For today’s Focus Friday, I am showing you “The Northern Lily and the Southern Rose”. This bed size quilt was inspired by a talk by quilt historian Barbara Brackman, and pictured in one of her books. She talked about how the Northern women made utilitarian quilts for the Civil War soldiers which were long and narrow, small enough to carry but large enough to lie on or under. In an effort to keep Kansas a free state, ads were placed in northern newspapers to recruit settlers sympathetic to that cause to come west and settle Kansas. The quote in the border, included in the pattern, by Lucy Larcom from 1855 was from one of those ads. “Sister true, join us too, where the Kansas flows. Let the Northern Lily bloom, with the Southern Rose”.
This design is not meant to be an authentic reproduction of those quilts, but rather, a tribute to the women of old, who, in ways both quiet and bold, endured and participated in times of war. The central portion is reminiscent of the soldier’s quilts made by the women and the border holds appliqued roses and pieced lilies as well as the verse by Lucy.

“The Northern Lily and the Southern Rose”    80 x 94″
INNOVATIONS Pattern # 97309 $8.00.
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

The cover sample quilt is machine pieced, hand appliqued and hand quilted. It is for sale at $4,000.00. Email if interested.

Today for Focus Friday I will feature “Star Flowers”.  This is a variation on the old traditional Seven Sisters design. I found the old yellowed newspaper clipping in a box at Houston Quilt Festival and it came with the warning ” Experienced Quilters Only!” which only challenged me to make it easy enough for anyone, which I did!  I devised a way to piece it so that those points just happen. To finish it off, I designed the applique to mimic the shape if the stars and to me they resemble Clematis, one of my favorites. There is a LOT of applique, but the shapes are easy and can be done by hand or machine to compliment this popular bed quilt.

INNOVATIONS  94804  “Star Flowers”  86 X 106″   $9.00
click on PATTERNS in the side bar to order.

Pattern Sample Quilt for sale $2500.00 email for details

Focus Friday this week features “Little Houses On A Hillside�, a fun and easy wall hanging or kid’s quilt in a generous 48 x 60� size. Using an original 12� block, it goes together quickly to please the young or the young at heart. It is a true scrap quilt, so please use different fabrics for each of the twelve blocks!

The pattern contains twelve 2� finished size half square triangle papers, enough to make the 24 finished units needed to complete the quilt.

“Little Houses On A Hillsideâ€� – INNOVATIONS #04842 –
48 x 60� Pattern: $9.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

The cover sample wall hanging is for sale at $ 500.00. Email for details.

The groundhog says spring is coming and I am dreaming of my garden coming to life – will the Fairies still be there?

For today’s Focus Friday, let’s look at “Fairies In My Garden�, an enchanted gathering of fairies in the flowers. This 22 x 29� wall hanging is a combination of piecing and applique in my signature easy to do shapes. Don’t be afraid of the faces, they are in the pattern and easily traced with Pigma pens.

“Fairies In My Gardenâ€� – INNOVATIONS #01126 – approx 22 x 29â€�
Pattern: $9.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

The cover sample wall hanging is for sale at $250.00. Email for details.

This pattern has inspired two art pieces done in my pieced pictorial style. “Don’t Piss Off The Fairies�, 12 x 12� (sold)

and “Foxglove Fairies�, 42 x 41�, $3000.00.

These are one of a kind art quilts and are not in the pattern, but I will share them here for your viewing pleasure!

This might be a good time to focus on something really simple and easy, something you can even get the kids involved in on a snowy day, because this is a perfect beginner’s project! Just triangles, half square triangles, squares and rectangles, Fun Fish is quick and easy with three different fish swimming in 8� blocks.

So find fish fabric – fun, fabulous or funky – add water and make FUN FISH!

“FUN FISHâ€� – INNOVATIONS # 95106 – approx 42 x 49â€� Pattern: $8.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

The cover sample wall hanging is for sale at $300.00. Email for details.

I’ve been getting more orders lately for “Starburst” so I thought I would feature it today for Focus Friday.  I made the original version called Starmageddon” to be a contest quilt and it won some national awards including a second place at AQS, Paducah.  It was all hand quilted. It is a combination of two different star blocks in a unique setting to make it look like an explosion of stars.  I decided to include it in the pattern line, but I made a few changes to make it even easier. Of course the pattern tells you where to place the different colors to blur the lines between the easy blocks to make it look harder than it really is.

Starburst – INNOVATIONS # 01929  Approx. 72 x 84″   Pattern $9.00

Sample quilt, machine quilted in a stars pattern, $2000.00

If you are dreaming of summer or just need a project to brighten up your winter days, check out Poppy!

Have you always wondered how these picture quilts go together? Here is a fun project to learn the basics so you might even decide to go on and design something of you own! This one is all straight seam sewing, that goes together quickly in easy sections.

INNOVATIONS # 08754 Poppy! 24 x 24″ wall hanging pattern $9.00

Cover quilt for sale – $300.00

Workshop sample quilt for sale – $300.00

It’s January so the seed catalogs are piling up and I am starting to think about spring and new gardens. It’s a weird winter with the Forsythia already blooming confusedly in the rain! We know it is much too early to be planting outside, but not a moment too soon to dream of a flower garden quilt to while away the hours until Spring really arrives!

This is an original 12″ block design that I gave to 20 friends, along with a piece of the colorful batik and the instructions to combine it with coordinating colors from their own stashes and some yellow for each block, for a scrap quilt. When I got all 20 blocks back, I arranged them and added some flower blocks to make a Garden Path. A border of the starting batik gives a nice finish! In case you would prefer a one fabric background, that yardage is also included.

Garden Path – INNOVATIONS #06848 62 x 74″ $9.00

The machine quilted Cover Sample quilt is for sale, $1500.00. Email for details.

I’m not doing so well, am I?  With classes ended for this semester you’d think I’d have more time, but it’s not happening. It seems like there are so many things vying for the available minutes; meetings and appointments, shopping, wrapping, decorating, entertaining, plus all of those daily tasks that are never really done. Same for you, I’m sure!

I grab minutes when I can to try and finish the heron quilt. It’s deadline is in January and I have the next project bouncing around in my head. I laid it out after yesterday’s session to examine it from the back and found a few spots needing more quilting, plus the majority of the sky left to do, but the end is within sight finally!

I thought Focus Friday might help me focus more on this blog, and it has to some extent but I don’t want it to dominate and turn my blog into a sales venue, as it has been doing. I will try to do better. I did meet last week’s deadline on Facebook, but it didn’t make it over here to blog land. This week’s Focus Friday quilt is “Strip Trip”. I love this quilt. Not only is it pretty, it is so easy. There are only six different fabrics and they are cut into large units of color that get sewn together into a large block and then sliced into strips to be re-arranged and sewn together for the top. A great way to use the bright large contemporary prints, or even in solids for a more “modernâ€� look.

Strip Trip – INNOVATIONS #06447 approximately 56 X 71â€� Pattern: $9.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

The Cover Sample quilt is for sale, machine quilted, $1500.00. Email me for details.

It’s December already, so time to start thinking about Christmas! It’s too late to make it for this year, but the Circling Pines pattern would make a great Christmas gift for your favorite quilter, or get a jump on next year and get started on one for yourself!

Circling Pines – approximately 87 X 87â€� Pattern: $9.00
Click on Patterns in the side bar to order.

Cover Sample quilt is for sale, machine quilted, $2250.00 . Email me for details.