It makes us very happy when you use our patterns to make a quilt. We love to see how you each use fabric because no quilt is exactly like another - even when they are made from the same pattern.
We won't be able to upload every Show & Tell photo but if you have a photo of a quilt you've made from one of our patterns please email it to Becky. She'll upload new ones from time to time.
Julie sent this photo and wrote to say:
"It only took me 15 years but I just finished the Simply Delicious quilt! I am so thrilled with it - did rearrange to fit my wall. Thanks for a beautiful design!"
It's lovely quilt - thank you for sharing it!
Kaye White sent this lovely photo and says: "I made this quilt from your book APPLIQUE OUTSIDE THE LINES. I made it for one of my granddaughters for her High School graduation. I love working on all your patterns and have cabinet with all my Piece O Cake fabrics sorted by color.
I changed the wording on this quilt to Love God and Be Happy as personal message with Prov. 3:5-6 on back for life verse. Working on Whimsical Garden now with chocolate background with 16 blocks. Almost finished and wondering what wonderful applique to work on next."
This is a great quilt, Kaye! It's good to know you are having fun with our patterns!
Lisa Velasquez wrote to say: "Just let me tell you how grateful I am to both of you. I’d been strip quilting for a couple of years and decided to try my hand at hand appliqué quilting. WELL, fell in love with “My Whimsical Garden” and guess what! I took second prize at the NC state fair for my division.
I plan on using another one of your patterns for next years' competition. Just had a ball doing it and your easy methods were so helpful. Here is a picture from when the quilt wasn’t quite finished but almost."
Congratulations, Lisa, on the ribbon. Keep up the good work!
Maureen Youell sent this from South Africa:
"I thought you may enjoy another version of Aunt Millie’s Flower Garden.
She won Viewers Choice at our Spring Festival held recently."
Isn't this a great set!? The border pulls it all together. Thank you, Maureen, for sharing your work!
Cassi Bauman wrote to say: "Applique used to be a four-letter word until I spent a weekend guild retreat stationed next to two fabulous appliquers - Nancy Jackson and Sue Kennedy. They inspired me, and then friends issued the challenge to take the plunge by giving me Aunt Millie's Garden as a birthday gift.
I finished the top in one year and by the end of it, I decided that I LOVE appliqué! My amateur efforts were greatly enhanced by the expert long-arm quilting by Janine Keeton (left). We entered it in the Bluegrass Quilt Festival and won Judge's Choice! The choice of background is out of character for me but I loved working with it. Thanks for designing such a great pattern to work with for my first appliqué quilt called Ode to Nancy Sue."
I love the choice of background - your applique shines on it. Congrats on a great quilt!
Ineke Waijers from the Netherlands sent us this is a picture of her Aunt Millie's Garden quilt. Isn't it lovely! She says: "I used only Kaffe Fassett fabrics as they are my favourites. I used the machine blanket stitch for applique, but the quilt is handquilted. I loved working on this quilt and learned a lot about colors and appliqueing. Please keep designing other beautiful quilters so more people can enjoy your patterns."
She sent a detail photo as well and the mix of the machine applique stitches with the hand quilting is very nice. We so often see the reverse (hand applique and machine quilting) - this is an interesting and beautiful approach.
Tiina Corbit started this small quilt in a class I taught in Ontario. It's really nice to see a finished class project! It's a really cute little wall quilt - good job!
Michelle Maggs sent us this photo of her Applique Sampler, saying: "I did all of the hand applique on the quilt, and my friend, Susan Jungerheld, did the free motion quilting. Instead of using rick-rack (which I love) I chose to make a small flange with piping. This quilt won a blue ribbon at the New Jersey State Fair last month. The judging was done on a point system, and it received 96 points.
I have taught, on a small scale, hand applique off and on over the years. I found your sampler to be the best approach to the process of learning various techniques. It is an excellent book! "
Congratulations on making this lovely ribbon-winner! We're so glad you like our book.
Jean Green sent us her version of our 1950s Santa Claus pattern. She says "it is a Christmas gift for my sister who collects Hallmark Ornaments , especially the older versions of Santa. You will notice it is smaller than the original pattern. I left out one row of blocks, as I do my own machine quilting and it is difficult to maneuver anything over 60 to 64 inches in the arm of my older Bernina. Thanks for making this particular pattern available for those of us who enjoy your patterns, both old and new. I hope you enjoy seeing someone else's interpretation of your work."
Yes, we do enjoy seeing how quilters use our patterns. This is a very cute quilt!
Marcie Lane sent us this picture of the very cute Whimsical Garden quilt she made for her class sample.
She says: "I love teaching your patterns with your excellent instructions and full size patterns and so do my students. I am now working on Aunt Millie’s Garden right now for another class."
