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...

We've gone from a Dove (Thursday) to a Snail (Sunday) and today we feature a duck!!! Is this Animal Week? Today's calendar block is Duck's Foot. Not sure why it's called that other than the pair of colored triangles appear to mimic the feet of a duck! Kathy G. is one of my Calendar Girls and she has been using a lovely group of Windham Fabrics called Under the Canopy. She has be very creative in her use of the sweet animal motifs. Under the Canopy by Windham Fabrics Let's see the 12" block she stitched for today: Duck's Foot: 10" Thank you, Kathy. Those animal prints are SO sweet and I know you're having a great time with them.

This is the latest quilt made using my Pickup Sticks pattern . It's 49" x 49" and it's been in the works for several years. (That means it was a UFO all that time . . .) Pickup Sticks using the Shoreline Collection by Windham Fabrics Here's a photo of the blocks on my design wall. It's a simple pattern that uses 10" squares in sets of 4 prints. NO TEMPLATES! (Hint: a freezer paper guide helps.) They're stacked, sliced and then shuffled. Thin strips of 1" inserts are added. Some tilt left and some tilt right. Pickup Sticks blocks I ran out of fabrics along the way. My thin inserts are not as uniform as I wished! I first made this about 15 years ago with a set of batiks: Stained Glass Pickup Sticks : 54" x 64" I went on to make several others. Click those links and you'll see them. I'm going to get this quilted and donated to my local quilt guild's charity endeavors. The fabrics are full of fun prints of crabs and beach chai...

This is a block that I have used many times in quilts. It's almost like a vortex in that the arrangement of the colored triangles is very clever to create a "swirl" movement that draws your eye to the center of the block. Let me show you the block from the calendar: This is a set of four blocks that I made for Creative Grids rulers several years ago. I was designing some patterns for their Square on Square Trim Tool by Jean Ann Wright . Four Snail's Trail blocks We decided that I should use a different coloring. Here is some of the art that accompanied the pattern. Can you imagine trails left by snails? Not sure if I do, but it is an interesting block! Here is the final quilt I made and published for Creative Grids. The blocks are 8" and the quilt is 42" x 42". The block in my calendar is a whopping 16". That's because I don't like working with tiny pieces. Snail's Trail Quilt: 42" x 42" I think having the 16" blocks woul...