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 part - it doesn't matter). I drew vertical lines on the squares. Then I cut them as shown in a ...

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...

Well, they're probably hiding out to stay warm with all these piles of ice and snow. But, we can look at some doves stitched up into blocks! This is the January 29 block in my calendar. It is a whopping 18" size, but that makes it easier to sew. Here it is done by my sister Janet, who is one of my Calendar Girls. Dove at the Window: 18" I also made not one, but TWO of these using the Solstice and Fantasy Collections from Windham. And the blenders are from their Moonlit line. Dove at the Window #1 And my second one: Dove at the Window #2 Notice those "diamonds" which are really two half-square triangles in the same fabric. This block is a close cousin to the vintage Carpenter's Wheel. Yes, Dove at the Window is also a vintage block, only I simplified the piecing as you see here. If you compare the block made by Janet and my two, you will notice that she doesn't use as strong a contrast between the units. Hers is a bit more "blendy." I hope to...

Sometimes it's not that important to have a lot of pieces in a block. That's the case for this block from earlier in the month. The January 2 block is the Turnstile. A traditional block made with 2 sizes of triangles. Linda D. used her collection of Insectarium and Watermark - both from Windham Fabrics - to make all of her blocks so far. Beautiful fat quarters of Insectarium and Watermark   Here is the block she made: Turnstile: 12" Thank you, Linda, for letting the butterflies take charge! What fun collections she has been working with, too. Click the link above to see all the fabulous Insectarium prints !