Holiday Star

A little over six weeks from the first test block I made, back on July 18, and I have a finish! Holiday Star is done, and the pattern should be ready within a few weeks. 

It's pretty dramatic!

Diamond Baby Pattern Release and Bright Spark Quilt

I have the rights back to release my design that was featured in issue 70 of Make Modern. I am so pleased to release this pattern that can actually put quite a dent in your white, cream and beige strings. May I present Diamond Baby, now on sale in my Etsy shop!

I get a little fizz of a thrill every time I see that photo. So glad I was able to take some pretty great photos of the quilt at Fishermen’s Cove in the Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia.

Celestial Déjà Vu

Déjà vu indeed. If you are having that kind of moment when you see this quilt, your memory is correct! I  one very close to this earlier this year for a Project Quilting challenge. I called the first one Circadian Rhythm. I liked it so much, and I had enough of the Celestial fabric, that I planned to make another.

Besides, I had cut too many triangles for the first one!

Arabian Nights

I first put this collection of fabrics (minus the tan and gold leaf fabric) together probably a year or two ago when I was either combining fabrics for a totebag for someone or my Etsy shop, or combining fabrics for a a Project Quilting prompt. I am glad to have found a design that lets them shine.

This is a third option in my latest pattern release, Lyra. 

Lyra Quilt Along - Sashing Units and Quilt Assembly

Aaand… just like that - we are done until the final parade opens on June 15! A few of you have gone ahead and got your quilt top together, so I do hope you'll have a completely finished quilt by then. Know that both tops and finished quilts can go into the parade, though I truly do hope that you finish your quilt. I'd hate to be the reason more WIPs show up in your quilt rooms!

The sashing pieces will go together in a jiffy. Then it's basically a 9-patch layout with borders. But I'm a bit ahead of myself.

Artemis

Artemis, a quilt I designed (inspired by an email convo with my friend Rose) in honour of the Artemis II expedition in April, is finished and ready to be hung on a wall in my home. You can read the story behind it in this post about the flimsy.

We went for a little drive on Sunday, trying to find an appropriate quilt for this full moon quilt. I had thought of the Windsor Astronomical Society observatory, but though MacGyver had mapped it, we were unable to find it. We also knew there wasn’t much chance of getting near it as it was closed and locked on a Sunday. I thought of the giant grey rocks at the Leamington Marina, so that is where the last photos were taken. We did stumble upon another pretty cool backdrop for a glamour shot.

Lyra Quilt Along - Make the Blocks

Well, we’ve got all the units made, so let’s put them together and make some blocks.

There are four blocks to make this week. Next week we’ll make the sashing units and assemble the quilt top!

Diamond Baby in Make Modern

I am so pleased to be finally able to present my latest publication in Make Modern issue 70!

Because there was (eerily) another HRT diamonds quilt submitted just ahead of mine, scheduled for the January 2026 issue, Lara asked if I'd mind waiting a couple of cycles before they released mine, hence four months longer of a wait but that’s okay; it’s finally here.

Another Lyra Quilt Top

I worked hard to include this third version of Lyra in my newest pattern, and then I had a DrEAMi—Drop Everything And Make It—moment and pulled fabrics and looked at the logo colours and adjusted and cut and sewed…

The result!

It’s one of those “eee!” feelings to see it come to life.

Lyra Pattern Release!

And it’s on sale, 25% off!

I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that I did not get the pattern totally together for yesterday’s post in my annual QAL. However, in retrospect, I think this is better, so that it gets its own post, and it includes a third quilt!

My original thought for the cover shot was to get this quilt under a magnolia tree, which are at their peak right now. However, when we were tootling around the little town of Essex this past week, which is just 15 km from my little town of Kingsville, we spied the old train station. It is a beautiful old building and made for a great backdrop, we thought.

Lyra

This quilt is made with a few chunks of Hazel by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew that I picked up over a sale or maybe two several years ago. It has been patiently waiting for the right quilt, which is this year's Quilt Along quilt. All but two of the seven pieces went into this quilt.

There certainly is lots of movement in this design, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. It's a block I sketched when I was in the 30 Quilt Designs in 30 Days Challenge in 2017. I drew up four designs using it.

Lyra Quilt Along Kickoff

Welcome to the tenth annual Quilt Along here at mmmquilts! Once again, this free Quilt Along kicks off today, on my birthday, and ends on June 15, what was the birthday of one 'famous Canadian', my dad. I am so glad you are here, reading this post, and I hope that you will join in. This year's quilt along features a smaller quilt, and, as usual, the pace is nice and slow, so it's easily worked in with your regular quilting projects. 

