Almost any day now, my sister will be giving birth to her first kid. I'm excited to be an aunt again. My brother has two little boys, and they've been a great joy in my life as well as a blast to sew for. My sister however, is having a girl, which will change

What happens when you decide to put something other than a solid square in the center of a Log Cabin? Glad you asked! Remember this little...

Welcome to TGIFF!, where every finish deserves to be celebrated! I'm sharing my Modern Totems quilt that is made with the Figures by Zen Chic fabric line paired with some Kona white. Except the binding. The binding was Serena Blue Diamonds by Windham Fabrics. The backing is the Numbers fabric from IKEA. :) For the quilting, I used Aurifil #2024 for doing straight-line quilting and some wavy-line stitching with my walking foot. For the wavy-line quilting, I took one of the decorative stitches on my machine (#4 for those of you with a Bernina 440 QE) and elongated it so it gives me uniform wavy lines. This quilt is 54" by 58". Thinking of trying this pattern next with rainbow solids and charcoal backing. Mmmm... An InLinkz Link-up

I added a coin quilt class to my teaching schedule and needed a sample for those that choose to go with a more modern or improvisational design. An improvisational design will give students a chance to practice free piecing, angle piecing, strip piecing and design layout. I still have a place in my heart for...Read More »

Few months ago I went to C&T Publishing to drop off some quilts for an upcoming show. While I was there, I saw the wall of meeting room full of covers of soon to be released books. The one that caught my eye was Artful Improv by Cindy Grisdela. I responded to the cover right away. No Surprise there! Colors! Colors! Colors! After reviewing the book, I can tell you it is not just about the colors. So what is it about? Think design elements and process of making an improv quilt. There are no patterns but ideas to explore - Ideas on colors, making blocks, building blocks and adding textures with machine and hand quilting. It is a guide for beginning quilters as well as anyone who wants to let loose, try something different without a specific plan and make art quilts. There are lots on inspirational photographs of completed quilts by the author as well as her students. Visit Cindy Grisdela on her website to learn more about her book as well as her many accomplishments. You can win a copy of Cindy's book. I would love to know if you are a traditional quilter or a modern quilter, a beginning quilter or a pro. Leave a comment with an answer. I will pick a winner on 10/19/2016 For more than one chance to win, follow the blog tour! October 10: C&T Publishing October 11: Maria Shell October 12: Rayna Gillman October 13: Yvonne Fuchs October 14: Sujata Shah October 17: Heather Kojan October 18: Generation Q Magazine October 19: Cindy Grisdela You can purchase this book from Cindy’s website , at C&T Publishing, and Amazon . Good Luck!

Here they are...my two new patterns! Meet Post, new to my Slow Sewing Studio. Post was inspired by the design on the doors at my local post office. I've always thought the motif was pretty sweet, and it's finally made its way into one of my designs. I played around with the blocks

Gwen Marston was the deciding factor for me attending QuiltCon this year. I've read her books for years and love her work. I decided that if I got into her class, I would go. And I did. Well, my husband is the real hero of this story. See, I had a meeting at the time that registration for workshops opened for QuiltCon last year so I wasn't going to be able to register myself. My husband was going to be home that day though so I sat him down the night before, made him watch the "How to register for QuiltCon" video that the Modern Quilt Guild released and gave him my wish list of classes. We went over what order to try registering. Yes, I even had plan B and Cs for him, but I threw out plans D, E and F (you're welcome, honey). My top choices were classes with Gwen Marston and Melissa Averinos. He was such a good sport about it; mostly he found it so bizarre and amusing. I think. The next morning as I left for work, I told him, "there's no pressure and I'll be happy with whatever options you can get for me." I don't think he really believed me. At 10:07, he sent me a text that I got my top choices. Eeeek! It took all of my self-control not to jump up and down at work when I got that text, but there may have been an impassioned "yes" accompanied by a fist pump. I am a professional, you know. ;) So now I was going to QuiltCon and I was going to take classes with Gwen and Melissa. Woo hoo! I'll do another post for the class with Melissa, but today, I'll share some photos about the class with Gwen Marston. It did not disappoint! Gwen's small studies: One of my favourites of Gwen's small studies: Another favourite: Gwen demonstrating some of the techniques she taught us: Trying to get out of my comfort zone with this colour palette: A little better: Some progress on the different units: Cute, eh? Playing with placement: Starting to come together: Gwen and me! Eeek! Some of my classmates work -- I can't remember who did what, but aren't they fabulous? Loved seeing the variety of work. If you ever get a chance to take a class with Gwen Marston, take it. You will not regret it!

