Say hello to Wifi—a tech-inspired motif that blends mid-century curves with a playful, almost doodle-like feel. I've been on an "organic" kick lately, spending more time doodling since my class back in May with Karen McTavish. I'd really like to load up a practice sandwich again on my longarm frame and explore more shapes with free-motion quilting, just to see if any other pantograph ideas emerge.

With its arched echoes and nested half-circles, the design has a rhythm that hums along the quilt top like invisible signal waves. It’s bold but not overpowering, structured but still organic. These quirky motifs could also pass as rainbows. In fact, as I was watching this design stitch out, I caught a glimpse of an adorable rainbow on one of the pink prints. What a happy accident! 

 


Wifi might be a tech term, but this design doesn’t feel cold or clinical—it’s lively with just a hint of retro styling. It's fun to reimagine the ubiquitous symbols on our devices that we largely ig...

Feeling groovy? Our newest edge-to-edge design brings a healthy dose of retro rhythm and abstract movement to your quilts. Meet Modra, a modern meandering classic in the making.
 


This design originated as an interpretation of a city skyline—if you can believe it—with all rectangular shapes and mostly 90º angles. I wanted different sizes and shapes of "buildings", but when it looked very sharp and uninviting, I changed the line nodes to smooth in my software and was delighted! I loved the "ribbon candy" of it all, maintaining the irregular intervals and sizes.

I couldn't help but think it hinted at a mid-century look. It's quirky but polished, free-flowing but intentional. There are places where the stitch path overlaps slightly. 

I chose to quilt Modra on this quilt top because of the variation of the lines. I generally don't like to put simple repeated E2E designs on a quilt made of only 2" squares. I prefer some variety when the patchwork is uniform.

Modra stitches like...

Bespoke is an extended-width design with hand-drawn, unique feathers meant to look like free-motion quilting.



If you are new to extended-width pantograph designs, I'd encourage you to visit this blog post, which provides more information about this unique format. These designs are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software. 

When looking for inspiration for a new digital design, I looked back at my photos from before I had a computerized longarm. I used a meandering feather design like this way back in the day as both an "allover" design and in custom areas (examples below), and thought that by using an extended-width digital format, I could recreate an edge-to-edge version.

I decided to call it "Bespoke" because it can look like custom quilting. I intentionally did not duplicate any part of the design to give it a one-of-a-kind and dynamic look.

The Quilt

When I first saw this quilt calle...

I've always wanted to make my own version of "hand-guided" spirals to join the ranks of Feathered Spirals, Fancy Feathers, Echoed Swirls, Fossilized—designs I used to free-motion quilt before I had my computerized machine.

This was the first design that I drew on my iPad (using the Graphic app), then imported into Art and Stitch to "clean up". The most difficult part of that process was getting the rows to nest the way I wanted them to. After many, many iterations, I'm happy with the design that's meant to look "perfectly imperfect," like free-motion quilting. 

I think that the larger and more varied the single repeat is, the more a design looks organic. For these kinds of designs, my goal is that the design repeats and rows are difficult to find. :) 

I named it Perm because the spirals reminded of the curly hair look in the late 80s and early 90s! The one and only perm I got was a "spiral perm" at a local beauty school when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. My mom took my ...

This is not a drill. I was able to work on a quilt top I started making for myself back in 2017.

About a month ago, I was invited to a quilting retreat at Stitch Supply Co. in Altoona, Wisconsin. I had the best time! It really supercharged my desire for patchwork again. Now I want to finish WIPs and start new projects with the fabulous fabric I bought there.

For this project, the quilt pattern I used is called Mini Modern Heart. It's actually a foundation paper piecing block I designed to use up small scraps of fabric. It certainly is a good pattern for doing just that!

My original intention was to make one block per day for a year—but, you know—life happened and I came up WAYYYY short of my goal.

At the retreat, I decided to wrap-up the project once and for all. I abandoned my original plan (365 blocks) when I realized that I had enough blocks to make a nicely sized lap quilt.

And guess what?! I ended up with 11 columns of 13 blocks each, which is drumrolllllllll... 143 ...

Instead of a soulless (😂) solid sample quilt, I'm so happy to share the special quilt I made for my new niece, Kate! 

It had been such a long time since I'd done any sewing. I really love the entire quiltmaking process, so it was fun to get out the rotary cutter and domestic sewing machine again and work on something new.

And what better reason than a new baby in the family?

I "kept it simple" by deciding on a classic sawtooth star quilt. I picked fabrics from my stash and used the same fabric for my background throughout the quilt. I didn't need instructions because I've made this star so many times in the past. I did make myself a general "map" as I was cutting fabrics and making my stars. Feel free to use my decidedly unfancy pattern:

 If you need a little more to go on than this, google sawtooth star, you'll likely find hundreds of patterns/tutorials.

Can we talk about the quilting already?! Ha - as a longarm quilter, it's my favorite part of the process.

I des...