Happy Monday to you! First off, thank you all so much for your kind words and congratulations about our baby news last week! It's such an exciting time, and your lovely comments really made me smile. Speaking of smiling, I'm really enjoying trying to get back into a regular schedule of blogging as of late. I missed blogging! Don't get me wrong, I love Instagram and sharing a quick snap here and there, but I miss words. I love words :) So here I am, and hold me to this, but I'm going to try to blog every Monday for the rest of the summer. Surely that will be long enough to build a new habit, right? Here's hoping!


So, in the spirit of sharing words with you all, I've written a simple new tutorial to go with a block you mostly recently saw in my Cotton + Steel mini quilt, the Twirl block, used in the border of that mini. The Twirl block is a fun paper pieced block and the tutorial is complete with templates and cutting instructions for a 6" and 12" finished version of the block, so take your pick! You can do a lot of things with this very simple block, here's a few ideas:


You can download this block tutorial for free right here. 

I'm pleased to finally have a summer finish to share that's fully quilted and bound and truly finished! The summer seems to be flying by, full of family time, work, trips to the pool, and very little sewing, but this project was a bit of a priority for me - because of the recipient.

We recently found out that our munchkin will no longer be a "lonely child" (as he calls an "only child") - I'm expecting a new baby early in the new year! All three of us are mighty excited, and naturally, I channeled my excitement into making a quilt for the baby. We don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, so I went with a simple bright, rainbow color scheme that will work well for either, and I picked a block that has been on my quilty bucket list for a long time - the X Plus block.

These blocks are SO addictive, and so quick to make! I dug into my scrap bins for the rainbow colors and pulled two of my favorite basics, an old out of print Lakehouse seed catalog print, and a cute tiny black heart print on white by Dear Stella, to mix them up with.

I love the simplicity of the piecing in this quilt, so I kept it super simple with the quilting and binding - just a simple stipple in my trusty white #2024 Aurifil thread and then I bound it using that same sweet heart print that I used throughout the blocks.


I adore the backing I used for this quilt, a new Cloud 9 print by Eloise Renouf called Passing Cloud from her line, First Light. This line is sooooo pretty! Navies and citrons and grays mixed with a pop of pink and a wee bit of teal, in beautifully detailed prints. Just the right amount of mellow softness compared to the bright quilt top!

Quilt Stats
name: Baby's X Plus Quilt
size: 36" square
fabrics: a wide assortment from my scrap bins, plus the Hearts print from Dear Stella and an out of print Bakehouse seed catalog print
backing: Passing Cloud by Eloise Renouf for Cloud 9
quilting: simple meandering stipple in white (#2024) Aurifil 50 wt thread

This quilt will likely make a great tummy time mat for the new baby when he or she arrives, but I suspect there will be another quilt I'll make for the baby once we find out if it will be a boy or girl. I don't think I'll be able to help myself :)

Stay tuned next week for a new block tutorial, for the Twirl block last seen in my Cotton + Steel mini swap quilt, and have a great Monday!

I was super excited to see a good friend start up a little Love Wins quilt bee online recently, and naturally, I jumped at the chance to make a block for the quilt. Our bee is full, but if you feel inspired to start one, gather your troops! Pull together some friends, or reach out via social media, and get your own group started!

I toyed with a couple of much beloved blocks for my Love Wins block, but ultimately, I decided I wanted to start something new. A new star, natch :) And here is what I came up with - the Love Wins Star.


This star will be a new pattern of mine before the month is through, and I'm excited at the possibilities with this one. It is intricate, as are most paper-pieced stars, but the pieces come together quite quickly, and the results are pretty awesome.