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Last week, I finished the first Quilt of Valor. It took just two days to get it quilted with the star and swirl pantograph called Blue Star. I removed it from the longarm and spread it out on the floor to check the stitching and take a photo.

Next was to trim it, and make the binding. I put this on by machine this time, as time is of the essence right now. I sew the binding to the back, then fold to the front and topstitch.

I used the same light blue background star print as the print sections ...

When I found this Santa panel at the guild’s re-home table in October, I just fell in love with it. I loved the motifs, the black background, and the faux patchwork. I thought it would be fun to custom quilt it giving me more practice with freehand quilting and ruler work. I had a piece of fabric with snowmen that might work for a backing.

I measured the space I wanted to hang it, and found that it would need one more border to be big enough to hang from the clips already on the wall. I had several ...

Last month at the guild meeting, I found a garden panel that I thought would make a nice charity quilt. I had no plans to use it right away until the call went out for bunk bed quilts for the Safelight shelter. I pulled out the panel, and started looking at the stash to see what could go with it.

No, none of these will do. All of them are too busy or the wrong color.

I measured the panel, and then noted how big I needed the finished quilt to be. This would tell me what I needed to ...

Here is a Free Panel Block Quilt Pattern to download and make right now! Easy pieced blocks make the panel squares pop!

Night Watch – download the pattern here

I designed Night Watch for the Winter Whispers collection by Elsie Ess for Blank Quilting. Snowy owls, deer, bunnies, and other animals grace the woodlands in Winter and are ready to keep you warm in this quilt! Nothing spells Winter better than a forest covered with snow…

Night Watch measures 60″ x 70″ with 10″ blocks. The half-square triangles are made 8 at a time for a fast finish. If you are ...

Download this easy, free pattern for a panel quilt, and get ready to WOW your friends with this lattice design! My motto has been “Glow with the Flow.” Now I can glow while wrapped in this quilt!

Mystic

I designed Mystic, a 48″ x 68″ throw for the Jardin de Lune Glow, a glow-in-the-dark collection by Blank Quilting. The luminescent mushrooms, flowers, hummingbirds, moths, and butterflies transported me on a night journey through a magical garden, inspiring me as I translated the beautiful fabrics into a design that added ‘beams of moonlight’ (the light borders) while showcasing each print.

Choosing ...

Download the free patterns for an Indoor Garden in 2 Easy Quilts! Make the panel quilt and the pieced one for your home or friends.

Folk Garden Quilt #1

Quilt #1 is the first project I designed for the Folk Garden collection for Blank Quilting. It measures 44″ x 64″ with corner blocks that finish at 4″. This easy free quilt pattern (download it by clicking here) comes together very fast; it is perfect for beginner quilters and brings a whimsical touch to an area of your house that you need to brighten up.

This quilt works as a lap ...

This quilt is a first for me. I have never backed a quilt with fleece. As I was making this little Halloween quilt, it seemed like a fun thing to try. I was hoping for a soft, cuddly quilt and wow – backing it with fleece did the trick. Early in the summer, I browsed an estate sale of a quilter. I restrained myself and bought only some Halloween fabric plus a few books. The fabric was from an older line designed by Debbie Mumm.

Using fleece made the quilt feel substantial enough that I decided not to put batting between ...

The cleanout of last week brought so many potential projects out of hiding, but this one rose above the others.

A few small panels, 10 in all. Not necessarily my style, but, in what I can only describe as a sudden attack of cute, I HAD to make something with them.

It turns out that it will be TWO somethings. Watch here for updates, soon!

Note: Giveaway now closed. I actually selected two winners because I found enough for two kits. Winners have been notified. Hope to hear from them soon so I can mail off their prize!

Good morning all! I intended to post this before Memorial Day. Somehow it didn’t happen so I am writing it this morning. No worries though. While patriotic projects are good at any time of year; May, June and July usually put people in the mood for red, white and blue with Memorial Day, Flag Day and Independence Day during these months.

Doesn’t ...

Updating your cabin decor with quilts for men? Here are two free patterns you can download now and begin making!

