It’s another community quilt day today. I always love getting an email from Ronda as I know I’m in for some great eye candy. That’s exactly what I have for you today. Ronda writ…

I made a doll quilt before Christmas and realized I’d never posted a tutorial on this quick and easy binding method. Since I know a lot of you are beginners…this is a really great way to dip your toes into binding a quilt. I especially love it for small things like hot pads,...Read More

I know, I know two weeks in a row of kid’s clothing – but can you really have enough? I have spent the week with my mother who has recently visited The Houston International Quilt Show, so she... keep reading >>

I love, love, love using muslin for the back of a quilt. I know, it’s not on-trend and I’ve even read a bit about a quilter who wasn’t interested in making quilts until she saw one WITHOUT a muslin…

If you've read my blog for more than a week, you know that my love for scraps runs deep! I enjoy using my scraps and I want you to be excite...

Hi All, Today was such a nice day, I thought I'd share a little. My theory is, that maybe if I blog about something right away, I can sta...

I don't know if you have a "quilting bucket list", but I sure do! And a cathedral window quilt was at the top of that list! There's something so elegant and perplexing about how they're constructed and I always love a good challenge of figuring things out and stretching my skills and this quilt did just that! I first d

I love quilts with just squares- they are fun and quick to sew and have a lovely timeless feel. And with strip piecing, this one comes together a lot quicker than you might think. Don't know what strip piecing is? No worries! Let's get started!

Never make the mistake of forgetting these 4 important things to include when you gift a quilt! You'll be so glad that you did #4!!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I love my quilting lines to be straight. One of the most…

Hello All! It’s Crystal Hendrix from Hendrixville back with another tutorial! I don’t know about all of you, but I get very excited about new lines from Bonnie and Camille; so I combine…

I know, I know two weeks in a row of kid's clothing - but can you really have enough? I have spent the week with my mother who has recently visited The Houston International Quilt Show, so she was busting with ideas. One of those fabulous ideas I decided to share with you today for I Love to Create. I love the look of patchwork crazy quilts so when my mom told me about this adorable jacket she had seen made at the quilt show I was totally on board. Grab some fabric scraps and let's get busy. SUPPLIES Fabric Scraps Pinking Shears Sewing Machine Sweat Shirt Scissors Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue Iron Pins Thread Velcro TAKE ME DOWN TO THE TRIANGLE CITY Scalene, isosceles, right - whatever kind of triangle floats your boat. I used my pinking shears and vintage feed sack fabric to cut a pile of different triangles. If you don't have feed sack light-weight quilting fabric works like a charm. SWEATSHIRT DECONSTRUCTION Next you are going to cut your sweat shirt up. Cut up the side seams and continue up the sleeves. Cut the cuffs and if there is a ribbed bottom cut that off as well. PATCHWORK PARTY Using your Aleene's No-Sew Fabric Glue place your triangles in a random pattern all over the sweatshirt. It's ok if there is a little sweatshirt peeking between the triangles. The glue will wash out, but hold your triangles in place long enough to stitch them on. ZIG-A-ZAG-DO-DA-ZIG-A-DEE-A Using a zig zag stitch on your sewing machine and a contrasting thread sew all the edges of all your triangles down. Also stitch around all the edges. LOOK MA, I'M QUILTING Place your jacket on the sewing machine. Drop your feed dogs and using a straight stitch on your machine free quilt all over you jacket. The more random the better. GRAB YOUR SCISSORS Cut the ribbed neck out of your sweatshirt and cut your sweatshirt up the front. PUT THE SWEATSHIRT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN Pin your sweatshirt back together and using a straight stitch put it back together again. Using bias tape (we made our own) trim the edges of your jacket. I have to give my mom the infamous Fredda Perkins most of the credit for this adorable jacket. Grandma comes to the crafty rescue yet again! I kinda want an adult size version of this jacket for me. Craft on!Click here for today's daily giveaway!

I'm finally sharing about my original Mosaic Star quilt that I made back in the summertime! In case you missed it, the Mosaic Star quilt pattern is now available! You can find all of the details and read about the Cover quilt here. But the quilt that I'm sharing about today was my original iteration of this design. Ya'll know I love me some two-tone quilts, but my last several two tone quilts have been white and charcoal. Well, I wanted to mix it up and get a little wild (hah!) and use a beige color with my ever-favorite AGF Magnetism. The combination might be my new favorite, if we're being honest. I'm a big fan! . We have quilt kits for this exact quilt available in our shop! If you read the Cover Quilt Blog post, you know that it was my goal to use as many different kinds of triangles in this quilt as possible! It was a fun challenge which created a quilt that is a really great skill-builder! When I was constructing the quilt, I arranged all of the shapes in a cryptic way to share with everyone that something new was in the works! You would never guess that these pieces turn into the Mosaic Star quilt blocks, but it was a fun little teaser before the full reveal. :) . One thing that I love about two-color quilts, especially two-color quilts that have a darker background fabric...is that you can really focus on the overall design. This quilt has SUCH a different look than the Cover Mosaic Star quilt! It's toned down a little more, which creates a super calming and mellow effect. With a multi-color quilt, I find that my eyes usually move around throughout the quilt to pick up on all of the different fabrics and colors. With this quilt, my eyes tend to rest on the entire design as a whole. The

When I first started quilting I had no idea how to bind a quilt. I had no family or friends who quilted and I wasn't a part of a quilting group. I had an entourage of children and they were all very young so I never had time or money to attend a class so I resorted to books. This certainly wasn't a hardship as I love books but binding in books and patterns, in my experience, is just an after thought. It's briefly addressed and not given any real focus. One thing that I've learnt over the years i

Create vibrant, graphic quilts and projects using batik fabric. With more than 55 options, you're sure to find one you want to make!

