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As a soon-to-be parent, you are served a plethora of advice and opinions. I won’t go into everything I saw (but please message me if you want to talk diaper company conspiracy theories!) but one thing did inspire a baby-related project - black and white books.

Newborns can’t see color so “high contrast” books are quite the rage. I added some to our registry but I also thought, hmm I could make one! And so I did! And it turned out to be the cutest thing ever.

At first I thought that I would just make some black and white patchwork blocks, which would be visually interesting, but wouldn’t actually teach the baby anything -per social media, babies must be learning at all times. So that’s how I got the idea to appliqué black shapes onto a white background. Fun to look at and will hopefully give babe a leg up during kindergarten admissions…

Never having made a fabric book before, I did some preliminary research and found this baby book tutorial. I used the recommended page measurements to cut my background fabric and used the construction instructions as a rough guide for final assembly. But to make the pages, I just let my imagination and intuition take the lead.

I started by cutting out eight basic shapes.

Then I appliquéd the shapes onto white fabric leftover from another baby quilt project.

Then I added a layer of batting to each page and hand quilted the pages using an “echo” stitch pattern similar to Hawaiian quilting.

After laying out the pages, I connected them with a strip of fabric, then sewed two units right sides together. I left an opening to flip them right sides out.

After the pages were assembled, I measured how thick they were, and used that as a guide to cut the spine fabric for the cover pages. Once the cover pages were assembled, I sewed the pages onto the spine.

It didn’t look very tidy, so I hand stitched a piece of matching fabric over the spine.

I love the finished project and so does my daughter! When she was first born she loved to look at the shapes and now that she is more active she enjoys turning the pages and chewing on them. As the book is constructed entirely out of cotton materials, it can be tossed in the wash anytime!

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✨ NYC-Inspiration

We recently made a trip to Governor’s Island in NYC. It used to be a military base and now the whole island is basically a park. We enjoyed walking under giant oak trees, looking at old buildings, and of course, the view of Manhattan from the waterfront.

🧶 What am I making now?

Well, time flies even more when you have a kid, right??? I’ve actually made several small things over the last few months and of course I still have some WIPs…

My next fabric book is in process and features some fussy cut characters!

I made some baby shoes!!! They are reversible and oh sew cute!!! I used this tutorial and traced out the pattern with the help of my projector.

I finished a mini Hawaiian quilt block that I had started in pregnancy…I think it will be destined for my quilt guild’s orphan block quilt.

My quilt guild also hosts a monthly Block Lotto drawing and these were my submissions for the April meeting. I missed the winning ticket by 1 number!!!

And so Olive wouldn’t feel left out, I made her a mat for her water dispenser with a sample block I made last year.

My daughter’s quilt is still not finished but I’m hoping to finish it in the next few weeks(months??? lol)!

Have you ever tried making a book? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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This past summer, one of my favorite places in NYC, The Morgan Library, presented an amazing exhibition for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday (December 16, 1775) featuring many manuscripts and letters from their extensive archive. I had the pleasure of attending and hearing a bit of a gallery talk from the curator, which was packed!

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The exhibition started with a replica of Jane’s unique writing table, which was a seven-sided table. I definitely felt like a kindred spirit with my tiny sewing studio.

Besides showcasing first editions and letters to her family, the exhibition also featured information about Regency-era clothing.

The highlight was this replica of one of Jane’s gowns, which was completely handsewn!

She was definitely a petite woman, with elegant taste.

The library also had one of her rings on loan from the UK. This ring has quite a backstory. Kelly Clarkson tried to buy it at auction and bring it to the US but public outcry led her to donating it to a museum in the UK, where it lives full-time.

The end of the exhibition also discussed Jane’s reception in the US and contemporary art influenced by her, including this stunning Amy Sherald portrait.

I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen any year, but it’s been especially fun to see all the special tributes to her in 2025. Here on Substack I’ve enjoyed this series inspired by one of her quilts from Beth at Sewing with Numbers and this list of reading suggestions from Elizabeth at What To Read If.

