Dance in Paris

Dance in Paris, designed by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, with fabric also designed by her, is one of those quilts you just enjoy from beginning to end. The original pattern name is Spring in Paris, but the fabric I used is her Dance in Paris collection.

I really love piecing hexagons made of 60 degree triangles, and this one is no exception! When I think about what makes a quilt fun to piece, two things come to mind: how much I like the fabric, and how fun the pattern is. Happily, both are true for this quilt.

I wanted to keep the quilting design very simple in the colored fabrics, just some simple geometrics. This is my go-to option for prints.

I am usually a bit intimidated when encountering large swaths of negative space, because they represent so much potential. For this quilt I did something I don't usually do: marking. I marked up all the hexagons so that I could quilt them into the white space as a series of ghost blocks.

I had 3 different quilting designs for this quilt and I actually stared at them for weeks, unsure which one to pick. I finally picked this design because it made the quilt feel the most balanced, and I'm glad I did, because I think the end result is quite beautiful!

Postcard Row

I went through a phase a few years ago where I was obsessed with house quilts. I made quite a few during that time, but my favorite of those is probably Postcard Row. That's mostly because it features some of my favorite fabrics by Natalie Barnes!

The original pattern is called Painted Ladies by Eye Candy Quilts. I absolutely hated the name though! I know the pattern was inspired by the famous row houses in San Francisco that's named Painted Ladies, but I did some quick Googling and discovered another name for those houses is called Postcard Row, and so that's what I named my quilt.

I like to add a little something extra to each quilt if I can, and for this quilt, it's to add a little whimsy to each of the houses by giving them different roof designs.

I kept the quilting consistent otherwise, with just vertical lines for the house walls to simulate sidings, and in the open space I switched up swirls and wavy lines.

And at last, another one of my favorite quilt tops is done. I loved everything about this quilt, from the super fun piecing, to the quilting. The only problem is, I actually made another quilt top using the same pattern because it was so fun, and now I will have to come up with a new quilting design! Oh well, that's a problem for another day.

Solstice

I almost couldn't believe it, but apparently I made the quilt top for Solstice more than 5 years ago! It felt like I had made it much more recently than that, so that's kind of crazy.

Solstice is designed by Rebecca Bryan, and this was part of a quilt-along that I joined. I was enamored by the color scheme, which looked like a sunset explosion.

I knew for a long time how I wanted to quilt this, so there was no hesitation once I started, and it was just a matter of actually doing it. I wanted the star in the center to be highlighted by geometric designs and lots of straight-line designs.

The solid background space of course has to be filled by swirls. I didn't want the background to take any attention away from the star in the center.

My opinion has always been that print fabric quilts have the soul in the prints, but solid pattern quilts don't have soul (no matter how beautiful) until the quilting is added. I haven't changed my mind about that, but I'm happy that now the soul has been added to Solstice! I really love it.

North Star

I originally intended to quilt North Star last year, but December was such a busy month for me that I did not end up having time, and in a way I'm glad, North Star is one of my absolutely favorite quilts (a 5-star for sure) that I would not want to rush!

Both the fabric and pattern is by Libs Elliott, featuring one of my favorite collections ever by her, Tattooed North. This was a very easy and pleasant sew because it's basically a quilt consisting of half-square triangles. I absolutely love the pops of the gold fabric, it makes this quilt truly shine!

My vision for the quilt is simple: keep to simple geometric designs in the stars, and quilt pockets of more dense swirls for some added texture and specialness.

I assigned a design to each block and executed it consistently, but the quad-star blocks definitely made things more interesting!

I really love the effect of the pockets of swirls I added! I use swirls on 95% of my quilts, and they're without a doubt my favorite filler.

While the metallic fabric definitely caused some issues while quilting, when I look at the end result, I completely forget all the pain. I'm very much in love with the finished quilt, and I'm so happy to start the year with a 5-star quilt top!

Sweet Tooth ~ Is the Piecing Bug Back?

For the last few years, I was in a massive piecing slump. I used to flip through my pattern books, look at Pinterest boards, or stare at my stash, and just get so excited about piecing new quilt tops. But for at least a period of two years, I felt no desire or motivation.

