Make an "All Roads" Quilt with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star and Angela Walters!

Hi, everybody. It's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company, and this is the All Roads Project, and when I need a quilt quilted, this is how I do it. Wow, that worked out well. I invited a special guest, Angela Walters. I pieced.

I quilt.

We're going to show you how to make the All Roads quilt from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Now don't forget.

Plus, June 18th is the Quilt Walk. I'm actually going to be giving this quilt away.

You could win this quilt.

If you're in Liberty, Missouri be sure to check it out June 18th.

Oh, be sure and check it out. We'll see you later.

Hi, everybody. It's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. If you can tell by the look on my face, we are already laughing and joking around up here. I am here today with Angela Walters from Quilting is My Therapy, and oh my gosh, we have so much fun together.

We do. We do. They don't even have how the cameras are rolling, and we're just up here hamming.

Hamming it up. We've got a quilt to teach you today. It's called all roads. This is Angela's pattern and you can get that on our website or any place good patterns are sold, I guess.

I guess so. Yeah.

I guess so. Anyway, it's a great quilt to show you and to talk about this is the quilt right here. You'll notice, it is not quilted. Guess why, because Angela's here. Angela is the queen of quilting.

Just like you're the queen of piecing. I'm the queen of quilting. I would say I'm the queen of quilting.

She can quilt anything and make it beautiful and that's what she does. She loves it.

Thank you.

You have a shop down in Liberty.

I do. One of my claims to fame is we're only 45 minutes from you.

Right.

It's kind of fun.

All roads lead to Hamilton. One of those roads is hers.

Yep. Yep. Just right up 35.

That's right.

Nice little drive.

Yeah. So it's a nice little shop too. I've been there lots.

Thank you. You have.

It's gorgeous. Yeah.

We've actually ran into each other at Walmart.

We have.

I'm like oh...

QuiltCon.

QuiltCon, yeah.

We run in and all the places quilts go.

Yes and where they don't go too.

... And where they don't go.

I saw Jenny's face in a truck going by. I think she's around here.

Oh yeah. No, people always drive up to the truck and they're like, ah, that's not her. Nope.

The poor driver, he probably gets like, oh great, I'm disappointing women left and right.

It's probably true. Probably true. Anyway, one of the things I loved about this pattern of course, is that it's made with precuts.

Yes.

You know I love to do precuts so I was like, ooh, can we do this? I'll make the pieces and you can do the quilting, and because it's her pattern, she's actually going to talk us through the pieces as well. To make this quilt, you're going to need one package of 10 inch squares. We have used Sunshine by Jason Yenter for in the beginning fabrics, you're going to need about three and three quarter yards of a background. I used for part of mine, I did use a layer cake and they're about three yards. So, ish, because the other ones you're just cutting two and a half by four and a half and two and a half by eight and a half rectangles out of, for the block, and then no border.

I don't like piecing borders, so most of my quilts don't have them.

Oh, that's awesome. Anyway, I'm a border girl. Whatever you want to do.

You can add borders to it.

Borders is going to be about a yard and a half and then you want backing that's big enough for the quilt and let's see how much we need for that, four and a half yards. Let's see, that makes a quilt that is 72 by 84. This is a pretty good size quilt.

For sure. My husband's really tall, so I try to make quilts that would actually cover him up.

That's right. I'm a big quilt maker as well. All right. To make this quilt, what we're going to do is we're going to take, you're going to pull out of your pack two squares that are the same of print, one of solid. Then we are going to do the easy eight method out of this.

Yep.

The first thing we're going to do is we're going to draw a line diagonally corner to corner. Do you use any special drawing tools or are you like me with whatever's handy?

The closest thing to me usually.

That's me too.

I have my special tools, but they're usually like over there and I don't want to get up.

I do find I'm a real lazy sewer.

Me too. See, I love that we have this in common.

All right. What we're going to do is we're going to sew a quarter of an inch on both sides of these lines. You guys have seen me do this a lot.

But you do it so well.

Well there is that.

That almost scared me when you started. I was like, oh gosh.

Yeah, this is a fast machine. I was one of those who pulled my fabrics and pedaled to the metal. When I got a machine that was actually fast enough for me, I didn't have to do that anymore.

