I just returned from 3 days of teaching at the Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA. It was their 20th anniversary and my 3rd year of teaching with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time (I love teaching) and especially enjoyed my students. I learn so much from them - it's not a one way street! Here is one of my two teaching samples. I made this in early 2009 from a Blank Fabrics collection called Holiday Splendor. The center Lone Star is a whopping 35" square! The quilt is 50" x 50" Holiday Splendor Lone Star I set in those floral print squares and triangles (and I teach that as one of two methods). I didn't want to break up the print with a seam. But 95% of the time, when I make quilts like this, I split those outside background pieces. Then I took another collection of blues and made a second Lone Star. This is all rotary cut strips sewn into sets of 3 and then cut into 45 degree 3-patch wedges. NO templates! As you can see (if you look closely) that I split up ...

I have made a Tessellating Stars quilt multiple times in the past 25 years. What's tessellating mean? Interlocking is the best word to describe it. If you know the work of M.C. Escher (a Dutch graphic artist), you know tessellations. But I think pictures (especially for quilters) are the best way to describe this! First, a block. Tessellating Star from my Quilter's Block a Day calendar Now a quilt. This was in my first book, Bold, Black and Beautiful Quilts (AQS, 2004). Tessellating Stars. 12" block; 59" x 59" quilt And a small quilt with only 6 blocks. I split two blocks and put half on top and half on bottom. 6 Tessellating Stars blocks Multi-colored stars with the same leaf print background. Six blocks And my Red and Gold Tessellating Stars (of four blocks): Four bold, red blocks! Now, here's a quilt I designed for Blank Fabrics several years ago. It uses some of those jelly roll strips (2-1/2"). I'm sure you must...

Yes, I've blogged about Windham's Uncorked fabrics before. They are so lovely and keep calling to me in my sewing room. They sit at the front of one of my shelves and are always watching me. They keep whispering, "Hey! I will go with ANY fabrics in this room. ANY of them. Let us prove it!" Uncorked by Windham Fabrics I even made a quilt (since gifted) trying to use every. Single. Sku. Honest, I did. First, I cut a lot of squares. LOOK AT ALL THOSE GORGEOUS FABRICS! Here's a remake of a quilt that was stolen in 2005. I called it 98 Dancing Squares. I gave this to a very happy young woman, a dear friend of one of my daughters. 98 Dancing Squares Now, let me show you what I've been working on recently. Or, I should say - I started this a year ago, then moved to another house, and just this week rediscovered it. (I have to be honest, don't I?) Uncorked and my Dresden ruler I chose just two colors (a gray and a medium sky blue) and had...

I guess I'm slow, but I realized AFTER the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 (moon landing) that I had made several (yes, several) space travel quilts. I call them Blast Off (yes, each of them). Here are some pics: Paper pieced rocket blocks The first one above was made in 2004. I gifted it to a young man the same year. The blocks are 8" and updated versions of the vintage block Jobs Tears; and the quilt is 33" x 33". The next one I made used 12" blocks and some fabrics from Benartex. The quilt is 66" x 90". It appeared in a quilting magazine and also in my 2014 Wall Calendar of Quilts. Can you see the man walking on the moon?! Blast Off using 12" blocks And a recent finish (which means I finally quilted it) is this small quilt using my Diadem paper pieced pattern. The center is cut 9" and the four spiked corners are paper pieced for a 12" finished block. A great way to let the fabric do the work. I didn't realize that...

Today is July 4 and in America we celebrate our freedom as a country. I hear SO MANY negative things these days about all the perceived wrongs going on, can we just not concentrate on our warts and remember the good things about our neighbors, communities and country? I'm not trying to pretend we don't have issues (like who doesn't?!!), but we have so much to celebrate. So, how about some quilt inspiration? Yes, how about it! Here's some fabric from Windham, 2014. I wish I still had a few of these, but I gave them all away. This was an amazing collection. George Washington, our first president Here is my Patriot's Day quilt, scheduled to appear in a quilting magazine but then they declared bankruptcy and it was never published. I never got paid . . . But, I did publish it in my 2012 Wall Calendar of quilts and then gave it away to my favorite nephew (only nephew) and he loves it! Blair with Patriot's Day quilt The quilt was made using...

I published this article in Quilt Magazine in 1997! Thought I'd revisit some of these ideas and show you some variations on the Log Cabin. I also show some newer quilts. Building Blocks for Log Cabins by Debby Kratovil Without a doubt, the Log Cabin is the favorite of quilters the world over. It lends itself to easy and quick piecing, makes good use of leftover strips of fabric from other projects, and is just plain fun to make! This block is pieced in rounds of strips with a central square (or triangle or rectangle as you will soon see). You keep on piecing until you have the size of block you want. I have included here a few variations on the Log Cabin. We hope this will send you to your sewing room wanting to try out these with your own color choices. There are endless possibilities with this block, four of which follow. Block 1 is a standard Log Cabin, but we have used a half-square triangle as the center unit. When the blocks are put together as seen in the diagr...