I haven't had much time to sew recently so I was pretty happy to string a few hours together last week to make this mini for our quilt guild's holiday swap. The quilts didn't have to be holiday-themed, and truthfully I think this could stay up all year, but I was feeling festive so here it is. All of the little trees were improv pieced. I grabbed a bunch of rectangular green scraps and some Kona snow and just went for it. If you would like to try this, here is a very small, kind of limited, photo tutorial. My quilt finished at just about 21'' square.

Cut your green pieces into rectangles and match each one up with a rectangle of your background fabric. Longer, skinnier background pieces will give you taller trees and shorter rectangles make fatter trees. Cut the background rectangle in half along the diagonal to yield two triangles. Arrange the triangles on the green fabric to get an idea of where they will be. Flip the first one over and sew it to the scrap right sides together. Trim the seam to 1/4'' and press towards the background fabric. Repeat with the other side. (Note: My method only works for a solid background as there is no wrong or right side. You could still do this with a print background, but you will need to more fabric to ensure that you have two triangles that point in opposite directions.

Trim the trees so that there is at least 1/4'' on each side of the bottom points and at the top. You can even out the height of the trees after the trunk is added by sewing extra background fabric to the top edge.

To make the trunks, sew a strip of brown fabric (7/8'' to 1 1/4'' wide by about 8" long) between two wider (about 3'' x 8") strips of background fabric. Press the seams towards the brown. Cut this into strips of different heights for trunks. For this quilt, I made two different strip sets and cut each into 6 pieces. Sew the trunks to the bottom edge of the trees and trim the sides.

Sew some strips of background fabric on each side and between the trees to act as spacers. I put four trees in each row and then sewed the rows together. You might want to add more background fabric along the top and bottom - I found it was nice to have some more negative space. Now make a quilt sandwich and quilt as desired - I went with unevenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines using my walking foot. Bind in your preferred method and admire your work.

I know the photos are limited, so if you have questions, please ask. I will answer in the comments for all to see.

Merry Christmas

At this time of the year, fast and easy sewn gifts are my go-to. One of these items is a set of these super cute and simply constructed coasters. I can whip up a set of six in under an hour and they are perfect for fabric and batting scraps. With an assembly line going, a whole slew can be made in an afternoon. I'm over on the AccuQuilt blog today sharing a tutorial for how I made these. The tops are pieced with quarter square triangles and the bottoms are squares. While I could cut them with a rotary cutter and ruler, I love my GO! Cutter because it makes accurate cuts in no time. You can cut one set of six with one die and one pass through the machine! Who couldn't use a little more time at this time of the year?

You can find the tutorial here. If you make some, let me know. I'd love to see your version.

This December is calm and bright. And merry. So merry!

If you have seen my posts recently on Instagram, you know that I am taking time to list the things I am grateful for everyday. Inspired by my dear friend, Emily, this gratitude practice was just what was I was missing. Taking a few minutes to review what I am thankful for each my day has been the best reflection for me. I hadn't realized just how much I missed taking a photo every day and saying a few words about it, like I did for 5 years on Flickr. Although the gratitude practice that I am doing now is different, I believe it fills the hole that my 365 projects left. I did not realize how much I missed it (and habit! I still miss habit). Life is hectic and busy and messy and lovely and wonderful and loving and energizing and I want to feel it all, love it all, live it all.

Among the many things I am grateful for is this blog and all of you who read it. I don't say it nearly often enough, but I do so appreciate the time it takes to stop here, read my words, and comment on my posts. I love sewing and knitting and making things, and having people to share it with has been a wonderful blessing in my life. I love knowing that like-minded people are out there, following along. Thank you. Truly, I am grateful for all of you and everything you do to support my endeavors.

I'm not signing off for the year, yet. I do have some posts planned, but I'm soaking in every moment of this holiday season and don't want to miss the opportunity to wish the best. Whatever holiday it is that you celebrate, I hope that it is full of love, kindness and gratitude.

Merry Everything, Happy Always, my friends!

I've been wanting to play with the January Quilt block since, well, January when Liz Harvatine released it out into the world. When I saw it on the mosaic that my partner, Hilarie, had on her instagram feed for the Schnitzel and Boo mini swap, I decided to go for it. I felt doubly lucky that Hilarie's favorite colors are navy, aqua, green and gray - my favorites, too! - and that we share the same taste in fabric. It made making this mini extremely enjoyable.

The background fabric is by Alexia Abegg from her Paper Bandana line for Cotton and Steel. I stashed 6 yards of this back when it was released. (I have used it ALL. Insert sad emoji here.) It is the perfect neutral for the way I like to sew and I was thrilled to use it for this mini. It adds interest without competing with the prints. The other prints are a mix of scraps and stash. Many of the pieces are small so this block is wonderful for scraps and fussy cutting treasured bits of fabric. The piecing is pretty easy. Yes, they are curves, but they are gentle curves and with a little pinning and some deep breaths, you can do this. Slow and steady is my mantra with things like this, with slow being the key word as it is not a fast make. Still, I loved sewing it. My favorite part? The block finishes larger than necessary and then trimmed down to size so any wonkiness or the like is taken care of painlessly.

I would like to make this quilt again, albeit in a much larger size. That doesn't fit into my new sewing plan, which is to finish all the unfinished things laying around the studio. (A girl can dream!) I can just envision this made in Liberty prints, can't you? And I happen to have a stack of those waiting to be made into something fabulous. I know I would have to set out to make a block a day or some other such system to get it done because it takes time to do it right. Maybe in January? Seems fitting.

