What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

America’s 250th Independence Day is tomorrow so let’s get ready to celebrate. We’ll need some patriotic decor, and some great food to last through the holiday weekend. I started the decorating outside, by placing flags in the flower baskets.

Shop your house for red, white and blue to make a festive table. For this table, I used red chargers with white stoneware dinner plates topped with red salad plates. Crystal water glasses and everyday flatware make up the settings. The centerpiece is my melamine flag theme platter with silk flowers and dollar store star sprays.

The napkins ...

Learn how to create beautiful fabric collage quilts with these free patterns and tutorials. If you’ve ever seen a quilt that looks more like artwork than traditional piecing, chances are it was a fabric collage quilt.

Fabric collage quilts are a little different from your usual quilt blocks. Instead of matching seams and precise piecing, you build an image by layering fabrics to create shapes, texture, and movement. Flowers, animals, landscapes, and whimsical designs all come to life one little fabric piece at a time.

And before you think, “That looks way too hard,” don’t worry—fabric collage ...

No change in the numbers. 

Work was really busy this week, and I had a few late nights.  The beach runner is quilted with a goal of finishing it this weekend.  Many other projects wait in the wings, and continuing to buy things doesn’t improve that.  Of course, that didn’t stop me.

The patterns came from the thrift shop and the DVD from the free table at Guild.

The cross stitch booklet is a Hallmark pattern book from the 1980s.  I had no idea they published cross stitch charts.  The quilt pattern intrigued me with its three sizes ...

Download this star quilt pattern for beginners now! Turn half-square triangles into a beautiful heirloom for your home or as a gift!

Autumn Sky – purchase pattern here

Today, I am launching the Autumn Sky quilt pattern! The quilt measures 54″ x 66″ and the blocks finish at 12″. It is perfect for beginners as you will only be making half-square triangles.

For this sample, I used batiks from the Fur and Forest collection by Lumin Fabrics. I love the colors of fall, leaves, and forest creatures and animal prints featured in the collection! Of course, you know I also love ...

For the past year I have been featured in American Quilter. Every issue has one of my paper pieced block patterns, and a link to a helpful video on paper piecing techniques.

The May 2025 issue featured this Spring butterfly and daisy. You can watch all the videos on my Made By Marney YouTube channel. If you are new to paper piecing, or need a refresher, watch PAPER PIECING TUTORIAL: THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT on YouTube. This is a great starting point with simple tips for easy piecing.

Try some of my favorite Cute Critters in your next project…

These are ...

We are nearly to my favorite part of any quilt – the machine quilting! But first we need to prep our quilts by making sure the backing is big enough, and then basting. I love making pieced backs from leftovers or other coordinating fabrics because that makes the quilt twice as nice!!

Because I had too many pictures of this process to share, I thought it would be much easier to put them all together into a super short video and talk over the process. You can watch that by clicking play below:

Once the quilt is basted, you are ready ...

How are your Daisy Chain blocks coming along? If you are just starting, be sure to grab a copy of the Daisy Chain quilt pattern and join the fun. We are currently working through pages 12-13 of the pattern. But the tips I’m sharing below can apply to any quilt in your UFO pile!!

Click here to see how I made my design wall.

The first thing I like to do whenever sewing a quilt top together is to get all of my blocks up on the design wall and spread out the color. Then I’ll take time ...

This Scrappy Star Quilt is quite a stash buster! It is fat-quarter-friendly, too, so get the pattern and star sewing stars!

Geo Stars. Photo courtesy of Quilter’s World.

My newest quilt, Geo Stars, has just been published in the Spring 2026 issue of Quilter’s World – Precut Quilts Made Easy by Annie’s Attic. The quilt measures 70″ x 70,” and the blocks finish at 20″. The nine blocks come together very fast!

I worked with fat quarters from the Chromatics collection by FreeSpirit Fabrics. I repeated the light blue around the blocks to bring a little harmony to ...

Follow along in the Daisy Chain quilt pattern pages 8-11 as you work on this week’s quilty “homework.” Start by chain piecing your strips that create the small 4-patch units. I’ve given step-by-step diagrams to follow in the pattern so it shouldn’t feel so daunting. Just remember to take it one section at a time!

Aren’t these units so cute??

Keep all similar colors together so it’s easier to create each chain block or border unit. I’m pressing all of my seams open and sewing with a shorter stitch length so my small pieces ...

I am pleased to offer these brand new adorable bunny patterns in time for our Easter season. What’s cuter than a bunny… so cute that I couldn’t stop designing them! Here are my 12 favorites. Choose just one or two for your Easter or Spring project, or get all 12 included in the BUNNY QUILT pattern displayed at the end of this post.

BUNNY WITH BOW is one of my favorites. Using striped fabric, like in this bow tie, can be challenging in paper piecing. Because you are flipping the fabric in place after you sew, the stripes ...

