Need a little easy-to-finish springy quilt for your spring picnics? Or a quick quilt to whip up for Mother's Day this weekend? The Divide and Conquer quilt will totally hit the spot!

I just finished this quilt and wrote a simple pattern for it that you can download from Pellon's website. This is a quilt that you can easily finish in a day or a weekend.

Using some simple stitch-and-flip corners and cutting some large prints, you can create a vibrant, but really simple to assemble quilt. As much as I love intricate quilts, sometimes it's a lot of fun to put something together that takes less thought!



I'm really loving the color palette I used for this quilt - I seem to be gravitating to it a lot lately, now that I think about it. There's just something about the coral and aqua and yellow together that just says spring to me!


The quilty photoshoot couldn't have been more perfectly Florida-ish unless there was a plastic flamingo in the shot - a lizard jumped on as I hung the quilt, and it took some serious encouragement to get him out of the way. He was just enjoying the combination of the sunshine and the beautiful quilt, I think, a bit too much to move.

I quilted this quilt using two different stitches to create a really cool effect on the back. I decided to try something new and used a curved stitch to emphasize the stitched-and-flipped corners, and creating a curved diamond. I then stippled the remaining parts of the block, using white Aurifil 50 wt thread. I really love the finished look, and I will definitely do more of this curved free-motion stitching.


Quilt Stats
name: Divide and Conquer
size: 60" x 72"
fabrics: Sketch in Coral, Pearl Bracelet in Yellow, Outfoxed Jewels in Teal, Outfoxed Foxglove in Ruby, Linda Lace in Peach, Frida's Dream in Cool, Henna Stripe in Gray, Eyelet in Gray, Flowerpop in Zesty, Houndstooth in Yellow, La Dee Da Floradots in Aqua, Imperial in Turquoise, Quilt Blocks Xs
pattern: Divide and Conquer, free pattern by me, download right here
quilting: Meandering stipple and arcs, in white 50 wt Aurifil thread
binding: Kona Azure, 2 1/2" straight-grain strips
backing: Meteor Shower in Sunset

If you make a quilt using this quickie pattern, please be sure to share it in the Stitching with Don't Call Me Betsy Flickr Group and/or Threadbias Group, I'd love to see it! Have a wonderful day today!

I'm really excited to finally share this quilt with you. Modern Gears is a new quilt that I made and that is now available as a pattern in the Spring issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited. This quilt was a long time in the making - the first sketch I did for this one is three graph paper notebooks ago, back in the beginning of 2012. I didn't jot down the source of my inspiration at the time, but I believe it was the cover of a book with gears on it that got my brain thinking about patchwork gears.

The fabrics in this quilt are from Carolyn Friedlander's beautiful Architextures collection, which still sits near the top of my favorite fabrics list. I especially love the one gear with the fuchsia center - that block was actually a bit of an oops turned awesome design element. I ran out of the blueprint fabric, thanks to a dopey cutting mistake I made, so I had to improvise. I decided to throw in one different color, an accent, if you will, and I'm so glad I did. I think it makes the quilt even more interesting than it would be otherwise.

You can still find Architextures in stock at Marmalade Fabrics, Pink Castle Fabrics, and Stash Modern Fabrics.



If you haven't picked up a copy of Modern Quilts Unlimited before, I highly recommend it. The photography is just stunning, the patterns are well-written with lots of diagrams, and the articles are quite enjoyable as well. You can usually find it at local bookstores, Barnes & Nobles, some Jo-Ann Fabrics stores, and Pink Chalk Fabrics. You can also order digital and print copies at their website right here.

If you're a Lucky Stars Block of the Month subscriber, your May block should be sitting in your inbox right now. If it's not, please check your junk or spa folder, and if you don't see it there, please email me! And if you're not yet a subscriber, you can join right here.

This month's block is the Spotlight Star. My block features fabrics from Architextures, Washi, Summersville, It's a Hoot, Rhapsodia, and Les Amis.

I really enjoyed seeing all of the April blocks popping up, especially with the two different layouts. Here's a few of my favorites.

Don't forget to share your finished Lucky Stars blocks in the Flickr group and/or Threadbias group! Have a great day!