So you like to hand piece? Are you happy sewing without a sewing machine? I came across this vintage block that we (Quilt Magazine) had patterned about 15 years ago. It's called Noonday. 12" Noonday Block This is not a simple block. I certainly couldn't do it justice, but there are those quilters who LOVE to hand piece. There are 16 gold elongated triangles. And 16 blue diamonds. The closest I could come to something like this is my Ezekiel's Crown block. This was a workshop for a few years. There are 16 pointed triangles in each full circle (the center). But paper piecing made this happen. NO handwork in this - not even the binding! Ezekiel's Crown : 18" block (four units) You can have the FREE Noonday quilt block by clicking that link under the photo. It takes you to a 2 page pdf with full size templates. Enjoy!

I love log cabin quilts. And so do many, many other quilters. The Gee's Bend ladies made a lot of log cabin quilts using their unique improvisational style. I patterned this for Windham Fabrics in partnership with the Gee's Bend quilters. It's called Housetop Nine Block. First, the quilt made by Annie Pettway. Housetop Nine Block by Annie Pettway Windham sent me fabrics and asked me to come up with a prototype. Here's my first block. It's based on Annie's, top left in her quilt. First prototype block Then I made a few more. Put them together. Too blah! Back to the drawing board. First prototype quilt Then we darkened those large sashing strips and played with more colors. I finally got it right and everyone was happy! Housetop Nine Block : 66" x 73" Fast forward 10 years and Windham wanted to revisit the pattern (my copyright - all spelled out in my contracts for those wondering). They had a new collection called Simply White . They asked me if I could...

. . . and FREE Pattern ! I picked up my scraps and used the very last of this Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass print in gray. I only could get 5 blocks out of the Artisan Shimmer (the "solids"). You've seen this design many times, but I come back to it again and again because it's so easy. Tessellating Stars : 38" x 50". 12" blocks  As you can see, I had to split one block and place one half at the top and one half on the bottom. The four gray marble corner squares finish it off. I just put the binding on Tuesday and it's going to our local donation/charity quilt endeavors. Don't you just love the two border prints? They come from the same Benartex collection, so they work together perfectly. It's a happy quilt that is sure to bring a smile to someone's face. I made the same design in 2006 using some Bali batiks sent to us at the magazine. Same problem - not enough fabric for 6 full blocks! Visit the blog post I did last summer and you can see ...

Yes, it's January and the skies are gray and the days are still short (though we have gotten 26 more minutes of daylight since Winter Solstice). I finished a quilt top last week that is based on my Glorious Blooms quilt that was featured in Fabric Trends Magazine and also in my Supersize 'Em Quilts book. Just another cover girl! Here is a photo of the quilt with awesome, large 20" blocks so they can showcase a glorious floral motif in the center 11" square. Glorious Blooms : 46" x 46". 20" blocks I auditioned different colors for the block corners. I didn't like the green, so . . . First I chose the green squares for the corners I did some ripping . . . Glorious Blooms block in process And here is my 4 block quilt. I had to get creative with the borders. I only had fat quarters (you've heard this song before)! Glorious Blooms  using Cottage Joy I found an orphan block that I had made using a lovely Anna Griffin set of fabrics from 2013. Not su...

A few weeks ago I saw a beautiful table topper made up by Glorious Color using Kaffe Fassett prints. I could tell by the size and the patch shapes that I could reproduce it. It's really a traditional block done in today's fabrics. Holiday House Leeks Table Runner : 24" x 24" (kit) I grabbed some of my own Kaffe scraps, but I didn't have these awesome colors. I needed to have a center square that measured 12-1/2". All I had was something in browns (not my favorite color). I stitched this at the end of December and put it aside for the holidays. Debby's version of the table topper While these look like diamonds, they are simply parallelograms made up of two half-square triangles. Very easy to do. I decided to go larger and so added lavender corner triangles to square it up, ready for more borders. I grabbed some African prints and a lavender batik from my stash that reflected the block colors and here she is! Simplified Carpenter's Wheel: 37" x 37...

There's something about taking a class and asking the teacher a million questions, seeing thousands of samples (kidding), and generally discovering more than a pattern could ever tell you. Then, there's a printed pattern. A world of difference. I had a question about my Baby Blocks pattern yesterday and figured a few photos might help. Baby Blocks is NOT for beginners, though it is fairly simple. It's those pesky triangle tips that keep getting misplaced, right? Remember, my technique is to split those white diamonds into 2-triangles for easy piecing. Baby Blocks : 36" x 36" Here is a recent finish with some of my workshop samples. I made this with some sparkly fabrics! It's a little smaller than the one above. I ran out of fabric (what? it's never happened to you?) Baby Blocks: 27" x 30" First, we cut the diamonds using our acrylic ruler with the 60 degree diagonal lines. Easy. They are measured from FLAT SIDE TO FLAT SIDE - NOT from point to po...

Looking back at my old art files from the late 1990s when I was an editor with Quilt Magazine, I see that when I discovered I could rotary cut diamonds and not use templates, I really took off with my quilt designs. Last week I shared several quilts using 45 degree diamonds; today I'll share some using 60 degree. Some you've seen before. Here's some art from 1997. This is the traditional way this pattern was created.  And a beautiful, vintage quilt done in velvets and silks. I try to avoid y-seams as much as possible. I love diamonds, but some of those diamonds can be split into two triangles and then it's all straight seam sewing! This is a traditional unit for Baby Blocks. There is a y-seam in the center.  Baby Blocks unit Don't believe me? Well, here it is from the back. Baby Blocks unit from back I was running out of fabric and had to seam some of the prints. Wanna see? Didn't keep me from using them in my little quilt! I combined them with a few others - an...

Here is a quilt I made for my second book, Supersize 'Em Quilts. This is Cloissoné Diamonds and a few derivatives. I wanted to make the most of the large scale Kaffe Fassett print, so I went big - 6" finished from flat side to flat side. Cloissoné Diamonds : 71" x 77" I made this a class and needed more samples, especially since I gave the first one away! My students loved being able to cut their diamonds using a standard ruler, along with those two different shaped triangles (from a flat tipped 60 degree ruler). I made one in Christmas fabrics. I wanted the alternate 4-Patch blocks to show up a bit more. These are also strip pieced and then rotary cut. Diamonds and 4 Patch : 31" x 44" And one I made just last year in preparation for a Maryland guild workshop. I went on to take this with me when teaching for the Sewing Expo. Diamonds and Four Patch : 47" x 60" Each of these are made using 6" single fabric diamonds and Four Patch diamonds made...

One more quilt using 45 degree diamonds - the Carpenter's Wheel! It has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity where the "diamonds" are created using half-square triangles. They don't really become diamonds, only parallelograms. This is my first Carpenter's Wheel quilt, made in 2001. A lone star in the center with radiating diamonds surrounding it. I actually paper pieced this, and it was a torturous time - but it worked. Carpenter's Wheel is a vintage, traditional pattern. Carpenter's Wheel It was stolen in 2005 on a teaching trip, along with 29 other quilts! I like to say it's hanging on that giant quilt rack in the sky. A friend of mine remade it for me - Joan did a beautiful job and I used it when I traveled and presented trunk shows. I have since returned it to Joan. Carpenter's Wheel by Joan Then, digging WAY back in my archives I came across Hearts and Swallows. This was made in 2001. I had to do a bit of fabric manipulation to make those diamon...