What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I have been enjoying lovely spring weather this weekend and got stuck into some serious garden tidying. I borrowed a more powerful pressure washer and got rid of the winter slime. It was a messy job but worth it. I had to stop when the old flaky paint looked like it might wash off the walls. I repainted the front of my shed which had gone green and most of the fence which is pretty rotten. After mowing the grass and buying Nessie a new basketball, I felt very satisfied. I even cut down a sycamore tree that was growing ...

The third Saturday in March is Worldwide Quilting Day, and our local guild always celebrates it with a challenge show. Our members are given a challenge theme and purchase a fat quarter of the challenge fabric we have to use. This year, the challenge was “Looking Out My Back Door”, and we were admonished not to take it literally. It is taken from the Creedence Clearwater Revival song about imagination. Some of the lyrics were given to us at a meeting last fall. Like these:

There’s a giant doing cartwheels, a statue wearin’ high heels
Look at all the ...

 The theme for the Project Quilting challenge this week is A Happy Handful. We were to make something small, that would fit in your hand.

I tend to have a hard time keeping my projects small and simple, so I thought it would be nice to make a hanging, Something like a row of prosperity hens but maybe something else.  Since I have a bunch of elephants in the house, I figure I could just make those. The picture is a set of elephants I already own, but I wasn't planning on making anything that elaborate. And I am ...

I’m once again in my usual quandary: what designs to use when quilting my latest quilt top, which is to be a gift. I’ve finished the top, which is called Exploding Heart, and I’m planning to sandwich the backing, batting, and top when I can have uninterrupted use of our one and only table, which […]

You might remember I was working on a quilt called Train Tracks. I had planned on making it bigger, thus more blocks…but then, after the blocks were made, I decided to add a border instead. Here is that quilt… That quilt is still a top…I need to get it on the longarm. I had an …

Quilt Finish: Train Tracks Leftovers Read More »

Pull.

Cut.

Piece.

I love the start of a new project!

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 ...

Night Garden panel by Rubin Design Studio, exclusively for eQuilter.com , measures 29″ x 44″.

I cut my strips 3.25″ to yield 5″ finished hexies. Night Garden produced 182 hexies. I could place 5.5 hexies or 11 columns across the top and bottom sections.

If you use a pointed tip Star 60 tool or First Choice ruler to cut your equilateral triangles, the same strip can be used to cut Star 60 diamonds. The 3.75″ strip above yielded a 6″ finished hexies and a diamond for a 6″ Star 60 Unit (12″ star), (Blunt tip ruler changes ...

With a blizzard ongoing here in Wisconsin, and a Kona Storm in Hawaii, it’s a good time to focus on color for a bit.

On many (most) of the patterns I produce, both custom and for the internet, I suggest colorways that folks can purchase from a single manufacturer. Exceptions are when colors need to be very close to the same hue and value. An ombre fabric can often provide the subtle shadings (for example, in a wedding gown) to give the suggestion of curves and shadows. In rare cases, you can have fabric custom dyed. In the case ...

The theme is Happy Handful in which we make something small enough to hold in your hand. My Pocket Hugs would work for that. 

Marsha Cooper wanted more information about these, but she may be a no-reply blogger, so I will answer here. It is not a formal organization or anything, so they can be any size, or shape. Pocket Hugs are little things you can make (or buy) to give ...

 This week was Project Quilting Challenge week, with today being the submission date. But since I submitted a quilt earlier in the week, I felt like my "off week" started early, and I have been busy relishing my time off.

I finished a bonus quilt.  I showed both of my quilt finishes in my last two posts.  Then, I worked on making progress on already started quilts. 

 I added some more patches to repair the bunk bed quilt my mother made. counted what still needs to be made for my Lupine and Laughter quilt.

And there is always the chaos factor.

Case in point: a few weekends ago I went to Marshall Dry Goods with one of the besties. I purchased flannel to make two receiving blankets for our great-grandson that's due to arrive in April. I was thinking I had plenty of time to make them. But two weeks ago, darling granddaughter landed in the ER, was admitted to the hospital due to complications, was told she would stay two weeks to allow little man to grow a bit more, then told it would be three weeks, and he was born a ...

I finished my Lady of the Lake quilt. I believe the pattern is in this book. You can find it HERE. It’s a great book. I’d love to make every pattern in here…and many I’d like to adapt into full-sized bed quilts. This quilt came about in my “I’m going to clean the sewing room …

Quilt Finish: Lady of the Lake Read More »

We had a snowstorm ten days ago and I captured this shot of Petey from my tv room chair. Ned is still off somewhere in the yard. Neither of them seemed aware of the wild weather all around them. This is the most snow we've had on the ground since living in this house. I can touch the roof in places. It means the ground will get a lot of water this spring and after a couple of drier years, that's a good thing. 

I really liked the Exploding Heart design when I saw it, so I decided that it would be my next project. It has 18 blocks in each of 18 rows, and the blocks finish at 4″ square. Well, who can’t manage a 4″ square, right? But the quilt is going to end up at 72″ […]

I had such a busy week that I actually forgot that I had a long weekend. At first I wondered what I was going to do with it. Perhaps I should’ve planned to go away. I had two intense days of long arm quilting mastery teaching which went very well. I also gave a talk to the local Quilt group and everybody stayed awake so that’s always a good sign. It was great to see some of my quilts again which just live in a suitcase. I have been driving around with them all week because I can ...

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 ...

I think it would have been great to use for the challenge, but I had already thought of the flower, and wanted to make that.  I realized with the small scraps I have, that I could cut out the zig ...