What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Last week I shared a pattern that looked like people doing the wave, and this week second pattern depicts wild and crazy ocean waves. Strong currents, wild winds and smashing waves were the inspiration for this dense pattern. After all it is Maritime Day today!

This pattern is great as a background filler and that is why I chose a thread that blended with the fabric more. I don’t want to thread to stand out much with a filler, it is supposed to flatten the background so other elements stand out more. The wave design also adds a lot ...

How do you like your coffee? Strong or with a lot of milk, with an extra added flavor or just plain?

I am not much of a coffee drinker myself, but most of my family members LOVE their coffee in the morning. Shiny appliances with lots of buttons on the counter tops, speciality roasted beans and unique cups to drink it from. Making coffee is turned into an art form!

Can you add a specialty flavor to your quilting?

Yes you can! Add some more depth to your design bij using a slightly darker thread. Some areas of the Coffee ...

One arm up, two arms up… WOOHOO!

Tomorrow our high school students will visit an amusement park. I will not join them this time as a chaperone, but I can imagine their cheerful screams in the many rollercoasters. Some of them even dare to hold their arms up into the air while riding the coaster. Personally I don’t mind the speed of that type of ride, but the height is an issue… and let’s not even talk about the vertigo it causes me. So I normally will admire their joy from the ground.

This week’s pattern is ...

Do you have exotic plants in your garden? 

In my street a lot of neighbors have lovely Japanse maple trees and bushes in their gardens. The maples really stand out beautifully against the white painted modern houses. There are even a few neighbors who have a type of bamboo that doesn’t spread. 

Today, September 18th, bamboo is celebrated on a global level to spread awareness on its conservation. Let’s enjoy this gorgeous plant in our weird and wonderful quilting corner of the internet too.

This Bamboo pattern is pretty easy to stitch out. The bamboo design can be ...

Hot tip: read all the way to the end!

How do you like your chocolate? As a chocolate bar that you can share (or not), as a hot cocoa with whipped creme on top or a as brownie that you can nibble on?

My personal favorite ways to eat chocolate is as sprinkles on icecream, as a chocolate bar with nuts, or like my fellow Dutchies as hagelslag on a peanut butter sandwich.

This week’s free motion quilting design is called Chocolate, as you have guessed already. This pattern is a grid-based design. I stitched it out on a ...

This September you can create your own quilting retreat at home, for FREE!

Two exciting online quilting events are taking place back to back. You can spend a whole week creating projects and then learning how to quilt them. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Yes, yes, yes, the classes in these events are all FREE! You will have free access for a certain time period, and you could even buy the classes if you want to keep them for longer.

I was asked to create free motion quilting classes for both these events and I have been sitting on this ...

Have you ever heard of a Kelp forest? It is the name of an underwater area that is densely populated by kelp. It covers most of our oceans’ coastlines. Mysterious, beautiful and also very important for the Earth’s ecosystem.

And kelp makes a great inspiration for Free Motion Quilting designs. Flowy and bendy so you can cover an entire area, soft and curvy for fabulous texture, and just two different design elements to worry about.

Start with a curvy (gentle serpentine) vertical line. That line curves back down with a series of feather / teardrop shapes. The next piece of ...

Halloween Season has started here on my blog!

And with this season’s opening and the first day of school for me, it also the start of a new series of Free Motion Quilting patterns. I loved creating new and original designs and I can’t wait to share them with you.

Today August 30th, is Frankenstein Day where we celebrate the author Mary Shelley’s birthday.
Have you ever read her book Frankenstein? In my day job as a high school art teacher I have done lessons on the book and the films but I have never applied Frankenstein ...

Remember the third request for my brother and his wife’s baby quilt?

‘Please add a Flower of Life quilting design on this baby quilt.’

Some of you may be familiar with the Flower of Life design because its use in New Age imagery this century. With the name ‘Flower of Life’ only being just over 20 years old, the overlapping circle design itself is very much older and can be traced back to the 7th or 6th century BCE (wikipedia).

The request for this circle design came from a precious memory where the mother-to-be was taught how to draw ...

