Here are a few more orphan blocks that shine in all their glory, center stage in fact. I've shared these before (and you can read more about them by clicking the links under the photos). This was a 30 year old block that I used the Windham "Fantasy" collection to complete. Isn't this lovely? Vintage Flower block  surrounded by 2" strips And then Fantasy decided they wanted to adopt another block. OK. I can do that, I said. This also was a vintage block that waited around for years. First adoption - read about it  here And just one more. I made this appliqué elephant block several years ago. Nothing happened with it. Finally, he roared out and insisted that I put it into a quilt. What else could I do? Minton Elephant : 44" x 47" Now, I hope I've inspired you to dig around in your orphan block pile and consider this very easy way to make them into simple quilts. I found a few others and one in particular has finally run out of her patience. She has be

A simple bedsheet was languishing on a table at an antique vending mall. I was drawn in to the beauty of the sophisticated hand embroidery. One dollar? That's all you want? She's mine! It sat in my closet for a few years. I would pull it out from time to time and then it hit me - this is NOT going to be a bedsheet for any one of my grandkids! This is NOT going to be subject to bed wetting and throwing up and go into the washer over and over. I was teaching free motion quilting classes and I decided to use what I taught to transform this. Here she is up close: Mary's Little Lamb I gave this to my sweet granddaughter Eva and her mom promptly hung it over her bed. Here is the full quilt/sheet. Quilted lamb bedsheet with wide binding And here it is hanging above Eva's bed (with another of my quilts on the bed). It is good to rescue these things. Whoever the maker was, I'm sure she would be thrilled to know that I elevated it from bed wetting to glorious wall art!

I can't remember how I acquired this lovely and LARGE vintage block, but I loved it at first sight. I named it One Block Rose Wreath because, well - that's what it is! It's a whopping 36" x 36" and I decided to give it a minimal treatment for borders. One Block Rose Wreath: 45" x 45" I think it's interesting that the maker put red squares in the 4 corners and the green leaves overlap in a casual sort of way. This was hand appliquéd. My 3 strips and 9 Patch borders don't take away from the beauty of the center block. Here is what I said about it when it was published: A special friend (whom I’ve never met!) buys, sells, and trades old quilts, quilt tops and blocks in Kansas City, Oklahoma. In fact, DottieMae Groves travels around the country in her quest for special quilting items to add to her antique shop’s inventory. In one of her forays she discovered a whimsical, folk art quilt block that is bigger than many wall quilts! There was nothing kno

I came across this quilt I put together back in 1998. My editor at Quilt Magazine had a set of vintage appliqué blocks that she wanted me to set into a quilt. I was game! She sent the blocks to me and I arranged them on point, added borders and we had it quilted. What a beauty! Magnolia Blossom: 7" block; 48" x 58" quilt This is what was written in the 1998 issue of our magazine:  “Let Spring bloom in a quilt.” So said the Weekly Kansas City Star for its January 11, 1936 offering of a quilt block entitled “Flower of Spring.” This old-time block was contributed by Miss Margaret L. Bosworth, Agnos, Missouri and many home sewers quickly cut out their own versions of this beautiful pieced block, sewing up several during the cold winter months in eager anticipation of the coming spring. Barbara Brackman lists this as #799 with other names of “Floral Patchwork” and “A Tulip Pattern in High Colors.”  I transformed these 12 blocks into a larger quilt with simple setting triangle

I have played with wool in my quilting from time to time. The other day I stopped by our friend Todd's tailor shop to pick up wool sample books that they no longer need. Better to live with me than to be thrown in the trash can, right? One of a dozen sample books from Todd's shop Todd's sample books are wool, wool and cashmere, wool and cotton, etc. His suits sell for several thousand dollars, so you know this is the best Italian and Australian wool! I made a sweet little quilt about 25 years ago using hearts on the wools . . . Hearts on Wool And I was experimenting with cotton prints and wool samples here. Have no idea where this went or if I just gave the blocks away. At least 20 years ago! Wool zigzag blocks I gave some samples to my dear friend Jan and she turned them into this gorgeous quilt! Wool quilt by Jan Jolly Does this give you any ideas? Do you have a tailor shop nearby that you can beg some sample books from? Remember, they typically toss those books unless so

I am slowly retiring workshops that I no longer want to teach. I currently have over 3 dozen boxes of samples and I'm opening them one by one, taking out the samples and making quilts with them. Big Block Hexagons is one of them. I blogged about one of my sample quilts last year. Here is the quilt, since given to a little kid last Christmas. Let it Snow Hexagons: 40" x 46" You can see some of my process steps in the blog post . This next quilt was made using a gorgeous collection in turquoise. I used each horizontal row in my class to demonstrate the piecing sequence. This was a simplified version of the main quilt. Big Block Hexagons top:44" x 49" Here is the main quilt done in lavenders. It seemed to be difficult after I taught it the first time. That's why I simplified it! But I still included the pattern for this in the class. Note my two fabric borders! Big Block Hexagons: 50" x 59" The next one is also one using the simplified assembly. It is

I made this quilt 25 years ago and it now lives with a happy owner. I have no idea how I came up with this arrangement of triangles, folded hexagons and grosgrain ribbon, but I think it's cute! Bright Triangles and YoYos There's that bug border again! I must have purchased a few yards of it, because it appears in more than one quilt. I'm not sure how that green grosgrain ribbon will wash up, but I did machine stitch it down to the black background. The folded hexagons have yoyos in the center and the whole thing is delightfully 3-D! I blogged about this quilt in 2016 and gave out a FREE PATTERN for the folded hexagons. I have no idea where the pattern and art for this quilt is in my thousands of computer files. Not sure about the size either, but some little kid has enjoyed it (now an adult, right?) Check out the blog post and you'll find the link for the folded hexagons, too! And what a fun way with those 60 degree triangles!

