Back to squares. They can be cut into triangles, rectangles and now in half along an angle. Think of a square that is divisible by 3. Ie, 6". Draw a line from the top (at 2") to the bottom (at 4"). Do the same with the sides. Here is my quilt made about 20 years ago, but I also inserted thin black strips between the patches. I call this my Stained Glass Pickup Sticks : Stained Glass Pickup Sticks : 54" x 54" My blocks are larger than charm squares. I actually started with 10-1/2" squares, but you can make this with 9" squares, which is perfect for those Layer Cakes you have hoarded in your sewing room! Here is how I did it with larger 10-1/2" squares (which ARE divisible by 3): Carolyn calls this shape an "Offset Square." She provides the odd template on page 30 or you can use the simple cutting I've described above. And she shows a few design ideas, too! 20 To Make One-Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forste r. One Patch Quilts by Carolyn F...

I had a request yesterday from someone for my Hearts on Fire quilt pattern. I realized I didn't have it up at my Etsy shop, so I reactivated it. Do you remember this? All raw edge appliqué using batiks. Hearts on Fire : 46" x 63" I made this quilt almost 25 years ago. I donated it for a charity fund raiser (never doing that again!) and I truly hope the new owner treasures it. Here are a few of the steps I took when I made a smaller quilt using some Benartex fabrics: Five block Hearts on Fire What's fun is that when you cut out the larger hearts, you get a small heart as a bonus! A left and right half-heart with bonus tiny heart halves Then, as you cut using freezer paper as your template, you can get another set of small hearts out of the fabric rectangles. Here is a single block from the front after stitching. The rectangle halves are stitched FIRST, and then joined with the center vertical seam. Single heart block Here is a closeup from the back. Yes, I clipped awa...

 Oh, calm down. Not THAT kind of rattlesnake. Why would I do that to you? Some of this is a repost from 7 years ago because I've revisited my box of paper pieced rattle snake blocks this weekend. I rarely use anyone else's pattern (I don't get paid to do that), but I took a class 20  27 years ago with the Karen Stone paper pieced Rattlesnake pattern as the feature. I made a quilt out of flannels and it somehow fell into the hands of my daughter who used it for the dog to snuggle in. Want to see that? Original Rattlesnake quilt I used this pattern, published in 1996: Karen Stone's Rattlesnake pattern I have made a variety of units since that first quilt, some made with batiks. These will be stitched into background units to become 10" blocks: Batik paper pieced units This is what the unit looks like from the paper side after trimming: Single foundation Here are some of the batik blocks on my design wall. 10" Rattlesnake blocks being auditioned on my design wall...

What? Coffee filters in quilts? How in the world . . .? My husband and I drink coffee every, single morning. No exception. 25 years ago I looked at a circular coffee filter and thought: Hmmmm. I wonder if I could stitch some random strips onto the paper. I cut the filter in half and did some string piecing. I still have that sample somewhere, but I can't find it to show you. I went on to make some quarter-circle blocks, foundation piecing with those coffee filters. Here's my first quilt from 2001. I used some fairy-themed novelty fabrics. Fairy Love Ring ( Coffee Filter Fans ): 33" x 33" In a few years I  began to teach it as a workshop. I made more samples and even offered kits of fabric to my students. It was very popular as well as fun. The coffee filters are about 9-1/2" in diameter. 12 Block Coffee Filter Fans : 24" x 30" Here's another one that I had published in a quilting magazine in 2007. My Etsy pattern also includes this version. Coffee F...

Sometimes I like to revisit projects that never made it to the finish line. I was sent a bundle of Bali batiks back in 2007 and was asked to create something. The colors reminded me of all the blazing colors we see here on the East Coast of the USA in the Fall. Even that purple shows up in our trees! Stack of batiks in Autumn colors I am NOT an artist. I basically draw stick figures when my grandkids ask me to draw something. Somehow I got this tree and ground drawn sort of freeform. Leaves were easy. That little curved foot bridge is a bit wonky. The left side border fabric is just sitting there. Blazing Autumn Tree This is as far as I got. Not sure where that little sample is today. I think I put it in a giveaway pile at my quilt guild meeting. I look at this from time to time. Love the colors. I think one of the (many) reasons it was rejected by Bali is that it couldn't be patterned. It would be too big. I did play around with those bright batiks and set some of my Snow ...

What? Diamonds ARE jewels, aren't they? Yes, but they are a different shape when it comes to quilting. Let me tell you a story from 6 years ago using some lovely batiks from Benartex. I  always likes to say that I let the fabrics tell me what they would like to become. Whether they whisper to me or send text messages to my cell phone - I trust what they say!  Let me share some steps from a 2016 blog post using two batik collections as directed by the fabrics. Batiks from the  Dolce  and  Rio  Collections by Benartex We were assigned to create a project for a week long blog hop. Here are the five colors I chose for my project from the lovely Dolce and Rio collections.  Five fabrics for my flowers I am still enamored with hexagon shaped blocks and patches. The most recent is the jewel (some call it a gem). I discovered how to cut it  using a standard acrylic ruler with 60 degree lines and a 60 degree multi sized triangle ruler. For a finished 6" hig...

Sometimes I get to make a quilt more than once or twice. I have used my Fractured Jewels pattern in that way. Yes, there is a FREE pattern , but some of it is improvisational. Does that make you nervous?! Here is the center to my first quilt made in 2013 using some solids by Windham Fabrics. It is a spiral Log Cabin. Center of my Fractured Jewels quilt This is a FREE pattern at their website. Here is the quilt before it was quilted. Check it out as it appears at their website . Very simple quilting. The little bits of irregular size are where the improvisation occurs. Then I went on to make it again for Windham. It hangs in my oldest daughter's house. Same concept as the one above - a spiral Log Cabin. Fractured Jewels Spiral Log Cabin And THEN I went on to make it for Benartex using some of their batiks. This appeared in their 5th issue of Modern by the Yard digital magazine. Go check it out for the FREE PATTERN ! This link will take you to their 2017 blog post and you will click...

You may remember this blog post from October 2019. I'm updating it with my finished quilt!  I received this bundle of 25 fat quarters from the Michael Miller  Tropical Batiks  collection in early 2019. I couldn't believe the motifs and the rich colors. Fat quarter bundle of  Tropical Batiks  by Michael Miller Oh. You want me to open it up and show you all the fabrics? I can do that! Tropical Batiks  in all their glory! I have worked with batiks for about 23 years and find that the simpler the pattern, the more the fabric gets to do the work. These are fat quarters and that challenges me to make the best use of the fabric. I developed a series of patterns in the early 2000s that I call Magic Stax. They all start with 10-1/2" squares and are stacked in a small pile and are cut at the same time (ie, stacks of 5 or 6 or 9). Then the patches are shuffled, swapped and stitched. I had several different quilts published in quilt magazines and decided to revisit one...