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Build your favorite city as you piece and applique modern quilt blocks. Select the ones you like for smaller projects, or make the whole quilt!

Welcome to City Blocks – my first quilt book! Published by Leisure Arts and already on sale, this book features 32 blocks I designed, each portraying a place or an experience in a city. There are also six coordinating, smaller projects, many diagrams, and easy-to-follow instructions.

Those of you who have been following me since I began this blog and my Etsy store (2013!) will remember our Sew Along. We made a block every two weeks ...

Are you ready to make memories with this new quilt along? Join us for the Summer Memories Quilt Along starting Monday, May 1. We’re ready to start sewing the beautiful Summer Picnic quilt from Susan Ache’s new book Summer Memories! Read on for the full schedule and quilt along details.

Quilt Along Supplies

For the Summer Memories Quilt Along, you’ll need the Summer Memories Quilt & Cross Stitch Book by Susan Ache for the full pattern. (The book sold out quickly, but we expect new books to arrive the first week of May.) The pattern is written for ...

Are you ready to make memories with this new quilt along? Join us for the Summer Memories Quilt Along in May, where we’re sewing the beautiful Summer Picnic quilt from Susan Ache’s new book Summer Memories. Keep reading for details about the quilt along!

To join the Summer Memories Quilt Along, gather your supplies and grab your copy of the book so you’re ready to start May 1. For the Summer Memories Quilt Along, we will be sewing two blocks a week, and spend a week on finishing. The nine-week quilt along goes from May 1 – June ...

The Fruit Salad Quilt Book by Fig Tree Quilts might as well be hand-picked for us! The seven fruit inspired blocks and several setting patterns will have you dreaming of cool summer breezes and bright sunny days. The cherry on top of it all is the release of the Fruit Medley Runner Pattern that’s part of the Fruit Salad Sew Along. Read on for all the juicy details!

To celebrate the Fruit Salad Quilt Book that’s just landed at Fat Quarter Shop, we’re going to take part in the Fig Tree & Co. sew along starting in April ...

Let’s look back in time at our favorite Summer Memories! Susan Ache’s new Summer Memories Book is out now, and it sparks feelings of joy by drawing us back to days of picnics at the park with family and days spent on the beach with friends. Read on to learn more about this new book and the quilt and cross stitch patterns featured inside.

The quilts and cross stitch patterns highlight Susan’s favorite days spent in the sun. The six summertime-inspired quilts are colored in soft reds, pinks, and blues, but they would look stunning in more ...

Take a moment to reminisce with us! Susan Ache’s new Summer Memories Book reminds us of summer reunions, picnics, and getting together with family and friends for cookouts. She shares six patriotic-colored quilts in this book and ten summer-filled cross stitches.

These quilts highlight Susan’s favorite sunny stories and memorable moments with loved ones. Each seasonally inspired quilt is colored in reds, whites, and blues, but they would look stunning in anything!

Like many of us, Susan has Summer nights, picnics, and long days that she loves to think back on. Are there moments from your life you ...

This charming new quilt book from Moda Bake Shop is full of creative designs to use up your favorite 5″ squares! We’re so excited to talk about Charmed by Moda Bake Shop and all its beautiful projects. Keep reading to learn more about this new book of Charm Pack patterns, and sew along with us in a new quilt along starting Friday, November 4.

Charmed by Moda Bake Shop

You can get the Charmed by Moda Bake Shop Quilt Book today. This delightful new book of patterns gathered by Lissa Alexander has twelve designs in it, all using Charm ...

My friend Deb told me about a swap she and her stitching friends are doing. 

Of course, we love that they chose Mary Witherwax blocks!

Her group has existed for years, bonded in friendship and love.   

They’ve moved all over the country and still retreat together when they can.

They all do hand appliqué and don’t have too many ‘rules’ for the swap.

Having a history of many group projects they know what they like.

Their ground fabrics will all be scrappy shirtings - each member making duplicates of the same blocks.

In the end - they will each have ...

We simply can not wait for Simply Half Yards! Simply Half Yards includes 16 full-color patterns to make half yard-friendly quilts. You can pre-order the book today, and as soon as it hits our shelves in September we will send it your way!

Simply Half Yards is our love letter to half yards with every quilt in this book designed to show off the beauty of these fabric cuts. These quilts include patterns in sizes from Lap to Queen and everything in between!

We’re looking forward to a quilt along with this book in November. Our Simply Stars Quilt ...

We are sew excited to share with you, It’s Sew Emma’s newest book, Simply Half Yards! Simply Half Yards shows our love for half yards with every quilt in this book designed to appreciate these generous fabric cuts while including quilts in various sizes, from Lap to Queen. 

