Outstretched - Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts

Outstretched is another pattern from our upcoming book; Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts. 

This quilt, is actually the quilt that started the whole idea of this book. I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, Nashville, and in the background of one of the scenes I noticed a chair. It had a print fabric on it that I fell in love with. I actually paused the show while I ran to grab some paper and jot down my idea.

Urban Chrundash - A Simple Sew-Along - Cutting Instructions

All right! I hope you're all still as excited as I am for this sew-along! If you're just joining in, make sure to pick up your fabric requirements here.

Today we get to cut all of our fabrics, and then next Monday I'll share the first step in sewing our Urban Churndash quilts.

Below are the cutting instructions. Because I am making my quilt scrappy, I will be cutting one block at a time. I have listed the cutting instructions for one block below. If you're going to make all of your blocks in the same fabrics you will just need to multiply your cutting by nine blocks.

Fire Island Hosta - Custom Machine Quilting

Last week I spent several days custom machine quilting this stunning Fire Island Hosta quilt, it's a Judy Niemeyer pattern. It's absolutely stunning. Quiltique, an adorable quilt shop in Las Vegas, NV will be making this quilt in a class in 2015. You will be able to check out the quilt in person, or make one yourself at Quiltique!

When the ladies at Quiltique asked me to machine quilt this I was very flattered. The time that went into the piecing of this quilt is just incredible.

Urban Churndash - A Simple Sew-Along

I had so much fun with the Sparkle Christmas Sew-Along that I couldn't wait to start another one. Today I'm beyond excited to introduce you to Urban Churndash - a simple sew-along.

The Process of Writing a Book

I've never talked much here about the process of writing a book. Now that our third book, Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilt is in the final editing stages and just about ready to go to print. I've decided that I'd share a little insight into the process of writing this book. 

Kathleen and I may be a little bit over the top when it comes to writing our books. Our two pattern books, Modern One-Block Quilts and Cabin Fever both have 20+ patterns, all of which we originally made large, like queen size or bigger. Logically we probably should have made them more like the baby size, but we really love big quilts, so we're willing to put in the extra work and make the quilts big. :)

I thought it would be fun to share a little timeline about the process of Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts with you, all three of our books have been a little different, when I wrote Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, the process took about six months longer than our two pattern books.

Here's a little peek at the cover! I'm so excited!

Front Porch - Block of the Month Quilt

Carol has been sewing on this beautiful, Front Porch, block of the month quilt with Quilted Works over the last year. It's such an adorable sampler quilt, Carol is going to hang it on the wall in her home.

Snapshots QAL with Fat Quarter Shop

Have you heard about the new Snapshots Quilt-Along with Fat Quarter Shop? Kimberly is awesome and has created this adorable new free pattern, she's simply asking that you donate $5 per pattern download to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. You can donate here. Fat Quarter Shop & Moda Fabrics will each match up to $10,000 as well. How awesome is that!

On the 15th of each month Kimberly will release a new pattern and how-to video, you can watch the introductory video below.

Barn Cabins - Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts

I'm so excited today to share another one of the quilts from our upcoming book; Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts.

This quilt is Barn Cabins. I really love this quilt. It goes together pretty quickly, it's super cool how the blocks are put together and then rotated to create a cool illusion. The quilt shown here is 96"x96", but like all of the patterns in Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts, the pattern is also available in baby and throw sizes.

Houndstooth Quilt - Custom Machine Quilting

I've been busy lately machine quilting Christmas gifts, not quilts that I've made, but quilts that my customers have made as gifts. Terri made this adorable Houndstooth quilt as a Christmas gift for her duaghter-in-law. How awesome is that!?

Terri asked me to custom machine quilt this quilt with some cool modern type quilting, so I decided to stitch-in-the-ditch around all of the blocks.  Then I machine quilted an outline around all of the blocks, about 1/4" in from the seam. Next, I machine quilted swirls in all of the white blocks and straight lines in all of the navy blue blocks. I love how it turned out, modern and clean!

Thanks for letting me machine quilt this cool quilt for you Terri!

Sweater Weather - The Quilt

Last fall I had the opportunity to machine quilt this adorable "Sweater Weather" quilt designed by my friend Tina Lewis. Tina always makes the most creative and inspiring quilts and sewing patterns. I just love this quilt, and the photo, doesn't it make you want to cuddle up by a warm fire and watch the snow fall?

I was so excited for Tina when she called to tell me that her pattern had been published in the February 2015 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine, it's on news-stands now.

Thanks for letting me machine quilt your quilt Tina!

