Listen to Your Machine

Listen to Your Machine

How often do you listen to your sewing machine? I know many of us talk to our sewing machines (or curse at them), but we don’t expect them to talk back. Machines are getting smarter, but hopefully they aren’t that smart. Regardless of whether you talk to...
Applique Apprehension

Applique Apprehension

McKenna Ryan Pattern Applique intimidated me. Plain and simple… I just didn’t know if I had the patience or skill to do applique and be happy with what I did. That is saying something as I had been doing needlework in the form of embroidery, cross stitch...
Snowflake Whimsy

Snowflake Whimsy

Snowflake Whimsy is underway! I am having so much fun putting this together and want to share what I have accomplished so far.  The first step was washing all of the fabric. Why wash them? There are two very good reasons. The first reason is that fabrics have a little...
Western Spy

Western Spy

Western Spy This week EQ8 announced another block challenge – Western Spy. Think eight-point star meets wreath. Designing with this was fun… piecing it would be a different challenge: y-seams galore! When I saw this block, two totally different ideas came...

Kitty in the Middle Fabrics!

Les Chat Noir (the black cats) fabric from Dear Stella has arrived in shops! I was so excited to get my fabrics. As a designer, I see the pictures of the fabrics before they are released, but they always look so much better in person! The little kitty faces (LW1170...
A Whimsical Year

A Whimsical Year

I have decided to have some fun in 2021 – I am introducing my Whimsy line of patterns. The patterns will have a central theme of checkboard medallion and border, which were inspired by Mackenzie-Childs designs. The quilts will have fusible appliques associated...
Sweet Treat

Sweet Treat

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! This was one of my favorite chants as a kid. My parents would load us up in the car on a Sunday afternoon and drive to the local ice cream stand. I say local, it was about 5 miles away, which is local when you live in...

Kitty in the MIddle Quilt-Along

February 1st, we start the Kitty in the Middle Quilt Along. This quilt along will help beginners learn several blocks and hone the technical skills of more experienced quilters. There are eight different blocks in the quilt – we don’t want to use up the...
Big League

Big League

Swing batter, batter swing! The holiday season is wrapping up and baseball enthusiasts are anxiously awaiting Major League Baseball’s spring training- the herald of warmer weather and playing outdoors again. Baseball is an American pastime and right of passage....
Quilting Terms and Acronyms

Quilting Terms and Acronyms

Have you ever had to search the internet to figure out what a quilting acronym or term meant? Quilting acronyms are definitely an alphabet soup with its own flavor. There are some amazing blogs out there that provide great answers. But you still have to hunt and peck...