September...can't believe it, but since it's officially here it is time for a Schnibbles parade! I had a ton of fun making next month's quilt, "Speck!" Carrie told me it would go together in just a few hours, and she was right. In fact, when I was finished I wanted to keep making more of these

Yesterday I had fun making some adorable 4-patch blocks for Lori's "Row Along" quilt project! I had so much fun playing with my Marmalade scraps for this project! Lori has a super easy method for making these 4-patches...you start out with 3" squares and end up with squares that will finish at

Today is the first day of school in our house. My normal "first day" excitement is mixed with some sadness, though, because my youngest is a senior in high school....so this is our last "first day."  At the same time I'm excited for fall, excited to set "beginning of the school year

  This morning I finished Block 12 for Jackie's Blogger's Block of the Month! Since I made two of each I now have 24 blocks to set into a quilt (or I can make two quilts)!   This block was posted today by Amy! It's a darling block, and I had fun choosing fabrics for

This month is Amy's month for our Bee's Knees quilting group. She sent along some gorgeous Echino prints with solid colored linen. I had so much fun sewing blocks for Amy! Although I have some Echino prints in my stash, I have to say I've never sewn with them. They were absolutely wonderful to

Being away from my sewing machine for a few days is likely to put me in the mood to sew very long hours! Yesterday I had planned on just spending some time sashing the on-point blocks, but then one thing led to another and before I knew it  the Christmas version Farmer's Wife quilt

 I'm back from a mini-vacation to Phoenix, Arizona. I didn't do any sewing over the weekend, although I did do a little designing...and I'm ready to start sewing with my bundle of Odds & Ends! This is such a gorgeous line of fabric, and I've had a project in mind for it for some time, so

I'm determined to have my Christmas version Farmer's Wife quilt set together before school starts. So my goal yesterday was to get half-way finished. I completed sashing all of the blocks that will be placed in a straight setting. The blocks will all need to be 9" unfinished, so I sewed 2"

I've been doing a little sewing...yay! Staying in and sewing is one way to deal with the heat, right?!  So I've started sashing my Christmas Farmer's Wife Blocks. I divided the blocks into two piles, the ones to be set straight (like the ones above) and the ones that will be set on point. When

Today I'm super happy to announce a giveaway of this gorgeous fabric bundle from Fort Worth Fabric Studio! Fort Worth Fabric Studio is one of my terrific sponsors; they carry a wonderful selection of designer quilting fabrics from a long list of manufacturers and have terrific prices. Jodie puts

It seems like this time of year is always a good time to get organized for the approaching change of seasons (I absolutely can't wait for fall!) and the start of a new school year. So I did a little cleaning and organizing and sorting Saturday. The scrap bin next to my machine is

Note: all photos on this post were taken by Joanna Figueroa...love these photos! I realized when Joanna posted about this quilt the other day that I needed to share it as well. This is "Pineapple & Figs" by Joanna Figueroa, and this was the last quilt I sewed for market this spring. Seeing

I know I've been a little missing around here lately...I have to confess I've been watching a lot of Olympics, and it has definitely affected my machine piecing. I have tried to have some hand-work each night to work on, though! I finished up the binding on my Denyse Schmidt Granny Square

Fashionable Fabrics, one of my blog sponsors, is offering a terrific giveaway to one of my blog readers this week...to get all of the details and to enter... Click Here!

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in and who visited yesterday's parades! We had a total of 48 entries between both blog posts! Carrie has generously donated a layer cake of the upcoming Moda line, Odds & Ends  to Karen from Sinta's parade and Terrie from my parade!

Happy August! And introducing...Dimestore...our Schnibbles pattern for the month!  It's a fun and easy pattern that will be fun to see made up in lots of different fabric combinations! July was a free choice month for the parade...it is always fun to see what patterns a "free choice" month

The summer is just flying by...and I'm spending lots of hours watching the Olympics and catching up on bindings and hand work...I've just been loving every minute! Because I can't post without a picture,I thought I'd share a little bit of my recent retail therapy. Above are some fat quarters of

Well...here they are...all 111 of my Fig Tree Farmer's Wife blocks! I can't wait to really finish the quilt now! Even in a big group, there are those blocks that I'm just in love with...my eyes are drawn to them every time. I'm going to make a list and design some future quilts based on my

Welcome to my stop on the It's a Mini Blog Tour! Simply Charming Minis by Konda from Moose on the Porch Quilts is a delightful book with patterns for 16 mini quilts ranging in size from 13" to 21". Every quilt is charming...and every quilt is shown made in two different fabric collections. As

