5 Small and Inexpensive DIY Sewing Christmas Gifts! Make a quilted table runner, rope bowl or pillow with this free tutorial.

Fall is finally here and the weather is teasing us with cooler days. We had to get into the seasonal spirit, and this pumpkin table...

learn how to make a strawberry block with step by step tutorial

Such a fun and simple project. Get the tutorial here.

Log Cabin Variation - Scrappy Half Log Cabin or Quarter Log Cabin Block Tutorial susies-scraps.com

This last couple of weeks, I've been away with my family, enjoying a Carnival cruise around the south pacific. We had a lovely time away enjoying time on tropical islands and sea days filled up with ship activities. There is always a lot to do on a ship. I knew that I'd need something to sew when I had downtime, so brought a small bag of pink scraps to work on a Kawandi style project. It's very portable style of project to work on while away from the sewing room. The night before we left, I prepared the backing piece and pressed the edges with a decent 3/4" seam. I took along my bag of scrap fabric, a needle and small spool of variegated Aurifil 12 wt thread # 4651, thread, scissors, marker and small ruler to ensure that my lines weren't going too far out whack. I also took a little packet of applique pins to keep my pieces in place when I rolled up the project before heading out to the next trivia challenge or show in the theatre. I worked most of the project on the ship and finished it off last night. I think I might choose a different colour scrap tub and make some more. It's nice to have a slow-sewing project ready to work, without deadlines to worry about. Have you tried making a kawandi style of project? When I saw the beautiful Kawandi works by Linda over at Flourishing Palms, I was inspired to try this style myself. I'm so glad that I did. The stitches may not be straight or perfect, but they were very enjoyable.

How to Make an Easy Patchwork Quilt. It's easy and makes a great beginning quilt project.

Here is a quick tutorial for Flying Geese really written as instructions for my fellow Stitch Teasers since its my month to be Queen Bee. I...

Modified String Quilt This is my 2nd year in the Bee, and I really enjoy these mini projects every month. My family just bought a lake house in Massachusetts and I'm looking for a bright cheerful string quilt to use at the lake. I would like bright colors, I love purple, blue, yellow, green, aqua, pink, anything bright really. Picture a bright cheerful quilt on a chilly evening at the lake in front the fire. I want to highlight the borders around the block by using black and white strips like this quilt pictured by @imquilternity: http://imquilternity.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-on-wall.html Below is a link to the tutorial I started with. In order to get the big black/white borders, you will need to modify the tutorial a bit. In the middle, use two strips of different black/white fabrics. Also, my tutorial uses a fabric base in place of paper piecing. This is because I wanted 10" blocks, and my paper piecing papers weren't big enough. For the colored strips, I varied the size of my strips from 1-2 inches. http://filminthefridge.com/2009/04/27/a-string-quilt-block-tutorial-paper-pieced-method/ I've provided a complete tutorial below: You can use the steps below in place of the tutorial above, but I find it nice to have another view of the same process just in case its new to you and confusing. You will start with a 10" piece white fabric. You can use any white, it won't show. In a pinch, you could use any light colored fabric. Here are my pictures as I went along: 1. Cut a bunch of 3/4"-2" colorful strips 2-15" in length: 2. Cut two 1" black/white strips. These should be mostly white. Silver/grey are OK, but please, no brown: 3. Sew the two black/white strips together to form a 1 3/4" strip. It should be at least 16". 4. Place sewn strips diagonally face up on the white fabric. The tutorial uses a glue stick to hold it down. 5. Start sewing colorful strips alongside each of the black/white strips to cover the fabric. Instead of the glue stick, I pinned the first colorful strip thru all three layers to hold it down: 6. Open it up and iron. I like to iron as I go, but I like to iron :) The ironing step is important because it makes the fabric taut so there won't be a bubble or crease. These bubbles and creases cannot be removed. 7. Continue sewing strips, pressing as you go: I found it easier to sew both sides together: 8. The finished block will be scrappy and colorful. You can send to me untrimmed, or trim to 10". Here are four of them together: If you are driving along I84 in MA/CT, and want to stop by the lake for some refreshment and quilt talk, just ping me! Jennifer @jennquilts

Frustrated by quilt blocks that turn out the wrong size? Learn to sew a scant quarter-inch seam and make your quilts come out right. #quilting #quarterinchseam

One stitch at a time.