Pirate Quilt

A couple months back, while I was up north visiting and sharing quilts at the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild, my sister Whitnee got super inspired and excited about Christmas. She decided to make several Christmas gifts, I wish I had pictures of everything she's making, it's super duper impressive!

Her 3 year old daughter loves Jake & the Neverland Pirates, so when she saw this quilt kit at Gracie Lou's Quilt Shop she knew she had to make the quilt for her daughter.

It's an adorable panel with two borders, super simple but I know Peytyn will love it!

Whitnee sent me the quilt and asked me to custom machine quilt it for her, I love how it turned out, she backed it with some Moda Cuddle fabric so it's super duper soft!

I wish I was as ambitious as Whitnee and had all of my Christmas gifts made already..... :)

Single Girl Quilt

I mentioned last week, that it was the week of the single girl. Well, I finished up the quilting on two more single girl quilts and got them back in the mail.

Jamie made two of these twin size single girl quilts, along with the baby sized one. These two she asked me to machine quilt them like the original Single Girl quilt. I really love how they turned out. Jamie asked me to machine quilt them with colored thread, so this one is quilted with green thread and the other I machine quilted with pink thread. So much fun!

Thanks for letting me machine quilt these adorable quilts Jamie.

Red Rock Modern Quilt Guild

Last summer, before I moved to southern Utah I met Shelley. I'm pretty sure that our first conversation included starting a modern quilt guild in southern Utah. We both wanted to be a part of a modern quilt guild, but didn't have one that was very close to either of us.

Not long after I moved we started chatting again and the modern quilt guild wheels were turning in both of our heads. We are so excited to introduce you to the Red Rock Modern Quilt Guild! YAY!!

We will be holding our introductory meeting December 11, 2014 at 7:00pm at Quilted Works in St. George, UT. 

If you live in the close enough to attend and consider yourself a "modern" quilter, we'd love to have you!

Little Single Girl - With a Bonus Free-Motion Quilting Video

I'm going to rename this week, the week of the single girl. I started out the week by machine quilting this adorable little quilt, a version of the popular Single Girl pattern. I've got one more Single Girl quilt on the long-arm machine and I've got one more to quilt, so it's officially the week of the single girl. :)

Jamie made this adorable little quilt, when she sent it to me she told me to machine quilt it however I wanted. So, I decided to machine quilt some flowers, some feathers, and then swirls and pebbles in the majority of the background and a few clams in the rest. 

It's such a fun little quilt, I love how it turned out.

While I was machine quilting this fun little quilt I decided to record a little video of me free-motion quilting the clams. I also teach how-to free motion quilt these clams in my book; Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

Just remember when you watch my videos, it's just me and the camera, and my machine, I'm a professional machine quilter, not a videographer. :)

Free Motion Quilting - Applique Quilt

Holy cow! With the sew-along and Thanksgiving last week I almost forgot to blog about this AMAZING quilt! How could I forget about this!

I just have to start by saying Donna is amazing, and has more patience that I could ever imagine! This quilt is big, like almost 100" square, and everything bit of applique is done by hand, did I say AMAZING yet!?!?

I was beyond flattered when Donna asked me to custom machine quilt this beauty for her. We talked quite a bit about how it should be quilted, and finally decided to outline all of the applique and then do a heavy background filler. There is a lot going on with the polkadot background and all of the applique that we decided to keep the background as a secondary pattern.

So, for the background I machine quilted some echoing with a few swirls and randomly some clams. I really love how it turned out, thanks so much Donna for letting me machine quilt this amazing quilt!

Spinning Stars Quilt - American Quilter Magazine

Today I get to introduce you to our new quilt pattern: Spinning Stars. I really love this quilt, another scrappy type quilt that I'm totally loving, maybe I should be making more scrappy quilts. :)

This quilt is my kind of scrappy, all of the prints used in this quilt are actually made from Figures Jelly Rolls, by Zen Chic for Moda Fabrics. I LOVE the colors in this fabric collection.

This new pattern is debuting in the new issue of American Quilter magazine, hitting newsstands soon!

The pattern is pretty simple piecing, so it goes together quite quickly. I think it'd be adorable in so many different fabric lines, or even your favorite fabrics from your stash, even Christmas fabrics!

Right now it's hanging out in my guest bedroom, I wish I would have made it king-sized so it could be on my bed, at least my guests will have something yummy to snuggle under. :)

I machine quilted this quilt with an edge to edge baptist fan pattern and used some of my favorite Quilters Dream Poly Deluxe Batting. I love the fans, however it would be an awesome quilt to show off some custom machine quilting.