What will you sew in 2024? A fresh new year is almost upon us, and with it comes a sense of renewal and so many possibilities. My wish for you? Let 2024 be a year in which you create joyfully with your hands, whatever form that takes for you.
Read MoreFloris says that my latest quilt top has a retro vibe, but I think of it as pure Anna Maria Horner. It’s about abundance - all the colors, all the patterns, all the energy and life. What could be better on a drizzly December day?
Read MoreThere’s good reason that this format is so popular with quilters and with designers like myself. My upcoming Positivities project is a BOM program. Let’s pull back the curtain and unpack this Block of the Month concept.
Read MoreThis is where it begins. I can hole away for hours putting pencil to paper in my graph paper quilt journal. Some parts come easily and others are erased and re-drawn over and over and yet over again. Today you’ll see what I have created! My fingers and toes are crossed that you like it!!
Read MoreYou might wonder why there is a sort of cut-out missing at the upper left corner of the block? That’s so because Expansion nestles beside another Positivities patchwork group, creating an overlap effect. That’s the style of my modern samplers - scattered and overlapping design elements, this time floating on a consistent background fabric.
Read MoreSubscriptions to Make Modern make a fantastic, no waste eco-friendly gift! It’s a beautiful magazine written by quilters for quilters and delivered digitally to creatives across the world. Patterns, interviews + ideas for the modern quilter. Aaaand, right now there’s a special Christmas offer perfect for gift-giving!
Read MoreFour years of Ice Cream Soda. Really, four and a half (but who’s counting)? A look back at all the places this quilt has taken me from South Carolina, to the train and plane to The Netherlands, all over Europe and now to Floris. Each time I joined another row together, he would marvel. I would have relished seeing the blocks come together anyway, but there’s nothing like love to give your needle wings.
Read MoreThese Crossroads blocks are brightening up my space! It’s such a smorgasbord of color and pattern, courtesy of the amazing Anna Maria Horner. I’m using mainly her new Our Fair Home collection, but also string scraps from collections past.
Read MoreWhen life turns on its head, you are faced with so many choices and so many feelings. Creativity definitely helps me stay grounded and positivite. Each month in Positivities BOM we will reflect together on a positive theme. With Sunbeam and Flutters it is about following the warm, the joyful flutters, the sparks in our lives. They are a blessing and a light.
Read MoreFirst I pressed all the yardage as one big batch. Then it lay lounging in my sewing room, winking at my suggestively. In between sewing Positivities quilt, I will be sewing a Crossroads quilt, pattern by Treehouse Textiles, with Our Fair Home. Crossroads is the sort of easy-peasy patchwork that also shows off busy prints well.
Read MoreWeaving together my life as a maker and other spheres of life: Best of November, practicing mindfulness to keep my balance, sharing a practical patchwork tutorial, celebrating Julias Pas de Deux quilt and looking forward to a cozy getaway at year end.
Read MoreStar Web is the next patchwork group in my 2024 modern sampler, Positivities, which I am excited to share with you. This group marks the importance of connection, community and companionship to our thriving. Yes, I’m talking about friendship!
Read MoreI love this time of year for all the best reasons, but it’s also a nice time to score some deals on fabric. This year let’s shop from home and support these small businesses online. Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Read MoreToday is a special edition of “in the Quilting Studio” because all of the quilts that I will share are from the hand of one talented maker. Sabine Hofferer is a regular longarm quilting customer, on Instagram as @la_boite_a_couleur. She loves sewing with bright, vibrant colors and especially favors fabrics that feature the art of Charley Harper.
Read MoreOh. my. gosh. This quilt top is finished people. FINISHED! That’s four and half years of meditative hand stitching. So many moments, so many journeys, changes and dreams.
Read MoreBright for the gifts and the laughter and the fresh start to come. Color upon color for our love of making, our innermost artsy selves. Shady for the drama of life, its ebb and flow, its birth and death. The bright and the dark mingle, like all this year’s highs and lows, to create something of value. Something as ordinary as it is lovely.
Read MoreWhen I began sketching Positivities the first element that alighted on paper was North Star. It all started with this one block, which set the direction and tone for the quilt. The quilt evolved into a mixture of star, curve and plus elements, floating on a consistent background fabric.
Read MoreIt began random, but I ended up with a color palette. I put the yellow, orange and brown scraps away and pulled more cool-tone scraps from my crumb fabric baskets in blues, greens and purples, plus pinks and red. It’s still wild and free, with the colors landing mostly by chance, but it has a sort of cool vibe overall.
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