Hi Everyone I have just made a short video on how I made my little house quilt and posted it on my Facebook page. It is also on my website. Please comment. I appreciate your feedback. Here are some more...

It certainly has been awhile since I've share some client quilts and talked about them. I have quite a few to share with you today, hope you enjoy taking another look at these gorgeous quilts. - Joleene - Joleene, one of my dear friends and the creator of "Sew Red Glasses", made this gorgeous color wheel. She made it just before this years Home Machine Quilting Show, which is in Salt Lake City Utah each year. She had a booth and gave a couple of demonstrations each day on the main stage. She used this color wheel to teach the values of color. I am so proud of Joleene and all she has done to make her idea a reality and how well she is doing! Her glasses have been in the top 50 notions for Moda's United Notions for awhile. Way to go Joleene! Joleene gave me complete creative control for the quilting on this one. I quilted right around the edges on each of the color spokes, then decided to keep the inside of the spokes pretty simple with a double line triangle. I didn't want the quilting to distract the ability to look at the colors with the glasses and see the values. It turned out pretty cool the dimension that it added. To make the spokes pop and to give the background some personality, I decided on swirl pebble feather all over freehand design, similar to what I did on Denise's "Bloom". Which made the colors and spoke's really stand out. Plus it does look pretty cool to look at the background through the Sew Red Glasses. A few more views! Really LOVE this one! Thanks, Joleene! Always a joy to quilt for you~! - Bridget - Bridget is one of the sweetest clients I have. Always so great to see her and get to quilt for her. This is a mini quilt or table topper, and was super fun to quilt. I started with the center star lines, to enhance the log cabin star, and then it just kind of went from there. Doing the four corner star blocks, just like I did on my Apple Pie in the Sky quilt. Then I added the border quilting, and thought I was finished. But, as I looked at it more I wanted something behind the center star to finish it off. That's when I decided to try the diagonal lines...love how it turned out! Hope you love it too, Bridget. One thing I try and do with quilts when I take pictures, is to capture them in natural light. The colors of the fabrics show up the best, as well as the detail of the piecing and quilting. The texture of the quilting just pops!!!! And, of course creating texture on quilts through the quilting, is my favorite part of quilting. It helps each quilt come to life. I love what I do!! - Jane - Jane is the Moda rep that comes to meet with my mom and aunt Kristin for their online fabric store, Sisters and Quilters. I get to sit with them when she comes and see all the fun fabrics that are coming out in the coming months. It has been fun getting to know Jane. She's so busy traveling I don't know how she has time to sew. She brought this with her one day, and we were all blown away~! It is such a gorgeous quilt. I had quilted for her once before this, and just like the last one she wanted a lot of detail. It was an honor to quilt something so beautiful! Because I wanted to make the circled star design the focus of the quilt, I did an all over swirl feather design in the background. I love the textured it added, and how the light picks it up in these pictures. I doodled out this design on paper beforehand, just to see how it would flow together and I loved it. Quilted out even better than my drawings on the quilt. If you look closely, there is a double lined diamond like shape in the center of the star. A feather with a swirl in each of the star points, and line bursts in the background behind the star. Thanks, Jane! Such a treat to quilt for you! - Jeanne - I have wanted to quilt a "Swoon" quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelley, for quite awhile and was thrilled when Jeanne brought this to me. I must say I knew the blocks were big, but they are HUGE! So big that I cant quilt one entire block at a time on my machine, as I can only quilt around 18", and these are 24" big. I love the size of them though, totally worth having to roll the quilt more often. This is such a fun pattern to make! I made a mini version back at the beginning of July...now I want to make the quilt. haha! Especially after quilting this one for Jeanne. Jeanne made this for one of her granddaughters that just graduated this year. She told me to add some detail and do whatever I'd like. I have loved to use straight lines for the quilting to enhance all the pieces that go into a quilt. Which also gives me the opportunity to add some detail without making it too detailed or stiff. I started with the lines in the inside of the star, then added the wavy lines in the outside diamond shapes. Got the idea from one of my awesome longarm quilting friends, Tiffany from Red Chair Quilts! Which added some awesome texture throughout the quilt, thanks Tiffany!!! Love the light picking up all that texture... I added more lines back and forth behind the star, and then lines and curves in each of the surrounding angular pieces. Finished off the background with some double arch's like a cathedral window quilt, and some ribbon candy quilting in the sashing. Other than the center of the star and the lines in the outside pieces (green ones in this picture), everything else I did freehand. Jeanne picked a light polka dotted fabric, and I'm so glad she did... The texture that shows up on the back of this quilt is divine! I love every square inch. Each piece of the quilt really pops!!! Love love love it! - Joleene - This is another quilt from Joleene. Love the bright colors and textures of this Bullseye flower quilt! Even though the quilting is super simple it really adds to the over all texture of the quilt. Which now that Joleene has washed it and helped the raw edge rag and fray a little more, I'm sure that texture is even better. We decided on a swirl quilted in the center of each flower and some stippling in the background. I decided on the loops in the leaves, which was just enough to add a little something extra to the quilt. I quilted the ribbon candy design in the inner border and a alternating leaf in the outer border to finish it off. Love these scrappy flowers! Love the angle of the picture below, shows the texture of the bullseye layers on each of the flowers. - Julia and Penny - Julia and Penny worked on this quilt of Julia's together to display at "My Girlfriends Quilt Shoppe" here in Logan, Utah. I cant remember the pattern name or designer, but give them a call, I'm sure they could help you. They used their Baby Lock sewing machine