Quilts | Missouri Star Blog

March 2, 2017

Call for Stories – National Quilting Month 2017

March is National Quilting Month and we’re using it as an opportunity to celebrate the giving nature of quilters everywhere! Here’s how you can join the fun (and win lots of Quilter’s Cash!) :

Quilt from the Heart: This month (and every month) we challenge you to #giveastitch by making a quilt and donating it to a person or organization in need. Listen to a special message from Jenny and check out the information we’ve gathered to help you out HERE including easy to make patterns and a list of organizations accepting quilt donations. Be sure to share your charity quilts and the story behind them with us on social media using #giveastitch!!

Share: We’re continuing the Missouri Star Quilt Co. tradition of holding a “Stitched Together” story contest, and we want YOU to enter! Share your story with us: Has quilting made your life better? Has it changed you or touched your heart? Have you used your quilting skills to make someone else’s life better? Email us at stories@missouriquiltco.com and tell us how in 500 words or less for the chance to be one of three grand prize winners to win Quilter’s Cash and be featured on our Daily Deal page and Daily Deal email!

1st place will be featured on National Quilting Day (Saturday, March 18th) and will receive $250 in Quilter’s Cash
2nd Place will receive $100 in Quilter’s Cash and will be featured Sunday, March 19th.
3rd Place will receive $50 in Quilter’s Cash and will be featured Monday, March 20th.

A few details to remember:

Entries must be emailed to stories@missouriquiltco.com by noon (CST)on Saturday, March 11th.
If you would like to remain anonymous, please let us know. (Or, come up with a fabulous pen name!)
Even if your story isn’t chosen as one of the three winners, we might still share it in future Daily Deal stories, blog posts, or magazine articles. By submitting your story, you acknowledge that Missouri Star may use it at some future date for commercial purposes.

We are so excited to read your stories! We want to be inspired! We want to laugh! We want to cry! Just be sure to send your entry to stories@missouriquiltco.com by noon (CST) on Saturday, March 11th, 2017!

Haven’t read the touching stories in Stitched Together Volumes 1, 2 & 3 yet? Get them HERE! You’ll love them!

February 6, 2017

Summer in the Park Tutorial Reboot Featuring Lee Ann Perry!

Revisited Quilting Tutorials from Missouri Star Quilt Co

Hi! My name is Lee Ann. I’m a wife and mother of four. When I was expecting my third child, I saw some rag quilts on Etsy and thought they were adorable—but expensive. I mean, $65 for a little baby blanket?

So I bought my first sewing machine and a set of fat quarters by Kaffe Fassett. I learned how to make my first rag quilt by watching a tutorial by Vanessa Vargas Wilson on YouTube. I was pretty happy with the result but my husband teased me a bit. ”Why spend $65 on a blanket when you can make it yourself for $300?”

But, I fell in love with sewing! Putting colors together. Feeling the fabric run through my fingers. And the finished project was an item that was both USEFUL and beautiful. I made several rag quilts before getting bored and wanting to learn more. That’s when I found the free video tutorials online by MSQC.

One of the first “real” quilts I made was from a pattern called Summer in the Park using a jelly roll, a line by Tula Pink, the Birds and the Bees.

Watching the videos made it easy for me to follow along—or watch a half dozen times if necessary, and sometimes it was! The finished quilt was so worth it.

But, like many quilters, I don’t ever make the same thing twice! You’ve got to change it up a bit.

Recently I came back to this pattern and changed only two things.

In the tutorial, Natalie uses a brightly colored jelly roll and combines it with a jelly roll of white strips. When sewing them together, she sews two strip sets, 1) white, print, white, and 2) print, white, print.

So to change it up, I chose a jelly roll of Carolyn Friedlander’s Carkai. Instead of white, I used a darker CHAMBRAY fabric. I also changed how I sewed my strips together. ALL of my 3 strip sets were sewed as: print, chambray, print.

The 3-strip-sets are then sewed to each other, right sides facing, into a “tube.”

Now comes the really fun part—cutting the tubes into squares. You lay your tube down and cut triangles—when you open it up, they will be perfect squares!

The best ruler for this is the Triangle Square Up Ruler, 9 1/2” by Quilt in a Day. I don’t happen to have that ruler (mine only goes up to 6 1/2”), so I had to make do with my big square up ruler for squares. I put the point of my ruler right up to the seam but did not cross it. Then, I made sure both of the 8” marks touched the bottom seam before making a cut.

Continue cutting the tube, swiveling the ruler around the opposite way to maximize the number of cuts you can make. I was able to get five finished 8” squares from each “tube.”

When sewing the squares together, I made sure to nest the seams to make perfect points.

