This is a signature quilt I created in July of 2015 for a friend of my daughter's. I realized I had never shared this on my blog, so here it is. I know you will be amazed at the creative artistry of these young people (ie, in their 20s). Many thanks to my very favorite youngest daughter, Valery Kratovil, for thinking this up. Somehow she connected my quilting skills with her and her friends' desire to do something special for their mutual friend Kelly. Please know that I NEVER, EVER make quilts on consignment (ie, sew for other people and their ideas). But I knew this would not only be special but also fun. I never imagined how CREATIVE these young people were. (They are millennials.) Wow and WOW! What a pleasure and privilege this was to participate. Here is the finished quilt. You will get to see each block up close! Kelly's Quilt Here is a little of my planning process: The blocks will finish around 11" square. The quilt center will be 44" x 6...

Yes, it's true. This is the first quilt I made and I still have it. Very faded! I can still remember ordering the kit from a magazine back in 1984 or 1985. It was either Family Circle or Woman's Day (I bought those religiously right off the newsstand) and it seemed almost scandalous for the price to be somewhere between $40 and $50. We were a one paycheck family and I had two little girls at home. We scrimped and saved all the time. I think I must have saved up some birthday money. First quilt! Anyway, the kit arrived with a very simple pattern. Look at this! A Nine Patch alternating with an appliquéd heart. I stitched it by machine. I raw edge appliquéd those hearts with a satin stitch. And I HAND QUILTED it! I hadn't heard of machine quilting at that time and I actually didn't mind. But back to the scandalous part. When I pulled the little pile of fabrics from the bag, my calculations began and I realized I had about $6-7 worth of fabric. I was horrified, ...

Such an uppity word: rhombus. Sure, I used it when I taught high school math. It's a real word for a real object. But, hey - I'm talking diamonds and they sure sparkle more than a rhombus! Anyway, I cut SO many 4-1/2" 60 degree diamonds from as many blue fabrics as I could and I guess I got carried away! Lots and lots of 4-1/2" diamonds (60 degree) I had a plan. Actually, two plans. I finally finished the second quilt top this weekend and here she is: Floating Diamonds : 58" x 59" Here was my approach. I auditioned some fabric to see how I would like separating the horizontal rows. First I auditioned a horizontal sashing strip  Then I look at the rows joined without any sashing. No sashing Guess you know which version won! Here is the first quilt which I made last year. I call it My Diamonds Have the Blues. It's about 60" x 60" and I quilted it myself. That was too big for me, but I persevered. My Diamonds Have th...

I get up EARLY (can you say 5 am?). Always have. And my favorite thing in the Spring and Summer is to listen to my noisy aviary friends in the trees outside my windows. They are REALLY loud, so even if I didn't naturally wake up, they would serve to be my alarm clock. Here is a recent quilt finish using four of my upsized birdhouse patterns. I blogged about this a few weeks ago: Home Grown fabrics by Benartex . I am teaching my workshop Bird Song at the Quilt Odyssey Quilt Show this summer (July). Here are a few more of these birdhouses in different fabrics: 60s A-Frame: 7-1/2" x 10" All of my birdhouses finish to a uniform 10" high, with varying widths. This makes for a more "organic" neighborhood! Efficiency Birdhouse: 5" x 10" Some birds like to live alone! Home Tweet Home: 6-1/2" x 10" And one more: Room for One: 6" x 10" And here is my Bird Song quilt using only one of the four birdhouses....

This post was shared in 2013 on the Windham blog and I thought it would be fun to share this pattern and tutorial here for my followers. While these particular fabrics are no longer available, this is very scrap friendly - and fat quarter friendly. Enjoy! We recently sent off a bundle of fat quarters of our recent collection  "Downtown"  by LB Krueger to sewing teacher and quilter,  Debby Kratovil  and she came up with an inspired project to warm your holiday table.  Read on to find out more! Q: Debby, what do you like about these fabrics? A: They have a wide range of prints in a variety of scale, with the addition of "tonals" (fabrics that read solid, but are a single color print). The challenge was in putting them all together into a project that wouldn't scream BUSY, but modern and traditional at the same time. Q: How did you come up with your design? A. I am in the midst of working with 60 degree shapes these days and making a lot of hexagon...