What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Whew…it’s finished. This quilt was almost ten years in the making. It all started when my daughter Kelli and I hosted a Bonnie Hunter retreat. I think this was for the 2017 retreat. We had to pick two quilts that we wanted Bonnie to teach. We picked Midnight Flight and another quilt. We picked those …

Quilt Finish: Midnight Flight Read More »

Here’s my easy Christmas Trees and Stars quilt to freshen up your holiday decor. Make a few as gifts for your family and friends!

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2026 Meredith Operations Corporation. All rights reserved.

Happy Mail! I just received my quilt, Festive Firs, back with a copy of the Winter 2026 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. This quilt is perfect for confident beginner quilters; I can’t wait to see all the different versions you’ll make!

Festive Firs measures 59-1/2″ x 70-3/4″, and the blocks finish at 10″. I worked ...

Before we continue the quilt along with Block B and assembly, there were two mistakes in the original cutting pdf on the post last Sunday. The corrected pdf is now linked. If you downloaded the cutting instructions, be sure your version has REV2 in the title, otherwise download the revised version HERE. Also, there are not very many comments on the previous post with the Quilter’s Dream giveaway, so if you missed that one, go comment. The winner will be drawn tomorrow.

Here is the block we will make today. Note that the quarter/half square triangle units are ...

It’s finally starting to feel a little cooler in the mornings around here, and I LOVE it! I feel alive with the Florida heat but some breezy cool Fall temps are amazing too!

Been keeping busy with a little bit of everything lately. I’m back to quilting, squeezing in a few days of pickleball each week, lots of cooking and cleaning and watching my Netflix novelas while I work. 

Between all that and everything else happening around here, there’s never a shortage of things to do!

Let me catch you up on what’s been going on ...

My HOCUS POCUS potholders were designed to be used as an oven mitt, as well as a potholder, or a hot pad. I keep mine hanging on my microwave for easy access, but they are almost too cute to use!

Here is my Christmas version of the double potholders…SANTA CLAUSE POTHOLDERS. I am in love with these Jolly Old St. Nicks!

Here are some of my other popular Halloween patterns…

SPOOKY SPIDER looks adorable in this pillow created by a customer.

FRAIDY CAT is one of my many black cat patterns. I love it’s simple shape. Here’s ...

Hello friends. I recently got an email from Joyce asking about sewing chairs. I thought I would share her email with all of you, and hopefully you can help. Joyce writes:Hi Jo, love your blog, read it every day!! I was wondering if you could ask your followers for recommendations for a sewing chair. The …

A Little Help for a Reader Read More »

This and that, and other stuff. Oh, and my mood, too!

The scallop has become a recurring motif in the quilts I have finished ever since I got my Bernina 20, a sit-down long-arm machine. What started as one little experiment has somehow turned into one of my favorite quilting motifs. I keep coming back to it, but every time I do, I seem to find a slightly different way to use it. I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the quilts I have quilted with scallops and show you just how different this one simple shape can look.

And, there is another theme that seems ...

A friend handed me two layer cakes and asked me to make two quilts.

Sure! Any excuse is a good excuse, right?!

The first step was to decide how to honor the pink but at the same time make quilts that were large enough. And maybe not JUST pink.

So, I added green. One quilt got light green (this picture doesn’t capture the color well).

VERY mini-tutorial: Cut the 10″ squares in half to create bars 5″x10″. Add 5″ squares. This idea would work with any layer cake. Uses 33 10″ squares. Finished at 59″x71″.

And one ...

Welcome to the 2026 Fall Fortnight Event! Over the next two weeks, we’ll have many Autumn inspired quilting and embroidery projects for you to do along with a new recipe, cards, and a special charity project with specials or giveaways on every post!

Today we begin the Fall Fortnight Quilt Along. I have designed an oversized table topper or wall hanging for you that measures about 60-inches square. If you’d like to make the project into a throw size, just make three more Block A Lattice blocks,and two more Star Blocks. This isn’t a mystery, so ...

