This past year, I have been trying new quilt techniques just to have fun and I love learning about different quilting techniques that I never knew existed. Get excited about quilting with these new techniques and quilt patterns. You’ll be sure to find something that will inspire you!

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For Christmas, I decided to make my two daughter in laws and five grandkids quilts using different techniques. This was a learning experience for me and it gave them a quilt to cuddle with during the upcoming cold weather.

For the seven different new techniques that I used, I will be going down the list according to the ages of the people that I made them for.

Pieced Applique

The first new technique is a pieced appliqué quilt that was made for my 2 year old granddaughter. She loves purple so I found a pattern from Quilt Fabrication that I thought would be perfect for her. It’s a butterfly appliqué set inside a pieced background. The background consists of 16 blocks turned several different ways to make a beautiful quilt. I have done appliqué before so the technique isn’t new but this time, I decided to use a light box to trace out the pattern before adding it to the quilt. A pantograph from Urban Elementz called Flower Power was used for the quilting and I absolutely love how it turned out!!

Scrappy Applique

The second new technique that I tried in 2022 is a technique that I used that came from Shannon Brinkley. While the quilt wasn’t from a pattern that Shannon Brinkley had, it was her technique called Scrappy Appliqué that was used to make this quilt. My three year old grandson loved the triceratops dinosaur so I turned one into a quilt for him. The background fabric is some that I had in my stash that I’m planning on making some landscape quilts with. That will also be a new technique for me so stay tuned for that fun project!! Quilting was done using a long meander on the ground and sky to make them both look like they are flowing.

The pterodactyl was cut using the Silhouette Cameo. If you are going to try cutting fabric with a cutter like the Cricut or Cameo, it’s a really good idea to use a new blade. I didn’t and it tore the fabric a few times before getting it cut correctly.

Cathedral Blocks

Next up is a quilt that I made for my four year old granddaughter. She was wearing a Beauty and the Beast dress one day and that inspired me to make her a Beauty and the Beast quilt.

I purchased the panel on eBay and used black fabric for the borders. The new technique that I used for this quilt was cathedral blocks for the corners. These blocks are so much fun to make! I’ll do a tutorial on how I made them and post them on the blog at a later date.

I had some extra fabric left so I fussy cut it in a circle (fussy cutting is simply cutting the area of the fabric that you want to show) and sewed them randomly to the border. For the quilting, I followed the lines of the quilt panel.

Reverse Applique

The next quilt was made for my five year old granddaughter. I have been wanting to try out this new technique for a while so I thought this was a perfect chance to do it. It’s definitely not a new technique but it’s new to me.

She loves unicorns so I found this really cute unicorn quilt using a reverse appliqué technique. Several 1/2 inch strips were cut and sewed together and were sandwiched between the backing and front fabric. Then they were cut around the front fabric using a template to reveal the multicolored unicorn. I did the same with the stars that are at the top of the quilt.

This couldn’t be quilted using my longarm quilting machine because everything was already sewn together so I quilted using a meander all around the unicorn. It turned out to be so adorable!!

Trapunto

My seven year old grandson’s quilt is next using the Trapunto technique. “Trapunto” is a technique that utilizes at least two layers to create a raised surface on a quilt. It can really give quilted pieces an almost 3D effect and add dimension and texture to your projects.

There are several different techniques that can be used to achieve the trapunto effect. My grandson loves the t-rex dinosaur so I found an outline on the internet, enlarged it and printed it. Then I cut the fabric out using the template that was just printed and used an Elmer washable glue to adhere puffy, polyester batting onto the back. I cut around the batting and sewed the cutout onto the top fabric.

When it was time to quilt it, I layered the backing, regular cotton batting and the top layer and I used a pantograph called Whole Lotta Bubbles from Urban Elementz. This created an extra puffy look to the dinosaur with two different battings behind it.

Pieced

This next one is a pieced quilt using a Trip Around the World Pattern. See my previous post on how I made a trip around the world quilt. I love making these.

They start out with so many different squares and it’s almost a game to create them and turn them to make a pattern. This quilt made a square quilt which was nice but not the style that I wanted so I added another border on the top and bottom using extra fabric from the quilt. The colors are so pretty on this one.

Pieced mixed with Appliqué

Last but not least is a quilt that I made for my other daughter-in-law. She absolutely loves anything that has to do with books so when I was researching the pattern for her quilt, I knew that I had to make a Bookcase quilt. I found an easy enough pattern from Missouri Star Quilt Company called Book Review and watched the video that explains how to piece it together.

If I had more time, I would have found her favorite books and added those onto the book edges but instead, I used fabrics that I had in my stash to make the book ends. The best part about that is that I used fabrics from the kids quilts that I made above and some that I used to make her daughter some dresses when she was a baby.

I also included a picture of their family on the bookshelf and another picture of just the kids. The have two cats so I made sure to include a cat sitting on the shelf as well. If you would like a tutorial on how the bookshelf quilt came together, please let me know in the comments below.

The quilting was a pantograph from Urban Elementz called Reading Room. It was perfect for this quilt because it included reading glasses, open books with bookmarks and closed books.

Those are all of the new and fun techniques that I have tried in 2022. I cannot wait to find interesting and new techniques for 2023 and beyond. Is there a technique that you like more than others? I would love to know! Let’s talk the comments!