What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Jenny Doan’s family tree is stitched with needle and thread. 

Look back two generations, and you’ll find a pair of great aunts, master seamstresses who traveled from Sweden to work for the acclaimed New York artist, George Inness. 

They stitched and saved to pay passage to America for the entire family–including Jenny’s grandmother, who was just seven years old at the time. 

Jenny says, “When I see these spools, I am reminded that sewing is part of my genetic makeup; it changed our family forever!” 

This week, Jenny is stitching up a beautiful Big Spools quilt ...

Life is a whirlwind of extremes. Happy times; hard times. Miracles and loss. But as our hearts are stretched in a thousand directions, they sure do grow! 

If you’re anything like me, you pour your emotions into your quilts. And this week’s quilt is bursting with love!

Watch Jenny stitch up the wildly popular Exploding Hearts quilt by Laura Piland for Slice of Pi Quilts. This stunning heart quilt is a triumph of triangles with half-square triangles, hourglass blocks, and quarter-square triangles, too. (We love Exploding Hearts SO MUCH, we created a kit with the pattern and beautiful ...

Burano is a tiny Italian island known for handmade lace and sherbet-hued homes. 

Why were those little houses painted aqua, lavender, and cotton-candy pink? According to legend…it was to help tipsy fishermen find their way home! 

This week, the Doan girls are stitching up 3 new Drunkard’s Path quilts, and they’re just as colorful and charming as the streets of Burano! 

Watch the latest Triple Play tutorial to learn how to transform layer cakes and charm packs into Drunkard’s Path quilts that are quick, easy, and “sew” much fun!

It doesn’t get easier than this classic quilt block! Using Layer Cakes cut into half-square triangles, the chevron quilt block is the perfect project for a new beginner quilter! Even if you’ve been stitching up quilts for awhile now, this simple pattern offers a unique opportunity to quilt in a hurry (not like any of us would EVER wait until the last minute to make a handmade gift).

To make this into a full quilt, all you’ll need is a solid layer cake and a printed layer cake – but the good news is you can truly make ...

The smallest origami crane ever made was just .1 mm square (that’s 1/25 of an inch!) The all-time largest measured a whopping 256 feet. And this week we’re working on the world’s coziest origami! 

The Big T Origami quilt is based on an antique favorite. It’s sometimes called Folded Corners, and it comes together quickly with flying geese and half square triangles. 

In this tutorial, Jenny shares the secret to perfectly sharp flying geese points, and she uses her trusty squaring tool and bias seam tape to keep everything as neat and tidy as true ...

Every year when the weather turns cold, the peacock butterfly finds a cozy bed inside a hollow tree. There she naps for months at a time, with her wings wrapped around her body like a quilt. 

At the first sign of spring she emerges, wonderfully refreshed and ready to flutter!  (Add a tiny sewing machine and a stack of pretty precuts, and I’d call that the perfect winter!)

This week Jenny is stitching up a new butterfly quilt using a border print and layer cake from the beautiful Elysian collection by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning Fabrics. 

She ...

Quick! Gather your scraps! We’re making crumb quilts today! 

When you truly love fabric – and I KNOW you do – you simply can’t toss away those beautiful bits and pieces; you have to make ‘em into something fabulous! So for this month’s Triple Play quilt tutorial, Jenny and the girls have whipped up 3 great crumb piecing projects. 

Jenny’s crumb quilt is framed with a crumb-style piano key border, Natalie’s crumb-pieced Carpenter’s Square comes together just like a charm quilt, and Misty’s Full Circle quilt combines crumb piecing with the classic orange peel. 

(I ...

Have you ever heard of a Colorado block? Many quilters know this quilt classic by another name, the Dutch Windmill. Using layer cakes, this traditional half-square triangle quilt block comes together in a flash creating a unique and vintage design that has been loved for many years. How many years to be exact? While Jenny couldn’t find much information on the original of the name Dutch Windmill, the Colorado quilt block can be traced back to 1941 where it was published in the Kansas City Star!

To stitch up this classic you’ll need two layers cakes, one of ...

Looking for love this Valentine’s Day? Keep an eye on the birds! 

Spot a dove, and you’re destined for a happy, peaceful marriage. Spot a crossbill, and your future spouse is sure to be a grouch.

A sparrow means you’ll marry a pauper, and a goldfinch signals wealth. And if an owl shows up? That’s it! You’ll be single for life! 

All things considered, it may be wiser to stay inside and quilt! This week Jenny is using precut charms to stitch up a super-sweet Valentine heart quilt. These half-square triangle hearts are so simple ...

Do you remember discovering precuts for the very first time? Vanessa Goertzen sure does! 

It was 2010, and Vanessa had just learned that her new baby was going to be a girl. On the way home from the ultrasound, she stopped at a fabric shop to pick up something pink.

