Mariner's Rhapsody

It was an honor to be asked to make the raffle quilt for the Minnesota Quilters 2009 Show in Duluth on June 11-13. Of course, life happens and I delayed production until the last -- and with some frightful moments and the help of friends, I completed and revealed the quilt on time at the January 8th MQ program meeting. It has everything that I was hoping for: high drama, evocative of Duluth - the Lake Superior shipping town, and twirly, whirly quilting.

I hope that it sells a lot of raffle tickets for the Minnesota Quilters.

Enjoy, Lori Allison

Ace of Cakes DejaVu

Last year I made Ace of Cakes from the beautiful pastel "Dandelion Girl" by Fig Tree for Moda. I photographed it on a lovely spring day in the yard with a white frosted cake for the pattern cover and I was pretty happy with my creation -- and my photography. Except that my foster doggie, Sam, sneaked out under my feet, ran to my creation and lifted his leg on the table skirt! I actually had to laugh and a paper towel cleaned it just fine. I was more than a little relieved when Sammy got a wonderful forever home later in the summer.

My point -- and I do have one -- is that I found this beautiful "Hemming House" collection from Moda and I just had to make up this pattern in this rich, scrolly "Hemming House" fabric. I loved it in my house at Christmastime and I love it, even when it's not Christmas. It's just so warm and comfy in its traditional design.

Enjoy, Lori Allison

Fruit Cake!

Doesn't this quilt just remind you of that nutty, citron-filled, whiskey flavored cake at Christmastime. The one everyone made fun of, but I secretly love.
I got a call from a shop who needed more "LaBelle Epoque" patterns. A lovely pattern made to use large prints with a unique applique center. "Oh," I exclaimed, "what fabric did you make it in?" "Well," she said, "we made it in yada, yada, yada (I don't remember) but we didn't make the applique center."
Whaaaa? I thought, no applique center??? That's the whole point of the pattern.
"Nope, just the half square triangles in pretty prints. Our customers love it. We need more patterns," she said.
Well, who am I to argue with the customers?

Obviously, you need a pattern for this! So I added some stacked prairie points, sized it for a twin sized dorm room bed and Voila! Fruit Cake! was created. I couldn't be happier -- unless I could eat it too.

Quilt On.....Lori Allsion
Allison Quilt Designs

Inspiration For Big Star Flower

I'm still surprised by the success of "Cinnamon & Ginger" so thought I would apply that same formula to a new quilt design. A fussy cut center, surrounded by assorted coordinating fabrics and set off with chocolate brown.

I didn't have to look far for my new inspiration fabric -- Plum Bekah was perfect. I fussy cut the 5 1/2" centers and fussy cut the small star point triangles as well -- just for grins. ;-) New fabrics from the Kaffe Fassett fall collection including silhouette rose, stencil carnation, dancing leaves, orange persimmons, red jungle paisley, dahlia, and others proved to be the perfect coordinates. The two shades of daisy -- cream and gold -- became the background fabric. Placing the cream in the centermost blocks makes the quilt look as though it was lit from within. This time I used a rich chocolate batik fabric in the squares and the half square triangle border. Oh, I had so much fun.

From an assembly standpoint, I previewed a few rulers for making flying geese and half square triangles, but finally settled on TaDa triangle interfacing that irons on and stays in. It also gives the half square triangles some stability, which I think is critical when you're working with bias pieces. For the flying geese, I cut and pieced two small and one large triangle. Simple cutting and easy piecing. Not as fast as many Allison Quilt Designs patterns but the clear directions and illustrations makes this quilt very doable.

Here's the finished quilt. I love it.

Quilt On.......Lori Allison, Designer, Allison Quilt Designs