to machine applique around each of those intricate pieces. These two ladies amaze me, and it is always so fun to quilt for them. I wish you could each see this quilt in person...if you're local you can! The flowers, pots, birds, bugs, gloves, rain boots, and even garden hose and tools complete the detail of this quilt. Their fabric choices are beautiful and really enhance the pattern. Beautiful job, ladies! Like this basket I tried to quilt enough, but not too much. I little echo in the flowers, some lines in the basket base, and then of course the pebble swirl in the background of the whole quilt. To enhance each section, I quilted the ribbon candy design in the blue borders and a simple cross hatch in the checkered red and white border. Love how the topiary balls turned out with some simple swirls. Its always fun to add some detail to flower pots, and this topiary pot turned out so cool. I started with a pinstripe vertical line and then added the diagonal pinstripe lines, which created the diamond cross hatching look. - Kim - Always so fun to see my friend Kim, get to visit, and then quilt for her. She made this "Lucky" quilt, pattern by Camille Roskelley, out of a Modern Roses layer cake by Stephanie Ryan from Moda. The colors of the fabrics are so soft and pretty, great choice Kim! I added some ribbon candy quilting to the border and some double arch's to the background. To add some depth to the stars I quilted a diamond shape with a line down the center in all of the white parts of the star, and then the wavy lines in the colored part of the stars to add some more texture. Love the complete look of this quilt. - Kristin - My Aunt Kristin from Sisters and Quilters made this sweet "Hugs" quilt for one of my cousins that just had a baby girl in July. Her nursery colors are navy and grey, and this quilt is perfect! Such a classy sweet look. I quilted a petal inside of each of the blocks with a dot chain in the sashing. Because the inner navy border is thin and there was enough quilting surrounding it, I left it unquilted. Finished it off with ribbon candy quilting design in the outside border. Love the texture pictured here. - LaRee - The quilting on LaRee's rainbow chevron is simple, but the texture turned out super fun! I did a line going from point to point on each of the chevron angles, then went back with another line above and below which helped create the alternating arrowhead look. Then I quilted a vertical back and forth loop weaving up and down, in the back ground. Finished it off with a ribbon candy design in the outside border. Close ups and views of the texture. - Mary - Mary made this sweet quilt for her mom, for a surprise birthday party her dad threw for her. He asked her and her sisters to make their mom's gift, and even suggested to Mary that she make a quilt. A quilt is something her mom has never had of her own, and Mary made such a sweet one! Each block is quite detailed, and Mary did such a great job! We initially talked about quilting something in the sashing around the blocks, but after I quilted the petal looking lines and flower petal centers, I asked her if we could leave them unquilted. It made the blocks pop, and also allowed the line design to link from block to block. I did quilt in the ditch around each block to help the sashing stand out even more. Close up below. Here is a view of the back, you can see the interlocking cool design...definitely one of my fav's! - Penny - Sweet Penny has been a friend of mine for a few years, and it is always exciting to hear that her family continues to grow as new grandbabies come into this world. Her only daughter is having her first baby, and its a girl! Penny is super excited, and I am for her. She made this super sweet baby quilt, didn't want too much quilting because the back is minky. Inside each of the ric rac on point blocks, I quilted a simple flower. Added my favorite border design, the ribbon candy, and then finished it off with the swirl in the border. To add a little something to the swirl, I added a leaf on each one. It turned out so soft and pretty! Penny hope you enjoy snuggling that new bundle of joy in this quilt! - Sherry - This bright fun quilt was made by Sherry! She has made several other quilts for other people, and finally made this "Firework" quilt for herself. Pattern is by Camille Roskelley. Love the texture I can create with the quilting in quilts like this! One thing I love to do is try and quilt blocks like this in one continuous motion, without having to stop or restart the thread. And, it took me a few blocks, but I figured out how to do it on this one. I used a great A1 quilting ruler that I got from Judi at Green Fairy Quilts, for all the straight lines except the ones in the background, those are done freehand by me. I love the angles and lines that I was able to create and play with on this quilt. Tried to stay with the firework theme of the quilt. - Susan - Susan made this beautiful quilt as a gift for someone...that someone is certainly very lucky! Susan wanted some detail, but not over quilted. I love how the simple quilting on each alternating block fits so well together and plays off the elegant design. The colors and fabrics Susan chose, are so stunning. She also does a beautiful job piecing each quilt I quilt for her. Thanks, Susan! - Tara - Tara from "Rad and Happy" saw some quilts I posted pictures of on my Instagram and emailed me to quilt for her. This is the first quilt that she sent my way. It is called "Rebel Quilt" and the pattern design is by "Libs Elliot". Tara usually quilts all her throw size and smaller quilts on her regular sewing machine, amazing huh?!?! This one was a little to big, and she was also about ready to have her handsome baby boy...so she entrusted me with quilting it. Tara's quilting style, which I LOVE, is very simple. So, I wanted to keep things simple. I love how it turned out! There really was no rhyme or reason to the quilting, except that I quilted the same design in the same blocks. So, in all the large half square triangles I quilted the double lined diamonds, and alternated the direction depending on the angle of the triangles. I repeated the same designs in each of the same blocks throughout. I shipped this back to Tara in New Mexico, which was sad to not see her reaction. She loved it and shared it several times on her Rad and Happy Instagram! I sure love what I do, and the gift of social media that lets me broaden my quilting audience. Thanks so much, Tara!! Hope you enjoyed another view of these stunning quilts! Which one is your favorite? On each quilt I used 8020 winline cotton/poly blend batting, unless batting was provided from my client. I also used on each quilt a color coordinating Perma Core thread 30 tex from A&E. Thanks for reading, Happy Sewing to you~! ~ leisha 

