Do you like owls? Of course, you hooooooot - I mean, of course you do! While I designed this pattern for Windham Fabrics 4 years ago, I didn't feature it in a blog post other than an afterthought. This little pattern is a perfect project for an upcoming baby. First, let's see the fabrics. Yes, you may not have these exact fabrics, but the pattern will work with just about any collection with primary colors. It's a Hoot fabrics And, remember, I shared those cute little tissue holders I made with these cute owl prints. Tissue holders You can make just 3 blocks and stagger them as shown here. The owl blocks are 12" x 12" finished. When the 2" squares are added, they are now 12" x 16" and can be staggered up and down. 3 Hooty Owl blocks And here's the full quilt and FREE pattern . What a Hoot! quilt : 54" x 66" When I've made this owl in another collection, my go-to method is raw edge appliqué. Let me show you that cute owl pillow I ma...

I have designed several quilts using a snowflake motif in various blocks. They've appeared in my past block a day calendars and I've published one or two in Quilt Magazine over the years. According to the experts, there are no two snowflakes exactly alike. Yikes! We are talking bazillions and bazillions of them throughout the world and through the thousands of years we've been counting! Here is a lovely print from Benartex's Nordic Holiday (2017). These are lovely motifs designed by Amanda Murphy. I used this collection to make several small quilts. Snowflake print from Nordic Holiday by Amanda Murphy The first quilt I made was a large Lone Star (click that link above and you can see some of the steps). No y-seams. I captured that awesome print in the center and tips of the star. So beautiful! Big Block Lone Star : 29" block; 41" x 41" quilt Then I played around with the reindeer, trying to capture them in the center of a hexagon block. There are snowfla...

Today is Winter Solstice and I'm thinking about the sun and stars and light. I haven't made any new Winter Solstice quilts this year, so I thought I'd share a quilt that was 10 years in the making! I call this Star Spinners and it's a variation on a pattern by Pat Speth. I used two colors and cut my half-square triangle units only in half (and not into 3rds). It would make a fun class (and I've been thinking about that for about 10 years!) The browns and pinks and creams are lovely together. Star Spinners. 9" blocks. 38" x 47" quilt I decided to test my rudimentary pattern which had incomplete notes. I couldn't remember some of the little tricks, so I pulled out some fabrics and came up with 6 blocks in my "test" fabric. But I also rearranged the colors. Which one do you like? The first set mixes up the colors in each block instead of using one color for the star. Star Spinners Blocks, Arrangement #1 Or, this second version, which is lik...

I love working with circles in quilting. What?!! Having to turn those edges under and hand appliqué? No! Not me! I draw a circle on a square of fabric using a plastic cottage cheese (or yogurt) lid, or even a CD-ROM (you remember those, right?) Then I place a piece of interfacing on the right side of the fabric and sew along the line. Trim, clip, turn around and there's my perfect circle. Interfaced circle ready to be turned and stitched down (Check out my blog post that shows a few more of these steps for making interfaced circles.) Make a lot of these and you have what you need to make a Christmas tree! I have this hanging in my foyer and see it many times a day as I go up and down the stairs in my house. Christmas Tree of Circles : 34" x 39" Then, I took this concept "to the bank" and used 16 quarters to make a holiday tree for each of my four grandchildren. Mailed them last week and they love them. What do you think of THESE circles? Christmas Tree Quarters...

I am a grandmother to 4 small children. This makes Christmas fun because it's easy to make little kids happy - doesn't take much. I had a small bit of the Gnome to Fa La fabric remaining and decided to make a doll blanket for my 7 year old granddaughter Eva's doll (Marisol). Minky lined doll blanket: 16" x 19" You can see my July blog post which introduces this Michael Miller collection and see the other companion fabrics. This is MINKY which is not your traditional 100% cotton quilting fabric - hey! 3 Gnome to Fa La Minky fabrics Now for the Fairy Frost. I am still working on those Gingham Play Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks I shared in October . Here are the parts. And here is the first block. The center hexagon and surrounding hearts are made with Fairy Frost. The other hexagons are made with Gingham Play. I Love Grandma's Garden Block Here are a few of the dozens of the hearts I am making for the other colors of blocks. As you can see, I have plan...

This is a repost from 2013, but I still love the fabrics and I think you'll enjoy the tutorial on how to make this Twisted Hexagon block. This was done interview style with Benartex's representative. Christmas Spectacular Collection by Kitty Yoshida for Benartex Fabrics Why did you choose these fabrics? Holiday fabrics can oftentimes be novelty prints and santas, reindeer, snowmen and Christmas trees. To come across such an elegant group of fabrics featuring large poinsettias and glittering scrollwork was such a delight. I knew I wanted to highlight those large flowers, but I was having a hard time selecting which of the 3 colors to use! How did you come up with your design? Large scale fabrics do not want to be chopped up into tiny pieces. I referenced some past blocks I used in other quilts. One block is the traditional Diadem block which appears in my second book, Supersize 'Em Quilts. I began making one of those. The four corners are paper pieced with a quick, rotary cu...

I've been going through the many patterns I designed for various fabric companies (almost 50!) and came upon a super, multi-project one called Farmer's Market . The fabrics were vegetable themed with eggplant, chili peppers, artichokes, onions - you get the picture! Here's the first quilt that uses the simple Rail Fence block alternating with fabric motifs of veggies. The pattern has full size templates for those letters. It's up to you to find some veggie-themed fabrics! Eat Your Veggies: 22" x 31" Then I continued with the theme and made placemats. These elongated hexagons are simple to make using squares, rectangles and triangles. They measure 8" x 16" Then I decided to design an apron. Two of them (different colors, same design). And, finally, tea cozies! You can find the FREE pattern on my website: Farmer's Market . Enjoy!

I made one of these about 6 years ago using a long 18 degree dresden ruler. I used Christmas fabrics. (This pattern is no longer available for free. I've redesigned the template.) I decided to use up some of my Kaffe Fassett prints with some shot cottons. Here are some of the wedges: Set of wedges with the largest fabric piece at the top Set of wedges with the largest fabric piece at the bottom When I cut the strip sets, I got more than I needed, but hey - I can make 3 of them, right? Getting ready to make the tree skirt So, I pieced them into a tree skirt (for a mini tree). What do you think? Scrappy Tree Skirt : approx. 28" diameter I took the end cuts (which are half the width of a full wedge) and pieced those together to make some REALLY scrappy dresdens. Playing with solids (shot cottons) and prints gave me SO much movement! Each of these wedges has FOUR fabrics! And here is the 30" block that I got from the wedges above: Scrappy Dresden block is a bonus in the 11 pa...