A fun thing about being a Jane Austen fan is that there are so many riffs on her work, so you never really finish reading the stories, they just get remade over and over. As far as modern adaptations go, Clueless is one of my favorite movies of all time. While I’m not thrilled with Gen Z’s embrace of most 90s fashions (wide leg jeans, noooo), I feel like the outfits in Clueless are ones I’m happy to see replicated! My favorite book adaptation is Sonali Dev’s modern retelling of several Austen novels featuring an Indian-American family. I started with The Emma Project and then read the rest of them in quick succession!

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✨NYC-Inspiration

For 2026, I want to notice more pattern and texture from my surroundings, so I thought I’d start this new section highlighting my finds. This week’s inspiration comes from the Islamic Art wing of the Met Museum - gorgeous rugs!

🧶 What am I making now?

Recently, I finished a WIP that had been languishing in my drawer for the past year - the Tasi robe by Sew DIY - also by Beth from Sewing with Numbers! I was drawn to this pattern because you draft the pieces based on your own measurements and don’t need to print anything! As someone who loathes taping PDF patterns and doesn’t even have a printer, this was a huge selling point! Plus, pattern drafting is something I’m trying to learn more about.

For fabric, I used a block print from India that I’ve been saving for a robe or something similar. I love how elegant the print is! And the fabric is super soft. I finished the cuffs and the front band with the “quick” finish method described in the instructions instead of the handsewn finish because, let’s face it, I don’t have a lot of extra time these days!

What is your favorite Jane Austen book or adaptation? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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Have a great week!

As we get settled into our new rhythm, I’m starting to sew and knit again and think about new topics for this newsletter. I’m excited to see what 2026 has up its sleeve for Meander Textiles! I’m predicting a lot of adorable baby makes 😍

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🧶 What am I making now?

Finally, a baby quilt for my baby! I started it last year and didn’t get to finish it before she arrived, but I’m getting back to it now. “One seam at a time” is my new mantra! Just a few more blocks to piece before I can sew the whole top!

I’ve also discovered that babies are not very adept at wearing hats properly. Somehow she manages to get the thing to cover her whole face while we’re out and about! That obviously won’t do, so I decided I needed to knit her a hat with ear flaps and some ties.

My friend introduced me to the Beloved Bonnet pattern by Tin Can Knits and I whipped one up quickly. It is sooo cute on her but I don’t want her face on the internet so you just get to see the finished bonnet. I held two strands of alpaca yarn together - the white is from a fiber CSA I joined years ago based in Wisconsin. Unfortunately I can’t remember the farm’s name… The peachy strand was a gift from my sister in law from Peru. The design was really fun and simple to make, and the finished product feels very polished with the I-cord edging. Definitely recommend!

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What are you looking forward to in 2026? Leave a comment or reply to this email to let us know!

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Have a great week!

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Having lived in apartments my entire adult life, I’ve never had a dedicated sewing room, but I always manage to set up a “studio” - either a corner in the living room or bedroom. In my New York apartment, space is at a premium, but it was still important to me to have some sort of dedicated sewing space, so I had to get a little creative.

Some sort of home office was a must, as I work from home a lot. Before moving, I researched MANY desks and peg board systems and ultimately settled on a desk from Ikea that featured a long top, with the base consisting on two versions of the Alex drawers - one a 5-drawer cabinet and one just a plain cabinet with a shelf inside.

I calculated that my sewing machine would fit perfectly in the cabinet, and I planned to store all my fabric, tools, and notions in the drawers. I opted to keep the drawers on the right side so I could easily grab supplies with my right hand. My work monitors and computer live on top of the desk and there’s enough room so I don’t have to move them when I do want to sew. I keep a piece of fabric over them so I’m not reminded of work on my off-time!

I simply pull out my sewing machine (stored in a travel bag in the cabinet) and plug it in. I feel a bit like a pit crew doing my setup, but I think I got it down to like 2 minutes, so it’s really not that bad!

The top drawer is actually used for work-related things, so I only use four of the drawers for sewing/crafting. The second drawer contains the majority of my tools - scissors, rotary cutter, sewing machine feet, etc. The third drawer consists of some larger tools, my paper pattern collection, and WIPs. The fourth and fifth drawers are only fabric. The fourth is all scraps and smaller pieces, while the fifth and last drawer holds my larger pieces of yardage.

