In the aftermath of creating my Inflorescence Quilt. Amidst the chaos of my sewing room, I found myself adding new scraps to my already overflowing scrap bins. I have more than one place I put my scraps, a writers chest and a utility cart. Thinking there has to be a better way, an idea sparked. I started designing a pattern tailored to repurposing all of the triangular pieces found within the cuts of the Inflorescence Quilt. I have been tinkering with a pattern for a few months. So I decided to take the concept and change it, turning it into ...

Oh my goodness!! Pinch me because I think I am dreaming!! It’s another pattern release day here at Brown Bird Designs and this one has been a long time coming. I came close to picking this design to release instead of Garden Star 2 when I worked with Citrus and Mint’s playful collection many years ago. Instead, I put this design back in my pocket and have been waiting for the perfect time and perfect line to bring it into the world. This is Inflorescence Quilt, and isn’t she lovely?? Grab yourself a cup of coffee and ...

Are you ready to embark on a creative journey that will touch your heart? In the world of quilting where the quilt block is queen, Block Mania is everything. As we dive into this month’s theme and 28 quilt bocks centered around making, let’s explore how we can make each quilt block with heartfelt intentions. I have a very special block for you, a hand quilt block which represents every type of making. This is my Made with Love quilt block.

For my fabrics I used Ruby Star Society. Don’t you just love the floral background fabric ...

Happy New Year!!! Yes, I am a little late on these well wishes but I got sick on that day and my day job has been keeping me way too busy. I did sneak in some planning for the new year. All of this has kept me on my toes. Since my mind has been circling around the idea of renewal, resetting, and new goals I remembered something… I just realized I haven’t shared my Color Turn Quilt Pattern here or put it in my shop yet. The Color Turn Quilt Pattern is my take on a modern rainbow ...

It may be Thanksgiving where you live, but I've just finished my Halloween quilt!  I've called it "Spooky Darlings" after the fabric range that I used.  

I only had a fat eighth bundle to play with so I made the biggest triangles that I could and combined them in alternating dark and light rows ...

Well, it's that time of the year again.  Halloween is still viewed as an American tradition in this part of the world, but more and more people are getting in to trick or treating each year.  

My Spooky Darlings quilt won't be finished for this Halloween, but it is progressing well.

I live on a street that is well known for Halloween because it's wide and straight and a safe place for kids to trick or treat.  It's Spring in the southern hemisphere and it doesn't get dark here until after 8pm at the moment ...

Today is the big day!! We are two and a half weeks away from Halloween, which also happens to be my birthday. I didn’t plan on it. I definitely didn’t expect it. Actually, I was trying to get ahead for next year, but here we are in the midst of another pattern release. This pattern is something that I have had in my Halloween pattern file for years. Most of the patterns in there are bat related. Looking back over the years, I can see that I am a little obsessed. Click here to see a deep dive ...

Window Dressing was published in March 2023 in Make Modern Issue #51, in the category of Prints Charming! I smile every time I read that :-)

Made with Ruby Star Society Fabrics (Reverie by Melody Miller) provided by Moda, it is a simple design that exploits the value gradations for maximum effect. Put another way, the Prints Charming did the heavy lifting and I gathered the compliments :-)

Cold Day, Warm Quilt

For some reason, the blog publication of this quilt slipped through the cracks. But here we are now.  

Window Dressing finished at 60" by 80", making it a perfect size ...

I've finished my Swatch quilt and I've called it Club Tropicana. 

A while ago I started naming my quilts after my favourite songs from the 1980's and I loved Club Tropicana by Wham.  Here's link to the video in case you need a reminder.  This quilt does have some palm trees it in and the bright yellows remind me of pineapples, so Club Tropicana seemed appropriate. 

Remember those fabrics I showed you last week? Well, I cut them up and made the world's fastest quilt pattern - the Swatch Quilt by Ruby Star Society. 

This week I spotted two of our New Zealand quilts that are ready to donate to Ukrainian children in Germany.  The kiwi block makes the first one quite recognisable! But I also recognise the borders because I assembled our quilt tops before I sent them over to Claudia in Germany.  

Claudia received far more quilts and blocks than she ever could have imagined, and she has been donating quilts as quickly as she can.  I'm not concerned that our tops from New Zealand are still working their way through the finishing stages.  It's lovely to see that they ...

I have a new finish to share. Meet Paroma.  Although the quilt was completed in August 2022
(hence the lush green backdrop), I had to sit tight till now. 

Paroma. 56" by 68"

Paroma is a Fat quarter friendly quilt published in Quilt Patterns - Fun Fat Quarter Quilts for Spring (anniescatalog.com)  With 22 FQ projects for just under $10, this is a steal.

In process

20 FQs make 20 stars and yield enough fabric to make a scrappy happy border.  Paroma finished at 56" by 68" and it just sparkles ...

My Kawandi is finished!

I took a one day Kawandi class with Lorena Uriarte at Quilt Symposium 2022.  We learnt to make Kawandi and here is mine.  

Kawandi are meant to be scrappy, but I used a charm pack of Koi Pond by Ruby Star Society.  I knew the colours would all work together and I'm pleased with how it turned out.  

My Ruby Star quilt is finished! 

I used the Raindrops are Falling on My Head pattern by Willyne Hammerstein from Millefiori Quilts 4. 

I've called it Ruby Star because the fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society.  I had a lot of fun fussy cutting ice creams, rainbows and birds.

I chose to hand piece my quilt, but there are English Paper Piecing papers available. 

Last year I used the same Raindrops pattern to make my Bollywood quilt. 

I had a bundle of Ruby Star Society fabrics that I wanted to fussy cut, so I decided to make the ...

 I've made it through winter and we're officially in Spring now.  My work conference is over for another year and I finally have some headspace to think about quilting again.  

The US Open tennis started earlier this week and I've been enjoying watching that on TV.  The timings work really well for someone with a flexible part time job like me.  The night session starts at 7pm in New York, but that is 11am here in New Zealand.  I try to do my work in the mornings and then watch a lot of the night session during ...

Well, last weekend didn't go according to plan and I didn't make it to Christchurch after all.  I was caught up in Air New Zealand's worst weekend of 2022.  It was the start of the school holidays, the All Blacks were playing Ireland in Dunedin (so a lot of people were travelling), the weather was awful in parts of NZ, and the second wave of COVID-19 is affecting airline staffing levels. 

My Friday morning flight was cancelled, and then my Saturday afternoon flight was cancelled too!   The next available flight down was on Tuesday.  So, I had ...

I've been enjoying a return to what started as my 100 day project, hand piecing my Merrow Croft quilt (pattern by Margaret Mew). If you haven't done any hand piecing before, I have a how-to with lots of tips in my hand piecing tutorial. Using some of my treasured hand printed fabrics by Karen Lewis and Lucy Engels, I'm enjoying the neutral cool vibe of these pieces.

So I'm using up my stash but I'm also adding to it...

Here's a rectangular patchwork throw quilt made with a scrap pack of fabric that I picked up quite a few years ago from Southern Fabric.  They put together WOF ends and sell them as a group.  I love the palette on this one, all I had to do was add a few extra fabrics from my stash to maximize what was in the scrap pack.  Most of the strips had at least six inches of width, so I made six by seven inch rectangles and decided on an eight by eight layout.  

The quilting is an edge to edge ...

 This week I had a little play with English Paper Piecing.  

I don't have a master plan yet, I'm just going to experiment with them.  That's why I chose to do English Paper Piecing rather than hand piecing.  These blocks could be floating around for a while, and they will keep better with the raw ...