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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 ...

I shared the first tentative pics of the making of this quilt back in September 2020, but the inspiration for it is lost in the mists of time. I do remember being motivated to play around with plus blocks when Curated Quilts did a callout for their Plus edition, but the actual specifics of this one are long gone...

Maybe I was on a roll with the denim, as the Laid Back quilt had just come out and I was working on the pattern for the pouffes – there's nothing like a bit of pattern-writing procrastination to get the creative ...

When my oldest niece, Olivia, turned 13 my sister decided to commission a more grown-up quilt for her. There'd been some bedroom shuffling during lockdowns, and with plans for renovations it seemed a good time to celebrate a milestone birthday with a new quilt.

My brief was this colour palette along with a picture of a doona cover Olivia liked, that featured an animal print. I set up a Pinterest board to share appropriate fabrics with her and got to work on some design ideas.

The shapes in the doona cover were large, so I started off with big ...

Do you remember the small wallhanging that I made using my foundation paper pieced Spool Star block? Playing with the Spool Star block is turning out very inspiring. So many ideas!

Let’s look at the first new layout, a Holiday wreath!

The traditional red and green, with some vintage-style blue and pink.

This block works so well with solids or blender-type fabrics, which I have a lot of….

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Hey there, friends!  I am so happy that today I get to give you a little overview of the final sections of my new book, Scrappy Improv Quilting.  The third section of the book is titled Seasonal Sensations and contains six adorable little seasonal quilts.

I saved the idea a long time ago. The movement of the floating blocks really caught my eye.

But I didn’t know how funky and cool it would look finished. Yes, it is different, but different is good.

The “cracked” quilting is just what I wanted and makes even the large background spaces interesting. I plan to gift the quilt to a teacher friend.

PS–For your information, I used 2-1/2″ half square triangle pieces. The individual blocks finish at 8″. The entire quilt is 56″ x 72″.

The best flowers are at the Keukenhof in Amsterdam. A bit out of my reach, mostly.

Tulips in Amsterdam, 2019

Keukenhof Gardens

The Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania are huge and absolutely beautiful, but still a few hours from me.

Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

Water Lilies

The Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC are more accessible and I don't mind the long train ride although I will avoid the nightmarish parking in downtown DC. 

From 2008. My first time :-)

So beautiful

 I am so excited to share with you the newest PBJ design in Make Modern Magazine.

This is Make Modern's 40th issue! Congratulations Make Modern! The cover quilt is from designer Leanne Parson's of Devoted Quilter. You can find her on Instagram. Head over to give her a big congratulations on her first cover quilt!!

Affiliate Disclosure: This post contains Affiliate Links. When purchases are made through these links I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your purchases help support my small business and keep my husband's head from exploding every time a ...

Vergangenes Jahr im Juni hatte ich mich mit der Vorbereitung für einen Patchwork Kurs im BERNINA Creative Center in Steckborn beschäftig. Ich hatte die große Hoffnung, dass Corona mich im Januar in die Schweiz fahren lässt und ich dann den Teilnehmern zeigen kann, wie man diesen Quilt arbeitet....

Ich weiß, dass war zu diesem Zeitpunkt schon vollkommen überflüssig, darauf zu hoffen.... Mir war aber wichtig, weiterhin die Disziplin aufzubringen und die Vorbereitung für diesen Workshop zu erledigen. Das war auch so ein Ding seit letztem Jahr.... Diszipliniert zu bleiben, obwohl das schon in diesen Tagen alles andere als motiviert war ...

I am, of course, fond of all of my quilts and quilt patterns, but you guys, I am really especially pleased with this one. Introducing Helix, a paper piecing pattern for wallhangings in two sizes featuring DNA, the fundamental molecule of life on Earth!

I have been thinking about a DNA quilt for a very long time—not long after I started thinking a lot about science quilts, which was not long after I started thinking a lot about quilts in general, but somehow it never got made. I got hung up on the curves and the thought that I ...

The Mod Arrows quilt pattern is now available! This is a fun and easy modern quilt pattern, and the best part is that the arrows are precut-friendly so you can dive into your stash or use a fat quarter bundle.

I never get tired of bright rainbows, but here are a few other color ideas!

The pattern was originally published in McCall’s Quilting under the name “Primarily Geese,” and I’ve updated and expanded it to include six sizes from crib to king!

Please welcome my latest science-themed quilt pattern, Atomic Affair! After designing science quilts to celebrate chemistry, biology, and medicine, I felt like physics was being left out. Enter this quilt featuring the universally recognized symbol for the atom!

This quilt was a real puzzle to design. The atoms (which were their own challenge) are, of course, hexagonal blocks, but I really wanted that center block to be rotated for aesthetic reasons. I’m so happy I worked out how to do it, and the good news is that none of this requires any templates—just you and the 60° line ...

If you follow me over on Instagram, I shared this quilt design a couple of weeks ago as part of the IG hop celebrating Sassafras Lane’s new fabric collection “Favorite Things” for Windham Fabrics, where it got an enthusiastic reception. I’m excited to be able to release the quilt pattern today.

“Petrichor” is the smell of rain on parched earth, and I think it captures the general feeling of this quilt design quite nicely. (Much thanks to Rebecca L. for suggesting this name, and teaching me a new word in the process of naming this quilt!)

There are ...

We are going to step away from the Jacob’s Ladder blocks this week to get back to talking about UFO’s since it is the beginning of the month.

How are things coming? Do you feel like you are making some progress toward getting anything finished? Maybe when you took some time to clean your crafting area it somehow turned into a bigger project. That is an easy thing to have happen. I’ll be honest, I really only cleaned up what I needed to in order to be able to do some sewing. I am optimistically thinking that ...

You guys, I made a quilt!

I used to make many, many quilts when I first started sewing 9 years ago, but lately I haven't been in any kind of quilting mood at all. So, having this quilt all finished feels like a huge accomplishment. Especially since it was over 1 year in the making :).

I started making this quilt in October 2019 as a way of using up some of my ever growing mountain of scraps. I cut my fabric to 2.5'' squares and just started piecing them together into these lovely, scrappy 20-patch blocks. I wasn ...

The International Quilt Association is another victim of the Pandemic and, perhaps, of changes in the quilt world.  The IQA founders and board decided to close their doors.  It’s a sad loss–they published an attractive journal that documented winners of past shows and also sponsored lots of events over the years. Their judged shows set …

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