In this age of mass-production, creating something by hand can be incredibly rewarding. Quilting is one craft that not only allows you to create beautiful, lasting pieces of art, but it’s also a great way to make something special from spare fabric, or “scraps.” Whether you’re a beginner or a master quilter, the scrappy quilt technique can be a great way to use up fabric leftovers, create a unique patchwork quilt, and be more sustainable in your fabric use in the process. With that said, let’s explore the world of scrappy quilts and discuss 10 tips to help you create a beautiful and unique pie ..read more

Scrap quilts are one of the most fun and creative ways to use your fabric stash! A scrap quilt is a style of patchwork quilt, usually pieced, made from many pieces of fabric in varying sizes and patterns. With endless possibilities, it is the perfect way to show off your unique style. Table of Contents What fabrics make it a scrap quilt? What are the different types of scrap quilts? Limited palette: Controlled scrappy: String quilt: Improvisational piecing: One Last Scrappy Quirk How do you quilt a scrappy quilt? Are you inspired to make a scrap quilt? There is a lot of nostalgia associ ..read more

This is a post about taking on a large-ish quilt as a hand piecing project and how to break it down into blocks to keep it portable.  It’s also a post about using stitching as a self-care technique.  Or, more specifically, why stitching makes us feel better IF we don’t make it into one more pressure situation in our lives. Unless you haven’t spent the last four months on planet Earth, you are fully aware that we are all coping with a pandemic.  When lockdowns started in my part of the world, I confess to being one of those people who thought, “Okay, I’m going to get so much done ..read more

If you belong to a quilt guild, visit quilt exhibits, participate in workshops, take classes, or study quilt history, you have likely had an event canceled or postponed. If you are anything like me it’s been a lot more than one. This has left me wondering how I can fulfill my desire to view quilts and, equally important, to socialize and learn from other quilters. I miss my people! How can I get my quilt fix when everything I used to do is canceled or on hold? Fortunately, I didn’t have to create the opportunities, I just needed to do some exploring online and within my own quilt-related group ..read more

Are you inspired by the combination of red, white and blue and motivated to do some festive July 4th holiday creating? You don’t need to look any further than your internet browser to find an abundance of free and festive ideas. Since the safe thing to do these days is to stick close to home, I’ll be spending most of the holiday weekend cooking and quilting. And, since times are also a bit lean, I found five great FREE projects from generous and talented designers. Here are my suggestions, let me know if you wind up picking one or two to sew this weekend. Olde Glory by Temecula Quilt Company C ..read more

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite hand stitching accessories, my travel hand stitching kit dedicated to a particular project. Sure, you can keep everything in a baggie or store all your hand stitching supplies in one big box, but this is designed to be ready to pick up and go and be pretty cute at the same time. Why would you need a dedicated hand stitching kit? Hand stitching, especially for small blocks like my 3-inch Lemoyne star project, is a pretty compact technique. By making a little kit, you have everything in one place and there is no searching for scissors, needles, cut pieces, et ..read more

This December I posted a series of favorite cookie recipes on my Instagram page along with a quilt from my little quilt collection in each post.  It was a lot of fun picking and baking favorite cookie recipes and deciding how they coordinated with a quilt.  I am recapping them all in this post so, if you are interested in one or more recipes, you can easily access them here. Peanut Butter Kisses December 26, 2019 Servings: Makes about 3 dozen Print This What tastes better than peanut butter and chocolate? These cookies are easy to make and the recipe can easily be doubled. This red ..read more

Today, I am sharing my favorite style of notebook, method and preferred supplies for quilt journaling. By that, I mean mostly journaling about my projects, quilting in general, and perhaps some of my fabric shopping excursions. But, since quilting is a big part of my life, life tends to also creep into my quilt journal. My favorite type of journal is a spiral bound blank sketch book and I use the purple disappearing Elmer’s glue stick, Pigma pens, and a variety of colored pens. When I first decided to capture my quilting life on paper, I was attracted to the pre-made quilt journals. Those are ..read more

Last post, I laid out goals and a plan for getting more projects to the completion stage.  Now is when I should probably report back on those but, ahem, I’m not ready.  Okay, I’ll be honest because both the goals and the plan accomplished what I hoped they would which was sticking to the same projects long enough to make progress on all three. Three projects…contained by a box and by a plan. Pink Sprinkles: I finished all the squares. That is if you call finishing 105 of 120 all the squares. I am, because the remaining 15 are in varying states of assembly on my sewing table. Blue Ba ..read more

Let me begin by saying this is an aspirational post. I am not an organized quilter or an organized anything, really. But, I need an organized system to accomplish what makes me happy; maybe you can relate. I am going to assume if you are reading this blog you like to quilt. And, therefore, are probably a creative person — a “creative type.” Generally, we creative types are free spirits, which doesn’t translate well into focus, planning and organization. But, if I give in to the free spirit and let it run my days, those days are ruled by a never ending to-do list and I am constantly feeling ove ..read more