I had such fun making this quilt as a wedding gift for a very, very special couple. The bright colors of Tula Pink 's fabric lines seemed perfect for this bride and groom, so I had a chance to use up some of the Tula fabric I had been collecting. This L-O-V-E pattern is easy to put together. I saw a picture of this done in African print fabrics and fell in love with it. So I drew out a grid, sized it the way I wanted it, and started cutting out simple squares. With enough of a variety of fabrics, a quilt like this one doesn't require a lot of planning.  I love to see this quilt outdoors - the bright colors can really jazz up nature! One of my favorite Tula fabrics is Mineral and I used it in several colors in the quilt top and used the black and white version as backing. When folded up, this quilt looks like geometric designs, but you and I know there's a message hidden in there! I went with a scrappy binding, which has become my favorite way to bind a quilt. (Thanks to m...

  There's something about a log cabin quilt . . .  I subscribe to emails from Donna Jordan of Jordan Fabrics . Her free video tutorials, where she whips up (or "stitches up" as she says) a quilt so fast, are real confidence builders. More than once I have made a quilt without buying or using a pattern. I just follow along with Donna's video. When I saw her tutorial for this Curvy Jelly Roll Log Cabin quilt, I said, Aha! This was my chance to use a jelly roll I had bought a year earlier. Quotation , a line of modern fabrics by Brigitte Heitland , comes in these snappy, bright colors, and I'd been dying to use them for something worthy. According to the Textile Research Centre , a research foundation in The Netherlands, log cabin quilts were made in England and Ireland in the second half of the 19th century, but the pattern has been associated with North American quilts, especially during the American Civil War.  Quilters have been playing around with light and dark...

A flag motif is a favorite of mine. This  Scott Hansen designed quilt is fun and lends itself to solids or patterns (I used mostly solids, but sprinkled a few stripes and geometric patterns in there). His original design was more varied, but I did what I often do and didn't read the instructions all the way through before I started cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing . . . It wasn't until I was laying it out on the design board that I realized that all my flags were the same. So this is definitely my own take on Scott's United Colors quilt. The simplicity of this quilt allows for having tons of fun mixing colors. I used my favorite solids in this. The more mixy-matchy, the more I liked the block. Scott's pattern calls for a rhyme and reason for placement of bold colors and pale colors, but I interspersed some pale blocks randomly. The pale gray blocks reminded me of newsprint.  The bold colors make this quilt perfect for an eclectic room. Quilting by Long-armed and...

I need to make more pet quilts. They're small, quick and easy, and our furry friends are very forgiving about mistakes. And while they may not ooh and ahh over your choice of $12/yard designer fabric, they'll love it because it was made by you. I discovered Tacy Gray , a quilt designer, who had eight tips for making a quilt for a pet. In essence, she suggests keeping it simple, skipping the binding, and pretty much just steaming through it. I like her style. I've made a few quilts for the pets in my life, in fact pet quilts were part of the prescription cocktail that got me through the pandemic in 2020. They were all inspired by a quilt that my friend Judy made for my dog Abby when we first brought her home from the rescue.  Apparently, Judy was making these patchwork quilts for anyone who adopts a rescue dog. When she found out we were getting Abby, she called me and asked, "What's her favorite color?" "Um, green?"  Ten years later and this quilt is...

I've seen so many bookshelf quilts lately, I thought it would be a good time to show you mine. I made this before I knew how to paper-piece, so it's a little rough around the edges (and the middle), but I had such fun putting this together. I used all scraps and saved selvage strips, and I didn't purchase any fabric except for the backing and binding. This project is where I learned to make my own pattern and improvise on-the-go.  In addition to selvage strips, which are so perfect for book bindings in a quilt, I used any fabric that had words; and the order print strip from some Spoonflower fabric I had made with a recipe in my mom's handwriting.  I love the haphazardness of the books - all colors, sizes and patterns. No fabric was left behind! Every bookshelf needs a tiny Kent State mug. :) What's inside the box? Treasure! And, of course, Elvis makes an appearance in a little picture frame.  I made a little bookmark. 💛 Words on the binding. My bookshelf quilt ha...