What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

If you wish upon a star, your dreams might come true…but be ready for a wait!

The closest star is 26 trillion miles away. That starlight magic won’t reach the earth for 4+ years! (If my calculations are correct, wishes from 2017 are just starting to arrive!)

Of course, if you’re short on time, you can whip up your own lucky stars in a jiffy! 

The Brightly star quilt was designed by Allison Harris for Cluck Cluck Sew. It’s a stunning layer cake pattern that is timeless and modern all at once.

(Watch to the end ...

Family time is the best time, and it’s only better when delicious food and snacks are added! The Doans love family get togethers and there’s nothing more special than dusting off those old family recipe cards and sharing a taste of generations past. If you’re looking for some holiday inspiration this year, try out one our own family recipes and start your own traditions today!

Pumpkin Rolls

Perfect for the fall season, Pumpkin Rolls are a delicious treat that can be served anytime between Halloween and Thanksgiving (really any time of the year is fine, they’re ...

Mamie Irene Crisp met a handsome young Coast Guardsman in 1942, just as the U.S. entered the war. In 1945, they were married.

For 55 years, Jack and Irene traveled the country in their motorhome, stopping at fishing holes all along the way. They wowed friends and family with their jitterbug skills. They adored their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. And then, in 2000, Irene was lost to Alzheimer’s Disease.  

Alzheimer’s Awareness Month is a tender time for Jenny. You see, Irene was her beloved mother-in-law. This year, Jenny has created a beautiful new quilt in Irene’s ...

The holidays are coming and it’s time to show off your new found sewing skills at all your family gatherings! If you’re anything like us, your Christmas list is filled with handmade holiday projects that you may or may not have started (don’t panic just yet, there’s still plenty of time). Instead of trying to squeeze in a quilt for each and every person close to you, consider a small yet functional project like the Casserole Caddy that will not only be a beautiful handmade gift, but a ...

When you make the Serendipity Infinity quilt, you’ll end up with scraps. 

You can use those scraps to make a pretty table runner. But guess what? You’ll still have scraps. Make another table runner, and still, more scraps. Keep sewing!

When all is said and done, you’ll have a beautiful quilt + up to NINE table runners to use as gifts! Is it a Christmas miracle? Nope! It’s Serendipity Infinity!

Every year for Halloween, we have big, themed parties. We love any reason to get together, but Halloween is one of our favorites! As many of you know, and for those of you who didn’t know, Jenny started her sewing journey as a costume sewist for the theater. She’s always been a whiz at whipping up costumes! Besides being passionate about dressing up, she loves a reason to decorate the house and always goes all out during the holidays! 

Leading up to Halloween, we pick a family theme (last year was Harry ...

The year my friend Margaret hosted her first Thanksgiving dinner, everything seemed to go wrong. 

The cat left paw prints on the freshly-baked pie, the oven stopped working mid-turkey, and the little cousins ruined a white couch with a box of sidewalk chalk. (But the mashed potatoes were excellent, and so was the company!) 

Thanksgiving dinner is no small feat, but Jenny’s new Thanksgiving quilt is easy as pumpkin pie—minus the paw prints!

This pretty harvest quilt combines applique Dresden turkey blocks with a variation of the Irish Chain called Irish Change. It’s simple, quick, and “sew ...

Quilters love a classic and there are few blocks more classic than a Disappearing Nine Patch! In this incredibly simple Vintage Jenny tutorial, Jenny Doan demonstrates how to stitch up this easy block using Charm Packs. First you’ll use your 5″ squares of precut quilting fabric to create a giant nine patch (which is just as simple as sewing nine squares together) and after that, you’ll use your ruler and rotary cutter to quarter your middle square. Flip those squares around and just like that, you’ve created a Disappearing Nine Patch!

Needing some more inspiration to create ...

If you’re interested in quilts and their history, you won’t want to miss this event! Tammy Reid, Head Coach of the Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, is a passionate quilt collector and in her talk “Every Quilt Has a Story”, she is sharing stories of the quilts she has collected over the years. 

In this fun, interactive talk, the three panelists, Tammy Reid, Dakota Redford (the Director of the Missouri Quilt Museum, housed here in Hamilton), and Christine Pembrook (a ...

If you catch an Autumn leaf as it falls to the ground, good things are in store! 

Jenny’s Design: Fall Festival I & II

According to British superstition, you’ll avoid head colds all winter long. Even better, each leaf caught brings a full month of luck in the year to come! (If you spot me chasing leaves in the park, don’t be alarmed! I need all the luck I can get!) 

Misty’s Design: Happy Harvest

In this month’s Triple Play tutorial, the Doan gals are stitching up cozy Autumn quilts based on the Lovely Leaves quilt ...

There once was a mischievous fellow named Stingy Jack, or so says the old Irish myth. 

The Devil – who had been tricked by Jack one too many times – didn’t want him, and heaven wouldn’t take him. So when he died, Jack was consigned to roam the earth forever with a lantern carved out of a turnip. Over time, he became known as Jack of the Lantern or, Jack O’Lantern. 

