I know as quilters that we're all partial to our quilts, and we love them (most of the time, except when they're driving us crazy) unconditionally, but I have to tell you - this really is one of my personal favorites. I love bright colors, and this quilt not only uses great fun bright colors, but I love this block. Say hello to my newest PDF quilt pattern, Color My World!

Originally featured in Quiltmaker late last year, this quilt was sewn up in Vanessa Christensen's first fabric collection for Moda, Simply Color. I still have a lot of these prints in my stash, because they are such great stash staples! I just love tonal prints like these, they go with everything. The PDF pattern is nine pages long, chock full of tips to help you plan out and sew up your quilt. There's even a coloring page to give you the opportunity to plan out your colors and fabrics before sewing a stitch!

This quilt is a block-based quilt, with a block that is centered around a classic snowball block. Using some simple squares placed methodically, a connection is created throughout the blocks. An additional connection is made by the way I staggered the blocks by color - and I just love the hexagons that are created where the blocks meet!

I had some great pattern testers run through this pattern and create some beautiful quilt tops of their own. Kelie, Jill and Tsoniki, thank you all so much! I really appreciate your help, and I love the quilt tops you guys made :)

Through the long holiday weekend (which is perfect for putting together a new quilt top, by the way!), you can pick up this pattern on sale for $6. The pattern sale will end next Tuesday, September 3rd. You can purchase this pattern through my Pattern Shop or Craftsy, whichever you prefer. As always, I'd love to see your creations with this pattern in my Flickr group, Stitching with Don't Call Me Betsy. Have a great day everyone!

I got several really great questions earlier this week when I shared about my new sewing space - so here come some answers on this Friday morning!

Q: What's the underside of the table look like?
A: Like this (see below)...the machine sits on a piece of wood that's about three inches (give or take) lower than the table top, and the front and right and left sides of the machine are enclosed. The back side of the machine is open, to feed the cords in and to provide ventilation to the machine. Initially, all we started with was a birch table top from Ikea, but the handyman who built the table bought several additional pieces of wood from the lumber store to build the legs, the frame, and the surface the machine sits on.

Q: Just wondering about your sewing chair - do you like it and where did you find it?
A: My sewing chair is from Ikea and I put it together with my own two hands, which I'm fond of. It's called Vilgot, and it was really quite simple to put together, which was a pleasant surprise! I used to have a chair with arms, and I hated it, so I really wanted something armless. This chair definitely fits the bill.

Q: Isn't your bobbin side-loading? How do you change your bobbin?
A: It is self-loading. The notch in the side makes it easier to grab, but if I have a tough time, there's enough wiggle room that I can lift the machine slightly to grab the bobbin door. Once the bobbin cover is open, it's smooth sailing - there's plenty of room for me to get my hand in there to change out the bobbin and to clean it out as well.

Q: How do you like your Juki for free motion quilting?
A: Love it! It definitely took some adjusting to get it just right for FMQ, which is typical for any machine, but now that I've tweaked it, it works beautifully for free-motioning. I haven't gotten to free-motion yet with my new table setup, but I hope to soon!

How is it Friday already? This week has absolutely sped past. I hope you have a great day and a fun weekend!

Someone get the smelling salts, will you? It's been an epic week full of happy tears at my house - with the munchkin's first day of kindergarten on Monday, and then with a super big arrival in my mailbox yesterday. Hot off the presses, I opened up an advance copy of my book yesterday!!! Seriously, talk about happy mail!


I'm not even sure how to describe what it feels to hold a real copy of my book in my hands. It feels more real than it did when it just a huge Word doc on my computer, that's for sure. I feel...elated...proud...tickled...amazed...my emotions absolutely are all over the place. I cannot wait to share more about the book right here, very soon. Here's what I can tell you so far - this book has something for everyone, from a new quilter to an experienced quilter. I hope that my love for quilting comes across in both the text and the quilts that I made for the book. I can't wait to show them all after all this time! Most of the quilts were made back in the spring of 2012, so I'm just bursting to share them!


Want to pick up a copy for yourself? Or your best friend? Or your entire quilt guild?? ;) My book is scheduled to begin shipping on September 10th, so I've only got this one copy for the moment. You can preorder a copy from my Pattern Shop as well as Amazon, and you'll find the book in many quilt shops next month. I know I can't wait! Have a great day today :)

After the big move last month, my sewing space was relegated to the last spot on my To Do list as I found homes for towels and coffee mugs and the like. We did a lot of purging with the move, so I had less stuff to unpack and put away, but it still took me a long time to start tackling my sewing space. I'm super excited to say that I officially finished getting it all set up over the weekend, and spent some time photographing the whole thing, because goodness knows it will probably never again be this tidy and organized!!

