Here’s a beginner-friendly appliqué butterfly and stars quilt that looks great as a scrappy quilt or with your favorite fabric collection!
Fly Away – purchase quilt pattern here
Fly Away is my newest pattern release of this year. It measures 56″ x 68″, and the blocks finish at 9″. I worked with the Pixie Patch collection by Lumin Fabrics. If you want your quilt to look just like mine, wait a little, as the collection will ship to stores in January 2027. In the meantime, you can make a scrappy quilt using your batiks or other fabrics you have on ...
read moreHow are you all? I'm keeping very busy in the house and in the garden. Here is a view of the wooden house from the right side. I let that Birch tree grow from a tiny sapling and now I wonder if I should have done that. I love Birches and they don't have the longevity that other kinds of trees have so it won't be there forever. I thought it provides a little shade and privacy too. Anyway, it is now as tall as the roof!
The pattern of later afternoon and night time thunder storms ... read moreThis is Gladioli by the artist, Adrian Paul Allison. Here is the link to Adrian's Wikipedia page.
Gladioli are the flower of August, my birth month. It blooms large and showy and in many colours. As much as I wish it were my favourite flower, it is not. In fact, if I lined up all flowers it would probably land near the end of the pack. It's a little too over the top for my liking. While I admire showy, it's not me. I prefer the wild flowers, the tiny, the ones that bloom against all odds ...
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I continue to stitch away on my aunt'sHouse Quilt... All of the tree blocks are done...The quilt top is coming to life...I decided to try a Confetti Border treatment...You can find the tutorial for this Improvtechnique on my blog HEREI like the confetti border so I willcontinue to make more...this border treatment adds to thewhimsical nature of this quilt...I had great FUN setting these
read moreAs in, what makes you realize you’re in your comfort zone?
Last Monday night I started sewing down the binding on the Girl Gang DIY Sampler. I had already stitched down the hanging sleeve and while that was happening, I remembered just how much I love hand sewing. Just the rhythm of the needle and thread moving in and through and out of the fabric layers is very soothing to me. And it’s something I can do while watching TV, because I’m rarely paying that much attention to what’s playing (unless it’s a show I ...
read moreI know, I can't believe it either!
I started the quilt in 2016; I think it became a flimsy in 2016 and it went on my longarm in 2017. Two moves and 10 years later, it's finally finished.
| Tada! |
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| The flimsy in 2017 |
Everything I could tell you about it was disclosed in previous blog posts; just search for Girl Gang and they should come up for you. I smile every time I see it and the song immediately pops in my head--it's a happy song and it is now the name of the quilt: Let Me ...
read moreThere Goes The Neighborhood !I brought home a box full of house quilt blocksfrom Idaho this summer...they belong to my aunt.These wild fabrics were also in the box...This note was also in the box...Each block was created by a different quilterand a few of them wrote a note to my aunt.Here is a close up view of a few of the blocks:The box of fabrics and instruction notewas handed off to each
read moreWhat’s the Tutorial? Learn how to sew a buttonhole stitch around appliqué pieces for a clean, decorative finish. This simple technique secures the raw edges while adding a classic hand-stitched look to quilts, pillows, table runners, and other sewing projects.
Have you ever looked at an appliqué project and thought, “Those stitches look way too fancy for me.” I promise they’re not. The buttonhole stitch is one of those techniques that looks impressive but is actually pretty simple once you get going.
It’s also one of those stitches you’ll see over and over in quilting. It ...
read moreThe only constant in my days is that they are flying by. Does time speed up in the summer months I wonder. We had Tony's birthday celebration last week and he is now 87 and counting. It was a somewhat sad day as he reflected on all the people he has lost including another good friend in recent months. Things brightened up though when we went out for a meal to a nearby restaurant with Beth and Brad. Beth made him a beautiful chocolate cake, his favorite. She uses Barry's recipe found at his site, Rock Recipes, and ...
read more...and the babies just keep coming (thank goodness).
| I added this photo because it's amazing how it looks inside my studio vs outside. |










