Glimpse.....

I have been working hard, but I just can't show you what's going on yet. Here's a seriously small sneak peak of what's been going on this week. I will have a ton more pictures in a couple weeks. I just can't wait to show this one off!

Layers of Love...........

First off - thanks so much to everyone for the "love" on my tutorial video. It was fun to do and I hope to do more video tutorials as I keep quilting and coming up with new templates. I am also going to be gathering my other quilt templates together from previous quilts and I will be adding those to our site as I get them transferred to a PDF file - so stay tuned for that.

Now it's time for a little precut pattern highlight. Again - one of my favorites - but I can't think of a quilt that I have done that I don't like. They are definitely a part of me. Anyway - the featured pattern this week is called "Layers of Love." Why that title? Well - I used a layer cake and that's the only name I could come up with at the time. Ha ha!!

It's funny showing my quilts with allover quilting on it. But, my staple quilting is the swirl - it seriously works with almost every quilt.

This pattern is great because it is perfect for the beginner. It is also a fast and easy pattern for the experienced piecer when they just have to get a quilt done fast. I used a layer cake for this pattern, - if I were to make this pattern today with what is available in the shop I would use this layer cake - seriously, so cute!

Here's where you can get this pattern on sale at $5.95 for a few days.

But guess what else??? If you but two Moda Layer Cakes, and use the code twocakes during checkout, you will get each Layer Cake for just $25 each!!! Hurry - sale ends Monday!

Fine print - code only works with two Layer Cakes in your cart, and no refunds on previous orders :)

Have a great weekend!

Quilting Competition Anyone?

So - Easter Weekend was so much fun! Crazy at one point with 32 people (mostly kids) in my house. I probably said "Close the Door!" at least 100 times, but all in all it was the perfect weekend and I had a great time with my family.
Shan was here and I love it when she comes! She goes grocery shopping for me and catches me up on my food storage and she cooks every single meal! It's a nice trade off for room and board. Thanks Shan - you are the best!
One of the nights last week I showed Shan and her sisters my long arm machine - I grabbed some green fabric and threw it on the racks and let them try it out. Being the competitive person that Shan is - she wanted to make it a competition to see who could do the best quilting - then the guys would guess who quilted what.


Here's the whole piece. Shan had me re-create some of the quilting.


Not bad for the first time using a long arm! This one is Shan's.


This is Krista's.


And this cute ice cream cone is Diana's.


Mickey Mouse, hot dog, hamburger and a drink - all Shan's because she is the food guru that I can never be.


My re-creation of the hot dog and hamburger.


I think this is kind of fun - can't think of a quilt that would use hamburger quilting in it though. :)


Ice cream cone complete with cherry on top.


And my block - Clint didn't know I quilted a block and for a split second he looked at the block and was like "Wow - that's incredible!" Then he learned that it was my block real quick.

Fun little competition - it was great. I have a few other things I am working on that I can't show right now, but I will keep you posted! Also - I have a giveaway going on over at Jaybird's so head on over!

Daisy Mae

I have been super busy getting my patterns all ready to go - and Dahlia is shipping out now! I am excited to show you "Daisy Mae" my new pattern! I love this quilt. It was pieced by Sherri - thanks! - and she did a beautiful job. I love the "Just Wing It" line, so naturally that is what I used for this adorable design. It came together just perfectly!


I just did my "all over swirl" quilting on this quilt. With the cute fabrics, I didn't think it needed anything too special - and I am running low on time, so the swirl it is. I think it turned out great.


This quilt is so much fun, and it will work up fast. Simple machine applique and a little piecing and there you go!


I have a new cover for my patterns - I have been working that out as well. I wanted to have some of my quilting for the background on my patterns, just to give it my own look - so I think the covers are better. Plus - I am trying new things, figuring out Photoshop and Illustrator have been fun and challenging at the same time, but I think it has been worth it!

You can get my new pattern here!

Multi - tasking.

Yes - I can quilt with one hand - as long as it's an allover swirl.

Small improvements - big difference!!

Here's my studio before - I have loved it, but a light bulb moment hit me and Clint last week - that meant using my space better which will make my life easier here in my office/studio. As you can see, my computer desk is by the wall on the left and the very end of the opening in my office, the sewing table and ironing table are on an angle - trying to fit nicely and then I have the quilting machine to the right. My ironing board has been turned the opposite way then I would normally use it because of the space issue.
I have been wanting to fit a cutting table in here, but I haven't really thought about how to make it fit. As Clint and I were talking the other night about ways to make this work better we came up with an ingenious plan - I so wish we would have done this months ago. It's much more organized and it utilizes the space much better.


We moved my desk to the first bay window - the ironing board is in the middle and turned the right way, my sewing table is against the wall to the right and we moved the quilting machine into Clint's part of the office about 2 feet. That gives me room to sit at my sewing machine and to the side of the table.

I can sit at my desk and roll on over on my new mat to my sewing table. So convenient!


Here's my new cutting table - isn't she a beauty? She is 36 inches tall and it doesn't kill my back to bend over cutting out projects anymore.

