Block a Day roundup – Week 8

We continued our productive trend this week, by completing 82 blocks, 1 top and two quilts for the Block A Day Challenge. Keep of the good work ladies. You’ve got five more days to post photos of your blocks, tops and quilts completed in February to the Block A Day Flickr group to win this […]

The monkey baby quilt is taking shape

A couple weeks ago I teased you all with a post about a baby quilt I’m working on that features a giant monkey hanging from a tree branch. Well today comes the reveal of the top. The top isn’t completely done because while the applique is fused in place, I still need to finish stitching around […]

‘Sonoma Rose ‘ is in stores today

The 19th Elm Creek Quilts novel, “Sonoma Rose,” by Jennifer Chiaverini is in stores today. I spoke with the author last week about the novel and her plans for the future of Elm Creek Quilts. Here’s links to the posts just in case you missed them: Read Jennifer Chiaverini’s answers to your questions. Read about […]

Block a day roundup – Week 7

We set a new record for blocks completed in one week on the Block A Day Challenge. This week 19 members complete 121 blocks! Way to go. We also had one completed quilt, and it appropriately had a Valentine’s Day theme. Give yourself a pat on the back and take a look at a sampling […]

‘Sonoma Rose’ packed with suspense

The air is thick with tension as Rosa’s abusive husband John leaves the house, mistrusting of who his wife might entertain in his absence. The guest that does arrives is not Rosa’s childhood sweetheart and former lover, Lars Jorgensen, but his family’s hired hand Elizabeth Nelson, Sylvia’s cousin, who was the main character of “The […]

‘Sonoma Rose’ characters haunted Chiaverini

Rosa Diaz Barclay and Lars Jorgensen haunted Jennifer Chiaverini since she wrote “The Quilter’s Homecoming” five years ago. The couple had been presumed dead until it was revealed they had fled the Arboles Valley, taken on aliases and were running a successful vineyard in California. No longer in need of the farm Rosa abandoned, she […]

Jennifer Chiaverini answers your questions

Jennifer Chiaverini’s 19th Elm Creek Quilts novel, “Sonoma Rose” will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 21. I got a chance to talk with her in a phone interview from her Madison, Wis., home yesterday and read an advance copy of the book. That means today is Elm Creek Quilts Day on Quilt Addicts Anonymous, because […]

Naming a sewing machine is no easy matter

I think my sewing machine needs a name. I’ve come to this conclusion because I recently read a blog post by a friend who confessed that she calls her sewing machine Pirate Wench, and I’ve been reading George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire,” in which all great swords have names. But […]

Valentine’s Day placemat tutorial

For Valentine’s Day, I figured I’d resurrect a placemat tutorial that is an oldie but a goodie. My aunt, also a quilter, got me fabric to make these placemats when I first started quilting. If you look closely at the photo, you’ll see that my binding is applied wrong because I didn’t know the correct […]