The Savannah Collection by Benartex We have a winner of the fat quarter bundle: Mimi. Thanks to everyone who visited and made so many nice comments. Come back again and I'll keep you posted on the June Benartex Blog Hop contest! One of my most requested techniques is that which I refer to as "Magical Mitering." The Savannah Collection is perfect for this. Don't you just love these florals, butterflies and garden scenes? I have sewn with Benartex fabrics for over 10 years. My connection began when I was an editor with a quilt magazine. It continues today because I'm fast, sew for the camera, and always include tips and tricks to make things easy and quick. How can you see the tutorial? Go to the Benartex Blog today . . . Visit the Benartex Blog for the Magical Mitering tutorial Here's a little teaser: Aren't these just so lovely?!! Benartex is having a giveaway of fabulous fabrics. How can you win a fat quarter bundle of the Savan...

Contest is over. The winner of the EZ Double Wedding Ring template set is Cherry. Welcome, to all! It is May and the flowers are blooming everywhere in my little corner of the world. Here in the Washington, DC suburbs there are buds and blooms and bees and birds and Spring has sprung and the sun is shining most days. How happy am I? I even have flowers in my sewing studio! A rare pic of the queen of my sewing space. Enter at your own risk! I began with a collection by Windham Fabrics that you may remember here: Cream and Sugar . I began with an idea, some squares, a covered button and circle of felt Windham had asked me to make some flowers with this collection and I got to work, realizing I could also use them for this Blog Hop. Serendipitous, huh? (Windham never did use them for Market). I cut two sizes of fabric circles I followed a tutorial on Pinterest that makes these flowers, but I seem to have lost the link. And I altered it somewhat anyway. All this to say...

Contest is over. Kathy is the winner of the Blank Quilting bundle of 3 fat quarters. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. We have another one June 10! The Regency Collection by Blank Quilting Today I am joined again by two blog buddies. We've never met but I discovered their blogs this past year and I follow them because of their obvious joy in playing with lovely fabric and making happy projects. This is our SECOND challenge, aided by fabrics from Blank Quilting .  For this Regency Collection we each got 1/4 to 1/3 yard of each print. I actually made a horrible mistake with the small amount of border print I got, so I'm hoping my partners did something with it. Who are my partners in this challenge? Linda of Buzzing and Bumbling Amy of A Quilting Sheep I invite you to visit their blog sites today, see what they have come up with, and then go to Blank's Facebook page and see what new things they may have. Come back and tell me you've been to Blan...

My first Fractured Jewels quilt The Fractured Jewels quilt above was one of the quilts I made for my Improv Adventure class. It is a loosey-goosey Log Cabin with little snippets of color between the logs. These fabrics are from the Gee's Bend solids collection by Windham (now retired) and I enjoyed so much working with them. They were a hand-dyed batik with a sueded look and feel. When Windham asked me to design a quilt using their new Colonies Collection by Nancy Gere , I immediately thought of this design. I upsized it . . . and what did I come up with? I began here: Center of my Fractured Jewels quilt  Now for the whole quilt: It is a combination of structured cutting and sewing and some improvisation (fitting the larger logs in with the fractured jewels insets). It was fun to work with a solid palette. Not something we do very often, but when you do, you can use any and all colors because the patterns don't get in the way. All you see is contra...

Paper Pieced Carpenter's Wheel I keep discovering older quilts that I made with Benartex Fossil Ferns. I can be forgiven for forgetting, I guess. I've made almost 1,000 quilts and published most of them. Thank God for digital images and file folders on my computer with a searchable data base! The Carpenter's Wheel quilt is typically sewn with y-seams and true diamonds. These are true diamonds but I have no set-in seams. This pattern appears on my " Shortcuts From a Short Woman " CD of 16 patterns. Still a popular seller. Patches and Leaves Table Runner Patches and Leaves - from my Block a Day Calendar I combined a Benartex print with several colors of Fossil Ferns to make this table runner. The block appears in the Quilter's Block a Day Calendar (Martingale). I use this as a teaching sample. You can see all of the blocks in the calendar by selecting the link. The desktop calendar is in its 4th printing (it's not tied to a calendar year; it...

Find Benny at Spring Quilt Market (as seen at the blog site) Clarification: You look for Benny at the Benartex blog site, NOT at Quilt Market. Benartex Fabrics is having a contest to help keep them sane during Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon. They took along a little buddy named Benny and each day Benny visits a different spot and if we can find him in the pictures (on their blog) we can enter a contest to WIN FABRIC! Yes, FABRIC! All details at the Benartex Blog OK, what does Benny look like? HI! I'm Benny and I'm going to Quilt Market. You can start your journey to possible FABRIC winnings by going here first: Find Benny What can you make with Benartex Fabrics? Well, let me show you some that I've featured here on my blog: Royal Star quilt - FREE pattern My famous Royal Star quilt made with Fossil Ferns. Twisted Hexagon placemats made with Fossil Ferns How about some wickedly sharp points in my Mariner's Compass with those ferns: ...

Welcome to the Quilters' Favorites Linky Party hosted by Geta's Quilting Studio . What's this about? Sharing of tips and tricks, techniques, favorite tools, and all things quilting for the larger quilting world. I love this! Geta gave us a long list of questions we could answer as they relate to our quilting style. I promise to stay short and sweet. Quilter's Favorites - Visit Geta's for dozens of quilters sharing! Geta's Quilting Studio: Quilters' Favorites Favorite Quilting Notions: Add-A-Quarter Ruler Did you know this ruler was initially designed to add 1/4" around templates and NOT for paper piecing? It has a raised ridge on the underside which butts up against the folded-back paper on a foundation pattern: no slip, trimming patch with accurate seam so adding the next one is not a guessing game. I do a LOT of paper piecing and have several of these. Here are a few blocks I created with this MUST HAVE ruler: See the pics in the tutor...