What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Want to learn to quilt a fun modern meander called Circuit Board? This is the next installment of my “Year of Machine Quilting” free video tutorials for you to try! Click the image below to watch:

Click here to watch all episodes in my 99 Machine Quilting Designs series

My Latest and Greatest: How Do I Quilt It?

This week’s featured quilt comes from my latest book, “How Do I Quilt It?” In this book (which is required reading for all of my in-person workshops), I show how to quilt 3 different quilts, 3 different ways. In the teal ...

On this episode Vanessa shares her experience with the Palette Scout color theory cards by Zollie Makes.

She shares tips on how to use the cards to choose fabrics for your next sewing/quilting project. An affordable and fun tool for any creatives that work with color!

• Order Palette Scout deck here (affiliate link): https://collabs.shop/wynxdv

• NEW Mystery Mini Bag Club #1: https://craftygemini.com/shop/mystery-mini-bag-club1/

• Join our email list: https://craftygemini.com/newsletter/

Other products, projects, and useful links:

• Mini Ironing Board- DIY Video Tutorial: https://craftygemini.com/2013/06/mini-ironing-board-diy-video-tutorial.html

• Martelli Round About Cutting ...

It’s time for another fun set of Walking Foot quilting designs for you to try – Zig Zags & Double Zig Zags. Take a look by clicking the image below:

Click here to watch all episodes in my 99 Machine Quilting Designs series

Get My Book – Piece and Quilt with Precuts for More Designs!

Two of the quilt patterns I show in the video above come from my 3rd book Piece and Quilt with Precuts. It’s now out of print but you can grab the PDF version from my Etsy Shop!

Click here to get your copy of Piece and ...

Can you believe I’ve designed 10 fabric lines? Do you have any of my previous collections in your stash? Although I love releasing a new fabric group once or twice a year, I really look at it as one continuous collection. I enjoying adding more fabrics and designs when I realize what I’m missing in my own stash, LOL!

Click here to view all Dazzle Dots 2 fabrics, bundles, precuts and kits.

After the tremendous success of the original Dazzle Dots, my fabric company asked for more dots! Since I did bold saturated colors last time, I though ...

This week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs we are learning to quilt Triangle Texture, a design that’s great for modern OR traditional quilts! Watch below and let me know what you think!

Get the Surplus Strips Quilt Pattern or Kit
I recently combined 2 motifs – boxes and triangles on the gray version of my Surplus Strips quilt! You can now grab the kit to make this quilt with the gray or white background, or grab the pattern and choose your own colors. It’s fun to make and fun to quilt! 

• Click Here to Get the Surplus Strips Quilt ...

If you are looking for a geometric, modern free-motion fill, this week’s machine quilting tutorial is just for you! I break down this fun design step by step with 2 different variations for you to try. Take a look below and let me know what you think!

All of the designs I’m sharing in this year long series come from my book 99 Machine Quilting Designs. Although it’s gone out of physical print, you can still grab the PDF download from my Etsy shop.

Over the course of the year I’m going to demonstrate how to ...

It’s QuiltCon time and this is the one show I’ve been to every single year since it launched in 2013. I’m headed to Phoenix, AZ this time around to attend some amazing lectures, volunteer my time on the show floor, and do a little fabric and book promotion. If you are planning to attend, please come and see me during one of these times shown below. I’d love to see you there!!

After a hiatus of entering quilt shows the last couple years, I just got the exciting news that Colorful Chaos was juried into the international quilt show in Paducah, KY!! There’s no pattern for this quilt because it’s part of my renewed push to make new and exciting experimental work that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I’m thrilled with how it turn out. Read more about it below….

Colorful Chaos, Front and Back
It will be hanging at the American Quilter’s Society Show April 23-26, 2025.

In this post I thought I would share ...

Recently, I shared a tutorial demonstrating how to quilt wavy grids on a small practice sample as part of my “99 Machine Quilting Designs” free video series. Now I’m back with a bonus video showing how to take this design and quilt it on a real, full sized quilt! You can change it up and quilt it with straight lines, too. Either way you want to quilt, take a look to see how I did it below:

Get Your Color Weave Quilt Kit – Made from Dazzle Dots

Fun fact: I created my Dazzle Dots collection in rainbow colors, specifically ...