Finishing the blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt might have has turned into an obsession. I have so many things I want to be sewing, but I can't seem to stop making these blocks! I want to finish! I've made 11 blocks since Saturday! First up (and these are the last 4 I finished) is a group of blocks

My friend Konda from Moose on the Porch Quilts has a new book....and to celebrate there is a blog tour that starts today! The quilts in the book are all delightful mini-quilts...each one presented in two different fabric collections. This gives you a terrific idea of how you might want to make the

The weekend was good...it's always nice when you feel a little caught up and ready to start a new week on Monday! I was able to sew something just for fun and decided to do a tutorial for the project above which I'll be posting later this week. I finished my Bees Knees July block

I finished four more Farmer's Wife blocks this week...I was hoping to finish more, but it seems the lazy days of summer have been, well, a little lazy! I have three more blocks planned out, though, and hope to get to them this afternoon...then I'll have 100 completed and will just have 11

The other day I was able to spend a little time making a baby quilt for a friend's newest granddaughter. Of course I wanted to use Marmalade...it seems to be the perfect fabric for a sweet little girl! I used the "On the Boardwalk" pattern by Kimberly Jolly.  I've made two of these quilts

Last week was kind of an interesting week...I had a lot of free time, but since my main sewing machine was in the shop I concentrated on some projects that had been on "the list" for awhile. First I made some Composition Book cover and sunglass case sets (these had already been cut out and have

It's been a little while since I worked on this quilt.  I had so much fun making the scrappy star blocks, setting them together, and picking out a binding fabric.  But this little topper has just been sitting. I found it the other day while cleaning up in the studio and wondered why I had

I finished 7 more blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt this week...that means I have just 18 blocks to go. Finally making it under the "20 block mark" has given me more motivation to keep going with the blocks. Now I'm left with mostly more time consuming blocks, though, so my goal is 3 a week...that

Have you heard about the Great Granny Along hosted by my friends Lori and Jodi? Lori took the Granny Square block craze one step further by coming up with a tutorial for a 12" finished Granny Square block! Of course I had to make one right away.  Her tutorial is terrific...the squares are

So yesterday was tough...I don't know if any of you have ever had this problem...but I finally decided it was time to take my machine in for a routine cleaning and service. I've had my machine about 18 months, and with all the sewing I do I knew it was definitely time. I clean all the lint from my

I just finished up my 81st through 85th blocks. Sometimes this Farmer's Wife sewing takes a bit of time...these 5 blocks took the better part of a whole day! With only 26 blocks left, I'm getting anxious to finish. But, of course, I now have a dilemma...do I make the remaining blocks that I don't

So I think I've finally settled in to the summer routine. Although the heat is not fun, I do appreciate the lack of schedules and the lazy days. I am trying to accomplish a few things and finish up some ongoing projects, though...mostly so I can feel good about starting some new things. The other

Happy July...I still cannot believe it's July already...but it seems I've been saying that every month!  Today is a day to celebrate...4 years ago today I first posted on this blog!  So, I'll be having some giveaways this week to celebrate my blogging anniversary and the fact that it's my

Hello! I'm so excited to announce Sweet Celebrations with Moda Bakeshop Chefs: 35 Projects to Sew from Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, Fat Quarters, Charm Squares & More ...a book that will be available in about 4 months. This amazing book is full of terrific projects and was compiled

The latest block for the Blogger's Block of the Month series has just been released! I'm trying to stay caught up with this project, so I set to work right away. My little collection of blocks is growing!  I can't believe this is month 10...only two more months to go! This months

Last spring in the midst of a lot of market sewing I was able to make a sample for Fat Quarter Shop. The fabrics were so bright and fun...they're from the upcoming collection, Good Morning by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda. The pattern, Day Break (available now), was fast and easy

Remember my little stack of fabric from Saturday? Well by Saturday evening it had turned into this! The fabrics are all Prairie Paisley II by Minick & Simpson for Moda except for the outer border which is from the Minick & Simpson line, Bar Harbor. I'm not sure what the background

I haven't had much time in the sewing room this week...but I'm headed off to do some serious sewing now!  The 4th of July is getting pretty close, and I've had a project in mind for a few weeks now. Hopefully, it's a one day project! Also, congratulations to Samantha who was the winner of

With my determination to work on "works in progress" this summer, I decided to do some Farmer's Wife blocks the other day.  Sometimes you just can't stop at a couple! I used scraps from Tapestry for this group of blocks. One of my favorite things about this quilt is that I haven't bought