I designed this collection for P and B Textiles last Spring. It uses one of my favorite techniques which I call "Tilt." If you have the Tri-Recs tools by Darlene Zimmerman, the half-rectangle template works perfectly for this! (The pattern includes a paper template, of course). Click here for the Where the Wild Things Are pattern. The quilt pictured here uses the fabrics a little differently than the pattern. That's because I was working with "strike offs" from the factory (bits and pieces sent to the vendor to see if the colors are accurate for mass production). First, before quilting: Where the Wild Things Are quilt (before quilting) And then quilted (by me on my HQ Sweet 16): Where the Wild Things Are   And how the back was pieced (because I didn't have enough of ANY ONE print)! Pieced back using my leftover motifs Would you like to see a few of these AWESOME animal motifs up close? Of course you do! elephant Fish (...

A new week with seven new blocks. Let's see what Patricia did with my patterns and her creative styling. October 29: Weather Vane October 29: Weather Vane, 9" October 30: Wild Good Chase October 30: Wild Goose Chase, 10" October 31: Ghost Walk October 31: Ghose Walk November 1: Autumn Leaf November 1: Autumn Leaf, 14" November 2: Autumn Tints November 2: Autumn Tints, 14" November 3: Basket Puzzle November 3: Basket Puzzle, 10" November 4: Blind Man's Fancy November 4: Blind Man's Fancy, 16" I hope you enjoyed the show. Such beautiful pictures - each of them. Thank you, Patricia!!

I started this quilt in 2012 with a sweet collection by Benartex. You can read about my technique here: Owls Are the Bomb!  I made two of these blocks. 18" square with Owl Be There hexagons I used a method I've since abandoned (but it worked for me in this project). I cut out large hexagons of fussy cut owls in a tree. Then I turned the edges under as I would if I was English Paper Piecing. Then interfaced the center and machine appliqued the whole thing onto a large red square. Machine appliqued hexagons with red background trimmed I finally quilted this lovely quilt the other day. It is just one of the sweetest quilts I own. Can't wait to show it to my little granddaughter (3-1/2) this week. What do you think? Quilt from the back with those owls in the tree on a black background. Quilt from the back  And here's the quilt on my sunny deck. Owl Be There quilt I have to give a shout out to the three vendors who made this possible: Benartex (fa...

Let's revisit a few of my past Halloween posts. I pulled out my Halloween quilts the other day and put them up around my house. I've always considered this "holiday" a minor one. I am the parent of 3 daughters who went to public school where the celebrations far eclipsed those of Christmas and Hanukkah! So, we did costumes, trick or treat, and classroom parties. Through the years I made Halloween quilts (and had them published). Let's see a few! I made this quilt about 20 years ago using a fabric ($1 a yard) from Walmart. You can see the print in the second pic. I stacked 9-1/2" squares Spinning Pinwheels using a cheap Walmart print Then there's Quilts in the Pumpkin Patch . You can buy the pattern for this 8" pumpkin block by clicking that link. Quilts in the Pumpkin Patch Then there's Trick or Treat Mice, which appears in my 2nd book: Supersize 'Em Quilts. Trick or Treat Mice, with a 30" center block! How about ...

Wow! I just discovered I was not counting my weeks correctly. This is WEEK 43 (and not 42). I've edited the previous weeks where I got behind a week. But I have shared all the blocks so far. Not to worry. Anything is possible in cyber-land and can be corrected with a keystroke and the delete key. More beautiful blocks from Patricia, using my patterns from the calendar. I think it is still available on Amazon . Go check it out: My Block a Day Calendar is still at Amazon! October 22: Scrap Wonder October 22: Scrap Wonder, 8" October 23: Pumpkin Vine October 23: Pumpkin Vine, 12" October 24: Rolling Gears October 24: Rolling Gears, 12" October 25: Square and Star October 25: Square and Star, 12" October 26: Stars and Nines October 26: Stars and Nines, 12"  October 27: Teardrop Flower October 27: Teardrop Flower, 9"  October 28: Tree of Temptation October 28: Tree of Temptation, 12"

Spooktacular Fabrics by Benartex BOO! Uh, I mean, welcome! Thanks for stopping by to see what I've got behind the curtain. Let's see what I've done with this fun collection of Halloween fabrics. Last month I shared about how to create hexagons. Today I share about making octagons into snowballs. I will be making the Snowball block to showcase these novelty prints. I cut a variety of 6-1/2" squares from the other prints; but here you can see my placement of these orange print squares on the fussy cut HELL FIRE square from above. Sew on the diagonal line; trim away 1/4" as shown. Sew on drawn line; trim 1/4" away. Discard small waste triangles Then you need to press . . . Press triangles outward for a neat 6-1/2" unfinished Snowball block Some of the fabrics will use a black square . . . Sew along diagonal line; trim and press Just so I could keep track of where the squares will go and the orange and black triangles, I laid ...

Yes, another calendar. I started this in 2006. It actually started in the Christmas of 2003 when my favorite youngest daughter bought the 2004 calendar for me as a gift. When I opened it I was horrified at the primitive approach to the patterns. There was NO cutting chart for ANY block! The graphics were created in the still primitive Electric Quilt (all pixelated) and the way you got the pattern was to use a copy machine to increase at percentages like: 136%, 122%, 223%, and so on. First Block a Day calendar for Accord Publishing The designs were lovely and very creative. But, since the author was not a quilter (I kid you not!), but assigned to design the calendar by the publishing company, she gave it her very best. It's just that she didn't have any tools or skill in writing patterns (and I do NOT fault her in any way). It's what I did next that still surprises even me! I looked up the phone number of Accord Publishing, asked for the president, and then told...