Update: We have a winner! Vicky M. will be getting her sheep blocks in the mail. Thanks to everyone who entered. Last week, we gave away a set of beautiful Grandmother’s Fan quilt blocks. This week, we have something completely different for you: a set of 12 sheep. Wouldn’t they make a charming baby quilt?…
GIVEAWAY UPDATE Monday, 6/26/2017: The lucky winner of the Grandmother’s Fan blocks is Debbie Bosch, who describes herself as a “new quilter.” Congratulations, Debbie! Her winning comment was chosen at random from all the comments on this post. If you follow New Quilters on Facebook, you may recall that we recently asked if anyone would…
Are you your own worst critic when it comes to your quilting? So many of us are, and not just beginners who are still working on basic quilting skills. Many expert quilters are even harder on themselves than newbies who still have a lot to learn. I belong to several online quilting groups, and I’ve…
One of the great frustrations you may run into when you bind your quilts is achieving a perfect mitered corner — that is, a corner with a beautiful, crisp 45-degree angle that ends in a sharp point. This video shows the clever (and easy) binding trick quilt designer Patrick Lose uses to achieve those perfect…
If you live in a climate where the weather gets cold, you can’t beat polyester fleece as a quilt backing. Fleece is soft, light, warm, and washes and dries well. Where I live in Northern California, the nights are chilly almost all year round, so I back almost all my quilts with polar fleece fabric…
Until yesterday, I had no springtime decorations in my house at all. I have holiday quilts for the Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day, but nothing to celebrate Easter or the arrival of springtime. I finally did something (small) about this hole in my holiday decorating scheme: I made this little 15″ x…
One of the worst moments you can experience as a quilter is putting a quilt into the wash for the first time, then taking it out and seeing to your horror that one or more of the fabrics in the quilt has bled dye onto other parts of the quilt. I’ve had that happen, and…
The Windmill quilt block is an easy block made by arranging four Rail Fence blocks into a larger block that looks like — you guessed it — the turning blades of a windmill. The block needs only two fabrics, one lighter and one darker. The more contrast you have between the two fabrics, the…
Here’s an easy way to make half-square triangle blocks from two fabric squares. Each set of two squares will make two mirror-image triangle blocks. Step-by-Step Instructions Start with two squares of the same size from two fabrics that look good together. I cut one square from this cute cherry fabric and paired it with a…
After seven years of blogging under the Quilter’s Diary banner, we’re making a big change. We are changing our name to New Quilters, and our web address to NewQuilters.com. Our blog home page and many of our most popular posts have already moved to NewQuilters.com. We will be moving the rest of our posts over…
Can you use a good quilting laugh? Then you’ll love this gallery of quilting humor (and an occasional nugget of wisdom.) Check back to this page often — we are always adding something new. Meet 40 Handsome Men with Funny Things to Say about Quilting You’ll laugh out loud at these 40 seriously…
I’ve made a lot of Christmas wall quilts, but hardly any Valentine’s quilts. Time to make some more! Looking for something simple and easy, I found a free heart banner pattern on Freda’s Hive, and decided it would be the perfect starting point for my next Valentine’s wall quilt. The original pattern I found consists of two scrappy…