts to make and deliver.  2017 is a great year!
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*2012