What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

If you wish upon a star, your dreams might come true…but be ready for a wait!

The closest star is 26 trillion miles away. That starlight magic won’t reach the earth for 4+ years! (If my calculations are correct, wishes from 2017 are just starting to arrive!)

Of course, if you’re short on time, you can whip up your own lucky stars in a jiffy! 

The Brightly star quilt was designed by Allison Harris for Cluck Cluck Sew. It’s a stunning layer cake pattern that is timeless and modern all at once.

(Watch to the end ...

When you make the Serendipity Infinity quilt, you’ll end up with scraps. 

You can use those scraps to make a pretty table runner. But guess what? You’ll still have scraps. Make another table runner, and still, more scraps. Keep sewing!

When all is said and done, you’ll have a beautiful quilt + up to NINE table runners to use as gifts! Is it a Christmas miracle? Nope! It’s Serendipity Infinity!

Can you believe it’s already Week 3 of our Terracotta Fiori Quilt Along? Last week we cut our fabrics and this week we’ll work on making all of the triangles for the quilt. Next week is a free week, so if you just received your fabric there’s still time to jump in and catch up.

Foundation Paper Piecing vs. English Paper Piecing

The Terracotta Fiori Quilt is a Paper Pieced Pattern, also referred to as Foundation Paper Piecing. This is very different than English Paper Piecing. They all sound so similar, which can get confusing. 

Paper Piecing ...

Quilters love a classic and there are few blocks more classic than a Disappearing Nine Patch! In this incredibly simple Vintage Jenny tutorial, Jenny Doan demonstrates how to stitch up this easy block using Charm Packs. First you’ll use your 5″ squares of precut quilting fabric to create a giant nine patch (which is just as simple as sewing nine squares together) and after that, you’ll use your ruler and rotary cutter to quarter your middle square. Flip those squares around and just like that, you’ve created a Disappearing Nine Patch!

Needing some more inspiration to create ...

If you catch an Autumn leaf as it falls to the ground, good things are in store! 

Jenny’s Design: Fall Festival I & II

According to British superstition, you’ll avoid head colds all winter long. Even better, each leaf caught brings a full month of luck in the year to come! (If you spot me chasing leaves in the park, don’t be alarmed! I need all the luck I can get!) 

Misty’s Design: Happy Harvest

In this month’s Triple Play tutorial, the Doan gals are stitching up cozy Autumn quilts based on the Lovely Leaves quilt ...

There once was a mischievous fellow named Stingy Jack, or so says the old Irish myth. 

The Devil – who had been tricked by Jack one too many times – didn’t want him, and heaven wouldn’t take him. So when he died, Jack was consigned to roam the earth forever with a lantern carved out of a turnip. Over time, he became known as Jack of the Lantern or, Jack O’Lantern. 

For hundreds of years, Irish folk carved spooky faces on turnips and potatoes to repel the ghost of Stingy Jack. Later, when Irish immigrants arrived in America, they ...

Jenny Doan loves to quilt everywhere she goes: In the studio. On the couch. In waiting rooms and on long drives. (Can you relate?) Life is more fun with a needle and thread in tow!

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Jenny has whipped up a quilt-as-you-go heart quilt using fat quarters and the fabulous Jewel Template. Best of all, these pretty hearts can be sewn by machine or by hand! 

Jewel Heart is a great project for long waits and nervous energy, and it makes such a sweet gift, too!

I recently counted up the years and was surprised to find I’ve been machine quilting with Isacord for over 12 years. Learn why I’ve been stuck on this thread for so long in this new video:

Click Here to learn more about Isacord Thread. This is a 40 weight, polyester embroidery thread that is absolutely awesome at machine quilting and machine embroidery.

Yes, Polyester Thread is Great for Machine Quilting

I love quilting with Isacord because it’s thin, but very strong so it doesn’t break easily. It’s also more affordable at around $6 for a ...

It’s simple geometry:

When the 3 Doan gals whip up 3 new quilts using the Equilateral 60 Degree Triangle Ruler, the result is infinite fabulosity!

Natalie’s Design: Mountain Magic

First, Natalie fussy-cuts fabric panels to create a modern masterpiece featuring mountains, trees, and woodland creatures on every block.

