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Hurricane Quilt Pattern

Hurricane quilt in rainbow colors

Today is the Hurricane quilt pattern Release Day! And I love to celebrate pattern releases with a sale, so you can get the Hurricane quilt pattern on sale through 8/10/2021 and use the code HURRICANE for 20% off everything else in my shop. You’ll want to keep reading until the end because there are kits, too! Also, there are some sweet free patterns in there too, if you haven’t checked them out!



Inspiration

Before we had kids, my husband and I started our work careers in Houston, TX. In the few years that we lived there, we had countless tropical storm warnings and a handful of pretty serious hurricanes. One particularly memorable storm was IKE. I had just started a new position at a brand new high school (really–it was the school’s first year to be open) and we didn’t know if we should stay and ride it out or evacuate. We ended up leaving after the storm hit and we lost power to stay with my parents a few hours away, since we didn’t know when the power would be restored (spoiler, it came back on within a day…womp, womp). My new high school sustained a lot of damage and, if I remember right, closed for two weeks for repairs.

I can’t stand bad weather…but love to make the best of it

If you’ve ever evacuated an area in hurricane/tropical storm territory, you’ve probably noticed the little graphic painted on the highway shoulder and marked on road signs to indicate a storm route evacuation. I really can’t stand storms and bad weather, and I remember thinking how much I liked the little symbol and the hundreds of painted ones we passed on our way out of town–in spite of what it stood for. The symbol for those storms has always stuck with me and I needed to create a scrapbook of sorts with the symbol. So the hurricane quilt pattern was born and it ALMOST makes me not hate those destructive storms and what they stand for. I like to think of it as a way to turn lemons into lemonade 🙂 .

The PDF and print copies are here for you to make your own stunning Hurricane quilt. I’ve made sure this pattern is jam packed full of all the resources you might need or want, including:

Hurricane Quilt Pattern Features

  • Easy to read cutting diagrams
  • FIVE sizes, including:
    • Baby
    • Throw
    • Twin
    • Queen
    • King
  • Easy to read color-coded charts and diagrams
  • Cutting chart/checklist
  • Clearly written instructions and colorful diagrams
  • Backing prep diagrams for each size
  • Coloring/planning sheet
various size options of the hurricane quilt pattern from baby to king size
Size options
Continue reading Hurricane Quilt Pattern
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QuiltCon 2018

Quilting spacing

Well, months have passed since QuiltCon happened in California, and I’m just now getting around to writing a blog post about it.  I wasn’t able to attend, but several of the quilts I quilted did!  There’s a reason I didn’t write this post in a timely manner.  I have this thing where I think that quilting someone else’s quilt doesn’t necessarily give me the right to share the quilting.  I guess I don’t want people to think I’m trying to take credit for someone else’s work.  I also don’t really know or understand the rules about when someone’s quilt wins something that I’ve quilted…does that mean I also share that victory?  I’m sharing this one because I am super excited about how the quilting turned out, and it won a Judge’s Choice Award at QuiltCon.  There are so many amazing quilts and creators in the winner’s circle, so be sure you check them all out here!  A huge congratulations to Leslie and all the other amazing artists who were recognized for their work.

Nests and vessels
Nests and Vessels by Leslie Tucker Jenison, Quilted by Joanna Marsh (photo from the QuiltCon Website)

Leslie Tucker Jenison created and constructed this quilt titled “Nests and Vessels”, and it was awarded a Judge’s Choice Award by Beverly Fine.  Leslie has studied with Nancy Crow and her style is truly unique and inspiring.   L is a contemporary quilt artist and designer for RJR fabrics.  Leslie’s use of color and shape never cease to amaze me, and I consider myself quite lucky that I get to quilt for her.  Leslie had several quilts that were juried into the show, and they were all equally inspiring and thought provoking.

I’ll share a few progress pictures from the quilting.  Leslie requested some straight line quilting on this one, and I varied the proximity of the lines to be distanced 1/16″ apart to 1/4″ apart.  This picture probably demonstrates that the best:

Quilting spacing
Quilting spacing

And here are a few more:

Nests and Vessels
Nests and Vessels

ladder view
Ladder view

longarm view
longarm view

This quilt was quilted with MicroQuilter thread by Superior Threads and the batting was Quilter’s Dream Orient and Quilter’s Dream Wool.  I really love the subtle finish the Microquilter thread gives a project.  You can definitely see the quilting, but it doesn’t overpower the project and leaves more of a hint of design rather than barging into a room and demanding attention.

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Quilting Leslie’s Kaffe Fassett Quilt

Leslie's Kaffe Quilt

Man, oh man!  I had the honor of quilting this awesome Kaffe Fassett quilt by Leslie Tucker Jenison.  Leslie pieced her quilt based on Kaffe Fassett’s quilt pattern from the book Quilts in Sweden (pictured below-photo from amazon.com), using his fabric.  Leslie also pieced the backing using some awesome linen and polka dots.

Leslie had requested some straight line quilting to follow the lines of the fabric pattern–I loved that idea.  Quilting a quilt like this using a concentric design can be a challenge on the longarm, and you sometimes end up advancing and rolling back the quilt on the frame back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, (did I say back and forth already?) etc.  To avoid doing that ONE MILLION times, I connected some of the lines, and I really liked the outcome of the quilting look.

