Over the weekend I started the "Tini Treat Bags" that were designed by Monica Solorio-Snow from Happy Zombieland. You can find the pattern...

A Bonjour Quilts sewing tutorial for a diamond quilt block - make your own scrappy diamond quilt with this quilt block pattern tutorial.

I just took a quick inventory around my house and counted at least 12 quilts that still need to be blogged! Now that my busy summer season is winding down I have a lot more time for things like bloggi

Discover how to create a stunning Lone Starburst paper pieced quilt block with this free pattern. Perfect for modern quilts and quilt bees!

How to make half-square triangle quilt blocks of any size. A quick piece method to create multiple quilt blocks at one time.

Quilt made in Pitt County, North Carolina, by Ms. McLawhorn, last quarter 19th century. From the West Virginia Project & the Quilt Index. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=50-8A-2BA Vintage quilt, perhaps 1860-1890 Sandra Starley and I have been Facebooking about this design, which we are all calling French Star. It's not in BlockBase in this format, which is an 8-point diamond star with a curved pieced in the center. Here's the North Carolina quilt again. It's a perfect example of regional taste with the solid-color cottons seen in the South after the Civil War.---a warm brown substituting for what might once have been Turkey red. The applique corners might have been cut from the same template as the Lemon Drops in the star points. Some showing off in North Carolina made by Mary Louise Harris The NC Project found this quilt in Pitt County. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-BD2 Collection of the North Carolina Museum of History Another North Carolina quilt from Wake County, about 1900. Seems like it was a regional favorite. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-408 Elizabeth Jospehine Blegen added a seam in the corners. Late 19th-century, made in Iowa according to the Iowa Quilt Project. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-408 The Connecticut project found one from about 1900. See the whole quilt at the Quilt Index. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=47-7B-F0D Lula Ransom Golson made this one in Louisiana in the early 20th century. From the Louisiana project and the Quilt Index. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1B-3A-766 Another impressive late-19th century version from the Kentucky Project and the Quilt Index. The vivid colors made me think it was wool and the records do confirm that---perhaps those printed delaines from the mid-19th century. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=1A-39-2FC The International Quilt Study Center & Museum owns a classic from the 1890-1920 era in the grays, blues and dark reds so popular at the time. Do a search for #2012.013.0013: http://www.quiltstudy.org/collections/search.html The one above looks like it's not constructed in blocks. The large white squares have no piecing in them. I believe this is the same quilt recorded by the Minnesota Project several years ago. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=49-7E-2AD This is Sandra's quilt from 1840 -1870. It has the curved lozenge piece in chrome yellow print, something Joe called a Lemon Drop. The variation we most often see has a different center shape. It's BlockBase #3540 which Ruby McKim published as French Star in the Kansas City Star in 1928. Fewer seams meeting in the center. Ruby Short McKim from the Kansas City Star The name definitely stuck and many quilters were inspired by McKim's pattern to make a quilt From the Wyoming Project http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=51-8C-9A2 Or at least a block. Many of these are online auctions or orphan Pinterest posts. A Nancy Cabot pattern from the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s. Winding Walk And a different version drafted for a four patch. BlockBase #1516 Biloxi Fox Chase Winding Walk UPDATE: I see Jen Kingwell has done plastic templates for this block. Here's one from the 1930s that is more like the 19th-century version. Eight pieces in the center of a star block so you can alternate colors I imported McKim's French Star into EQ7 from BlockBase. Then I added quite a few more points to the drawing board. I puffed out the curved pieces and drew in some more lines and colored it lemony, so it would look more like the 19th-century designs. 12" Block The free pattern below is for one of the puffier star points. Add Seams. Cut 8 lemon drops and 16 diamond points. The side of the diamond should be 3-1/16" long. You might check the outside points and the inside points to make sure they are the same. (They look like it.) Cut the triangles as a 7-1/2" square and cut into 4 triangles with two diagonal cuts. Cut the corner squares: 4 squares 4-1/2" If you'd rather draw your own templates just take a compass and add the curved piece to any 8-point diamond star. And you could always applique that Lemon Drop. See Sandra's quilt at her blog post here: http://utahquiltappraiser.blogspot.com/2016/12/red-and-green-french-star-day-13.html See Ruby McKim's pattern here: http://www.101patchworkpatterns.com/03patterns/viewpatterns/frenchstar.shtml Nancy Moore's drawn the 1930s version: http://nancycabotsewalong.blogspot.com/2014/04/french-star-quilt-block.html More here: http://www.earlywomenmasters.net/quilts/f/french_star/index.html