I’m excited to share that I have a new article published in the April/May 2018 issues of Quilting Arts magazine! The article is called “Contemporary Improv Log Cabin Blocks” and i…

Upon finishing a quilt my next step is always tidying up the studio. It’s closure. A chance to clean the slate and recategorize the design wall with what I need to focus on next. Just enough to be excited about something new, but not so much that I get distracted. I don’t need any help...Read More »

Wow, it's been a long, long time since I've shared a quilt finish in this space! It's nice to be back - and I have several quilts and quilt tops I finished toward the end of last year that I'm hoping to share over the next few weeks. The first two I'll be showing you were made essentially in secret - that is, I resisted my usual tendency to completely overshare what I'm working on. The main reason for this was that both of these were made specifically for the challenge categories for QuiltCon 2016, so I wanted them to be a bit of a surprise *if* they were juried into the show. Neither of them got accepted, so I'm kind of excited to be able to share them at last! The quilt I'm sharing today was made for the Michael Miller Luxe challenge - she's called Flow and she was a really fun quilt top put together. This is a fairly long post, as I'll be showing a bit of my process as well as a few pictures of the final quilt, so please bear with me! I would normally split this much information across a few blog posts - but I'm making up for my recent lack of blog posts by giving you a single enormous post ;o). Mid last year, the Modern Quilt Guild offered members the opportunity to sign up for the Michael Miller Luxe challenge, one of the special categories that would be part of the QuiltCon 2017 show. Everyone who signed up for the Luxe challenge was sent two half yard pieces of fabric, in one of the colour stories below. Participants were then allowed to add ONE cotton couture solid to these, and to use any of the Luxe range of fabrics in their quilt. The fabrics I received were the middle two, and I then added a deep teal cotton couture to these, as well as solid white and grey Luxe fabrics. I have to admit, these fabrics sat in a pile on my cutting table for a good few months before I started getting some ideas about what to do with them. These fabrics are sheeting fabric rather than quilting cotton, and as such have a slightly different sheen (they are quite shiny) and have a wee bit more stretch than regular quilting cotton. I was a little bit nervous about working with them, but eventually I decided improv curves were the way to go, and I started making a few blocks, without any real plan as to what I'd do with them. Apologies for the poor lighting in the next few photos - my design wall has overhead fluorescent lights, which make it really hard to get good pictures of the whole wall. Initially, I made a few blocks, thinking I would position them so that there was a continuous improv curve from top to bottom down the quilt. But as I kept making blocks, I decided to lay them out more randomly, with more negative space between and around the blocks. At this point I hadn't ordered any solids for the background, and my initial thought was to surround them all with white, and to create continuous curved lines through the quilt with quilting. But, when I sat down to order the solids, I decided at the last minute to get some grey as well as white, and use this to create some more movement in the negative space. I think this is what I love most about improv quilts - it's such a playful process, figuring out layout and design on the fly. Working with an idea, testing things out and discarding ideas that don't quite work. I had a love-hate relationship with this quilt the entire time I was piecing it. Thankfully, I have a really awesome quilty friend (kat) who was happy for me to bombard her with photos and questions as I was working on it. I think I've grown so used to oversharing my projects on social media as I'm working on them, that working on something in secret made me feel like I was in a black hole in some ways. I needed the opportunity to get constructive criticism when I was making this, or I honestly think I would have abandoned it. In the end, this quilt was a weird combination of improv curves, and some pretty intense precision piecing to get those curves to form a continuous line through the quilt top. It was a really fun challenge, so despite those times I didn't like it, I still enjoyed the process. And seriously, this quilt was SO much fun to add texture to. Quilting is a super important part of quilt making for me - and the whole time I was piecing it I was thinking about how I would quilt it, to add to the sense of movement in the quilt top, and add loads of texture without detracting from the design. I forgot to take a photo of the top before I quilted it, so this is it in full. After I'd finished piecing, I decided to orientate the curves across the quilt, rather than top to bottom, and I much prefer it this way around :o). As always, I did all the quilting on my little domestic Bernina (440QE), but because it's a reasonably small quilt (around 60" square) it was a really enjoyable quilt to quilt. I decided to use batting with a bit of loft to make all the quilting stand out, so I chose a Wool/Polyester batting - it's become one of my favorites to use. The batting, combined with the fact that it's made from sheeting, has resulted in the softest quilt I've ever made, despite all that dense free motion quilting. All the quilting on this one is done in Aurifil 50wt - white, dove and a few different blues to blend in with the fabrics. Although I've recently used a few other weights of Aurifil for quilting (40wt and 28wt), for this quilt I decided 50wt was the way to go, as I wanted the quilting to blend into the fabric as much as possible, just leaving all that texture. I don't often piece backs for my quilts - but I had a few bits of the Luxe grey and white left over, as well as a bunch of half-metre pieces of various blues, aqua and teal cotton couture that I pieced together for this one. Solids are the BEST for showing up quilting :o). Thanks for making it this far in a pretty epic blog post! As I said, I have a few more quilts to share, which I hope to do over the next few weeks. I've made a few fairly major life changes this year (all good ones) which will mean I have more time and energy to blog more regularly. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy talking about and sharing my projects here, so you'll have to put up with my rambling a bit more frequently from now on... xx Jess