No fabric in this week. I ignored the sale at one of my favorite quilt shops.

I finished Pumpkin Patch for 1.5 yards out.

I can’t wait to hang it this fall. It was fun to piece and fun to quilt. I’m pleased with how it turned out.

I’m on to the next project, a quick garment. That doesn’t leave much of a window for choosing whatever comes next.

Fabric In: 0.5 yards

Fabric Out: 7.875 yards

Net Fabric Out: 7.375 yards

How did you do this week?

In October 2020 I was alerted to a charity called Perfectly Preemie requesting tiny baby clothes and baby sheets for the local hospital’s neonatal department. I decided to help out using my scraps and fabric remnants and turn them into sheets. The requested sheets were supposed to be double sided with a waffle-like cotton on the back. I didn’t have that type of fabric, so I decided to put some tops together and donate those right away, so somebody else could add the waffle back.

I was lucky to dig up just enough squares from 5″ stacks that ...

Just a few days ago I announced that the Spool Star quilt pattern will be released on 3 November 2021. That is TOMORROW!

I wanted to take the time today to give you some information on the pattern and answer the questions that I received.

The foundation paper piecing pattern for this wall hanging provides a step by step walk through of all the elements needed to create this beautiful seasonal wall hanging. The pattern will not contain instructions on how to foundation paper piece, but a list of tips is provided.

These are the skills that are required for ...

Hello my dear friends!

This last week was one of the most intense quilt-wise. I am so happy that I could spend so much of this Fall break on stitching my most recent projects and getting them finished!

I have a finish to share with you today, and a special date too!

Let’s look at some eyecandy first, okay? read more

No changes here last week, although progress continues on multiple projects.

We have three months left in the year. How are you doing on your fabric usage goals?

I expect to be back in positive numbers this month with the completion of this quilt.

It may not last though. My Guild’s fabric sale is the last Saturday of the month.

Fabric In: 7.125 yards

Fabric Out: 5.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 2 yards

How did you do this week?

The Winter Pines runner was my OMG for September. I needed some free motion quilting practice before tackling a larger quilt. This was a perfect practice piece.

It was fun to quilt and I love how it looks. I can’t wait to put it out in a few months.

I’m linking to the Elm Street Quilts September finish party.

This quilt of many colors, needs threads to match!

The plan was to use the thread colors as elements of the colors shift within the rows.

This did mean MANY thread changes on the longarm, which I really didn’t mind.

I used my longarm rulers to stitch straight lines and circles. I went over each line 3 times to build up the thread. I also used a really small stitch length on the longarm (16 stitches per inch instead of 11) With the straight lines this is doable, but as I later discovered, the circular lines gave me trouble ...

So happy to announce that the ‘Tea with Kate’ kitchen quilt is finished.

This wall hanging will be on display hopefully soon on a wall near my kitchen. I am happy with how it turned out, even though all the stitching seemed to take for ever. read more

No change in the numbers this week.

I’m a little over half way through the quilting on Waugh Street Christmas.

I’d love to finish it this month, but there’s a lot going on this week. Some long days at work will cut into my quilting time.

Fabric In: 7.125 yards

Fabric Out: 5.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 2 yards

How did you do this week?

Before I started quilting Waugh Street Christmas, I pulled fabric for the next BOM blocks.

These are bigger blocks – 18 inches. The pattern came out in January (2016), but I didn’t sew them first for reasons I can’t remember. Now I’m glad I waited because it gave me an opportunity to even out the color placement.

I think I’m short on one of the fabrics. I have a replacement chosen just in case.

Sewing these blocks is next on the list after quilting Waugh Street Christmas.

I finished the runner that served as a practice piece for the Waugh Street Christmas quilting design.

I enjoyed quilting this one and loved the design. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. Panels are such a great way to practice free motion quilting.

This project was my September OMG. I was determined to finish it over the long weekend rather than dragging it out.

No fabric in this week. I haven’t visited a quilt shop in months.

Fabric In: 7.125 yards

Fabric Out: 5.125 yards

Net Fabric In: 2 yards

How did you do ...