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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 ...

Did you see the Northern Lights two weeks ago?

I have to report there was nothing to see where I live, because dawn came too early for us. There was just too much light in the sky to be able to see the pretty colors. I live in a pretty densely populated area anyway, so even looking at the regular night’s sky to see the stars is a bit of a challenge. I can see some constellations with very bright stars, but that is about it.

I am making up for missing out on all the celestial events of ...

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 ...

Looking for a garden-inspired quilting design? There are plenty of quilting ideas out there for flowers and leaves, but how about adding a garden path to your pattern library?

This garden path design is based on the flow of the filler design called pebbles / pebbling. Instead of repeating tiny circles though, we use irregular shapes. Shapes you would find in a flagstone garden path. Pieced to fit together like a complex puzzle, each shape different from the other.

Having each shape being different gives you a lot freedom to fill any area, and it will allow you to vary the ...

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

Have you ever made your own free motion bunting?

A basic bunting design is pretty easy ‘to put up’. Before you start, add some guidelines on your fabric so you know the curve of the bunting. Use chalk or a fabric marking pen.

Begin by stitching out the arches of the bunting, freehand or with a ruler. Then go back in and add the zigzag line for the little flags. It doesn’t matter if you start the zig zag from the right or the left.

My grand parents had a smallish cherry tree in the corner of their garden and every Spring it would ‘dress itself in a pink fluffy ballgown’ and it would sprinkle pink leaves with every little breeze. I loved that tree and I told myself that I wanted one of those in my garden when I grew up. I haven’t made that come true yet, but there are plenty of other brightly colored flowers, bushes and trees in my garden. I can’t resist a bright bloom!

In the Netherlands we have saying about the month of April being fickle: ‘April doet wat hij wil’. Strong winds yesterday, pouring rain today and forecasts indicate that we will get a taste of Summer this weekend.

To celebrate sunny weather on the horizon, let’s fill our fabrics with flowers! This weeks design ‘Finnish Flowers’ is inspired by fabric designs by the Finnish company Marimekko. Their bright and bold designs always brings a smile to my face. I have two pieces of Marimekko fabric in my collection that I have found while thrifting.

The Finnish Flower free motion design ...

Last Friday was World Water Day and this next Friday is Mermaid Day, so this week’s free motion design just fits in!

The Mermaid’s Tail design is based on the clamshell grid. This design can be quilted pretty densely, but stitch it out as big as you want. You could even use a ruler to help you create the semicircular arcs. The clamshell gird is used upside down, making it look like scales. Scales on a mermaid’s tail!

Fill the clamshells with teardrops that fan out from the centre. Use as many teardrops as you like.

There ...

Nothing yet!

I started sowing flower seeds a few weeks ago but so far nothing is coming up! I have all the right set up but it just hasn’t been sunny much. I do hope to see some seedlings soon! Most of the flowers I am sowing are brightly colored and they always turn out way bigger that the package says. For instance the cosmos that should be about 2 to 3 feet high, turns into an 6 feet giant.

What is your favorite flower or greatest sowing succes?

Let's give scrap baskets a double meaning! Made from scraps, especially thread scraps, this basket is also a good place to throw them! It's about 4.5" high and 3.5" across. I used silk, so it's extra fancy, but you can use any fabric and threads you like. 

Contents include:

-- An old freemotion quilting practice sandwich, 

--  Long scrap fabric strips, as background,

-- Ravelled threads on top. Most are threads ...

The garden is slowly showing the first Spring flowers. The sun is showing her face more each day, but the mornings are still frosty. The hellebores have been in bloom for over a month, the hyacinths are popping up and the daffodils are almost ready to show their crowns. This time of year has always brought me joy, but this last week I had trouble to find the spark. My cat Toby went missing on Tuesday. He didn’t come home for his dinner, which is highly unusual. When it started to rain and he didn’t come running home ...

This Orange Peel Stars design has several stitch paths to choose from. The first one is based on one of my tutorials from 2017.

Stitch path 1:

Stitch out an orange peel design first to stabilise your fabric. Best results are achieved by using a ruler, but I am known to free hand them if the shapes are small (blue lines in drawing below).

Once you have filled your block with Orange Peels, enter the space inside of the Orange Peel, starting from the left. Echo around that space in an inward spiral (green lines in the drawing below). Once ...

BEFORE: In my last blog post, I showed this potential valentine, which my friend Jane pointed out, looks more like the Valentine's Day Massacre. 

I certainly couldn't give this to anyone I don't wish to maim. But then it occurred to me that my daughter's cat, Cleocatra, routinely combines love with blood. She doesn't allow claw-clipping, so when she plays with us, scratches can ensue. She's also an unrepentant lizard-tormentor and sewing-machine occupier.

AFTER: So I turned my violent background into this! The perfect Valentine for my daughter!

This technique has been around a ...

 I was minding my own business, making a whole lot of improv triangle kaleidoscopes, like this.

I'm only using solids for this quilt. The smallest scraps were filling my "toss" bin.

But then the Create Whimsy newsletter arrived in my email. Lynn Woll, its curator extraordinare, had an article titled "Scrap Happy Confetti Quilts," with  Valentine's Day projects. Oooooo! It looked like so much fun...and I knew I had loads of fresh scraps. 

I plucked the solids from my "discard" bin and sent them into plastic bags, organized by color. 

Then I cut out a 4" square ...

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 ...

Behind the scenes I have been working on something epic! I have created an online free motion quilting course about the designs Ribbon Candy and Wishbone. The course is called Basic to Epic because it explains the classic sashing designs and then lifts them up to something even more decorative and complex.

Even though these two design may be considered basic, they are anything but. Learning the core structure of these designs will help you identify the cause of your wonky lines. You will learn how to tweak the structures to create any other variation.

Even experienced quilters see their ...

Most of the grid-based designs I have shared with you are stitched out horizontally. I have a vertical one for you today, which makes it more suitable for domestic machine quilters compared to longarm quilters. If you want to use this on a large project on a longarm, you would have to advance the quilt after stitching just a few hearts. That would take up way too much time. So, if you would like to use this design on a longarm, maybe consider turning your project 90 degrees and stitch it out on its side???

The Row of Hearts design ...