There, she laid eyes on a stack of precut 5 inch charms, and a creative fire was lit! (12 years later, Vanessa designs incredible precut patterns for her very own Lella Boutique!)  

This week, Jenny is stitching up one of Vanessa’s prettiest patterns. Chandelier is a quick and easy ...

Get organized this January as part of you New Year’s Sewing Resolution with this incredibly simple Sewing Caddy and Mat! Having a handy location to put all your notions and quilting accessories allows you to quilt on with confidence and never waste time trying to find your most used templates and tools. All you’ll need is two half yard cuts of contrasting fabric, a half yard of batting and a little Steam a Seam for quick binding!

Supplies Needed

Two 1/2 Yard Cuts of Contrasting Fabric

Scrap Batting

Steam-a-Seam Double Stick Fusible Web

First and foremost, you ...

Mastering a new quilt block is like learning to ride a bike. You may feel a bit intimidated. Your uncertainty might cause a few wobbly stitches. 

Then, just like magic, you’re soaring across the fabric without a care in the world, cranking out quilt blocks like a pro! 

This week, Jenny is working on a modern black and white asterisk quilt, and just you wait and see! Once you’ve conquered those first few seams, you can ride off into the sunset with a trail of beautiful quilt blocks in your wake! 

Click HERE to watch the Ditto quilt ...

A Round Robin quilt is the sweetest of group projects. It is passed among friends, each adding blocks or borders of their own.

And when it is finished, that quilt represents the talent and creativity of everyone involved. (I get all tingly and sentimental just thinking about it!) 

For this month’s Triple Play tutorial, Jenny and the girls stitched up one big Round Robin quilt. They named it Sparkling Stars, and it sure is a beauty! 

Jenny built the center with 9-patches and half-square triangle lemoyne stars, Misty added pretty sawtooth star blocks and quarter-square triangles, and Natalie finished ...

The Hourglass quilt block is one of the more simple traditional blocks and comes together with ease using 10″ squares of precut quilting fabric. All you need to do is chop up your layer cake corner to corner, recreate a square using two different fabrics and stitch them back together – and just like that you’ve put together a gorgeous and traditional quilt block!

This block in it’s own is an absolute favorite amongst quilters, but why stop the fun with just the basic hourglass! This block can be used in a wide variety of quilting patterns that all ...

On live TV in 1956, magician P.C. Sorcar began to “saw” his wife in half. Suddenly, the host signed off and the program went dark!

Viewers across the country assumed the worst. (Something went wrong! The poor woman was dead!) But the truth was much less gory: The live broadcast had simply run out of time. How’s that for an illusion falling flat!

This week, Jenny has a trick up her sleeve that’ll earn you big “oohs” and “ahhs” without a single hiccup!

“Wallah!” – or voilà – is a magical layer cake quilt pattern from Material Girlfriends. With ...

The holidays are here and it’s time to deck the halls and welcome in the festive season! A Christmas Tree Skirt is the perfect holiday project to stitch up on those cold December nights because not only does it make an excellent gift, but it can be kept and displayed almost immediately! Grab your favorite holiday charm packs (or some from your stash that you’ve been looking for a reason to use) and get stitching!

Supplies Needed

2 Packages of 5″ Print Squares (Charm Packs)

3/4 Yard Border ...

The ancient peoples of the earth knew a lot about stars. 

Egyptians watched for Sirius’ predawn appearance to signal the annual flooding of the Nile. Polynesian navigators traversed the vast Pacific Ocean with nothing but the stars to guide them.  And the Maya used the movement of the heavens to create the most accurate calendar in the world. 

I, on the other hand, struggle to spot the Big Dipper. (But I sure can stitch up a pretty star quilt!)

This week, Jenny has created a celestial wonder of her own with jelly roll strips and a bit of yardage. The ...

It started like any other Triple Play tutorial.

Jenny, Misty, and Natalie were each asked to design a quilt with pieced sashing. Simple, right?

Natalie’s Pieced Sashing

Natalie created a cute arrow sashing with strip sets and hourglass blocks.

Misty’s Pieced Sashing

Misty used a traditional Seminole technique to sash her quilt with diamonds. And then, there was Jenny. (Oh, Jenny!)

Jenny’s Pieced Sashing

First, Jenny stitched stacks and stacks (and STACKS!) of half-square triangles. Then the sashing began. 

She made pinwheel, chevron, and herringbone sashing. She made flying geese, square-in-a-square, and sawtooth. And then…she kept ...

Talk about a classic! Not only is the Nine Patch a quintessential quilter’s block, but this is one of the very first tutorials that Jenny Doan ever filmed! This incredibly simple but versatile block comes together in a stitch using 2.5″ strips of precut quilting fabric (Jelly Rolls) and some basic strip piecing. Using alternating color ways from your available strips, you’ll create a “strip set” using three strips of fabric. All that’s required after that is to cut the long strip sets into 2.5″ strips and stitch the fabrics back together to form nine ...