Great Quilt Group Project – Name Tags! This darling little quilt packs a big impact in a small space. The embroidered personalization makes it extra special. Make several to give to your quilting and sewing friends, and don’t forget to make one for yourself! What will you do with your mini sewing machine quilt? It …

You might also be interested in some other ways to use up your fabric scraps... If you are anything like us, you probably have loads of small scraps of fabric that you just don't know what to do with. You don't want to toss them out but they are too small to actually do anything with. That's where the crumb quilt technique comes into play. With this technique you can use up all of those small bits of fabric to make beautiful, colorful fabric that you can use to make quilts, cushion covers, applique, bags, table runners and more. Watch

Free tutorial for easy scrap quilt block using fabric strips. Ideas for using up fabric scraps.

Great Tutorial for Beginners – Larger Stitches Show Best! Most quilters, whether they hand quilt or not, deeply appreciate the fine quilts produced by those who do. There’s just something about hand quilting that makes quilts stand out over their machine-quilted counterparts. Quality hand quilting is all about the stitch size and how even the …

with needle and thread. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my mom. Every day she has radiation, she is fitted with a mask almost exactly like this and bolted to the table under the radiation machine. The mask was made of moldable plastic and formed to her skull and shoulders. I have to tell you how stunned I was when I saw them pull her mask out of the cupboard and then watched them put her on the table and tighten the bolts. She is my hero! Last week for therapy, I gathered up some of my favorite blue scraps. I'm currently in the process of changing all of our 18 year old, seen two houses décor for the living room into coastal shades of blue, green and tan with splashes of beach finds here and there. Pinterest Board So many of our happiest memories as a family are at the beach. I wanted to capture some of those feelings and remembrances and bring them into our daily lives. Pinterest I have always liked the look of this Stacked Blocked pattern and decided to make a new coffee table topper to help make the room feel more "beachey". Pretty straight forward stitching. Using some white scraps, I just started cutting the blues into different lengths, none larger than about 7" and attached white strips to each side. On the machine for some FMQing and.... here it is! Finished and already brightening the room! Love! Love! Love! I used an oceany blue fabric from Joann's for backing and some of Kaffe Fassett's stripes in luscious blues for the binding. Here are some other projects I've crocheted and sewn to help redo the room: Removing border and repainting comes next. I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can have windows open while I paint since the smell seems to linger a long time in this house. In the meantime, I'm still making Granny Square blocks and putting together Churn Dash blocks for a second quilt for the bunk beds in Ben's room. Sewing is such a peaceful, creative process for me. I've learned I like the puttering and putzing of making a quilt more than the idea of setting out to make a quilt and finishing it asap. Choosing fabrics, appreciating the colors and feel. The tactile pleasure of measuring and cutting. Contemplating where a block might go in the overall pattern. Pressing. It centers me. Calms my fearful thoughts and worriful murmurings. Hope you get a chance to sew some this week. i have to say quilt story freshly pieced my quilt infatuation & crazy mom quilts

The Streak of Lightning quilt block is a great block for using up those skinnier strips you’ve been saving and finishes at 10″ square! It is similar to a Log Cabin block.

Quilted hot pads are great for making when you want to refresh your kitchen or whip up a quick gift. Hot pads are perfect for using up scraps of fabric or trying a new technique on a smaller scale.

This tutorial is for the 3 quilts with blocks made up of 2 rectangles. I don't cut rectangles though. I piece strips together. Cut your strips any width you want. I used 2.5" in one quilt, 3" in the next and this one is using 3.5". After piecing 2 strips together, measure the width. That is the size you will cut at. I have had several questions about what size I cut them. It has to be the same measurement as your sewn width or they won't be squares. Place the bottom edge of the first strip along a line on your cutting mat. Start about 10 lines up from the edge closest to you. The left edge should be overlapping a line too. Stack the strip sets one at a time on each of the lines below the first one (one strip set per line) so you have them staggered and no seams are on top of each other. Trim the left edge along the line that it is overlapping. This is just a tiny trim to even up the edges. Make as many cuts as you can (remember the cut size is the same size as the sewn width). I got 2 out of my sets and then got one strip the same width as my cut strip size (bonus). The bonus cut will make 4 patches for another quilt. Now the fun begins. This is one pattern you can use these blocks for. To keep all of your pieces twisting in the same direction like a blade or pinwheel, always have the upper left piece in the same position. I chose vertical with the darkest color on the right. If you happen to make the upper left one in a horizontal position it won't work with this layout that I am showing. You would need to "unsew" or you have 2 quilts started with blades twisting in opposite positions in each, LOL! The next layout is a stairstep layout. You will notice that the blocks are only in 2 positions and are repeated through the quilt. I only focus on the light fabric, and it is in the top and left position all through the quilt. If you tip your head one way (I did it for you with the camera) you get horizontal zig zags rows which would either get trimmed on the outer edges or you would need setting triangles to fill in the edges. I did that here (scroll down to second quilt). If you tip it in the opposite direction, you get vertical zig zag rows. This is a simple quilt, basically a 2 strip rail fence block, but it would look great in almost any kind of fabric. If you are using small prints, cut your strips narrow (2-2.5"). If you are using larger prints cut the strips wider (3-3.5"). I will use a 4" strip if I make it out of flannel fabrics.

A house on a quilt is a symbol of comfort and the togetherness of family, friends, and neighbors. House quilts really appeal to us, maybe be...

