CLICK HERE   to view this on my blog and not in the Follow It newsfeed. I have been sewing with Benartex Fabrics for 25 years. It all began when I was an editor with Quilt Magazine. Fabric companies sent bundles of their fabric to our office and with the promise of us using it in a featured quilt, they agreed to take out an ad. What a novel idea, huh? The first quilt is one you've seen here many times, the Royal Star. Based on a vintage block, I converted it from templates to rotary cutting and paper piecing (those pointy points). Yes, she was a cover girl! Royal Star made with Fossil Ferns fabrics This was also the cover quilt for my first book. But, let's talk about the QuiltCon block, since QuiltCon is this coming week in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was given 6 fat quarters of the Superior Solids and asked to make a 12" block. I selected 4 of the 6 with a block from my new calendar in mind. Four Superior Solids for my block They insisted they wanted to be photographed ...

CLICK HERE   to view this on my blog and not in the Follow It newsfeed. Happy Valentine's Day to all, near and far. Hearts abound in fabric, too! I made a few blocks using my calendar and so did one of my Calendar Girls. Here is the first one I made using the Equinox Collection by Benartex: February 14 Heart Block: 12" And the lovely block made by Diane L., who is using the Grounded Collection by Windham Fabrics. February 14 Heart Block by Diane L. And let's see a Valentine quilt from years past. These are simple appliqué patches. This one used some batiks from Benartex. The pattern is from my Cookie Cutter Hearts. Cookie Cutter Hearts And the large quilt made 20+ years ago in my Cookie Cutter series. I called it Hearts on Fire. Hearts on Fire: 43" x 63" Thank you, Diane, for your lovely Heart Block. I can see how this would be fun to make into a love-ly Valentine's quilt or coaster or a few into a table runner.

This is NOT a political post - I stay away from that topic as best I can. Yes, we here in America like to celebrate our early presidents who led us into freedom as a fledgling, new country. Whitehouse Steps is a vintage quilt block and it stands for the official home of whatever president lives there. It is white and beautiful and quite large. I've even toured the real one down in Washington, DC. Here is the block from my 2007 Quilter's Perpetual Block a Day Calendar. It was made by Patricia Bryant of Australia. She even managed to find a photo of our White House and put it in the center! 11" White House Steps by Patricia Bryant My new calendar block is a whopping 22"! I made a sweet quilt using some Americana themed prints by Windham Fabrics: Steps to the White House quilt I stitched it again and it's waiting for me to quilt it. I added some extra inner borders to get it to a 40" x 44" size (for a small child). Whitehouse Steps: 40" x 44" Squa...

CLICK HERE   to view this on my blog and not in the Follow It newsfeed. February 10 features the Lone Pine Tree Block in my calendar. It's 6". Pine Tree  February 11 (tomorrow) features the Little Star Block: The House (from Monday) and these two blocks were designed to go together. They were featured in a previous calendar and I made a quilt with them. But I can't find the picture of my quilt! Here are 3 quilts made by blog followers who used my Warm Welcome Home pattern: Warm Welcome Home pattern And another: Warm Welcome Home pattern And one more: Warm Welcome Home pattern Here is the link to the quilt pattern . You must have a copy of the calendar to make the quilt (to cut the block patch sizes). It includes a coloring chart for you to plan your fabrics. It is a 3 page pdf, and though it says it's a "quilt shop only program," that was from 2007 and I'm not offering these patterns to quilt shops at this time. Enjoy!! And if you make the quilt, I'd...

CLICK HERE   to view this on my blog and not in the Follow It newsfeed. Today is Monday, February 9 and the block for today is the Little House. It is 6" and I've used it in several quilts along the way. Here it is as it appears in my new calendar: I made a quilt for Benartex about 10 years ago using a Paula Nadelstern collection: Yes, those are VERY busy prints with the same contrast, so it's sort of hard to see the patches. But, it's a fun way to use up scraps for a small block. Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be back with the next two blocks in the calendar - the tiny star and the pine tree. And I combined them into a quilt and so did one of my students. You'll see them then. If you don't have your calendar yet: Check your local quilt shop first so you can have your own Little House  blocks. You can find my calendar here, also (Maybe?) on  Amazon at  C&T Publishing and in  Barnes & Noble  stores

CLICK HERE to avoid those nasty ads on Follow It and read this the way it's supposed to be!!! It happens to all of us quilters - we come upon a quandary in our quilt making and we just don't know how best to cut our fabric to make it do what we want. We don't want to experiment with our precious (and expensive) fabric, so we just muddle along. The best tip I give my workshop students is to practice on paper first! To help them feel confident in learning a new technique, I bring along construction paper so they can practice first, or second or third - until they get it right. It's only paper! Here is a block that uses a directional print. It's the center of my Stacked Hearts pattern. That navy Kaffe Fassett fabric is out of print and I didn't want to make a mistake. I didn't want the fans to go sideways when I cut my squares. So, I practiced on scrap paper first! Let me show you. I cut two squares of paper (probably 4"; I didn't take note of that pa...

My publisher somehow let the months slip by without making another order of my calendars RIGHT UP TO CHRISTMAS! Uh - that's when people look for calendars, right? They tell me it will be back in stock maybe by the end of February. It's sold thousands before Christmas, so were they not sure about holiday sales? But, I digress . . . I overlooked my friend's January block and so here it is today - better late than never! Barb R.  did a lovely job with the January 20th block. What do you think? She is working with Watermark and Insectarium (both by Windham Fabrics). Shoofly Mosaic: January 20th block Some of her fabrics are directional (ie, those stripes) and when they are cut into triangles, there really is a trick to make them all go in the same direction! I'm going to give you a demo on that next week. Stay tuned! If you want to be notified of all new posts, just sign up at the top left of this screen and you will be notified by Follow It! Google has disabled their noti...