How to Make Gem Stone Quilts with MJ Kinman

(Show 2407) MJ Kinman, a job at a Fortune 100 company kept her busy, but it was quilting that tugged at her heart. In 1991, an advertising mailer featuring a gem captured her imagination. She wanted to see if it was possible to create a gem using fabrics. MJ has designed a freezer paper technique pattern based on the 12 birth-month gemstones. Colorway fabric kits make fabric selection easy for those just dipping their toe in the water. The pattern has numbering and registration marks for building the quilt. A big puzzle, MJ suggests working one section at a time, to avoid getting lost in the process. She also shares tips to avoid sewing through your paper pattern as well as tackling that ever tricky set in seam.

In order to replicate the colors and fire in gemstones, MJ had to learn how to paint her own fabrics. She shows Ricky how easy it is to paint your own cotton sateen fabric temporarily stapled to a stretcher bars to blend colors and add and movement. We tour the Iowa Quilt Museum with Museum Director, Megan Barrett, for the history of this gem in Winterset, IA, that opened its doors in May 2016.

Visit: Iowa State Quilt Museum
Blocks Featured: Gemstones

Patchwork Piecing, Freezer Paper, Painting, Art Quilts
Series 2400

MJ Kinman

Go to MJ Kinman's Quiltipedia Page