You were like, ah, but I like pulling it through the backside of it.

I'm like, wait, this actually goes the way the speed of my brain.

Nothing goes the speed of your brain.

Ugh. Where is that?

I always thought they set up the video while you were sewing, but no, that is just you.

That is true. Now we're going down this last side. And...

Nice, impressive.

We're done. Now what we're going to do is we are going to cut this in half, both directions. I like to cut where there's no lines first. Then because I have lines on the other ones.

Get the hardest part out of the way first.

Right. Right.

Smart. Secret's of Jenny's quilting.

Well, and if I mess this up, then I have the lines true.

True.

Will you grab me the block lock ruler? It's in that first drawer.

Yes.

I get to be like your assistant.

We're going to have you doing all the work for sure.

I can do that.

Now how do you usually square your blocks?

Jenny, I'm like the opposite of most quilters. I pay people to piece the top and bind it so I can quilt.

There you go.

How I normally square is I will have somebody else do it, but I can do it if I have to, you want me to press this for you?

Press them open.

How do you press?

I press to the dark side.

Okay, good. I was hoping, please don't say seams open. I could, I would for you.

No, no. I am not that you know what, and my theory on that is if anybody ever looks inside to see which way I pressed, they're not my friend.

I learned how to quilt from my husband's grandpa. He learned from his mom back during the depression. He told me you didn't have to press the seams because they were on the inside of the quilt.

Excellent.

It was like years before I actually pressed any seams.

It was years before I actually squared blocks. My brain couldn't make head nor tail of it. Then once I figured out what I was doing, then I was okay. In the meantime it was a little tough for me.

These, we want these to be four and a half so that everything lines up.

Yep.

These should be really close. Look how close that is. We're just going to go ahead and trim them up.

Beautiful.

I always put my words on the background. That's how I remember it, because I'm angley challenged.

Nice.

We're just going to cut these and I'm just going to cut a few of them and square them up because I have more cut already.

I like this, the swipe.

Yeah. That noise. That noise drives some people crazy. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard.

No, it's a sound of success.

Sound of like...

I like it.

I have a bunch cut right here, out of this second print block. We're going to cut that into four, four and a half inch squares, correct?

Yep.

I'm asking you because I'm not great at pattern reading. I'm a good reader, I quilt by picture.

You know, there's some that do that. You show me a spreadsheet or like a bar graph and I'm not paying attention. I go for the pictures too.

That's right. That's right. I think that's true with a lot of us. This is a little bit hard for me to see.

Is it because I'm watching you, because I cannot look.

No.

It's always harder when somebody's like over your shoulder.

No it's because it's dark on the board below it. Then I'm going to stack these and cut them into four and a halfs again.

This is probably the most important part about the pattern. You want to have the two matching print squares because they make two blocks altogether. I mean it would work. It just would look a little bit more, pathchworky.

More scrappy.

Organic, whatever.

We've got these, we've got our these, our half square triangles. They have a name and then this is the block that we are working on. This is the beginning of it.

Yep, so a couple of the half square triangles get special treatment. They're like the divas of the group. You're going to give them a little extra boundary around them to separate them from the rest.

We're going to make one of these and I'm going to turn this the direction that it wants to go in my brain.

Perfect.

Which is up to the left. Basically we're going to take a two and a half inch strip and we're going to cut two and a half by four and a half inch per pieces like this and we're going to border it, so it's really special. It gets its own frame.

It's like, look at me.

All right, like this.

Yep.

We're just going to lay these on here, so a quarter of an inch on both sides and then put our top pieces on and sew it.

Yep.

We have one right here that's done.

Perfect.

Then we're going to lay this block out.

Yep, so this background kind of makes that look like it's floating.

It really does.

That was the illusion I was going with, so that's why a solid works really od at the background or some kind of tonal. I wouldn't do anything too crazy big print, but then you have this one special one, but it now it needs the rest of it's adoring pieces to make the block.

That's right. That's right. All right, so the adoring pieces go how?

Good question.

This one...

They go the same angle, so the corners are going to go the same angle as the first one.

The corners. Okay, this way.

This one's going to go opposite, because everyone has to be a little difficult. Then we have some gaps in between and that's where our little pieces go.

