Concert (verb) Arrange by mutual coordination

Concert (noun) Public performance typically given by multiple performers

Lissa of Lovingly Lissa and Cassandra of The (not so) Dramatic Life invite you to attend the second annual Quilt Concert!

This year’s FREE* quilt along features a shortened timeline that means you will have a completed quilt top by the end of August!

*Patterns are available for free for a limited period of time. More details below.

Design

It’s a medallion! We loved working with alternative grid work last year, and continued that technique with this year’s design. Here are a few key features of this years Quilt Concert:

*Includes six traditional blocks 

*Additional blocks using traditional components tie the design together

*Construction uses all straight line seams and traditional machine piecing techniques (no curves, foundation paper piecing, appliqué, etc.)

*Visual interest is added through a non-symmetrical design

*Finishes at 60″ square for a generously sized lap quilt

How it Works

Each Friday at 12:01am Eastern time, Cassandra and I will post a blog that includes the instructions for that week.  These instructions will be free for three days, so make sure you download the instructions before the end of the day on Sunday. On Monday morning the free download will be removed.

If you miss a download, the stand alone block will be available for $2 at the link provided on the post for twelve days.  

New for 2022! The full pattern will be released for purchase next week on Friday, May 20, 2022! This is great news for those of you who like to work ahead to account for an upcoming vacation or if you like to make a full project all at once.

There are lots of fantastic prizes this year! Each time you finish the goal for the week, post a picture on Instagram using the hashtags for that week, and you will have a chance to win that week’s prize. (More on this next week!)

The best way to stay on top of the free pattern downloads is to subscribe to my and/or Cassandra’s newsletter! Each Friday morning during the quilt along we send out the link you need to get to the free download.

Fabric Requirements

Quilt Concert 2022 features six fabric colors. The color in parenthesis indicates the color that is shown in the diagram.

Fabric A (Purple): 1 yard

Fabric B (Fuchsia): 1 yard

Fabric C (Green): 1- 3/8 yards

Fabric D (Yellow): 1-1/8 yards

Fabric E (Pink): 2/3 yard

Fabric F (Black): 1-1/3 yards

This year Cassandra and I each made our sample quilts using holiday inspiration. (Thanks to everyone who voted to help us choose the color ways!) 

Cassandra is thrilled to offer fabric bundles for my Valentines Day themed quilt and her Halloween themed quilt. Additionally, the vote was so close (just one vote!) between Halloween and Americana that Cassandra decided to offer the Americana fabric bundle, too!

We love seeing different color schemes, so below is a coloring sheet to help you experiment with color placement.

This quilt could also be fun using scrappy fabrics, just remember that you may end up needing more total yardage than is listed to make sure you have the right sizes to cut all of your pieces.

PJ Jam

Starting June 3 Cassandra and I will be hosting a weekly Pajama Jam Session on Friday evening from 9:30 to 10:30pm Eastern time. Get in your comfy pj’s, grab a snack, and we’ll all sew together! To protect everyone’s privacy, the Zoom link will only be sent out via our newsletters, so make sure you sign up!

Badge

Spread the word about the Quilt Concert quilt along! Save the image below and post it to Instagram for your first chance to win! Post by May 25, 2022, and you will be entered to win a $25 gift card from Fat Quarter Shop!

Timeline

Starting Now: Purchase and/or pull your fabrics. Sign up for the newsletters put out by Lovingly Lissa and/or The (not so) Dramatic Life to make sure you receive all of the notifications. Post the I’m attending badge for a chance to win the first prize of the quilt along! 

May 20: Full Pattern available for purchase

May 25: Last day to post the “I’m Attending” badge for the prize drawing

May 27: Winner of the first quilt along prize is announced!

June 3: Cutting Instructions (Lovingly Lissa)

June 10 Block 1: Nine Patch T (Lovingly Lissa)

June 17 Block 2: Lucky Clover (The Not So Dramatic Life)

June 24 Block 3: Hayes Triangle Corner (Lovingly Lissa)

July 1 Block 4: Hayes 4 Patch Corner (Lovingly Lissa)

July 8 Block 5: Optical Illusion (The Not So Dramatic Life)

July 15 Block 6: Crossroad (Lovingly Lissa)

July 22 Block 7: City Square (The Not So Dramatic Life)

July 29 Block 8: Towers (Lovingly Lissa)

August 5 Block 9: Interconnection (The Not So Dramatic Life)

August 12 Block 10: Flying Geese (Lovingly Lissa)

August 19: Assembly (The Not So Dramatic Life)

August 26: Quilting Suggestions

September 1: Final day to submit a photo of your quilt top to be entered in the grand prize drawing

September 9: Final Round Up and Grand Prize Announcement

I look forward to seeing you all! I can’t wait to get started.

