I get most of my inspiration from vintage quilts. The Comfort Block is a perfect example. It is the September 6 block in my Quilting Calendar. Here it is as made by Patricia Bryant of Australia. She wanted to stay close to the colors I used in the digital version. September 6: The Comfort Block September 6: The Comfort Block, 9" Here's my own Comfort Quilt made 20 years ago with a lovely floral collection. This was published in one of our magazines. The Comfort Quilt: 70" x 70" Here it is as a flat shot before I had it quilted. I chose to cut out large flowers from one of the prints and appliqué them to the two opposing corners. 18" blocks And one more made by my friend, Jean Ann Wright (who was my senior editor at Quilt Magazine for 14 years). She made this for my 2009 book, Supersize 'Em Quilts. It's also an 18" block. The Comfort Quilt by Jean Ann Wright: 95" x 95" Just squares and rectangles made this a great way to showcase some lovel

A few years ago I randomly created some 2" EPP hexagons using some Michael Miller gingham fabrics. Then, I was inspired to recreate a version of an older quilt that I used when I taught EPP workshops. One of my students said this was her favorite quilt. Her name was Lori. So, I named the quilt "Lori's Garden Favorite." Easy enough! Lori's Garden Favorite I made the above quilt using some Benartex Fossil Ferns and some other Benartex collections for the borders. Yes, those borders don't "match." But, they work and that's what matters. Sometimes you don't have enough of a single fabric to have all 4 borders match. Who cares? I think this is more interesting. Here is one of the blocks up close: Single GFG variation block: 14" x 20" I still have the original quilt that I made 22 years ago with the same rectangle block, but this time I used sashing. I called it Grandma's Night Garden. It was published in Quilt Magazine and then it a

After 10 years of successful publishing in quilting magazines, in 2002 I made my first book proposal (quilts) to C&T Publishing. Rejected! They never told me why. I sulked in a corner, licked my wounds and then listened to wise advice and went to another publisher (AQS). Book 1 published. Book 2 published. Book 3 published. 18 quilting calendars published. Now, who's come to ME and asked me to publish another calendar? Why, C&T! Due out in 2025. I truly think my brain is empty! Upcoming Block a Day Calendar (2025) They sent me an email and requested a Zoom meeting. I wasn't too crazy about it. I wanted to make sure ALL my rights belonged to me. They saw the calendar I had created for Martingale (That Patchwork Place) and thought it would make a great seller. Martingale has since gone out of business - big sigh! Desktop calendar with Martingale It stayed on the market for 10 years. I even published a companion CD of all the files, in 2 sizes and 12 quilt patterns! Glad I

I'm keeping track of my quilt finishes for my local guild's charity outreaches. It may seem like a lot (34 so far in 2024), I still haven't made a dent in my stash of unfinished quilts/tops (still about 4 dozen) or workshop samples of class I'm retiring! Hard to believe, but I've been actively making quilts as a profession for 32 years, so that's the way I describe it to my fellow quilters! Buzz Saw with renegade blade: 39" x 39" My Buzz Saw class was fun and my students enjoyed working with a long dresden plate template (12-1/2"). These were some of the samples in my workshop box and I only had 19 fabrics for the blades and the orange one had to fill in the gap. And I guess the light blue on at the top is a renegade, too! Here's another Dresden plate quilt. I used the Fiesta Collection by Windham Fabrics and captured one little sugar skull in the center. Lots of guitars and doves and cheerful motifs here. Fiesta Sugar Skull Dresdens: 46&quo

Well, not that kind of vintage. MY kind of vintage - quilts older than 25+ years. This is a repost from several years ago : Almost 30 years ago, a guild friend named Kathleen handed me a grocery bag full of fabric circles. These were no ordinary fabric circles. They were authentic 1930s Feed Sacks! It appeared that an anonymous quilter had cut them out, destined to be yo-yos. She thought I would be interested in playing with them. Holy cow! What a true find. This quilt uses a few of those circles, and they aren't yo-yos! It was HAND QUILTED! Still one of my favorites, for sure. Authentic Feed Sacks for Baskets I did make  a few yo-yos, but the circles were calling me to become something else. A few of the hundreds of circles made into yo yos I had just started working for Quilt Magazine and I was intrigued with Drunkard's Path blocks and quilts, but NOT by the traditional way to make them. This next quilt uses those feed sack circles and other solids. The outer pink print borde

Yum, yum - watermelon! This is a repost from 2013 and the topic is still relevant. This post was for Benartex to feature some of their fabrics. The Fossil Ferns at the bottom of the page are still available. Watermelon Quilt from my book Bold, Black and Beautiful (AQS 2004)  Look at this absolutely marvelous quilt by  Ahh Quilting . Don't you just love that truck!? Watermelon Wedge quilt by  Ahh Quilting Seeing all those watermelon quilts and yummy watermelon food items, I recalled that I have made not one, not two, but three watermelon inspired quilts in my quilting career. The one on the top was made by a friend, Diane Leighton of Yuba City, California. It was a redo of my first quilt that I made with a white background: First watermelon quilt. 6" Blocks, 37" x 37" quilt Grilled Watermelon with Blue Cheese and Proscuitto in food! Looks like watermelon to me. Photo credit: Jennifer Davick, on  southernliving.com One last quilt I made so many years ago that I've

One more quilt today to share with you. I was inspired to make this by something similar in a block magazine for standard sewing by machine. I supersized the diamond to a 3" English Paper Piecing unit and stitched my version. (3" is the measurement of the diamond's side from point to point.) 3" diamonds created with EPP You have to pay attention when you stitch your units together. Ooops! That will not become the shape I need! Here are 30 - 3" diamonds in a round. Simulates a wreath. Wreath stitched with 30 diamonds Here is what I created from the back. I first made the wreath, took out the papers and then machine appliquéd it to the background square. Removed the fabric from behind the wreath. (Now you can see my mistake regarding the red diamonds shown above). Wreath from wrong side I added sashings and borders. Quilted it. The fabric with writing on it is another Benartex collection (Seasons Greetings), this time from 2014! Festive Season and Season's Gre