Mixed Media Free Download

Filed under: Projects | 01/19/2012 (6:25 pm) |

Mosaic-Mixed Media Free Pattern

Mosaic-Mixed Media Free Pattern


Who says you can’t mix commercially printed fabrics with hand-dyed batiks? Not me! One of my most recent projects for Timeless Treasures Fabrics used both and turned out lovely in two different colorways. Check out the free download here: Mosaic-Mixed Media Free Quilt Pattern
The patterns uses easy 60 degree diamonds with sashing and cornerstones. So fun!

Schedule

Filed under: Events, Schedule | 01/17/2012 (3:32 pm) |

Here’s Cheryl’s itinerary for the foreseeable future. Click here to contact her if you’d like to see her in your hometown! Check back here for updates. We’ll try to keep it current.

March 7 –Top 10 Ways to Avoid Unsewing Lecture–Puyallup Valley Quilters, Puyallup, WA

March 9-10–Quilt-O-Grams class, Trunk Show, Paintstiks class–Mountain Stars Quilters Guild, Rogue River, OR

March 12–Trunk Show–Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild, Longview, WA

April 8-13–student at Asilomar Empty Spools

May 3-4–Trunk Show and Workshop–Coos Sand and Sea Quilt Guild, Coos Bay, OR

July 8-15–Playing in Sisters for Quilt Show week

August 25– Teaching Quilt-O-Grams and Easy Chenille Applique at the 2012 Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, WA

September 9-10–Trunk Show & Workshop–Mt Bachelor Quilt Guild, Bend, OR

September 11-12–Trunk Show & Fun With One Block Quilts Workshop–Sunriver, OR

October 1-2–Trunk Show & Workshop–Tehachapi, CA

April 2-7, 2013–Teaching Radiant Jewels from Blocks to Diamonds at Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar in CA

Green Tea Available for FREE Download!

Filed under: Projects | 11/16/2011 (12:38 am) |
This is one of my newest designs for Timeless Treasures, and one of my all time favorite quilts! It’s available as a free download, just remember to set the page scaling to “none” when you print or your curve template won’t come out the right size. Just sayin’…

72" x 80" Green Tea Quilt--easy curved piecing--fabulous Timeless Treasures Tonga Batiks

72" x 80" Green Tea Quilt--easy curved piecing--fabulous Timeless Treasures Tonga Batiks

Here’s where to get the pattern from Timeless Treasures:
http://www.ttfabrics.net/cgi-bin/fabricshop/patterns.cgi?patternID=283

Artistcally Speaking Talk Show

Filed under: Events | 05/16/2011 (4:50 pm) |

Sunday, May 22 at 3:30pm PT, 6:30pm ET, I will be interviewed on Artistically Speaking Talk Show by Rebecca Parsons on the internet at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artisticallyspeaking/2011/05/22/artistically-speaking-with-cheryl-malkowski

Join us for a lively hour of chat and the opportunity to win a copy of  my latest book, Blocks to Diamonds!

__ASTS-featured-guest-badge

Mitered corners

Filed under: Projects | 03/18/2010 (8:52 pm) |

If you’ve never found a good way to get an accurate mitered corner in a quilt border, try this method and see if it works as well for you as it does for me.

1. Cut the border fabric long enough so that the short end of the border fabric goes at least as far as the border on each adjacent side will be. So if your border will finish at 7 1/2″ wide, the border fabric needs to be 15″ wider than the unfinished quilt top.
2. Start by stitching the border onto the quilt, matching the centers and stopping 1/4″ from the raw edge of the quilt. Backstitch. Make sure the stitching just meets at the mark 1/4″ from the corners.
3. Press the seams toward the borders.
4. At one corner, fold the border down so it lays on the inside of the quilt and the short end butts up against, or goes beyond the border on the adjacent side.

Fold one border onto the quilt and adjacent border

Fold one border onto the quilt and adjacent border

5. Find the corner where the 2 border pieces meet on the outside of the quilt and pin right into the corner.

Pin right at the corner where the borders cross on the outside edge

Pin right at the corner where the borders cross on the outside edge

6. Fold back the top border between the pin and the place where the stitching lines meet at the corner of the quilt. Usea ruler to check the angle. It should be 45 degrees. With a striped fabric like this one, you can also line up the stripes so they are straight. I can barely see the fold in this photo because the lines match so well. It shows a little on the far right. Press to crease the miter.

Fold back at 45 degree angle, use a ruler to insure accuracy

Fold back at 45 degree angle, use a ruler to insure accuracy. Press.

7. Now that you have  a crease, lift the border piece that is on top and smooth it out right side up. Align the crease so that it forms a 90 degree angle when placed on top of the adjacent border.

square mitered corner, check with a ruler

square mitered corner, check with a ruler

8. Now, mark where the corners join and carefully lift up that crease. Use Elmer’s water soluble School Glue or a water soluble glue stick that you are confident will wash out and apply some glue to the underside of the crease. I use Elmer’s School Glue because I know it will wash out.

Glue underside of crease wieh Elmer's School Glue

Glue underside of crease wieh Elmer's School Glue

9. Press crease in place.

Press, making sure to keep a square corner

Press, making sure to keep a square corner

10. Okay, now that the miter is in place and can’t go anywhere, you’re just about set. Turn it to the back side and you will see the crease.