As always, we are happy when you all are happy!
Christine Rohloff sent us this photo and story: "I have been a RN at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington for 40+ years, Our hospital just opened a 12 story Critical Care tower this June.
My gift to our new 79 bed ER where I have worked all of my career is my interpretation of your Tree O’ Life quilt. I just added a few things, and did not have the pattern reversed, but I think it turned out beautifully and wanted to share it with you. It was beautifully machine quilted by a good friend and professional quilter, Patsi Hanseth of Mount Vernon, Wa.
It was so fun to adapt your design to batiks....I did do a bit of beading that does not show up I the photo. It is brighter than appears in the picture also. Thank you for such wonderful, colorful and whimsical designs!"
And we thank you, Christine, for sharing this photo of your lovely quilt. How wonderful of you to donate it to your ER!
Bethanne Nemesh sent us this photo and story: "I am the raffle chairperson for the Allentown Crazy Quilter’s Quilt Guild in Allentown, Pa. I wanted to share with you the just finished quilt I am calling Star of Millies’s Garden, an adaptation of your lovely Millie’s Garden quilt. I used one border and 4 full blocks then adapted 4 additional blocks to swag and added the large plate cornerstones from another of your quilts. I also designed the piecing and setting. Fourteen members of the guild worked together to make it and I quilted it freehand. We are anticipating selling 6,000 tickets or more. Thank you for continuing to be such an inspiration. Our last Piece o’ Cake raffle quilt (Stars in the Garden) was an award winner as well!"
The quilt is lovely and the photos of the machine quilting are wonderful. If you are interested in seeing more of Bethanne's quilting, click here.
Julie Riddle sent in this photo of the quilt she made from the Passion Flowers pattern (from Applique Outside the Lines). She will be entering it her first quilt show this Feb. 2012 in Pt. St. Lucie, Fl. Congrats on a lovely quilt!
Loretta Ockwell wrote to say:
"I sooo enjoyed making 'Aunt Millie's Garden'. I love scrappy quilts so when I saw this pattern I knew I was 'in'. I had so much fun selecting lively fabrics for the sashing and flowers. I had a ball! I did my own thing designing and piecing the border. I'm a new hand appliquer but found your method easy to follow and the overlay idea worked very well for me. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful design. It's my biggest accomplishment so far. I'll look for more of your patterns."
Isn't this a great quilt, especially from a new appliquer!
Joan Dawson has been busy! She sent us photos of two quilts that she has made using our patterns. The quilt on the left is made using Aunt Millie's Garden. Joan said: 'I only had enough background fabric for nine blocks and it is made entirely in wool. With a couple of small pieces of fabric. I love it. I am a Piece O’ Cake junkie.' This is lovely in wool!
Joan used the Love Apple Star pattern for the center of the quilt on the right. She then designed a border to go with it. It looks great too! Nicely done, Joan.
Jan Hirth, a frequent contributor to this page, sent in a photo of her Whimsical Garden quilt.
She says: "I finished my Whimsical Quilt Garden last week and it was as much fun to make as the other Piece O' Cake quilts I have done.
Each block, being so unique, was exciting to work on. When I started hand appliquéing this quilt I wasn't going to do the borders with "all those circles" but they were quite easy and made the quilt much more whimsical. Thanks for the great pattern."
Thank you, Jan, for sharing the photo of your quilt. It's always great to see how quilters use our patterns!
Patti Dubreuil wrote to tell us that her quilt is finally finished! She says: "I thought you might like to see it!! As you can see, I changed it up a little
and designed a couple new ones!!! I just love this quilt design and it was sooo much fun to make. My LQS liked it so much
they asked me if they could display it, I was thrilled!!!
Thanks again for the inspiration!!!"
We're always happy to hear that our patterns are inspiring you all to be even more creative. Can you spot the new blocks?
(2nd row, left and bottom row, right)
Margaret Roberts made this version of Aunt Millie's Garden and won "Viewer's Choice" ribbon at the West Island Quilters Guild show in March. Congratulations!
Stephanie Bleakney's version of Aunt Millie's Garden features red flowers on a black background. She will be calling it Painting the Roses Red from the Alice in Wonderland story. This is a lovely and dramatic quilt!
Gayle wrote to say: "I finished the blocks for this quilt many years ago. It just took me this
long to decide how to set them to make the quilt my own. Thanks for such
wonderful patterns! I receive so many compliments on this quilt!"
That border really sets off the Thru Grandmother's Window blocks well. Nice job!
Susan Lundstrom sent a smaller version of My Whimsical Quilt Garden. These flowers and birds are turning up all over - and that makes us very happy!