I mentioned the Bucket List Club for a reason. Yep, February is for the Delectable Mountains block. This block is lots of fun to sew and design with. There are several different construction methods for this block and different sizes. Here are links to a few of my favorite ones: This page illustrates a more historical, traditional block and construction http://www.patternsfromhistory.com/pioneer_patterns/delectable-mountains.htm This page illustrates construction of a 9 inch finished block,using modern techniques http://www.modabakeshop.com/2011/12/go-tell-it-on-mountain.html This page illustrates construction of a finished block 6" by 7-1/2". It also shows lots of design possibilities. I love the scrappy one! The block begins with easy 8-1/2" squares. I used this construction and dimensions for my delectable mountains collection which I'm sharing here. http://quiltville.com/delmtspf.html Here is my delectable mountains table runner. It measures 12" by 45". You will notice that I trimmed off the square corners. This created a bit of a challenge with the binding. I think I created 60 degree corners. One corner didn't make for a smooth mitre. I should have rounded them off. Naturally, I played around with this block design in EQ. Here are a few layouts for table runners. They are all designed with the block dimensions from quiltville.com. The differences are achieved by how you rotate the blocks. Examples 1 and 2 use 12 blocks each and examples 3 and 4 use 16 blocks each. Each 8-1/2" square makes 2 blocks, one and another one reversed. For example, if you wanted to make runner #4, you only need to start with 8 light color blocks and 8 dark color blocks. Stay tuned for the table topper. It's nearly ready!

How to hand quilt in 3 easy steps! In this blog and video tutorial I'll list out all of the supplies you need and show you how simple hand quilting is!

So, it's been like a thousand years since I last posted here. But there's been so much happening, so many changes in my life that I had to let some things go. My blog being one of them. I have lots to

Making mitered corners doesnt' hjave to be hard.Start with a small application to gain confidence in making excellent mitered corners every time!

Drawstring bag tutorial- it takes 10 minutes and 2 small pieces of fabrics. You can make it in any size.

Before starting the tutorial for the Back Porch Blooms quilt block I wanted to share with you my first of 3 quilts planned using the block. This first little quilt could be made in a day. Such a sweet and simple quilt that would be great as wall hanging or as so many of you have mentioned a banner. Since the pattern is simple I decide to keep my quilting simple also, then dress it up a little by making the scalloped border. For the backing I used the same fabric as the pot because I LOVE this fabric. Now don't look to close at the picture below or you'll see that my binding has not been stitch to the back....it's glued in place until I get time later in the week to sit down with needle and thread. The pattern I'm sharing today is for what you see below with no scallops. However I will provide you with the name of tools I used for making making my scallops and a link to a tutorial if you'd like to make your own using that tool. There will also be two more links provided. One for the templates for making the flower pot and one of the complete tutorial without templates. I separated them because not everyone wants to print out the entire pattern just to get the templates. So lets started with the fabric requirements. I let EQ7 do the math for fabric requirements and it says you'll need for the mini quilt above 1/2 of a yard for the background fabric 3/4 of a yard for the borders The rest can be made from scraps or larger. Before you start cutting please read carefully through all instructions first. All seams are pressed open unless otherwise stated. Cutting for each block From the background fabric (1) 5.5 x 6 flower pot background (4) 3" squares (4) 2.5" squares (10) 1.5" squares From the green (2) 4.5 x 3.5 leaves (1) 1.5 x 3.5 stem Flower pot fabrics (1) 6.5 x 5.5 flower pot(yellow floral print) (1) 7.5 x 1.5 pot rim(red gingham) The Bloom (4) 4.5 x 3 petals(red) (4) 