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In addition to Cut Loose , I designed a second quilt using Washington Depot for FreeSpirit called Hashtag . The (free!) pattern makes a 61" x 81" finished quilt and is available on the FreeSpirit website .

I am very happy to welcome Simply Lovely Things as a new sponsor on my blog.  Colleen has written a lovely introduction to her shop and is offering a generous giveaway (more details at the bottom of the post).  I am increasingly shopping from smaller shops with curated fabric selection, and Colleen has done a wonderful job stocking her shop with beautiful fabric. I'm so excited to be part of the Kitchen Table Quilting community! My name is Colleen Regan and I am 51 year old kind of crazy, a lot of OCD, list making, fabric lover, oh and of course quilter/sewer! After being a nurse for 30 years I really wanted to do something fun in my life. Although retirement is down the road, we thought that now was the time to start something and try and grow it into a retirement hobby business.  My story is probably similar to many, I taught my self to sew at age 15 (I still have the dress pattern) and grew into a quilter. I totally love my sewing machine and really do all kinds of sewing. My f

After I posted my pattern testers' quilts last week, I wanted to make a follow up post with a few more details about my own version of the Eliza Quilt .  I had so much fun making this pattern and I wanted a little more space to talk about it. The idea for this quilt came from my Betty Quilt pattern. I wanted to do something along the same lines (but a little bit different) because I really enjoyed how well it highlighted the fabrics and how easy it was to put together. My color inspiration for the quilt came from the Martha Negley feathers print that I have been hoarding for a while.  I adore the print and it has such amazing blues and greens and teals.  After I picked the initial focal fabric, I picked several coordinating fabrics from my stash.  My favorite designers for coordinating fabrics are Carolyn Friedlander, Denyse Schmidt, Lotta Jansdotter, Cotton + Steel Basics, and Lizzy House and I used almost all of them in this quilt.  This is definitely not an all-inclusive list,

I have a rule for myself when I receive my Culcita Box : I can't open it until I have completed everything on my To Do List. But I had no idea what was going to be in this box so I cheated and took a peak. Yay, I was so excited!  The collection is Menagerie by Rifle Paper Co for Cotton + Steel. I have been really wanting to pick up this collection.  It is so PRETTY.  I wouldn't say that "pretty" is the number one thing I look for in fabric (bright! happy! bold!), but this collection is pretty along with all of those other things. And it has tigers. The box had almost all of the prints in the collection and a good range of darker and lighter value prints. I am looking forward to making something with these . . . I'm just not sure what it will be. If you would like to pick up this month's box, or subscribe to a monthly  Culcita  box delivery, check out the options on their  website .   August Quilt August Fabric July Quilt July Fabric June Quilt June Fabric May

I am so excited to share The Eliza Quilt pattern with you today!  I have had the idea for this quilt since I made my Betty Quilt pattern, but it took me a little while to figure out how to write out the instructions in a simple way.  Here are a few things that I think are great about this pattern: There are no y-seams or partial seams. The only fabric in the pattern that uses more than 1/2 yard is the background fabric (and the backing of course), so it is a great project for working from your fabric stash. It comes together quickly and is a great way to highlight larger scale prints. Even though it might look like it's complicated to make, it is great for an experienced beginner!  Each step has an illustration, so just take the steps one at a time. Like my other patterns, I gave it a woman's name and the story behind this one is a little more personal. Before I had my youngest child, I had a miscarriage at about 12 weeks along. I never found out if that baby was a boy or a g

I have been meaning to write up a tutorial for this quilt for a while, and thought these Lagoon prints from the August Culcita Box would be perfect opportunity to write up some quick instructions. It's pretty simple to put together since it is just squares and half square triangles (HSTs), so if you want to make something similar this should take care of the math for you.   Draw a diagonal line onto the wrong side of each of the 5"background squares (if you aren't familiar with making HSTs, check out this link  for illustrations). Place each print (or colored solid) 5" square right sides together with a 5" background square and sew along each side of your diagonal line. Cut along the diagonal line and press each HST open. Trim each HST down to 4.5" x 4.5". Arrange the HSTs and 4.5" background squares randomly as desired (or use the sample layout below as a guide).  This takes a little bit of work, getting things to look random is harder than you