You may have heard of chain piecing quilt blocks, but have you chain piecing quilt rows? This technique will save you time and keep you organized!

[Edited on January 13, 2020] I am always looking for quick quilts I can make for a friend or family member to celebrate a special occasion. Handmade gifts are the best except, at times, we need to be able to whip them up very fast! I am showing you today two Quilts you can make …

Going to sleep under your average, run-of-the-mill, storebought duvet feels nothing like snuggling under an artistic quilt that you or your loved one made for you. With affection. With care in every stitch. With countless hours of skill and dedication.

Hands All Round quilt about 1900 from Linda's collection at Treasuredquiltsuk blog http://treasuredquiltsuk.blogspot.com/2010/09/uninhibited-pink-quilt.html This popular pattern was called variously: Hands All Around All Hands Round Hands All Around It's #4044 a and b in BlockBase The name was familiar in the mid-19th century. An 1852 poem celebrating English nationalism by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Hands All Round" had a chorus involving a toast. The Art of Dancing, published in 1859 mentions a dance move for a jig: "All Hands Round." I couldn't find any versions of the quilt going back to the 1850s though. Most seem to date from after 1900.... with lots from the mid-20th century after the patterns were published. From Aunt Martha She used Aunt Martha's color choices--- green, pink & white The Quilt Index has records of a few but none with dates inscribed. By Mary Plaisted Taggart From the New York Project. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=73-19B-144 The family story on this one found in the North Carolina project is that friends in Lawrence, Kansas made it for Elizabeth Butler in 1917 when she moved to Nebraska. http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?kid=4B-82-F17 Hands All Around from the Kansas City Star in 1935 sent in by a Missourian, mentioning a barn dance call. It wouldn't be an easy design to make. In BlockBase it's classified as Miscellaneous, based on rather odd seam lines. Hands All Round from the Ladies Art Company in the 1928 catalog. Ruth Finley showed a version on point in her 1929 book calling it Friendship Knot or Starry Crown---also on the miscellaneous page (#4045) and it looks harder to sew. A signature quilt dated 1932---#4045 In thinking about the sources for the odd construction I am reminded of the Whig's Defeat, a combination pieced and appliqued design that was quite popular in the South after 1850 or so. Perhaps the block evolved from that older design.

This tutorial is part of the New York Beauty Quilt Along. To see schedule and tutorials for all 10 blocks in

While in Louisiana recently, I picked up some fabric to make a man's apron for our friend Lisa's husband, Richard. We all picked out the fa...

This is a detail from the Tristan Quilt at the V&A, from about 1360-1400. The quilt shows episodes of the story of Tristan, one of the heroes of medieval literature, but I've chosen a decorative section of flowers, leaves, and buds. It's a timeless design that could be used on any quilt. I love making quilts, so this object makes me think of the quilt-makers who put it together and how they might have worked on it. V&A museum no. 1391-1904