If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you'll peruse the tabs up top, maybe check out some of the activities and makes of mine. Be sure to follow me (see the buttons 'Get new posts by email’, Pinterest and Instagram on my sidebar) to be notified of new posts over the next 2.5 months of the quilt along. Feel free to grab the graphic for the QAL and post it on your social media with a link back here so others can find it.

Project Quilting 17.6 A Happy Handful

What a fun way to end this year’s challenge: with a small joy-inducing project. This week Trish asked us to make something that we could hold in one hand, "small in stature, but full of joy." I've had this image in my head for the past several weeks, wanting to work it somehow into a quilt.

I made a mug rug with the symbol for female on it.

SMGO Still!

SMGO--So Much Going On... Still!

I've been fairly quiet online here because my sewing machine has been whirring like crazy since my last post of my SAHRR round 4.

I got an order for a tote bag and a day or two after that an order for three mug cosies. Here is the tote bag, another one I absolutely loved, but because it's going to a good appreciative home for a returning customer, I was happy to send it off!

This is part of my pattern Positive Flow which includes instructions for two quilt sizes of interlocking plus blocks that flow across the quilt in three waving rows.

Happy Christmas!

I debated for some time, well the entire time I was making this and starting this post, what to call this quilt. In the end, because the centre block is English Wedding Ring, I felt that I needed a nod to English Christmas, and there they say, 'Happy Christmas', not 'Merry Christmas' so that is the quilt's name. But, as is often the case with my quilts, there's a bit more to that name than just the English Christmastime greeting.

I was at first dismayed, but then pleased (almost always a silver lining) to see that we had a skiff of snow this morning. Perfect background for a new quilt!

Arabesque Pattern Release

It's been a minute or three since I've had a new pattern out, but here I am with one more for 2025. Many of you will remember my SAHRR this year, and several said it would be a great pattern. So here she is!

Something I realized as I wrote up the pattern is that because the rounds (all seven of them) are 3" blocks or widths, you can really go wild with this pattern, and switch them around to create a totally unique personalized quilt! I told my pattern testers to feel free to do just that!

Oh, and of course, Arabesque is on sale all weekend for just CA$10.🤩

Cheerio!

I have a finish on a Friday! Here is Cheerio!, a collaborative effort between my friend Cathy and me. 

Hot off the ... sewing machine last night!

Isn’t it just so bright and cheery? Cheerio! was the original name of this design which I did for Island Batik quite a few years ago. When I released the pattern, I renamed it Sunset Strip, because the batiks I used evoked colours of the sunset. This quilt now, it’s definitely got a Cheerio! vibe: a common salutation in England, an ‘o’ shaped cereal, and of course, this cheery quilt. The pattern is available in my Etsy Shop. It has two sizes, this baby quilt size and a throw.

Tinker Toys Pattern Release

Yay! Finally, after two long years, I can publish my Tinker Toys design that was in the August 2023 issue of Love of Quilting. I honestly do think that is an exorbitant amount of time to not own the rights to my own design, but, sniff! and hmph! I have not submitted another to them since! You may recall that last fall I did get permission to publish a throw size of the quilt, with my own instructions (they changed them slightly in the magazine) and in a completely different colour scheme. Well, now the baby quilt, throw, and even a cushion cover are all in one pattern. And oh yes, it's on sale all August long weekend!

This perfect spot for a photo, or even a sit😊, which many people do, is the front of The Grove Hotel on Main Street in Kingsville. It's a beautiful old hotel, totally renovated, built in 1854. I think they should have a couple of quilts on those rocking chairs! Might have to approach them...

Kismet

After I'd finished my Winter Blues quilt for Project Quilting 16.2. I always wondered if it would work with a jellyroll…and it sure did! It's taken me no less than five quilts (yep, this is number 5!) made in this pattern to finally answer that question! Here is Kismet, and she has quite the story to tell.

Yes, just one jellyroll, well, actually, half of one jellyroll!

Garden-Themed Totebag

Last week I mentioned that I'd had another commissioned totebag. Well, it has now been delivered to a very happy customer. She gave me a bit of an idea of what colours based on two makeup bags she'd seen on my Instagram feed, the navy one that was a gift and the black and white one in my shop. So here is where we ended up:

Quite the departure!