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Nishat was published in Annie's Bright & Colorful Quilts

Nishat

Designed in EQ8 and made using the Flutter Wings Collection, Nishat embodies the spirit of famous terrace gardens in Kashmir, India.

Everything ok here?

Spring has Sprung!

Nishat finished at 64" by 88" and I am very happy with it.

Swirling Spring

Published!!!

She walks in beauty

Meteor Shower was published in Colorful Quilts for Kids.

Finished & Published

Let me introduce you to Olivia.

Olivia likes the outdoors!

This is such a beautiful collection with a wide range of values from light yellow, through medium red and orange all the way to deep purple. I love these warm colors. Look for Buds and Blooms Layer Cake in your local quilt store.

Here are some more pictures.

Breezy Day

Glowing Fabrics

Gorgeous Fabrics

To make Olivia, you need one layer cake, one focus fabric and ...

Meet Nilsa. She is my newest finish and a pattern is available now.

At 60" by 83", Nilsa can be a Mercyful Quilt. The pattern can also be used to make a Quilt of Valor.

Nilsa, 60" by 83"

I used the Island Batik collection - Blushing Garden to make Nilsa. 

Have you seen Blushing Garden? It is a beautiful collection with my favorite colors - red, pink and gold. Even a bit of teal to brighten things up. They are beautiful and sunny!

 Time to share the last steps -- adding borders and some quilting ideas!  

I added three borders to my finished top -- first border is the background fabric and cut 2" wide to finish at 1 1/2".    Second border used up all my leftovers from the layer cake (plus a couple add-ins because it was pretty tight) -- it's cut 3" wide to finish at 2 1/2".  The third border is the background fabric and cut 4" wide to finish at 3 1/2" wide.

The layer cake leftovers could be pieced together with straight seams but for the fun ...

Are you ready to give this block a try?  Today's tutorial is long but full of pictures which I hope will make it easy to follow.  Read all the way through it first, then sew through it slowly.  If you don't "get it", just do it and it will make sense as you finish the first block.  If you didn't pull out a UFO for "leaders/enders" (I know you have at least one), do that before you start to sew.  Not only will it make the rhythm of the process smoother, it will be a win-win ...

 In 2015, another shop owner showed me a vintage quilt with a unique six-pointed star block I had never seen.  I took pictures and set out to discover the name and source of the block.  But alas, I could not find anything.  I was mid-stream in my obsession with six-pointed stars and "needed" to piece that block so I figured it out from scratch.  It was so much easier to piece than I expect that I wrote my pattern, Dresden Stars to share what I figured out with others.

Fast forward to the pandemic (why does that sound so wrong ...

We have many free precut-friendly quilt patterns with tutorials in our Shortcut Quilt Series. Today we’ve got another one to add to the collection, the Layer Cake Loop Quilt! This quick and easy quilt is beginner-friendly and perfect to show off your favorite prints! For all the detail on this free pattern and video tutorial, read on.

The Quilt Pattern

DOWNLOAD THE FREE LAYER CAKE LOOP QUILT PATTERN

The Layer Cake Loop Quilt comes in four sizes including lap, twin, queen, and king. If you want to make one just like ours ...

The Hindi/Urdu word Nihal means happy and satisfied in every way.  Imagine a traveler coming from hot and dusty desert, with a parched throat.  They would become "Nihal" after they had a drink of cool and refreshing water. Happy and satisfied in every way!

Meet Nihal. 

Location Courtesy - Kids Play Structure in Mari's Backyard

To make Nihal, I used a pack of 10" squares - Cheers, designed by Carl and Linda Sullivan of Colourwerx. Cheers is from the Island Batik Spring 2022 Collection.  I also used Island Batik Solid light grey fabric for accent and binding. 

Nihal is published ...

Have you ever wanted to go off-script with your quilting? Like break out of the mold and do something a little bit… unexpected? To celebrate Worldwide Quilting Day on March 19, we’re encouraging you to cut loose in your sewing room and bake up something new. It’s all about cake… Layer Cake, that is.

I don’t know about you, but is there anything better than a 10″ stack of fabric? Layer Cakes go by several names depending on the manufacturer, but they’re basically a 10″ x 10″ square with about 42 different fabrics.

A “big sis ...

Jenny Doan’s family tree is stitched with needle and thread. 

Look back two generations, and you’ll find a pair of great aunts, master seamstresses who traveled from Sweden to work for the acclaimed New York artist, George Inness. 

They stitched and saved to pay passage to America for the entire family–including Jenny’s grandmother, who was just seven years old at the time. 

Jenny says, “When I see these spools, I am reminded that sewing is part of my genetic makeup; it changed our family forever!” 

This week, Jenny is stitching up a beautiful Big Spools quilt ...

Burano is a tiny Italian island known for handmade lace and sherbet-hued homes. 

Why were those little houses painted aqua, lavender, and cotton-candy pink? According to legend…it was to help tipsy fishermen find their way home! 

This week, the Doan girls are stitching up 3 new Drunkard’s Path quilts, and they’re just as colorful and charming as the streets of Burano! 

Watch the latest Triple Play tutorial to learn how to transform layer cakes and charm packs into Drunkard’s Path quilts that are quick, easy, and “sew” much fun!

 This was such a fun piece to quilt!  It's based on the flag of India and was the last "custom" quilt of 2021.

Much of the quilt is hexagons.

FIRST FINISH OF 2022

This one's mine.  Started on New Year's Day and complete ...

Every year when the weather turns cold, the peacock butterfly finds a cozy bed inside a hollow tree. There she naps for months at a time, with her wings wrapped around her body like a quilt. 

At the first sign of spring she emerges, wonderfully refreshed and ready to flutter!  (Add a tiny sewing machine and a stack of pretty precuts, and I’d call that the perfect winter!)

This week Jenny is stitching up a new butterfly quilt using a border print and layer cake from the beautiful Elysian collection by Jason Yenter for In the Beginning Fabrics. 

She ...