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After a rather long hiatus, I’m back to working on my Exploding Star quilt.

Welcome back to our Classic & Vintage Quilt Series! Today, we’re overflowing with excitement as we introduce the Peace and Plenty Quilt, a timeless, Fat Quarter-friendly quilt pattern for confident beginners. Don’t let all the points put you on edge, and you can watch our FREE quilt block video tutorial to see just how peacefully these pleantiful points come together!

The Peace and Plenty Quilt Pattern

DOWNLOAD THE PEACE AND PLENTY QUILT PATTERN

The Peace and Plenty Quilt Pattern is available as a lap and queen size, and is perfect for ...

Thank you to Diann at Little Penguin Quilts who let me know that I have two typos in the bell block pdf. The center gold sections were incorrect and have been fixed in today’s pdf. Download the corrected version – Bell Block Corrected. I have linked the original post to the corrected pdf as well, so if you haven’t started yet, you’ll get the right one.

Since I have an extra bit of time on a post, here’s an update on the baby wrens. They are growing fast! Just a few days ago, only one was hungry ...

A dear friend gave me a copy of Kim Diehl’s Simple Blessings book. The “Bricks and Stones” pattern is the basis for this variation.

Lots of scraps. It is fun to pull from the various bins– solids, grunge, and low volume fabrics.

And, before you know it, Ta-Dah! A quilt.

It is 63″ square. Not large, but a nice lap or nap quilt for the recent graduate.

Today we finish the table topper. Final assembly will include setting triangles to put the bell blocks on point. Cut 3 squares of background fabric 11 x 11-inches. Cut two of the squares on the diagonal once to create four large triangles. Cut one square on the diagonal twice to create four smaller triangles.

Sew the four smaller triangles to the bottom of each of the four bell blocks along the hypotenuse of the triangle. The 90-degree angle should be the point at the bottom.

The setting triangle will extend a quarter inch past the edge of the block. This ...

Constantly.

We returned from Nashville a week ago Sunday and we’re happy to be home, but…in our absence, weeds went wild, some of our garden veggies tanked, the beautiful cedar tree in our front yard died, and then there’s this:

Did you work on your bell blocks yesterday? Today’s step has only one block, so you’ll have time to catch up if you are just starting.

Cutting instructions are in this pdf – Star Block. Note that these blocks are 10-inch finished size.

Pair the gold print 3-1/2-inch squares with the BG 3-1/2-inch squares. Sew HSTs using the Chain Piecing Method.

Press to the gold side.

Trim to 3-inches square.

Arrange HSTs, BG 3-inch squares and center Accent square.

Sew the HSTs together in units of two.

Sew the block using the web method.

Press seams opposite ...

This goes to the soon-to-be-born first baby of a young couple in our circle. I can see it being built in many color options and sizes. Enjoy!

Full Hearts Quilt

36″ x 36″

MATERIALS

Fabric in at least two different colors for the heart and strip blocks. I used scraps. You will need a total of 54 strips 2-1/2″x-1/2″. I did 18 of each color (pink, yellow, blue). You will need 36 pieces 3-1/2″ x 6-1/2 (12 of each color).

1/2 yard background fabric. Cut 72 1-1/4″x1-1/4″ squares. Cut 36 3-1 ...

Get ready for a fun fortnight of ideas and projects to jump start your holiday sewing for your own pleasure and for gifts. I have a new table topper design that we will start today, and sew over several days. Then I have more projects to make for gifts or for yourself. It will be two weeks of fun, and it starts today! This is a Mystery Quilt Along! But don’t worry, we’ll reveal the design this week. So, put on a Christmas movie, watch the Hallmark channel or Great American Family channel for round the clock Christmas ...

I got my quilt bound and finally finished. I love this picture with the flag, but you really can’t see much of the quilt this way. How about this… I know it just looks like 16 patch blocks and star blocks. That’s what it is…but, if you look closely, you can see that the center …

Quilt Finish: 16 Patch Stars Read More »

Somehow it seems like the more time I have, the less I get done. That has been the story this week, as I have piddled around for most of the week. I didn’t get back to Fleur Lumineuse, and it really should have been almost done by now! But, no. I saw one squirrel after another, leading me to spend hours looking at my collection of Christmas books.

I have 45 Christmas with Southern Living and Christmas with Victoria Magazine books. These really do need to be culled and most sent on to the library’s book sale shop ...

Our oldest granddaughter and her husband are expecting their second child, and the nursery theme is an old-fashioned blue-and-white gingham with teddy bears and warm wood tones. When I think of classic baby quilts, the Double Irish Chain is always … Continue reading →

In the sewing room, I had to set aside Fleur Lumineuse for a bit, as I was asked to present a ruler demo at our meeting last Thursday. I started by pulling a bunch of bee theme fabrics and cutting strips.

Lay out the strips in various ways to decide on a sequence that looks best.

I sewed the strip sets into two identical sets, then placed the ruler for cutting. I cut the first two pieces at home so I didn’t have to take a rotary cutter and mat to the meeting. Plus I had to do the ...

I recently finished two patriotic quilts that I’m excited to share as I say, “Happy Birthday, America!”

This first one is called Positive Vibes and is a remake of a pattern I first had published in a magazine nearly 10 years ago. That was before I became a fabric designer and I always knew I wanted to remake using red, white and blue scraps of my own fabrics.

I quilted it with Red, Aqua, Navy and Gold Metallic threads. In each of the aqua, red and navy rows of plus blocks, I quilted straight lines to represent stars. In ...

Working on the background of the art piece with a French theme this past week has been a bit challenging. I had set out a number of requirements for myself that made it more difficult. I didn’t want the background piecing to be all uniform sizes of squares. I wanted to spread out the print with the pink to a pleasing distribution over the entire base. I wanted the base to be large enough that the applique would only cover about a third of the space. And the big one, I didn’t want any seam to reach from ...

This week was so hot that I wished for a Scottish summer, although it was hot there too. I was glad of the neck fan and bedroom fan that I had bought. One night it was 28 degrees and even my stone cottage was hot upstairs. There is no air-con at work and we were sent home at 4pm where all I did was water my garden, marvel at how fast runner beans got and try to beat the slugs to the odd strawberry.

Goosey Quilters, based in Tavistock, is celebrating its 40th anniversary so some of their members came ...

If you read Monday’s blog post, you know that a sweet blog reader sent me a quilt top that only needed to be bound. I’ve been on a roll, trying to finish as many things as I can. This quilt went straight to the sewing room, and I bound it on Monday afternoon. Here it …

Quilt Finish: Community Quilt Read More »

Lorelai’s First-Time Quilter’s HandbookFrom Basics to Beautiful QuiltsA Complete Guide to Quilt Making232 pagesLandauer Publishing (a division of Fox Chapel – $24.99Lorelai KueckerPigs in a Blanket Quilting Lorelai’s work has come up in my big picture book app more than once. Smitten with her quilted garment construction, it’s hard not to be smitten with her… Continue reading The Book Report