This table is also good for pinning my quilts together. Forever I have been laying my quilt tops on the floor as I put them together and I have to bend over and pin the seams together. Now I can stand at my table and do the same thing without bending over. Wow - I can't believe I haven't done that until now. I pinned my black white and red quilt together and I couldn't believe the difference. Seriously - awesome.

Here's my sewing table, also new - with "Dahlia" staring down at me! Clint went and bought my 36" table and brought it home, put it together and realized they gave us the dining table instead of the counter height table. I was so bummed! But, as I was thinking about it I realized that it would be much more fun to have matching tables. Now - I just had to convince Clint of the same thing. I rolled it over and over in my head how I would ask and made sure not to ruin it by being demanding at all and found out that a sugar coated "Hey Honey - don't you think it would be great to have matching tables in here?" worked perfectly. I am so spoiled. Clint called the company and bought the other table - but because of their first mix up, they delivered and set it up for free. Yay!

That was a long story! Well - if you got through it - head on over to Rachel's for a giveaway. I am giving away a Modern Workshop FQB over on her blog.

Oh the tedious tasks I love........

There is nothing like drawing a single line on 1 1/2 inch squares over and over again! I love every part of the process of making a quilt. Only 120 more squares to go!

It's time to start thinking about quilts for our Romania Quilt Charity.

Sarah contacted me with a wonderful idea on how we could get the quilts we need for our Charity trip in September. You can read all about it here - signs ups start April 10th. We are also doing a giveaway for the people that sign up and another giveaway once the quilts are completed. Please take the time to go over and read about it and sign up if you can. If you can't make a quilt now, we are always accepting donations. 100% of your donations go to help the kids in Romania with food, clothing and school supplies.

Also - thank you to everyone for the sweet comments about "Dahlia" - I am so crazy around here, so I haven't been able to keep up with my inbox to write everyone back and say thank you - I hope you will forgive me.

Okay - I just can't wait.................

to show you my new pattern!

I absolutely love everything about this new pattern. It is by far my favorite pattern right now - I love all my patterns, but I just absolutely love this one. A lot of it has to do with the design - it is so my style - and the fact that I quilted it the way I wanted to. I took some great advice from a lot of you and realized that I am much happier when I allow myself time to work on my designs. I also took some help - thank you Sherri - she is a master piecer and did an excellent job piecing my quilt together.

I debated on what to call this quilt - but since it's a flower quilt I wanted to name it after a flower (I didn't care if it looked like the flower). So - I looked up names and went for "Dahlia" - it just sounds so beautiful (I hope I am pronouncing it right in my head). There you go - Dahlia - my newest pattern!

I have it available for pre-order now and it will be shipping out April 18th.

Silly me - you haven't even seen it yet and already I am offering the pattern for purchase.

So, do you want to see it?

Oh, I can't stand it - can you tell I am excited?

Introducing ------ Dahlia!!!!



Isn't she beautiful? Yesterday was a perfect day here in Saint George and I took some time to get a few pictures. Here is Dahlia on a chair hanging out in the yard.


Having a quiet picnic on the grass. Wish I could sit on the grass - allergies are crazy right now!


I like this picture because you can see the quilt and with the sunlight it shows the piecing. So cool!

Now - to the quilting. I think it turned out perfectly!

I have found that taking pictures outside works very well - since I don't have a cool camera yet -hint, hint Clint! The natural lighting takes on the colors and the quilting and shows it off so well.

Love, Love, Love the flower blocks!

This block was quilted differently from the other flower blocks - it started out as an accident - but I just may make that my signature. Ha ha!

I had some great help - more or less - mostly me telling the 2 year old to not step on the quilt.

I played with some colors in Photoshop to show off the quilting on the back of the quilt.

Well - there you go, my new pattern Dahlia and all her loveliness. I have more patterns in the works and will show them off when they are available!

Have a great day!

Mommy daughter date....

I have taken Lili to the fabric store with me before, but it has never been just us. We walked around looking at all the wonderful fabrics and decided on this pink satin with sparkles to make a play skirt for her.

I got a little teary eyed as I looked at her with a bolt of fabric in her arms - grabbed my phone to take a picture - realizing that we are starting this incredible sewing and quilting journey together. I learned to sew from my incredible Mom and I can't wait to teach Lili everything I know. We have had a talk about when she can reach her little arms over the bars and to the quilting machine is when I will start teaching her quilting.

She pretty much talked my ear off the entire night - we hit two stores and she managed to tell me everything she was going to make with the fabric we saw. I love that she appreciates this art now and I hope she loves it when she's older.

Oh - and I think I finally have figured out what fabrics to use for a design I am doing - I have only spent about $100 on fabrics that won't work. Don't you hate that?



One last thing - THANK YOU to everyone that voted for me!! I was voted as the Best Long Arm Quilter over at SewCalGal for the Golden Quilters Awards. What an honor - I appreciate just being nominated especially with the amazing quilters that are on the list with me.

Again - THANK YOU! I really appreciate it!