1.5 squares(same red as petals) Center of Bloom (1) 4.5 square After collecting your fabrics print out your templates, and cut them on the dashed line. Get templates here I spray a little quilt basting glue on the back of my templates to keep them in place while cutting as shown below. I'm also cutting from yardage instead of the 6.5 x 5.5 in the cutting instructions. Now for the background fabric on either side of the pot you need a 6" x 5.5" background fabric. Fold in short ends together, right sides together. Place your smaller template face up, straight edge on the fold. Then cut the angle edge as show below. Open up your cut piece and cut on the fold. Here's how your block is laid out before sewing. I used the stitch, clip, and flip method on the leaves and the bloom. I don't mark my fabrics with a diagonal line I use Clearly Perfect Angles on the bed of my sewing machine to help me stitch a straight line from corner to corner without marking the fabric. But you can also draw a diagonal line on all (4) 2.5 background fabrics and stitch on that line to get the same result. Stitch together to two sections as show below. In the picture below you can see how my background fabric hangs off at the bottom and a little piece of the yellow print is sticking out from the top. For the leaf unit place s 2.5" background fabrics with right sides down on the green 4.5 x 3.5 leaf fabric, stitch a diagonal line from corner to corner on the 2.5 background fabric. Be careful! Make sure your stitching them in the correct corner....don't as me how I know! After stitching cut 1/4" away from the stitched line. Repeat on the other leaf and continue to assemble the block as shown below in the picture. Press the leaves unit towards the stem. Stitch the top leaf unit to the bottom flower pot unit. Both the pot and the leaves unit will be pressed towards the rim(red gingham). TADA! We're almost done. Grab a chocolate and admire your little pretty. Layout your bloom block as shown below. Start by stitching your stitch, clip and flip pieces. Its the same as before...you got this! Oops! Where's my center? Let's just pretend its there and start stitching together the rows. Like magic my center is in place...yeehaw! Press the top and bottom rows towards the background fabric and the center unit towards the center of the bloom. Now just stitch your rows together and press towards the top and bottom units. Finger press a crease in both units as shown below. With right sides together match up the creases, pin and stitch. Press towards the bloom unit and reward yourself with 2 more chocolates...Yeah! Isn't she a cutie? If you making the little quilt here's the measurements for the borders. For both the background fabric and the green border fabric add your side pieces first and then the top and bottom pieces. A printable PDF of this tutorial can be found here. To make the scallop edge I used Easy Scallop by Darlene Zimmerman. You can find a great tutorial with several links to other scallop binding tutorials here Scalloped Quilt Border Tutorials by AnkasTreasures. This is the first of 3 free patterns using this block or portions of this block. On June 7th I'll host a Back Porch Blooms Linky party where you can link up your progress or better yet finished project. When you enter the linky party you're also entered to win this giveaway along with a few more things that haven't arrived via snail mail. On June 7th I'll also give you a sneak peek at the next free pattern using this block. One week later on June 13 I'll announce the winner and have a date set for the next linky party. The purpose of doing this quilt along is to inspire you to create a quilt on your own and possibly inspire others with your ideas. I realize that not everyone is interested in drafting their own quilt patterns. That's why I'm doing free patterns so you can still participate in the linky party and giveaway. There will also be inspirational quilts throughout this quilt along. Quilts I've drawn up but will not be writing tutorials or patterns for them. However feel free to use them as inspiration or try to make them on your own. It's all about fun and creativity. Hope to see a bouquet of Blooms soon! ~ Lea Anne ~ Pin It

