I like to say that to a quilter - any piece of fabric says "make me into a quilt!" But, this time, a piece of pre-quilted fabric wanted to become an apron. But I do NOT like to sew using someone else's patterns and technique. Too many words. Too many mixed up ideas. It takes about 20 pages to get to the point (the same goes for online food recipes; enough said!) This is an apron I made at least 40 years ago that I pull out every Christmas. This became my pattern! OLD and well used Christmas apron I bought this pre-printed panel from a now defunct store called Minnesota Fabrics. You didn't think I pieced all those beautiful stars, did you?!! I added the backing and a thin batting. The binding/ties were part of the panel. Just sew it together and it's done! My daughter Hilary asked me to make her an apron for her linocut printing (ink on paper and fabric). She showed me one I made for her about 15 years ago and I no longer have the pattern. Hilary's old apron! I...

I have been a professional quilter (sewing for the camera) for 30 years. From my 14 years as an editor with Quilt Magazine, we had partnerships with all the major fabric companies. That meant that I have been showered with free fabric over that time. Bundle of fat quarters from Windham. The Foundation Collection I dug into these and made some EPP hearts. I used to save all my scraps and cut them into usable pieces (ie, 5” charm squares, 2-1/2” jelly roll strips, etc) but now I don’t save anything smaller than a fat quarter. I share all my leftovers with my local quilt guild. I do have a large tub of Kaffe Fasset strips and scraps for string piecing. Big plastic tub of Kaffe Fassett scraps Here's one scrap buster quilt I made from my KF scraps: String Pieced Scrap Buster : 49" x 59" I used to arrange my fabrics by color. Once I sewed with a coordinated collection and had the quilt published, I split up the leftover parts and put them on bookcase shelves according to color....