Welcome to the first of the AHIQ 'why don't you try this' posts. The aim of these posts is to offer anyone new to improv the chance to explore different ways of starting and hopefully also to provide some new challenges and ideas to people already happily working improvisationally. (There are definitely going to be some areas that I will be tackling for the first time too.) My challenge to you this month is to take a shape, any simple shape, and see where it leads you. I thought to kick off I'd use the piece I've been working on recently as an example of the sort of choices you might make. This started in my head with two ideas: firstly it had to be based on squares and secondly I had an idea to work with a traditional 9 patch arrangement. Maybe something like this: One square - then what else? Use two fabrics and you get this. You can see I was laying them out in as 9 patches. Then I rotated some by 90 degrees... then decided to make some bigger and some smaller... I still like how it looks at this stage, and have it in my head that I may revisit this, but ended up adding a border to each square - including the little strip in most. Still the 9 patch format and you can see that to start with I using the borders to bring every piece out at the same size. But it felt a bit static, so I started mixing up the sizes, which let me to using little strips to fill in the gaps. This was one solution, but as always there would have been others (like using filler strips or being more deliberate in the sizes I made things so that they would fit into rows or columns, or using an additional fabric - one that stood out more...) The stage I am at now is interesting as shortage of fabric has led me to piece the outer borders out of even the tiniest scraps, but this has unexpected benefits, the principal one for me being that it allows me to break down the clear lines between individual units like this... What I'm trying to illustrate is that at every stage of a project you can say 'this is fine, I'll stick with this' but that sometimes more interesting things happen if you think 'what can I change, what can I try now?' If you try something and don't like it, go back to where you were, if you feel it's working, keep going forwards. (For a completely different take on a quilt based on squares, hop over to Ann's blog and take a look at her latest work.) So go and play, pick a shape, start cutting, see where it gets you. Start with one colour, or two, or more, make them from crumbs, from strips, slice into them or leave them whole, border them, float them in space, arrange them in orderly lines, offset them, mix them up randomly. Ask yourself 'what if', follow your instincts and have fun. I'll post again next Tuesday, this time sharing some playing along these lines that I have been doing specifically for AHIQ.

Welcome to the final stop on the Quilter’s Negative Space Handbook blog tour! Before we wrap it up, be sure to hop over to Christa Watson at ChristaQuilts, who had to shift her stop from last…

The crumb quilt project was a great scrap buster. I got 2 quilts out of that project. But for some reason, after all the mess all o...

Visit the post for more.

Lovely version of Teresa’s Ring Cycles quilt. Hand pieced and quilted and doesn’t her brother look happy.

I finished my last RSC quilt top on the very last day of the year. Nothing like a self-imposed deadline to get you motivated! At the beginning of 2016, I picked 4 different blocks to help me work through my stash of scraps. And by the end of the year that stack of blocks was huge! I spent most of December either preparing for or entertaining company. Once everyone headed home on the 29th, I realized that I only had 2 1/2 days to turn that pile into 4 quilt tops. Motivated by 3 weeks of not sewing and determinations I got to it. I picked the easiest first. I ended up with 38 birch tree blocks. So I could take 2 out and make it a 6x6 layout or make 4 more to make it a 6x7 layout. Since this one was smallish, I decided to make the extra blocks. Luckily these don't take too long and this went together quickly. So fun and colorful! And a great way to use up those random solids and tiny little pieces that I can't bring myself to throw out. Next up was my stack of wonky stars. I had 37 blocks. These blocks are pretty big and a little more time consuming to make since they are made from slabs of tiny scraps, so I quickly decided to leave one out and make it a 6x6 layout. No sashing involved so it was another quick finish. Next up was the medallion log cabins. I had exactly 56 blocks, so 7x8 layout it was. Yay! I had fun playing with the layout. And it went together quickly since again there was no sashing. So much fun to look at all the different fabrics. And finally, my Geese Migration quilt. I saved this one for last, since it might take a little longer to put it together. But once I cut the sashing and triangles it went together very quickly - just 7 diagonal rows. Don't tell the others, but I think this one is my favorite. :) Hopefully they will all be quilted by the end of 2017. I can't wait to see what the new year brings. My mind is already coming up with ideas for RSC 2017. See you next year!! Tracy Visit me on Instagram @tracysbitsnpieces

Free large hexagon quilt pattern & template. Make a simple hexagon quilt with no Y seams with our tutorial. Uses half hexagon quilt pieces.

Find inspiration for your next quilting project with the timeless and classic bear paw quilt block, featuring a simple yet striking design.

Make a beautiful snowflakes quilt using our free snowflake template and step by step guide to get you started.

If you search Pinterest for Flowering Snowball quilts you get a lot of inspiration. However my inspiration for my Flowering Snowball came...

