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Hello, quilters!

  Are you enjoying the Road Rally? It’s the last day for the Quiltmaker’s 100 BlocksVolume 16 Blog Hop but I know you are still finding fun and interesting stuff on the designer blogs!   

As a child, I used to play with that folded-paper fortune teller with my friends!  Remember those?  It was fun to make up answers (or fortunes), fold the paper origami-style and, finally, get an answer to some silly questions. 

When I finished making my block for Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, the on-point squares reminded me of a paper fortune teller.  I soon discovered that it’s also called Whirlybird - like a helicopter!  Well, with the movement the triangles create in the block, I had to call it Whirlybird! 

You can use this block in so many ways.  Sew a dozen of these blocks and you can easily make a lap size quilt with three blocks across and four blocks down.  Add a little border to frame it and, voila, you have a really neat quilt with pinwheels everywhere!  Here it is made with fabrics from the Improv Collection by Benartex.

You can add sashing for easier construction and add a neat border print.  Here I’ve used the Surf’s Up collection from Northcott fabrics.  Isn’t that a neat quilt to cuddle with at a beach house?   

Red Pinwheels or Blue Pinwheels???  

One of my favorite design elements is an unusual sashing.  I could not resist creating one to go with this block!  Can you tell what the sashing looks like from this quilt picture? (Sashing picture below!)

(Garden Party fabrics by Michael Miller)

I purposely created this sashing so that none of the seams match any of the block seams!  It makes sewing the quilt go so much easier.   Here's another version:  

Can you figure out the sashing yet?  

Here’s what that sashing looks like:

It is constructed of two 3” finished Square in a Square units, separated by a 1” x 3” finished rectangle with a 2 ½” x 3” finished rectangle on each end.  The main thing really is to make sure the points on those Square in a Square units don’t get cut off when you sew the quilt together.  So, you will need a good 1/4” seam allowance at those points. 

Mark a 2” unfinished square (white in the picture below) on one diagonal.  I typically use a mechanical pencil for this.  It’s pretty accurate as it has a fine point and the line comes out just the right skinny width.  Using a regular No. 2 pencil is tricky because the line usually ends up being too wide.  You will be using this line as a stitch line so it’s really important for the best accuracy that this line isn’t wider than your thread.

Place this square on one corner of a 3 ½” unfinished square (green in the picture).  Match up the raw edges and sew just a tiny hair’s breadth to the left of your marked line.  When you fold back and press the sewn triangle, it should match up the raw edges.  When it does, you can trim the extra layers underneath.   If it doesn’t match, you may want to unstitch and re-sew it again.  

Repeat marking and sewing on all four corners of the green fabric to get a Square in a Square unit. 

If you want a bed quilt, a quick way to do it is to alternate the block with a pretty print square.  Set it on point and you will see this block from a whole different perspective! 

(Washington Depot Collection by Free Spirit Fabrics)

 So, what’s your favorite setting and the colors you would most likely use for Whirlybird?  Leave a comment with your answers and please be sure to include a way for me to contact you (you can’t win if you leave a no-reply comment!).  US only please.  I will be choosing two winners who will both receive a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 16, one from me and one from Quiltmaker! 

Click here to get back on the “road” to “rally” on to thenext designer’s blog!  

Just one more...

Happy Trails!

Mini Quilt Show!

Throughout the year, I make quilts for a variety of publications.  It's a good bet that I hardly remember when a project is actually published because of the lead time.  So, I may be making a quilt in March for publication in October!  Or making a winter quilt in the middle of summer.  It can get really confusing!

But, sometimes, it can be utterly wonderful when several projects are published or become current at the same time!  So, in this post, I give you a mini-quilt show of several of my current projects!  

If you have received your Fons and Porter Love of Quilting November/December 2017 issue, you may have seen Cornerstone.

November/December 2017 Issue.  Picture courtesy of Fons and Porter Love of Quilting.

Sneak peek at Cornerstone.  Picture courtesy of Fons and Porter Love of Quilting.

 Cornerstone is a lap size quilt that was pretty easy to assemble despite how complex it looks!

By the way, here's a picture of Hillside Harmony from Quilting Quickly September/October 2017 issue.

Hillside Harmony.  Picture courtesy of Fons and Porter Quilting Quickly.

Hillside Harmony is a scrappy quilt that I had a lot of fun designing.  I just love how the yellows and reds pop against the blue and green background fabrics.

I have single patterns available right now through Annie's Catalog.  One of them is Christmas Cookies, a lap size quilt that Annie's Catalog is offering as an Exclusively Annie's Quilt Design.  

Christmas Cookies.  Photograph by Annie's Publishing. Used with Permission.

Another pattern is a favorite of mine, Drifting Snow.  It is a table runner that is also being offered as a Exclusively Annie's Quilt Design.

Drifting Snow.  Photograph by Annie's Publishing. Used with Permission.

In the Winter 2017 issue of Quilter's World, is City View.  It has a geometric and modern feel in shades of blue and green (even the background is a pale blue!).

