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I am so excited to share with you my newest finish, Blooms!! This quilt features my first fabric line, Curated Blooms, so well!  Let's take a closer look..

When designing the quilt, I  had so much fun taking the blocks all the way to the edge. This layout is new for me, but wow, the impact is stunning. It is almost as if there is a secondary design going on with the sashing being used as "blocks" as well. 

 One thing I have had to learn to juggle is writing and planning my patterns to go along with my fabric designs well in advance of the fabric actually coming out.  Once the fabric comes out, then I make the quilts.  

 I found with this quilt in particular that I was a bit off on the fabric requirements.  That has been corrected on my pattern page, here.  But just so you know, the 67 x 67 inch quilt will definitely need at least 2 of my fat quarter bundles if you are going for a scrappy quilt and not doing the exact fabric placement as my own quilt. 

 What I love most about this quilt are the sashing blocks.  My word, the blocks just came together so great.  The piecing is not for the faint of heart, I can promise you that.  This is one of the most intense piecing quilts I have ever designed and pieced. However, the instructions are done well and you will be able to make this.  The pattern is recommended for intermediate to advanced quilters.

 I really wanted to showcase the fabric as well as the piecing in this quilt. For that reason I kept the quilting "simple." At least my kind of simple....  It was almost more challenging for me to keep it simple because I had to do the same thing over and over again. 

In the blocks I simply added straight lines with a little bit of free motion.  I really love how the blocks turned out.  It definitely shows the fabrics well, which is another bonus, especially with it being my own designs!  Woohoo! 

As you can see, I incorporated the sash blocks with the Blooms blocks. I drew out and quilted a line to mimic the shapes of both, shown in the picture as a 1/2" spaced line. 

 In the background space, I quilted a tight and loose bubble/shell/swirl filler. Every other block got the tight filler, as well as the loose one. 

Here's a close up of the tight filler. This takes a lot of time, but I love the effect it has.  I used cream 60wt thread for both the top and bobbin, including in the dark fabrics. I don't like changing my thread colors, lol! 

 The back!  Oh, isn't it so beautiful?  I love how it turned out. I used two layers of batting, which helps with thread tension as well as showcasing the detailed quilting. 

The pattern is available in paper and PDF format. I cannot wait to see your version of this beautiful quilt. 

 I had to take a picture of my helper, Micah, my oldest son.  He is such a joy to me, so grown up at 17, yet such a tease. He is so great to help me whenever I need to hang up my quilts and anything else I ask of him. He's my little buddy who is 6'3" - where did the time go?  He's leaving on a mission for our church in June - so I am definitely soaking in all the time I can with him.  

Happy Quilting y'all! 

 Pattern is available now in paper and PDF versions. 

I would like to introduce to you, Realm.  This quilt is epic!! It has been a project in the works for a very long time. The project itself has been finished for a while, but writing a book and self-publishing takes time. 

 This quilt took a while to piece, mostly because of all the on-point squares in the Realm blocks. It was fun though and I had a great time building these individual blocks. The ombre fabric by V and Co. was perfect for this quilt.  I love the look of the cool and warm colored blocks. 

 The quilt was stitched entirely with a 60wt cream thread and magna glide bobbins. I enjoy stitching with one color because I love to showcase the quilting.  This also creates an incredible canvas for the plain square blocks.  Most of these square block quilted designs are included in the book. 

This quilt is free-motion and ruler work quilted on my A1 longarm quilting machine.  No computers were involved in the making of this quilt, lol. 

 I believe the best part of quilting is enjoying the texture of the quilt.  When I quilt densely like this I use two layers of batting.  It doesn't matter what high quality cotton (cotton/poly) batting you use, as long as there are two layers, you will have these same results. 

Is the quilt heavier, yes, but it isn't that much heavier and I think the quilt is more stable when it has the two layers and the thread tension seems to work better for me with the two layers of batting.  

 I think the greatest part in quilting Realm is the star theme.  I love being able to add secondary designs to my quilting, especially when it pairs nicely with the piecing design of the quilt. The background fabric is my play area and I really love how the stars turned out in these blocks. All of these star designs are included in the book as well. 

 I  have a very special lady who helps me with the digital drawings of my books, and I  am so grateful for her.  Thank you Lynda! 

This time around I wanted to learn how to do the layout myself. My books: Creative Chaos and Serenity were laid out and designed by me in Adobe Illustrator, but then sent to Lynda to do the final layout in inDesign. This time around I bought the inDesign program and was determined to do the final layout.

I was so excited to learn inDesign, that I sent off the file to the printer and it came back with the print blocks in each fold of the book. Whoops! I only had them print off 4 books, the minimum, to make sure I didn't mess up - I clearly needed something else to learn.  

So, back to the drawing board.  This is why it has taken me a bit longer to get the book finished. I really have a very small team, mostly me, that write patterns and books. I have two gals who read over my patterns, but the writing and layout are me.  Thankfully the gal at the printer gave me a call and walked me through inDesign and the settings that I had wrong and we fixed the issues with the layout of the book. I  understand one more thing and my skillset for another Adobe program is getting better.  The book is at the printer and will arrive to me by the end of this week. I  thank you for your patience with me, especially all of you who have pre-ordered the book. 

 I took the quilt out yesterday to get some shots in the sun with the book. I  really love this quilt so much.  The book is so beautiful as well.  The digital drawings as well as the photos will really help you make your own version of Realm. 

