Later on today, I will hanging out on Kansas City Live (a local talk show) again. I will talking about my first fabric line Textures and will be showing how to make a fun pillow! So today, I am going to veer away from usual quilting fun to share a quick and easy tutorial on how to make it! I made this pillow for my half-booth at Quilt Market last fall. It’s so easy to make… First you will need 2 large squares for the pillow and a bunch of smaller squares for the petals of the flower, depending on how large you want the flower to be. For this particular pillow, I used 12″ squares for the pillow and 5″ squares for the petals. Trim each of the squares into a circle. To make each petal, you will fold the circle in half, and then in half again. On larger square (the top of the pillow), draw a circle where you want the flower to be. Remember, the bigger the circle, the more petals you will need. Placing the petals so they cover the line, sew each petal to large square. Working your way a

Every March, I make a quilt for my church’s preschool. It’s a great way for them to raise a little money and it’s a fun way for me to remember why I like quilting in the first place! I have blogged about a couple of previous ones here and here (There is nothing like looking at older blog posts to make me cringe…..) As much as I have loved the other quilts, this one is favorite. Of course, it’s because I used the Right Angles quilt panel from my Textures collection. I set out to use the panel in a completely different way. So for the top of the quilt, I cut the panel in half horizontally and sewed it back together. I used the coordinating print portion of the panel (and actually some from another panel) in between the blocks and the bottom of the quilt. But I have to say….my favorite part of the whole quilt is this: My daughter, Cloe, wanted to give it a try and I decided ‘what the heck?’ Before I go any further, I have to clarify that I would NEVER let anyon

Ok, I know you may be tired of seeing feathers….I have been on a little bit of a feather kick lately. Today’s quilt has feathers as well, but in my defense, Colleen asked for them. I can’t help but give her what she wants, right?? She sent me her Painted Waves quilt and that she wouldn’t mind feathers in the borders. Other than that, she left the quilting designs up to me. For the border feathers, I wanted them to be free-flowing and “wild”….kinda like they are going all over the place. A little bit of a closer view…. It’s hard to see, but in the white setting triangles, I went with a swirly design in the white part of the blocks. I wanted to play up the “waves” part of the quilt name. It’s probably no surprise, but I had my most fun quilting the solid white blocks. Anytime you want to make your quilting stand out, it’s a good idea to provide a bit of spacing between the quilting designs. That’s why I quilted some lines in

If you recall, you may remember that I blogged about hanging out at the headquarters of American Patchwork and Quilting. I filmed 10 short videos for their website, and one of them is up! It’s all about swirls….. If for some reason the video doesn’t work, you can watch it on their website. As the videos are released, I will, of course, share them with you!!! On a different topic, I am hitting the road again…..but I won’t be going far. March 28th, I will be heading just a little south to Lee’s Summit MO to give a trunk show/lecture for the Nimble Thimbles Quilt Guild. If you live in the area, I hope you will come and hang out with us!! And…..a completely unrelated quilting photo (because you can’t have a blog post without a pretty picture!!) Happy Quilting!!!

The best thing about this industry is the people that I get to meet. I met Carrie, of SUCH Designs, at Quilt Market and instantly fell in love with her awesome personality. When she asked me to quilt some quilts for her, of course I said yes. And I’m glad I did because she sends me some fun quilts! The quilt that I am going to show you today is her Nest quilt. We all know how much I love negative space as well as a fun inspiration, so it’s probably no surprise that I had a lot of fun quilting this quilt!!! When I was quilting the “nest”, I stuck with lots (and lots) of jagged lines to give it a bit of a realistic look. I love the texture that it adds to the quilt, so fun!! I quilted circles in the eggs…. You can’t have a nest without a tree, right??? So on the bottom and the right side of the quilt, I quilted woodgrain. I wanted the nest to look like it was….well, nestled in a branch of a tree. The woodgrain design is such a fun and fast quilting design and I love