when I made my quarantine log cabin quilt, there was a LOT of information about all the choices in that quilt. Having piled so much meaning into the fabric choices in my quarantine log cabin quilt, and having written about each block as I made it, it seemed like all those words needed to be recorded on the quilt label…

I went on a retreat with my guild this last weekend.  Oh what fun! While I was there, I made this quilt! Yay!  A few folks asked what the pattern is.  There isn’t exactly a pattern, but its a combination of traditional blocks and so I thought I would share here what the blocks and dimensions are,…

A plus quilt. Simple, attractive, and timeless.  I recently whipped up this quilt for a loved one who was diagnosed with cancer. I wanted her to have something made with love to take with her to chemo (I hear it is ALWAYS cold.) I wanted the quilt to be simple enough that I could finish…

Last month I presented some needle know-how to the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild and I thought I’d type it out and share it with you here! When it comes to putting together a quilt, the role of the sewing machine’s needle shouldn’t be overlooked. After all, it is the needle that carries your thread…

My improv pattern for the houses quilt is now available!  As you may recall from my earlier post, this quilt was made in collaboration with Birch Fabrics for their Spring 2015 Quilt Market Booth. It looked pretty amazing in the booth, if I do say so myself! It also looked good in my parents’ backyard!…

It’s done!  This beauty started a bit differently than most of my quilts.  It started with a question raised by another quilt I had made, the Quartered Log Cabin Quilt (white version), pictured below. I love this block and teach it as part of my “favorite improv blocks” class.  But the very things that made my first…

I love autumn and Michigan is having a truly beautiful one this year! I’ve also been excited about shot cottons since I first laid eyes on them over five years ago.  And I really enjoy mixing shot cottons with modern prints, which happens in my DoublePlusGood quilt   and in my megaXPlus quilt. They add a lovely complexity to…

While keeping my stash organized is important for my creative flow (see my post about stash management here), another consideration is making sure that my stash actually contains the fabrics I am going to use.  Or should I say the fabrics I need?  Fabric sometimes feels like oxygen! While, of course, making do with what is…

Sometimes I really like Mondays.  The fresh start of it all.  I like being able to put everything in its place, think through what I need to be accomplished that week, and then begin.  Since I’m quilting full time this summer, I get to have my Mondays in the studio and I begin by cleaning…

Hi all!  What’s up?  I’m back after a FANTASTIC honeymoon, a super-fun time at Camp Stitchalot, and a week or so of trying to get my feet back on the ground and get to work.  Thank goodness for deadlines or I may never have come back down to earth…I’d be floating off into the atmosphere…desperate…

  Last weekend I taught a new class for the first time: intermediate improv. In this class, I go over my favorite improv blocks as well as some general approaches to color and value, and methods for combining odd-sized improv blocks into a quilt top. While I taught four blocks, I had sample quilts for…

I posted this picture (below) on Instagram  the other day. It seemed to spark a lot of interest, so I thought I’d take a moment to talk about my screen-printed quilt labels. Why Screenprint a Quilt Label There are a lot of ways to label a quilt, from embroidery to fabric markers.  I’ve been labelling…

I’ve been working hard getting class listings ready for Pink Castle. (By the way, if you’re near Ann Arbor, sign up for the local newsletter to get class lists and in-store coupons here: http://tinyurl.com/pinkcastleLOCAL). As part of this, I’ve been talking with a wide variety of people about what they’d like to teach. Karen LePage (One…

I’ve got two quilts in the show at Quilt Con this week–Fulls Stops and The Conversation Quilt! I blogged about Full Stops fairly recently (you can read about it here and here), but the one on the right has only made one brief appearances when it was in progress. It’s “The Conversation Quilt” and I…

I had an idea for this bubbling in the back of my head whilst I was making my log cabin quilt and so I started in on it right after. It’s a Painted Pebble Quilt and it was pretty quick to make. This quilt is based on this lovely painting by Garima Dhawan of Garima…

As you may recall, I decided a couple of weeks ago to use the spooky batik fabrics I made to make a Halloween quilt.  Well, the top is complete! I’ve already shown it to it’s intended recipient, my boyfriend Jon.  As you can see from his smile here, he likes it! Halloween is one of…

This tutorial explains how to make a 9” x 65” block for a Kelp Quilt If you make 11 of these blocks, you’ll have a twin size quilt (65″ x 93″). [Directions for queen size variations at the bottom.] Anyone is free to use this tutorial to construct a quilt; I just ask that they…

A common step in any block-based improv quilt is squaring up the blocks.  When I was making blocks for Stinky’s quilt, I squared them up with each additional “wall” that was added to the block–i.e., eight or nine times per block. Now, for a while I was just working with my cutting mat and ruler…

I’ve blogged about this book before, but it is coming up again, because I’ve got to say how much fun I have just keeping that electric fry pan of wax around and pulling it out on a random evening when I’ve got a free hour and a bell pepper. Since I don’t dye too often…

It’s crazy how fulfilling I find it to be able to make certain things for myself.  This weekend, I needed to go to the thrift store for a light blue shirt.  I need it for a soccer team I’m subbing on next month.  I was whinging to myself a bit about this trip; I was…

Almost everyone who comes into my office asks about my little pile of bean bags. These little beauties are an essential piece of my ability to stay organized. Since my job requires me to tackle several large projects at once, working on each one separately and incrementally, I often have about six piles of papers…

For such an unassuming and cheap product, this stuff sure is awesome!   A few months ago, when I posted about batik, Melody of the blog Fibermania suggested that I might have fun playing with sodium alginate. Shortly thereafter, the folks at Dharma Trading asked if I’d be interested in writing up some of my…

I’m slowly making my way through dye 101… Previously: a post about what dye to use and where to find it. And a post about how to prepare a dye bath.                   Now, how to choose and prepare fabric.                   Next, how to clamp your fabric                   Then, how to discharge (bleach) your fabric safely.…

They are done! If you missed it, the first part of my batik adventure was documented here. I wasn’t worried about the dying part of the batik equation since I do that all the time (instructions here.) but I was a bit unsure of how much of a pain getting the wax out of the…

Yep, I finally got down to doing it. I had Tuesday night to myself, so I set most of it up then: 1. Covered the kitchen table in craft paper and then cardboard. 2. Unwrapped the waxes: 3. Took my scoured pimatex, ironed it, and cut it into 14×22 and 14×44″ pieces. 4. Pulled  some…

I’m slowly making my way through dye 101, where you can learn to dye cotton fabric… Previously: a post about what dye to use and where to find it. Now: preparing a basic dye bath. Soon: preparing your fabric (including clamping it). A couple of notes as I begin: A. I haven’t been dying for…

I started this blog mostly to talk all about dye and I’ve yet to say anything about dye! Why? Well, there is too much to say; too many places I could begin.  So, I guess I will begin by just talking about what dye I use and where to buy it. I use Procion dye…