I've been thinking this week about how I go about choosing fabrics for a new quilt pattern. Diamond Glow was originally made using one of my favourite designer's fabrics - Alison Glass. I love the strong colours and the availability of a variety of values and tones in her Sunprints ranges that meant I could create the 3D effect in this quilt. Sometimes though, these strong colours can be a bit overpowering, and I've been playing with drawing the quilt up in some different colour combinations. Here's an idea along the same lines, but using some pastel shades from Tula Pink. It really make ..read more

  The Houston Quilt Market is always an exciting event, and this year was no exception. I had the pleasure of visiting the Benartex booth, where my quilt, "Forest Light," was displayed. Crafted using Quarry Hill Batiks and utilizing Foundation Paper Piecing, "Forest Light" is a quilt that holds a special place in my heart. It reminds me of walks in the beautiful New Zealand bush, where ancient trees create a stunning overhead canopy. Occasionally, you come across a clearing where the light shines through to warm the earth below. Here is where I put a quilt down on the ground, get out my ..read more

Here in New Zealand it is now Spring, and I'm enjoying the extra light and sunshine. From my studio window I can see my beautiful camellia bushes flowering, and the birds are getting busy in the garden, eating the insects on my neighbour's cherry plum tree. News from the teaching studio: I'm so excited to announce that I will be teaching TWO new online classes starting very soon. Six Pointed Lone Star I have really enjoyed making this quilt using the easy strip-piecing method. I used vibrant rainbow colours from Alison Glass, with a dramatic dark background.  I did l ..read more

At the end of last month Brenda and I travelled to Oamaru, on the South Island of New Zealand. I was teaching a class for the North Otago Patchers and Quilters for two full days, but we got some extra time to explore this lovely city on the day we arrived. Oamaru is known as the Steampunk Capital of the world. The old town has been preserved and transformed into a gorgeous area with cobbled streets, and the old Whitestone buildings from the early days of European settlement, when Oamaru was a bustling port. Beautiful buildings with quirky and interesting shops, including lots of craft shopping ..read more

Here in New Zealand we are just getting to the last days of summer and heading into autumn. We've been making the most of the beautiful weather and scenery in our new to us caravan, who we have named 'Dolly'. Dolly is a very simple little lightweight caravan with no power but going away in her has been so relaxing and lots of fun. We have lots of campsites close to us where we can just go and listen to the birds singing, take a walk in the bush and be laid back for a day or two. To keep us warm in Dolly I chose my Garden Party quilt. This quilt was made from fabrics in my stash, using the Cre ..read more

The quilting world is full of people with great ideas, and I love the way quilters work together to make them happen. As you may know, I am working with Kim at Cotton Cuts to offer my Mystery Quilt designs in the USA. Kim is  running two of these Mysteries this year, with the next one starting in August. Kim has such great ideas and she has decided to make one of the quilts up and auction it off for charity, raising funds for the sheltered workshop where all the cutting for the US quilts is done. Each of the clues will be made by different bloggers, and Kim is going to finish the quilt. T ..read more

Hi and welcome to Binding 101, the final step. Don't you love it when you get to the end of a project and know that all the hard work you have put in is finally done, and you can move guilt-free onto the next one? Once I have my binding sewn down by machine I look forward to spending the evening quietly contemplating the enjoyment of the project, and anticipating the next, while sewing down my binding. Love it or hate it, hand sewing does make for a lovely finish, and hopefully with these tips you will find it enjoyable. To start off, I press my binding back. Press the binding back from the f ..read more

Watch the Big Reveal of my Trendsetters 2020 Mystery Quilt! You can buy the pattern here https://payhip.com/b/7Vrb ..read more

Here is part one of my step by step binding tutorial. I always find this the hardest part of writing instructions and patterns, so I decided to take step by step photos as I did the binding on the Modern Triangle Sampler. There are many different approaches to binding but this is the method I have tweaked over the years to suit me. Binding 101   Part One - Trimming your quilt Once the quilting is complete, trim your quilt. If there is a handy seam close to the edge, I use a ruler and measure from this seam to the outside so that I can keep this distance the same. Cut with a rotary cutter ..read more