Through The Looking Glass - A Complete Kaleidoscope BOM

Wow, I can't believe I managed to finish my Kaleidoscope BOM within a month of finishing the blocks. Those that know me know that I'm great at finishing quilt tops, but finishing them is another story. But I'm SO happy with how this quilt came out.

It took me a little while to settle on a layout. One tip that I tell people when trying to decide on layouts of quilts is to pull out your camera phone and put it on the black and white setting. Look at your quilt through your camera with that setting and see if you have a clustering of darks, mediums or lights in one area. Move blocks around until you find the right balance. You'll probably have to play around with color placement as well. Just remember - you can continue to make changes, OR you can sew the quilt together, quilt it and enjoy your quilt.

Anyone that knows me or has followed my quilting journey also knows how much I love some good custom quilting. But because the fabrics were busy and this quilt already had so much going on (and admittedly, I really just wanted it finished), I quilted this with straight lines about 1/2" apart.

I admit, I really want to try to make a quilt or two just using one block, repeated to see the secondary designs created as a result.

All of these blocks are still available on Craftsy as individual blocks. BUT, I also created a pattern with all of the blocks in one place for ease of download and use. Click here to check it all out.

For those that followed along with the entire BOM, thank you for joining me. I'd love to see your finished quilts. And if you're just joining now, welcome! There's never a bad time to start a quilt. Enjoy!

Filled with Love Quilt Block

With lots of amazing chatter in the quilting world around Quilts for Pulse, I wanted to do my part and design a fun heart block. I decided to create a heart within a heart to show how we can be consumed by love and not hate. Download the pattern for free here!

This block should compliment some of the other blocks that are being made for the Quilts for Pulse effort (hence the reason I made these 10" square).

Here are four blocks together to show what they look like as a group. Each block finishes at 10" square and is paper pieced. If you're not familiar with paper piecing, I recommend checking out this free tutorial.

A special thank you to everyone making blocks and quilts for Orlando. As a Boston MQG member, I know how the quilting community can react during times of crisis and it is heartwarming to know how much we all care. Much love!

Download the pattern for free here! 

American Quilter - Dream Diamonds

I'm excited to share a quilt with you that I finished earlier this year and is currently featured in the latest issue of American Quilter Magazine.

I designed this paper pieced quilt last year and finished piecing the top earlier this year.

This quilt was also quilted by the talented Angela Walters. She did an amazing job with the quilting.

If you're new to paper piecing, this is a very simple pattern to try. The 12" blocks are made of up four sections, each with only five pieces each. You also don't need to line up any points when assembling each block, although you do need to line up a few when sewing multiple blocks together.

I try and challenge myself at times, trying to go out of my comfort zone when it comes to colors at times. While I love purple and blue, orange is my least favorite color, so this quilt was a personal challenge to use more orange.

I took these pictures at my parent's house, right as they were moving out and into their new home, so this magazine and these photos will always be a reminder of the eight years they spent there.

Peter Penguin Pillow and Block

I had been wanting to make something holiday-ish lately, but not something too Christmas-focused.  After some thinking and several designs, I came up with a paper pieced Penguin block that I then turned into a pillow.

 I introduce you to Peter Penguin!

I love how this little pillow cover turned out.  I used a couple of hot fix crystals for the eyes and did a simple wavy line quilting around the penguin to make it look like snow drifts. 

The quilting took me no time at all - maybe 20 minutes.  I love quick projects lately and really love how this one turned out.  

And because I always enjoy seeing where people get their inspiration from, I thought I'd share a picture of the sketches I drew before I moved to the computer to test everything and make the actual paper pieced design.  I don't have any fancy software to do my designing, I just use Microsoft Publisher. 

You can download the free pattern here in my Craftsy shop.