It’s been fabulous getting to know everyone who’s participating in the Dot ‘n’ Dash Quilt Along. I love seeing all the fabric choices you are all sharing. And getting to kno…

I seriously considered ditching the templates and working out the math for each block as I go along. I love math, and I know that my work is more accurate when I rotary cut my pieces. But I wanted to keep in the spirit of this project, so I'm using the templates from the book. I hand pieced and quilted my first quilt using templates, so this process isn't new to me. This time around, I am using my rotary cutter to cut around the templates and I'm machine piecing my blocks. I thought I'd share the process that I use, first I will go through how I prep my templates: Supplies: Thin Cardboard (i.e. cereal boxes) Spray Adhesive Templates* Rotary Cutter - it's best to use a separate blade for paper Ruler *A member of the FWQAL flickr group graciously combined all of the book templates onto 15 pages. I used these templates printed at 100% and they are measuring up great! If you need help finding the template document in flickr, let me know. This is not meant to be a substitute for purchasing the book, however. :) Start by spraying one side of the cardboard with the spray adhesive (I think the templates stick best to the unprinted side of the cardboard). I did this outside. Some people spray the templates and stick them down. I hate getting the adhesive on my fingers, b/c it is tough to get off. So I spray the cardboard! Take the cardboard inside and lay your templates out. I don't like to lay any of my templates over the folds in the cardboard. As you lay each piece down, smooth it over with your finger. If there are bumps or wrinkles, you can pull the piece back up and try again. I find it pretty easy to smooth out the bumps without pulling the pieces back up, though. Wait a few minutes before cutting the templates with your rotary cutter, that will minimize the adhesive that sticks to your ruler. (Adversely, it's best to stick your templates down immediately. Typically spray adhesive is permanent only right after it's sprayed.) When I cut my templates, I line up the solid SEWING line on each template with the 1/4" line on my ruler. That ensures that I have an accurate seam allowance, regardless of the dashed/cutting lines. (See the red arrows below pointing to the solid SEWING lines.) In the pic below, you can see where my ruler is with respect to the dashed/cutting line. Trim all sides of the template the same way. To trim the funky corners like you see on the triangles, I just eyeballed it. You can use a ruler, though. This is how the edges of my templates looked after trimming. Continue until you have a stack of pretty templates! (I cut all of the templates for my first 8 blocks to get me caught up with the group, and in the future I'm planning on cutting my templates as I need them each week.) Now that the templates are ready, I will go through how I cut my pieces using the templates and a rotary cutter and ruler. Supplies: Templates Masking Tape Rotary Cutter and Mat - switch out your "paper" blade at this point Ruler Fabric For reference, I chose the Big Dipper block for this tutorial. It only requires one template! To start, make a loop with masking tape and stick the loop to the back of the template. Now stick the template onto the fabric. I cut 4 layers at a time here. Line your ruler up along one edge of the template. I line up the solid SEWING line on the template with the 1/4" mark on my ruler. And trim! Repeat on all remaining sides (don't trim those funky corners yet!). Now to trim the corners, I don't use a ruler. I just set my rotary cutter on the edge of the corner and press down. I try not to roll my cutter around a lot, because I want a small, clean cut. Here's my triangle with 1 part of the corner trimmed. Repeat with the little bit that is remaining. Line up the rotary cutter, and press down. Ta-Da! Repeat until all of your pieces are cut, and piece as desired! You may need to use a fresh piece of masking tape after a few templates. If the template isn't staying put on the fabric, use fresh tape. You don't want the templates moving around! I've seen a few blog posts now where people are questioning the funky corners on the pieces. Fussy Cut explains it really well in this post, scroll down for the picture and explanation. They really do improve accuracy in piecing! Up next, my first few blocks!

Join us September 7th and 8th Have you ever wanted to know more about thread? I know that I do. I am NOT a thread aficionado. I just use thread and when I have breakage, I just quit. I have never been able to make metallic thread work, and yet I love metallic thread. I would love to know what the best threads are for which job I am

In this tutorial, we show you how to add ric rac to your favorite fabrics to create beautiful reversible cloth napkins perfect for any table.

This month I had the honor to create a custom baby boy quilt and I'm in love! Late last month mom-to-be Kate contacted me about making this quilt for a baby boy she's adopting - and I couldn't say yes fast enough! After getting to know each other a little bit more and taking a peek at her Instagram, I got a good sense

If you love quick quilt patterns, you’re in the right place! While I adore constructing quilts, I also enjoy picking fabric, quilting, and binding. I prefer not to spend too long on any single step. Quick quilts are fun and satisfying! Here is a list of 10 quick quilt patterns for those looking for a fast project or wo

I love an interesting quilt edge, but I know binding inside angles isn’t everyone's cup of tea. I have several patterns that end in these zigzag edges, because, hexagons ya know :) Anyway, I'm asked from time to time if there's a good way to fill in those zigzag edges so you can just bind the quilt off straight. Well, I’m happy to say I finally put something on paper! Here you can see the most common sizes and the quilts they'll work for. First, I cut the appropriate size rectangles out of my ba

Modern Quilting Tips, Tricks and Tutorials! - Everything you need to know to make quilting easy and fun so you can do what it is you love to do and create a beautiful joy filled life!

Yesterday was all about how to press your fabric and now we're diving into cutting those pretties up in Part 2!