We're so pleased to be the first stop on the blog tour for Rayna Gillman's newest book, Create Your Own Improv Quilts! You probably know Rayna from her other super-popular books, Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth and Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts. In Create Your Own Improv Quilts, Rayna brings her no rulers, no rules, no stress approach to modern quilting. This book is all about allowing yourself to explore and make "mistakes"; after all, most mistakes are just an opportunity to explore a new avenue of design! What I love most about this book is the way it combines detailed technique sections, like improv paper piecing and working with strips, with tons and tons of inspiration and advice for busting your creative block. The gallery of other inspiring improv quilters (including some in this blog tour!) shows you how each person brings their own style to improv, while the Questions and Answers section is like having Rayna right there with you, encouraging you to take risks and helping you with design conundrums. We hope you'll join us for the full tour for even more inspiring improv quilting! BLOG TOUR CALENDAR November 10—C&T Publishing November 13—Cindy Grisdela November 15—Teri Lucas at Generation QNovember 21—Desiree Habicht at The ClotheslineNovember 22—Angie Wilson at Gnome Angel November 28—Victoria Findlay Wolfe November 30—Trisch Price at Hadley Street QuiltsDecember 5—Melissa Shields at The Quilting Room with Mel December 7—Patty Altier at Patty the Quilt Lady Oh, and did we mention you can win an ebook copy of Create Your Own Improv Quilts? Enter here: a Rafflecopter giveaway. Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Would you believe I made this in just 1 day? It's true. That's kind of what happens when it comes to fabric release time. There's always a super long list of things I'd like to make in conflict with time and the reality of what actually can be done. To be clear, I'm always an optimist

Here they are...my two new patterns! Meet Post, new to my Slow Sewing Studio. Post was inspired by the design on the doors at my local post office. I've always thought the motif was pretty sweet, and it's finally made its way into one of my designs. I played around with the blocks

