Category Archives: Crumb Quilting

Come See Me at the Purrs and Paws Holiday Boutique!

Come see me this weekend at the Purrs and Paws Holiday Boutique! I will be shutting down the etsy shop and opening an in-person booth on Saturday, November 7th 2015 from 8:30am to 3:00pm. Admission and parking are free at the middle school location in Ventura, CA. Bring cash or check to buy handmade art from me. Boutique benefits the local no-kill animal shelter.

Here’s the details for the Purrs and Paws Holiday Boutique.

November 7th, 2015. 8:30am-3:00pm
Balboa Middle School – 247 S. Hill Rd., Ventura, CA 93003
Benefits the Humane Society of Ventura County, a no-kill shelter
Meet Megan. Buy stuff with cash or check. Hugs included! 🙂
Over 30 other vendors.

This is sure to be a fun event. I’ve been busy the past few weeks making some new things. Here are some of them. (For sale in the shop until Friday, then whatever doesn’t sell will be relisted after this weekend.) More are available at my booth that have yet to be photographed.

I hope to see you there!

Studio Tour 2 of 2

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I’m excited to be back with you on this blog, Facebook, and Instagram. As always, the etsy shop continues to be up and running with new quilt art by Megan in there all the time. (See what I did there?)

Anyway, here’s part 2 of the art studio tour. My for-sale items are all in the closet in labeled Xerox boxes. I chose the Xerox boxes for these guys because they fit nicely and the boxes themselves are kind of ugly. Practical without beauty, they’re great behind closed doors. I enjoy the organization too because I no longer have to search through multiple boxes to find something. Bags have their own box, as do Christmas tree skirts, scarves and bibs, tableware and more.

Here’s my desk workspace. I have the computer, sewing machine, and projects I’m currently working on here. I also have a wooden desk and long folding table to use now. The table was in the garage while we were cutting wood but we’ve finally finished installing all of the wood flooring. It’s so exciting to have room to spread out! I’ll be basting a quilt in a few days and it’ll be super handy to do that on the table rather than on the floor.

Between the wall of shelves and the closet is my tower of UFO’s. It holds some of my unfinished projects, all labeled and sorted. I love the fact that this is a tower of drawers so I don’t have to unstack anything to open a bin. One of ’em is stuffed full of crumb blocks. Aren’t they pretty?!

When the Playground’s Crowded

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I went to the park today to photograph some baby quilts. I talked about using appropriate props in this post and aimed to do that. Things don’t always work out the way you think they will. The playground was crowded and I wasn’t going to ask all the kids having fun to get out of my frame. So I took the quilts back home and looked around my yard for other options.

My fence is actually a pretty good backdrop. I pinned a string of fabric on the back of each quilt for hanging. The strings loop around two nails on top of the fence where we hung Christmas lights last year. I like the natural look of the wood and the contrast it adds.

Here’s the front side of the above quilt. How cool is it that this crumb-pieced baby quilt is double sided?! The front has crumb blocks pieced into black, white, and red fabrics. The back has crumb blocks appliqued onto a green, red, and white floral.

Here’s a Raggedy Ann and Overall Andy quilt. I paired this sweet fabric with a solid red to merge modern and traditional. The chevron zig-zag looks a bit like a crown too.

This one is a simple floral patchwork.
I’m working on two more baby quilts. (And I have several more in mind that haven’t yet been started!) One is for this week’s Project Quilting challenge. It uses only 5″ charm squares of fabric. I’ll be cutting them up and piecing ’em back together. Here’s the first cut. I have one week to finish and enter it.

Quilts and more are for sale in my etsy shop! Here’s a sampling of other baby-sized ones that are ready today. Want something specific you don’t see here? I specialize in custom orders. Let’s talk.

Linking up to Oh Scrap!

A Brutiful Quilt for Project Quilting

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This week’s project quilting challenge is sunrise/sunset. My quilt is called “Brutiful,” a term I heard this morning in a TED talk by Glennon Doyle Melton. It’s a mash-up of the words brutal and beautiful. Isn’t life both most of the time? This term is perfect for what I’ve been thinking about while designing and making the quilt this week. (Yes, only 7 days to make quilts in this challenge!) It’s thinking about a sunrise in autumn while in a deep dark pit. It’s the hope that in the brutal beautiful still exists and is accessible. With that in mind here’s my process story in photographs.

Here’s the finished quilt. It’s 30×40 inches and has machine piecing, hand embroidery, hand quilting, and machine quilting. I did them in that order too. It’s bound in black so as not to distract from the dream. The sunrise is yellow, orange, and pink crumb-pieced blocks.
Click here and check out the other sunrise/sunset projects. Vote for your favorites and be inspired by the art!