Overall, this system works amazingly well, but my fabric storage space is quite limited, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I only acquire more fabric if I need something for a specific project and frequently assess scraps and give away as needed. I also don’t have a lot of free space to hold larger WIPs, so I feel like I complete projects more quickly. And I have vowed not to make a king size quilt again until I have a larger, dedicated sewing space (we’ll see how long that vow holds up), so I haven’t had to deal with larger WIPs taking up space. I’m in my small project era!

My ironing board lives in the space between the fridge and the kitchen wall, my travel-sized iron lives in my third drawer, and I set up the ironing station in the living room on an as-needed basis. I place my cutting mat - currently way too small - on the breakfast bar that divides the kitchen and living room. I gave away my big cutting mat before moving and currently work with a 12 by 16 inch mat. Honestly, it is really annoying to use and I am ready to upgrade the size soon. 18 x 24 inches would probably be best as that could still fit on my cutting surface and fit in my sewing machine cabinet. I’m also thinking of adding a small wool pressing mat for smaller ironing tasks so I don’t have to set up the big board in a separate room.

I’m currently not doing much knitting/spinning, so all that stuff is stored away in under the bed storage containers and my spinning wheel is packed away in its travel bag and lives in my closet until I get the knitting itch back!

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🧶 What am I making now?

My newest baby quilt is underway! I’m reusing the bullseye motif from my India quilt, but keeping it smaller. The quilt will be made up of twelve blocks, which I’m in the process of piecing. Cutting fabric was slow going with the aforementioned tiny cutting mat, but like Tim Gunn says, I made it work!

What is your crafting studio like? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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This project started last year when I took an in-person class with the Poakalani quilters. I have a detailed write up of that experience here!

Once home, I slowly stitched away at it over the following months. Before we moved to New York last fall, I created the quilt sandwich. I used one of the oldest pieces of fabric in my collection for the backing, some sort of indigo-dyed wrap I bought at a Goodwill in St Louis manyyyyy years ago, before I even knew how to sew.

Trying to quilt it in the traditional Hawaiian way was just not working for me, even with my thimble, so I switched to my version of a running stitch and aimed for a lively, organic look. I used matching thread for each part I quilted, although I considered using blue thread to quilt the cream background. In the end, I kept it the same shade and I do love how that looks!

I wanted to try a new-to-me binding technique, so I cut the backing larger with the plan to fold it over and create a binding from the back. I thought with a smaller quilt, it could be easier… well, I was wrong.

Trimming the excess batting proved difficult and I ended up snipping through the backing, ugh! Lesson learned, I took my time cutting the rest of the excess batting and trimmed the backing to be 1 inch all the way around. If I use this method in the future, I think I will cut the backing to the size I need and not mess with trimming after the fact. Folding and creating tidy looking corners also did not work out as well as I envisioned but after several foldings, refoldings, pressings, and clippings, I got the edges to look… decent. Then stitched it down with a visible running stitch instead of my usual invisible stitch.

The plan for this quilt is to hang on a to-be-determined wall, so in preparation for that, I added two loops to the top corners using some blue ric-rac I had in my stash. It is currently mounted on our living room A/C unit with magnetic clips until it finds its final home.

While this project did take a fair amount of time, I completely fell in love with the Hawaiian quilting style. The motifs are beautiful and I love that the whole piece is constructed completely by hand. It is definitely nice to be able to pull out a project and work a few stitches, without having to pull out my whole sewing machine set up. It’s very relaxing and much better than swiping through my phone to keep my hands busy. I’m already planning my next Hawaiian-style project…

🌺 Hawaiian Quilting History and Resources 🌺

The first Hawaiian quilts were actually created from pounding tree bark into a blanket and then block printing a design onto it. After missionaries came to the islands in the 1820s-30s bringing fabric, needles, and thread, Hawaiian women began creating fabric quilts. Apparently they were baffled at cutting up pieces of fabric only to sew them back together, so they developed the technique of using larger fabric pieces, with one piece folded and cut using the “snowflake” technique to create a design. Solid colored fabrics were typically used, especially red and white, as those were the most commonly available. Hawaiian women also reportedly preferred the more organic look of echo quilting their designs instead of the geometric quilting patterns more prevalent on patchwork quilts. This approach also complimented the natural designs appliqued to the quilts, which were traditionally plants and flowers important to the maker.