Inspired by Sarah Cooper's Lava Meets Sea quilt at Coopcrafts, I set about creating my own version. Lava Meets Sea by Sarah Cooper I decided to go with teal instead of aqua, and batiks instead of solids. My half square triangles (hst) are 3" finished. To begin, I cut a bunch of 4" squares--as in, I didn't count since I was too busy cutting plenty. Mathematically speaking, the exact measurement for half square triangles should be 7/8" larger than your finished size. However, this only works in a perfect world. If you live on my planet, this always results in half square triangles that are too small and a square-ish, but not exactly square, shape. It works much better to cut the squares a teensy bit larger, so you can make sure they end up being 3 1/2" unfinished after any stitching and pressing imperfections and distortion. I matched up pairs of squares, right (pretty) sides together, making sure there was a lighter and darker value, so I had sets of dark red with lighter red, dark red with light teal, dark teal with light red, and dark teal with light teal. The next step in the process was drawing a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner of the wrong side of the lighter-colored squares. I like to use a Bohin chalk pencil or Frixion pen, but a pencil is a perfectly acceptable option if that's what's handy. I sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line. I chain my squares through the machine sewing on the left side of each square without severing the thread between squares, flip the whole thing around and sew 1/4" away from the other side of the drawn line. Leaving the line of thread connected, I press one triangle flap open, rotate the chain of squares around so the square that was on the far right is on the far left. Press the other flap open. Cut from corner to corner along your draw line, making two separate half square triangles. The sweet folks at Bloc_loc sent me a 6 1/2" half square triangle ruler to evaluate. I highly recommend it! There is a groove down the middle that nestles against the seam of half square triangles so the ruler will not slide around, assuring a safe and accurate cut. Additionally, the process of using the ruler eliminates the need to remove dog ears (the tiny triangles that stick out from underneath the half square triangle) in a separate step. While you can, and I previously did, use a regular, square acrylic ruler, this is so much easier. I don't have to take longer trying to exert enough downward pressure on the ruler to prevent it from moving and taking a chunk out of my block, or worse, my finger. To use the ruler, lay the groove against the seam and push it as far forward as possible, while still having a tiny bit of fabric poke out beyond the edge of the ruler. Square up two sides. I hold the ruler with my left hand and cut off the right and top edges. If you have a rotating cutting mat, turn it around and slide the Bloc_loc ruler down along the seam line. If not, rotate the ruler with the hst still nestled underneath it, so that the corner that was on top is now on bottom. Slide it to your unfinished measurement (finished size of the block plus 1/2"). Since my half square triangles are going to be 3" finished, I lined up my already-cut edges with the 3 1/2" marks. Another advantage to this ruler is the nice thin, easy-to-read lines. There aren't all those wide yellow marks every 1/8" getting in the way. Cut along the edges of the ruler to square your block to the desired size. Bloc_loc also makes hst rulers in 1.5", 2.5", 3.5", 4.5", 5.5", 6.5", and 12.5", as well as flying geese rulers, in case you want to purchase a size specifically suited for your project of incorporate flying geese units. I found using the Bloc_loc ruler to be easy and quick. It's one of those "Where have you been all my life?" notions. Thank you, Bloc_loc. Here's my progress thus far. I plan to swap out some of the pieces with those that have better contrast, but I am loving what I am seeing. I'm linking up with the parties on my linky page.

