What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

In June I made two quilts for people who were becoming grandparents. I knew the grandparents but not the baby’s parents that well. It was a bit of a puzzle to come up with a color scheme for the baby quilts. Both sets of parents were so kind to sent me their preferred colors and photos of the baby’s room.

Baby #1’s parents really liked the Dutch baby brand ‘Little Dutch’ which had wall paint as part of their collection. I selected some colors from the range that would fit with the colors in the photo of ...

Let’s travel to far away lands and visit mysterious gardens, meet exceptional creatures and inhale magical and exotic scents!

This curvy and lush edge to edge design resembles an exotic flower with round and pointy elements. It would look great on a quilt with a theme like nature, the renaissance, far away lands, fairy gardens or fantasy books.

This exotic flower edge to edge design is curvy and lush with round and pointy areas which makes it just that more interesting.

The spacing within the flower is wider than the spacing of the echoes around the flower, making the ...

Do you see many butterflies were you live? Many of us make a conscious decision to have an insect-friendly garden, but do we all welcome caterpillars who munch on the plants? Last year I discovered these stunning caterpillars in my front garden on the verbascum plants. These caterpillars are way more colorful than the adults sadly. They turn onto a chunky and hairy brown Mullein moth.

In this free motion Caterpillar edge to edge design, small caterpillars are placed in all directions. The design is based on a short sequence of movements that are echoed to move to a new ...

The sound of flags flying in the wind, the fabric moving in all directions. The flashes of color and bright sunlight in your eyes… Let’s go to the beach!

The design Coast is inspired by flags, bunting and bows and would look lovely on a quilt for the beach, a quilt for a national holiday or any other celebration. The design is dynamic, curvy but not too curvy.

The triangles ‘curve with the Summer breeze’ so you can fill empty spaces pretty easily. Add sets of 2 flags and curve around one of the sides and then add a ...

Did you know you can free motion quilt with a 12W thread? You would have to go really slow, yes. But it can be done! For this week’s design I used a spool of Sulky Cotton Petite 12w thread. People have been using this for hand quilting and embroidery, but you can freemotion with it too!

The edge to edge design Trio is not based on an existing shape like a leaf or a flower. With a bit of imagination it looks like a cartoon drawing of an animal / dinosaur seen from the side. Or does it look like ...

Some of the flowers that I sowed last month have already turning into plants that I can plant out in the garden this week. Some have not come up at all. I will have to redo them to see if it is a problem with the seeds, or if it was too wet and cold the last two months.I love to fill my garden with bright colors. my garden has the perfect size for me right now, but I do wish there was a bit of room for bigger plants, like a magnolia tree.

Magnolias flowers are something special ...

Over the millennia and different cultures, people have created labyrinth designs on walls and floors. This ancient tradition endures in new buildings, parks, computer games and from today also in quilting! read more

The weather has been different from hour to hour! Rain, grey clouds, sunshine, strong winds. Nothing dramatic, just a typical Dutch February. I have been able to do some cleaning up in the garden, that felt so good! I even managed to sow some Sweet Pea seeds.

This week’s free motion design is harder than it looks! Grab some paper and try it out.

The edge to edge design Splash creates Paint splashes or splatters by adding blobs in different sizes. When each set of blobs is completed, you travel to a new spot to add a new sequence ...

Are you looking for an elegant free motion edge to edge design for your quilt project? Try Feather Flower!

The gorgeous Feather flower design moves in every direction and starts with a shape that you may have tried before: the feather with a pearl. I used this shape a couple of weeks ago in ‘Bubble Wave’.

After the feather with pearl, you stitch two more feathers and add a final leaf shape that can fill any area that needs to be filled. The leaf can go on either side of your stitched ‘branch’.

It looks really well on this red ...

 Ok, it took me until Wed to share my messy unorganized design wall.  I really wasn't going to share for a couple of reasons.  One it really doesn't look like who I am as a quilter.  But then I thought, wait a minute, there were no little quilt fairies that put that stuff up.  But if there are quilt fairies, I must say I have a list of things they can do!! And number two the projects that I really want to be working on aren't there.....maybe this can be a goal for a future Design ...

 Baby quilt 1 ("Palate Cleanser") is coming along.