Renovations Completed on the Haunted House Quilt

If you are considering a new renovation project, I highly recommend choosing a haunted house. Imagine the satisfaction of taking a sledgehammer to an old wall, and then not even having to rebuild it! So I was able to fling off roof shingles, bar up windows, post dilapidated warning signs, and bring in undesirable neighbors– and the house looks even better, even more haunted.

Here is the new haunted house:

And a detail of my favorite part, the cemetery with an eerie tree:

The quilt is available in the shop here

Want to build your own haunted house? The pattern is available, and it is detailed! 38 pages of instructions and full size pattern pieces, including an extra full page of optional Halloween appliques to customize your house. A beginner or experienced sewist will enjoy this project. Here is the link to the download pattern

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Easy as a Charm Quilt

We live in exciting times. For many of us, the daily rhythms of our lives are subtly changing almost daily. How often do you go shopping in the mall today versus a year ago? 5 years ago?  One of the big changes in my life over the last few years is buying fabric online. What a world of possibilities! It’s not just the variety of fabric that I can find, but also the way I can explore what is out there, find styles that appeal to me, learn about the designers, study the trends, make new connections with shops far away in physical distance but close to me in aesthetics.

I’m also thrilled to explore the new precut fabric available. My current love is charm packs. I love the way you can get 42 pieces of a complete design collection, cut in perfect 5 inch squares for under $10.00.  Here are a couple of the quilts I’ve made lately from charm packs. They may look different. but the pattern is the same.

The quilts are for sale in my shop here The pattern, Easy as a Charm Quilt,  I’m still working on, but it should be available in the shop by August.

Have Some Red, White and Blue Sewing Fun!

Celebrate Independence Day with a red, white and blue pinwheel quilt. The pinwheel is made with a unique 3 dimensional pattern that is both striking in appearance and easy to create, even for a beginner. What I love best about this quilt is the texture– the pinwheel seems to pop out of the quilt– maybe it wants to be a real pinwheel.

 

The quilt and pattern are available in the shop, here

Second Star to the Right and Straight on ‘Till Morning

When my grandmother got confused and frustrated sometimes she would say, “It’s so convoluted!!”. Usually things went downhill from there into more colorful language, but I still understood the sentiment. Something that should be straightforward in design and application was twisted instead. Quilts often fall into this category. In an effort to make a better quilt, we just make a more convoluted one instead.

Here is a pattern that is new yet seems very familiar in it’s design. It’s a simple patchwork quilt, updated to work well with precut fabric in a “fat quarter” size.

 

 

The pattern is called “Easy Peasy Fat Quarter Baby Quilt” and it is available in the shop here. The quilts in the picture are also available for sale here.

 

The Devil is in the Details

Details, details, details.  How many details to include is always a challenge to me when I write a pattern. One of the first steps in many of my patterns goes something like this: 1. Cut 5 –  4  inch squares from the border fabric.  This is a very clear step. It also assumes lots of background knowledge and steps that were done before the measuring and cutting.

For instance, maybe the fabric needed to be prewashed. Most fabric doesn’t require prewashing, but I always test solid reds for color bleeding. Another missing step — cut off the selvedges before cutting your fabric, or at the very least not include the selvedges in your quilt. Don’t forget this one – always iron your fabric before measuring and cutting. I rarely include any of these details in my patterns. I assume that the sewer knows them.

It’s tricky sometimes to decide, especially in this age of short tweets, how close to trim the directions. Too short and important steps are misunderstood. Too long and the reader becomes confused and lost.

I published 2 new patterns last week; I tried to make the directions not too long, not too short, but just right.

The quilts, bunting, coasters and patterns are available in the shop here.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?

When I saw this panel it was love at first sight. A sweet little girl surrounded by animal friends and flowers and butterflies. All in spring shades of pink, gray and blue. The hexagons on the top and bottom are part of the panel. All that I added was side borders to widen the quilt, batting and backing. The borders were added in a rag style so the seams are ruffled. There is no binding, the edges also have a ruffled rag finish.

Garden Girl is the perfect spring baby quilt. The center panel is a designer print by Tea and Sympathy for Studio E Fabrics . The side borders are a striped print.

The quilt, “Garden Girl”, is available in my shop here.

 

 

 

Try a Taste of a Summer Sweet Rag Quilt.

One of my very favorite quilts to make are rag ones with frayed edges at the seams. I love them for 3 reasons:

1. They remind me of a cake in the oven. You sew the quilt but until it washes and dries you don’t really know how it will turn out. So you have anticipation and surprise.

2.  They are perfectly soft with so much texture you can’t help but want to touch them. They are quilts to be cuddled and used until they are worn out and then you still use them because they are even softer than before.

3. Rag quilts are relaxed quilts. They are undemanding and rewarding, just like my golden retriever.

Here is my latest crazy rag quilt, modeled by my daughter, Evelyn:

She was in a “Mommy, take my picture” mood, so here is one more of her on the trampoline:

I’m not writing a pattern for this quilt, but I am planning on making a whole batch for sale in the shop in different sizes and colors. The one Evelyn is modeling is called Summer Sweet Reversible Crazy Rag Quilt and is available in my Etsy shop here .

Snow, Snow, Snow and Sugar Too

How do you combat a brutal winter full of snow and ice? In a word– sugar! Just looking at the white granules of snow reminds me of a full bowl of sugar. Cranking up the oven warms the house and produces cupcakes which are full of sugar!! When the cupcakes are eaten there is still the remaining icing to finish off and it’s all good! While the sugar high is going strong, you can make a sweet quilt that reminds you of Easter colored sugar sprinkles! When you need a break, the kids are always ready to play Candyland, which is also full of, wait for it…. sugar!

Here’s my sugar high quilt:

It is called Sugar Bunnies Baby Rag Quilt and is available in the shophere . The pattern will be published later this week.

Wee Wandering Some More

Okay, I’m officially on a Wee Wander, Sarah Jane, Michael Miller binge. I’m working on my third baby quilt from this fabric line. I have fabric for 2 more quilts impatiently waiting. Something about the sweetness in the designs just inspires me.

The quilt I’m sharing with you this week is called Fairy Tale Woods. The fabric is called Wander Woods. It has trees, children, deer, horses all in a humble presentation that is so enchanting. When I saw the fabric I wanted to somehow stay there, inside the story. It occurred to me that if one was going to stay in Wander Woods, one would need a house to live in. And then I thought, the only way to stay in Wander Woods forever would be to be a fairy. So I made the fairy houses so the fairies could stay in Wander Woods.

Here is the quilt:

And a closeup:

The quilt and the pattern are available in my shop here.

I’ll be linking up with these great blogs:

Do Tell Tuesday  at Mabey She Made It

Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Tuesdays with a Twist at Back to Basics

Olivia’s Baby Quilt

Olivia is about to be born! My first granddaughter is scheduled to be delivered this Thursday, Lord willing. I’m so excited! I love her already so much. Last week I got serious about designing and making her baby quilt. I felt so much affection; I guess that’s why there are hearts in all the corners of the quilt. Then, because I wanted it to be very personal, I added her name in applique letters. Then, because I wanted a bit of magic, fairies showed up here and there. Add in some borders and stripes, take away what didn’t work and here it is:

Olivia’s Baby Quilt:

The quilt belongs to Olivia but the pattern is available in the shop here. The pattern comes with a complete upper and lower case alphabet.

I’ll be linking up to these great blogs:

Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story

Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts

Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River