Some three decades ago, Jo Morton was just beginning to teach in our home state of Nebraska. She came to our fledgling guild and taught us to make Log Cabin blocks with strips that finished at 1/2″. There weren’t any reproduction fabrics in those days, so Jo was inventing ways to make new fabrics look old. One of the secrets she shared with us was this: Read More »

I finished piecing this long-term project last week. It’s a traditional Burgoyne Surrounded design, but it was reimagined by Lissa Alexander and published in American Patchwork & Quilting. I’ve been working on it at retreats for the past couple of years. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and I used up a lot of light neutral background fabric. The top is 75″ x 90″. Read More »

I’ve had some adventures lately! Saw interesting things and met wonderful people. Here are some highlights.     International Quilt Study Center & Museum held its International Advisory Board meeting June 9 and 10, and because I’m involved with Friends of the museum, I attended. It was an opportunity to meet well-known people in the quilt world who are not necessarily quilters but are esteemed for other reasons. Read More »

Designing quilts is really enjoyable, but do you know what’s even better? It’s when people like your design enough to make a quilt of their own! It’s like a little piece of your soul goes out to live in the world. You can imagine my delight when I opened the latest Quiltmaker to find my Swoopers owl quilt featured in Spotlight. Michelle Barker of Riverton, Utah and her sister Tammy Howell who lives in Oregon worked on their Swoopers quilts at the same time. Read More »

Stash Bandit is all about making scrap quilts, often from the fabric you already own. I asked some well-respected industry folks for their best tip, trick or advice about making a scrap quilt. Enjoy! Read More »

Many years ago, a quilt shop owner showed me her technique for binding a quilt by machine. I’ve used it ever since because it looks great on the front and the back of the quilt, it’s easy, it’s fast and it’s sturdy. Here’s a tutorial for how I bind my quilts by machine. Read More »

Transparency is a great trick, and it’s especially effective in quilt design. My recent X Marks the Spot for McCall’s Quick Quilts makes good use of transparency to create interest in an otherwise ordinary design. Read More »

There are things you can do to become a color-savvy quilter. This series will help to expand your color skills so you can make more beautiful, more interesting and more successful quilts. If there were a Patchwork Bible, it would contain a book on color, and one of the unshakeable truths would be this: Read More »

My small quilt group issued a half-square quilt challenge earlier this year. The rules were pretty simple: The finished quilt should be about 24″ x 24″ and feature mainly half-square triangles. If you’re a new to quilting, that’s a commonly-used shape and it looks like this: A square is cut in half on the diagonal, and the two resulting triangles are called half-square triangles, often abbreviated as HST. Read More »

I wrote this post for Quiltmaker in 2015, and it is reposted here with permission. I love teaching quilters. A day in the classroom with like-minded souls brings out the best in me. We learn, we laugh and we have fun. But occasionally a student will say something that baffles me. It’s usually about combining quilt fabrics. Let me give you a little background. Read More »