I have always been in awe of the Amish quilts and their use of solid fabrics and traditional patterns. When I created the Gee's Bend patterns for Windham Fabrics I had a lot of their hand dyed solids left over. I created two timeless quilts, one of which is the classic shadows pattern. Classic Amish Shadows: 52" x 63" This was published in McCall's Quilting Magazine about 12 years ago! Simple squares of color alternating with simple squares of black. And all set on point. I could make this quilt again and enjoy it just as much. My faithful friend and longarm quilter, Connie Gallant, gave it an all over design to soften the strong linear feel. Here is the quilt as a flat shot: Classic Amish Shadows One of my daughters has since snatched this up. This appears in my 2014 Wall Calendar of Quilts and is the January quilt. I pulled the calendar off the shelf and looked at the dates/days and they coincide with those of this year, 2025! I think I'll hang it in my studio s...

I am in the final editing stage of my 19th quilting calendar. Yes, that is NOT a misprint! I've designed 15 block a day calendars (which sit on your desktop) and 3 wall calendars of quilts. The next one is the C&T Publishing version due out in June of 2025. I'm working through the months with an eagle eye for any and all mistakes. This is a daunting task, for sure. I'm almost finished with the January blocks and Prairie Flower appears in the January 27 slot. Prairie Flower made in 2008 I selected a set of Fossil Fern fat quarters (from Benartex) and began cutting the patches for this four block quilt (with the thin sashings between the blocks). I wonder if I still have this quilt! Each of the four blocks finishes to 8". Because my new calendar doesn't use any templates (all patches are rotary cut), I had to make the green patches out of half-square triangles and squares (not that funky patch you see there). Let me show you a quilt made by another quilter who u...

I love basics! I love having a collection of fabrics that take backstage but without which, the "jazzy" fabrics couldn't stand on their own. They do what a perfect picture frame does for a prized oil painting. Equinox is just that sort of collection. Equinox fat 1/4s from Benartex Here's what is said about them at the Benartex web site: Equal parts simple and complex, the new Equinox basics will work well in both modern and traditional quilt designs. The colors are a fabric lover's dream, and the classic motif will blend seamlessly with many of our focal collections. Our basics just keep getting better and better. They are NOT flat color. They have texture (see those swirly, curvy lines?). Equinox also has a "mottled"  use of color besides those lines. But, really, what you see is their beautiful color.. To me, they are rainbow colors. I'm not drawn to browns and tans. I like vibrant, clear color and that's what Equinox brings to my sewing table....

As you know, I have the privilege of being a Sewcial Ambassador for Benartex this calendar year (2025). I share this title with 11 other very talented people (mostly quilters). That means a lot of things (and fabric) and one of the first collections I received was a set of charm squares by Kimberly Einmo. These have a deep connection with her Christian faith (up-words) and she uses some well known Bible verses in colorful patterns. (Info on Benartex contest is at end of post; you can win a FQ bundle of their beautiful fabrics!) Here's the set of charms (5" squares) from  Upwords  by Kimberly Einmo. 5" charms I wanted to keep the charms intact (not cut them up) and had an idea in mind. But, what about some blenders? I have a box of Fossil Ferns in my sewing studio and pulled some coordinating colors to go with the charms. Notice the background - Designer Spotlight on Kimberly in the Fat Quarterly (Benartex publication): Fat quarters of coordinating Fossil Ferns Using a Tri...

Welcome to 2025! As a Benartex Sewcial Ambassador, I have the pleasure of working with some of their latest collections. My first set out of the box (literally) is Blessed Nest by Shannon Roberts. The box arrived early December: And this is what I found inside! Blessed Nest fabrics ready for my pre-planned project There were butterflies in one of the main prints (top fabric behind all the others above) and so I remembered a quilt I patterned for Quilt Magazine about 25 years ago. I printed the pattern and auditioned it on a 12-1/2" square of newsprint. It fits nicely! Butterfly pattern sized for a 12" block Then I traced it onto freezer paper. This way I am able to cut out my fabrics: Butterfly traced onto freezer paper What's next? Time to iron the freezer paper to my turquoise fabric which I selected to be the 4 butterflies. The waxy part of the freezer paper goes onto the right side of the fabric. The fusible webbing has been pre-applied to the wrong side of a blue f...

Technically these were finished in 2024, but it wasn't until my guild meeting yesterday morning that I could turn them in! Simple designs letting the fabric do all the work. This first one uses a fish print by Brandon Mably (of the Kaffe Fassett crowd of designers). I've made this before. Just a simple Rail Fence block (10"). Fishy Rail Fence quilt: 44" x 44" Here's the first one I made in 2018. Yes, that's snow on my deck!! Fishy Rail Fence quilt: 44" x 44". 2018 And the second quilt uses a set of Owl themed panels I found on the free table at a guild meeting last year. How fun is this for some little kid, right? Owl Panel quilt: 44" x 44" The black owl print in alternating blocks is full of sweet motifs to keep a little kid from taking his nap! Uh, oh. I'm in trouble . . . Last year I kept a list of the quilts I made for our local charities: can you believe 40?!! Let's see if I can match that this year. I'm still pulling ...

Welcome to 2025! As a Benartex Sewcial Ambassador, I have the pleasure of working with some of their latest collections. My first set out of the box (literally) is  Blessed Nest  by Shannon Roberts. The box arrived early December: And this is what I found inside! Blessed Nest  fabrics ready for my pre-planned project This is the first time in receiving hundreds of fabric collections over the past 20 years that I had to decide ahead of time how much of each fabric I would need for a planned project! Planned? I never know what I'm going to do until I see the fabric! I took a big gulp and had to PLAN! I saw butterflies in that print at the back of the photo above and looked in my files for a butterfly pattern. Butterfly print That's all I'm saying right now. Butterflies! Hmmmm. Appliqué? Pieced? Just the borders? I will reveal my project on Monday January 6 and it will bring a big smile to your face! See you then.