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to find a cute Halloween panel with some additional pieces of fabric from the same line at a local quilt show. I knew immediately I wanted to use them for my high school classroom.

Halloween isn’t really celebrated as a family event here in the Netherlands, it is more of a teenager and adult party with lots of horror elements. I am not really a horror fan but I do like the vintage Halloween style with black cats, bats, a few ghosts and carved pumpkins.

The images on the panel are not ...

I’ve finished my latest paper-piecing project! I love this bird, but I absolutely hated how it was made. Don’t get me wrong, though; the fabrics and colors are amazing, and I do enjoy paper piecing. However, this is a new-to-me kind of paper piecing, and I didn’t enjoy it at all. That’s fine; lots of people […]

So, it’s been a while and I found myself getting inimidated on how much I needed to catch up on so I’m just gong to jump in and give you a highlights reel kind of post.

Quilting

I recently finished this top from one of the Project Quilting Challenges. The theme was, I think, about vacations? I remember that I couldn’t get the top quilted in order ot meet the deadline and ended up doing a pincushion. The signal flag blocks spell out “Let’s go” if you read them from top left to right and from ...

…and some perspective. 

Being in the new sewing room is wonderful. Being in the fabric/cutting room is wonderful. I hope this is a long-lasting solution to the hiccups I’ve had in my quest to make more of anything. 

Mod Owls Revival has been the top priority because the last class session is Thursday. I started on the flying geese last Friday. They were constructed in the four-at-a-time no-waste method. This is not my favorite way to construct flying geese, but I followed the cutting directions for creating them the way the pattern designer instructed, and decided I would ...

I have so many autumn quilts in everything from bed size to table top and more. Over the past couple of years, I have sold a bunch of them on Sample Sales. But I still have plenty left to decorate our home in practically every room. There are so many ways to incorporate quilts in your decor and I hope today’s post may give you a few ideas. Obviously, a quilt can go on a bed, and I will sometimes put one flat so the whole quilt is visible. I made two fall print pillowcases a few years ago ...

There’s a whole lotta cutting going on.

My, oh my. I sat down at my new table a few days ago and sewed for the first time at home in about six weeks. And then I did it again for six hours for two days in a row! And I slept! Ah, quilting, you are so good for me.

But back to Mod Owls—When I cut the pieces for the quilt a few weeks ago, I cut out more than necessary. I don’t want to make the quilt bigger; I wanted to make sure I had plenty ...

 Although yesterday was our Monday sewing day, I didn't spend much time with the group. I had a doctor's appointment. Why? 

Well, I think I cracked/dislocated/broke a rib. I know—what a silly thing to happen. But the way it happened really worried me. I was at the physio, and I was on my tummy and getting some compressions on my back and POP - I heard something, and I felt something so strong that my leg flew up in the air as a reflex. 

I thought nothing of it until later, when the pain would NOT ...

 Ich weiß nicht, wie es Euch geht, aber ich habe immer große Schwierigkeiten mich für ein Quilting zu entscheiden. Das ist auch der Grund, warum ich so viele Tops habe. Ich finde es sehr schwierig, das endgültige Quilting fertigzustellen.

Über unsere UFO-Challenge habe ich begonnen, mich mehr damit zu beschäftigen und zwar zielgerichtet zu beschäftigen, d.h. nicht nur nachdenken, sondern auch quilten. Das erfreuliche Ergebnis ist, dass einige Quilts tatsächlich fertig geworden sind. Manche Entscheidungen sind gut gewesen, andere nicht so optimal.

Freemotion-Quilting

Meinen Checkered Garden Quilt habe ich mit einem all-over Quilting fertiggestellt. Ich habe geschwankt zwischen einem ...

This was never even a UFO. Just 2 pieces of flannel I picked up probably 10 years ago at Joann's in Amarillo, TX. I still think it's cute and thought it was high time it became a quiltIt finishes 45"x51" and as fast as I've been handing out baby quilts lately, it won't be long before it makes it's way home to welcome a new arrival.It's not a cheater cloth - it's actually pieced, but it came that