Arbor Lane’s humble beginning started with this lovely rough sketch. Every one of my quilt designs starts with my own hand, pencil, and paper. I spend so much of my day at the computer, I welcome the back-to-basics of sketching and playing in my journal. And that’s exactly what I was doing here: dreaming of [...]
Posts under ‘Quilting’
A Big Debut
I am thrilled I can finally announce my big news: this beauty is mine. Arbor Lane, JoAnn’s 2010 QuiltBlock of the Month quilt design, is mine. My goal for this quilt was for it not to look like a Block of the Month. I wanted to develop a design that had never been done before. [...]
Boost Your Own Economy
The latest economic news is a bit glum, especially when you consider we’re about to begin the major quilting season. Fall holds great promise with terrific quilt shows and conferences, cooler weather, new projects, and guilds getting back underway after a summer hiatus. What’s a quilter on a budget to do? Don’t despair – it’s [...]
Petite Pineapples Table Runner
Creative Quilters, I’d like to introduce you to Petite Pineapples, the August edition of our year-long color-of-the-month enhanced e-pattern series:
August’s featured color is blue-green, the hottest color of 2010. Petite Pineapples combines tradition with trend, juxtaposing 19th century-style hand applique with trendy blue-greens of 2010. This sweet runner uses a clean color palette [...]
Studio Tour
We”re doing a virtual studio tour over at the Color-of-the-Month forum, sharing photos of our creative quilting studios, and I thought I would share mine with you. My own studio is the bonus room over my garage, and I share it with my husband, who has his office here too. He often jokes that I [...]
Red: July’s Color-of-the-Month
Welcome to the July Color-of-the-Month slideshow, offering tips on using red in your quilt palette. This month’s show features Red in traditional, spare, summertime, and Christmas color palettes! This month I host Buggy Barn, Henry Glass Fabrics, Debbie Grifka, Benita Skinner, and more, sharing fabric designs and gorgeous quilts. [...]
The “I Can’t Believe It’s the Last Day of June” Post
Summer seems to slipping by ever-so-gently. I’ve enjoyed these days of summer with my family, not doing anything particular, just being together. So much has happened, I’ll need to catch you up:
my birthday gift of two parakeets. I named them Boo and Scout, taken from To Kill a Mockingbird
we adopted an adorable 7-week-old Lab mix [...]
How Much Does Beauty Cost?
I guess that’s an unanswerable question, isn’t it? How can you put a price on what each of us deems beautiful?
Since we’re quilters, our stash is a beautiful thing, one we would loathe to put a price on. Those quilts are works of love going to cherished family members, people in need, and our own [...]
It’s Official
Now that it’s official, I can announce Color Mastery is a Benjamin Franklin award winner for Best Craft Book of 2009. The Independent Book Publishers Association developed the awards to honor excellence in book publishing by independent presses. David and I flew to NYC, attended the awards, and celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in Little [...]
Blue: June’s Color-of-the-Month
Welcome to the June Color-of-the-Month slideshow, offering tips on using blue in your quilt palette. Blue is a perennial favorite with quilters, and this month’s slideshow shows you how to take blue to an entirely new level! This month I host Marcus Fabrics, Yolanda Fundora, Barbara Campbell, and Edyta Sitar, sharing fabric designs [...]
Stars & Stripes Table Runner
Creative Quilters, I’d like to introduce you to Stars & Stripes, the June pattern update to our year-long color-of-the-month series.
June’s featured color is blue, a perennial favorite with quilters of all styles. Stars & Stripes shows you how to coordinate different blues while avoiding an over-matched appearance. Discover how to coordinate varying color intensities, [...]
Sunflower Summer Table Runner
Creative Quilters, I’d like to introduce you to Sunflower Summer, the May pattern update to our year-long color-of-the-month series.
May’s featured color is yellow, which so many quilters find to be challenging and avoid using. No more! Sunflower Summer shows you how to make yellow play well with others, giving yellow a chance to mingle and [...]