And then, a few weeks ago, a switch flipped, just like that. I suddenly took a look at my Sweet Tooth quilt kit, something I thought was a torture device just a few months ago, and thought, wow, I really want to make this now!

Sweet Tooth is a Block of the Month quilt pattern by Jaybird Quilts, and now that I want to piece again, I'm having such a good time with this quilt! There are 24 of these hex blocks total, 2 colorways for each style, and they're truly enjoyable to put together.

After piecing the blocks, I had to put together all the background pieces. This part took concentration and I had to follow the pattern really carefully, but Jaybird Quilts is an excellent pattern writer, and the instructions were so good and clear.

At the end, a truly impressive looking quilt is finished! It looks complex, and it is, but it really wasn't hard, and I just had to follow the instructions. However, I'm still surprised it came out so well.

I just know this will be so fun to quilt too, when I get around to it (someday)!

A Look Back on 2025

Well, it's the end of another year, and I'm proud to say it's been another full year of projects. My life actually now revolves around traveling to fan conventions all over the country, so sewing is what I squeeze in in between. But I'm loving all of it!

I quilted 9 quilts in 2025, a bit less than I planned, but I decided not to rush, because these are all some of my favorite tops. I finally got out of the habit of quilting quilts I'm only half-jazzed about just to get them out of the way. Now, almost all of the quilts I quilt are 4 and 5 stars for me, with an occasinonal 3 thrown in for less pressure. (But I'm not telling which one of these, if any, is a 3!)

I continued to make bags and other 3D objects, because while the process is a lot more roller-coastery than quilting is, it produces beautiful things that I'm proud to use. Because sadly, I don't really use my quilts much ... but I do use my bags!

Not pictured here, but I also pieced a total of 5 quilt tops. But as long as I'm quilting faster than I'm piecing quilt tops, eventually I will catch up. (But to be honest, probably not for the foreseeable future, because I still have 72 quilt tops I intend to quilt one day.)

I have a full year of projects planned for next year already, although for me plans do change quickly and often, so I'm excited to see what next year brings, both in and out of my sewingsphere!

Arcade Game

When I first saw Arcade Game by Jaybird Quilts, I thought the quilt was absolutely adorable and definitely had the 3D effect it was going for. I waited to make this until I had a kit though, because I knew color placement was absolutely critical.

Piecing this quilt was very fun because I like any excuse to use a specialty ruler, and Jaybird's rulers are so fun to use! Piecing was easy, and the only part I had to be careful of was to make sure I didn't mess up the color placement, or the effect would be ruined.

Although the quilt had fun jaggedy edges, I wasn't in the mood to use bias binding to finish this, so I chickened out and added black filler triangles to make it a rectangular quilt. Maybe next time!

I had an idea in quilting this to make sure the 3D effect stands out, and I quilted the top "panel" of every cubes the same with echoing lines, but switched up the designs on the sides. It was fun to pick different designs for every block!

Since I only wanted to use a single color of thread, I quilted more densely on lighter colored blocks and less densely on darker colored blocks.

I meant to finish this quilt in October, but I got so busy with other things that I didn't touch the longarm for nearly a month. (I was also very wrapped up in piecing another quilt by Jaybird Quilts, and her quilts are downright addictive.) Once I started this however, it went fairly quickly, and I love the finished quilt!

I rarely take staged photos anymore because ... actually I don't have a good reason. But this quilt demanded to be hung from some railing and taken a photo of! So, I had to follow that call.

Polaris

I went through a phase a few years ago where I was completely obsessed with star quilts, so naturally when I saw the pattern Faded by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, I was intrigued. It was a star quilt, but modern, and the sample was made using her lovely fabrics.

However, when I went through my fabric collection, I found something else I decided to use instead ... a collection I picked up from my local quilt shop (back when it existed) that I didn't know the name of. It had lovely greens and blues with whites, and mixed with a near-solid black, I knew it'd be perfect for this quilt.

Since the pattern is basically half-square triangles, this was a super easy quilt to put together. What made it so fun was the pattern itself, as it's called Faded, so parts of the star "faded" away in random locations, making it look like it's missing pieces.

With blocks like these that are "missing" sections, I always like to use the quilting to give those sections back. I used a similar quilting technique in Dawn Star that I finished earlier this year.