This Gorgeous Quilt is Super Easy to Make! There are so many quilt blocks made from half square triangles, and quilt “looks” you can achieve with these building blocks. This quilt is one of our favorites. We love the pastel solid fabrics, but also can imagine this quilt with the scrappy look of small-scale prints, …

Did this a while ago but was never really happy with it so it went no further. More recently I had another go, but I still wasn&...

A peek into my love of fabric, piecing, and quilting!

I have a finish to share with you all today: not the one I intended as I find I haven't taken any photos of that quilt, so that will be tomorrow's task. However here is another finished quilt from a few weeks ago - you can tell by the grey sky and leafless tree that I photographed it at the beginning of the month. I actually cannot remember when I pieced this small quilt, though I would guess it is at least 10 years ago. It was one of the first things I made with the new Daiwabo taupe fabrics which were then just becoming available in the UK. I like to think that my piecing would be more precise if I were to make the quilt again today, so please be kind if you spot any faults. I love flying geese, but I would always now make them oversized and trim with a Bloc_loc ruler to ensure perfect points. However if you squint at the quilt from a distance I guess it's not too bad... I still really like the fabrics (which is just as well as I still seem to have oodles of taupes left in my stash). There is something about the Japanese taupes, that almost but not quite monochrome quality, which actually makes you really look at the fabrics and see the subtle colours that were there all the time, but which you overlook at first. I had originally intended to handquilt this one - I would handquilt everything if I could but in practice I handquilt almost nothing - so the quilt has hung around for years, layered and tacked (basted) together. I kept moving it, intending to make a start but never quite getting round to it, and the quilt was therefore rather grubby in places. I had chosen a plain calico (muslin) backing to show off the hand quilting (my intention was that it would look a bit like a wholecloth quilt on the reverse) and when I re-layered with basting spray after removing the tacking, I stuck with the original plan. I am really pleased with the quilting, and it just shows what can be achieved with a walking foot and a bit of quilt wrangling. In case you are interested in having a go on your next flying geese quilt, I will describe how I went about it. I put in the structural quilting lines first, the verticals on either side of the geese strips, burying my thread 'tails' at the top and bottom. Next I stitched down the right hand side of one of the strips of geese in a zigzag, working from the point down the sloping side of the goose triangle, turned the quilt and then worked along the bottom of the triangle towards the mid point, when I turned and went down the slope of the next goose triangle. Continuing all the way down the strip, I decided not to risk turning the whole quilt and working up the strip in the opposite direction - I felt that would probably create puckers and the quilt would not hang properly. So I finished there and started again at the top of the strip, this time travelling down the left hand side oft the strip of geese and meeting my first line of stitching at the tip/midpoint each time to complete the outlining of the goose triangle. Once I had done all the strips of geese in this manner and buried all the thread ends, I finished by putting parallel vertical and horizontal lines in the sashing and borders, guided by the woven design of the fabric. I hope that is comprehensible - if I had any IT skills I could draw the line on to the photo and you would understand instantly, but I don't....sorry! It is not quite as awful a task as it might sound to machine quilt in this way as this is a fairly small quilt (54" x 65") and reasonably easy to turn. I feel it was worth the effort for the amazing texture on the reverse, which does remind me of a wholecloth quilt even if it isn't handquilted! I am ending this post with two photographs of the quilt taken today, the last day of March and almost a month since the first picture. A beautiful Spring day with the plum tree in blossom. Lots of gardening to do this weekend so quilting will have to take a back seat. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, however you choose to spend it. Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday.