City View, Quilter's World Winter 2017.
 Photograph by Annie's Publishing. Used with Permission.

City View was published with complete AccuQuilt die-cutting instructions.  It was so easy and fast to use my fabric cutter to cut the pieces for this project.  I confess, I use my AccuQuilt fabric cutter more and more these days.  The cutting just goes so much faster and, with the accurate shapes, the piecing is just so much easier!

Speaking of which, also check out my project tutorials on the AccuQuilt Blog!  The latest is a pattern for a Christmas Bell Pull!    I used silk, wool and cottons and I added some beading for that extra bling!

I hope you enjoyed my mini-quilt show here!  I am off to Quilt Market this weekend and I can't wait to see what's new in the quilting world!  

The Fons and Porter Experience

I'm so delighted to report that I have projects in a couple of Fons and Porter publications.  The first, "Orange You Sweet?", is in the Love of Quilting September/October 2017 issue and is also available as a kit or a pattern.

The quilt is made with fabrics from the Bleecker Street and Harmony Collections from Quilting Treasures and wonderfully machine quilted by Anne Cowan.  

I was also invited to appear in the second episode of the current 3000 TV Series!  It was quite a thrill to do the filming - it was my first time to film a tutorial and, to get comfortable, I just did my best to imagine all my quilter friends and students behind the cameras!  Everyone was so friendly and fabulous.  I can't thank Vanessa, Diane, Colleen and Sara enough for their patience in guiding a newbie through this process!

You can contact your local PBS station to find out if and when they are airing the Fons and Porter Love of Quilting TV Series or you can get the DVD of each season.  I saw some of the other projects in the 3000 series and I am in awe!  It's well worth getting the DVD. 

A second project, "Hillside Harmony", appears in Quilting Quickly September/October 2017 issue.  It is made with fabrics from the Harmony Collection from Quilting Treasures.  More on this in a future blog.  In the meantime, here are both quilts with the magazines and the TV series DVD with Mini, my cat, enjoying them!

Truthfully, Mini just wanted to get in any picture I was taking that day!  Cats have minds of their own!

Latest news!

It's been an eventful few months!  But, here's the latest news.  Last week, I did an AccuQuilt demo at our local guild, County Line Quilters.  It was a wonderful experience!  AccuQuilt provided a prize package consisting of a GO! fabric cutter, a GO! Qube and a strip die.  


It was TO DIE FOR!  The winner would only need to "add fabric" and for us quilters, you know that's really not a hard thing to do.   Drawing the winner's name was the very last thing we did that evening and Pat K., who really wanted it, actually won the prize package.  So, it went to a great home!    Congratulations, Pat!


This week, the 2017 Row by Row Experience began.  At our local quilt shop, The Round Bobbin (in Ambler, PA), everyone has been busy sewing the samples and putting kits together.  "From Sea to Shining Sea" is the shop row and you can check it out on Facebook!   Here's a sneak peak!

While I wrote the pattern, it is based on Susan S.'s idea (she also made it!) and Susan A. machine quilted it perfectly! 

Speaking of Susans, my latest AccuQuilt blog tutorial using the GO! Sunbonnet Sue die has been published. 

Sunbonnet Sue is such an iconic quilting figure, it was a puzzle to come up with new ideas to present her.  Family events this past spring finally inspired my project.  I have three sisters (including another Susan!) who I do not see often.  It's even harder for us to all get together in one place at one time.   So, the blog tutorial this month is a "portrait" of my sisters and I as Sunbonnet Sues!  Check it out!  

More news to come soon!  Watch for it!  Until next time...

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!

Quick Project for Christmas

 Christmas is just around the corner!  Yes, I know it's not even Halloween yet but, still, Christmas is barely 2 months away.  That's 62 days.  Phew!  Time to get those holiday projects going....

So, are you ready for a quick project?  AccuQuilt has a fabulous  die that makes 3 different 7" snowflakes!    I used it, as well as the 8" Circle die (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!)  to come up with Ornament Hot Pads!

 Read about how I made these Hotpads here!

And, don't forget to get the free pattern here! 

You're going to love these!

Some exciting news, friends!  I recently made Pillows for AccuQuilt using their new GO! Churn Dash Dies and my blog tutorial just got posted on the AccuQuilt Blog!  Here's the link:  https://www.accuquilt.com/blog/education/go-project-tutorials/new-churn-dash-pillow-patterns/

The Churn Dash block is one of my favorites.  It's one of the few blocks that I've made over and over again.  Here are just a couple of my projects - both named after the alternative block name, Double Monkey Wrench.  It's still the Churn Dash!

Monkey Blues, Quilter's World 2014.
Jo Morton's Blue Variety Fabrics for Andover.

Monkey Business Quilt, Quilter's World 2013.

Here's the front of one of the new Churn Dash pillows.  

Quilted Front, 18" Churn Dash Pillow.

So, head on over to the AccuQuilt Blog and read how easy it is to put these pillows together!