It's a Mystery!

My latest blog for AccuQuilt is all about a Block of the Month Mystery!  While I have written a lot of Block of the Month patterns, I don't recall ever writing a Mystery Quilt pattern before!   It was quite an adventure.  I am inspired and in awe of the quilt designers who regularly come up with Mystery Quilts.  Debbie Caffrey comes to mind!  Phew!

I pulled my friend, Joyce Overberger, into it by having her make one of the samples (there are three!) in the traditional colors that she loves.

On another note, check out this small quilt I made for the guild raffle.

I had a lot of fun playing with the parallelogram die in my GO! Qube 8" Mix and Match Block!

Until next time...

Serendipity

I'm sure you have heard of Edyta Sitar (Laundry Basket Quilts) by now.  She of the lovely quilt designs in patterns and books.  Well, add AccuQuilt dies and embroidery to the list!

With the GO! Qube Specialty Set - Serendipity by Edyta Sitar, you get dies and an embroidery CD to make a couple of her designs.  Plus, you can use the the applique and geometric dies to cut shapes for your own quilt.

For my most recent blog tutorial for AccuQuilt, I made patriotic placemats using some of the applique shapes!

After making the star placemat, I wanted to play with some of the floral appliques to make the flower placemat.   I love the way these turned out!  So, if you would like to check these projects out, head on over to my tutorial!

Christmas in July!

I don't know about you but I'm never ready with presents and projects in time for Christmas!  For once, I've made an early start.  On this hot July weekend, why don't you join me and dive into Christmas projects?   And, boy, do I have a cute project for you!

Check out my blog on the AccuQuilt website to make this wonderful table topper!

Shown here On Point

It doesn't take that long to make so spend the hot day in the cool indoors and you'll still have time to sit out to enjoy the sun at the end of the day!

Summer of 2016

Celebrate summer with my Sunflower Throw Pillow that you can make with your AccuQuilt dies!  Read all about how I made it 3-D for just a little more fun.

Also, don't miss a new AccuQuilt project, Woven Bed Runner, that you can download for free!

In other news, the free pattern project for Red Rooster's Akahana collection is making the rounds in Pinterest.   It looks so complicated but it's so pretty and easy to make!  

Using the same collection, make this stunning Table Topper!

Last but not least, check out these pictures I took at the Philippine Eagle Center.  They take care of injured birds as well as try to find ways to increase breeding.   Endangered and breathtaking!  

Enzo, my nephew.

This is "Fighter".  He lost his left wing to a bullet. 

Still so magnificent.

Keep cool this summer!

My Sweet Hearts Quilt and other projects

It has been quite a busy last 3 months, filled with travel and family visits and, of course, holidays.  It's hard to believe but I found myself with doing maybe half an hour of sewing in all that time!  I logged in lots and lots of digital sewing, however, putting my EQ7 to work!

One of the first projects I picked up this month - when I finally had time to sew - is the Sweet Hearts Quilt.  Read all about it on the AccuQuilt Blog.

I really enjoyed making it especially since AccuQuilt makes cutting those triangles so perfectly easy and precise.  I love that the dog ears are removed, right at the start.  I love that I can piece quarter square triangles together for the border and they come out the perfect size!  I love that I didn't have to spend much time cutting and subcutting.  Can you tell I love my AccuQuilt GO! Fabric Cutter???

Last year (before my little sewing hiatus), I made Prismatic from a couple of Northcott's Sandscapes jelly rolls and it is now available as an Exclusively Annie's quilt pattern from Annie's Catalog.

Photo courtesy of Annie's

 One of my quilts, Sunspots, also managed to land on the cover of a book, Bargello Quilts and Beyond!

Photo courtesy of Annie's

It was a lot of fun and easy to make, using non-traditional bargello methods.   So fun and easy, I used the same methods to come up with Robin's Egg Blue, which is also in the same book.  

Photo courtesy of Annie's.

Doesn't it remind you of southwestern turquoise and silver jewelry?  I hope it does for that was my inspiration for it!  Anyway, I can visualize this quilt in dramatic red, white and black, too.

For now, I have one more project to share with you - my Bollenvelden table runner  that appears in Quilter's World Magazine Spring 2016 issue.  Google assures me that "Bollenvelden" is Dutch for tulip fields and that's exactly what I was going for in this quilt.

Photo courtesy of Annie's.

Think Spring!