My latest finish is my spiral of geese mini quilt for Fab Little Quilt Swap. It measures 20″x 20″ and consists of 50 paper-pieced flying geese on a reverse appliqued background. I quil…

I L♥VE scrappy quilts! I love the idea of making something beautiful and original out of seemingly nothing. I love the idea of making something useful with little or no cost. I love that sense of nostalgia I get when I see an old, worn, hand-quilted quilt, that was pieced together with scraps saved over the course of many years. Scrap quilts are charming to say the least! That's why I had so much fun making these little cuties a few weeks ago. I called them my Scrap Jar Stars. Shortly after posting this photo, my friend Jodi {from Pleasant Home} emailed me and said those stars were just the thing she was looking for to round out her 2012 Sew Scraps Along! She's a girl after my own ♥ and I love that she's dedicating the whole month to sewing with scraps, including lots of great tutorials and giveaways! Head on over to Pleasant Home for all the fun details! Jodi asked me if I'd post a tutorial of my Scrap Jar Stars and maybe give away a few scraps as part of the fun. I was flattered as could be that she asked and happy to do a giveaway. Hopefully, one gals scraps will be another quilters treasure! Edit: I now have a full pattern in my Etsy shop that includes efficient cutting instructions for 4 different size quilts (not just one block) and modified block instructions so there are fewer seams! It's available in paper and PDF. You can check it out HERE. So here we are. A little tutorial just for you! As part of the Sew Scraps Along, I decided to make up another colorway of my Scrap Jar Stars. I pulled out my reds, navys, blues and aquas from my scrap jars. I'm loving these colors against the white. A happy and fresh combo if you ask me. Of course, there's a million different possibilities, so pull out some of your favorite scraps and let's get started! Cutting (per block) (12) 2" bright squares (12) 2" white squares (4) 2" x 3-1/2" white rectangles (4) 4-1/4" white squares* (4) 4-1/4" bright squares* * Note: Cut more than 4 for more variety! I like to make one block first and then when I know what I'm doing I use an assembly line for the rest. So you might like to multiply the cutting requirements (above) by however many blocks you are making. It seems to go quicker that way. Assembly Make Star Points: You will need 8 Half-Square Triangle blocks for each star. Each pair of bright/white 4-1/4" squares will make two HST blocks. Make extra HST's for more variety in your star points :) Step 1: On each of your bright colored 4-1/4" squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. Pair up each bright square with a white square with right sides together (RST). Step 2: Use a 1/4" seam allowance to sew along both sides of the line. Step 3: Cut on the line to form two HST's. Step 4: Press the seams towards the dark side. Step 5: Use a ruler to trim the HST blocks to 3-1/2" square. By starting out a little big and trimming down to 3-1/2" square your star points will be more exact. I like to use my small 6-1/2" square ruler to do this step. Set the HST's aside. Make 16-Patch: Lay out sixteen 2" squares next to your sewing machine (alternating 8 white with 8 bright). Use a 1/4" seam allowance to sew the squares together in rows. Press seams towards the bright fabrics. Then, sew the rows together (butting up alternating seams against each other and pinning in place). Press row seams in one direction. Set aside. Assemble Star Blocks: First, lay out 2 HST blocks on each side of the 16-patch block to make the 8 star points. Sew each set of HST's together with RST. Press the seams open. Sew two of the sets of HST's to opposite sides of the 16-patch. Press seams towards the 16-patch. Before sewing the other sets of HST on, you will need to make the corner blocks. I like to sew them together at this point (instead of earlier) so that I can make sure the bright corner fabric is not the same as the two star points on either side of it. So lay out the desired 2" bright colored squares in what will be each of the outer corners of the star block. Then lay out a 2" white square next to it (on the inside) and a 3-1/2" rectangle above or below them (depending on which side of the 16-patch unit you will be sewing it on to). Make the corner blocks by first sewing a bright 2" square to a white 2" square with RST. Press seam towards the bright square. Then sew that unit to a 3-1/2" white rectangle and press seams towards the white rectangle. Sew a corner block to each side of a set of HST's, making sure to keep the bright square in the outer corner (see photograph below). Sew two of these units to the sides of the 16-patch unit to complete the Scrap Jar Star. This unit should measure 12-1/2" unfinished. I made four blocks and sashed them with (4) 2" x 12-1/2" white strips and (1) 2" bright colored square in the middle. I'm still deciding whether to make a table topper or a throw size quilt. Any thoughts??? So there you go! I hope you liked this tutorial (and I hope it all made sense ~ my brain is fried right now :) They're really fun to make and if you haven't been there already, go to Pleasant Home to see Jodi's "camping" colorway! Speaking of Jodi, ever since she contacted me about her Sew Scraps Along, I have been looking forward to emptying out my scrap jars for a giveaway. It's a new year and time for a fresh start! If you'd like to enter to win some of mine, please leave a fun comment below. * THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED * Here are the details: Giveaway will end on Saturday, January 21st at midnight. Leave one comment below for one entry. For a second entry, leave another comment telling me that you're a follower. I will announce a winner on Monday. If you'd like the full pattern which includes efficient cutting instructions for 4 different size quilts (not just one block) and modified block instructions so there are fewer seams visit my Etsy shop HERE! It's available in paper and PDF. Or shoot me an email ([email protected]) for wholesale prices. Happy Sewing! Amber