Who has been bit by the micro paper piecing bug!? Ever since I made my Tiny Geese Keychain , I have been hooked on sewing teenie, tiny,...

This past week/s (probably longer) I haven't been in the mood to play in the sewing room. It all felt as though concentrating was going to take too much effort. But today, I sat and re-acquainted myself with my old Brother sewing machine and got some of that old sew-jo back. Before the sun went down and it got too dark, I quickly laid out all of the blocks that I've made for my Twirling at the Disco quilt to see how it was looking. Gee it's a big old scrappy quilt and will be perfect for my KS bed. I've noticed a few #TwirlingAtTheDiscoQuilt popping up on social so I'd better get busy finishing mine. If you'd like to make one also, you can follow this link right here for the free pattern. My Bernina is my 'good' machine, but it started playing up last month and I didn't get around to taking it in to get looked at. Now those stores are closed. For whatever reason, and not all of the time, when I switch it on, the needle doesn't centre. It's not completely out, just half a smidge to the left. If I notice this, I turn the machine off and back on and it seems to right itself, but if I don't notice and start to sew, I can be chain piecing for ages and putting blocks together before I notice that things aren't 'fitting' right. All of those little 'half smidges' add up and turn into 'double sized smidges'. NB: Smidge is not the technical word - just one that fits with what I'm trying describe. This was happening with my Twirling at the Disco quilt, which the involved a lot of reverse-sewing. Gah! Anyone have any ideas why this could be happening?

I played with the arrangement and the colour flow off and on yesterday – I’m stopping with this layout: I worked at changing the block placement from linear on the diagonal to a more pa…

A fabric collage quilt doesn't need to be scary!

As promised, here is a pictorial class in free form curvy piecing. This technique seems very complex, but give it a go with some scrap first and you'll soon see it's not nearly as hard as it looks! First up,...

Find the Free Floret Table Topper Pattern HERE! It was a stormy yucky weekend in Seattle...and I was sewing like the wind to get this done before our power went out. Luckily it didn't go out, and this little table topper was the brightest part of my Saturday! Windham Fabrics sent me a bundle of...Read More

Wondering how to make a tradtional Manx Quilt Block? Top US quilting blog, Diary of a Quilter, features their step by step guide. Click here now!!

Hi there!! I know that I shared the first of these 3 videos already, in my last blog post, however for your convenience I wanted to share all 3 videos together.

My first class at Taupo Symposium was two days with Gwen Marston . Gwen was kind of the 'headline' act at Symposium. She had a speci...

Must-see free table runner patterns for all seasons, from beginner table runner tutorials to the best free quilted table runner patterns.

There’s No Need to Hand-Sew a Sleeve! This hanging method is great for small quilts and so quick and easy to do. Once the binding is done the quilt is ready to hang. Simply add squares folded into triangles to the upper corners. Bind the quilt, then slip a dowel into the pockets and hang …