Yes, it's Black Friday but I am NOT going shopping! That's for the brave and I'm such a chicken when it comes to crowds, packed parking lots, crazy people grabbing stuff off shelves. How in the world did we get from being thankful for what we have on Thursday (Thanksgiving) and then getting into a panic (and credit card debt) the next day because we want more stuff? I'm just saying . . . Royal Star : 49" x 49" Quilts with black in them. I have a lot of those. And in fact, my first book featured them: Bold, Black and Beautiful Quilts (2004, AQS). I won't be showing all of them here, but just a few. But my favorite still remains my Royal Star quilt. And it was the cover quilt (wonder why!). Rotary cut center 9 Patch with paper pieced corners. You can make those star point "float" on the black by using triple sashing of black-color-black. Pretty cool, huh? Royal Star single block mug rug Then there's Ezekiel's Crown. A recent wo...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates this American holiday. I know I have many international followers and you are probably aware of this special day. It's about family and food and reflecting on all we are thankful for. I'm thankful for being able to play with color. I'm not too excited about browns and oranges, but I did find that I've dabbled in those colors. Here are a few from that Gee's Bend collection. Housetop 4 Block was one of the first I interpreted for Windham Fabrics with the permission of the Gee's Bend Collective. You can see a few more pics of these (and the original quilt) by clicking that Etsy link. Housetop 4 Block Quilt : 57" x 65" Gotta love that orange in there, boldly playing with the red and yellow as though it belongs (and it does!) Next is a quilt I designed and taught several times. This uses a large, 12-1/2" height Dresden ruler (with an 18 degree angle). I call this Orange Crush . It is NOT paper pi...

I think there are some of you who do NOT want to see pink quilts! There are people who hate pink, or at least would never think of making a pink quilt. I realized a few weeks ago when looking through my closet of finished quilts for a gift that I had a LOT of pink quilts! And this person was not too keen on pink. What's with that? (So, I gave her one of those red quilts featured on Monday.) Greek Key Log Cabin : 47" x 50" Can you believe I used so much pink? Light pink for the block backgrounds, pink inner border, and that large pink floral for the border? Pink binding and a pink backing. Holy pink cow! Here's my Big Block Palm quilt which uses 10" Hosannah blocks, paper pieced in one section. It is a workshop I teach a few times a year. It's hard to offer as a pdf/digital pattern unless you have access to a large format printer. (And if you do and want to purchase this, let me know). Big Block Palm Quilt: 56" x 56" When I take this on...

Tuesday blues? Not sad, for sure. I already showed you my red Vortex. Here's my class sample in blue. It's just the quilt center. Each of those four units are 10". You need four units to make a complete Dresden Plate. Do I have this in other colors? Wait and see! Blue Vortex center: 20" x 20" Here's a turquoise quilt I shared in the past few months. Again, made with some Blank Quilting fabrics from several years ago. It's a strippy quilt that I called Seminole Steps. This also uses 2-1/2" strips - honest! I shared this as a  FREE pattern . Here it is again! Seminole Strippy Quilt Now for the scrappy quilts. These are from my Gee's Bend set of patterns. The first is the Work Clothes quilt , perfect for those faded blue jeans you've been hoarding. Work Clothes quilt by Loretta Pettway And my interpretation: Work Clothes Denim : 46" x 60" And another favorite that uses blues and denim, rightly called Housetop D...

I do not like Black Friday, but I totally understand the hype. I stay FAR AWAY from any stores on the day after Thanksgiving (called "Black Friday" here in the USA). I thought I would feature a color a day this week (all quilt related, of course) and maybe, maybe, end with black on Friday. Let's start with Red Monday. We all have fire in our bellies on Monday, right? (Yeah, right!) Modern Vortex , a variation on the Dresden Plate You've seen this before: it's my Modern Vortex quilt. Red and White, inspired by a vintage quilt from the early 20th century. Vintage Vortex quilt And let's see a few from my last book. Here is "Seeing Red Again." The 15"blocks are paper pieced for a 38" x 38" quilt. The center circles are interfaced and appliquéd on. Yes, I did set in those curved backgrounds! Seeing Red Again And one more from my book which I called Red Mango Tango. I took four paper pieced blocks and arranged the un...

Sometimes you see a beautiful piece of fabric and have no idea what to do with it. There are lines and borders around motifs that you can't imagine chopping into little pieces! But, you don't want to just put it on the back of a quilt. I was reminded of a traditional Trip Around the World quilt and the light bulbs went off in my little pea brain. Why not use the little motifs in this very specific Kaffe Fassett print in such an assembly. Why not, indeed? Sunburst motifs cut out with some companion fabrics I bought a yard or so of the Sunburst fabric last year. I like to purchase Kaffe prints from Glorious Color (online). They are VERY careful in cutting my fabrics and with this print, it was imperative that they not destroy an entire row. More Sunburst fabrics in my sewing room waiting for inspiration This Sunburst fabric  (click the link for Glorious Color) has 11 motifs in each row (from selvedge to selvedge). Here is how it's shown online: Sunburst mot...