Whenever I’m sewing quilt blocks that have lots of pieces, I find it much easier to sew the smaller units of each block into larger units, then chain piece everything for speed and efficiency. Follow along in the Daisy Chain quilt pattern on page 6-7s for the images and tips shown below. I’m making two of these at the same time in 2 different colorways: Autumn & Purple Vibrations.

Making Stitch-N-Flip Units

So the first thing we are doing is sewing all of the stitch-n-flip units which will make the petals of each daisy flower block. You can either ...

One of my favorite free-motion quilting techniques to do is combining two different designs for a unique stitch combination. That’s what I did in this week’s video. Combine spirals and pebbles to make Swirls & Pearls! Watch the video on my YouTube channel by clicking the image below:

Make My Block Chain Quilt

This week’s featured quilt is called Block Chain. I’ve made it twice over the years and it’s the perfect pattern to showcase a set of charm packs. Pair them up with light and dark accent fabrics for a quick make! You can grab ...

Welcome to Week 1 of Daisy Chain quilt along! We will dive right into cutting all of our pieces to make this quilt. I’m making 2 versions of the quilt in the throw size, but you can make any size you wish!

If you are just joining in, be sure to ask for the Daisy Chain quilt pattern from your favorite local quilt shop! (Shops can order it through Riley Blake, Checker, or EE Schenck.)

Stay Organized!

We will be working through the cutting charts on pages 2-6 of the quilt pattern. There is a LOT of cutting for ...

Check out my latest video from my 99 Machine Quilting Designs Series – Episode 54 – for 6 fun variations. Watch and learn below:

This week’s featured quilt is one of my free patterns called Beaded Lanterns. It’s another one I’ve made several times because it’s just so darn fun to stitch! 

Click here download any of my free quilt patterns.

While supplies last you can check out my kits to make Beaded Lanterns as well as many other fun designs made from my fabrics!

Click here to view all in-stock quilt kits.

Just Getting Started Free-Motion Quilting ...

Level up your walking foot quilting with another fun decorative stitched design: Geometric Spirals. Watch and learn below:

Make This Quilt

This week’s featured quilt is called Blooming Wallflowers and I’ve made it more than once! See two different versions below:

• Click here to grab the PDF versions of my quilt patterns.
• Click here to grab the printed versions of my quilt patterns.

I hope you are enjoying these video tutorials and inspiring quilts to make. I’m excited to be your cheerleader for domestic machine quilting!

Ready to practice your modern machine quilting? Try these 2 fabulous free-motion fills and see how you can tweak them to make them your own. Click the video below to watch:

Featured Quilt – Surplus Strips

I turned the bumps from clamshells into a floral swirl design by combining them with a basic swirl technique. Then I quilted it edge to edge on the white version below Grab the Surplus Strips quilt pattern to make one for yourself!

Bonus Video – Quilting Surplus Strips 2 Ways

See how I quilted both of the quilts below using 2 different free-motion motifs. You can ...

If you are new to paper piecing, I would love to share some tips for a beginner, or as a refresher. This past year I did a series of patterns and helpful videos for the American Quilter magazine. I can’t offer the pattern to you at this time because of publication rules, but I would love to share this short video on paper piecing tips. The video was linked to the January/February issue. Every issue in 2025 has a link to a video with my paper piecing tips.

PRESS HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

This video explains the “butterfly ...

Learn to quilt two innovative designs with your walking foot: decorative-stitch wonky squares and decorative-stitch spiral maze. Watch & learn below:

This week’s featured quilt comes from my book, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting that I co-authored with Angela Walters. You can grab the PDF download to see how I quilted Fractured Squares using only walking foot motifs.

Bonus Walking Foot Quilting Video

In case you missed it, check out the pre-cursor video showing how to quilt the exact same designs using regular straight-line quilting, below:

Please let me know how you are liking these videos – I only have ...

These brand new COZY HORSE patterns are so adorable. Why can’t our horses be warm too?

This table runner/wall hanging pattern has my favorite scalloped binding. This binding is challenging, but so worth it! Always use bias cut binding strips when adding any curved binding.

The COZY HORSES pattern includes all 3 paper pieced horse patterns and directions for the wall hanging.

More horse patterns you might enjoy…

PALOMINO

NICKER

Or get all 11 horse patterns in HAY GIRL.

And here’s my most popular FREE horse pattern…

Yes it is FREE, however Etsy cannot process any order ...

This week’s machine quilting tutorial takes the traditional paisley design and modernizes it by adding filler motifs inside the design! It’s a fun way to change things up. Click the image below to watch on my YouTube channel:

Make This Quilt!

Throughout this series, I’ve loved showing how I quilted these designs on actual, real quilts. The quilt shown in the video behind me is called Star Struck and it’s fun to see how different it looks depending on the fabrics that are chosen. Complete, start to finish instructions for this pattern are included in my ...