Very, very interesting. I like the second, but it is not as interesting as the first one!

Add Embellishments to Make it Uniquely Yours! Landscape quilts are interesting, beautiful and fun to enjoy. But, have you considered making one? You may be surprised how easy it is to make a landscape quilt from leftover fabric in your stash. In the following video June Dudley walks you through the process of making a …

..the quilts, the art, the journey and the woman who makes them..

I like how this turned out and wanted to make it bigger, maybe even twice as big, but I ran out of the blue/green solid. And, contrary to my previous post, it is not Kona Celadon. Maybe Moda Bella Caribbean? Well, I'm out and decided to finish it up at this size. I think I need to buy a bolt of a solid fabric I love and make a bigger one. The 2 inch scrap box looks like it can yield at least 10 more quilts. My favorite piece--the 1 is One duckling swimming in a dish from the Tasha Tudor book.

Learn how to use baking paper as an aid for your free-motion quilting. Tutorial includes instructions on how to quilt a stylised flower motif suitable for square blocks. Free downloadable template provided.

A lot of trial and error went into the creation of this sunflower bargello applique art quilt. Read about the source of inspiration and experimentation that made it a reality.

Here is another Free Pattern Day with more than 40 free sewing and quilting patterns for Kaffe Fassett fabrics! There are patterns for qui...

Use your fabric scarps to make this easy but impressive Scrappy Chevron Quilt. It is also the perfect pattern to use your jelly rolls.

Add a side strip to the humble string block to get something new and asymmetric. Directions begin with a traditional string block, but you’ll soon be turning your strings in all directions because it’s so fun. You could call this a slab quilt, and it's an easy way to try slabs if you've always wanted to. You can't mess it up. There is no wrong way to make the blocks. Just make what's pretty to you. A supreme scrap buster, this pattern makes a quilt mothers will actually let babies use, instead of saving it in the closet. My veterinarian cried when I gave her one for her new baby because it looked like the quilts her grandmother had made. And she had her baby professionally photographed on the quilt. I use prints with cowboys, owls, polka dots, abstracts, botanicals, kittens, roosters, crows, fruit, and tons of other stuff for baby to enjoy during tummy time. The quilt has all the cuddle of yesteryear, plus some visual punch. Today’s grandmas have modern equipment, and we push the design envelope. Pattern includes a complete diagram and easy cutting instructions for your success.

So many people at one time or another go to the beach. Many of us day dream about what it would be like to live at the beach, look out our windows to see the endless ocean and the big sky, and listen to the waves. Beach designs and motifs give us a sense of Read the full article...

Orange Peel Quilt and Pattern Talking about “Slow Stitching “. I started this project quite a number of years ago now. Even though you may think it’s taken a long time, I rather like to think that this is a project created from time which would otherwise have been “lost”. Recently, you may recall … Continue reading Orange Peel Quilt and Pattern →

If basting and binding a quilt isn’t really your thing, and if you don’t particularly like quilting large quilt tops, then a rag quilt is the perfect quilt project for you. :) With a ra…