Thousand Pyramids uses what's called a dogtooth unit with equilateral triangles. But, what if you elongated those triangles? Again, they zig zag, but what sharp teeth you have! I made these units several years ago with one of my paper piecing patterns and put them aside. They are from my New York Beauty workshop. Zig Zag Shark's Teeth: 33" x 44"  Here are some of the units using some Kaffe Fassett fabrics. They are still waiting for a quilt to live in: New York Beauty Shark's Teeth Let's get back to the Dog Tooth units for our Thousand Pyramids, ok? Why do I go off on these rabbit trails?  Dogtooth units can surround a beautiful Baltimore Album block Triangles surround a printed panel These are NOT hand appliquéd - they are printed panels from at least 15 years ago. I used the same triangles as are in the Thousand Pyramids quilts. I had to be very careful of my math! Here are 4 blocks: Now for the last Thousand Pyramids quilt for this week. I made this in 2014

. . . and a free pattern! (Read to the bottom) Here is Day Two of my Thousand Pyramids quilts (and some variations). This next quilt was made about 18 years ago. This baby is probably in college now! Thousand Pyramids using all prints Here is the quilt lying flat on my carpet before putting the binding on. Notice that each triangle is a print and is not alternating with a plain or light "blah" fabric. There is a zig zag look to it, but the triangles are lined up with each other from row to row. Thousand Pyramids flat to better see the rows Now, just to shake things up a bit, here's a photo of a quilt made using the SAME triangle shape where they form a hexagon. I called this Hexagon Pinwheel. Very different look, right? But they are horizontal rows of 60 degree triangles, just colored differently! Hexagon Pinwheels This is from a collection that came as strips of 5" x 42" plaids. They called them "Fat Rolls." The triangle template is included, but it&#

I love triangles, especially 60 degree ones. I have made several quilts in the Thousand Pyramids pattern as seen by this first one from 2001. These are 60 degree triangles and they appear to zig and zag across the face of the quilt. Bright triangles alternating with a light yellow print, then surrounded by a rainbow inner border and some great bug border print! Bright Triangles with Dragonflies Border   This next quilt was made with more novelty fabric. These are the same rows, but they are staggered so that they make a zigzag with the light dotted fabric. Both quilts use a 5-1/2" triangle. They are pieced in horizontal rows. One row has the solid colors with the triangle tip at the bottom; the next row has the solid triangles with the tip at the top. And the solid triangles are NOT aligned with each other as in the quilt above. Fun, huh? Zig Zag Safari baby quilt with matching pillows Thousand Pyramids is a vintage pattern that is supposed to use 1,000 different patches of fabric

I discovered a photo in one of our old magazines (Quilt Magazine, Spring 2005) of a vintage Nosegay/Bride's Bouquet quilt. I scanned it the other day and here she is in all her old time glory! Bride's Bouquet Quilt: 59" x 76" The blocks are 12" and when we ran the pattern, we included templates - lots of them (5 different ones!) Would you like to see what they look like? Nosegay Templates! Does this make you want to run and make one of these? Not me! If you would like to try your hand at making one of these quilts, I've just published a 12 page pdf in my Etsy shop. Go check it out and see all the photos! Old Fashioned Nosegay . NO templates, just easy foundations for paper piecing.  And I keep the fabric waste to a minimum; as you can see, the 45 degree diamonds can be cut (oversized) using your standard ruler! Cutting the diamond patches for foundation piecing Thanks for giving me the chance to share my Nosegay quilts!

I'm back with my last 2 Nosegay quilts. I think I'll show you the best one first! I was inspired to make this from a 2010 magazine. They had pieced some Bride's Bouquet blocks (like these) and cut up a pre-printed panel of Baltimore Album motifs. I remembered I had some similar panels languishing in my closet. Nosegay blocks set with pre-printed motifs When I gave this to my longarm quilter and told her it was destined for a charity quilt, she was shocked. She first thought that was ALL hand appliquéd. Ha! Not from my hands. Maybe you have some of these long ago printed motifs. Pull them out and make some blocks to go with them. Here is the last set of my blocks. I made them using some Kaffe Fassett prints. 12" Nosegay block set on point (pieced cone)  I was short on that green striped fabric and had to piece it. So what? Piecing a stripe like this - you really can't see the seam can you? And how does the wrong side of this paper pieced section look? Wrong side of

I had enough fabric leftover from Monday's quilt to make a 2 block wheelchair quilt. They were just too pretty to sit in the workshop box alone. What do you think? 2 Block Nosegay quilt: 27" x 44" I donated this to my local guild's charity endeavors. Remember, a 12" block set on point is 17"! I made some more blocks with a collection by Windham called Solstice. Here are the units that are paper pieced and trimmed before joining together. Notice the base "cone". Units for one Nosegay block The cone utilizes a stripe and I needed to make sure it would be oriented correctly. I rough-cut the patches using an oversized piece of freezer paper. Rough cutting the cone base And several blocks: And my final quilt top. All I had for the blocks and center were fat quarters. I used a different collection for the outside borders. Solstice Nosegay quilt top: 48" x 48" I'll be back on Friday with my last 2 Nosegay quilts. Here's a teaser for one