"Retro inspired" - that's how Windham Fabrics describes Merry-Go-Round . What do you think? 23  Merry-Go-Round  fabrics One of the 23 lovely prints There is a large 108" backing that's got a Double Wedding Ring motif printed on it. Now, that's an easy way to get one of those quilts! My friend Julia R (one of my Calendar Girls and a quilt guild buddy) asked for a piece so she could teach her daughter how to hand quilt. I can't wait to see it! She'll be working with a 1 yard cut (36" x 44"). DWR cheater cloth Here's a simple DWR I made as a teaching sample several years ago using some 1930s reproduction prints. Many are Windham reproductions. I paper pieced the curved arches and then interfaced the edges to turn them under and appliquéd them to the cream background! The four corner half-square triangles gave me the straight edges! I have been sewing with the awesome 1930s reproduction prints for almost 20 years. This new collection is beg...

 Here we are on Page 64 with the Gretchen Quilt. This is an updated version of the vintage block from the 1930s. Here is how it ran in the Kansas City Star: Page from the Kansas City Star, 1932 How do you like those templates? I certainly didn't and decided to work some magic with my rotary cutter. Now we cut out two sizes of squares and trim them after adding the small triangles. This is what I got: Red, black and White Gretchen quilt : 9" blocks. 61" x 70" quilt This became a popular workshop and I still teach it. Students are always shocked at how easy it is to make and how we work our magic with the rotary cutters! Check out that link to see several other quilts in a variety of fabrics and colors, like this one in Kaffe Fassett prints: The Gretchen Quilt : 48" x 48" Back to an earlier page called "Shopping the Net" which described the NEW activity of shopping online. Remember, this was almost 20 years ago and it was like the Wild West. Page 16...

I guess you could all me a Calendar Girl since I've published 18 quilting calendars over the years! Three wall calendars and 15 desktop Block a Day calendars. I was glad when my publishers decided to stop them after 2020 - my brain was SO empty! Last year for the desktop calendars I began the desktop calendars in 2006. I drew all the art, wrote all the directions, calculated all the supplies for dozens and dozens of quilts and several hundred blocks FOR EACH YEAR! Yes, I did this until 2020. In the meantime, the original publisher was purchased by Andrews McMeel - the largest calendar publisher in the world and they decided they would also like a few wall calendars. I found this easier to do since I only offered them previously published quilts (and all the instructions were written!) 2012 Wall Calendar of Quilts featuring Snow Crystals Many of the quilts in the calendar I sell individually. It's a bargain to get 13 of them on the calendar! Let me show you a few of these quilts...

Today's quilters are just not that excited to work with funky templates. I think the reason why my senior editor named me her Special Projects Editor was because she discovered early on that I love shortcuts and easy ways to otherwise difficult traditional quilts. The Gretchen is a case in point. Here is a page from the Kansas City Star, 1932. What do you think of those templates? Yikes, right!? Inside that "Debby Kratovil Issue" was my updated version of the Gretchen Quilt . I used a black and red and white collection by Blank Fabrics. The Gretchen Quilt (61" x 70") I was able to create some little tricks with a rotary cutter and the blocks go together so quickly with just simple squares and triangles. This has always been a popular workshop and I actually taught it to a guild via Zoom a few months ago. And it worked! Here are a few other versions (ie, different colors). This one was made with a fabric collection by Red Rooster. It was published the next year ...

This is a repost from last March. I've even surprised myself with so many versions of this quilt! How in the world have I made so many of these Gretchen quilts? Do you know what I'm talking about? The updated version of the vintage block called, well,  Gretchen ! My latest one is made from 16 different Kaffe Fassett fabrics and some awesome shot cottons. I had 7 blocks as samples for when I taught this class 2 years ago as a workshop. I tend to make a LOT of class samples so my students can get an idea of how a pattern looks dressed up in different colors. Scrappy Gretchen Quilt : 45" x 45" I found these blocks I made about 2 years ago. They looked lonely. I thought, "Why not make some more?" Ha! I did. This batch is slightly smaller than the group of 7, but I stitched them together so my students could see how that looks. 4 Gretchen Blocks Then I dug into my scrap basket and cut squares of prints with squares of solids (in this case, shot cottons). Two size...