I am writing this tutorial mainly for my daughter in law, who is very new to sewing. She is looking for ways to make gifts for friends and decorating ideas for her home. The Puff Quilt makes a great gift and a beautiful bedspread. This method, which is all machine sewn, is extremely easy to make - even for a beginner, but just enough work to make a true gift. It is very forgiving and imperfect seams don't matter as much as with other quilts. It has tucks in the sides on purpose!! How easy is that!!!? You can use scraps or you can buy fabric in the colors you want. Although I've sewn mine in sets of two, you don't need to do that. (I found myself thinking of mammograms the whole time. I think next time I would make it more random!) 1. You will be working with 2 sizes of blocks. The larger is the front of your quilt and should be 1/2" larger than the bottom. My squares are 5" and 4 1/2". You can change the size, but always keep the smaller square 1/2" smaller than the larger. (Some instructions say 1", so there is some leeway in this too.) I had a large piece of the white on white, so that is what I used, but you can use muslin, which is inexpensive, for the smaller block. It won't show when you're finished. 2. Place the larger block over the smaller one with the RIGHT side up. (It doesn't matter for the bottom square since it will be inside your quilt when finished. Of course, it will not line up since the upper square is larger, so just start by lining up the top right corner. 3. Begin sewing the two pieces together, making the seam about 1/8" instead of 1/4". Making this seam a little smaller than the final seam will keep it from showing when you finish your quilt. Sew about an inch and then line up the bottom corner (you can pin it if you want) and make a pleat in the center of the square with your fingers. Sew across it and down to the corner. Stop about 1/8" from the end with your needle down in the fabric so you can pivot. 4. Raise your presser foot, pivot, and turn the square so that you can sew the next side. Sew a little way, line up the bottom corner, make your pleat and continue. Try to make the pleat somewhere near the center of the side, but it doesn't have to be exact. Now repeat this for the third side. DO NOT SEW THE 4th SIDE AT THIS POINT. (Note: if it eases your mind, you can pin the pleat in each side before you sew it. It will take you twice as long, if not longer, to do it that way though.) 5. You now have an opening in one side and pleats along the other 3 sides. This opening is where you will stuff a little polyester fiberfill. You use polyester for this because cotton will pack down and lose it's puffiness. Fiberfill is NOT the same as polyester batting. It is sold for stuffing dolls, pillows, toys, etc. and is available at just about any big store selling fabric. 6. For my square, I chose a little puff of fiberfill just big enough to puff out the square, but not to actually "stuff" it full. 7. Pin the open side closed in the middle, where you will make a pleat. I do this by holding the corners down and working my fingers toward the center to find the pleat. I fold it over and pin it. You can either sew it closed at this point, or sew two squares closed at the same time..... ....by pinning the open ends of two squares, 8..... and putting them together with the right sides touching, and sewing a 1/4" seam to connect them. When you come to the pins, either remove them before you sew across that area, or very slowly "walk" your needle across them by turning the wheel by hand. You don't want to sew into a pin. It will break your needle and can even send the end of the needle flying across the room and potentially into you! It is also not good for your machine. 9. When you have two of these sewn pairs, or sets, put the right sides of them together or touching, and line up the seams. Place a pin where the seams come together. Sew 1/4" across the end to sew them together. (You sewed 1/8" earlier so that the seam wouldn't show when you made your seam to join them.) 10. Make rows of sewn square sets. Mine are 45" long, but you can make them any length you want. When you have enough, you will sew the rows together. 11. Sew the rows together the same way you sewed the sets together, by putting the right sides together, and matching up the seams by pinning them. Remember to remove the pins as you come to them while you're sewing. 12. Here is the top after all the rows are sewn together. You're almost finished now! Notice that I did do a little planning of where colors went. I did this by laying out my squares before I even started sewing them and decided on where I wanted each color. Of course, you can make it scrappier by just not worrying about that. Next time I'll show you how to put a back on your quilt top and finish it up. You can find Puff Quilt Tutorial, Part II here!

Here is another Free Pattern Day with more than 40 free sewing and quilting patterns for Kaffe Fassett fabrics! There are patterns for qui...

Welcome to finish it up Friday! Late last Friday night, I put the final stitches in my "oh my stars!" quilt. I still can't believe that I hand pieced an entire quilt....and I can't believe that it is actually DONE! I started the quilt back in April 2011 and it was inspired by Jess' travel quilts. (She has a video tutorial here, that I used to get started.) This quilt was a labor of love, to say the least! I started by cutting out my own templates (2" 60 degree diamonds) from cardboard. I English paper pieced (hand pieced) the entire top with countless tiny stitches. I drafted my own side templates to fill in the gaps and to make the edges straight. I couldn't bear cutting through any hand stitching! It was worth the extra time and effort to make that happen. After all that time invested in the top, I had to hand quilt it! I thought it would be a good winter project, but I ended up quilting most of it this spring and early summer. Funny how that happened! I basted it last fall, and I'm quite surprised that I sped through the hand quilting process that quickly. For the fabric, I used 30's reproduction fabrics and polka dots...and I'm so glad that I made that choice early on. It definitely was the right choice! That pink star is feed sack fabric that came from my grandma's house. I love that there is some of that included in this quilt! I also LOVE that gingham bias binding! My original plan was to back this quilt with red and white polka dots (always an obvious choice for me) but I had yards and yards of this light orange coral-ish color in my stash. It worked out very well as backing and it felt good to use something I had on hand. The first time I pieced the back (which I machine stitched) I didn't line up the polka dots, but it felt all choppy, so I cut the pieces apart. On the second attempt, I carefully pieced the repeat so the polka dots lined up. So much better! Can you see the joining seam? I love that it's barely discernable. I guess I'm kind of geeky that way! :) The quilt looks great draped over a chair.... ...and especially pretty at the end of my bed! I'm determined that after all that work, I'm going to actually USE it! The quilt measures 62" x 82". Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes for the week. Thank you for joining me for finish it up Friday!!!