For hundreds of years, Irish folk carved spooky faces on turnips and potatoes to repel the ghost of Stingy Jack. Later, when Irish immigrants arrived in America, they ...

Halloween is just around the corner and this year when you’re doing your shopping, keep more than just the Trick-or-Treaters in mind! Thanks to Jenny’s creativity, you can take all of those old candy wrappers and bags and create a one-of-a-kind gift (or fun little project for yourself!) using no more than the wrappers, a little scrap fabric and batting, a zipper and some Heat N Bond Iron-on Vinyl!

Supplies Needed

One Empty Candy Wrapper (A Fat Quarter also works great!)

One Package of Fusible Fleece 45″x60 ...

Jenny Doan loves to quilt everywhere she goes: In the studio. On the couch. In waiting rooms and on long drives. (Can you relate?) Life is more fun with a needle and thread in tow!

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Jenny has whipped up a quilt-as-you-go heart quilt using fat quarters and the fabulous Jewel Template. Best of all, these pretty hearts can be sewn by machine or by hand! 

Jewel Heart is a great project for long waits and nervous energy, and it makes such a sweet gift, too!

Book lovers, rejoice! Studies show that reading isn’t just fun—it’s good for your health, too! 

A regular date with a good book can reduce your chances of Alzheimer’s by 2.5 times, reduce stress, exercise your brain, and even extend your lifespan! In other words, a well-stocked library is like a real-life fountain of youth!

This week, Jenny is whipping up a bookcase quilt filled with books of all colors and sizes. She used a gorgeous Kaffe Classics Prims layer cake, but this bookshelf quilt is just begging to be customized with your prettiest scraps and ...

Come Together and celebrate our 13th Annual Birthday Bash online and in Hamilton, Missouri on September 23rd – 25th, 2021! We’ve got SEW much fun planned to celebrate Missouri Star Quilt Co and we hope you have a chance to join us for the festivities. No matter where you are, we’ve got something special planned for you! Enjoy exclusive content from the comfort of your home with extra tutorials and classes or attend in person for educational demonstrations from our fabulous sponsors and in-person events from the Doan Girls – Check out our full calendar of events below!

Want to ...

It’s simple geometry:

When the 3 Doan gals whip up 3 new quilts using the Equilateral 60 Degree Triangle Ruler, the result is infinite fabulosity!

Natalie’s Design: Mountain Magic

First, Natalie fussy-cuts fabric panels to create a modern masterpiece featuring mountains, trees, and woodland creatures on every block.

Jenny’s Design: Hexi Stacks

Next, Jenny pieces intricate, overlapping hexis using holiday jelly roll strip sets—with enough left over for TWO bonus table runners.

Misty’s Design: Grandma Etta’s Stars

Finally, Misty uses a beautiful floral layer cake to recreate an heirloom triangle star quilt made by ...

In 1820 – for the very first time – thread was sold on spools. (Before that, it was skeins or hanks. Can you imagine the tangles?!)

The spools were made by a local woodturner, and the thread was wound by hand at the Clark Brothers’ factory in Paisley, Scotland. Like old fashioned soda bottles, these wooden spools came with an extra half-penny charge that was refunded when the empty spool was returned to the shop. My, how times have changed!

This week, Jenny is whipping up a homage to the magnificent spool with a brand new jelly roll quilt.

Spool Stars and ...

Mae Emma Plumb was a talented lady. 

She sewed and painted and baked excellent pies. She kept a lovely flower garden and volunteered countless hours crafting costumes and planning skits for the local Boy Scout troop. And, best of all, she made quilts. 

Years and years have passed – four generations, in fact – but by some magic, one of Mae’s quilts still exists. It belongs to Mae’s great-granddaughter Kate, our very own Missouri Star marketing manager.

Of course, when Jenny saw Grandma Mae’s antique quilt, she fell head-over-heels in love! She did a bit of research and found ...

Picture this: You are relaxing next to a desert campfire. Rocky cliffs and towering saguaros are silhouetted by a fire-red sunset. The scent of sagebrush floats in the cool, evening air. You wrap a quilt around your shoulders and listen for the call of a distant coyote.

Of course, such an idyllic moment demands a carefully chosen quilt—and we’ve got just the thing!

Boho Blooms is a beautiful Southwestern quilt pattern inspired by the classic Squash Blossom. It comes together quickly with layer cake squares and snowballed corners. Best of all, Jenny turns the scraps into a pretty ...

If you love cats, you’re in good company!

Catherine the Great kept up to 300 cats inside her Winter Palace.

Florence Nightingale’s personal writings are dotted with the inky paw prints of her feline companions.

Itty Bitty Kitty Committee

And Abraham Lincoln took his cats to live at the White House, where Tabby was fed with a golden fork during a formal dinner with visiting dignitaries, and Dixie was declared to be “smarter than my whole cabinet!”

Cats in the Window

Of course, here at Missouri Star, we love cats so much, we can’t stop quilting them ...