Off to another retreat! I’m a  guest at this one, so I get to do a lot more sewing. Prepping has been going on for about a week and I am SO ready! There’s something wonderful about being in a room full of creative quilters that serves to feed my creativity and productivity.

First – a scrappy flimsy that needs a border. It’s a strip quilt and I’ll be doing more strip blocks, making them into small half square triangles with a white-on-white, and adding as a border.

Second – a baby scrappy quilt that was started a ...

Welcome to my new series where I explain a little more in depth about how I made a recent quilt and share tips to make your sewing and quilting faster and more fun! Today we’ll focus on my Geese in the Garden Quilts made from my Abstract Garden line with Benartex/Contempo.

Click here to get the print version of Geese in the Garden pattern.
Click here to get the PDF version of Geese in the Garden pattern.

The “Geese” Design

When I designed Geese in the Garden with it’s radiating diamond-like shapes,  my first instinct was to ...

In between moving, hosting the Blooming Wallflowers quilt along, and planning out my next round of designs, I haven’t had a chance to tell you much about some of my latest finishes. So I thought I’d take some time over the next several weeks to share more in-depth about my process of making quilts from my latest fabric line, Abstract Garden.

Geese in the Garden

• Click here to get the Geese in the Garden quilt pattern – print version
• Click here to get the Geese in the Garden quilt pattern – PDF version
• Click here to get the Geese in ...

I am so sorry but I have been super busy and neglectful of this blog.   I promised that I would show the things I purchased recently and have not done so. I have been quickly using up a LOT of my low volume fabrics on this traveling quilt  so I picked up a few more. That gold "love" I bought for a friend to use in a quilt she is making for her son.   I found some of the new

We have started birthday season in our family. My hubby's is the 4th, Youngest son is the 6th, Son number 3 is the 18th, and many more in our extended family.

I am looking for mustard, cheddar color fabric. This was supreme cotton from Missouri star quilt company. It is a beautiful color. I have some more ordered, before I choose. And, while I was there, I added a few 'deals" to my cart.

Several years ago I made a pretty set of pillowcases for our bed and hubby loved them. How disappointing when one met its demise. He asked for another set! What a nice break to do some easy and quick sewing. I did them on my Jazz because it sews really fast – 1,000 stitches a minute!  The first set I did is rather bold  and fancy and goes with our burgundy set of sheets.

Next I chose a print to go with our turquoise set. It seemed a bit plain until they were all together and on the bed – a ...

Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy offers quilters some sound advice in video form. Take a watch and share your thoughts below. The Quilt Tree in Nyack is a Stonehenge Solstice Block Party participant. See block to the left. The other day when I was in there Lisa had a quilt wrapped around a… Continue reading Good advice and a Travlogue

One of the fun things I love about designing fabric for Benartex is being able to express myself creatively through fabric. I also love getting to know their other fabric designers and see the amazing things they make! Recently Benartex pulled together a fun collaboration to create this fun sampler quilt. Each block was designed by one of nine current fabric designers who participated, and there are instructions to make each block as well as the full quilt over on the Benartex blog.

Designer Sampler in Solids
Click here for the Sampler introduction
Click here for finishing instructions

As an ...

Like most quilters, I use a mitered edge on my quilt binding.  I’ve tried several methods for getting that angle corner correct.

Here’s a tutorial on a method that I tried a few days ago that worked out pretty well.

I cut my binding strips fairly wide–this one is 2-1/2″.  It’s a pieced binding using fabrics from the quilt top and back.   I turn and iron a 1/4 inch edge –I’ll use that when I hand sew the binding to the back.  As normal, I sew the binding strip to the front of ...

No fabric out this week. I finished the QAL blocks and plan to sew the top together today. Forward progress is a good thing.
Last Sunday my LQS had a quilter’s garage sale. People rented tables and sold things they no longer loved – fabric, patterns, books, and notions. I went looking for 30s prints, but bought these batik bundles instead. The pieces range from fat quarters to yardage. There are very few scraps.
Bundle #1
Bundle #2
And this bunny fabric because it’s too cute. I seem to have a thing for bunny fabric. The other fabric goes ...

Can you believe we’ve come to the end of the Blooming Wallflowers quilt along? I’m so excited to see all of your finishes and encourage you to continue working at your own pace, even if you finish weeks (or months) later.

• Click here to get the Rainbow Weave quilt pattern (PDF)
• Click here to get the Rainbow Weave quilt pattern (print)

I was literally finishing the hand binding of this quilt on the way to quilt market last fall, so I didn’t get any pics of my binding in progress. However, I’ve written several other binding ...

It's amazing how fast April seemed to come along this year. The months just continue to roll on, if I'm not careful I may get rolled right over.
April started out busy as the 1st is my anniversary, no sewing got done. We spent the day just doing little fun things that we enjoy, like a walk. Then a nice meal out at one of our favourite restaurants.

Sewing has been happening including more secret sewing this time for the 'Be A Diamond' blog hop hosted by Just Let Me Quilt.

a ...

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared my sewing journey in real time, so while I’m working on some projects behind the scenes that I can’t show you, I’ll share my process in learning to attempt to sew a dress. I’ve always wanted to learn to sew clothing, and now that I have my own fabric, I’m even more inspired to make something to wear from it!

My first real attempt will be to try the Terrace dress from Liesl and Co. It looks like an easy enough pattern and I’ve met Liesl ...

An EQ Design Contest!

I’m so excited, I could hardly wait
to make the BIG announcement!

The good folks at the Electric Quilt Company and Timeless Treasures Fabrics are hosting a design contest in honor of introducing 30 brand new colors with a chance to win fat quarters of the entire 60-piece, Solid-ish collection!!! 

Here’s how to enter

First, download the free Solid-ish fabrics for EQ here.

Whether or not you choose to enter the design contest (which I truly hope you will,) if you own EQ software you’ll want to download all the gorgeous ...