Each pattern is clearly written with full-color instructions, and the spiral-bound book lies flat for easy use. Grab your fabric, pick a design, and start quilting! Pick your favorite prints one by one by the half yard, or you can make it even easier with whichever half yard bundles call ...

I was so surprised to open this present at Christmas

While recovering from Covid, I had a lot of reading and resting time. Finished the entire thing.

And learned a lot.

Somehow I thought that most old quilts weren’t very big. False. There are many quilts more than 200 years old that are more than 100-inches square.

Somehow I thought that handquilting in the past was mostly utilitarian. False. Handquilting has been decorative and elaborate in patterns that rival the most adept contemporary longarm designs.

Somehow I thought that old quilts were all handmade. False. They used machines whenever ...

My favorite Sewlebrity is….Dr. Carolyn L. Mazloomi! Carolyn has been a champion for so many African American art quilters for many years.  She has been a mentor to our entire community.  We owe her a deep, deep debt of gratitude.  And, the entire quilting and art community is richer and deeper and more vibrant and …

Favorite Sewlebrity Read More »

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I am thrilled to announce a new series of interviews with some of my Quilt Friends– all artists , quilters, curators, designers and entrepreneurs—now available on my YouTube channel.  The series is called “On the Design Wall”. I have just uploaded the first two interviews in this series with many more to come in the …

Interviews with Quilt Friends Read More »

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Have you seen the new “Red & Green Quilts” book from Martingale? And if so, did you happen to notice that THREE of the featured designers are also Marcus fabric designers? We’re sew proud of Sheryl Johnson, Paula Barnes & Mary Ellen Robison, and Pam Buda! Check out their gorgeous quilts below….

As the Martingale editors explain, “The pairing of red and green is an enduring palette that takes its ...

Quilting Book Sale! - Deep Discounts

Take advantage of C & T Publishing BIG SALE. Save up to 66 % on some of my favorite quilting books until Oct 19th. 

Free motion Framework by Jen Eskridge is at the top of list.  Why?  Besides being a great book to improve free-motion skills, I am a contributing quilter. 

Using Jen’s “framing design” I quilted free-motion quilting patterns in sections of the framework in the quilt above.

NOTE: I am a CT Publishing affiliate. I receive a small commission when you click a link on this website and make a purchase. It costs you ...

And now it is July… I saw a meme that said perhaps the person who said that “Hindsight is 20/20” was actually a time traveller referring to this year. Certainly makes sense! For those who haven’t seen the news elsewhere, we have recently found out that we need to move, and so my life is now a chaotic mess of boxes and tubs and bits and pieces everywhere. Oh, and did I mention it’s also school holidays here? And my city, Melbourne, is experiencing a second wave of the virus. So yes, 2020 just keeps on with ...

I love quilts with stars, whether they are pieced, paper pieced, or appliqued. I have made them entirely with stars, such as this Christmas quilt, or mixed with alternating blocks. Here is my latest star quilt block, which is going into a sampler quilt.

Two of my friends and I are making star quilt blocks which will be later turned into a quilt. We were supposed to meet every month and exchange blocks, but life is getting in the way. I did make another block, though, and I think it came out so cool!

I was looking for 12-inch star ...

I am super excited to share my newest book, SEW MAGICAL. This paper piece book is FANTASTICAL!

The 16 mystical blocks in this book are amazing. I can’t wait to see what you will do with them. Here are some of the things I came up with, and all of the directions for sewing these projects are included in the book.

This adorable lap quilt is so versatile. You can add any of the blocks from the book to create your own masterpiece quilt.

This super sweet Backpack would make the nicest gift for ...

National Quilting Day 2020 — Ways to Stay Connected! Most (maybe all of us) are practicing social distancing so meeting with other quilters face to face will be limited for the next few weeks.  But, that doesn’t have to mean that we need to completely isolate ourselves.  We can still connect and show each other [ ...Continue Reading ]

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We’re wrapping up the Perfect 5 Quilt Along with a look at some of our completed quilts. If you are just tuning in, you can review our previous posts and grab yourself the Perfect 5 Quilts Book by It’s Sew Emma for complete pattern instructions. Now, let’s look at some perfectly sewn Perfect 5 Sampler Quilts that you’ll be inspired by!

Our quilty staffers sewed up the Perfect 5 Sampler Quilt in their favorite fabrics.

Each week of the sew along, these talented quilters and designers have created some beautiful quilts and projects using the blocks ...