A Craftsy peek...

I am having a hard time being patient waiting for my new Craftsy class to come out!! But happily for me, the Craftsy team just sent me these photos they took when I was out shooting the class, and told me I could share them. Sneak peek time!

Are you noticing a pattern.... like there's some straight lines and FMQ in each piece? What if.... you used both your walking foot and your free-motion foot for what they are each best at? What if you quilted something low stress that was also totally lovely? 

It can be dense or open. It feels super modern to me too. Did I mention I can't wait to show you? 

This may be favorite picture of me ever taken! I look at it and I see that I'm coming back to a certain amount of ease and joy and creativity that was lost during the confusion of the divorce.  Having my home be a safe place is incredibly powerful.  I wish for all of you the safe space to try new things and bring your beautiful work into the world. 

Marking circles the lazy way

Big news: I was recently at Craftsy! Here's a sample from that class (which I can't wait to tell you about!!) And a little gee-whiz snapshot of a technique I used to get those nice open circles. 

I took the cap from my spray baste and pressed it on the fabric while twisting, marking a perfect circle so easily! For small things I usually prefer impression marking (like with a Hera marker) to markings that I have to remove, and this seemed like something I should share with you all. Happy stitching!

Mesmerized - new PRINT pattern!

You know that saying "One thing leads to another"? My entire quilting life has been about that saying I think.

Like that time I splurged and bought a wedge ruler. And I fell in love with it and made like 5 quilt tops with it and bought another wedge ruler. And I wanted everyone else to fall in love with wedges  so I did a webinar. And then I wasn't done expounding about how truly fabulous wedges are, so I wrote a book. And then a Big Time quilting company with a new wedge ruler said would you like to make some patterns with our new ruler?

And then boom, I had a printed pattern business. 

The most important thing for me about going into print patterns was... get this... plastic. I seriously couldn't stand to put more plastic waste into the world. So I decided my patterns are not going into plastic bags. (Don't make me regret this, quilters! Be nice to them if you see them in your LQS, they're naked!). I didn't know how to make this happen but my friendly pattern designer and I schemed up a way to make them hang nicely in the quilt shops without plastic bags. Our solution: holes at the top of the pattern! It means a little more work for her in the design stage, and I have to put a little sticker on the side of each pattern to keep them closed and not flopping open, but I like the solution. With the plastic problem solved, I'm quite contentedly moving into print patterns. 

I've only produced two patterns in print so far, because printing is a real investment up front and oh yeah, quilts take time! But I'm working on more and they'll be ready if the first ones start selling. And I'll keep my patterns available digitally as well. 

Don't you love the little dots of sunlight coming through the quilting? It was such a beautiful day when I went to take pictures. And it's so fun hanging up a quilt to photograph at the park and getting to chat with people about it. Except mostly I spend my time waiting for the breeze to die down. 

This pattern is designed to be easy even if you're new to wedges, and it has directions for three sizes: baby, double and queen. It's for sale digitally with immediate download here. If you'd like to order it in print, your LQS can order it through Checker Distributors. You'll need the Creative Grids 10 Degree Ruler to make the quilt, so make sure get that too!!

Any advice for me and my new pattern business? I'm all ears! Happy stitching everyone!