A Bookshelf Quilt

I've seen so many bookshelf quilts lately, I thought it would be a good time to show you mine.

I made this before I knew how to paper-piece, so it's a little rough around the edges (and the middle), but I had such fun putting this together. I used all scraps and saved selvage strips, and I didn't purchase any fabric except for the backing and binding.

This project is where I learned to make my own pattern and improvise on-the-go.

In addition to selvage strips, which are so perfect for book bindings in a quilt, I used any fabric that had words; and the order print strip from some Spoonflower fabric I had made with a recipe in my mom's handwriting.

I love the haphazardness of the books - all colors, sizes and patterns. No fabric was left behind!

Every bookshelf needs a tiny Kent State mug. :)

What's inside the box? Treasure!

And, of course, Elvis makes an appearance in a little picture frame.

I made a little bookmark. 💛

Words on the binding.

My bookshelf quilt has a home in our book nook. It fits right in!

🦆

To learn more about these quilts and Diane's other quilting projects, contact her at diane.fitzpatrick@mac.com. And check out her Instagram page.

Comments

Back at It!

It's not that I haven't been making quilts. While 2023 was a slower year for me, quilt-wise, I did manage to churn out four major quilts and some smaller projects. It was a busy year: Two international trips and some domestic travel, my son's wedding, summers at the lake, and a new job for me. But my sewing room kept up a persistent -- and loud -- siren song. I attended QuiltCon last year and took classes to make two quilts: a selvedge quilt and a very modern quilt with solids, both paper-pieced and both by Amy Friend . They were ambitious projects and it took me almost a year to finish them. (More to come on the pitfalls I suffered with that modern Gulls quilt god help me why do I do this to myself I'm an idiot.) So while last year wasn't as productive as my first three years of quilting, the quilts I did make were major. The bed-sized quilt I made for my son and his wife was a modern but scrappy double wedding ring quilt in which I incorporated pieces of lace fro...

A Trio of Wall Hangings

My goal this year was to finish strong by finishing three small quilts that I started back in the Spring. Check and check! And check! In the end I gave up on my dream of doing the quilting myself and sent them all over to Mary at Longarmed and Dangerous , who did a fabulous job of quilting. Mary's super-power is pulling together any project to make it beyond your expectations. I think they all came out fabulous. Here's California Poppies, a quilt design by Tina Curran . Made with all scraps plus two or three green fabrics I ran out to buy at Pins and Needles in Mayfield mid-project. (I didn't have as many greens as I thought I did. The problem has been rectified. 😉 Meet Audubon Society, a quilt design by Laura Heine of Fiberworks . Paper-piecing these birds, with all of their different personalities, was just too much fun. I used Even More Paper fabrics by Zen Chic, and some other neutrals I had in my stash for the background, and for the birds used anything I could ge...

A Special Kind of Memory Quilt

Dianne and I had a special friendship. The kind that is borne from being a stay-at-home mom with babies, toddlers and preschoolers, where you consider yourself lucky if you can find one kindred spirit, one other mom with whom you can share your heart, your soul, and as many laughs as you can afford. We shared so many adventures, and now that she's gone, there are stories too many to count. Twenty years after her death, Dianne's stepmother, Linda, and daughter, Jasmine, were going through a box of sewing projects that Linda had stashed away. They came across "the infamous shirt-and-tie-quilt," a quilt that Dianne was working on while she was fighting her last battle with cancer. No one liked the quilt, not even Dianne. Especially not Dianne. "All she did was complain about that quilt," Jasmine told me. "We all got tired of hearing about how much she hated the stupid shirt-and-tie-quilt." No one wanted the quilt, not even Dianne's husband, fo...

Search This Blog