From Jelly Rolls to Layer Cakes - this is making me hungry! A Layer Cake is a stack of 10" squares in a specific fabric collection. This way you can get just a taste of all the fabrics in a large collection without having to break the bank! Let me show you what I mean. Here is a photo of a stack of 10" squares of Michael Miller's Marble collection. They sent me a layer cake. Yum, yum! Layer Cake of Marble - forty-two 10" squares Here's a set from Benartex using their Essence of Pearl Collection. Layer Cake squares from Essence of Pearl  I used these as the basis for my Big Block Hexagon quilt. I first removed a 2.5" strip from each 10" square. I had a plan! And aren't these lovely strips? Yes, I have a plan for these, too. I used the 7.5" x 10" rectangles as the basis for my Big Block Hexagons class. I shared about this a few years ago. I cut large hexagons from each of these rectangles. Here's the quilt, Big Block Hexagons, that I mad...

I forgot to share this fun pattern yesterday when I shared about Jelly Rolls. This was made about 10 years ago using a set of 2-1/2" strips by Blank Quilting. Any color combination will do, but this set was in black and white. Black and White Twinklers This is a fun quilt that I've made in several different colorways. Here's one made by Michelle from Atlanta. She was a longarm quilter I used many times and she loved this pattern and decided to make it in brights and black. Tessellating Stars by Michelle of Atlanta I made one using two fabrics. This appeared in my first book, Bold, Black and Beautiful. So, go grab your sets of Jelly Rolls and give it a try using the FREE pattern for Twinkling Stars !

I still remember the first time I discovered a Jelly Roll . Oh, not the one that is tasty and made of sponge cake and strawberry jelly inside! That was decades and decades ago and my mom, who worked in a bakery, would bring them home all the time. Strawberry Jelly Roll I'm talking about the time as editor of Quilt Magazine, we received this new, "fandangled" pile of pre-cut strips from Moda. I was captivated and they went on to take the quilting world by storm. Spring Fling Jelly Roll (2006) A Jelly Roll is a bundle of 2-1/2" x wof strips, usually with around 40 of those strips. Let me do the math: that's 3 yards of fabric - a little piece of every print from an entire collection (sometimes there are 2 or 3 of a print if the collection has a limited number of skus). That amounts to between $10 and $14 a yard. But they've done ALL the cutting for you - whew! Here it is unrolled. But first, note the frayed edges in the photo above. This was before fabric compan...

I piece a little, quilt a little, finish a little. And then I put things in a drawer for when I need a quick gift for a special occasion. I have made dozens of these little coffee cups and I recently sent two to my sister Janet who lives in Idaho. She loves them! Here is one. Green and gray Coffee Cup mug rug She asked for the pattern. I told her they are PAPER PIECED and reminded her that she does NOT want to ever learn that technique (as she has told me on more than one occasion) Ha! I said I would make her a few more. Actually, I have about half a dozen more just waiting to be finished. Paper pieced Coffee Cups using the Mimosa Collection by Windham They aren't that hard. I took a vintage pattern and converted it for paper piecing. The handle is raw edge appliquéd. I first made a 9 block quilt about 20 years ago, again, paper piecing. I gave this to a friend in Atlanta. 9 Block Coffee Cups quilt I've made them in a variety of fabrics. I have these sitting in my special gif...

I guess I got carried away. I made not one, not two, not three, but FOUR very large Lone Star blocks. They measure 29" square!  That was a lot of cutting and piecing! Then I had to decide how to arrange them. These use the current Meadow Collection by Windham Fabrics. Four traditional Lone Star block parts Do you remember the fabrics? Meadow Collection 2022 by Windham Fabrics For the process, there were NO templates. I cut strips . . . Two fabrics for making one star (plus background solid) This is what the star parts look like. Sure looks like I'm going to have to do some set in seams. Not gonna happen! Eight four-patch 45 degree diamonds The strips are cut using a standard acrylic ruler with those 45 degree diagonal lines. You can see it running along the top of the pink fabric, right under my name. Then the key to piecing these ACCURATELY is to mark the 1/4" seams on one two-patch as shown below. This makes sure that the little triangle tips (shown on left) are in th...

It's back to school time and that means school buses. I found a pattern by Pam Rocco that appeared in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine in 2013. So, I made some cars and trucks and even two school buses for my then little grandsons (they were 1 and 3; now 9 and 11) Pam Rocco's patterns from a past issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine I was going to make a quilt like Pam's and then realized that I didn't have the energy to put an entire quilt together. Plus, I wanted something for both boys to share. Why not over sized postcard versions of these cars, trucks and buses? Well, why not!! You can see Pam's quilt - and get the free pattern at the Wayback Machine archived pages of QNM. You better hurry - these can be taken down at any time. It's called City Traffic . My daughter Audrey suggested I add family photos to the "windows", so I did for some of them. Blue car with Tia Audrey and Miles ("tia" is "aunt" in Spanish) One of my f...

Say what? Bubbles? Hexagons? Together? Yes, and we use Layer Cakes and Jelly Rolls! Sounds very yummy, doesn't it? You can do a lot with half-hexagons. Actually, I think anything with a 60 degree baseline is magic! I have seen a variety of quilts on Pinterest that use this concept. I had this first quilt published in 1997, and I wasn't the first person to do this. There is nothing new under the sun, right? Yes, 1997! Published in Quilt Magazine What if the neighboring half-hexagons are the same color?  My Bubbles and Hexagons  quilt was made using 2-1/2" strips (can you say Jelly Rolls?) Bubbles and Hexagons I sell the  hard copy pattern  with a 2-1/2" acrylic template for $13 in my Etsy store. Check it out. The following is a photo of that template which works with 2-1/2" strips. I had a stack of chocolate themed layer cake squares (10") that I used for a workshop sample. I finished it and donated it to my local guild's charity endeavors. Some child is ...