When I was a beginner quilter, I struggled with sewing an accurate quarter-inch seam allowance. How did I finally get perfect, consistent, quarter-inch seam allowances for accurate piecing, perfect points, and beautiful quilt blocks? Game Changer #1: The Flanged Quarter-Inch Presser Foot
Behold, my secret weapon in the Quest for the Consistent Seam Allowance!
Category: blog
A Plastic-Free Quilt-In-Progress Storage System
My quilting studio has finally gotten so messy, that my brain totally goes offline when I’m in there.
Thankfully, I had committed to do some quilt studio spring cleaning as part of the Spring Clean your Studio blog hop! As I said in last year’s Spring Cleaning post, nothing gets my butt in gear like a deadline. After a year of pandemic, my sewing room was soooo much worse.
How bad was it, you ask?
I shared these Before pics on Instagram with a double-bagged warning, and still, some viewers were shocked. Use the little arrow thingy on the side to scroll AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Book Review: Design, Make, Quilt Modern by Heather Black of Quiltachusetts
I was beyond thrilled to receive Heather Black’s new book Design, Make, Quilt Modern which released just last week.
In the book, Heather walks you through all the steps of designing a modern quilt. Heather lectured on creating balance and depth in quilt designs at QuiltCon a few years ago, and I refer back to my notes from that lecture when designing every quilt since; these design principles are beautifully explained in the Design Basics chapter, with illustrations from Heather’s own design process on her award winning quilts.
Best Posts of 2020
My favourite 5 blog posts of 2020 include a round-up of quilt binding techniques, my favourite new quilt pattern from this year, fabric storage tips, a Geeky Biz post for my fellow online marketers, and a cute, quick project tutorial!
I’m happy to see that my most viewed blog posts of the past year were on the helpful side!
But what does EQ8 DO?
Recently, I’ve been sharing a lot of mock-ups that I create in EQ8, and I got this great question.
Does EQ8 allow you to create a quilt completely from scratch? For example: Could I put in the overall measurements then draw in the pieces? And does it help you calculate fabric and seam allowances?
Today, in the light of day, I can show you what some of that looks like!
It’s Raining Cats and Cats
The Les Chats Noirs fabric collection by Leeza Hernandez for Dear Stella, with some of its black and white prints reading as grey from a distance, wanted to be mocked up in my Downpour quilt pattern, as “It’s Raining Cats and Cats.”
The thing that I love most about designing quilts in EQ8 is how easy it is to mock up a pattern in a different set of fabrics using the Swap Color button.
Scrappy Arctic Vortex Tree Skirt – a fabric story
Do you have emotional reactions to your fabrics? You know the type: The fat quarter that you bought on vacation and used a bit in one economy block of a very special baby quilt. The out of print unicorn that you found in a scrap bag that was handed down to you by a fellow … Continue reading Scrappy Arctic Vortex Tree Skirt – a fabric story
Retro Tetro Quilt Along Week 10
Can you believe we’re entering the final week of the quilt along?? Let’s bring it across the finish line! (This week’s post is a bit light on eye candy. My old reliable Janome needs a major tune up, and I just can’t get a consistent 1/4″ seam with my back-up machine. Good thing I have … Continue reading Retro Tetro Quilt Along Week 10
Retro Tetro Quilt Along Week 9
We’re in the home stretch!! Blocks are all done and looking BEAUTIFUL!! I’m so impressed with everyone’s progress! Now it’s time to join the background strips and put together the columns. Retro Tetro Quilt Along Dates: September 15 through November 23Duration: 10 weeksQuilt Sizes: Mini, Crib, Throw, or Twin How to Quilt Along Share your … Continue reading Retro Tetro Quilt Along Week 9
A Merry Vortexmas!
There I was, minding my business, avoiding looking at the news, when out of nowhere, BOOM! Christmas quilt ideas hit me.
Specifically: “What if I recolor Vortex to look like a Christmas tree??”
I created this FREE supplement to help you plan your fabrics to make this Christmas tree quilt version.
AND THEN… My thoughts turned to tree skirt quilts.
Because that Arctic Vortex quilt swirl would make a perfect peppermint swirl quilt! And a Snowflake quilt!