I sent this quilt off to MSQC for machine quilting. My local lady is great but she will not back anything with fleece. MSQC does — Cuddle/minky too! This is my first quilt backed with fleece and it’s pretty much the best thing EVER.

After it came back, I had to choose binding fabric. I always “audition” a few colors first.

After letting this quilt and the different options sit on my table for a few days, I ended up going with the same chambray I used in the quilt blocks.

My favorite binding tutorial is The Ultimate Quilt Binding Tutorial by MSQC. No binding tool required! I used to have one but I don’t use it anymore. This method is the easiest! But, I must confess, I had to watch this video EVERY SINGLE TIME a quilt needed finishing for at least the first ten quilts I made.

Here’s the finished result of my “reboot”.

And now that I’ve spent a few years piecing quilts…I’ve decided a $65 rag quilt is more than fair! A bargain, really! But, I wouldn’t trade learning a new hobby for ANYTHING. Quilting has become my quiet place and saving grace in my busy life.

Thank you, MSQC for asking me to write this blog post and for teaching me how to quilt in the first place!

You can follow my quilty adventures on Instagram at leeannjperry.

May 6, 2015May 10, 2015

Kona Days in Hamilton, MO Recap

In mid April we hosted a wonderful event here in Hamilton! Robert Kaufman Fabrics was celebrating the 30th Anniversary of their Kona Cotton solids fabric line, so they selected 30 amazing quilters and invited them each to create an original quilt using Kona Cotton fabric. For more information on the history of Kona and a complete list of quilters contributed, Robert Kaufman created a fantastic Lookbook, which you can find here

Kona Cotton Lookbook: 30 Quilts for 30 Years

There were so many quilts that they filled our Sewing Center as well as a couple of our shops! They are just gorgeous and we loved having them here! This photo shows just some of the quilts that were in our Sewing Center, where we host frequent quilting retreats!

This quilt by Shea Henderson is gorgeous! We love the colors and it’s such a fun, memorable pattern!

The detail and color of each quilt was so impressive and mesmerizing!

Along with these incredibly meticulous and artful quilts, we had a few great events to add to the fun! Our very own Jenny Doan was signing copies of Block Magazine and gave one of her fabulous trunk shows!

A photo posted by Missouri Star Quilt Co (@missouriquiltco) on Apr 16, 2015 at 8:55am PDT

We also had book signings with Shea Henderson for her new book, School of Sewing, as well as with Angela and Cloe Walters for their new book, Get Quilting with Angela & Cloe.

We had a super fun Cars & Quilts event that weekend, where people brought in their vintage cars and lined them up all along downtown Hamilton, then went inside to view the 30 Quilts from Kona! There was nowhere to park in town!

We love to look for opportunities to serve those in need, so during Kona Days we created kits for people to come in and sew pillowcases to be donated to a local women’s shelter. We also were accepting food donations to the local food pantry! Peanut butter and jelly are a treat for those receiving assistance from the food pantry, so we asked for those specific items when attending Jenny’s trunk show and got an amazing response!

We had a blast and can’t wait for our next big event in Hamilton!! Thank you to everyone who attended, participated and donated!!!

September 28, 2009September 14, 2012

Mini Quilts!

I have recently joined a few of the mini quilt swaps that are going on around the internet. It has been really fun to make mini quilts. Its totally new to me as I have always made larger quilts, or table runners. But, mini quilts are so small that you can really be creative and try out all kinds of new things. You can do things that seemed hard or too time consuming. I have experimented with embroidery, new blocks (Dresden plate!), free motion quilting, and using scraps in a creative way. It is something I highly recommend! So, enjoy these pics of a few of my mini quilts!

P6110146-1 — My first Mini Quilt. I adapted a pattern for a pillow from a magazine! Its made with Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks Fabric and measures 13 X 20. I did some free motion quilting on the squares then finished off the bottom of the quilt with an all over pattern called “just roses”. I love this one!

P6110139 — This was my first attempt at a Dresden plate! Of course, I used the nifty Dresden plate ruler! It is made using a Tranquility Charm pack and some solid yardage from my stash. It is quilted in an allover pattern we have here at the shop called “flower”. It measures approx. 25 X 20

HPIM2250 — This is my most recent mini quilt! It was made for Doll Quilt Swap 7. (Such a great swap group!) I used Riley Blake Fabric and after sewing a large four patch for my background, I appliqued the rings in a large circle using a blanket stitch. It is machine quilted using an allover pattern called “jills bubbles” It is adorable! It measures 24 X 25.

Making mini quilts is so much fun…and you can try all kinds of quilting challenges out on a small scale! So, get brave and try something new! Then show us a pic in our forums!

Happy Quilting!