What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

You’ll see in my recent posts that I’m obsessed with learning how much mileage I can get with my Accuquilt GO!Cutter and the dies I already own.

I love the simplicity of the Sawtooth Star block and so I decided to see if I could design some pieced items with it using the dies I have.

Although I don’t own the 8” Go!Cube, I have almost all the shapes (see those in bold print on the list below). The only one shape I was missing was for the “flying geese” part of the star: the ...

I purchased an Accuquilt Go die cutter awhile ago and have made so many great projects with it, including tumbler block baby quilts and Dresden Plate table toppers. But I wanted to use a combination of dies to create some other basic, well-known quilting blocks.

My original purchase of my AccuquiltGo! included a combination die (above). It has on it a 2” finished square, a couple 2” finished half square triangles (HST), and a 4” finished square.

Hey, that’s all I need to make the basic Bear’s Claw block! Perfect.

I haven’t yet purchased any of the ...

Sometimes, good things are a long time coming, like this adorable, tulip-filled wall hanging.

The pattern, Field of Flowers, was purchased long ago when I visited my hometown for my 20-year class reunion.

After returning home from the reunion, the pattern was tucked away in my crafting space, as I was busy with a toddler and pregnant with our second son, who was causing me to feel like I had Epstein Barr – zero energy and a chronic, overwhelming need to sleep.

Several years later, during a rare weekday moment with no kids, I took the pattern to a quilt store ...

It’s finished! Yay! Homecoming is a design from Lo & Behold Stitchery. I’d previously made another of the designs from this site, and the technique is interesting; different strips are combined in varying combinations and then cut into blocks of various sizes and shapes. It’s not always obvious where you’re going as you’re making the blocks, […]

I'm still chugging along with my son's high school graduation quilt, in fits and snatches!  The real challenge is coming up with new pictures for each post about it, because it looks pretty much the same up on the design wall regardless of whether seams have been sewn together yet!  

Giverny Teleidoscope In Progress

Last year our guild was forced to cancel our annual quilt show, due to COVID restrictions. It was sad, but of course it had to be done. This year, though, the show was back, though it was online to try to keep things under control, in terms of exposure and safety. The judging was done […]

Inside: Make your quilt borders spectacular!

I’ve used heavy rulers, I’ve used cans of soup, I’ve even used a person on the other side of the machine, hands keeping the area flat. What am I doing? Trying to long-arm quilt a border that is far larger than the center of the quilt!

Borders! They’re that misunderstood step to finishing your quilt that will make or break it.

The most common problem I see as a long-arm quilter is borders that have stretched larger than the pieced quilt top. This happens when borders are added to a ...

The plaid stars quilt top is finished and it’s a source of both pride and relief.

An exercise in patience and perseverance, this top was completed in four to four and a half years, discounting three and a half years for an interstate move, a return to the work force and building a home, plus one additional year of sitting in the closet because I didn’t feel like working on it.

If memory serves, the first patches (background fabrics) were cut sometime in 2012. Still, not bad, considering the fabric, the top’s size and the way the ...

Anders' graduation quilt is starting to take shape on my design wall!  My goal for the past week was to get 23 of the necessary 63 block centers cut and pieced, and I pushed myself to get 8 block centers finished yesterday to stay on track with that goal.

11 inch Kaleidoscope Block Centers on my Design Wall

One ...

Feelin’ pretty good today since the vintage tree block for March is DONE, giving me most of the month not to think about it and spend the next 27 days working on other projects guilt-free. With its completion, production progress for this group of blocks hit 70 percent of the desired total.

February’s block

March’s block

There was an option to stop production at 20 (4 x 5 setting) but the commitment had been made. All the browns for the tree trunks have been cut plus, there’s still plenty of vintage reproduction fabric to use up, so ...

My latest quilt is another one designed by Lo & Behold Stitchery. This one is called Homecoming, and I’m making the throw size, which is a generous 53″ x 71″. The front of the pattern shows it in five colors (background and four others), but there’s also an option to make it in two colors. […]

 Divided Hearts Block 7

 Block six

piecing papers, stitching pages

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Scraps. Leftovers. Unused. Such sad words. One challenge of quilting is what to do with all of these!

I posted not too long ago about several Charities where you could donate quilts. Today I’d like to share one simple way I make those quilts, and use up extra fabric from completed projects at the same time!

Whenever I’m finished with a project, I cut the scraps into strips, starting with 1 1/2″ and up to 4″ widths in 1/2″ increments. It doesn’t matter what the length of the scraps are. I separate the scraps into ...

 I had plans to work on a bag this week, but I was too tired in the evenings to do much so I decided to make more of these little blocks. Overall it has been quite a good week for this long standing UFO!

I picked the blocks that had the same date as the day I was making them from any month that I hadn't yet done. I must admit I picked some easier, less intricates one as I wanted to try to make more than one everyday. Here are the 11 blocks I made this week.

11th ...

It’s easy to make a triangle on the corner of a block, no math involved. I first heard of this technique from an amazing quilt teacher, Mary Ellen Hopkins, who wrote groundbreaking quilting books like “It’s OK if You Sit on My Quilt”, and “Connecting Triangles” among others. Mary Ellen was probably best known for creating the connector and perfect piecing triangles concepts. I was so lucky to have the opportunity to see her at her lecture in Milwaukee just a few years before she passed away (in 2013). Not only did she make quilting fun, her sense ...

 Progress, y'all!!!  I've made four more blocks for my Retro Building Blocks sampler quilt this week.  New blocks are circled and numbered below.

16 Blocks Finished, 32 Yet To Be Made