This is a repost because I finished the real quilt (seen at bottom of page). In 2017  Windham Fabrics  released a line called  Mesa  and they asked me to design a western theme quilt. I dug around in my thousands of digital files and rediscovered some appliqué patterns from a few years past: a cowboy boot and a cactus. I combined these with my Arrowheads Block and came up with  Arrowheads in the Desert . What do you think? Arrowheads in the Desert : 62" x 62" I love the main print and used it as the backing. Who would want to chop this up? Mesa print Let's see those Arrowhead Blocks. I think they're pretty awesome. You can make them with the templates in the pattern or, if you have a set of Tri-Recs rulers (with an 8" height),  or my own Arrowheads rulers , or even the Creative Grids triangle rulers. Just two triangles creates these blocks. (These are NOT 60 DEGREE angles!) Cut triangles and piece a "triangle in a square" block This technique is popular...

I hope you enjoyed the Benartex Christmas in July webinar today. If you missed it (and my feature of this quilt), check out their Facebook page and their YouTube Channel . Chickadees in the Trees: 50" x 50" using Jackie Robinson's " A Winter's Day" Collection Chickadees in the Trees: 50" x 50" You must own a copy of my Quilter's New Perpetual Block a Day Calendar in order to get the patterns for the 3 blocks used in this quilt (2 trees and the center Star). Check your local quilt shop first. Then check Amazon. ****Fabric Requirements, Cutting and Assembly can be found here: Chickadees in the Trees . Here's a look at the fabrics I used from the Winter's Day Collection and the Equinox Bronze. Here is the Assembly Diagram (which is also in the 3 page pattern link above). Of course, you can make this in any fabrics you wish. But I think you'll love seeing Jackie's fabrics at the Benartex web site - check it out !

Sometimes we make errors. Sometimes they're BIG errors. But the good part is that we can fix them! My new calendar has 3 blocks in December for Hanukkah. One of them slipped through with some serious cutting errors. Let's see 3 of them and then get the FREE pattern : December 4 Four and Nine Block: 16" I remade it using the Golden Harvests fabric by Benartex.  Four and Nine Block in blues and golds Then I have the Jerusalem Block for December 6. It's 10". Here is how it looks in the calendar. I decided that the center needed something exciting so I added my 6" paper pieced dreidel. Jerusalem Block with  paper pieced dreidel  in center. Do you remember my Dreidel Bags that appeared in Quilting Arts Magazine a few years ago. That's the block I used for the center of this! Dreidel gift bags using 6" paper pieced dreidel block The Star of Hope is our FREE block . It's the December 5 block and I got it ALL WRONG in the calendar. The patches are wrong ...

Yum, yum! Cake! Oh, not that kind of cake (though I'm always game for cake). I mean those packs of 10" squares called Layer Cakes. This is a repost from 2 years ago and is something to revisit. Today I share a quilt pattern called  Washington's Puzzle . Traditionally made using funky templates, I converted it using my Magic Stax© technique. I posted about this in 2017 using some Benartex fabrics. I came up with the idea in early 2000 and created several patterns. Here is a set of 1/3 yard cuts I was sent to work with. They are truly color drenched! And if you stay with me, you can have the FREE PATTERN. Think "blender" or "batiks" or anything that reads solid. Color Flow fabrics by Carol Bryer Fallert While many others have done something similar, mine is unique in that the number of patches in a block determines how many squares are in a stack. The stack gets cut ALL at the same time (make sure your rotary cutter has a new blade.) AND - there will be ...

Yes, I live where snow is normal in the Winter. Doesn't mean I like it. It comes and goes and right now it's sitting on my grass and driveway. (The sidewalks were shoveled yesterday). This reminds me of a quilt I "made" a few years ago for P & B Textiles. I say "made" because all I had to do was get the printed top quilted and bound in time for Quilt Market. Snow on my patio table This is a repost from July 2017 . While you may not be able to find these fabrics, red and green is universal. Use a gorgeous print for those panel strips. The stars are easy and this will go together quickly. Snow Play  is a sweet quilt with a Row by Row flavor. The Winter Friends Collection is very traditional with snowmen, stars, pine trees and lots of red and green. Here is a picture of the finished quilt as it hung in my house for a few minutes. My good friend Connie Gallant longarm quilted it for P and B Fabrics and I put the binding on. Snow Play  quilt by Gina Gempesaw ...

