I have had a personal Facebook page for several years. How else would I see and hear what's happening with my grandkids without a phone call? But I started getting dozens and dozens of "friend" requests from people I never met. I guess they heard that I was a quilter who puts dozens and dozens of quilt pictures on my page (it has a different feel than this blog). Just last week I had almost 100 "friend" requests from total strangers. My wise daughter said, "Mom. You need a professional page. It's got to be open to everybody. This way anyone can see your quilts, your tutorials, what you're working on day to day and you save your personal page for your family and real friends. That's what I did: As you can see, the background quilt is the one appearing in the current issue of McCall's. My photo? Well, old age stinks, right? Type in Quilter by Design (if you are on Facebook; I know some of you don't do Facebook and I totally unde...

We are done with the red and green; now it's time for the red and white! Remember these luscious reds from Benartex last year? Selection of red fabrics from Benartex And then I cut out some mystery letters that got mixed up and I "forgot" what I was going to spell. Remember these letters? Here's my technique for cutting out applique. I transfer the template to freezer paper and then iron it to the RIGHT side of the fabric (which has fusible webbing on the wrong side). No need to "mirror image" the template! Cool, huh? The letter O (easy to see)  And my Y: I unscrambled them and made a small quilt out of some of the letters and I have a few left over. I will be sharing my quilt in a post on February 1 in partnership with Benartex. (For those following my Calendar Girls BOM, I will reveal the February project on January 31) This is a small Hearts on Fire quilt I made using some Benartex batiks. The pattern is no longer available (reme...

Card holders for Christmas money Remember I gave you a link for a quick pattern for these? I made one for each of my 3 daughters and 2 sons in law, along with my 2 grandsons and little granddaughter. Each one has symbols specific to their interests - I even had some bobby pin fabric (the peach colored one) for my daughter Hilary who has always been the Bobby Pin Queen. I found an wonderful crochet pattern for Ninja Turtle hats for my grandsons. Yikes - way too big. Ninja Turtle hats for little grandsons These hats turned out too large! I'll have to remake them. They fit my daughter Valery (29), so yes - these are too big for pre-school boys. Valery wearing a Ninja Turtle hat which was supposed to be sized for preschool kids! Daughter Hilary asked for a laptop bag. I even put pockets inside. Laptop bag with zipper  And the inside? Inside bag with pockets. And yes, I've been quilting. Have another project for an upcoming Keepsake Catalog issue. This us...

The Sewing Expo Returns to Atlanta March 10 - 12, 2016 This is my 10th year teaching for the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo and I'm delighted to be returning to Atlanta! I lived there for 8 years and always love to be back. And I get to see my favorite youngest daughter, too! Here are my classes. 1. Ezekiel’s Crown:  http://www.sewingexpo.com/AtlantaGA/ClassDetail/tabid/676/EventID/125/ClassID/9248/Default.aspx           Thursday, March 10 at 8:30 - 11:30 am Foundation piece this awesome block and learn how easy it is to incorporate gentle curves for a show-stopper project Ezekiel's Crown: 9" blocks, 40" x 40" quilt 2. Machine Quilting: Basics and Beyond:  http://www.sewingexpo.com/AtlantaGA/ClassDetail/tabid/676/EventID/125/ClassID/9246/Default.aspx      Thursday, March 10 from 1 - 4 pm in the Handi Quilter sit down studio  Machine Quilting using stencils Using freezer paper for a simple outline...

I pay attention to the amount of sunlight we get each day. Or the lack thereof. Yes, I don't live in Alaska or Scandinavia. Still, November and December are too dark for me. I look forward to the shortest day of the year because that means that the days will be getting longer after that! How better to celebrate the Winter Solstice than to make a quilt block. Forget the pagan stuff swirling around this - I like the sun for the sunshine! I began with one idea and it morphed into another, mainly because of my available fabrics. I was looking for a bright orange and found it in the Benartex Fabricadabra Collection by Paula Nadelstern. And then I saw that I had the companion panels and my creative juices began to flow. Fabracadabra panel, one motif of three in a 42" cut I wanted a hexagon shaped sun (what's new about that, huh?) So, in order to capture the entire motif and not ruin the one next to it, I had to cut my freezer paper hexagon at 11" for a finis...

It was a challenge to find a winner for my Little Katerina blog post! The Random Number Generator kept giving me a number that came up with a "no-reply" comment post (several, if you must know). Then I found a LIVE email and sent her not one but two notices that she WON. Never heard from her. Gave her 4 days. Then I selected the 10th time and BINGO! My winner is Sally W of Vancouver, Washington. Congratulations, Sally! I have a new pattern with Keepsake Quilting catalog and Audrey discovered that the pattern was out of stock and wrote to me directly to buy one. She got it just in time to make her version for a baby shower gift. Isn't it lovely? Audrey's Butterfly Quilt: 34" x 34"  And here is how it appears in the catalog: My 1930s version of Storybook Butterflies Quilt And now for a quick gift you CAN make in time for Christmas. This is a link to a blog I follow - Geta's Quilting Studio . I am making one of these for my 3 daughters and ...

Yes, I have a lot of Christmas quilts. Remember, I've been sewing FOR A LIVING for 24 years and I'm only as good as my next quilt. Typically, I'm sent a new fabric collection by a fabric company and without them telling me what to do (those are my strict rules for playing), I let the fabrics tell ME what they want. No kidding! The following was a Blank Quilting collection called Holiday Splendor from 2010. I was in a Lone Star mood (and I still am, if truth be known) and so this fabric said: GIANT Lone Star. I had to piece bits of fabric together to make the borders fit. This was rejected by several magazines (what do they know?) and so I made it a workshop and called it "One Day Lone Star." Yes, in a 6 hour workshop you can get most of the center done. That's because everything is ROTARY cut using normal numbers! Star of Splendor - 35" Block, 48" x 48" Quilt. Quilted by Connie Gallant This quilt is fully patterned along with 12 others i...