Wilderness Trail Quilt 1

Driving cross-country with Toby the dog to settle in Georgia was the perfect thing to do between packing everything in Utah and unpacking here. I saw the beautiful landscape I often missed when traveling by plane. This trip reminded me of the quilts I designed for the Wilderness Trail collection by Blank Quilting. This collection features a 24-inch panel with animals found in the wild, canoes, camping, and fishing gear in colors that are perfect for ...

Download these free quilt patterns for harvest time. You can make the quilts now and be ready with brand-new home decor this Autumn!

This is Quilt 1 designed for the Golden Days collection by D. DonFrancisco for Blank Quilting. The fabrics are a fantastic celebration of harvest time, featuring pumpkins, scarecrows, cornhusks, and sunflowers in beautiful fall hues such as rust, green, red, and rich yellow. You can make many projects with this line, but I suggest you begin with this quilt!

This collection is shipping to stores in April – download the patterns, make room on your calendar, and make ...

Here are 2 Free Quilt Patterns to Download Now! Both with jewel tones – perfect as gifts or to add color to your home decor. Choose from a panel quilt or a row-by-row design, or make the two projects.

Swan Lake Quilt #1

I designed two quilts (click on their names to download them) for the Swan Lake collection by David Stavitzski for Blank Quilting. The fabrics will be in stores in July, so read on for all the details because they are a must-have! The more I look at the prints, the more I remember the cloisonné earrings I love ...

These longarm renters at Quilted Joy have gone wild with their quilts using nature as an inspiration. As artists we can receive inspiration from many different sources, one of which is obviously nature. What we do with that inspiration is what makes us artists. Sometimes inspiration can take us into the wild. A couple of the following quilts were made with patterns, but each needed the creative input of an inspired artist to complete.

“Cora” a Laura Heine pattern

A popular collage artist that people are following these days is Laura Heine. Her quilts have gone wild and because of ...

It is the end of the month and I scrambled to get a few things done for April. Seems the April came to a close much sooner than it was supposed to as I wasn’t really ready.

Yesterday was a housecleaning day. The obscure chores just get pushed back until finally the oven stinks whenever it is heating up and there is no choice but to clean it. That was not a fun chore but it is done and the oven is all ready to go again! I also had to give some of my houseplants a bath. The ...

The best news is that this fabric is no longer languishing and neglected.

Instead, it is a cute, usable quilt.

YAY!

ps–Finished size about 39″ x 52″

I love panel quilts. They allow you to get on with quilting without having actually to make a complicated quilt and they give you scope for experimentation without worrying about messing up a quilt that took hours to piece or wasting time on a bit of calico that you don’t know what to do with when it is finished.

I also once went on a thread painting course that was a bit of a waste of time but when I started to use a longarm I realised that panel quilts were the ideal material to practise on.

On this ...

A while back, when the Bloom With Grace fabric first arrived in my shop, I knew I wanted to use some to make a Mercyful Quilt. It seemed so perfect for bringing comfort to a grieving family. The colors are gorgeous and the sentiment is very sweet. I took a panel and cut the four main blocks apart. Then it sat. This seems to happen quite often in my sewing room!

After a bit, I cut borders from some of the coordinates in this line. I added these to the four blocks and alternated the colors when I placed the ...

Somehow almost two weeks have passed since the last post. Not sure how that happened, but here we are. I have actually been in the sewing room quite a bit so I will do a quick update on what has been in the works.

First and foremost, I have been working on a cute baby quilt for my niece. It is just about done – I have a few more inches of binding to stitch down and then into the wash it goes. Once she receives it, I will share it here. I am 99% sure she doesn’t read the ...

The panel came to me in a bag of hand-me-down fabric years ago. I am not a lover of panels, but this one really wanted to be a quilt.

And now it is, a top at least.

To be quilted after the first of the year.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ll be the first person to say we should not rush the seasons and I don’t believe that it is appropriate to put up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. Christmas is a beautiful and wonderful time of year, but that doesn’t mean I want four plus months of it. But those of us who are in a crafting lifestyle know that the season does need to start a little earlier in our sewing rooms if we want to be done in time to enjoy our creations during the season. So in ...