That's where our squares go. Then this one comes in.

Yep. Yep. We'll put another of the print pieces...

Right here.

Yep.

Like that?

Yeah, so it kind of creates that weird kind of cutoff Chevron, that little half square triangle.

Is that it? We're done?

That's the block.

All right. You know what? I'm going to sew these together.

Go for it.

We can finish this whole block and show everybody. I have some more blocks done over here so that we can show how it, how it fits together and makes the pattern.

I like this because you make them two at a time. You kind of, if you only have time to make a couple blocks and then you're like, well only two more and then two more and next thing, it's midnight in you're...

That's true. I should mention that for sure, because when you cut these pieces, you're literally cutting for two blocks. That is really, really fun and efficient. Now, if you want to press that.

I can do that.

Then I will sew these together right here, and I'm going to pick them up just how they go, because do you tend to get things turned around if you're not really careful?

Yes, hence the reason I don't piece a lot.

The reason I develop mantras, I'm like, right to the end, right to the end.

You're like not even pinning and they're all perfect. Look at that. Beautiful, perfect points.

You know, that either drives people crazy or they're totally relieved that I don't pin.

Oh I don't pin. No, but I don't pin and it looks bad. You don't pin and it looks good.

All right. Is that right?

Almost. Let me press it real quick.

Going to press it. Look how good she is at pressing.

I've been practicing. I was like, okay, I got to be ready for my big moment. There you go.

Oh, it's on that side.

Yep.

Okay. I would've put it on the other side.

I know. Well, you would've had your own variation.

So glad I have you here.

I'll just be in your studio every time you make your little quilts.

I would love that.

It'd be like, every time the light comes on oh goody.

We would have so much fun.

We would get nothing done.

We would get nothing done.

We would.

We'd probably really feed off each other creatively. Have to take crazy tricks together to inspire ourselves.

Oh yes. Tell my family I'm going out in the country for creative reasons.

Alrighty, so press that open. I've got some more blocks over here. We're going to take it back to the quilt and look at where it goes in the quilt.

See, how cute is that?

That is really cute. Look at this, you guys. We did it.

It's such basic blocks, just cute outlets.

Thank you. Thank yo. Let's look here. Here we go. Right here. Then you turn and turn. Then for these up here, we're just putting the two sets together. This will go here and another purple would go here if it were indeed purple, but it is pink, as you see.

Yep, the layout is totally up to you. That's what's kind of fun about it. Like this is laid out where it makes kind of the center and then you have your pieces on the top, but I've done it where it just keeps making medallions. I mean, you could really like, if you wanted to blow your mind, you could do a bunch of different lines.

I actually looked at this yesterday and I was just like, oh my gosh, all I could do.

Yeah. Did you wake up the night and you were like oh my goodness?

I always wake up in the night. This has one, two, three, four, five, six blocks across by seven blocks down and that's 42 blocks in a layer cake. That's the way this goes. We put it together, put the two matching pieces together and made the medallion. Of course you can do it. I think I'm pretty symmetrical I've learned as I'm quoting. I think I almost would want to do a bunch of these, just the big block where they're all together, and do it kind of like Moroccan tile, to each its own. I kind of fibbed to you earlier about this pattern, because you cannot get this anywhere, only here. It's exclusive between us.

Yeah. It's like our own little baby.

It's our own baby. We made this together. Well, she made it and gave it to me.

You made it great.

We did the tutorial. All right, so now it's your turn because we have this flimsy...

For sure.

It needs some magic.

Well, I'm going to do a little show and tell. I actually have another quilt that's a different layout, if you wanted to see it.

Ooh.

Do you want to see that?

Yes I do.

Okay. Let me go grab it. It's already quilted. This is the very original quilt that I wrote the pattern off of, but it just shows a slightly different layout, and then we can get to the quilting.

Ooh. I love to see this. Should we hold it up back here?

Oh sure. That probably makes more sense.

Let's do this.

This one again, since the blocks are done in two, you can put them together to make groups or you can lay them out separate in here.

Oh my gosh. Look at how cool this is.

We kind of made that medallion and it just kind of kept going with it. So really, really found the layout placement. You can do so much with it.