Now here's a book I can get behind. And beside, and into. Sherri Lynn Wood's Improv Handbook is just that: a handbook. This is the most inspiring, informative and useful book I have in my quilting lib

Right before the Baltimore Craft Show last weekend, I had a brainstorm for a new quilt. This frequently happens when I’m in deadline mode before a show for some reason–maybe that’…

Big Stitch quilting has gotten to be a big deal in the past few years, so I was thrilled when Jo Glover, who published the original directions for BigStitch Quilting, spoke to our guild last year. …

This is the fifth block in a series of 6. The blocks will be used to make a quilted bedhead (or wall hanging). See improv / free form quilt block number 1 improv / free form quilt block number 2 im…

Right now, some of the most fascinating reality television involves people who decide they want to simplify by downsizing to a tiny house. Watching the process as individuals shed unnecessary stuff is, in my humble opinion, incredible. (Generally, it usually also means very few children are involved.) By the end of the

I finished quilting and binding this quilt over the weekend, washed it and took a nap under it today! 75" x 66" Here's t...

Today's post features improvisational quilts. Much as a painter would use a brush, improvisational piecing is a creative approach to generat...

Explore bitsandbobbins' 3078 photos on Flickr!

Red Totem is the second piece that received a “skinny email” from a major national show–see my earlier post for the other piece, Aztec Autumn. Although I’m disappointed tha…

I have been practicing and enjoying improv quilting for many years. I was recently asked to present my approach to an improv quilt. So, here is my best

John asked us to make blocks inspired by the work of Erin Wilson (www.erinwilsonquilts.com/work/quilts/totems/) I had windows on my mind. blogged: www.shecanquilt.blogspot.ca/2012/06/how-can-it-be-friday-...

Happy Spring! At our April meeting, Kate did a demonstration of her scrappy strip piecing technique. You can view a tutorial of Kate's technique on her blog.  Our BOM from April was Empire BOM's Pick up Sticks block. This was such a fun block to make, and we had a great turnout. We followed the tutorial, but made our blocks 12" by 12", instead of 6" by 6" (finished). Our members also showed off some great show and tell items: We also got to see some finished charity quilts for Project Linus. You are all welcome to bring in any quilts and fabric to be donated to Project Linus. We also have monthly Round Robins--everyone is welcome to bring in any "starter" quilts, or add onto any of our round robins each month. We’ve started a new Facebook group! Our Facebook page will still be our group’s main landing page. You can see our Block of the Month instructions, meeting information, and our details from the main page. The group is designed to allow all members to post and share easily (anyone who joins on Facebook can post links, pictures and comments). Please share any of your modern quilting projects and ideas in our Facebook group. Stay tuned for more updates from The South Florida Modern Quilters! Happy Quilting,

Would you believe I made this in just 1 day? It's true. That's kind of what happens when it comes to fabric release time. There's always a super long list of things I'd like to make in conflict with time and the reality of what actually can be done. To be clear, I'm always an optimist

Here's hoping that it doesn't take as long to get past the 260s posts. Those ten numbers in the 250s took much too long with all of the interruptions. For 261 I thought I'd show you what I've pinned lately. All quilts. All modern. All the time. "heart, quilts" is the place.

We've designated both July and August as Modern Quilt Month 2015. We've enjoyed seeing the modern quilts at various shows, and summer seems like the perfect time to feature these fun quilts. Here is p

Each year the Quilter's Guild of NSW holds a challenge for it's members to make a mini quilt with a set theme. Some examples of p...

Shari Werner is an abstract artist who creates with textiles. Her colorful art quilts start as black and white images.

Hi, I'm Jess, otherwise known as Elven Garden Quilts. This is my second year as a FAL host, and although I'm not great at actually participating in the FAL (I have a pretty bad history of not finishin