February. The month for love and hearts. Did you know this is National Heart Month? A dear friend from my Atlanta days bought a packet of hearts and didn't know what to do with them. She saw some inspiration in a quilt shop the next year and decided to play around with putting them on a single piece of fabric. It appeared in my second book, Supersize 'Em Quilts (2009). I like her super wide binding - it looks like a thin border. FREE pattern is in the link. Jeweled Crazy Hearts  by Jan Jolly: 42" x 42" I took this idea and made it into a workshop in 2009. Students received pre-cut squares with fusible webbing on the back and a heart template. Then they were to place them in one or two arrangements on a large piece of background fabric. We used raw edge machine appliqué to stitch them down. Here are a few versions. This next photo is of REAL fabric. Dancing Hearts Table Runner: 20" x 29" I made one in 1930s fabrics. Actually, two. These photos are a bit fuzzy...

I am always inspired by vintage quilt patterns. Sometimes I don't even realize that what I think is one of my own ideas is actually from someone else's head! This vintage quilt was featured in one of our magazines (Big Block Quilts, 2002) and it must have stuck itself in the back of my mind because it reappeared 13 years later! Whirling Pinwheels: 70" x 70" Let's see the block as it appeared in the Kansas City Star in 1943. Wow - can you believe those templates? It certainly has my brain whirling! Whirling Pinwheel block from 1943 I was sent a fabric collection from Windham several years ago and they challenged me to do something with it. It was called Broken Stripes. Broken Stripes by Windham Fabrics I cut out half circles (first putting fusible interfacing on the wrong side): Rainbow blades Then I put them into a semblance of that Whirling Pinwheel block, except I got rid of all those crazy templates. I machine appliquéd the blades and center circle down. Whirli...

Red Hot Flash is a quilt I designed for Blank Quilting in 2012. It's perfect for sets of 2-1/2" strips in two colors or several. The technique goes back 10 years before that when I first began making my Gretchen Quilt - no templates, of course! This quilt as shown is 59" x 70". (Yes, I shared the pattern again in 2019, but there are always new folks to this blog.) Red Hot Flash  by Debby Kratovil for Blank Quilting This is what I said in 2012: Well, I guess it's the nature of my age, that I would name a quilt after how I feel all the time. Why doesn't my husband understand that I need to have the AC turned down to 50 degrees? This pattern is for a brand new quilt I designed and sewed for Blank Quilting using ONLY one set of 2-1/2" strips. One set of 40 strips (2-1/2") Their sets of 40 strips are called Fabrications and other than the binding and a black and white swirly background print, I used all of the 40 strips for this 59" x 70" quilt...

My Block a Day Calendar from 2007 still sits on my desk. I turn the pages each day to see some lovely blocks. Today is October 30 and the block is Wild Good Chase. Here is the stylized shot from Patricia Bryant who made every single one of my blocks! October 30: Wild Goose Chase, 10" Yes, there are a lot of triangles, but it goes together very well. Here is the FREE pattern for both sizes (10" and 15"). I took every calendar block and showed how 4 blocks look together. If you make four of the 15" Wild Goose Chase blocks, that makes for a 30" quilt center! Enjoy!

When I love a fabric collection, I like to squeeze the very last snippet of fabric from it. This Stacked Jewels quilt shows what I mean. Can you see what I did? Regency Dandy Stacked Jewels #2: 46" x 48" Here's a clue: check out the jewel patches below and compare with some of those in the outside rows. These were cut from 60 degree diamonds. I cut off one of the points in each. I made another quilt earlier in the year that uses the same jewels and different borders. I donated this to my local quilt guild. Same quilt center with the same number of patches. These borders are slightly wider. Regency Dandy Stacked Jewels #1: 48" x 49" OK. I'll give you a hint: 6 of the jewels in the first quilt are PIECED! I absolutely did not have enough fabric to cut whole jewels, so I pieced them together. Do you think the recipient will mind? Probably won't even notice! It's a finished quilt and will bring a smile to whomever gets it, I'm sure. I still have 2 qu...