Thanks to all of you who let me know I'm not blogging into the air and that you really are reading what I share. This makes my quilts SO happy. They like being Block Stars! The winner of the 4 fat quarter bundle of Lotta Jansdotter's Follie fabrics (orange and gray) is Sherry B. from Greensboro, North Carolina. Congratulations, Sherry! 4 fat quarters in orange and gray And the winner of the 5 fat quarter bundle is Melanie T. from Oregon. Congratulations to you, too, Melanie! 5 fat quarters in blue, pink and gray They will be mailed out today or tomorrow. Congratulations ladies!  I'm thinking of doing this again with a simple contest. People love giveaways and I have a LOT of beautiful fabric just waiting to be used. I have one other collection by Lotta Jansdotter called Bella. No fabric left because I stitched up all of it. I'll be sharing some of those projects later this week. I'm binding one of the quilts I began back in 2012 with leftovers from another quilt! He...

Yes, that's right. I have a giveaway and it's a FREE pattern for everyone. This is based on the 8th Gee's Bend quilt I designed for Windham Fabrics. All log cabins. All fairly regular. Let's see the original. These are the most "regular" looking log cabins so far, don't you think? All solids except for the single, top border. Irregular sashing sizes, too, with 3 different colors and cream sashing squares. Housetop 9 Block by Annie E. Pettway: 66" x 74" Do you remember that lone block I shared a few days ago? It's the top left one in Annie Pettway's quilt. Single Log Cabin with a few renegade darker strips And my version of Annie's quilt: Housetop 9 Block quilt: 66" x 73" Here is the first prototype (which was rejected) and we went back to the drawing board. Yes, you have to put on your asbestos suit when you work with other people's ideas. You just can't get your panties in a wad! I like the look of ...

Contest is over and my two winners are: Ellen M. from Spain (digital copy of the pattern) Vivian O. from Pennsylvania (CD of pattern and this lovely, embroidered block) Many thanks to ALL who commented! More blocks from the Kansas City Star. This is a series called " Quilting Patterns and Motifs " which features 27 quilting motifs from 1930 to 1938. I redrew each of these stencils using Adobe Illustrator. They are NOT scans of the old newspaper clippings. This is an orphan block I got about 20 years ago when I was an editor with Quilt Magazine. The unknown maker decided to use it for embroidery. Lovely, huh? Kansas City Star Motif: November 21, 1934  The pattern fits a 6" square, so you can center it on a larger 12" background fabric: 6" motif embroidered These can be quilting stencils or embroidery patterns. Your choice. But, what do the other 26 motifs look like? I'm glad you asked. Here is my pattern cover (front) Designs ...

I have two winners: Shoshana from Israel (my international visitor gets the digital copy) and Brenda A. from Florida (who gets the CD and the lovely block). Many thanks to all who commented! The Memory Bouquet quilt has been blushing from all the praise. I fell in love with the Kansas City Quilt Patterns about 20 years ago and decided to draft as many of them as I could. I DID get permission from the Star do go about doing this, first in partnership with Quilt Pro (the quilt design software company) and then for me to independently publish various series. The Star began offering a quilt block per week, beginning in 1928 and continued until 1961. There were well over 1,000! The various series are what I'd like to feature here, beginning with The Memory Bouquet. Memory Bouquet : 63" x 63" The blocks are 9" x 12". I still own this quilt and my dear quilt friends from Atlanta helped me sew the blocks. I compiled all the blocks and ALL the historic informat...

CONTEST IS OVER and I'm in the process of getting contact information from my two winners. Many, many thanks to everyone who left a comment. I gave a sneak peek last week of these colorful, modern feeling fabrics called Geo Pop by Christa Watson. Remember? Geo Pop by Christa Watson for Benartex I finally got some time to cut and stitch some blocks which are a variation of the Seven Sisters block. Want to see what Seven Sisters is? Here are a whole bunch of Seven Sisters done by some amazing students in my class last year. Seven stars; seven sisters. Students from my Seven Sisters class last year I made a variation of the Seven Sisters using an older Benartex line called Sakura. Here are some of the units. Each is made of a 60 degree diamond and two 60 degree triangles. Seven Sisters units Then I put strips on the ends which make them very large blocks (16" high by 19" wide). I thought: table runner. But then I realized I have too many table runners....

Yes. An entire week! Benartex is having an blog hop called Autumn in the Air. Each day's post will go live at 9:30 am. Each of you will have a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the fabrics featured for that day. My post goes live tomorrow. Here is a sneak peek at the fabrics I was given to create with. They are called Harvest Gold . I had fun making something, but you won't know until tomorrow! Harvest Gold fabrics by Benartes Here is the schedule for this week. Keep this in mind and hop over to each one through the week and enter to win some glorious fabrics. Autumn in the Air Hop Schedule Lisa @  Love to Color My World  using  Harvest Berry  by Cheryl Haynes Debby @  Debby Kratovil Quilts  using  Harvest Gold   Sandra @  Mmm! Quilts  using  Thankful  by Amanda Murphy Alison @  Little Bunny Quilts  using  Faboolous Fun I hope to see you back here tomorrow!

Spooktacular Fabrics by Benartex BOO! Uh, I mean, welcome! Thanks for stopping by to see what I've got behind the curtain. Let's see what I've done with this fun collection of Halloween fabrics. Last month I shared about how to create hexagons. Today I share about making octagons into snowballs. I will be making the Snowball block to showcase these novelty prints. I cut a variety of 6-1/2" squares from the other prints; but here you can see my placement of these orange print squares on the fussy cut HELL FIRE square from above. Sew on the diagonal line; trim away 1/4" as shown. Sew on drawn line; trim 1/4" away. Discard small waste triangles Then you need to press . . . Press triangles outward for a neat 6-1/2" unfinished Snowball block Some of the fabrics will use a black square . . . Sew along diagonal line; trim and press Just so I could keep track of where the squares will go and the orange and black triangles, I laid ...

It's Back to School time. (Actually, my grandson has logged two weeks already in first grade, so he's a pro at it.) Windham has lined up seven - that's right - 7 bloggers to showcase their latest lines of fabric and at each stop there is a fat quarter giveaway . Today's my day. Then check the schedule to see the other 6. Remember, at EACH stop is a chance to win a fat quarter bundle and it's open to EVERYONE - USA and international - Yay!!   Contest is over. Now let me show you what I made with the delightful collection called It's a Hoot . I designed a quilt for Windham using this line, but for this post (get ready!) - I didn't make a quilt! Oh, no. Am I sick? It's a Hoot fabrics by Windham I made something that any kid in school would love (and adults, too). And, actually, I need some of these right now because I'm fighting the sniffles. (So yes, I am sick!) Tissue Holders! I have made dozens of these in the past 15 years. I twe...

Amanda Murphy's  Nordic Holiday  fabrics (by Benartex Fabrics) is refreshing, modern and appeals to just about any quilter. Snowflakes, reindeer, bears and a non-traditional holiday color palette combine to inspire all sorts of patterns. Amanda included a lovely reindeer in her collection. Nordic Holiday reindeer I have a similar one I designed in 2004. Reindeer from my Merry Merry quilt I initially was going to bring out my Merry, Merry patterns from 2006. But then I thought "Lone Star." Here are the set of fabrics Benartex sent me. Nordic Holiday fabrics I call this easy because I took out all the y-seams traditionally associated with a Lone Star quilt . I selected two fabrics with good contrast for my star center. I cut two strips of each. Offset the red one as shown here and sewed with 1/4" seam, pressing toward the red print . Using the 45 degree line on my ruler, I lined it up with the seam as shown below. Slice off the s...