Lovingly, Lissa

It is almost time to reveal the 2022 Quilt Concert!

I was feeling a bit nostalgic, so Cassandra and I took a trip down memory lane with a journey through the #quiltconcert2021 hashtag on Instagram.

Just look at some of these finished First Notes from Concert Goers Karen C, Laura C, Birgit K, CK_got12many, Denise Q, and Judy O.

I also quilted a First Notes, but I also have one that remains a flimsy.

I had to search the house for the quilted one. My fifteen year old has it, he called it the little quilt.

No worries with size for Quilt Concert 2022!!! It’s going to be 60″ x 60″!!!!

Want a little peak?

It was a little windy that day…LOL 😉

The big reveal for Quilt Concert 2022 is coming soon!! Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for all the details!

Lovingly,

Lissa

Hello all!

Did you know that there is a monthly color challenge hosted by Patterns By Jen?

It’s totally okay if you didn’t, because you know now! Every month Jen will release a free block pattern download in a specific color. This year’s colors are spice inspired!

For April, we are looking at Nigella Seeds and the color black.

I had some black Kona Sheen fabric in my stash and a nice grey to go with it. I hope the sheen shines in these photos for you, it’s hard to capture.

This block is a great way to learn how to spin your seams. It helps decrease the bulk in the seam allowances.

Here is a great tutorial on spinning seams.

When it comes to my quilts, black is either featured or not in there at all. I don’t know why, I just did a look back at my quilts to see where I used it and that’s what I found.

It is featured in my improv piece, Glitch. This actually started out where the quilt colorway was the strips of color you see in here and then flipped to black and white with the colors as accents.

This is Focus, an honorable mention winner from the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. It is all black and white.

Check out these bloggers who are also working on the April monthly color challenge!

Karen Bolan Designs

Gail Sheppard

Sunflower Stitches

True Blue Quilts

Two weeks back, Cassandra of The (Not So) Dramatic Life and I asked all our followers to vote on their favorite colorway for the new Quilt Concert. Independence Day, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas were our inspirations.

With 58% of the vote, you all have chosen Valentine’s day as my colorway!

Purples, pinks, reds and corals are in my future!! I am looking forward to this!

And just to show that EVERY.VOTE.COUNTS, winning by only 1 vote, All Hallow’s Eve for Cassandra.

Cassandra placed an order for fabrics before we left for the AQS Branson Show. We will be using Painter’s Palette solids from PBS Fabrics. Cassandra will have kits available to purchase if you are feeling Romantic or Spooky! I can’t wait to get home and start cutting!!!

The Quilt Concert will start in June, we are finalizing the pattern, making the quilts, and talking to Sponsors right now. Make sure you follow us and sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date.

Lovingly,
Lissa

Many moons ago I had my second pattern appear in Make Modern Magazine.

It was so thrilling! I was so proud of seeing my design in print AND I had Free Spirit Fabrics supporting me by sending me a Kaffe Fasset Collection line before it appeared in stores.

I was in Heaven.

Today I am thrilled to announce that I’ve reformatted the pattern into my own pattern template and have it available for sale to you as a PDF download!

Rising Star consists of 46 foundation paper pieced star. There is limited fabric waste with this pattern as I give cutting instructions for each section. Knowledge on how to paper piece is expected.

But that’s not all!! While I was working on this pattern I was the Queen Bee for my guild. I asked all my Bee Mates to send me one brightly colored star with low volume background, plus some leftover low volume fabric. From those stars I created this version of Rising Star.

This is now a BONUS layout included in the pattern!! I love the dynamics of this layout so much!

The Rising Star Block finishes at 8″ x 12″ and is easily used to create your own layout for a quilt, or put six of them together to make a pillow case.

The only limit is your imagination!!

Rising Star is now available at Quilt Pattern Mart use code LissaLaunch20 for 20% off everything in my shop this weekend! Sale ends Monday March 14th, so don’t wait!!

I can’t wait to see your versions!

Lovingly, Lissa

That’s the part of the pattern where I get stuck.

Quilt as desired…..

I’ve got no clue what I desire!

So, let’s have a frank discussion about the Intentionally Wonky quilts I just made. There are two versions. Cover Girl, which has the green background, and Sew Good, which has the pink background.

Initially these quilts were going to be sent off to Alloway Quilting and have an edge to edge quilting motif. I hadn’t put much thought or research into what the design would be, but I was sure about having Penny quilt them.

Then I finished Cover Girl. I took a good look at her and decided I want to enter her into Quilt Shows. So that meant *I* had to quilt her. (and this is me talking, other quilters will have their quilts finished by long-armers and enter them into shows and that is okay, just not my style.)