Sharon Palmer wrote:
"Becky, I had to share my newest project and thank you for making it happen! It's for my granddaughters 10th birthday and I know she will be delighted! Due to bed size, I had to create the border differently but have had so very many compliments, I didn't think you'd mind. My Tas group( THE APPLIQUE SOCIETY), of Crystal River, Florida, has encouraged me to share the photo with you.Thanks again for sharing your great God given talents with us quilters."
This is a great way to make My Whimiscal Quilt Garden in to a bed quilt!
Kim Jasko, who has sent us show and tell images before, wrote this:
"Hi Becky and Linda,
Since Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I’ve made another one of your designs. I like the variety of trees here not to mention those lightbulbs! That is a very unique border which I love. The backing fabric is a green mini tree print on white with gold highlights which suits it well. I hope you ladies aren’t mad I took Santa out. He had some off season work to do at the North Pole."
Nope, Kim, we don't mind a bit. This is another wonderful Christmas quilt!
Pamela Jones used some of our designs in a unique setting. Lovely job! We enjoy seeing how quilters use our patterns.
Sheila Bishop just sent us this photo of her Stars in the Garden quilt. It looks so much like the original that I had to stop and look again! It's lovely. She wrote: "Just want to thank you for designing such a glorious quilt! I am so happy with how beautiful this looks on my daughter’s bed, and it was such fun to appliqué!"
Dora Tovar Pachnowski wrote to say "Two years ago I was looking for quilt to make my 8 year old niece. I couldn't find a design that called out her name until I came across one of your designs "Whirlygig". I saw it and I new this was it!
I changed the colors and made it even larger to fit her bed. I even added her name on the border. I entered it in the Plantation Quilt Festival in Lake Jackson, TX this weekend and I won 1st place!!!! Here it is.
Thank you for such an amazing design. My niece loves it!!!"
We think it's pretty great too - congratulations!
Sarah Clemment sent in her version of Tossed Tulips from our book Contemporary Classics in Plaids and Stripes. She has some very fine helpers holding her quilt!
Donna Horn wrote to share this lovely quilt with us: "As soon as your Aunt Millie's Flower Garden pattern came out, I knew I wanted to make it. So when our son announced his engagement and the wedding was 16 months away, I knew which pattern I would use for their wedding quilt.
I started with a block from you Anniversary Quilt that was in one of your books and the surrounded it with blocks from Aunt Millies blocks. I decided to embroidery their initials inside the heart. Since their wedding colors were black, white and red, I thought this would made a unique quilt."
And now for something really different! Patti Dubreuil sent us this photo of a handbag she made while making her Whimsical Quilt Garden quilt. She reports that her quilt is close to completion.
Thank you, Patti, for sharing your handiwork!
Paula Hensley Murphy just sent us this photo and message: "I just finished my Aunt Millie quilt entitled "Aunt Millie Gets her Funk On", started appliquing it 4th of July weekend this year 2010. I just completed quilting it Christmas day 2010, yesterday. Yeah. Love this quilt.
I used Free Spirit fabrics on mine. Thanks for your wonderful pattern. Needleturn applique and hand quilted...record for me to complete a large quilt like this one in less that 6 months time. I had to lay my quilting OCD aside to get this one done."
Great job, Paula! Click here to read Paula's blog.
Roz Constant from McKinney, TX, is sharing this photo of her lovely Land of the Free quilt with us! She wrote: "I’ve attached a picture of my finished Land of Liberty quilt. I sewed the label on it last night! YIPPEEE!!!! I started it as a BOM from Suzy’s in Garland way back, probably 2002 or 2003. It’s hand appliquéd and hand quilted. I worked on it in my “spare” time amongst many baby quilts for my 13 grandchildren!
Thanks for many wonderful designs and patterns."
Kim Jasko sent us this photo of her marvelous quilt! She wrote: "When I first saw this pattern, Welcome To The North Pole, I loved it right away. I knew I had to make it. I had a blast making this design. Sure it was a challenge but well worth it."
Congrats to Kim on a quilt that is sure to be a family favorite.
Helen Simpson used one block from Aunt Millie's Garden to make a really cute doll quilt. Good idea!
Sandra Croley says: "I just finished Aunt Millie's Garden (aka My Tomato Soup quilt) just in time for our local quilt show. It was such a hit! I have a longarm but at the last minuted decided to hand-quilt this one using luscious wool batting. What a beauty! I have appliqued for a while now but find after buying your "Applique the Piece-o-Cake Way" a couple of years ago, I find my work has greatly improved. I've tried so many techniques (ie: glue stick, etc.) but find it so nice to just be able to sit down and needle-turn without all the prep work.
