What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Mikayla’s Grace is a wonderful charity in my area of Wisconsin that supports families with a baby in the NICU (neonatal ICU) and those who experience the death of a child or pregnancy loss at hospitals in the Dane County area.

Crafters from all over make beautiful handmade baby items that they sew, knit or crochet and send to Mikayla’s Grace — from gowns, hats, and booties, to baby blankets and quilts. Several times a year volunteers meet to assemble these donations into care packages and deliver them to local hospitals to distribute.

Melissa recently sent out an email ...

This week’s challenge for Project Quilting (Season 15.5) is “wearables”. You can turn clothing into something else or “quilt-ify” something you wear or make a clothing-themed item.

Here are the normal rules, and you have one week from start to finish to meet the challenge.

• Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline.
• Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes.
• Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have ...

Welcome to my stop on the Back to School Blog Hop for 2022! Now that my kids have been back in school for a few weeks, I've gotten back into the groove of getting into my studio more regularly. I've done some sewing, some tidying, some planning, and some writing. :-)

My newest class is Building an Improv Toolbox. (P.S. You can take it with me on November 5!) In improv I often don't concern myself with things lining up precisely, but even then, sometimes I do want it to happen. These tips are for those times ...

Over the past year, we’ve made a scrap buster block each month. On the AccuQuilt Australia blog, I shared different quilt layout options for each block to provide inspiration for how you could make a quilt from just the one block pattern – check those out here. But if you were sewing along to make a sampler quilt like me… well, now’s the time to put it together! Here’s how I made my rainbow sampler quilt…

You can find all the scrappy quilt block tutorials here.

HOT TIP
To get the same scrappy rainbow effect, I highly recommend ...

Hello quilty folks! Today kicks off the Back to School Blog Hop for 2022, hosted by Bobbie Gentili of Geeky Bobbin. Please bookmark this page to visit each of the 16 daily stops on this year's blog hop. So many great tips and tutorials are coming your way!

Be sure to visit every stop on the hop!

Sept. 15 - Geeky Bobbin - Press for Success! - https://geekybobbin.com

Sept. 16 - Katie Mae Quilts - Storage Solutions From The School Supplies Section - https://katiemaequilts.com/blog

Sept. 17 - Quilting Jetgirl - Make A Design Wall You Can Use Your Hera Marker Against - https ...

When you have an idea in mind for your art quilt, often combining techniques you’ve learned along the way and a little experimentation will help you reach your goal.

My goal for this small landscape art quilt was to recreate a scene of our Capitol shown in the distance through the autumn leaves. The fall season is my favorite, and so beautiful at the UW-Madison with the variety of trees and colors. Having worked in the heart of this beautiful campus for many years, I’ve had many opportunities to view it.

So how do I begin to reach ...

Make this Summer quilt with stars and pinwheels using your favorite quilting fabrics. An easy quilt pattern perfect as summer decoration!

Photo by American Quilter magazine. Used with permission.

I came across Moda Fabric’s Rainbow Garden collection and was struck by the brightness of the prints and the whimsical garden motifs. So, I set out to design a quilt that would showcase those fabrics I loved so much. Yes, fabrics are often the source of inspiration for my designs.

“Summer Groove” measures 73″ x 87-1/2″ with blocks that finish at 6″, 10″, and 12″. I wanted to include ...

Take one stack of 10" fabric squares and a little extra yardage for borders and you can make this beautiful quilt in no time. The quilt finishes approx. 65" x 73".

The layer cake used in this quilt was from the Wovens Collection by Bonnie and Camile from Moda Fabrics. 

Fabric

• 42 @ 10" squares, coordinating or scrappy
• 1/3 yd for inner border, sub cut to 6 @ 1-1/2" x WOF
• 1-1/2 yds for outer border, sub cut to 8 @ 6-1/2" x WOF
• 2/3 yd for binding, sub cut to 8 @ 2-1/2" x WOF

Learn how to hang a quilt on a wall with a sleeve sewn to its back. It is super easy to make – no need to turn a long fabric tube inside out.

