Weaving together my life as a maker and other spheres of life: Best of June, still working on those photobooks, sharing my resource for Sewing Quilt Backs, celebrating a Positivites quilt and anticipating my next quilt!
Read MoreLately I have noticed that certain colors are not well-represented in my fabric stash. I feel then like a painter without paint. Only, unlike a painter, I can’t mix different colors to create the desired hue! So today I have poked around in my scrap bins to find scraps of the colors I need. After all, scraps are often remnants of your most useful fabrics - the ones you keep reaching for or have almost entirely used up.
Read MoreIf you want to sew literal rainbows here is a happy host of patterns to choose from. Do you prefer a scrappy look for your arches? Modern minimalist? Something artsy or something sweet? What about technique? You might choose applique or curved piecing. Choices, choices!
Read MoreAt this point I have sewn two sides of the improv round. It’s looking so cool! I love the wildness of this project. The colors always felt like summer to me and now the patchwork has a busy, brash summery buzz too.
Read More“Oh, that is our Dutch Calvinism.” It wasn’t long after I moved to The Netherlands that at Dutch friend explained her behavior in such terms. The thing is, she was talking about why they don’t often dine out. Huh? Nowadays most Dutch are not religious at all; nevertheless, they still consider themselves culturally Calvinistic. How is that?
Read MoreThat’s why I wanted to make Aria her very own picnic blanket. She will soon begin a new phase of life as a young married woman. I wish her and her someday-family happy memories together that are too many to count, in the great outdoors and sometimes on this very blanket.
Read MoreI’d like to conjure a scrappy medallion-style quilt, along with some summer weather. The quartet of triple log cabins will make a nice quilt center. My beginning has a subtle rectangle layout, which I will maintain in future rounds. Not that I have anything in mind yet. What do you think comes next? Ideas welcome!
Read MoreIn December we will move house. For the first time, Elora is helping to design her own room. To begin, I gathered together a lot of fun girl’s room images on Pinterest to expose her a wide variety of styles. She quickly and confidently zeroed in on this dreamy pastel room from Lay Baby Lay.
Read MoreTo keep the original grids prominent, I used only medium value fabrics for the filler squares. The medium value fabrics are lighter than the dark deer print and darker than the wonky star backgrounds. How fun that, as a result, the work looks rather like plaid! The medium value fabrics seem to overlap to create the dark deer prints.
Read MoreThe wonky star block has a sort of organic twinkle. The irregular points flash with personality. It’s my favorite block for using up triangle scraps, as each block uses 8 triangles - one for each star point! This tutorial is flexible for making block of diverse sizes.
Read MoreOne of my first fabric store sponsors was Fresh Modern Fabric, so I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome the shop back to my small group of advertising fabric stores. I hope you enjoy this nostalgic interview with proprietress Alice of Fresh Modern Fabric. And good luck with this fabulous giveaway!!!
Read MoreRecently I saw these two backings at Dragonfly: Growing Tree and Connections Color Story. I wanted that tree backing immediately for an upcoming picnic blanket. The Connections Color Story was a less practical choice, but I absolutely adore it. I will gladly create a quilt just to use this backing! In fact, that sounds like a fun challenge, don’t you think?
Read More