In my opinion, the best way to figure out what I desire is to start chatting it up with friends. Everything on Cover Girl came out of a conversation with me and two friends. I started describing some of what I was looking for, mainly quilting that could be done with a walking foot, and they started throwing back ideas at me.

I used three thread colors in Cover Girl; orange, pink and green. My teal triangle remained unquilted. If the line I quilted added to the “wonkiness” it was quilted, if not quilting worked then it was not quilted.

I stitched in the ditch around each triangle and then echo quilted more triangles in the inner part. The pink triangles each got three lines, while the orange ones got whatever I felt like quilting. Some have as little as two and some go up to four or five.

For the green background I created some “ghost quilting.” What that means is that I quilted the same motif that I did in the triangles, but just in the background. These motifs float around the background and sometimes aren’t complete as they are “behind” and actual triangle block.

I then chose three directions of lines at weird angles and quilted them across the background. These lines stop at the triangle blocks and the ghost quilting and sometimes at a line going in the other directing. The spacing of the lines was randomly generated by a random number generator. 1 meant 1/4″, 2 meant 1/2″, three was 3/4″, and four was a full inch away.

I truly thought this quilting was going to take me 4 days! HA!!!! It took me 11. I am so bad at estimating time.

So now, here I am with the Sew Good version and I am tired!!! I am keeping it easy with this one. One color thread that matches the background. I use the same thread in the bottom even though the backing fabric is a dark blue. It doesn’t bother me that the thread shows up.

I completed a quick stitch in the ditch around all the triangles. I don’t want to quilt inside them and detract from the fabric. But I may do some fun hand quilting in them as time goes on.

I had planned on a simple meander all in the background, but became tempted to do a meander with a 5 petal flower thrown in, along with some loops. I am loving it! I find a meander type quilting to be meditative and relaxing, with the exception that it makes all my muscles in my shoulders and arms cry. LOL! I look forward to some downtime after Quiltcon this week to finish it up.

So, if these were *your* quilts, how would you desire them to be quilted?

Lovingly, Lissa

Finally, it has arrived!!!

In all it’s glory, I present to you my newest pattern, Stargazing.

Stargazing has a special place in my heart. This quilt was my first published pattern, appearing in Make Modern Issue #20 in 2018. Then it became the first quilt that I submitted and was accepted into a national quilt show! Which then led to my first time going to AQS Paducah.

So many firsts.

I’ve remade it using Speckled fabric from Ruby Star Society. There are 17 colors to create the rainbow of the stars.

The pattern gives instruction on how to recreate this quilt and a coloring sheet so you can make it your own. It is all labelled for ease of organization.

Instructions include step by step diagrams on how to create two at a time half square triangles and quilt assembly.

Oh, I am so excited that is finally released!!!

To celebrate the release weekend, the pattern is 25% off!!!! Monday, December 13th is when it will be listed at full price of $10. You can find the pattern on my Etsy Shop, ShoppeLovinglyLissa.

Happy Sewing!!

Lovingly,

Lissa

It went very well!!! Want to see some before and after photos? (My design wall has a quilt on it now, so please ignore the background)

RESUME

I finished quilting and bound one quilt, bound another quilt, and buried threads on a third!!! One left to quilt and finish and one left to bind. Not bad!!!

REWORK

No change here. I pulled from my orphan block pile and reworked some of those. I just didn’t feel inspired with these two yet.

REHOME

WOOT WOOT!! This pile is gone! all but one are kid size quilts. A local guild I used to belong to makes and donates kid quilts, so I reached out to them to see if they would finish these off and they said yes! The last one is a charity quilt top that I received to make from somewhere, but have had so long I don’t know where to return it to. I figured it could go with these and that would be okay.

All in all I think I had a very successful UFOvember. How did you do?

Lovingly, Lissa

Unfinished Objects, we all got them. I have a whole shelf dedicated to them. Hell, I got a Costco membership *just* so I can purchase some storage containers for them.

When I heard about Geeky Bobbin’s UFOvember I was all in. When she asked me to participate in the blog hop as well, I said “I got this.”

I was just finishing up the Quiltcon deadline and the Quilt Concert Series and took a look around my studio. It was a Disaster. I don’t pick up while working on a project, and since I always have multiple going at a time my work space can get overwhelmed very easily.

That is where I started. Cleaning up and taking inventory. When the day was done I had a beautiful studio again and these three piles.

