This little quilt went to live in a new home. Was a silent auction item last weekend. Husband was horrified that I would give up such a lovely quilt. I'm sure hoping the new owner loves all the KF/Brandon/Philip fabrics. Made with charm squares and a simple dresden ruler.   Charming Dresdens  (with ruler) Most dresden rulers are multi-sized. Here's mine with an 8" height. My dresden ruler (comes with Vortex pattern also) I chose to work with charm squares and got two wedges from each 5" square. Here are 80 dresden blades. (I used the 5" horizontal line on my acrylic ruler). Charming Dresdens PDF pattern (no ruler; paper template included) Then, I pieced them together in groups of 5 and added the triangle to the bottom (well: a 3" square with a diagonal sewing line). Finishing the base with a triangle I made 16 blocks with a variety of solid shot cottons for those triangles. 16 Mini Dresden "fans" ready for the background I placed them on white Fai

I taught my Modern Vortex class last Saturday and really wowed my students when I showed them how they can use their dresden wedge ruler with border prints to create some fabulous blocks. Here is a quilt I made a few years ago and since have given it away to some little girl. The border print fabric has to be at least 20 years old! Dresden wedges and border print Because you have to flip-flop the ruler, you are cutting for two blocks to get one. What did I do with the remaining four units (four quarter units = a full circle)? Another fun quilt, that's what! Five units for a swirly quilt center Wait a minute! Where did that extra 5-wedge quarter block come from? I honestly can't remember, but it sure makes for a fun quilt! Here's my Modern Vortex quilt. We strip piece the 18 degree wedges. Modern Vortex quilt One more quilt using my dresden ruler and some border prints.  20 wedge block using a border print I had made these blocks over 10 years ago and then finally put the

This is a repost from 2016. Worth seeing again, especially since I'm currently working on another Block a Day Calendar. Maybe I can get John to do this again . . . I received an email last week from John of Maryland. He wanted my permission to display his quilt in a county fair this summer. That was super courteous of him and not necessary. Of course, I said YES! He used 99 of my 366 quilt blocks from my Quilter's Block a Day Calendar for the quilt center. He resized them all to a uniform 6". Quilter's Block-a-Day Calendar (out of print) His inspiration was the Dear Jane Quilt (patterned from an historic quilt made in 1863: The Jane Stickle Quilt). He created some of his own outside triangle patterns and used some from the book by Brenda Papadakis. His sizing is unique (the Dear Jane blocks finish to 4-1/2" square). Let's see the Dear Jane quilt ( made by Jane Stickle in 1863 with 169 five inch squares, 52 border triangles, and 4 corner triangles) : Original D

Looking through my Block a Day Calendar with Martingale (desktop perpetual version) I see the Fruit Basket block for today. As you know, Patricia Bryant sewed every single one and staged a lovely shot of them several years ago. 10" Fruit Basket block by Patricia Bryant I eat some fruit every morning. I put it on my yogurt/cottage cheese/cereal. Usually there are blueberries underneath and some other yummy fruit on top (ie, apple, orange, pear or sometimes leftover pineapple from making a pineapple upside down cake!) Here are photos of before and after for the cake my granddaughter and I made for Easter. Yummy fruit waiting for the GF cake batter Baked and ready to be devoured You can have the Fruit Basket block by clicking on the link. Make one and put it near the fruit in your kitchen. I swear it will make them happy!

 My Block a Day Calendar with Martingale has the Fool's Puzzle Block for today. It's a Drunkard's Path design. Take a look: Fool's Puzzle sewn by Patricia Bryant of Australia It is 12" in the calendar. I simplified the piecing by appliquéing the quarter circle to a background square cut to 3-1/2". Then the excess is trimmed away from under the curved patch. VERY easy!! I have made several Drunkard's Path quilts using this technique that I simplified over 30 years ago! Here is a basket block I made by machine about 25 years ago. She still waits to be made into something. Here's another from 25 years ago. I still own it. Authentic feed sacks in some blocks and the outer border. Feed Sack Love Ring Here's another one that I call Hawaiian Love Ring: So, no fooling! You can conquer these traditional curved blocks with simple raw edge appliqué. One more made with feed sacks. One of my absolute favorites and lives comfortably up in my closet. This is a Tr

I traveled to New York and back this weekend to celebrate my father in law's 99th birthday! We drove through Rising Sun, Maryland. I said to my husband: "You know. I have a quilt with that name." (No surprise there!) My paper pieced rendition of the traditional Rising Sun block (14", composed of four 7" units) I have made this several times and it even was a popular workshop. It also appears in my 3rd book, Paper Piecing Perfect Points. I call it "Casablanca Sunrise." That was also the name of the fabric collection I used at the time (well over 10 years ago!) Casablanca Sunrise quilt using the Casablanca Collection by Blank Fabrics  Well, what happens when you make more than one block? Let me show you. (Sorry that the picture isn't as bright as a sunrise, but I think you get the idea). This quilt uses FOUR blocks, but because of the way I have turned 1/4 of each block, it creates the illusion of FIVE blocks. Neat trick, huh? And will you look at th

