Mister Domestic’s new fabric line is called Snow Day and it’s perfect for some cozy winter sewing projects! Check out all the projects made by other makers this month as part of the Snow Day Project Party. My guild, the Madison Modern Quilt Guild does a Block Lotto every month and I swear this comes back to Snow Day so just hang in there. The block we made in December was this Winter Mittens block by Sewfreshquilts. I decided to make a block out of Snow Day fabric for the gal who won all the blocks, and it was so fun to make I decided to make four more and turn them into a mini quilt. I real ..read more

I joined the Benzie Designs Maker Team this year, and my first project with them is a great way to make heartfelt gifts for loved ones far away. We are social distancing and that means lots of cancelled trips to see family. The kids and I made Heart Pillows for their Aunt and Nanna to remind them of how much the kids love and miss them. Find the complete tutorial and free pattern piece on the Benzie Blog. The kids are really proud of their versions. Hazel made a purse for her Aunt Deb, and Alice made a pillow for her Nanna (which she now has decided to keep. Nanna laughed and asked to see pic ..read more

Lotus Blossom Quilt I’ve just released my Lotus Blossom Quilt so you can make it at home! The pattern is available on PDF and will most likely not be available for sale as a print pattern. Lotus Blossom includes a coloring page, cutting tags for maximum organization, and pattern pieces that are easy to print and assemble. The finished quilt is one of two sizes: a 41 x 56 inch crib and an 82 x 112 inch queen. Inspiration May all beings be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. I wanted to design a quilt that represented the peace and thoughtfulness of Immeasureable Compassion. (For mor ..read more

Many of us have found ourselves working from home while educating our children because of school closures during the COVID-19 Pandemic, so without further ado, here is a list of some resources that may help us. These are almost all free ideas for providing school quality education for your kids while social distancing. Add ideas in the comments if you would and I’ll make sure to add links to this post so we all have just a big long running list! I am eternally grateful to Isthmus Montessori Academy Public in Madison, Wisconsin, and to so many of my friends across the internet for providing an ..read more

My family has gotten really into playing role playing games. The kids get super into being a character with magical powers. I am always a giant warrior or strapping hero (maybe this has something to do with the fact that I’m only 5’1” in real life?). We got our own unique sets of die at I’m Board! by picking out our favorite combinations of colors, but didn’t really have a way of storing them securely. I made some Komebukuro bags for the kids a while back and figured tiny versions would be really easy and perfect for our die ..read more

I recently taught some students how to weave into their jackets in a Weave Your Jacket class at Blue Bar Quilts. During class I showed photos of work I’ve seen on Instagram. So I thought it would be fun to do a quick round up here on the blog. If you’d like to make your own woven jacket, grab a second hand or old denim jacket, some scraps of fabric, a set of WEFTY Needles, and pull up the free tutorial Weave Your Jacket ! My favorite way to weave into a jacket is with 1/2 inch strips, but it’s not the only way. Here is Kerry Foster’s (@pennydog) jean jacket she wove using 1 inch finished strip ..read more

Advertisement for the WEFTY Needle as found in the Checker Distribution October-December 2019 Catalog. Working with distributors is a natural step forward for a small business, and a sign that you are growing. The trajectory WEFTY took was selling retail through Instagram posts, then retail online, after which I began selling wholesale to other retailers (online as well as brick and mortar). Enough retailers requested my product from Checker Distributors that one of their buyers reached out and helped me prepare my product and business f ..read more

I’ve seen a whole lot of these rag wreaths all over the internet and decided to make one for my front door! I knew I would be adding a bow made of quilting cotton, but wanted to make it so that it would hold it’s shape. I thought about trying interfacing, but settled on adding wires into little sewn tubes or channels. It worked really well, and the directions for this are below. My initial belief was that I would be able to make a 14” wreath with my scraps, but I didn’t have enough holiday fabric in my scraps OR stash. So I bought a beautiful print with which to make a bow, and then some Bella ..read more

I had the pleasure of teaching my Tumbling Triplets class to over a dozen members of the Madison Sewing Guild recently. Predominantly garment sewists, this group deviated from my usual groups of quilters. Quilters typically catch on to putting shapes together to create a block, so once they see how a triaxial weave is made up of 60 degree diamonds, they’re off and running. Garment sewists have their own super power, as I quickly learned. Their selection of prints are out of this world! They did such an amazing job, and I wanted to share some of their work in this blog post. What you’ll see in ..read more