Horizon Lines

I love a pretty stack of fat quarters, who doesn't? And The Cotton Bolt has an amazing talent for putting together beautiful bundles. I love that she's putting together unique bundles that aren't just a single line or brand, a woman after my own heart! She's also a vendor each year at Garden of Quilts, and I always look forward to visiting her booth. A couple of years ago, I picked up a beautiful bundle that was designed for the Horizon Lines quilt. I figured it was such a straighforward pattern I could figure it out myself if I wanted to go that way, but I also thought maybe I'd do something else...

Efflorescent Explosion

My final finish of 2024 is this beautiful Hexibore quilt. I got it back from Mindy Powell, who did the beautiful custom quilting on it, in mid-December, but I was knee deep in Christmas sewing. I got all my Christmas sewing wrapped up a few days before Christmas, but then I needed to dive into a pattern test I had been selected for, so my quilt had to wait a few more days. I finally got to bind this quilt on December 30, and luckily, I had the binding all ready to go so I could finish it up quickly. 

Happy 2025!

Happy New Year's! This year has gone by so fast, and this time of year calls for some reflection and pondering. It's so contrived to review the previous year and look ahead, but it's also pretty important. This past year was one for the books.

I was able to be home from the hospital in time for new year's last year, so I spent the whole year at home. It was a pretty big year of recovery and challenges, but I feel so grateful our little family survived without too much wear and tear. January was largely a bust, and I spent time sitting in my sewing room wishing I felt up to sewing, but I felt foggy and uncoordinated. By February, I was more agile and able to sew again, though I was still a lot slower than I had been. But, I got my first finish in.

Christmas Sewing and Updates

I love the Christmas season. It's so full of hope because of our glorious Savior and busyness in the best way. And it's a time for making a creating. 

I made this pillow a few years ago and I love it.

I spend most of my time working towards things for others, like most of you. Selecting gifts, sewing gifts, and making sweet treats. Each year, I make homemade marshmallows and dip them in chocolate. It's one of my favorite traditions, and it's one I missed out on last year while I spend the month in the hospital recovering from my stroke. This week, I've been busy making hundreds of marshmallows. And it brings me joy. We bag them up by the dozen and deliver them to neighbors and friends. I will admit that when someone asks in anticipation if we are doing marshmallows again, or a friend grins wide and squeals when they see the bag, it makes me so proud. 

Supernova Quilt

The bandwagon is a real thing, and it fuels the quilting industry. We all feel the pressure to make all the pretty things, in the latest must-have fabrics, which seem to come out at an ever-faster pace. I have a closet full of good intentions: fabrics I had to have, haphazardly organized by color with assorted stacks pulled out for future projects. At any moment, I have 3-5 quilt projects in my queue, which doesn't include the other projects I have planned, some with fabric purchased/selected, some waiting for just the right moment. My stash has finally reached the stage of burdensome, where it doesn't fit in my drawers any longer and it feels heavy--like I need to put a dent in it. Truthfully, I sew almost entirely from my stash. It's kind of awkward when a well-meaning, friendly employee asks what I'm making while she cuts my purchases. I rarely shy away from saying my stash, and I try to not feel badly about that because when it's time to make a quilt, I don't go to the shop to buy what I can find that hopefully will be perfect--I open my drawers and audition fabric I already have. It makes my quilts so personal, a reflection of my stash and my preferences.

Come Bind with Me (A machine binding tutorial)

I have made over 50 quilts over the past 15 years and I can hardly believe it! I was reflecting on that, and how much my binding skills have improved, as I finished the binding on my Picture Perfect Snap Happy quilt. My bindings still aren't perfect and I know I can see the flaws, but they're so much better and I'm really happy with them. I feel like I've found a good balance of secure and good enough. I choose to machine bind for a couple reasons. First, it's faster. By the time it comes to binding, I want to snuggle with my quilt, and not while I'm hand sewing on the binding. Second, I don't enjoy hand sewing. I have started English Paper Piecing, but that's really it. I loathe appliqué. I tolerate hand binding on mini quilts and really special quilts not meant to be used hard, and only if they don't have minky. And third, machine binding is more secure. My quilts are for loving, and with four girls they get loved. And occasionally used for forts. 

As I thought about it, I realized I've developed my own preferences for binding and that maybe it would help you if you're still figuring out what you like and how to get your binding to place where you're happy with it. If you're looking for show quilt binding tips, this is not it. But if you want to be happy with secure and even machine binding, keep on reading!

Picture Perfect (A Snap Happy pattern)

When I saw the Pen and Paper Snap Happy pattern release, I had to have it! I was so excited about it. I love photography and I felt like it would a great quilt to showcase some fun travel prints. Or, to use her tutorial to print some of my own travel photos onto fabric and have a real memory quilt. I was so excited I bought the pattern at Sewtopia in Milwaukee, even though I had no intention of sewing it during the trip.

I quickly decided on using Rifle Paper Co fabrics, because their Bon Voyage line had come out just about a year ago. I knew it would be perfect. I opted to fussy cut the feature prints and I also added in a few prints from other lines and I really love all of them. Because I was so excited about this pattern, I made it pretty quickly, for me, anyway! I didn't manage to participate in the sew along, but within a year of the release is still pretty quick for me. I'm usually pretty late to the party.