With the holidays fast approaching, I decided that I could use some new placemats to freshen up our table. Using scraps, a couple of fat quarters and my GO! Cutter, this one came together quickly. I love fast projects and bonus if they use scrap batting! I think that a set of four or six of these placemats would make a cute handmade gift this holiday season. Maybe make a variation on the flying geese theme with different layouts, but using all the same fabrics? Or use the same layout and vary the fabrics in your selected color palette? Get the full tutorial and how-to on on the Accuquilt blog where I am guest posting today.

I'd love to hear what you are making for gifts this holiday season. I can always use a couple more ideas (and a lot more time)!

Last week I decided that enough was enough and I signed up for a long arm quilting certification class. I am extremely lucky to have Angela Huffman's studio, Quilted Joy, right in my home town. Beyond being an amazing quilter, she is a APQS dealer and has long arms for rent by the hour. Having considered buying a long arm for awhile now, I decided to try before I buy. Smart, no?

I got the girls off to school and quickly whipped up a quilt top using a layer cake of Erin Michael's new line, Purebred, in a little over an hour. Armed with that and a quickly pieced backing from my stash, I arrived at the studio for my four hour class. After a quick tour of the studio, Amy showed me how to load my quilt on the frame and let me go at it. I didn't really have a plan and because I knew that we would keep the quilt at our house, I didn't worry about messing it up. I just started stitching flowers, hearts, little doodles. I wanted to play and to feel the machine. Let me tell you: IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

A couple of hours and a few bobbins later, we took my quilt off of the machine. I was really excited to see that the quilting isn't horrible. It's far from perfect, but I am happy with my first attempt. The stitches show up so well on the back side. Of course, I can see every tiny misstep, but that's ok. I immediately drove to my local quilt shop and picked up a half yard of one of the prints for the binding. At home, I squared it up and bound it by machine. Yes, a quilt start to finish in one day! That was beyond satisfying.

I have already booked more rental time for next week. I have a half dozen tops that need quilting and I am going to try to finish them before I start any additional big projects. I know: famous last words.

As soon as Fancy Tiger Crafts debuted their newest pattern, Fen, I knew that I wanted to give it a try. I really like simple, woven shirts that I can pull over my head without any closures (Scout tee, I'm looking at you.). And the fact that it has a dress option? That sold me.

I bought the paper version of the pattern on the day it was released. I prefer paper over pdf for many reasons, some of which are: 1. I HATE taping computer paper together. All that trimming! I'd rather spend my time sewing; 2. There are three women in this house with adult sized bodies and we are all different sizes so it makes sense to invest in paper patterns that are easy to trace; 3. I have yet to find a good storage solution for taped together pdf's. With a paper pattern, I can fold it all up in its little envelope before I tuck it away. Win!

The pattern is wonderful. Beyond choosing whether to make a dress or a top, there are two neckline options (round and v-neck), two hem options and two sleeve lengths. The versatility is top notch. The instructions are well-written and very easy to follow. Especially clever is the way the neck binding is top-stitched into place using a double needle which, in turn, finishes the raw edges on the inside at the same time!

For my version, I chose to make a top out of this lovely Loominous Big Love plaid that I picked up at Craft South in June. I really thought I would save this fabric for a dress, but I am glad I used it for this top. It's a great transitional piece that I will wear a lot more this fall and through the winter into spring. It does wrinkle - I wore this all day before the photos were taken - but I can live with a little ironing in my life. I went with a rounded neck and the shirttail hem, both of which are just more "me" than the other choices. I lengthened the front and the back by 1" and it looks good. I do think another 1/2" would be even better - duly noted for the next one. I chose to add the optional sleeve and debated on how to make it look right with the scale of this plaid. I had a wild idea to cut it on the bias so that it would look deliberate when the plaid didn't match and I am happy with that choice. I love how it looks! Still, had it not worked out, I still had an extra 1/2 yard of fabric to cut the sleeve again. Got to love a good insurance policy!

Once I had all the pieces cut out, the sewing went smoothly and extremely FAST. I had the whole thing sewn up in about two hours and that was with changing to the double needle and back to the single and some fiddling to get the hem right. And, truthfully, the hem could be better, but I'm not pointing out what I think the issues are because I am probably the only one who sees them.

I made a size 12 and the fit is good. I could probably have graded out to a 14 at the hip and I might try that on another top. I don't think that would be necessary on the dress as the waistline is high enough that the 12 will be the correct size for my torso and the gathered skirt would be full enough in the hips. Someone on Instagram asked if I did a full bust adjustment and I didn't have to. I'm a full C, small D and I think there is just the right amount of ease. Much bigger and it would be very baggy under the arms.

I think that about covers it all. Questions? Hit me and I'll answer them in the comments for everyone's benefit. Also, has anyone else made the Fen? Let me know so I can take a look-see.

Autumn decorating is a little tricky for me. It is my favorite time of year, but the traditional warm fall colors like gold, burgundy, forest green, brown are really not my thing. I like crisp, clean colors and love it when my fall decorations can past Halloween until Thanksgiving. Inspired to make something that fit the bill, I whipped up this cute fall-inspired pillow in a matter of an hour and a half. The key? My AccuQuilt Go! cutter. This is one tool that I am so glad to have in my studio. It takes cutting to a whole new level - fast and entirely accurate! Who doesn't love that?

Over the next few months, I will be contributing and sharing various projects I make using it over on the AccuQuilt blog. This sweet pillow is today's project. Click here for the full tutorial for this pillow. If you make one, please let me know! I'd love to see it.

I think it is important to tell you that, yes, AccuQuilt did provide me with a cutter a couple of years ago and that they will continue to provide me with dies for the projects I design for them. The remainder of the materials and all opinions and project ideas are mine alone. I truly love my cutter and would not be doing this if I felt any differently.