Welcome to My Blog

I love appliqué, but I have some problems with my hands that make it hard for me to do nice hand appliqué. So I work with a technique that helps me to use a special machine stitch to make quilts that are just as beautiful and durable as hand-appliquéd quilts.

During the past 10 years, I have had the fortune to work with quilt historian Barbara Brackman in designing quilt patterns that we published through the Sunflower Pattern Co-operative and the Kansas City Star (See column at left for more information.). What an opportunity! Barbara brings such a rich historical and artistic perspective to every project, and it has been fun to combine our quilt design ideas with the fabrics she designs for Moda. Most of our books and patterns give some tips about the machine techniques, and one — Quiltmaker's Guide to Fine Machine Appliqué — contains all my techniques and special tips.

So, I've had a decade of opportunities to indulge in my love of reproduction and folk art designs.  I hope to share some of those reproduction designs and inspirations in this blog, and to pass along some tips for the machine appliqué techniques that have worked so well for me.

Happy quilting!