Quilting close up

The lines of this fabric are so amazingly deceptive and provide the illusion that this was painstakingly pieced.  I love the wonky look of the finished quilt and really found the design brilliant!  I have been wanting to do a stripe study (kind of like how some people do color or quilt block studies) for so long, and this made me move that up my priority list.  Someday soon I’ll start that project.

The thread used was Magnifico in black and batting was Quilter’s Dream Orient with Quilter’s Dream Wool layered beneath the quilt top.  This was quilted using electric channel locks on my Innova longarm (hand guided), and those electric channel locks make all the difference.  I recently upgraded and had those installed from the basic manual channel locks that come on the machine.

The difference is this:

Manual channel locks:

  1. walk to the back of the machine and engage the channel lock
  2. quilt a straight line
  3. stop the machine
  4. walk to the back of the machine and disengage the channel lock
  5. walk to the front of the machine and move to new point
  6. repeat 1-5 over and again

Electric channel locks:

  1. Push remote button from front of machine to engage channel lock
  2. Quilt a straight line
  3. stop the machine
  4. push remote button from front of machine to disengage channel lock
  5. move needle to new point
  6. repeat 1-5 as needed (and your legs are breathing a huge sigh of relief from all that walking you just saved yourself)

I digress.  Here’s some more amazing eye candy from Leslie’s quilt.

Leslie’s Kaffe Quilt

Angled close up

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, you can check it out here on Amazon.

 

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Quilting for Market with Urban Artifacts Fabrics by Leslie Tucker Jenison

So I guess this is part 2 of my Quilt Market preparations posts…The quilting edition!  

I had the opportunity to quilt a couple of quilts for my friend Leslie’s quilt market booth.  I’m going to be brief here…
The first one was an awesome quilt designed by Liberty Worth.  It’s pretty modern and gave me tons of inspiration with the quilting.  Below are pictures:

Putting the binding on…
Quilt designed by Liberty Worth with Urban Artifacts by Leslie Tucker Jenison

Quilt designed by Liberty Worth with Urban Artifacts fabrics by Leslie Tucker Jenison

The next quilt was designed by Allison Chambers of the San Antonio Modern Quilt Guild and was inspired by mid-century modern style.  I love this quilt!  I was aiming to keep the quilting modern but understated and used a blending thread instead of a highly contrasting one.  I did some geometric ruler work with stitch in the ditch on this one.  

Quilt designed by Allison Chambers using Urban Artifacts Fabric by Leslie Tucker Jenison

Quilt designed by Allison Chambers using Urban Artifacts Fabric by Leslie Tucker Jenison
I got to quilt 2 other amazing quilts that were designed by Leslie, but those are patterns that are not yet released, so no pictures of those yet!  I am so blown away by the talent and creativity.  I really wish I could have attended Quilt Market this year, but like I said…life happens.  There’s always next year!

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Quilt market prep- with hand bags for Leslie Tucker Jenison

So many people in the sewing community are working hard to prep for market in and around the month of October.  I know when I first got an instagram account, I was so jealous of everyone posting the #secretsewing or #marketprep or whatever the hashtag was and hoped that someday I could get in on the action too!  In my local MQG, one of our members-Leslie Tucker Jenison-recently got a fabric line with RJR fabrics and I was asked to quilt a few items and make some bags from her amaing fabric line, Urban Artifacts!  Naturally, I jumped at the chance, and couldn’t wait to get started.  I know this is December and quilt market was in October…life happens, guys!

Reisende Bag in Urban Artifacts Fabric by Leslie Tucker Jenison for RJR Fabrics, pattern by Sew Sweetness

So Leslie selected three really awesome bag patterns for her market booth and the first one was the Reisende bag-a Sew Sweetness pattern.  I really love the look of these fabrics with this pattern and I cannot wait for them to be at my LQS!!!


The next bag Leslie had chosen was the Nora Doctor bag by Swoon patterns.  This pattern is seriously so cool.  I love the vintage looking patterns and these fabrics are also amazing.  

Nora Doctor Bag-Swoon Pattern in Urban Artifacts Fabrics by Leslie Tucker Jenison for RJR fabrics

The final bag I made for Leslie’s booth was the Betty Bowler, also a Swoon Pattern.  Such a great pattern to showcase Leslie’s new fabric line, and I couldn’t be happier with how they all turned out.  I’m so excited that my sweet friend had this opportunity to show off her amazing artistic talents and share her art with everyone!  

Betty Bowler by Swoon Patterns in Urban Artifacts by Leslie Tucker Jenison for RJR Fabrics


If you haven’t tried your hand at making some of these store-quality bags with these awesome patterns, I highly recommend that you grab some great fabric and try one!  I don’t think you’d be disappointed with the results!  Plus, you should go check out Leslie’s fabric line and buy the prints.  Pictured below is Leslie’s full line.  I am SO inspired by the grey/steel color way!


Leslie’s complete line-photo taken from leslietuckerjenison.com