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The freemotion design Paws is one of those designs that creates a lovely texture. You just want to pet the quilt!

This design works well for quilts with themes like animals, pets, water, sea, ocean, rain, weather, wind, flying, birds, and swimming. Is there anything else that this design reminds you of?

Pattern Tutorial

Create the dynamic design Paws by moving in all directions. The design sequence its pretty simple; curve round and add a teardrop or a paisley shape inside of the curve.

The teardrop is a symmetrical shape, while the paisley is not; it has a curve. Mix ...

Go get your poofy batting out!

The elegant and random design Flutter looks SOOOO GOOD with a poofy batting, I promise!

The allover looks great on projects with themes like butterflies, nature, the sea and ocean, water and waterfalls, birds and feathers. What does this design remind you off? To me, these are fluttering shapes, not specifically a butterfly or water droplets in a waterfall.

Each feather is about 2 inches long in this sample, but you could easily enlarge that measurement. The design is especially suitable for use on a machine where you can see your fabric really well ...

A wonderful, quilting-filled long weekend—despite the monsoon rains.

I visited Katrina this past weekend for some good girlfriend time—and the bonuses included (1) a guild meeting where Katrina was the program speaker and both of us won door prizes, (2) attending the Q.U.I.L.T. Guild of Northwest Arkansas’s biannual show, and (3) quilting the Tattoo quilt! 

Katrina belongs to a longarm quilting guild, and she presented a topic near and dear to me—organization. I loved hearing her ideas as well as ideas from the other guild members. 

After the meeting, we slogged our ...

The trees are still barren, but the first signs of Spring are showing up. The hellebore plants are outdoing each other with their bright white flowers and a solitary crocus shows it’s purple petals. This winter has been very grey and I have been longing for some warmth and sunshine. Dappling sunlight through the canopy of a tree and a soft warm breeze rustling the leaves sounds really good at the moment.

This week’s free motion design is called Canopy because it consists of leaf shapes that move in all directions, just like that rustling canopy that I ...

Feeling connected to you is so important to me! 

I wouldn’t have gotten where I am today without you. Your inspiring quilts, your thoughtfulness in sharing your world and your support in the comments have a huge impart in my corner of the internet. Let’s make this chain of friendships even stronger in 2025! 

The freemotion design Chain Link works well for domestic machine quilters and longarmers. This grid design resembles a bicycle chain and chain links. The pattern is based on a simple loop that is repeated twice per row. This freemotion pattern will look great on ...

Are you going to be spending more time on our sewing machines now that the weather is getting colder? I know I am! That means we have some time for a bit more in-depth learning with this week’s pattern. The pattern Twist will probably be familiar as it has been around for a while. It is basically an orange peel variation, but instead of an arch shape we are using a shape that resembles a gentle wave or a hill / slope.

The asymmetry in that shape adds so much movement in your quilt! I know that the design is ...

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 ...

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 ...

Out with the snowmen, it's February; love and hearts have replaced them on the tabletops and kitchen windowsill! And yet, while all of that is true, here is the greater question:Thank you so much, blogger friends and those in real life who've reached out to inquire about my whereabouts and well-being. I'm fine, just as busy as I've ever been. I had taken on quite a few outside longarm

Out with the snowmen, it's February; love and hearts have replaced them on the tabletops and kitchen windowsill! And yet, while all of that is true, here is the greater question:Thank you so much, blogger friends and those in real life who've reached out to inquire about my whereabouts and well-being. I'm fine, just as busy as I've ever been. I had taken on quite a few outside longarm

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 ...

I confess to always being a bit anxious on December 31st.  For as long as I can remember in my adult years it has always meant fiscal year end deadlines and making sure all those journal entries and the final bank deposit for the year are done and posted before the GL does its thing and empties out all the net income to retained earnings.  For all those non-accounting friends, welcome to the inside of my compartmentalized brain.

I've always been a better performer if there is a deadline looming.  In fact, when I was doing my BCom degree ...

I finally completed the quilting on the "Gratitude" quilt; the name seems appropriate for an almost-Thanksgiving finish! It's been on the rails since I broke my wrist at the end of August! Moving on...This is my version of Susan Ache's "Stitching Kindness", a sew-along from last year. Incorporating a red/white strawberry print for the border and backing, it was a natural to choose a pantograph

I finally completed the quilting on the "Gratitude" quilt; the name seems appropriate for an almost-Thanksgiving finish! It's been on the rails since I broke my wrist at the end of August! Moving on...This is my version of Susan Ache's "Stitching Kindness", a sew-along from last year. Incorporating a red/white strawberry print for the border and backing, it was a natural to choose a pantograph

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 ...

…and I made it!

And HI THERE!  I know it’s been a while.  Life, and all that.  There’s a lot to catch up on and I will be making a few posts here and there.  Yes, we have moved into our new home and we are still getting settled.  I promise I’ll get you all caught up.  But first, I want to talk about patterns:

I have purchased many patterns during my quilting life.  I have sold or re-homed many patterns, too.  I’m trying my best to not purchase patterns on impulse—and that’s hard ...