Day Two of more Palm quilts. But did you ever think about WHY this is called the Palm block? The Hosannah Block? If you've ever been in church the week before Easter you may have seen a procession of little Sunday School kids come up the church aisle waving palm leaves and singing some Easter chorus. They are acting out the historical re-enactment of when Jesus rode into town on a donkey and the crowds were waving palm branches. Do you remember that? Doesn't matter. The Palm block is one of my favorites. It's easy to make using paper piecing. Here is my master and a stack of newsprint stapled together so I can make multiple copies using "needle punch" with my sewing machine. And what it looks like with fabric attached: Just four blocks to make up this quilt. I proposed it for my 3rd book but it didn't make the cut. Casablanca Palms from 2011 I used an older collection to make a single block into a pillow. It looks pretty saucy there, standing upright like that...

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...

You don't have to celebrate Easter to enjoy looking at all the Hosannah/Palm quilts I've made over the years. This is based on the traditional (vintage) Palm block that was made with templates. OOOHHHH! Here's a photo of the way this was presented about 100 years ago. This is from Ruby McKim (though she did not create the original). And here's a cover of another quilt block booklet from that long ago. And that has a page with those pesky templates for making this! Bible Favorites Blocks booklet from 100 years ago I have made many, many blocks and about a dozen quilts using this lovely Palm block. I converted everything to foundation paper piecing and didn't have to worry about the points. The first versions I made were split down the center. Here's a digital file from 1999. Foundation paper pieced Palm block in 2 sections I even have a single block that I use when I teach this workshop. Can you see the diagonal seam running from top left to bottom right? Here it...

I taught my popular Twisted Hexagons workshop last month and decided to take a set of sample blocks and turn them into another quilt. This quilt has been in process for at least 8 years and it was just time to "get 'er done!" Twisted Hexagons . 10" blocks; 42" x 47" Those toile motifs in the center are from a 2008 collection by Windham Fabrics. I made several other quilts from those prints and had just enough left over to capture these 9 scenes. The fun floral border is from a Benartex collection. I'm not usually a fan of browns, but this quilt is one exception! Let me show you what I did with these fabrics for my last book . I  captured a very large motif in the center of this quilt which I called "Toile Garden Medallion." That center is 15" in diameter! Toile Garden Medallion: 36" x 36" When I taught this workshop for a few years, I had a second center motif with the flying geese. I retired the workshop and then finished the ...

I came upon this quilt photo the other day. I made the quilt some 23 years ago using an adapted pattern from another designer (Elizabeth Carlson). The quilt is long gone and I'm tempted to remake it. I actually still have the freezer paper templates! Curves and Birds: 15" x 15" The reason I was thinking about it is that I'm making new samples for my Tight Knit Circles workshop. The curves are similar to my freeform ones in the pattern. Don't you just love the addition of those two birds in that green border? Ingenious, right? I made a quilt that captures bird prints inside some curved photo corners. This pattern is almost 20 years old (2004); the quilt is a remake using some Benartex fabrics. First, what I call the " photo corners ." They look like what we have in our framed photos! Interfaced raw edge appliqué photo corners This is how I captured the bird print using a freezer paper template: Catching the bird inside the frame Here is the mini quilt fr...

Meadow Whispers  is a collection from several years ago. It has BUTTERFLIES on several skus. I used a simple block design from my  Colorburst Squares  workshop which has 3 variations of the Cobblestone block. I shared these a few years ago. I had some leftover fabrics and so . . . The butterflies of  Meadow Whispers Here is the fabric collection with those lovely butterflies on the left (3 colors). I was working with fat quarters only. I sewed until I exhausted myself (ha ha - I'm joking, of course). My method for making these is to stack 10-1/2" squares and cut them in pairs according to which one of the blocks I'm aiming for. My  Colorburst Squares pattern  simplifies it even further. Here are the 3 different blocks. Block 1 is the standard Cobblestone. Cobblestone Block #1: 10" finished For the first quilt, I used the 3 different blocks in my Colorburst Squares pattern . I made a total of 30 blocks - but I didn't use up all those fat quarters. I tri...

I had a bundle of 2 fat quarters with some other yardage in a theme: Butterflies! Yes, I know I blogged about them the other day, but this is a NEW quilt. I combined two older Windham collections to make a sweet baby quilt for our local guild's charity endeavors. (I cut and sewed this in just a few hours yesterday) I had some "Wonder" and some "Painted Wings". I figured out how to cut it up so I could make a 9 block quilt. Yes, I still use paper and pencil! Nine 6-1/2" squares from a fat quarter of butterfly print I only had a fat quarter of that turquoise and 8-1/2" x wof of the yellow stripe. If I cut carefully, I could get enough 2" strips to surround the butterfly squares. If I sewed the yellow 6-1/2" strips onto the tops and bottoms of the squares and the blue 6-1/2" strips onto the sides, then I wouldn't have a pressing issue. Sewing sequence for the 9 blocks Here are the 9 blocks stitched together. Those horizontal seams are p...