Don’t Blink – It’s a Whirlwind!
What a week we’ll be having: Judith won last week’s Color Mastery Goes Viral contest, I’ve announced a new social media scavenger hunt contest this week over at Color Mastery (the quilting industry’s first ever!), and tomorrow debuts the May color-of-the-month! Wow – I think I need to sit down and prop up my feet. [...]
Let the Games Begin
I did promise prizes didn’t I? Contests too. I deliver on my word: Over at my Color Mastery blog I announced the first of four weekly contests I’ll be holding to celebrate Color Mastery being a Best Craft Book of 2009 Finalist. What’s up for grabs? That gorgeous Wildflower jelly roll, a Love Apple table [...]
Secrets of Accurate Half-Square Triangles
The Spring Tulips table runner uses a lot of half-square triangles (HSTs) in the pieced tulips blocks. In fact, every table runner I’ve designed so far uses them. For much of my early years as a quilter, cutting and piecing accurate HSTs was a mystery to me. I followed all of the instructions, tried the [...]
Green: April’s Color-of-the-Month
Welcome to the April Color-of-the-Month slideshow, offering tips on using green in your quilt palette and featuring stunning color palettes that celebrate spring. This month I host Susan Branch, Jan Patek, Franchelle Contreras, and Pat Sloan, sharing fabric designs and gorgeous quilts. Get inspired to create a fabulous spring project and remember to support the [...]
Spring Tulips Table Runner
Creative Quilters, I’d like to introduce you to Spring Tulips, the April pattern update to our year-long color-of-the-month series.
I’m celebrating spring’s arrival with a picnic on the new Spring Tulips table runner. I’m so excited to see spring’s explosion of color after such a harsh winter that was spare in its color landscape. My favorite part [...]
The Winner of the Kennesaw Mountain Kit is . . .
Maeve Binder! Congratulations! A kit of Kennesaw Mountain’s reproduction fabrics are on their way to your mailbox. Thank you to everyone who forwarded my newsletter on to their friends, guild newsletter editors, program chairpersons, Pres. Obama’s press secretary, Geronimo Stilton, Matt Lauer, and ooops! Found myself getting carried away.
If you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, [...]
What’ll Ya Have?
A newsletter, please. March issue, with the recipe for Varsity chili dogs on the side. That’s right – my March newsletter is out and I’m including all kinds of exciting news, another giveaway, and my own recipe for Varsity-style chili dogs. Did you know the actual recipe for Varsity Chili dogs chili actually appeared in [...]
Lucky Winner of Dolls & Dresses to Applique is . . . .
Sherry Hogan! Congratulations Sherry on winning Kay’s precious book, Dolls & Dresses to Applique. I’m also excited to announce Kay Mackenzie will be my special guest on the Color-of-the-Month forum in April, so if you haven’t joined as a subscriber, now is the time. Kay will be sharing her applique wisdom and answering questions during [...]
Girls’ Day Applique!
My buddy and applique guru Kay Mackenzie (Easy Appliqué Blocks) has a brand new book out called Dolls & Dress to Appliqué and it’s just perfect for the mom, grandmom, or woman wanting to play with fabric paper dolls! Here’s my exclusive interview with Kay about her newest offering:
Q: What was your inspiration for [...]
Kennesaw Mountain Table Runner
Creative Quilters, I’d like to introduce you to Kennesaw Mountain, the March pattern update to our year-long color-of-the-month series.
Inspired by the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 2011, this table runner gets its name from a battlefield near my home in north Georgia. The red-violet, mustard-yellow, and yellow-green reproduction fabrics [...]
One More Peek at Pink
February is almost over, and I’ll miss our look at everything pink this month. Being the only woman in a household of boys and men, it was delightful to play with pink fabrics, thread, pomegranates, baskets, and paints. I don’t want to say adieu, but March calls.
A couple more peeks at pink. I’ve shared this [...]
