Purdy Bird + Love Patchwork & Quilting!

I'm excited to announce the release of my latest quilt pattern... Purdy Bird is a fun quilt pattern that comes together quickly despite the fact that it is a mixed bag of quilting techniques. Drunkard’s path and paper pieced blocks are accented with easy applique shapes that are like the icing on a cake. You can find my Purdy Bird (magazine title "Bird Song") quilt pattern and instructions in this month's Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine. The Style Update issue #81 is on sale tod...

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Personal Space - Where I Work

I suppose it might be kind of obvious that I am a pretty sentimental person. For me, connections to others is one of the things that I value most in life. When I see certain objects, they are often linked with memories surrounding a person. Since many of those people that I hold near and dear are thousands of miles away, or no longer living, it's important for me to find a way to remember those connections. Last year when I visited my aunt, I was quite taken with a little memory shelf that she has in her sewing area. There were several sewing items that had been in the family, precious pictures, and trinkets that are heavy in sentimental value. Afterward, I decided that I needed wanted...

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2020 Teaching Schedule!

I'm excited to share with you a little bit of what has been keeping me busy over the last months... and that is planning and prepping for a few classes that I will be offering in 2020! The not so romantic part of quilt pattern writing, and in this case teaching classes, is all the behind the scenes work like writing class descriptions, supplies & materials requirement lists, emailing and telephoning with class hosts, researching printing options, loads of computer work... not to mention consecutively working on the patterns themselves. But with all those things neatly tucked away, let me just share with you what I've got planned for next year: My "Fly High, Dragonfly" class, which...

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"Fly High, Dragonfly" Intro & Class

The past couple Wednesdays I was ready to sit down to write a blog post... but as I looked around, I only saw one secret project after the other. I simply didn't have anything to share. If you follow me on Instadgram, then you may have already seen my latest "cat-out-of-the-bag" project, "Fly High, Dragonfly". But here I would like to officially introduce her and take a little more time to tell more about her.

After I had shared this post, I decided to check back and see exactly when I had started this project... it was back in March!?! Perhaps you remember my first blocks from this project?  I've recently come to love working with an elongated drunkard's path block... it feels like it has more of a twist than the standard block. And my current mood is that every quilting block looks better with an applique dot on it, don't you think?

Currently my quilt is now with Iva from @schnigschagquiltsandmore for her to work her quilting magic. This is not the first quilt that Iva has quilted for me. I find that having my top longarm quilted, helps me get to the pattern release finish line a lot quicker. By the time to you factor in time needed for the pattern concept to making the top, the actual pattern writing itself, plus the time needed for testers, that puts you out quite a while, no matter how fast you are. Having it quilted frees me up to work on the not so glamorous behind the scenes computer work.

photo credit: Iva Steiner

Even though I started this in March, I finished it rather quickly. If you are familiar with farming in Germany, then perhaps the background might give you a little hint of the time of year these pictures were taken? Even if you're not up on farming seasons, you may have heard me rave a time or two (or three, or four...) about my favorite time of year in Germany - canola / asparagus season...

Since this field is just outside my office, you certainly don't think that I could miss the perfect photo opportunity, do you? With all that being said, canola fields in Germany usually bloom between April and May, depending on how warm the spring season has been. I had the deadline of having this finished before I left for Nadelwelt so I could make the hand-off to Iva at the show. Started the end of March, finished in April, traveled to Switzerland in May... sharing now.

... and now for the really exciting part: As part of an exclusive pattern launch, I will be teaching my "Fly High, Dragonfly" quilt pattern March 7th & 8th, 2020 at Galerie von Quilt Et Textilkunst, in Munich, Germany! This class that will be a mixed bag of everything - paper piecing, traditional piecing, starch applique, and "go big or go home" - XXL applique! Hope you to see you there!

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Ready, Set, Cut

I'm back! What?... didn't you notice that I was gone? This year we were blessed to be able to visit my family again in the US. Usually a few months before we travel home I notice that I feel like my emotional tank is almost on empty. Expat living can have it's challenges, and while I generally do I ok for most of the year in Germany, I find that I REALLY need time that I can just be me... effortlessly. without thinking. in my own language. in familiar surroundings. with people who are just as familiar as my own face. With three airplanes, that are sandwiched in between two long drives, it might be easy to see why our travels are planned for such a long time. While I deeply savor the down...

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Link-Up #summerstacksundays Summer Smoothie

When working on a fabric pull, just because there might be multiple colors in the inspiration fabric, doesn't mean that all the rest of the fabrics have to be packed full with just as many colors. She really IS the star of the show, and if there is too much competition for the center stage, the show doesn't run as planned. When the supporting fabrics are doing just that, even though there might be a lot going on in the inspiration fabric, she is somehow balanced.The supporting fabrics are supporting, and not trying to take over the show. For the #summerstacksundays Link-up, I found that I ended up using several Anna Maria Horner prints that were my starting inspiration point. Her...

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Link-Up #summerstacksundays Soft Summer

Can you believe that the first month of summer is over now, and we are well into the second half of it? Has it whizzed by, or have you had a chance to slow down, and stop and smell the roses? Either way, I hope you are having fun stacking. When I think of summer colors, I actually think of two color ways. Obviously many of the summertime blooms are vibrant, bold, and colorful... but there is a softer side to summer, which is this weeks' theme: "Soft Summer". I started out with this print from Rae Ritchie as my inspiration. I absolutely adore her whimsy and playfulness of her fabrics. This stack is not too far off from last week's complimentary color pull - "red" and green, but with...

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Summer Applique

I've been taking my summers pretty slow, as you might have noticed... and you too? If you've been following me for a while, then you know that summer means it's time to pull out my Chuck Nohara blocks. Since this has been such a long, and on going project, you might think they've landed on the long forgotten WIP pile, never to be pulled out again... quite the contrary! My aunt always reminds me that making quilts is not about seeing how many quilts you can finish in a year, but about enjoying the process. When I'm on an everyday schedule, it seems that I don't find the time to work on highly intensive applique blocks. Usually when I take an applique project somewhere to work on it,...

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Link-Up #summerstackfridays Complimentary

Sometimes when I pull a stack of fabrics together, and take a second look to re-examine it, I realize that I've pulled a complimentary color scheme without actually intending to. If you have studied color theory at any length, then you know that the complimentary colors are: blue and orange, red and green, and purple and yellow. Because complimentary colors are directly opposite from each other on the color wheel, they create the strongest contrast. When you work with pure color combos, the combination can be pretty intense. For me, a purple and yellow combo can leave you thinking of easter eggs and candy, and make you wish that you had brought your sunglasses along. The best way...

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Link-Up #summerstackfridays Cool Colors

     Are you living in a corner of the world where you are ready for the summer heat to cool down? There has been quite a heat wave in Germany this summer, and thoughts of ice cream, swimming pools, and cool breezes are occupying most people's minds these days. Last week's summer stack, we warmed it up, but this week it's time to turn that color wheel to the other side and explore the cooler side of things with shades of green, blues, and purples. I like to challenge myself to try to take a color scheme and approach it differently than my usual high saturation / high contrast palette. When I think of cool colors, I think in the pure hues... essentially the colors at the...

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