This is a really special quilt to me and I wanted to put in the work, so I filled the background of the stars with swirls, but since I'm using a darker thread to match the background, I absolutely kept the quilting minimal on the foreground blocks, as I've never liked the look of dark thread on lighter fabrics.

Half of this quilt is negative space, so I decided to draw a big intricate star, and then surround it with wavy lines. I named this quilt Polaris because the star I drew reminded me a bit of the North Star.

And wow, I love this quilt! I already named a favorite for the year (Star-Crossed) but I'm starting to wonder if this quilt is a close second place.

It's A Bit Supernatural

Recently I bought some Spoonflower fabrics inspired by the TV show Supernatural, and I decided to make some projects with it.

When I found this panel fabric of symbols from the show, I knew that mug rugs were the perfect project for it. I loaded the whole piece on my longarm and since the background has a wood-grain design, I quilted a wood-grain for the first time ever. I think it turned out well!

I ended up with a dozen that I had to bind one-by-one (not very fun), but they will make great gifts for my friends at the conventions I attend several times a year. Oh, and I will be keeping one for myself, of course!

I also found this black fabric that's inspired by the Angel / Demon tablets on the show, and I decided to make another convention tote bag with it. I decided to use the Tudor Bag pattern from Sew Sweetness for this purpose, as it allows the focal fabric to shine beautifully, has a front zipper pocket, and has both handles and a shoulder strap for extra versatility.

The interior has a recessed zipper and built-in pockets, though I'd no doubt still use it with one of my Mustang Purse Organizers. I've sewn a lot of Sara's bags at this point, and though I've gained a lot of experience, I can still say this was one of the easier bags I've made.

Now, I'm ready for my next convention!

Chroma

So far in 2025 I've been going at a pace of finishing one quilt on the longarm a month. I thought that it would be no problem to continue that trend in July, but then once the summer slump finally settled in, it became really, really difficult to get anything done. Before I knew it, I realized there's just a few days until the end of July, and in that time I had to finish and bind a rather large quilt, Chroma.

Chroma's pattern name is Color Block, and it was designed by Carl Hentsch. I saw it presented on the now defunct (but still much beloved by me) Midnight Quilt Show that Craftsy produced, hosted by Angela Walters. I pieced the top in late 2018, so it's been almost 7 years. (And it's by no means my oldest unfinished quilt top.)

I generally don't like to set deadlines because I didn't want quilting to feel like a job, but at the same time, I respond really well to deadlines. So I set myself a challege to longarm the entire quilt in a week and bind it that weekend.

It took a ton of effort to get started quilting (I have serious start-itis) but once I finally started, I enjoyed this a great deal. All the solid color plays are really beautiful, and the consistent quilting I applied over the whole quilt means it's a fairly predictable quilt path. So once I finally got started, it was a pretty quick job.

I kept the quilting quite simple throughout this quilt, but my favorite part is definitely the diagonal lines I did in all the corner blocks, because parallel lines always create beautiful texture, and it connects the blocks too.

Since there's not a lot of quilting on this quilt, it doesn't look like much up close but when I step back, that's when the beauty of the quilt shines through. That expression, the sum is greater than its parts, really applies here.

City Fusion

City Fusion is a free quilt pattern, originally named Shutters, by Art Gallery Fabrics. AGF created this pattern to promote the City Loft Fusion fabric line, and as soon as I saw the pattern, I fell in love with it. After all, I've never met a striped black / white quilt I didn't love. In order to make sure the stripes are absolutely perfect, I actually used paper piecing to make the striped units.

I enjoyed piecing this quilt a lot because of the beautiful fabrics, but the real fun in this quilt is the quilting.

I split the entire quilt into triangle units, and treated the background as such. At times I quilted them separately, and at times I fused them together. I really loved designing this ahead of time, and I just had to execute it once I got onto the machine.

One concept I had from the beginning of quilting is to extend the striped units to some of the background, and I did some dense back / forth quilting to simulate the stripes. I really love the way that looks!

I kept the quilting a bit simpler in the foreground fabrics so that it doesn't overwhelm the fabric.

This has been another 5-star off my pile of quilt tops, and it's been such a joy to finally work through so many of my favorite quilt tops!