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Showing posts from May, 2018

June Blocks from my Quilter's Block a Day Calendar

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Are you confused yet? Do you know which calendar I'm talking about? Sometimes I even confuse myself! I'm talking about the perpetual calendar that was a best seller for 10 years, published by Martingale (That Patchwork Place). In 2016, Patricia Bryant made a block a day and completed all 366 of those blocks. I featured them each week in 2017. In case you missed those links, I've got them here. June 4-10: Week 23 June 11-17: Week 24 June 18-24: Week 25 June 25-July 1: Week 26 (The links to the free patterns on those pages are no longer available - sorry.) This group of 30 blocks in two sizes is a treasure trove of patterns! These are for the month of June . (I have to release this early since I reveal the next BOM for the 2018 Tea Party on the first of the month) I've also included two quilt patterns and a tutorial on how to make half-square triangles quick! Here are the two patterned quilts. One of them, Arkansas Meadow Rose , is a favorite of mine an

May Projects from my 2018 Quilter's Block a Day Calendar

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Let's see some of the projects in my calendar that I patterned for the month of May. I think you will like them! One is for Memorial Day (today). Gathering Blooms combines appliqué with piecing and sets 7 of the 11 blocks on point. Block Sizes: 8" and 12". Quilt Size: 52" x 73" Gathering Blooms Garden Paths uses 12" blocks and finishes to 58" x 58" Garden Paths Quilt And the last quilt in May takes center stage for honoring those on Memorial Day. Hooray, USA! has two sizes of blocks: 8" and 16". And finishes to 56" x 56". Hooray, USA! These projects will eventually be moved over to my Craftsy site. There are so many wonderful blocks - new and vintage. In my 26 years of professional quilting, I've made MANY of these blocks. Here is my Americana Salute quilt made many years ago and gifted to a Gold Star mother who lost her son in Afghanistan. Americana Salute I hope to bring you more projects each

2019 Block a Day Calendar is Coming!

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This is my 13th year creating this calendar. It's hard to believe I still have ideas remaining in my head (I'm working on the 2020 calendar/contract right now) Here is a sneak peek at the cover and one of the projects: 2019 Quilt Block a Day Calendar The above link will take you to Amazon (I do NOT have any of those annoying affiliate links with $$). Just check it out. Here is the back cover: Back cover of calendar for 2019 And an October project that is featured on Amazon: Autumn Colors Quilt One of the blocks: Autumn Blooms Block And the cutting for making the block: The back of the color page shows cutting  This is where I tear my hair out: the fabric calculations for each project. I DO NOT work in Electric Quilt which would have you purchase WAY more fabric than needed. I do this the old fashioned way - with my brain and a calculator. The yardage amounts and cutting for sashing and borders/binding You can visit the publisher's web sit

Seven Sisters Quilt for Today's Quilters

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Just because you know how to - and can - sew a y-seam, doesn't mean you want to! The traditional Seven Sisters block involves a LOT of y-seams. Did I say A LOT? Of course, there aren't any y-seams when you let the embroidery machine do all the stitching! This is over 20 years old! Embroidered Seven Sisters Now, what does one of those 6-Pointed Stars look like? Here is the beginning of my English Paper Pieced (EPP) Seven Sisters quilt. Each star is made using 12 diamonds. Yes, lots of y-seams. English Paper Pieced 6-Pointed Stars And here it is with the other "sisters." Seven Sisters table topper (EPP)  And here is what it looks like from the wrong side, before I removed the papers. EPP Seven Sisters from the wrong side I don't hand sew much. I wanted to make this quilt using my sewing machine. And NO y-seams! I took out the y-seams and created my workshop for making the Seven Sisters . Here are my classroom samples. This is made from rota

Latest Issue of Modern by the Yard

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Don't you just love all the color in this magazine cover? I know they chose hot pink because it's one of my favorite colors, right? Modern by the Yard is a FREE eMagazine published by Benartex and I have a block inside. Modern by the Yard, Issue #6 You will find the link to this at the top of the SewInLoveWithFabric blog. And what does my block look like? I was asked to create something modern using the traditional Flying Geese block. I had used this block in my 2017 Quilter's Block a Day calendar and just recolored it. I have a HUGE Flying Geese folder that includes all sorts of published blocks from my 25 years in this profession (14 years as Special Projects Editor). Bali Dots was my designated fabric collection. Click that link to see these awesome batiks! Day and Night Geese is my 12" block. I added the black line strokes so you could see the patches. Day and Night Geese And what do 4 of these look like together? Don't you love the spin?

Hey, Hey! USA: Get Ready for Memorial Day

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I created three large 18" blocks using an Americana collection by Windham Fabrics a few years ago. U.S.A. Collection by Windham Fabrics I created Stars and Stripes (the July BOM in my Galaxy of Stars quilt) two years ago. 12" Stars and Stripes block  I invited my friend Jeannine to share these fabrics with me. We each took 4 fat quarters and then I split the remaining 4 fat quarters in halves. We went to our sewing rooms and came up with some fun things. Actually, Jeannine had the better ideas. To a professional quilter, EVERYTHING is a quilt. Jeannine is more broad minded and came up with some clever things. Let me show you. Her first projects were banners, which created scraps and leftovers (banners shown further down. She also made a basket liner. She felt she needed to use up the scraps (silly girl; who uses up scraps? We just buy more fabric!) Basket liner and star trivet by Jeannine  Can you believe this awesome coin purse and key ring? Scraps

Bubbles and Hexagons

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Sometimes what's old is new again. I made this little quilt 22 years ago (1996) and it was published in Quilt Magazine in 1997. Nothing new to this even at that time. Half Hexagon Jewel, 1996 The beauty of this is the vertical row piecing using a half-hexagon shape. This is a small quilt and my template was also small. It's one of my "oldie goldie" quilts and I treasure it. You've seen all the tutorials around on the internet hailing a "new" way to make whole hexagons with no y-seams. As you can see, there are whole hexagons in my little quilt; they're just made up of two half-hexagons! Here's my latest quilt that I call Bubbles and Hexagons . The Bubbles part comes from all the circles in the fabrics! I used a jelly roll (2-1/2" strips) and cut them using my new 2-1/2" half-hexagon template. I added the squaring off of the top and bottom of the quilt center so I wouldn't chop off the points of those beautiful hexagons! An

Cinco de Mayo and FREE pattern

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This is a repeat of a blog post I made a few years ago and I thought it would be fun to revisit it. Enjoy! A lot of talk of margaritas and Mexican food today. I can't handle a margarita (just ask my kids!), but I've always loved Mexican food. Raised in California and loved all things Mexican. I was reminded of the block I designed for Quilt Magazine in 2007 which I called  Olé . And I remembered the Benartex " What's in My Pantry " Collection which I featured here a few months ago. I was thinking CHILI PEPPERS and there are two fabrics in that collection with chili peppers on them. What's in My Pantry? Here are my steps to quickly cut and stitch these two blocks (which I made this morning in one hour's time). I used these two pepper fabrics as the center of my blocks. Aren't they yummy? Chili pepper fabrics  with black background Chili pepper fabrics  with yellow background First I cut the parts (pattern follows at the end of this