In the latest issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting, issue #20, starting to hit newsstands in England, you'll find another fun mini quilt pattern from yours truly. This is one of my personal favorites! The Rainbow Geese mini pattern is a great foundation paper piecing pattern that features beautifully vibrant rainbow solids, mixed with some grayscale solids to make the rainbow colors pop.


One of my most favorite color palettes to use is a good old-fashioned rainbow. It never fails to put a smile on my face! This mini is destined to hang up in my new sewing space in my new house when it returns home soon, where many of the other minis in this series have been hung so far. I'm nearing the end of my setup process, and promise to share pictures soon. I'm excited to finish and to share, it's a great space. I've got great natural light from a large window in the room and a super fun, under-the-stairs closet that's perfect for stowing tons of stuff!

This issue of Love Patchwork & Quilting should be available in the US and Canada in the next few weeks, and also features fun projects by the lovely Lynne of Lily's Quilts as well as Kerry and Penny from Very Kerry Berry and Sew Take a Hike, so make sure to check it out! Happy stitching to you all :)

Denyse Schmidt is coming out with her very own collection of solid fabrics for Free Spirit Fabrics at Fall Quilt Market this week in Houston, and I'm excited to show you what I made with her beautiful solids for Free Spirit's booth. One of the things I love about Denyse is the way she names things, and these solids are no exception - from dogwood to kumquat and baltic, each solid has a beautiful Denyse-i-fied name to it, and many of the colors are super rich and saturated.



I worked up several different designs for the solids, but ultimately Denyse chose a simple patchwork quilt with a mix of squares and half-square triangles. I wanted to make it as scrappy as possible, so rather than sticking with one background color, I used several different neutrals for the "background" pieces.

I quilted this quilt with 50 wt Aurifil thread in my trusty shady of white, #2024, in a cursive-inspired kind of loop-de-loop, which was not only quick to stitch, but fun. I like the final effect the stitches give the finished quilt, how they emphasize the linear nature of the piecing, but spice it up at the same time.

I almost love the back as much as the front of the quilt - I used several snippets of the solids from the front mixed with some larger pieces of a light gray, much like a coin quilt. I especially love the way the quilting looks on the back.

A pattern is available for this pattern right here, thanks to Free Spirit! Speaking of which, I'm heading off to Houston tomorrow for Quilt Market myself. Guess that means I should start packing today! If you're going, I'll be doing a Schoolhouse on Friday at 3:40 p.m. about my book, sharing all the quilts, and a book signing at the Martingale booth on Sunday at 10:00 a.m., so please come say hello! Have a great rest of your week :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends who are celebrating tomorrow!  I'm looking forward to getting started with all the cooking now that my house is clean enough for company again.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday filled with family, fun...and maybe some shopping!

I'm guessing that many of you are planning on some holiday shopping over this long weekend, and in honor of the biggest shopping holiday of the year, my Pattern Shop is having its very first sale.  Both of my patterns, Fabricland and Xs and Os are marked down 25% through the end of the day Sunday, November 27th.  What a great way to treat yourself this weekend!


Have a wonderful weekend!  Happy Thanksgiving :)

My infamous spiderweb quilt is on the cover of the 2011/2012 issue of International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine!  After many months of uncertainty and secret-keeping, I am so happy to share this with you today, though the experience has rendered me a little bit speechless, so forgive me if I'm a bit less wordy than usual...


I had to pinch myself when I first saw the preview of the magazine online - really, could it be?  My name in print?  My quilt, lying on top of one of Elizabeth Hartman's creations??  Seriously?????


It wasn't until I had a copy in my hands late yesterday afternoon that it started to really feel real.  I'm officially a published author.  Something I dreamed of being since I was a little girl.

Look there's my name under the Quilts section!

It's just positively unreal, and I cannot say thank you enough to all of you who follow my blog and encourage me in all of my quilty endeavors.

And thank you to the amazing ladies of the {Sew} Beautiful Bee for helping me make this fabulous quilt.  You girls rock!!!


Now what are you waiting for???  Go get a copy!!!  :)  You can pick up a copy at Pink Chalk Fabrics, Interweave, eQuilter, and other various retailers, including possibly your local bookstore or fabric store.

So, I guess if you can't call me Betsy, you can at the very least call me ambitious.  Always have been.

Naturally,when I came across a pattern for a little girl's skirt on The Long Thread, I fell in love with it.  It didn't hurt that they used Patty Young's knits for the photograph, which are adorable.  Well, I wasn't going to break the bank and buy any (sorry Patty!), but I did find a cute knit print at Jo-Ann's, and set about sewing a knit skirt.

Keep in mind, I've never sewn any clothing from scratch like this.   I've appliqued, and I've sewn bags and quilts, but never clothing.  Perhaps there's a good reason for that...


Well, having been burned by my amateur-ness with my sewing machine in the past, I did the smart thing and practiced on some scrap knit.  I even dug out the book for my machine to read about stretch stitches and such.  After cursing while attempting to cut knit in straight lines (argh), and getting up to speed with the stitches, I started following the pattern, which was quite well written, with good diagrams to make sure you're sewing the correct sides together at all times.

It's very not perfect.