Using scale in a quilt is a fun way to create interest. Learn tricks for combining blocks of different sizes to make a great quilt.

Welcome to the Stitch 'N Swap Blog Party. My friends at Generation Q Magazine have a wonderful new book coming out next month that's all about sharing. The GenQ folks are all about community. That's how they got started and that's what they believe in . . . community helping build community. And what better way to encourage community than through a swap. Bringing people together to share their talents and skills by making and then giving. It's a win win scenario and wonderful experience. Stitch 'N Swap is loaded with 25 fun projects that include a variety of themes. All are meant to be doable in a day. Some are small . . . some are more involved. There's something for everyone including kids. One of my favorites is the Interchangeable Monster by Linda Hansen. Linda made these really fun little monsters with arms and legs that can be swapped out for different ones. Very clever and creative. Another favorite, and one I just might need to make for myself, is the Tea Cozy by Karen Cunagin. I'm a big tea drinker and my tea is always cold. In addition to all the projects, lots of tips and advice are included on how to organize a successful swap. How do you get started? Who do ask to play along? What projects do you use? Everything you might encounter if you're running a swap so you'll have a smooth and fun filled event. This would be a great book for guilds to add to their library too. I was really honored and super excited when Jake asked me to contribute a project. This is the first book I've had the pleasure of being published in and I couldn't be in better company. WaHoo!!! My project is in the Home Swap chapter and called Heartbeat Couch Scarf. It's a small quilt meant to be a decorative runner to dress up your couch. It easily can be used as a table runner or wall hanging too. Super simple to make, it uses a quilt-as-you-go method so it really comes together quickly. Of course every good party includes a giveaway. Generation Q Magazine will be giving away 3 copies of Stitch 'N Swap on their blog. US winners will get a paper copy and international winners will receive a digital copy. So how does the giveaway work? I'm glad you asked. All you need to do is comment on the original Generation Q Stitch 'N Swap blog post here. Let them know if you've ever participated in a swap and the coolest thing you've gotten in a swap. That's it! All winners will be chosen from the GenQ post Wednesday May 7th and posted on their blog May 8th. You can also get your very own copy directly from Generation Q beginning May 1st or pre-order now through C&T Publishing. Hop over to today's other blog party participants and see what they have to say. Melissa Maher at Generation Q Magazine Jeni Baker of In Color Order Emily Herrick of Crazy Old Ladies Sam Hunter of Hunter's Design Studio Lynn Kraus of Fiber Flies On a side note, if you saw this post yesterday, it was accidentally published after being accidentally deleted. Needless to say, Blogger and I were definitely not on speaking terms . . . at least not with any words I'd care to share here . . . but alas all is good in the Quilting Universe now . . . : )

Create a gorgeous cushion cover using a quilting block that is suitably called a cathedral window. This tutorial will show you how to sew the quilting block into a cushion cover, but this technique can be used to make quilts and even bags. For this cushion, I’ve used the Mosaic Essentials Trend 5 fat quarter pack in the colour Teal from The Craft Cotton Company with a plain white cotton. It is best to use contrasting fabric to get the full effect of this patchwork design if you are using your ow

The Campfire Quilt Pattern is a modern interpretation of the traditional Log Cabin quilt block. This quilt comes in king, queen, throw and baby quilt sizes.