 This border! It was so fun to quilt up. I  love how the sun captures the dimension of the quilting. I used my QuickMarkRuler, QuickMarkCurve, and my A1 ruler to draw out and stitch the designs. I use a purple air soluble marker for the markings, it easily comes out with water, or in high humidity, it disappears quickly.  I live in the desert, so the air soluble marker is perfect for me.

The time and effort it takes to make a quilt like this is very rewarding. I'm hoping that you will enjoy the process as much as I did. The book is available now in paper as well as PDF versions for those of you who are out of the US and don't want to pay shipping.  

Happy Quilting! 

Honestly, it feels surreal thinking about our journey as a family. 16 years ago we had a little bundle of big baby boy, he is our 3rd child, wrapped up and ready to move far away from any family or friends. He was only 3 days old when we moved, now he is a strong and handsome teenager.

We sold our home and Clint quit his job, we had the sell of our home and the equity we earned to get us going on Green Fairy Quilts. We were going to make it work, no matter what.  We worked hard, but always had God with us. To Him we give credit for the impeccable timing of it all. 

 The kids were too young to know if this adventure would turn out badly and now, this is the only life they've known. I recently read a journal entry from before we made this big move and it said that I dream of a day that I can work and be with my family all of the time.  That dream has definitely come true. We work, learn, and play together each day. The fact that these kids are getting closer to leaving the nest is breaking my momma heart, but I am so grateful for the people they are.  

So many things have happened in 16 years, too many things to count, but more blessings than I can even imagine. Clint and I have figured out a system that works for us. Clint is an incredible entrepreneur and natural at owning a business.  I feel so blessed that we have been able to work together all of these years.  

I am also so grateful for the times I get to be creative. I crave it. Recently I picked up my Tillie pattern again, it is time for another quilt.  This time I will be changing the size of the blocks to make a fun, 4 block quilt. It is off to a great start.  

You can see that this block is quite large, but it's going to be so fun to quilt! I  cannot wait to share my progress. 

I  have also added a new goal this year of running a half marathon.  I know I could never commit to a full marathon, but a half will be great.  Jonah, the young man pictured above is also training with me.  St. George, Utah is an incredibly beautiful place and it's been home for us for these past 16 years.  What an incredible journey we have had.  Here's to many more years. I am looking forward to the future. 

It has been a long time since I have made an effort to keep up my blog.  There are so many reasons why it's easier to just leave it alone, but I do miss writing about my projects.  I will have my blog posts on my website from here on out. The posts used to be on a blogger account, but trying to get these posts to connect between the two sites seems impossible for me right now.  In the end, this will be easier for me.  

The instant gratification of Instagram and Facebook have made my posts seem so impersonal to me, so for those of you who are looking for more info on my quilts, then this is the place to be.  I  will go back over the quilts I have missed writing about and share the info on the projects on this blog.  I hope you will enjoy the posts as much as I will enjoy writing them. 

First off is Serenity. This quilt is epic and has a lovely story to go along with it. 

In October 2018 I was teaching to a quilting group in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This group of ladies were so fun and engaging. This trip was my 4th and final time teaching in Canada when I was traveling to teach quilting.  While I was there I mentioned how much I love quilting needle turn appliqué quilts. I don't love doing appliqué myself, but I love quilting them. 

Sometime during the workshop a lady by the name of Tammy gifted me her needle turn appliqué quilt. I couldn't believe it, but quilters really are the sweetest people. She genuinely wanted me to have this quilt and wanted me to be able to "play" with the quilting. I certainly did just that! 

I  have since learned the quilt top is a from the pattern, Calendar Basket by Brandywine Design. Tammy did not do the extra bit of appliqué in the border, but left those empty which made for a perfect empty space for a secondary quilting design.

As you can see, I took advantage of the empty space and filled the border with an incredible geometric quilting design.  I cannot tell you how much fun and time consuming it was to come up with this quilting design, all of which is explained in my book, Serenity. 

The large negative space quilt blocks that were in between each of the basket blocks made an area for a beautiful quilting design as well.  I  based my design on my "Clover block" from a quilt named "Serenity" I  made back in 2010 or so.  That specific design has been turned into a digitized design, but I did not do any computerized work on this quilt. 

I used two layers of quilt batting to make the quilting designs stand out. I also used a 60wt glide thread to quilt the entire top.  I really like the 60wt thread because it is the perfect weight to do dense and detailed quilting without looking too heavy. 

The quilt top took me over 100 hours of quilting to complete and once I was finished with it, I realized I needed to make a book with the quilting instructions. So, I  took the clover design block, and turned that into an appliqué block.  The quilt then became Serenity and the options to make several sizes are available in my book. 

Serenity (wall hanging) is just the right sized quilt for those of you looking to amp up your quilting skills without taking on a huge quilting job.  I know several of you have already made this quilt, since I released this book in 2023. In addition to the large border quilting designs, I included the fun curved border design and curved quilting designs in the blocks for the smaller quilt. 

I used my QuickMarkRuler, my QuickMarkCurvedRuler, and my A1 longarm straight ruler to get all the lines just right in this quilt. I used a purple water/air soluble marker to mark all the lines, but any marker that works for you will do the trick.

This project was a labor of love for me.  I enjoyed the designing, quilting, and finally writing of the book.  It is a very detailed and colorful pattern that will help you bring your free motion quilting to the next level.  I  hope you enjoy making the quilt as much as I did. 

Isn't it amazing what a gift can do?  Thank you Tammy for helping me push my own quilting to the next level by gifting me an incredible quilt.