Bright Sisters begins

I’ve been watching The Midnight Quilt Show on YouTube featuring the marvelous Angela Walters (Quilting Is My Therapy) and I fell in love with the quilt featured in this episode the minute I saw it: The pattern is called Color Block Drunkard’s Path and was designed by Carl Hensch (3 Dog Design). It’s available on Craftsy….

Block 36 Inchy Hexagon Club

I realize you can’t even see the quilting on the front of this block, which is probably just as well. Neither could I while I was quilting it 🙂 I echoed the outer edge of the hexagon ring and attempted a small-scale meandering fill in the black background. I wanted the hexie ring to stand…

Extra Block Spinning Stars

This one isn’t actually a Splendid Sampler pattern, but I found it while I was working on the Sampler and decided (crazily, as it turns out) to make it at 6.5″ size and add it to my sampler. Whew. I can’t recommend making this block that size. The paper-piecing pattern is from Yvonnes.dk and it…

Free download: Fabric Cutting Diagram

I created this fabric cutting diagram for complex quilts, but I might just use it for all my quilts. In the “measure twice, cut once” world a visual representation of what you’re going to cut counts for a lot! Here’s a completed example using one of the fabrics for my Bright Sisters quilt (pictures of…

Jude’s Foxes

This quilt was created for my nephew Jude. He and my son are only six months apart in age, so poor Jude didn’t get a baby quilt when he was born like his older sister did. As partial compensation for a baby quilt delivered 17 years late, I asked him for his input on the…

Block 35 The Wishful Garden

This block was fun because I haven’t done much embroidery, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it and how well it came out. I wasn’t sure how to quilt around embroidery so I did a little research and found (unsurprisingly) that you don’t quilt over it. I started with gold thread…

Block 14 Flying High

This one went very quickly as I only quilted in gold. I started with a wavy line from edge to edge, then echoed back along it. I traveled along the block edge, started the second line, and quilted up to the first seagull. Then I echoed around the seagull until I reached where I’d started,…

Quilting the Splendid Sampler with QAYG

  I decided to try quilt-as-you-go for the first time on my Splendid Sampler. After all, this sampler is about learning new techniques! To do this, I sashed each 6.5″ unfinished block in 2″ wide blue sashing and placed it on a square of batting slightly larger than the sashed block. I wanted the sashing…

A Splendid Journey

In 2016 I stumbled upon The Splendid Sampler Sew-Along just before it kicked off, and decided to join on the spur of the moment. I’d never done one before but I thought the small block size (6″ finished) and relaxed schedule of two blocks per week seemed do-able. I kept up for most of the…