I've attached a pic of my tomato soup quilt so you can take a look. I was able to do all the applique work with one jelly roll and one charm pack, plus some added greens. Great way to get a scrappy look but in a more controlled way!"
This is a lovely quilt and a really good way to use jelly rolls!
Darlene Bakos and Bridget Wilson Matlock made this quilt which was quilted by Kate Meyers. Besides being a Long Arm quilter, Kate and her husband are the SE Regional Coordinators for Quilts of Valor.
All three live in TN. They named their quilt Daniels Color II. Block 12, the center medallion from our Land of the Free ePatterns, is the center of their quilt. Their borders show the block off nicely and the machine quilting is spectacular.
Watch, you may see this quilt hanging in shows soon.
This is Debbie Farrelly's first applique quilt! Isn't is pretty! She says:
My quilting teacher, Megan Johnson, started to work on Aunt Millie's about a year ago, and I decided to try it too. It was a lot of fun to pick out all the different fabrics (and especially to put old scraps to good use!) and watch it come together. After I finished the top, I sent it to Oklahoma, where your friend Mary Covey did a beautiful job of quilting it for me. I knew that she had done a great job on yours so figured she was the best one to send mine to as well. And this week, after more than a year of working and waiting, I finally got to hang the quilt up in the dining room of my new apartment. It looks so beautiful and I was worth every hour of work it took to make. Now I just have to decide what to make next... :-)"
Donna Morton wrote to say:
"As soon as I saw the Aunt Millie's Garden pattern over a year ago I knew I wanted to use my embroidery software to digitize the blocks for in the hoop applique. I used batik fabrics and decided to use fancy motif fills and decorative stitch run lines to create texture and interest.
I ran a club at the store I work for teaching our machine owners how to digitize their own blocks as well.
I'll never have the patience to re-create your patterns by hand but I really enjoy playing with the embroidery software and stitching out the digitized designs on my embroidery machine. Your designs are perfect for digitized in the hoop applique and I look forward to using my embroidery software to create more quilts from your patterns."
It is indeed a lovely quilt! Thank you, Donna, for sharing it.
Jan Hirth, who has had numerous other quilts on this very page, has sent in the first Show and Tell 'Tree O' Life' quilt. Well done, Jan!
In her email, she says: "I made the Tree O' Life quilt for my niece, Emily, and everyone loves it! The side, top and bottom strips make great take along pieces for road trips and the cruise we went on recently. Emily has a cat named Twix so I put him on one of the tree branches. The kitty came from a Nancy Ota pattern. Now I plan to start on the quilt from your newest book."
Emily is a lucky lady!
Patti Mansson wrote to say "I won the Viewers Choice and Honorable Mention on my Aunt Millie's Garden quilt at the Forsyth Piecers and Quilters quilt show held April 16 and 17, 2010. Needless to say I was thrilled! I had never won anything before on my quilts. I really enjoyed making the quilt and I love to applique you might say I am addicted."
Congratulations! Your quilt is lovely and we thank you for sharing it!
Susan Atwell says
"I wanted to share with you my quilt that has been 10 long years in the making.
I bought your pattern ( and book) back in 99 to teach myself hand applique.. and so... after 10 years ( and a few design diversions later)....I FINALLY FINISHED IT for my local guild show.
Im just so thrilled that is is finally done. Most of my time is spent quilting customer tops as my second job so this really is a big deal for me! Thanks for letting my share this with you!"
Susan used parts of our Flowering Vines pattern in her quilt. It's nice to see people being creative with our patterns. Nicely done, Susan!
Jan Hirth sent us a photo of one of her student's quilts. "Cindy Shoop reduced the patterns down to 7" blocks. She entered the quilt in the Road to California Quilt Show and won third place in the traditional appliqué class. She was so excited as this was the first time she has entered a juried show." Way to go Cindy!
Dena Limpede sent us photos of her finished Christmas Trees quilt. She says:
"My father was admitted to the hospital in October after returning from a mission trip in the Dominican Republic. I stayed with him in the hospital the entire time. While there I finished up all of the trees and the entire Christmas Light border. I was so thankful to have something to occupy my hands and time for those 9 days. And I have a wonderful quilt to show for it.
It's a beautiful quilt and will be in our family for a very very long time. I will think of you and Linda each time I see it - I love the Piece O'Cake way to appliqué. It allows me to appliqué with perfect results every time!"
Thank you, Dena, for the kind words and for sharing your quilt with us all!
Stephanie wrote to say:
"I wanted to share my finally completed Cinnamon Stitches project. I call mine Folk Art Friendship. I posted the story of this quilt on my blog post if you have any interest. I love this quilt!"
We think she did a lovely job.
The prairie points with buttons are a nice touch!
