New Quilt Pattern, Starflake

Starflake Quilt Patter
 
When I was getting to know the different prototypes of what eventually became The Ruby Ruler™, of course I had to design some quilts. I wanted to really push the idea of studying fabric values. There’s no better way to play around with this idea than to dig in my scrap bins. READ MORE

Introducing The Ruby Ruler™!

Edited to add link to purchase, because I woke from a deep sleep and sat bolt upright last night because I realized I’d left that off! Get your own Ruby Ruler™

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I’ve been working on something for several months now, and I’m SO happy that its finally ready! My new quilting ruler, The Ruby Ruler™ is a brand new tool that will change the way you look at your fabric scraps!
Ruby Ruler
But first, the background story-READ MORE

Marking My Quilt Tops with a Hera Marker

Hera Marker in use
I have used many things to mark my quilt tops for quilting, but these days I use a Hera Marker most frequently. For straight line quilting I used to use painter’s tape. I would mark the line across the quilt with a length of this tape and stitch beside it. It works great. Until it doesn’t. Sometimes I accidentally stitch over the edge of the tape and I’m left looking for tweezers to pull the little pieces of tape off.
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#myquiltcouldlivehere- Willy Loman Quilt

When I feel creatively stuck it really helps me to look back at the quilts I’ve made and create a #myquiltcouldlive here collage with them. A bit like revisiting an old friend, spending some time with these quilts reminds me of when I formed the initial idea in my head or when I worked through a design problem that I was feeling challenged by when making it. I believe every quilt we make, even the ones we really don’t like, teaches us something.
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Splendorous- A New Free Quilt Pattern for You!

Splendorous Quilt Look book
I was asked by my good friend Bari J to create a quilt pattern to celebrate Wild Bloom, her newest collection for Art Gallery Fabrics. I don’t usually create quilts for full fabric collections. Sometimes, though, I get inspiration from work I truly love, like Bari’s. Her beautifully floral and happy world of Curated Maximalism makes me smile whenever I see it. So, inspired by her world of blooms and Wild Bloom, this is what I came up with.READ MORE

In Defense of the Small Project

mini quilts
Time in my studio and how I use it has always been important in one way or another. When the kids were younger, I felt pressured to use that time to its fullest while I had it. Inevitably, creative time was short and precious, usually last on the list of needs in our days. As the kids got older, I found myself spending more time in my studio, but those were days I spent a lot of time thinking about exactly what I wanted my creative time to be. Writing a book has given structure to my studio time, but in between those books my time in the studio has become more and more my own. With teenagers, and one away at college, my time in the studio is blissfully mine. No more trying to keep kids busy while getting creative things done, or trying to create a project for them so that we could craft side by side. These days, I have lots of time to make what I want, or to create a real body of creative work that I am very excited about. This usually involves quilts, and quilt-related things (like pattern writing). I love every minute of it, but being the sole proprietor in the studio has created a schedule of working on lots of long term things a little bit each day. In some ways I really love that, but in some ways I’d love to see results more often than I do.READ MORE

Wise Craft Quilts Contributor Pam Garrison

Pam Garrison
One of my favorite sections in Wise Craft Quilts, is the one about quilt labels. To me, this was a section that had to be included in the book- sewing a label on to the back of a quilt is such a huge part of the storytelling process. In the book are full sized labels in the book that can be printed out at home (I use these ink jet printable fabric sheets) and filled in. Even better? A set of all five labels, ready to use are available in my shop.)
While writing the book, I reached out to some of my favorite artists and asked them to design a quilt label. I was over the moon with what they sent back! Each label speaks to the style of the artist who made it, and interprets the idea of labelling a quilt in their own unique way. I’ll be posting interviews with each of these very inspiring women! Today is my interview with the super talented Pam Garrison. I’m asking her a little about her work, inspiration, work space, and her thoughts on creating a label for Wise Craft Quilts.
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