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And this didn’t even touch the UFO shelf I had. The Resume Pile is easy enough, it’s a pile of quilts that just need to be finished. One of them just needs threads buried. The Rework pile I am a little lost on what to do. There is one quilt I finished and didn’t like at all. I took the binding off and started un-quilting it, and that’s as far as I got. The other quilt is basted, but I’m not inspired to finish it as a quilt. The Rehome pile is a number of baby and child quilts I made when I was perfecting and learning new techniques. Not all are finished, but they are close. I plan to reach out to a local guild that donates kid’s quilts to see if anyone will take them and finish them.

Today, I want to talk about Rework. We all have a pile of quilt tops and blocks that we just aren’t happy with but don’t know what to do with them. I couldn’t think of how to rework the pile above yet, and that’s okay. We don’t always have answers right away and that’s what this blog hop is here to help with. In this case I decided to the aforementioned UFO shelf and pull out a box of orphan blocks.

My orphan blocks are extra blocks I’ve made that didn’t work in a quilt, test blocks for new patterns and maybe ones that I made a mistake on but they still can be useful. I wanted something that would just take me an afternoon and deplete the pile at least a little bit. I rummaged through and grabbed a few that inspired me.

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Now for the project.

Let’s turn these blocks into cards!!!!!

The only thing I purchased for this project was some blank 5″ x 7″ cards and envelopes. I started with the mini blocks on the right and some scrapbook paper to create a frame for them. A little glue to hold them in place and then some machine stitching and here they are!

Next up was part of a leftover Dresden Plate from who knows when. I split it into two parts to make some funky hearts. Matching thread and a straight stitch and done!

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Finally is a pile of string blocks I have. Now I really put a little extra into these. I cut them into strips and did a bit of weaving and rearranging. No real plan, just let the flow take me. I stitched them down a variety of ways too. I truly just let myself play with these and enjoy myself. I let the edges of the fabric hang over the card edge until I was done stitching them on and then trimmed to the card edge.

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And there you have it!!! I have a few less orphan blocks in the box and now a nice set of cards that I can use, or put together into a gift for someone. Oh, I just thought of that while I was typing. Why not make a set of ten or so for that friend you have that loves to send cards?

This was really relaxing and what I like to consider mindless play. And it really helps spark your creativity. I may get myself more blank cards and just go for it whenever my sew-jo is feeling a bit low

UFOvember is a month long series dedicated to help diminish UFO sightings in your space! Please head to all these wonderful Blogs and check out more ideas to inspire you in your endeavors!!!!

November 1 – The Geeky Bobbin – http://geekybobbin.com

November 2 – Strawberry Creek Quilts – http://www.strawberrycreekquilts.com

November 3 – Katie Mae Quilts – http://katiemaequilts.com

November 4 – Pretty Piney Quilts – https://prettypiney.com/blog

November 5 – Mary Go Round Quilts – http://www.marygoroundquilts.com

November 6 – Exhausted Octopus – https://exhaustedoctopus.com/blog/

November 7 – Just Get It Done Quilts – https://www.justgetitdonequilts.com/blog

November 8 – By Hilary Jordan – https://byhilaryjordan.com/

November 9 – Sew Hooked on Treasures – http://sewhookedontreasures.com

November 10 – Sunflower Stitcheries and Quilting – http://www.sunflowerstitcheries.com

November 11 – Blue Heron Quilting – https://www.blueheronquilting.shop/blog

November 12 – Carrington Creates – https://cbear7774.wixsite.com/thatsthewayitseams

November 13 – Sarah Goer Quilts – https://www.sarahgoerquilts.com

November 14 – Better Done Quilts – https://betterdonequilts.com/

November 15 – Ashli Montgomery | Virginia’dele Smith – http://www.meandcoach.com

November 16 – Puppy Girl Designs – http://puppygirldesigns.com

November 17 – Lovingly, Lissa – https://lovinglylissa.com

November 18 – Art East Quilting Co – http://www.arteastquiltingco.com

November 19 – rjbosscher – http://www.rjbosscher.com

November 20 – Love to Color My World – http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com/

November 21 – LynsAvenue – http://lynsavenue.com

November 22 – Quiltfox Design – https://www.quiltfox-design.com

November 23 – Maeberry Square – https://www.maeberrysquare.com

November 24 – Karen Bolan Designs – https://www.karenbolan.com/blog

November 25 – Tina1802 – http://www.tina1802.com

November 26 – Lazy Cozy Quilts – http://www.lazycozyquilts.com

November 27 – True Blue Quilts – http://www.truebluequilts.com

November 28 – The Scrappy Camper – http://www.thescrappycamper.com

November 29 – Sarah Ruiz Quilts – http://sarahruiz.com

November 30 – Lyric Art – http://LyricKinard.com

Lovingly, Lissa