ONLINE Block-of-the-Month Program!

Visit The Quilt BOM for free Block-of-the-Month projects starting (now) September 2019-June 2020.

I'm designing the blocks to be fast and fun to make (nothing fussy), blocks that will make a nice quilt, and can surely be made from existing stash.

My guild, Hearthside Quilters, will be using this site for our BOM. Your guild is invited to use it too and hold the drawings at your meetings. See The Quilt BOM for details.

See some layout ideas below for this block. Click HERE to see more quilt patterns.

QUILTSHIP - a community for quilters! & GIVEAWAY

Quiltship is a new online community for quilters! Drop in and visit with quilters from all over the world. See quilt project photos, get ideas, join groups (scrap quilt lovers, charity quilters...), find out about quilting events (real cruises, quilt shows...), and buy or sell quilt patterns.

I joined 3 months ago and it's been so much fun making friends here. I've posted some quilt photos, some patterns to sell, asked some questions, joined some groups and had some good laughs.

Sign in with an email and password. It's free and they never misuse your email. This is a top-notch group of the nicest quilters out there.

Join the fun aboard this virtual ship! We're saving a seat for you!

GIVEAWAY!

After you sign in to Quiltship, come back and enter the GIVEAWAY! Your quick comment on this post is your entry. Three winners from anywhere in the world will be chosen at random on Friday June 30th. Each winner will receive a felted wool pincushion handmade by me! Each pincushion has a pretty metallic button and two pinsies. Yup, fancy!

Clever Binding Tip!

Here's a tip from Rita at Red Pepper Quilts showing how to finish attaching quilt binding. I think this is much better than the way I've been doing it. Maybe you'll like it too. She leaves a long tail of binding at the beginning and the end. Then she attaches them as shown in her photo above. See her tutorial here. Pretty smart, Rita!

What Does Your Coffee Say?

This is what my coffee says to me every morning, doesn't yours?

I hope you have a quilting-filled day!
***
Would you like your photo or message featured in a cup of coffee? Rizky will do it for $5 on fiverr.
He does it in just one day. 

Amelia's Christmas Quilt

 

This is the Honeycomb quilt that I gave to my niece Amelia. She and her Mom and brother stayed with us for a few days at Christmas. We had a great visit. Amelia and I are in the photo above holding her new quilt. Recognize it?

June Calender's New Quilt!

June Calender from Cape Cod, Massachusetts finished her "Whirligig"quilt and it's a beauty. She wrote about this quilt on her blog: Calender Pages.

 June enjoys taking a liberated approach to both fabric selection and piecing. Nice job!

If this fan block looks familiar, it's from my Ferris Wheel pattern. It's fun; take a look.

Fancy Four-Patch Tutorial

This is my 6th year coming up with the Block of the Month designs for my guild Empire Quilters in New York City. 

The current block for November is the Fancy Four-Patch, shown above. This is a quick and easy block. You start with four 6" squares: 2 reds and 2 whites. See the instructions here.

Fun With Striped Pine Burrs

Making pine burrs with striped fabric is fun. You can make a ring of horizontal stripe burrs, then flip the next row upside-down and use them as vertical stripes! They are all made exactly the same way.

The pine burr quilt is almost done. I'm quilting it now.

Treasury of Quilt Patterns

This looks like a quilt of quilts! I used Treasury Box to make this. It's free and very user friendly. A good tool if you make lots of Etsy treasuries. To see all the patterns, go here. 

Do You Pin? (I Don't Mean When You Sew!)

Do you pin on Pinterest? If so, would you please pin the collage above? Thanks. Here's the text to go with it:

Quilt Patterns: Fun to make, no stress. www.etsy.com/shop/KarenGriskaQuilts

If you haven't visited Pinterest, I suggest you give it a try. There are so many wonderful things to see there, and you can easily keep "bulletin boards" of all your favorite stuff. You can gather stuff from other sites too. You can see my boards here.  If you want some or all of your boards to be private, you can do that too.

Make a cup of coffee or tea before getting started! You can browse quilts, gardening, recipes, fashion, travel, diy ideas, interior decorating, anything you can think of! Have fun.

Very Orange Quilt

This quilt was made by Debbie Grifka of EschHouseQuilts. She calls it "Sedimentary" and you can read her post about making it here. Doesn't it remind you of The Stacks quilt? I love her bold color! And using strips of different widths is a cool idea too.

Nice job, Debbie! 

Which is Better?

#1 (above)

#2

I've been playing around with the title page for one of my quilt patterns this morning. 

Vote for your favorite in the sidebar at right, or leave a comment. Thanks!

To see the pattern, click here. 

How to Tie a Quilt, Ten Ways to Tie a Quilt, Quilt Pattern

You might be closer to having a pile of finished quilts than you think! I hope that's true for me because I have 50 UFO's! But not for long.Tied quilts finish fast, and they can be absolutely stunning. Take a look at my new pattern: "Quilt Knots, Ten Ways to Tie a Quilt." One is called "Monster Noodles." Haha!

"Double Woolies" Pattern #2 in "Quilt Knots"

Included are lots of handy tips that I discovered while doing these 10+ projects. I used lots of different materials and tools. I show some of the quilts before and after machine washing and drying. There is a detailed supply list. Even a handy pattern for those occasions when you need it done yesterday. 

Take a look.

Could someone please put this on Pinterest and FB for me? Thanks.  :)

See My New Book! Fat Quarters Giveaway Starts Today! (4 Winners)

My new book is out today! It features eleven fabulous versions of the Stairstep quilt.

 It's easy enough for new quilters, but it has design options that will tempt experienced quilters too.

I'm really excited about it!

The book is a pdf, so you get it immediately via email. Print it if you like. Take a look. Then come back and leave a comment. You'll be automatically entered in a random drawing for a package of 4 fat quarters by Kaffe Fasset. Four winners will be announced on Sunday Feb. 5.

If you "Favorite" it, tell your friends, or blog about it, etc., please enter 2 comments.