July round up: Inspiration, triangles and dreams of cooler weather

July was a hot month, but my quilting projects were all looking ahead to to colder times. And with the progress I’ve been making, they just might be done in time to enjoy when the leaves start turning.

Quilting Arts: I took a mini workshop from Pokey Bolton at the International Quilt Festival and was completely inspired. See how Pokey takes quilting out of the box.

Fabric dying fail: I got inspired by the International Quilt Festival and gave fabric dying a try. See where I went wrong.

Quilts on Barns: Take a tour of Barn Quilt Capital of Wisconsin.

Christmas in July: Going to a quilt shop is like going to Target. You go in for one thing and come out with $100 in purchases you didn’t plan on. That’s what happened with I went to the fabric store to get more fabric for my maple leaf log cabin quilt and came out with the new line  Holiday Frost by Jan Shade Beach for Henry Glass & Co., Inc. I turned the panel into this fun lap quilt.

Live on the edge: Sewing an 1/8-inch around the edge of your quilt helps prepare it for the long arm, keeps the edges from stretching and keeps the seams intact for a pieced border.

Four corners: Learn how to keep your triangles from stretching on the bias and make sure all your points end up in the right place with the video tutorial on how to make quarter square triangles from squares. Use the tutorial to tackle your own triangle quilt or download the triangle to make the pattern I designed especially for the Triangle Boot Camp series.

Speed Quilting: I started the maple leafs log cabin quilt two months ago and I’ve already got 52 of 64 blocks done for a king sized quilt. I owe my speedy progress to a my obsession with Instagram.