Jenny’s Design: Hexi Stacks

Next, Jenny pieces intricate, overlapping hexis using holiday jelly roll strip sets—with enough left over for TWO bonus table runners.

Misty’s Design: Grandma Etta’s Stars

Finally, Misty uses a beautiful floral layer cake to recreate an heirloom triangle star quilt made by ...

Mae Emma Plumb was a talented lady. 

She sewed and painted and baked excellent pies. She kept a lovely flower garden and volunteered countless hours crafting costumes and planning skits for the local Boy Scout troop. And, best of all, she made quilts. 

Years and years have passed – four generations, in fact – but by some magic, one of Mae’s quilts still exists. It belongs to Mae’s great-granddaughter Kate, our very own Missouri Star marketing manager.

Of course, when Jenny saw Grandma Mae’s antique quilt, she fell head-over-heels in love! She did a bit of research and found ...

In 1899, an unknown quilter began stitching fabric scraps on a paper foundation. Alas, the quilt was never finished. (It happens to us all!) The incomplete top is on display at the Virginia Quilt Museum, and the paper is still intact.

Candy Lane

Can you guess what that paper foundation is made of? Old letters! I’d sure love to inspect those tiny bits of history!

Skyward

In today’s video I am showing you how I quilted Tropical Garden, our latest Stashin’ with Stephanie pattern.

The fat quarter-friendly is packed with half square triangles, and I wanted to accentuate that with the quilting. So I outlined every single triangle with stitch-in-the-ditch and then stitched a triangle through the center of each HST half.

I love the way it turned out. The texture of the quilting mimics the design of the quilt and it’s fabulous. You can watch as I quilt seeing how I move the ruler around to create this texture with minimal thread breaks ...

In the olden days, tumbler quilts were often made with scraps gathered from friends and neighbors. A bit of paisley from Aunt Maude. A stripe or two from Granny.  A pretty toile from Jane next door.

Four Patch Tumbler

These quilts represented community and the magic of sisterhood. It’s little wonder they came to be called “charm quilts!”

Patchwork Tumbler

For this month’s Triple ...

About 10 years ago, my best friend’s mom asked me to bind a quilt she had been working on for her grandson.  She was having trouble with the corners.  I said, yes, of course and was happy to help out.  When she dropped it off it was the strangest thing I had seen.  It was two pieces of adorable fabric layered together, a grid of quilted seams tacked it together, and each square in the grid had something inside of it… This wasn’t batting. It was… heavy, weird, yet interesting: a weighted blanket.

I worked my way around ...

A couple months back I watched The Queen’s Gambit on netflix. It’s an excellent mini series that opens up the world of chess and sheds light on how it functioned in the ’60s. It is created from the pages of a novel by Walter Tevis written in 1983 also titled The Queen’s Gambit.

Chess is something that I have never played. I love the checkerboard and all of the pieces that go with the board, like the knights, king, and queen. But no one has ever explained the game to me. The mini series has inspired me ...

Have you ever set aside half square triangle scraps with the intent to use them but can’t figure out what to do with them? What do you do with your project scraps? I always feel so good when I save them. They are perfect to use in charity blocks or a scrappie project. As I was working on two of the three Double Pinwheel Quilts I made, I did a little prep work and laid the foundation for a few hundred half square triangles all from scraps. They have been waiting patiently for me in a basket on top ...

Never judge a quilt by its name—even if that name is Swamp Angel, Corn and Beans, or Oklahoma Boomer.

Because if wack-a-doo names scare you off, you will miss gems like this week’s new quilt: Hearts and Gizzards. (Yep, Hearts…and Gizzards.)

Hearts and Gizzards is a gorgeous, old-fashioned layer cake pattern composed of pretty hearts that form flowers (or gizzards?). It’s dainty. It’s feminine. And its name is absolutely weird!

Click HERE to watch the tutorial, and keep an eye out for a bonus table runner at the end!

Love is more than turning a blind eye when an unexpected shipment of fabric arrives. Love is a gift. Valentine’s Day is closely approaching and this year, share your love of quilting and crafts with someone special in your life. Gifts made from the heart are the best kind of present; nothing is more treasured than a handmade Valentine that shows the time and commitment of the crafting process.

If you’re looking for inspiration for your Valentine this year, look no further! We’ve collected six of our favorite quick and easy Valentine’s Day projects that you ...