You guys, this is one of those really good lessons. A lot of times we see a quilt. We want to make it just like that, but this is one to play with the layout. Just have some fun and enjoy it.

Yep. All the blocks are the same size and they're square. You can just rotate it, flip it around.

Whatever you want to do.

Use your imagination, but this is how we laid it out.

That's right.

So we need to quilt it.

Now we're going to show you how to quilt it.

Yes.

You might notice there's nothing on the wall behind us.

Has that ever happened on this show?

No. I always have something hanging there.

What's behind. Everybody's always wondering what's behind the quilt.

That's that's what's behind us, our design wall.

Interesting.

The quilt is right here and Angela is ready. She's put a, what do you call this?

Free motion quilting foot...

Free motion quilting foot, thank heaven you're here.

Blew Jenny's mind. She's like the other foot has never come off of here. I'm like, come on baby. It's okay.

I know. I didn't even know we had a foot.

You did. It took a while to find it, but you had it.

Well, it was in a baggy, in a drawer. We got it though.

I thought I would just do a little bit of quilting, show you what it looks like. We've got the quilt sandwich stabilized. Made the quilt sandwich. A lot of cussing, but Jenny was kind to like, just let me not film that part. Right.

La la la la la.

To talk about it, I love machine quilting. That's kind of my thing. Just like, you know, piecing is your thing. I realize though that not everybody loves it as much as I do.

Do you have a trick for doing the sandwich though?

Yeah. I like to use fusible batting. That's the trick I like to use fusible batting.

Oh, nice.

I don't like the pins. You notice there's no pins here or safety pins.

No pins, yeah.

I don't like those because they're like speed bumps, because I get going. I don't want to stop and take them out. That's kind of how I do it. Although whatever method your viewers like to use or that you like to use is totally fine.

Well, I've done little ones, like for table runners and things like that. I use the fusible or I use that powder that you sprinkle on.

Yep, the bone ash.

Yep, and iron. I don't love the...

Spray.

...It's just too everywhere.

It gets everywhere.

It gets everywhere. The other thing too is that you can actually take your big quilt top to a long arm quilter and she can baste it on her machine.

Yes, yes.

That is amazing. A lot of long arms will do that for you.

They will. They will.

Then you can machine quilt and it's all basted in.

However you get that sucker sandwiched, just get it sandwiched.

Just get it done.

I like to quilt on my sewing machine and my long arm on the sewing machine, I kind of call it the smoosh and push. You just got to smoosh it in the machine, but this has got a beautiful throat here and you're going to go for it.

Do you let the fabric speak to you? Do you let the open spaces? I mean, how is it that you come up with because yours is all really eclectic. It's just whatever you're feeling.

Well, I keep waiting for quilt tops to speak to me, but they never do.

They just don't.

I might not be drinking enough wine. I don't know what the trick is, but usually I...

It's never going to work for me then because I don't drink wine.

Chocolate. Just gorge on chocolate.

I have had enough Symphony bars.

That is it.

That's it.

Have ever heard the Dove chocolate, it's like quilt more quilts.

Oh yeah. More quilts.

I don't know. I think they should be that. Anyway, when I'm looking at the quilt, which is the number one question, how do I quilt it? I think what's the most important thing and how can I highlight it with the quilting? So I'm thinking, oh, I love the fabric. It's beautiful. But you know...

It's the pattern is usually what...

The pattern most often...

Dicates...

It could be the recipient. It could be the quilting, but here the most important thing to this quilt that I wanted to highlight was the layout. I love that medallion bit. I want the quilting to kind of wrap around that.

Awesome.

That doesn't mean that quilting has to be difficult to be impactful. I'm going to maybe do some straight lines.

Okay.

Maybe some swirls, always good with swirls and I don't know. We'll just see where it takes us.

All right. Let's do it.

Sometimes you have a plan, sometimes you just wing it.

That's right.

You can start anywhere you want on the quilt really, it doesn't matter, because I already have my quilt sandwich made, but I'm going to start in the center because it's never harder than it is right there.

Yeah.

It's the heaviest point.

With hand quilting, I start in the center and work my way out.