I'm working with another publisher to create another quilt block a day calendar! I have thousands of blocks from 18 different calendars (can you believe it?) I hope we can avoid templates and just stay with rotary cutting of the patches. But, as you can see from the next block, little leaves add some interest to a simple 16 Patch on point! Patches and Leaves is the March 21 in my Block a Day Calendar (Martingale, 2007-2017). It is a 12" finished block  as shown here created by Patricia Bryant of Australia. Patches and Leaves by Patricia Bryant and this digital quilt finishes to 56" x 68"! I had this as a project in the Calendar CD version. Patches and Leaves: 56" x 68" Here is a smaller quilt made by a participating quilt shop several years ago: Six block Patches and Leaves And how about a table runner? I made this using only three blocks: 3 Block Patches and Leaves Table Runner I'll keep you posted on the progress on the new calendar. Maybe rolling out

Hooray! It's National Quilting Day! Why not a FREE pattern? I designed this for Windham Fabrics several years ago and if you have any special people playing a musical instrument (it's recital season), this is for you. Musical Stars : 57" x 57" I also made a variation of it for a special young man who led the youth music at my church. This used another music themed collection by Windham. Opus One  (43" x 55") made using Type Band fabrics by Windham Yes, I know, not everyone plays the piano. Just grab the notes and stars, and of course, the piano key border is universal. Enjoy!

My block for March 13 in my perpetual Quilt Block a Day calendar is the Good Luck block. It's a vintage block. It originates in the early part of the 20th century (ie, probably 1930s). Here it is as made by Patricia Bryant of Australia. Remember she made ALL the blocks in my calendar several years ago?!! The Good Luck block by Patricia Bryant Here are two quilts that I made using some reproduction 1930s fabrics. 1930s child's  Good Luck  quilt And the mirror image quilt. Again, notice how the color patches are in relation to the cream. They were donated to our local Young Lives chapter and some lucky children are going to enjoy seeing those dancing bears and bunnies and geese! Second 9-Block  Good Luck quilt I first published it in 2006 (or so) and she actually made the cover. I can say she's a Cover Girl! Good Luck Quilt  on the cover of Quick Quilts Notice those blocks. Looks like I used some funky templates (as was done in the original pattern). But, I saw that it could

I belong to an English Paper Piecing group on Facebook and the discussion came up about this vintage block: Laced Star. I realized that I drafted this block for foundation paper piecing back in 1997 for Quilt Magazine. I enjoyed it so much, I drafted 11 other blocks for paper piecing and sold them as printed patterns. Here is the block I'm talking about as shown in the middle at the top of this quilt: Mini Galaxy of Stars quilt . Laced Star at top center I can't believe I do NOT have a large photo of this block. Here is what I could get by cropping it from the quilt. Laced Star: 6", foundation pieced This is a VINTAGE block and is included in the classic book by Maggie Malone, "1001 Patchwork Designs." It is block #335. Check it out if you have the book. Now, if you look closely at that block you will see that there is a small black strip around the points before it meets the swirly setting triangles. This is because I printed the block at the wrong size, pieced

Oh, not me! Another quilt! I began this quilt in 2013 and added borders several years later. Quilted by a guild friend a few weeks ago, as it was going for one of our group's charity endeavors.  Nancy Drew Flying Geese quilt : 34" x 34" I was using the Flying Geese ring pattern and the center Dogwood Blossom pattern (both my own), but I ran into some problems. First I pieced the ring. The center circle has a diameter of 14". I forgot to consider what my inner pattern would finish to  . . . Circle of Geese units Then I made the center using some Nancy Drew fabric (which are also in those geese units above). Circles of Geese surround Nancy Drew Oh, sure. Everything looks fine, until you see this block from the back! Can you see the thin 1/4 circle black strips (called "compensating" strips) I had to add in order for the center to fit with the Geese ring? Back of block with coping strips This was not pretty, but doable for me, a quilter with decades of sewin

Pickle Dish gets its name from the cut glass dish used to serve, well, pickles! This was a popular 1930s pattern that was only for those who could stitch accurately and weren't afraid of templates and curved seams. You don't believe me? Ha! Pickle Dish pattern in Kansas City Star October 28, 1931 Here is my first Pickle Dish quilt using a collection by Windham Fabrics. I began this quilt in 2013 (can you say ELEVEN YEARS?) Traditional Pickle Dish Yes, I paper pieced those points in the arcs! There was no way I would attempt templates. Yes, this was made in 2013. Paper pieced arcs Here are some arcs I made the same way for another quilt. Pickle Dish paper pieced arcs Then I made one using some Kaffe Fassett fabrics. My second Pickle Dish quilt I made this into a workshop and made more and more samples. I have decided to retire the workshop, so that means I need to use up all the samples and throw away the storage box (you've seen those Chobani yogurt boxes I use to store my