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Merry Christmas from the Watsons! This time of year I’m so very thankful for your support of our small family business. Jason and I have been full time entrepreneurs since 2006 and it’s been quite the journey! We’ve raised our kids to understand the value of hard work and know that (hopefully) they can achieve their dreams, even if they experience bumps along the way.

As empty nesters, it’s wonderful when all of the adult kids are home at once!

To Celebrate the end of this year and the start of the new one, I invite ...

This is the second time I’ve made this Freewheeling Single Girl quilt. The first time was for our oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in 2017. Both times I resized the rings so you got more rings per quilt. To make … Continue reading →

I recently had the opportunity to be a guest on Annie Unrein’s Live YouTube show. We talked about how you can apply machine quilting designs to her cute bag projects and patterns. We discussed things to think about when using her fabulous product called Soft and Stable. The most fun part was getting to show off a cute project that my mom (Also Annie) had made using the fabric I had quilted the previous time I was on Live with Annie. (Click the images if you don’t see the play buttons below.)

Recent Episode 44 from Season 4 ...

When I saw this design I knew I needed it in my life!!! And then I decided I needed to make it for all three of our children as Christmas quilt. I have made each of them many quilts over … Continue reading →

Our oldest daughter’s former college roommate asked me to make a memory quilt from her mother’s tee shirt collection. Of course, I agreed. How could I not, she is like another daughter to us. I didn’t want the typical memory … Continue reading →

18 months ago we moved into our newly renovated house and had a lot more space.  We had spent all of our money on the renovation so we were not in the market for buying furniture.  Some people set aside money for doing that but we just don't do that.  So I kept my eye our on freecycle for furniture.  We had only been back in the house for 6 weeks when an advert came up for two two seater sofas, and they were only about 2 miles away.  I asked for them immediately.  It wasn't that surprising ...

Join us for this episode where Vanessa will go over what fabrics and sewing supplies she will have for sale this Black Friday! The sale may even start a little sooner so you don’t want to miss out because everything will be whiles supplies last!

The sale will include fabric, thread, sewing courses, rulers and even discounted club memberships! You don’t want to miss it!

• Shop the SALE here: https://craftygemini.com/product-category/featured/

Sign up for the Crafty Gemini Newsletter to receive reminders about future sales: https://craftygemini.com/newsletter/

The post WIP Wednesday #155: Black Friday ...

I’ve been working on a remake of my popular Color Weave quilt. I realized that I don’t create a ton of new patterns each year and I really like remaking some of my classics! It’s been super fun to create it from my current fabric collection, Dazzle Dots (#9 if you are counting). Originally I made this quilt using my Abstract Garden fabric line (#3) which is shown on the pattern cover below. Don’t they look similar?

I spray baste all of my quilts, so I took the opportunity of creating a step-by-step video tutorial showing ...

Does anyone remember an old song from the 40’s called “I got the Sun in the Morning “? It was written by Irving Berlin in 1946 for a musical called “Annie Get Your Gun”.

I’ve been humming that tune while working on this great panel designed by the Morris Group for QT Fabrics. The panel measures 36″ x 43″. Bohemian Sunrise will be available in early 2025.

I was at a quilt retreat last weekend with my friends the Turtle Crew. I took off the borders which left me with a width of 28″ for the panel. I cut ...

It’s that time of year again when fabric designers are prepping for their new fall/spring releases. I’m excited to announce a followup to my best selling Dazzle Dots fabric line. The new collection is Dazzle Dots 2 which a wonderfully soft complement to the original. I’ll be sharing sneak peeks at Benartex’ Virtual Fabric show next week, and the fabric will hit stores in the spring.

• Click here to register for Fall 2024 Virtual Fabric Show – It’s Free!!

The Virtual Fabric Show is free to watch and will be recorded if you can’t view ...

I’m so excited to share this fun and free donut quilt block! Donuts are absolutely a sweet that we love at my

The post Free Donut Quilt Block Pattern appeared first on Always Expect Moore.

We had a family wedding to attend last weekend.  We hit the road Thursday afternoon, so there wasn't a lot of time in the sewing room last week.  I did get the binding made and attached to Rhododendron (Bonnie Hunter).  That was my only sewing time over the weekend. With all the activities, I didn't get very far, just one corner turned at this point. 

I should make better progress with this now that we are home. You can really see the quilting Trudy did in the dark purple part of the backing.  It's lovely.  

The wedding ...

The best part of it  - at least for me that is ...

Fun little sews using all the fabrics. It has been fun to make them from current & older fabric designs. They make cute little reminders of fabrics that I love & can be switched out for moods & seasons.

In my quest to explore the concept of geometric abstraction, I felt compelled to take a perfectly interesting quilt top and cut holes in it, then inset some circles.

Click here to read my previous blog post about the making of this quilt.

It’s been very liberating to play with color, line & shape, without the need for my design to represent anything concrete. It’s a risky move for sure, but I just couldn’t move forward until I explored this idea.

Below are a few in progress pics while I was inserting the circles. It’s not a ...

My Color Weave Quilt along kicks off Monday, Sept 16th and I’m doing something a little a little different this time around. I’ll be sharing everything via email rather than here on my blog. Lately I’ve been rethinking my social media strategy and looking at numbers. Because I get higher engagement via my direct newsletter, this will be an experiment to see if that format works best for a quilt along. Keep reading below to see how you can join in the fun….

Click here and download any of my free patterns to join my email list ...

I spent Friday at the AQS Grand Rapids Show. When you have a quilt hanging there, you have to go and enjoy it.

The quality of the quilts this year was exceptional. Several quilts looked like paintings, they were so heavily stitched. They didn’t look like fabric. Not something the average quilter will produce, but fun to see what’s possible.

I didn’t buy any fabric at the show or at any of the stops we made on the way home Saturday. I did count the fabric I bought last week.

Clockwise from upper left: rayon batik, red ...

I’ve been sitting on a feeling for awhile that I need to change up a little bit of what I’ve been doing. I will still be doing all the fun things: designing, writing, traveling & teaching, but I’m starting to make space to work on some more “experimental” ideas.

A current “What If?” Idea in progress…

A few years ago I started getting an itch to explore new concepts and ideas in my quilting work. As a full time professional quilter, that can cause somewhat of a conflict because most everything I currently make is for commercial consumption ...