Erin Underwood Quilts

I had the good fortune to visit the Lebanon Quilt Guild in Pennsylvania for the third time this year and we made Quick and Cute Tuffets!

A couple of these were made from ties and the maker could tell you when and where the ties were worn – those two tuffets are going to be quite the family treasures. If you are using ties for your tuffets, it’s important to open them up and stabilize them for the best results.

Another tuffet was made with upholstery fabric – who would have thought of that!! Although the fabric was a little thick in the center ( and I am putting it mildly here) it all came together with beautiful results!

And while I was there, one lady brought in her Optical Illusion quilt from the last workshop I did with the group. The borders she added were from the Chinese Fans pattern – lovely combination!

Using leaves from a craft store and my Trapped Applique Technique, this little piece of fall will be around quite a while!

You can see a close-up in my gallery – enjoy!

Congratulations to Jackie who’s Diamond Star quilt won the Best of Show award at the

Gems of the Prairie Quilt Guild show in  Peoria, Illinois! Love her border!

See it and all the other beautiful quilts here.

http://gemsoftheprairie.com/quilt-show/

Been working pretty steadily here to get some things finished and ready to share! Only have a few more things to complete before market in October but for now, this is what is ready to go!

Picket Fences – a strippy little number! Can be quilt-as-you-go or quilt-as-desired too! As you can see, I’ve always got a little helper running around!

I had a lot of fun quilting this one – lots of ruler work! And not to be outdone, there’s a baby quilt size and table topper too!

Hexi Flower Fun! A little TV time for handwork. Actually this travels well too – many of these little hexis have already been to California and back!

Modern Split Dresden uses the Creative Grids 15-degree Triangle Ruler.

Check out the companion pillow top! Lots of dimensions!

And Stuff and Stack – Can you be liberated enough to let the blocks fall where they may? This goes together quickly. There’s a little extra batting stuffed behind those flower and even in those squares just to add a little more Wow Power to the quilt!

Want one of these for your very own?  All the how-to’s can be found right here in my store!

Just a comment here copyrights and “fair use”. As I offer more patterns of the “PDF” variety, I am dismayed to see how many times a PDF pattern will be downloaded by the same purchaser. Yes – I can see that! I know what you are doing!

Now I understand that things go wrong with the printer and sometimes it needs to be printed again… but 7 times…. that really leads me to believe that some unauthorized sharing (ie: copyright infringement) is going on.

Please remember that we designers work very hard to come up with fresh, creative ideas and accurate patterns to support them. Usually, we have made several variations of the item just to be sure we know what we are doing.

So if I have made 2 queen size renditions of a quilt, my material costs alone are a minimum of $600 not to mention the value of my time.I long-arm my own stuff – that’s at least a day of work, usually a week. I sit in front of a computer for days to write a pattern using a computer program that costs about $1200. Then if I choose to, I put a PDF version out on my website that cost money to maintain. At the very least, I put the pattern out there to be purchased in a “pre-printed, packaged and mailed” format.

It can take a long time to even recoup the cost of “creating” much less begin to make a profit on a pattern. And every time someone copies a pattern to “share with a friend”, it is theft,  money taken right out of the designer’s hand.  Yeah, I said it – it is stealing the pattern, like shop-lifting…. And every time someone accepts a “copied” pattern, it is the same thing…

Please respect the rules of commerce – I am trying to buy groceries here!

What is MAQ, you say? Mid-Appalachian Quilters. It is a wonderful weekend filled with workshops, vendors and evening programs! It is held at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmittsburg, Maryland, and is run completely by volunteers! I’ve been teaching there a few years now and it always amazes me how well organized everything is!

I just wanted to share a few pictures my friend and fellow teacher, Linda M Poole (Painted Applique), took of our Quick and Cute Tuffet (click here to find the pattern) workshop. They all were finished in a day!

So here’s all the production going on…

And this is what we accomplished!

Yep, yep, yep! All done! Want to try it? 🙂

I talk about this technique in my Trunk Show lecture and am so delighted that someone has uploaded a video  showing how to do it! Check it out!

Ah…. that peace that comes over you as the endorphins release with the vibration of a sewing machine and the satisfaction that results from a job well done.

Well, half done – still a bit more to go…

I talk about this technique a lot in my classes. Sharon Shamber has a great little trick for getting that fabric to do what you want it to do. I had the great pleasure to take a workshop with her years ago and she is a wealth of great information. This is one of the best things I got out my time with her that day. She’s got her own you-tube channel with lots of great info as well as two websites. http://purpledaisiesquilting.com/ and http://sharonschamber.com/

Here’s a great link on blocking your quilt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQnHLkA7bTs

And here’s how to square up that wonky block without having to trim off any points. It a 2-part video.  Here’s part 1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aplw_tVZc

and here’s part 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjZqABo2NY

Don’t you just love YouTube!

Hot off the presses! You can now have your own school of fish!

The pattern is ready and available in traditional paper format

click here for a paper pattern.

or instant gratification format PDF.

click here for pdf pattern.

This little beauty uses my unique technique, Trapped Applique, to create this fun wall-hanging. Easy to completed with traditional applique techniques too! Enjoy – all you fish lovers out there!