I have many friends who do not like to make hanging sleeves for a quilt. Instead, they hang their quilts using other methods or tools. So, before showing you how I make these sleeves, let’s explore some of the options to hang quilts on the wall.

Thumbtacks and shower curtain rings

I do this all the time with transparent thumbtacks and cool-looking shower curtain rings. It is ...

Life is a whirlwind of extremes. Happy times; hard times. Miracles and loss. But as our hearts are stretched in a thousand directions, they sure do grow! 

If you’re anything like me, you pour your emotions into your quilts. And this week’s quilt is bursting with love!

Watch Jenny stitch up the wildly popular Exploding Hearts quilt by Laura Piland for Slice of Pi Quilts. This stunning heart quilt is a triumph of triangles with half-square triangles, hourglass blocks, and quarter-square triangles, too. (We love Exploding Hearts SO MUCH, we created a kit with the pattern and beautiful ...

Here’s an easy flying geese quilt block tutorial that will save you time and fabric! Learn when to choose this one over the traditional method.

Last night I was testing this block for a quilt pattern I needed to write. It finishes at 12″ but the main reason to test it was because the size of the flying-geese units was not conventional, i.e., 2″ x 4″, 3″ x 6″, etc. Thus, I could not use the traditional method to construct them, as they measured 2-1/4″ x 4-1/4″ finished.

I do use EQ8, the software by the ...

It doesn’t get easier than this classic quilt block! Using Layer Cakes cut into half-square triangles, the chevron quilt block is the perfect project for a new beginner quilter! Even if you’ve been stitching up quilts for awhile now, this simple pattern offers a unique opportunity to quilt in a hurry (not like any of us would EVER wait until the last minute to make a handmade gift).

To make this into a full quilt, all you’ll need is a solid layer cake and a printed layer cake – but the good news is you can truly make ...

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 ...

Happy New Year, and time for the next quilt block tutorial of Scrap Buster Blocks! This series features a different scrap-friendly quilt block tutorial every month that will help you use up your scraps and make some fun quilts along the way.

QUILT BLOCK TUTORIAL

Right here on my website, you’ll find the rotary cut instructions for making the 12″ quilt block (finished). If you have an AccuQuilt, you can find the AccuQuilt instructions on the AccuQuilt Australia blog to make the quilt blocks with any sized Qube set. Also on the AccuQuilt Australia blog, you will find ...

Have you ever heard of a Colorado block? Many quilters know this quilt classic by another name, the Dutch Windmill. Using layer cakes, this traditional half-square triangle quilt block comes together in a flash creating a unique and vintage design that has been loved for many years. How many years to be exact? While Jenny couldn’t find much information on the original of the name Dutch Windmill, the Colorado quilt block can be traced back to 1941 where it was published in the Kansas City Star!

To stitch up this classic you’ll need two layers cakes, one of ...

Looking for love this Valentine’s Day? Keep an eye on the birds! 

Spot a dove, and you’re destined for a happy, peaceful marriage. Spot a crossbill, and your future spouse is sure to be a grouch.

A sparrow means you’ll marry a pauper, and a goldfinch signals wealth. And if an owl shows up? That’s it! You’ll be single for life! 

All things considered, it may be wiser to stay inside and quilt! This week Jenny is using precut charms to stitch up a super-sweet Valentine heart quilt. These half-square triangle hearts are so simple ...

Quarter square triangles are so versitile and so easy to make. Use two, three or four different fabrics to make amazing designs.

Do you remember discovering precuts for the very first time? Vanessa Goertzen sure does! 

It was 2010, and Vanessa had just learned that her new baby was going to be a girl. On the way home from the ultrasound, she stopped at a fabric shop to pick up something pink.

There, she laid eyes on a stack of precut 5 inch charms, and a creative fire was lit! (12 years later, Vanessa designs incredible precut patterns for her very own Lella Boutique!)  

This week, Jenny is stitching up one of Vanessa’s prettiest patterns. Chandelier is a quick and easy ...