Yeah. Yeah. I'd rather do the hardest part first. That way when I get to the end of the quilt and I'm like, this thing is driving me nuts. It's a little bit easier. I'll just start right here and again, pick a few different designs and think about how you're going to play with them. You do have long legs.

I do. It's way under there.

All right. I'm going to try not to go nuts with your machine, because it goes fast. Anyway, again, with the free motion I've dropped the feed dogs. I now have put on that different foot and it's just kind like hovering over there. Then my hands are driving, which is fun. As it's quilting, it's moving.

Oh my gosh. You're making swirls.

Yeah. I love swirls. It's a nice filler because it just kind of keeps it a nice texture that consistent spacing, but it's not overwhelming. The trick, do you want to the trick to great quilting, Jenny?

Keep going?

Keep going, but echo, echo, echo.

Okay.

I want to make sure I fill in all the gaps. What I'm going to do is if I get to an area where there is a gap, I'll just echo around and get to that point and fill it in.

Very cool.

A lot of maneuvering, getting the quilts up out of here, grabbing.

Do you use any of the gloves or rulers? Do you have things that you like to use?

I do. Yeah. I have all that stuff. I didn't bring it. I don't know why.

That's all right.

I've got gloves and the supreme sweater and all that.

What's good is that those things are helpful, but if you don't have them you can still do it.

Absolutely. I find that every quilter is different. You asked 10 different quilters, they have 10 different preferences. I use gloves.

I think that's true with everything.

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

It's just how our brains work.

Some people want all the tools. Some people are like, don't tell me, I don't want to do that. It's totally up to you. All right, now I've got onto a good rhythm.

Do you have music you like to listen to when you do it?

I do. I have really nice headphones that my husband got for me. I love to listen to audio books.

Oh I do too.

Sometimes they're really good. Sometimes they're really trashy, but I enjoy them all.

Well for me, if I have something going on in my brain, I can focus better.

Yes. It's so true because I think sometimes our hands will do what they need to do. If...

The muscle memory...

... The brain just gets out of the way. Sometimes we just need to distract that critical side. That's why I like wine. It distracts the critical. I call it my quilting juice, like quilting potion. It's just a lot of fun.

I have to say, I was always the mom who, when I went to fill a baby bottle, the kids would run and bring me their bottle with a towel, because they knew I was going to spill. I could never have an open anything around my quilting. Everything has to have a cap because I'm knocking it over.

True. True. That would be tragic.

I can't do... or maybe I could just do white.

That would work, a table behind you is the trick. You reach over, you don't keep it next to the quilt.

Yeah. I'm probably not going to start drinking. That would be terrible.

Ah, sorry. I'm getting, it's like driving somebody else's car. I get in and push the gas pedal.

I love that you're doing it on my machine though, because I didn't even know my machine would do this.

Yeah. What's funny in classes sometimes people will say like, oh I'm having trouble, and I'm like, let me just try it, and sometimes, it's the user machine interface. There's something in between the two.

It's generally just fear.

Oh for sure. Here's the thing, when you're piecing like you want perfect points. Like you want that perfection, but then it's like just have fun with the quilting. Let go, relax. People are like shut up, Angela, it's not like that. It's a totally different thing. I always say perfectionist sometimes struggle a little bit with it because they have this idea of perfection, but there's no such thing as perfection.

I always say finished is better than perfect.

Yes ma'am. I always say like if you can kind of replace that perfect word with finished or I just want this quilt to be done, I think is super important, but I'm not a perfectionist. I'm a people pleaser.

Me too.

It's totally different neurosis study.

Totally different.

It's still debilitating, but different way. Using a matching thread color is very helpful because then you kind of cover up all those quilting...

Well, nothing is glaring...

Unintentional customizations, no mistakes in quilting.

I love that, unintentional customization. We are not fabric workers, we are curators.

Yeah. Oh yeah. Please.

There's all these words to make it right.

It's all in the presentation of it. It's all how you present it. I'll say the trick, Jenny, if you ever try machine quilting, which I think you should, because it's a lot of fun. You have most control when your hands are on either side of the needle.

Okay.

My worst habit, because I have bad habits, is I'll start quilting and next thing you know, I'm using my elbows. I need to stop and reposition because I want to just go really fast. It's kind of nice to remember don't any bad habits like I do.

