Hello there! Karen Greaves here just popping in on the bmd blog to share some machine quilting ideas. Cori & Myra have been sharing some of their unconventional inspiration sources for pattern designs. They also watch for design ideas they would like in the projects they send out for quilting. I am a fortunate recipient of some of their work. When we were looking to machine quilt Domino (featured in previous post), a scrapbook page sparked an idea for in the border.

Varying sizes of light yellow circles in the pink paper under the photo create a visually interesting design element. To create this look in the border of Domino, I drew on (rather around) items I had readily available. I often use household items such as bowls, plates and cups to mark circles on my quilts. These are the items I used for the borders of Domino.

The teal coloured cup conveniently provided two sizes of circles! A silver marking pencil or chalk marker is useful to mark on dark fabrics. Once the baseline is drawn equidistant from the border edge and the outside edge, the circles are drawn at random along that line.
Working with a free-motion foot, I work around one half of each circles all the way around the quilt. Once back at the beginning, work the other half of the circles, stitching over the connecting lines between them. This technique works well with any border motif that touches the next. Give it a try!

Karen

The waiting is over!

What does this fabric and the Domino have in common? If you go back a few posts we played a little game, what in the picture inspired our upcoming quilt in McCall's. Well it was the pictures behind the table with the 2 dots - like a domino! We always say inspiration comes in mysterious ways.

The bright colors and big prints partnered with Black and white make a graphic statement. This is a picture how the lap quilt appears in the magazine. Kit's will be on sale in our shop shortly.

Does anyone have a copy of this magazine yet?

~c