Front and back of Colorful Chaos ready to baste. I added a little bit more fabric around the edges of the back to ensure it was bigger than the front.

Are you enjoying following along as I make this quilt? If you missed it, be sure to check out my previous posts from this series:

Part 1 – Making Soul-Fulfilling Work
Part 2 – Piecing Inset Circles
Part 3 – Improv Quilt Backing from Leftovers

This week I’m showing how I spray basted Colorful chaos using my design wall and 505 spray. Something I do before I start is to take a ...

Wavy Lines are one of my absolute favorite motifs to quilt and it’s so fun to see how small changes can lead to a completely different design! In my latest machine quilting video tutorial, I’m showing how to form a simple wavy grid. If you’d like to take your wavy lines up a notch, you can echo them to add a touch of elegance to your project. Take a look by clicking play below:

It’s been fun to quilt these designs on “real” quilts so I can demonstrate that anyone can have success quilting on their ...

One of the things that took up a lot of my time last year, along with the fact that I’m in the process of building a second house at the ranch, was that I agreed to make three large t-shirt quilts for a grieving family. It felt like a monumental task, and I had to… Continue reading January Recap – Quilty Version

I recently finished making a fun yet chaotic quilt backing from leftovers of my colorful fabrics. I’m calling the quilt Colorful Chaos and it was a fun experiment in learning to piece inset circles. You can see the image of the front pinned to the design wall next to the backing.

This is my 3rd post in a series about making this quilt. It’s been wonderful to sew on between other “work” projects, without a strict deadline. Click below to read about parts 1 and 2, written before I finally designed on a name for this quilt:

Part ...

Sometimes you may get tired of quilting smooth curving lines and you want to opt for something different, and maybe a little bit edgy. Well, this week’s video tutorial is the perfect fit! These are some of my go to designs for edge to edge quilting, and they always look great! Take a look below to watch:

Whenever I teach machine quilting workshops in person, I always remind my students that it’s important to practice stitching angular designs as well as curvy ones. You may find that one type is easier than the other so that’s useful ...

I’m usually pretty good about making a new project from start to finish, but every now and then one of my quilts takes a little longer to finish. My Interlinked quilt was sitting for 2 years just waiting for me to put the binding on – can you believe it??

• Click here to get the Interlinked Quilt Pattern – Printed Version
• Click here to get the Interlinked Quilt Pattern – PDF Version

But I finally finished it on a recent beach vacation so I was able to get some fun “on location” photos of it. Fun fact – we took a photo of ...

In a heartfelt journey of transformation, we embraced change, moving closer to our grandchildren, and creating a new dream studio. Through meticulous design and cherished memories, I built a space brimming with intention, comfort, and inspiration. Blessed with love, light, and creativity, it reflects a life dedicated to passion and purpose. Continue reading →

The meandering curves and bumps of free-motion stipple quilting help you master creating a smooth, fluid movement. That’s why I wanted to share this short and sweet tutorial early on in my series of 99 Machine Quilting Designs. Take a look at my new machine quilting video below and let me know what you think!

Now I know what you are thinking, “but how do I do that on a real quilt?” In my bonus video below, I show you how to quilt stipple on a real quilt, demonstrating this versatile design on my Modern Logs pattern. This video ...

Because every family that raises chickens needs a chicken quilt! It was such fun pulling fabrics for this one! These chickens were inspired by a chicken block from Sewinspired.  Each block was a joy filled 15 minutes of daily play … Continue reading →

For many Christmas’s, my five siblings, and I, rotated through our names and each made a hand crafted gift for another. I almost always make a quilt. I had previously made three (sadly no photo of the first…) for this … Continue reading →

I am hopeful that 2025 is a year of discovery, fun, family and friend gatherings...but mostly, quilting!

Hey, it is what it is! I spent the bulk of my first month of retirement just relaxing, and that was good for me. Very little happened in the way of quilting other than tearing off the foundation paper from the Tattoo Quilt and adding sashing to the blocks. In the crafting area, I played with my ScanNCut and cut out names from vinyl for each of our granddogs and grandcats (and our own Jolene and Jedi) and adhered them to bandanas ...