Crease from backside

Crease from backside

11. Pull the quilt center away from the border. It will fold up at the same angle as the miter. You don’t want it in your way when you’re stitching. Notice that the crease starts at the place where the stitching meets in the corners of the quilt.

Fold away quilt center

Fold away quilt center

12. Stitch from the place where the stitching meets in the corners of the quilt to the outside of the border right on the crease.

Stitch along crease

Stitch along crease

13. Trim away excess fabric.

Trim excess fabric

Trim excess fabric

So there you have it! This is the easiest, most accurate method I’ve used for  mitering corners. And since the glue comes out when the quilt is washed, stiffness is not a problem. I love that I don’t have to mess with pins OR slippery fabric!

My fabric line is here!

Filed under: Uncategorized | 03/13/2010 (7:52 pm) |

After about a year of working on designing a line of fabrics for Paintbrush Studio, the independent-only side of Fabri-Quilt, my line of fabric is now here in the states! It’s been pretty fun watching and working on its evolution. I’m very happy with the results and can’t wait to see what people do with it. It features 2 main fabrics, one with a caramel background and one with a light background:

Style # 1902

Style # 1902

Style #1901

Style #1901

I love the watercolor look of the flowers and the mix of the caramel with the pinks greens and golds. If you know me well, you know that this color scheme is a bit of a stretch for me. Usually I can’t think in brown. But the whole mix of colors really works for me here.

There is a very useful stripe in the line, which I’m thinking will be used for borders. It cuts neatly into 8″ strips and has 5.4 repeats across the width of the fabric, so you will only need to purchase whatever length you need once, and have enough striping for all 4 sides of a quilt.

Border Stripe

Border Stripe

Rumor has it that it will be shipping in July. It takes a while for the fabric to get onto the bolts and everything to get all ready. Check to see if the whole line is in at Paintbrush Studio. While we wait for it, know that I’ll be designing away with it. Because that’s my job!

Filed under: Events | 09/15/2009 (3:39 pm) |

This weekend there will be fun times in McMinnville, OR, at the McMinnville Comunity Quilt Show. It runs September 18 and 19 from 10-4 each day at the Bethel Baptist Church, 325 NW Baker Creek Road, McMinnville, OR.  They will have over 300 quilts on display, door prizes and more. On Saturday, I’ll be presenting a trunk show at 2pm. If you’re in the area, stop by, we’ll be looking for you!

Fun in New Braunfels, TX

Filed under: Events | 05/02/2009 (12:46 pm) |

A good time was had by all–at least it looked like it to me! So despite one ridiculously long flight to Texas that day, and only 3 1/2 hours sleep, I proved to myself that I really can do anything for just one day! God bless my hostess, Sarah, who was up until after 3:30 am to retrieve me from the San Antonio airport.

We had a trunk show in the morning and a 3 hour class in the afternoon where we made Quilt-O-Grams.  Here’s a photo of the ladies sorting through the shapes for their projects. It reminded me of shopping the sock sale the day after Thanksgiving!

New Braunfels Area Quilt Guild ladies find their shapes

Off to Texas!

Filed under: Events | 04/16/2009 (9:35 am) |

 

Today I’ll make my way to Portland, OR, so I can fly to Texas tomorrow. The New Braunfels Quilt Guild near San Antonio has invited me to teach and speak there and I’m really looking forward to my trip. We’ll be creating some fun, fused cards that are featured in my book Quilt-O-Grams, © 2008 C&T Publishing. The last 3 days have been spent preparing a slide presentation to supplement the quilts I’m bringing, and juggling those quilts and supplies so that every piece of luggage is the right weight.

Go To Quilt-O-Grams

 

 There was fabric to be fused and shapes to be cut out for the projects. We’ll be making Fantasy Flower cards like these:
Fantasy Flower project

All these are made with simple shapes cut with the Accucut die cutting machine–easy and quick!
Fantasy Flower project

This one has some couched yarns on it just for fun.

Fantasy Flower project

This is my class sample project. I’m sure we’re going to have a great time. Wish you could be there!

Shadow Box Quilt details

Filed under: Projects | 03/04/2009 (3:08 pm) |

Shadow Box Quilt

Have you seen the newest design I made for Timeless Treasures?  They sent me the most scrumptious batiks to work with and this was the challenge: design a quilt that will look great in 2 totally different color ways, uses 12 fabrics each, all in the same amounts. Once I got my brain in the right frame of mind, the rest was a blast.

Here’s a tip: When you’re making the  long diagonal seams along the line that you’ve drawn on the block, be sure your seam allowance is a scant 1/4″. I just put the “fence” on my 1/4″ foot on the far side of the line and that worked very well. By doing this, you’ll be sure to have enough fabric to square up to exactly 12 1/2″. On the other hand, if the whole block is a bit smaller, the quilt police are not coming….
In this block, there are actually some goofy little seams that end up out in the middle of nowhere, that are part of the reason this block is so easy to make. It is also the reason I have you being a bit careful about matching the colors when you’re adding the frames around the squares. When the colors match, those goofy seams just don’t show. Using this goofy seam method keeps us from having to stitch a really long, unprotected bias edge and from having to match what would be diagonally cut frame pieces. Whew, I feel better already. Have fun with this!

revised figure 2a

revised figure 2a

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