THE HICKORY TREE 17 3/4" X 26 3/4" Original Design Raw Edged Fused Applique Machine Quilted Couched Yarn Binding This quilt will be for sale in my Etsy Shoppe.....you can go there by clicking on it in my sidebar. I will post the journey of this piece tomorrow.

This is not my quilt. It was displayed at the Springville Museum of Art (in Utah) this summer. Blogged here. "The Maze" by Marilyn Reinarz; quilted by Deanna Eakers

I am catching up on the Very Kerry Berry sew-along this week with another five Farmer’s Wife 1930s blocks. Block 72 – Mrs Smith. There are a lot of notes in my book for this block. Firstly “make sure you sew the arrows (chevrons) together correctly – don’t turn the pieces upside down”. This comment tells you how my piecing went initially. Next “make one corner unit and one arrow unit and use that as a guide for the others”. More mistakes in my piecing which I soon corrected. Overall note reads “really tricky block for placement – it is not enough just to mark colours on the chart.” Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 72 - Mrs Smith Block 73 – Mrs Taft. Thankfully this block was easier than Mrs Smith. I made it scrappy but it would look good in two colours with one background as shown in the book. Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 73 - Mrs Taft Block 74 – Mrs Thomas. This looks complicated. But it isn’t. I split the center quite simply by patching four squares together and then cutting it on the angle. Notes say it all ‘Loved making this block’. Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 74 - Mrs Thomas Block 75 – Nan. I initially made this block using English paper-piecing whilst watching over my father one Saturday morning. Notes in book from October last year tell me “there are glimpses of the old Dad in there but not many”. (I remade this block by machine - shown at the top of this post.) Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 75 - Nan Block 77 – Nellie. I patched this block rather than paper-pieced it just because I was in the mood for a little patchwork. It is not perfect but I like it and the imperfections will not show once it is quilted. Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 77 - Nellie It reminds me of Block 98 – Viola which I also patched last September. The notes for Viola apply to Nellie “lovely block to patch using strip piecing for checkerboards.” Farmer's Wife 1930s block no. 98 - Viola You can find all my Farmer’s Wife blocks on my Pinterest page or by clicking on the ‘Farmer’s Wife 1930s’ tab above. Until next time ......

Hi! I'm Marti Michell. When Moda asked me to be part of the Rulers Rule blog hop I immediately said “Yes!” It was almost as easy to decide that, because Log Cabin quilts are popular with nearly everyone, the From Marti Michell Log Cabin Rulers would be the tools I'd want to talk about!Just in case you haven’t made a Log Cabin quilt or even a block, Log Cabin starts with a center square and is completed by adding strips to the center unit in either a clockwise or counterclockwise order.

Three easy methods for using fleece as quilt backing. Check out the difference between using batting or no batting and two ways to bind.

2014 NAN Lifetime Achievement Awardee Throughout her career in library information systems, Lois Kershner developed a love of teaching and this eventually brought her into NAN’s Teachers̵…

To go with the video tutorial I've put together a cheat sheet. It details my method of making pinwheels along with a handy reference chart with the quilt math to make pinwheels in all sorts of sizes. You can download a PDF version of the cheat sheet by clicking here. You can also 'Pin" the

So many people at one time or another go to the beach. Many of us day dream about what it would be like to live at the beach, look out our windows to see the endless ocean and the big sky, and listen to the waves. Beach designs and motifs give us a sense of Read the full article...

I love figuring out and making tricky quilts but sometimes I just want to not use my brain and sew! This is a super quick and easy quilt, a great scrap buster…and you can make it with very little brain power. If you’ve never made a quilt before this pattern is a great...Read More

Welcome to week 4 of the scrap vortex quilt along! I didn't touch this project all week, sadly. I got my blocks out this morning to take s...

Last week I posted a free tutorial on how to make a very easy orange peel shape and how to use it in a 12 inch block. Once you know the tech...

Even though I loved it last year, I told myself I wasn’t going to participate in the 100-Day Project this year. My schedule is quite busy over the next few months and fitting in another project is …

Excellent Tutorials for Using Decorative Machine Stitches to Secure Bindings! The beautiful machine embroidery stitch used to secure the binding of a lovely quilt got us to thinking about bindings. The standard approach is to stitch them down by hand or machine, making the stitching as invisible as possible. Some quilters will stitch down a …

Here are two more of the darling patterns from the 1948 Simplicity Needlework Catalog. The puppy dogs and kitty cats pattern is going to be tricky to draft, but I'm going to try. I love the idea of embroidering sheets as well as pillowcases for a toddler, although I'm no

I probably would have been on sensory over-load had the mister not been with me to snap me out of it with comments like this, "Isn't this the same quilt...