Watercolor Dragon Quilt

I learned the burden of making backing mistakes this week. A separate, but no less grievous error than my Gingerbread Lane Swoon quilt left me with the same issue of a wrinkle in the backing of my quilt. I decided to build character and take out all of the stitches in the top three rows to fix my mistake. I knew that facing the consequences of my actions (not making sure the backing is being rolled evenly when the fabric is twice as large as the quilt) would prevent me from making this mistake again. It will. I spent more time taking out stitches than I did cutting out the fabric, sewing, stitching detail, and long arming (all version) of this quilt. LESSON LEARNED. The clamshell pantograph is absolutely unforgiving. 

Here is the final, completed version. It doesn't show up here but there is handstitching (sashiko) on all of the white borders, and around the binding, with ombre purple thread. 

 

Gingerbread Lane Swoon Quilt

While I had some free time this summer I wanted to go ahead and make a new Christmas quilt for myself. I used the Swoon pattern, which I made last Christmas, but this time chose only a few fabrics: gingerbread dance (the cranberry), sugar holly and candy (the cream), and then I added a pearl solid inner border, cranberry border, and then sugar blizzard for a large outer border. I used the cranberry for binding as well. I tried to keep time on this project and when all said and done, this took about 31 hours. I used a simple stipple on the longarm for the quilting, and made a HUGE mistake by not attaching the backing fabric to my longarm until about half-way through when I realized my error, and so the back has a lot of spots where the fabric (I used a 116" backing fabric called toasted marshmallow) folded over. I was so disappointed, but not enough to take it all apart. It's in the dryer now so we'll see how it turns out. Hopefully the crinkle will forgive a lot of mistakes. The quilt ended up being 103" square. 

Dragon Dreams Quilt

 I used a quilt kit from Riley Blake's Faraway Kingdom to make the basic dragon, and purchased additional coordinating fabric to increase the size by adding an inner and outer border. The quilt ended up being 50"x60", which is perfect to take to school and let the kids sit on while reading. I used a longarm pattern called Scrolling Filigree. It's a lot cuter in person. This one didn't photograph super well. I am working on another version now using darker fabrics. 

Another Flag Quilt- Queen Sized this time!

 My mom requested a Queen Size flag quilt and I was able to get it finished before the 4th of July. I used Ohio Stars (shout out to AccuQuilt for the block dies) to increase the size of the original flag quilt (Thimble Blossoms- large size) and the American Gatherings III fabric from Moda. I also made shams since I knew it was going on her bed. I longarmed the quilt but machine-quilted the shams since I wanted the stitches around the Ohio Star and bursting out. 

Here it is before getting all nice and crinkly from being washed. 

Here was my sham pattern. I made the Ohio Star to match the sides and used the white background fabric for the rest. 

It's too big to hold up! 

This is how it fits on a full-sized bed. On the queen the flags go right up to the edges and the stars hang over. 

I purchased the coordinating 108" backing fabric. You can see the star pantograph I used. 

Waterlily Lap Quilt

This is a quilt top I made over the summer and finally finished this weekend. I quilted it over Thanksgiving break but just couldn't make myself do the binding until now. It's so vintage! 

And the back! 

The fabrics for the patchwork came in strips I put together and sewed into blocks. 

Here she is, waiting for months to be completed. 

Bee Garden Quilt

Over the summer I found the most gorgeous bee inspired fabric from Moda, by Gingiber. I have been following a tikoker who challenged herself to make a quilt every week in 2025, and saw she kept using the same pattern over and over, so I decided to try that! I don't think it was the best design to show off the fabric, but I still love it! The pattern is called Nightingale by Brittany Lloyd at Lo and Behold Stitchery. It's almost a king size, with the additional rows I added around the basic pattern. I used a cute meandering bee pattern to quilt on my new longarmer, an Amara 20 with Pro-stitcher. 

The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt

I found the cutest book called, "The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt" by Riel Nason and wanted to make a mini quilt for my 2nd grade classroom kids to snuggle up with while reading the book. I went ahead and made 2 more for the other teachers I work with. 

 

I knew I wanted blues and whites patchwork fabric, and finally splurged and got a new fat quarter bundle from Moda called Nantucket Summer by Camille Roskelley. I pulled out all of the fabrics I wanted and made 2 quilts with 6" squares and 1 with 4.5" squares. I also bought a few yards of their beautiful blue floral, called Lake Blue Somerset, and white, Nantucket Summer Cream Sail, for the backings. 

It was fun laying out the fabrics in a way that showcases the special fabrics inspired by the book.

Each quilt measures right at a yard, so they're not big, just enough to sit on, or for a kid to wrap around their shoulders. 

Unlike the book and several patterns I saw online, I didn't want a black appliqué ghost face in the center of mine, so instead I quilted it on my longarm with ghosts. You can see in the photo below they're subtle enough to not scream "Halloween" but still so, so cute! 

Elsie Mae as a Quilt!

 My Elise Mae Wall Hanging (16x20)

I went to a class hosted by the Stone House Quilters Guild in Manassas and learned how to do these cute animal wall hangings! We started by bringing a 16x20 photo of our animal, and lots of fabric! We traced the parts for each chunk of fur several times, eventually putting it on a teflon mat with stick-and-stitch paper. Once I got home, I was able to quilt the fur using my sewing machine. I love it so much! I longarm quilted the background on Nantucket Lake Blue Somerset fabric leftover from another project I'm working on. 

Half-Hexagon Quilt: Winged Medley

A friend and I went to a Quilt Show hosted by the Stone House Quilt Guild in Manassas, Virginia. While we were there she bought a cute fat quarter bundle by Riley Blake called Winged Medley. I told her I'd make her a quilt, and we decided on a half-hexagon design.

I've never made one before, but it didn't seem that hard. First, I cut out pattern pieces using clear acrylic on my Glowforge. Then, we laid out the fabric in the way she wanted, and I cut out the pieces and sewed them row by row. 

 The trickiest part was making sure the fabric was directionally correct. I didn't want any upside-down birdies!

 To make it a little bigger, I added a row of floral fabric around the outside edge. I like to do that to most quilts to help ensure the top is even and sized correctly. 

This was one of the first projects I quilted on my longarm, and I was so nervous! I used a floral design, and it turned out beautifully! 

Flag Quilt

 Over the summer I saw tons of the cutest flag quilts on TikTok, so right before July 4th I decided to make my own. Unfortunately, the fabric I ordered didn't arrive in time, so I decided to take my time with it. First, I cut out all of the strips and blocks, and then randomly put them together. After making all of the flags, I laid them out in a way that limited similar fabrics touching as much as possible. I used my Sashiko to "hand-stitch" the rows to add character and help give it a vintage look. 

A lot of examples I saw used denim or other blues between the flags, but I decided to go with a bright white. I was a little afraid the flags would blend in, but they were just different shades enough that it wasn't a problem. 

I wanted a really loose, fluffy quilting to not take away from the hand-stitches, so I'm glad I waited until I got my longarm to finish it. The wide-back fabric I got came from a shop close to my mom's house that we checked out while I was visiting. It turned out to be perfect! 

I used a pre-purchased navy blue binding to finish it, and then went around the edges with my Sashiko using red thread to pull it all together. 

And there she is! As always, I think about giving it away but will probably just keep it.