Summer Dogwood

Its been a crazy spring at my house. We are getting ready to sell our house which means packing up your item to stage your house like you don't really live there. I understand the process but when you work and run a business out of that house it get real tricky.  When I need to find all the things I just hid from the people who are on there way over to look at your home, I get a little crazy.
If we sell this house I will be surprised for sure. But we are trying.

In all the commotion I have not been blogging, so sorry for that.  I do have some new videos to show you.   The first is a video that I created is of the building process of my Dogwood flower pattern. My patterns are different than other designers.  So I like to give you more visuals to help you create or just purely entertain you for a moment.
The song is by Darius Ranker and its called Wagon Wheel. I made this video back in December. Enjoy!

Today someone emailed me that forgot to write in the pattern how to do the seeds in the center of the flower.  So here it is. I put the seeds on the flowers, last. So here is the video and the instruction for the flower seeds below.

1.  Fuse your U fabric. 
2. Trace 3-4 seed shape from the large lay out guide.
3. Fold you U fabric in half and pin the traced seed pattern onto the fabric and cut out the 4 shapes out. because the fabric is folded you will have 8 seed shapes. do this again until you have the desired amount.
4.  Now arrange like the photo shows.  
5. Press in place.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

I spent the month of October and some of November working on a new flower pattern, a Poinsettia. During the process, I was lucky to get to visit a warm, sunny beach in Hawaii over Thanksgiving, which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, my tan is quickly fading.

So, when I got home, it was back to my new flower. I was asked by RJR Fabrics to use some of their beautiful batik fabrics, which I did. The pattern and fabric kits will be available through Keepsake Quilting around the first of the year, in plenty of time for you to get it done for next Christmas.

I documented the building of this quilt with a video and set it to some Christmas music to show how I developed this quilt. I even show how you I quilted it so you can see how easy it really is (but don’t tell anyone)!  I want you to have the thrill of your friends and family saying  I can’t believe you made this!  That’s why I make patterns.

I made this flower 3 times in different combinations of fabrics and also in my hand-dyes. I love to see how my patterns can be translated into a variety of fabrics and still look great.

As I said, around the first of the year, Keepsake Quilting will have this pattern and fabric kits available for you to make for next Christmas.  Hey, Christmas isn't just for December!

In fact, I'm thinking that if I keep the tree up all year I will be so ahead of the game.

Oh, no!  Now I'm sounding like my mother, who did keep the tree up all year long back in the 80s.  She would redecorate it for each month’s holiday.  Her thought was that the tree represents Jesus so why not celebrate Jesus by keeping the tree up all year, not just at Christmas time.

We had a Valentine’s Day tree, 4^th of July tree, Easter tree, and Thanksgiving tree. The Martin Luther King Day tree was a little tricky but she pulled it off.  Did I tell you she was an interior designer?  I guess that proves that the nut, in fact, doesn’t fall far from the tree!

On second thought,  I'll just enjoy my Poinsettia quilt and take down the tree until next year - it's easier to explain.

My iQuilt Class

Turn your favorite flower photo into a master piece art quilt.

For the next few days iQuilt will be offering a great deal on my online classes. Check it out by clicking on the word iQuilt above!

Gulf Coast Quilters Here I Come!

In January I will be traveling through the Gulf Coast reign of the United States teaching and lecturing for a large group of quilt guilds spread out along the Gulf Coast.  Then I will end my trip in Venice Florida for the last of my classes.  

 This is going to be an adventure because it will be almost 3 weeks on the road.  But I have never been to these great places and I get the thrill of checking these states off my “how many states have you visited” map.  Looks like I have been to almost all of them after this trip.  Still haven’t been to North or South Carolina or Maine? That will be something to look forward to.

Some of the quilt guilds are doing my hibiscus pattern. So I thought I would show the student’s and you the hibiscus in varying stages of completions to give the kids an idea about all the colors they can make this flower in.  

 Hibiscus come in a wide verity of colors. So pick your favorite color and use the color chart as your guild when choosing your fabrics. Here is how you do this.

The body of the flower is made up of fabric A, B, C. They are arranged from the lightest to darkest. All other pieces are laid on top of these base petals.  D, E, F make up the center and they need to be darkest of color with D being black. Then notice on the color chart how color G H I J K L M N O P run from dark to light also? These are the showdowns and highlights.  In class I help you make a color chart with the fabric you being.  So pick your favorite color and bring lots of fabrics to choose from.

The more fabrics the better.  You can also order a fabric kit made from my hand dyed fabrics.  $65. Order through your guilds program chair.  Hope this helps. This is a stunning quilt. And bring a verity of backgrounds to choose from and greens.  I have a trick on how to pick the right background for your beautiful flower quilt.