Friend Cheri shares her leftovers with me from time to time. It is always exciting to get a new bag of possibilities. Sort and straighten and ask, “What do you want to be?” Somehow, I was seeing stars. And that gave me a place to start. I added a few fabric scraps from stash and adjusted as I went along. I don’t even know how I would write a pattern, or even a tutorial for something like this. It is an interesting process, though. A discovery every step of the way. And the, Ta-dah! A quilt! Finished size is 33″ x 38″. It has been gifted to a co-worked expecting a baby girl soon ..read more

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When I first had the idea to create a Film at Five quilt based on 1-1/2″ squares, it seemed so innocent. At this point, using it as mostly a leader-ender, there are 100 25-patches for the centers and 220 sashing strips for between the blocks. Yep, 4040 pieces later, and there is still a long way to go. Ah, well, quilting requires not so much patience as persistence. After all, the longest seam stitched so far is only 5-1/2″. Mere seconds. You just have to be willing to do it a few thousand times. It shall be finished, but not for a while. Perhaps sometime during the summer ..read more

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You know by now how these things get started: someone gives me something. In this case, as part of a larger bundle of possibilities, there were three matching 6-1/2″ applique hearts. Much too cute to trash. I did consider pot holders, or a table runner, or a banner. But what they wanted to be was a baby quilt. I had a little bundle of fat eights that “happened” to match perfectly. I love it when that happens. All that was needed was some background fabric and something to make centers for 6-1/2″ star blocks. I really wanted to make the centers as 4-patches using the bundle fabric, but there j ..read more

This is another of the charity quilt kits Sparkle Jane and I created several years ago. One of my goals this year is to get them all put together and delivered to people who can use them. The colors scheme came from the tipi print–too cute! Some colors are all the same, and some are mixed scraps. Works for me! There is nothing wrong with simple quilts. They have their own appeal ..read more

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I KNOW I saw a tutorial for this, but now I can’t find it. If you know of it, please tell me and I will update the post. So, the point is that I had this pile of novelty fabric squares that needed a job. An Eye Spy quilt is the obvious solution, but I felt that there was something more possible. I love the way this turned out. I had yardage of this interesting green, and it seems to highlight without overwhelming. (More of it will be featured in another upcoming quilt.) If you squint, you might recognize that the squares are laid out (mostly) alternating dark and light squares. It adds anoth ..read more

This quilt started as an experiment with fat quarters. I had seen a few similar quilts and wanted to give it a try. This version uses 9 fat quarters. Three prints and 6 solids. The quilt finishes at 40″ x 48″. Each block has a center cut at 4-1/2″ x 4-1/2″, some plain squares, and some created as hourglass blocks made of two squares starting at 5-1/2″ x 5-1/2″. The outside of the blocks is two rectangles 2-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ and two rectangles 2-1/2″ x 8-1/2″. It went together quickly and is finished and delivered to a neighbor as a spring surprise. She seemed very pleased. I acknowledge that th ..read more