I’m linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching and Main Crush Monday and Show and Tell Tuesday.

Favorites Friday: Katie, Fish, and Crumbs

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Welcome to my first Favorites Friday post. I’m hosting a link up party and invite you to write about some of your favorite things, people, memories, and projects. Share your blog’s URL in the party here:

http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=481499

One of my favorite things about writing regularly, like in this blog, is when it’s easy it’s good. Sometimes the story just leaps out of me onto the screen and before I know it I have a full post just waiting for photographs. Other times it’s the photographs that tell the story and need little explanation. I usually have at least a little bit to reword, remove, or rearrange in my first drafts before publishing. The best posts, however, rarely need it. They just come together in almost a magical way. I say exactly what needs to be said in exactly the way you need to hear it. Here are two of those posts from 2014.

Bad Quilt – It’s Not a Fish. This post tells of my grief journey and the art piece I made after having a miscarriage.

Home Grown Friends. This post is about time, friendship and a stubborn girl named Katie who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Apparently, this just letting things out method works for video, too! This clip was shot in just one take. Ami Simms edited some images in but for the most part it was just five minutes at my sewing table.

Happy Favorites Friday! What are some of your favorite things? Share in the link-up below!

http://new.inlinkz.com/luprev.php?id=481499

Custom? Yes Please.

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I’m so glad I did the sales booth! It was on Thursday at the Santa Clarita Valley Quilt Guild’s meeting. Baby bibs were the biggest seller and these cute tree ornaments got some interest too. I didn’t make many dollars that day, which was a little disappointing. What was successful was the connections made. People asked about my crumb piecing. I’ll be pitching that class to guilds and shops for the new year! My November 7th class was postponed. I’ll let you guys know when it’s been rescheduled. pink crumb placemats

Quilters asked if I’m interested in doing projects they’d been asked to do but had no interest in. Yes! I loooove custom work. I’ll gladly make a quilt out of uniforms or grandma’s linens. Right now I’m making baby quilts for two girls. Next in line is pillow shams that match the bedding in a new family’s master bedroom.

I’m still unpacking and reorganizing things. When I figure out which pile the camera is under I’ll show you guys some photographs of my booth setup.

My etsy shop was on vacation mode but is now back up and running. I’m revamping some listings and adding new items so it’ll be filling up over the next few days. Expect to see the tree ornaments, crumbs place mats, and this cute chevron quilt in the shop soon.

There’s still time to get a custom order in to be completed before the holidays! First come, first made. Let’s talk. mrs.megan.null @ gmail.com

Goal: Have a Sales Booth in 2014

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I made some new year’s resolutions in January this year. Usually I don’t bother but mine in 2013 really helped keep me focused. It was two things: be my own advocate and focus on the good. For 2014 I had some specific things in mind for my business. One was to have a sales booth for my quilting items sometime this year. Well, it’s happening!

I’m get to have a sales table during a quilt guild meeting on Thursday night. This is for my old quilt guild where I used to live, about an hour away. Due to some kinks in the new laws about non-profits, among other factors, the guild’s a little low on funds this year. So my proposal was simple: please let me help you by running a fundraiser. I love when opportunities turn out to be win-win.

So here’s the deal. Most craft fairs run for 1-2 days at six-eight hours not including setup. Depending on the size of your spot and how popular the fair is the fees to have a table can be upwards of $100. What I worked out with the guild is that they will get 50% of the sales from my card holders. Then they’ll also get 25% of all other sales. No money up front from me. If all goes well they’ll get more than the traditional $100 booth fee. No risk on either side of a loss… and an opportunity for both the guild I love and myself to make some moneys.

Sometimes it pays to be creative! I suspect that if I just asked to have a booth flat out the answer would have been no. What’s in it for them? Now there’s plenty in it for both of us. booth card holders

As you can see, I made a LOT of card holders! 108 to be exact. There’s actually another layer underneath the ones photographed. They’ll be on sale for $6 each and have been pulled from my etsy shop. I’ll get the leftovers back up on there after my sale. booth box 2 booth box 1 I’m busy organizing my inventory and adding price tags to everything. Above are two of the boxes-in-progress.

If I have time, I have five small tree skirts, 11 baby bibs, three baby quilts, two table runners, and four pincushions in various stages of sewn-up-ness. They’ll be added to the inventory as I finish them. If they’re not completed (and they can’t ALL be) by Thursday night no biggie. They’ll go up in my etsy shop for you guys just the same.

The December holidays are coming! Birthdays too. Let’s collaborate on the perfect gifts for your loved ones. I specialize in custom work. mrs.megan.null @ gmail.com Let’s talk.