I would think that it would be, I mean obviously smart to start on a small project.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Even if you made some practice, little blocks, you could sandwich them and you could just practice your lines or your swirls or, and then you could even put that together as a sampler quilt even.

For sure. I think as you get more comfortable, about a yard piece of fabric, it's a great size because you have to maneuver around, but you don't have to deal with such a big piece of fabric. When you're done, you have a finished piece, and then you can hang it on the wall or put it in your dog bed, depending on how you feel about it. It just depends.

Depending on how you feel about it. I would love that.

You can look out later and be like, oh look how far I come.

These are such cute little swirls.

Thanks. They're my favorite. It's mesmerizing to watch machine quilting. I don't care who you are. It's like watching fire or the ocean, but it's lot of fun because it's just working your way around repositioning and just kind of enjoying the process, which I know sounds really silly because I'm on the other side and I like it. People that aren't there might not enjoy it, but the process is fun.

It's true with anything. It's a learned skill.

Oh yeah, for sure.

I mean we just practice and we get better and better. Be kind to yourself when you begin.

Oh for sure. I said talk to yourself as though you would talk to your teenage daughter or somebody that's very emotional.

Somebody who's very emotional.

Good. It looks great.

That's great, honey.

It's going to be fun. So it's going to take me a little bit. I only got a little bit done, but you want to finish this up for me?

No, I don't. I think you should do this. My love is piecing.

All right. Well, I'll get to going.

I think I'll go have lunch then we'll see you later. Good luck with this.

All right. Thanks. Leave the lights on.

Angela, that looks amazing.

I just finished it.

Even bound.

I know. Well, you've been gone for two weeks, Jenny.

Well, you are a champion. I'm telling you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Let's go over some of the different stitches that you used in here because this is really fun.

After you left, I thought, you know what? I better do this a little bit tighter, smaller. I love it. A lot of dense quilting. Again, you can see kind of highlighting that secondary medallion in center.

Oh gosh, yeah, look at how that makes that pop and just stand right out.

Then I was thinking, since Jenny's wearing a red shirt, I can highlight that.

I love it.

A pop of a contrasting thread, just a little bit of that red. I'm usually not one to advocate for contrasting thread, but every once in a while it's a little bit of a...

It just cries for it.

Yeah. I think the best thing about machine quilting is you can just pick a bunch of different designs and have fun with it. It doesn't have to be serious. It doesn't have to be like...

It's just gorgeous.

...Thought out. I thought let's do some geometric kind of dot to dot quilting just to highlight the angular piece of the block. Then we know I love swirls. I love swirls. I love swirls like you love layer cakes.

Awesome.

I mean, it's like my go-to so it's just a nice all over texture and I thought after you left, I'm like, oh, maybe I'll make them nice and tight and small and have fun with that.

They're a little bigger up here, so yep. That's perfect.

The question's always like the blocks and the fabrics. Well, I know that you picked out the fabric for this quilt, so I didn't want the quilting inside the fabric to be anything overwhelming. In the fabric, I just did a nice plume feather just to give it nice texture and have fun with it.

Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous.

Honestly, it starts and stops at the same point, so I can quickly move on and have fun with it.

Then this, I love this little border.

Wishbones and just adding some echo lines, and again, you can have a plan before you get started, but if you need to change it, you can. It's lot of fun.

Oh, it's just gorgeous. Thank you so much. I love that you did it.

Thank you. Yeah well, I was glad to do it for you.

Angela, this has been amazing. I love the quilt. I love you.

I can't believe I'm on your set. This has been such a dream.

Well, we've been so much fun. It's been a treat for me as well. Don't forget, this is the All Roads pattern. It's exclusive to Missouri Star. Thanks to Angela. Designed by her and quilted by her. Well, yours won't be, but you know, you can do this, right?

They can definitely do it, so could you, Jenny.

I'm going to try it. I'm really going to try it. Anyway, we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the All Roads quilt from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Hi everybody. It's Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We hope you enjoyed watching this video. If you aren't already part of the Missouri Star Quilt Company family, be sure to subscribe so you won't miss a thing. If you click that bell, it'll notify you every time a new tutorial comes out. See you next Friday.