I teased you the other day with the center of my Star of David table topper . I made this last year using the Pearl Essentials Collection by Benartex. I showed a few process steps last year but never got around to finishing it. Here she is: Star of David Double Star Table Topper : 24" x 28" The center diamonds are cut using that 60 degree line on your acrylic ruler that you really weren't sure what to do with! Huh? Look here: Cutting diamonds at a 60 degree angle And then those two sizes of triangles (small light blue and large medium blue). ANY multi-sized 60 degree ruler with a blunted tip will do the trick. And no fabric waste, either! Cutting triangles using a 60 degree ruler This is my first assembly on my design board. The start of my design process Then after I realized this would need to use set-in seams, I pulled everything down and put on my thinking cap! Almost done! Here is a closeup of my quilting: Center of the Star of Da...

I shared a few of these blocks with you a few weeks ago . I was able to make a sweet quilt using this awesome Foxwood Collection from Windham Fabrics. The fabric is in quilt shops this month, so you may want to see if it's come to a store near you! I decided to play with some English Paper Piecing using hexagons and pentagons. What do you think? Animal hexagons and coordinating pentagons This is the first block: Such a sweet hedgehog! Then I decided to add some corner triangles. Here are my geese. Geese block with corner triangles I made a LOT of these fussy cut animals. I turned them into cards for my grandkids: Fusible backed hedgehogs. Card stock cards I also made some cards with extra hexagons: For my grandson Javier and granddaughter Eva But what about the quilt, you say? Well, I'm glad you asked! This has now become my absolute favorite quilt. I only had fat quarters of the collection so I had to get creative with the borders. Not to worry - ...

It seems that I never make one version of any pattern I design. I always play with other fabrics to show how the pattern will look dressed in other "clothes." My Hexagon Wreath and Stars is just one of those patterns. I designed it for Creative Grids to showcase their multi-sized 60 degree triangle ruler. ( I sell my own 8-1/2" ruler for quite a bit less !) Here is the original blue and white quilt: Hexagon Wreath and Stars : 39" x 43" Don't panic! There are no y-seams anywhere. Honest! Let's see some of the parts using some Christmas novelty prints (little dancing mice). Each of these patches is cut using a standard acrylic ruler with the 60 degree lines (for the diamonds) and the 60 degree triangle ruler (which most of you already own). Below is one of the 6 units stitched for the center. Hexagon Wreath and Stars unit Then you sew them into sets of 3 for two halves. Can you see the stars forming?!! Two halves of the quilt center ...

One of the earliest Hanukkah themed quilts I made was about 22 years ago. It was published in Quilt Magazine. I based it on some fabrics with printed Stars of David and menorahs. I pieced small blue and white pinwheels and set them on point. These blocks are 3-1/2" square (finished). Festival of Lights (1998) I also patterned this in two of my Block a Day calendars. This one uses only 9 blocks. This appeared in my 2019 calendar. The Stars of David and menorahs are appliquéd. The pinwheels are pieced. 9 Block Hanukkah Quilt This block is English Paper Pieced from the Block a Day Hexagon calendar by Katja Marek. This is the December 18 block. It will make a beautiful coaster. Or I could appliqué it to a small gift bag. English paper pieced block: December 18 I still have small bits of this navy fabric with the Jewish symbols. I plan on a few more EPP blocks. Next time I'll be sharing my wonderful Hanukkah Star quilt, which is a variation of my Double Star pa...

You may remember this post from last December. I love looking at antiques and these certainly qualify. Vintage Christmas ornaments and pillows still live with me! No. I didn't inherit these. Nor did I find these in an antique store. I made them decades ago (how's 40 years for a few of them? That's vintage, right?) I've been married for over 42 years and began making holiday ornaments to decorate our home from the very first year. As I unpacked my Christmas box a few weeks ago, I marveled that I still had some of these. This goose pillow was a free pattern at a local fabric store (Minnesota Fabrics). They had a special demo day in late November with samples, a stage presentation, and a FREE multi-page booklet of all the lovely Christmas projects and gift ideas. I remember how excited I was to get out of the house and leave my husband with two babies while I slipped away for 2 hours to be inspired in my favorite craft: SEWING! I made one for me and one for my mother...

First, some housekeeping. Comments for anyone not a follower of my blog are turned off because I've been inundated with porn spam from outside and I can't keep up with deleting them. You can always send me comments via email: kratovil@his.com. I hope this is a temporary measure! Now, for the first day of my Hanukkah posts. I had a small bit of some special Hanukkah fabrics from 15 years ago and I used it to make some cards. These window cards can be bought at a Michaels or other craft supply store. Sure, those are snowflakes, but Christmas doesn't have exclusive rights to them! Hanukkah cards I had made some little gift bags 15 years ago. Navy stars and sprinkles. That awesome dreidel motif was fussy cut and fused on the bag. I don't have any more of that. Dreidel gift bag I showed this photo to Quilting Arts back in 2015 and they picked up my pattern. I rewrote it and made a few new bags. Do you remember seeing these? You have lots of time between now ...

Oh, it's SO HOT outside! But that doesn't mean we can't think about Christmas! This is a perfect quilt to get a head start on your Christmas quilting. 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 for P and B Textiles Quilt Size: 54" x 66". Block Size: 9" Let's see the special quilting Connie used: Beautiful quilting by Connie Gallant on the  Snow Play  quilt Now, how in the world did this quilt make it to m...