I'm excited to share the first of three new pattern releases that I've got coming over the next month or so, as the summer winds down and fall creeps up on us. Hello Sew Positive!


This quilt was originally featured in the spring 2013 issue of Quilts from Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, in Alison Glass's fabulous Lucky Penny bike path prints. It was a fun quilt to work on, but I knew I wanted to make another, both to run through the pattern again and to show a completely different color story.


I went with much softer fabrics for this baby size Sew Positive quilt, with a boatload of Free Spirit fabrics from Tula Pink and Joel Dewberry. The background fabric is a great tweed-y textured fabric from Jenn Ski's Mod Century line for Moda. I first fell in love with this fabric at Stash Bash when I spied Marla working on her Happy Pills quilt, and I"m so glad I hunted it down! I like how much softer this version of the quilt is - and I would wager to guess that this pattern would be stunning in low-volume prints as well.


I also had some great pattern testers work through the pattern, and make gorgeous interpretations of the quilt. They were not only full of great feedback, but great quilts of their own!

Erica from Kitchen Table Quilting used gorgeous Kaffe Fassett shot cottons for the pluses on her mini-sized version, which I just love.

Kelsey from Everyday Fray has inspired me to try hand quilting again! I love the hand quilting she did around the large pluses, and the tonal fabrics she used in the small plus blocks.

Marla from Sew Hungry was really creative with her fabric selection. The lime surprise pluses here and there totally make the quilt, don't they?! I also really like how Marla varied the background she used, I think that gives the quilt more depth.


The Sew Positive quilt pattern includes thorough step-by-step instructions and fabric requirements for making a mini, baby, lap, queen, and king size quilt. There's also lots of notes and tips on planning your quilt. Truly, Sew Positive is a simple quilt to make but it can make such a powerful visual impact with the right fabrics!



You can pick up Sew Positive, in PDF format, this week on sale for just $6. Next week, it will go up to the regular price of $8. You'll find Sew Positive both in my Pattern Shop as well as on Craftsy. Don't forget to share your finished quilt in my Flickr group, I love seeing all of the different interpretations of my patterns! Have a great Monday :)

Good morning, and happy Friday to you! If you're reading this morning over in Bloglovin' or Feedly or something like that, please take a moment and pop on over to the real blog - I've just finished going through a major blog makeover, thanks to the help of super blog designer Noor Alquanti. I highly recommend her if you're looking to spruce up your blog. I'm really happy with everything she put together, and I think the blog practically sparkles now, with all the beautiful white space, not to mention the great new logo. I'd love to hear what you think of the new look!

I've also got an easy peasy new free quilt pattern to share with you today, using some old stash favorites as well as some great prints from Modern Yardage. I fell in love with a fun deconstructed chevron that Heather Dutton designed for them, and found a few other prints of hers that I enjoyed, then pulled some stash basics to round out my selection. Then I pondered what to make. And pondered some more. And then I moved, and well, everything went to pot, so to speak!

I wanted to make something easy, but something that would be enjoyable to sew, and most importantly, pretty. And I'd been doodling an easier, less triangle focused, way to make a zig-zag look in a quilt, so I thought why not? So, I did. And here we are...


Introducing....the Easy Peasy Faux Zig Zag quilt pattern! A free pattern download, available right here on Craftsy. The pattern includes four quilt sizes: mini (like mine), baby, throw, and queen size, with all of the information you've come to expect from my patterns. And this is seriously an easy quilt to put together - you can easily put one of these together in a day or even a weekend, if you're working on the queen size.
Stay tuned next week for my next pattern release, Sew Positive! I'm really excited to show you what my pattern testers have sewn up and to finally put this pattern up for sale. Have a wonderful weekend :)

Happy August to you! Being the first of the month, all Lucky Stars Block of the Month subscribers should have a new block email in their inbox. If you did not receive it, please feel free to email me so we can find it! And as always, if you aren't already a Lucky Stars subscriber, you can join at any time, and you'll still receive all of the club blocks, even those from months past.



This month's block is the Pinwheel Star, and I really love the depth it has. I think part of the depth comes from the piecing, but the other part comes from the warm/cool contrast of the fabrics in the center star and then the frame that surrounds the star. I used one of my all-time favorite fabrics for the background, Violet Craft's Memoir print from Madrona Road, which makes me love this block even more.

I cannot believe it's August already! School is starting in just a few weeks here in my neck of the woods, and while it may continue to feel like summer for the next several months here in Florida, it's clear that summer is evaporating. School supplies are flying off the shelves at Target and the like, and at at my house, we've got a countdown going to the first day of kindergarten at our house. While the kiddo's been to preschool for the last two years, this first day of school sure does feel like a bigger deal than the others have been. I suspect there may tears, but on my part, not his! Do you have any great first-day-of-school traditions in your house?