Windham Fabrics has a lovely collection called I Believe in Pink that is for breast cancer patients and survivors. Here's what they say at their web site: Celebrate the breast cancer warriors in your life with this new collection from Rosemarie Lavin Designs. This inspiring group is perfect for a thoughtful headscarf, warm lap quilt or pretty tablet case. We are proud to support all survivors and warriors with this line. A portion of all sales from this collection will be given to the Maurer Foundation. For more information on the Maurer Foundation, please visit: www.maurerfoundation.org. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I asked for some of the I Believe in Pink fabrics. They sent me some 2 yard cuts (the first samples they get back from the factory)  and I got to work making one of my "go-to" pillow case patterns. I've shared this many times before and it's always great to show it again! (I am donating the rest of the fabrics to ...

Yes, I'm back and I have a VERY lavender quilt to show you. Don't confuse this with purple! But, I have to say that I have never made a lavender quilt in my 30+ years of quilting - not a one. This will go down in the history books, right? Ha ha. Here she is. And I will share a few details of how I got here. Charming , right? Please remember I was sent a set of fat quarters. Let me remind you. Charming fat quarters I chose the four lavender skus and one of the light prints, plus a few Fairy Frost fat quarters. The fabrics I chose to work with I cut two 9-1/2" squares from that interesting fabric with the spider webs. I usually don't like spiders and their webs - I walked right into one last week on my morning 3 mile walk and just about had a heart attack! But this web looks sweet and harmless (yeah, right). I was not interested in centering the motif. I like the "organic" look. Two squares with the spider web. After trying to list...

I dug into my Quilt Vault and pulled out two more scrap buster quilts. These were made almost 20 years ago from the bags of strips and leftover pieces of fabric I couldn't bear to throw out. The first one is Rocky Road to Kansas , a vintage pattern. I cut dozens of 6-1/2" squares of newsprint and began piecing randomly on them for a foundation. I trimmed them and spent about 2 years mindlessly stitching with no plan in mind. I saw a vintage Rocky Road to Kansas quilt and realized my string pieced squares could now find a home! This quilt has 17" blocks for an 80" x 80" bed sized quilt. Very scrappy! This appeared in Quilt Magazine, October 2000. Rocky Road to Kansas The method for cutting those string pieced kaleidoscope units was easy - any Kaleidoscope ruler will do (I include full size templates in my pattern). But I had some lovely leftovers from those leftovers (how can that be?) I could see that they were usable and put my thinking cap on and the...

Charming . Yes, that's the name of this delightful collection by Michael Miller. Actually, the designs are from Gertie for MM. Check them out! 16 fabrics from the Charming Collection by Gertie for Michael Miller I have to say that I jumped right in and selected the purple group, just because I figured it would be the most challenging. I love lavender and thought I would make something really, really girlie! You can actually see the lavender fabrics with a few other go-withs here: Lavender Charming . I wasn't sent the red dot or solid, so I had to pull a few Fairy Frosts . 3 Fairy Frost fat quarters to begin designing with Holy Cow! The Fairy Frosts scroll on for about a mile (or they seem to). So many colors, so little time. But I'm going to try! Then I discovered I left out one of the skus to go with the Lavender group! I was actually relieved. Now I have a little more contrast. Don't ask me what I'm planning to make. There's a lot of purple...

I get most of my quilt inspiration from vintage and traditional patterns. New York Beauty is one of them. I first made a quilt using the basic curved unit with "teeth" about 20 years ago. This is Dogwood Blossom. It appeared in an issue of Quilt Magazine and then was in a batch of 20 quilts that was stolen in 2005! I miss this little quilt. Dogwood Blossom, 1998 This lovely quilt was also in the same suitcase and now hangs on the Giant Quilt Rack in the Sky. Same units, different arrangement. Dogwood Blossom in Brights What do I mean by the units? Paper pieced arcs with sharp points And here are some with black for the background. These were pieced a LONG time ago! Units with black background Of course, when the two Dogwood Blossom quilts were stolen, I was on a teaching trip and they were the basis of one of my workshops. I had to beg fabric from my hostess so I could make some quick blocks in order to teach the class the next day. Quic...

What's up today with Michael Miller's Marble Collection? Let me tell you - a 15" Home Circle Block. It's from my Quilter's Block a Day Calendar from Martingale. First let's see the "marbelous" Home Circle Blocks. (Thanks to Kathleen K. of New York who used that term last week to describe these fabrics!) 5 Home Circle Blocks (15") Can we see how you got there? Sure. That's the purpose of this post! Bundle of Marble fat quarters sent to me from Michael Miller I was drawn to all the bright colors, so I selected from these: All the bright colors Then I started chopping (after I ironed the wrinkles out, of course) First set of 8 colors. Yummy! I cut four  squares from five different fabrics (I added another later). I cut five smaller squares from a second set of five fabrics. I started with making four Home Circle blocks, but quickly changed my mind (I'm allowed to do that!) when I saw how boring my assembly...