Treasure Hunt in the Crumbs

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Crumb-pieced fabric is great for I-Spy or Treasure Hunt quilts! Finding the cute little things in my students’ made-fabric was one of the most fun parts about the test class I taught on Saturday. A BIG HUGE GIANT SMOOCHY KISS to my friends who not only allowed me to use them as lab rats, but who gave me invaluable input on how to do and not do things. Terminology matters and having clear examples does, too!

Anyway, on to the fun part of this post. Three of the artists in attendance sent photographs so I can share them with you guys. I’ll tell you about the fourth’s project first. We’ll call her “M.” Get your imaginations ready because *gasp* I didn’t have my camera in class. This talent made her crumb pieces in the leftover fabrics from working on an appliqued and embroidered mermaid. M is still working on blinging-up that center and will cut the crumb pieces into a 1″ border for it. It’s going to look so good!

Here’s a sample of Z’s creations. This quilter decided not to finish the crumb blocks into something, yet. Z said that the improvisational piecing technique of making these without a pattern helped her feel artistic. She making the pieces so much that (in the heat of the moment, maybe, but maybe not) they might make a fun bed-sized quilt. So Z is saving what she made in class to merge with more she’ll make during her home-sewing time.

Can you see the tiny triangle? It’s so cute! And no, it’s not made from a 1/4 inch piece of fabric… it’s all in how you sew the pieces together.

P made this little tree, inspired by a photograph a friend shared online. Like M, she used a limited color palate for her scraps. This time they’re all greens. P also worked on another tree, this one with little dancing ladybugs on the ground. We’ll see if they end up as wall art, a pillow, or something else!

Can you see three pigs? How about monkey eyes?

“A” made two place-mat tops in class. I love the blue and tan that she used to keep them cohesive and clearly a set! By the time I asked for photos, A had made two more. So here’s her set of four very modern-looking different but the same place-mats.

Can you find the words “Bug Off” and “Moo”? How about a dog’s face, a circle of flowers, a bicycle and a stop sign?

What else do you see in these crumb blocks? I’d love to know which pieces catch your eye. One of Z’s scraps stood out to me because I used that same fabric in a baby quilt.

If you live in Southern California, I’d love to see you at my class in San Luis Obispo on November 7th. I may have more classes next year. Of course, I’ll keep you guys updated. 🙂

If you love the look of crumbs but aren’t a quilter, aren’t local, or just have too many projects on your list already, check out my etsy shop. There are lots of things in there that have these crumb-fabrics. I also do custom orders so if there’s something specific that you want just let me know!

Red and White Challenge – Crumbs Pillow

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Look what I made! This fun heart-shaped pillow is crumb-pieced from scraps of fabrics with only reds and whites. No pinks or browns, only shades of reds and whites. It was made for my friend Kim’s Project Quilting Challenge for this month. Of course, I got it finished in the nick of time.

When crumb quilting, I usually piece all my bits together regardless of color. Limiting it to only two was a creative stretch and I’m pleased with the final product. We’re not a pretty pillow household, so it’s in my etsy shop for someone to adopt and love.

Special pricing today only! The 25% off all made items ends with August. This pillow’s $42 but you can have it for only $31.50 if you act quickly. https://www.etsy.com/listing/201798075/pieced-heart-pillow-red-and-white-12×12?

Do you want to learn this technique? I’m teaching a class at SLO Creative Studio in San Luis Obispo, CA on November 7th. Sign up at http://www.slo-creative.com

ZK Wedding Pillow

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My cousin Zack got married this weekend to his high school sweetheart. Doesn’t he look dapper?! Of course the bride is gorgeous. Welcome to our family, Kacee. I love you both. I wasn’t able to attend the wedding, but wanted to make something special for the couple. So here’s what I came up with. It’s a joint present with my Dad. He paid for the materials.

It’s a crumb pillow! This one measures 12×20 and has a few embroidered details as well as their initials. On the bottom is their wedding date, and before the “Z” you’ll find their first names. See?

Congratulations Zack and Kacee. Happy honeymoon!

QUILTArtbymegan

For lovers of quilts, art, and Megan.

Category Archives: Crumb Quilting

Come See Me at the Purrs and Paws Holiday Boutique!

Studio Tour 2 of 2

When the Playground’s Crowded

A Brutiful Quilt for Project Quilting

Favorites Friday: Katie, Fish, and Crumbs

Custom? Yes Please.

Goal: Have a Sales Booth in 2014

Treasure Hunt in the Crumbs

Red and White Challenge – Crumbs Pillow

ZK Wedding Pillow