Mittens for Extra Electric Quilt Warmth

The last week has been a cold one.  And for those of us in the Midwest, it is another week before the planned warm-up.  The weather definitely had me looking for my best mittens.

These are made of wool and have kept my hands warm even when cross-country skiing in sub-zero temperature. 

Gloves may be considered more "adult" -- but mittens are definitely warmer.  Mittens are warmer than gloves (made with the same materials) because, unlike with gloves, your fingers can share warmth. Mittens also have less total surface area for body heat to escape.

For this weeks tutorial, I started with a single mitten block drawn in Electric Quilt with EasyDraw.

Super simple to draft and to construct. 

For construction, I prefer to start with a rectangle for the base, and add folded corners (sometimes called cheater corners) to the rectangles.

Electric Quilt doesn't give cutting charts for this method of construction -- but it is easy to convert.

Learn how in this blog post.

4" x 6" Mitten Block drawn in EasyDraw

In the video, I also share my process for playing with the block in Custom Set to create a new block that includes four mittens. 

Then redraft the "quilt" as a stand-alone block in EasyDraw.

10" x 10" Four Mitten Block drawn in EasyDraw

I did end up swapping out the background fabric used in the video for one that included snowflakes.   The snowflake fabric I chose was part of the EQ8 Fabric Library.  You can locate it under Themes>18 Holidays-Winter. ​

I didn't include this in the video, but I came up with a couple of ideas to use the mitten block.  Can you guess the layout that was used for each of these quilts.  Both of these quilts use the snowflake motif from last weeks blog post.  

If you missed the post with the snowflake motif, you can learn more here (and make your own mug rug).

Mitten Quilt - Option 1

Mitten Quilt - Option 2

I look forward to seeing what you do with the Mitten block(s).  Share your designs on the Learning EQ Facebook group.

Learning EQ Facebook Group Post for Mitten Quilts

TKQ Masters Border Challenge Show

In November I challenged members to design a quilt around a border fabric.  How many of us have that perfect fabric -- and then are afraid to cut it up.  The solution is to cut it up virtually first! 

I found three different border fabrics for them to design around.  However, none were cropped and sized correctly.  So they first had to start with fixing that issue.  And then incorporate the border fabric in a block or quilt.

Autumn Elegance by Jackie Robinson

Bee Floral Sunflower Border by Timeless Treasures

A Botanical Season 43" wide

Here are their quilts.

Rhonda Goss

Lee Wiencki I based this quilt off of a medallion quilt using custom set layout.

Dianna Carter

Curryanne Hostetler - My Redwork border fabric quilt.

Curryanne's Border Fabric

Debbi Treusch I worked on my challenge quilt tonight. I've been working my Chilhowie quilt quite a bit lately, so challenged myself to use that layout with my chosen border fabric. I added the white/gold background, lighter green, the gold and a solid red fabric. It took copying blocks between 2 projects, then resizing some blocks and fussy cutting the middle blocks so that I got the red poinsettias. I like the result and I might be inclined to quilt some Christmas wreaths in the circular white background areas.

Julie Bermel Found some frost fabric for the border and added a little fall to it.

Julie Pedersen I chose the yellow flowers. I used it for a border and fussy cut in blocks as well. I designed the blocks that look like pieces of candy (it was an accident, but I love it.).

Connie Bradley Bobcik

Connie Bradley Bobcik

Renae Frank Butler

Renae Frank Butler

Want to Know More about TKQ Masters?

Tech Know Quilters members are eligible for the Masters program after completing 12 months of Tech Know Quilter classes.  Masters members receive fewer lessons each month, with more time to devote to their own projects and challenges.

Drop me a note if you have completed over 12 months of Tech Know Quilters and are interested in learning more about the Masters program.
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You can learn more about the regular Tech Know Quilters membership program and sign up for the wait list for the next open enrollment period here.

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​Happy quilting.

​Kari

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