This background provides a unique insight into the four characteristics that define a traditional Hawaiian quilt, as explained by author/quilter Elizabeth Root:

1. Whole cloth- The appliqué design is cut from a whole piece of cloth and the backing is a second, separate whole piece.

2. Cutting method - The snowflake method of folding a piece of fabric into eighths and then cutting out the design all at once to create a fully symmetrical appliqué piece.

3. Two colors - The appliqué is usually a bright solid color and the background is often a lighter neutral.

4. Echo quilting - The whole piece is quilted in the echo style, meaning the quilting lines flow out from and “echo” the appliqué design. Quilt lines are not marked ahead of time, but typically measured out using the width the quilter’s finger.

If you want to create a Hawaiian quilt, but aren’t able to travel to Hawaii to learn in person, there are plenty of great resources to learn from home.

Classes

• Pokalani has a few videos on YouTube to walk you through the process as well as in-person classes most Saturdays in Honolulu.

• Poakalani member Pat is teaching an upcoming workshop through Tatter on October 10th! I’m hoping to tune in if my schedule permits :)

• Pacific Rim Quilts has some video courses available for purchase.

Books

• Poakalani has a few volumes of books that contain the patterns designed by founder John Serrao.

• Common Threads Press recently published a book in conjunction with Poakalani’s exhibition at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England.

• I learned a lot about the history of Hawaiian quilting from the books of Elizabeth Root.

🧶 What am I making now?

The other week I realized I was down to one usable scrunchie, so I decided to make a batch. I intended to make 2-3 but then figured, why not use some leftover fabric to make matching scrunchies for my New York family!?! I’m sort of in a scrap busting mode right now because my fabric drawers are currently overflowing! I desperately need to make some room so I felt like this was a good start. I also used up a bunch of elastic I had in my stash as well.

Have you ever made a Hawaiian-style quilt? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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The design process for this one was so fun, but then again, aren’t they all? Step one was brainstorming in a coffee shop downtown on a chilly December day. I started with a google search of quilt blocks and cousins. Not much came up so I tried a different approach - Laura Ingalls Wilder. We both loved the books as kids, so I wondered if Laura made any quilts. Spoiler alert, she did!

I found this great blog post about the quilt blocks specifically mentioned in the Little House series. While I love a nine-patch, that didn’t feel “special” enough. The next block mentioned, Bear Paw, intrigued me. A little more complex with some half square triangles, it also didn’t seem too hard. Plus I loved the image of a bear paw, and thought of my cousin as becoming a mama bear.

I found instructions for a block online and started sketching and planning, then whipped up a sample block to judge the time it would take - I had until April for baby to arrive.

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Final verdict - the block was pretty straightforward to construct and I loved it! Next up - pick fabric. This was fairly simple, my cousin LOVES pink, plus she was expecting a girl. I headed to my local quilt shop and found some colors that I thought reflected her style.

On to cutting the fabric. I made a bit of a mistake cutting the teal fabric, didn’t think I had enough (I actually did) and panic ordered another fat quarter before I realized I hadn’t actually made a mistake. In the end, it all worked out and I used the extra fabric to add a sash, which I think added a lot to the finished quilt. Happy accident!

After cutting, I pieced the blocks in batches and assembled the quilt top. For my backing fabric I chose a gorgeous Indian block print that coordinated perfectly and chose a darker teal for the binding.

Assembling the quilt sandwich was pretty easy, but I could not get the stitch tension on my machine to look nice! After multiple tests and YouTube videos I found a decent balance between top and bobbin thread, but this was definitely the most challenging aspect of the quilt!

I quilted straight lines mostly in the ditch with my walking foot and hand sewed the binding.

I actually wasn’t done with the quilt by the time I left to visit my cousin and her new baby, so I finished it up at the airport during a long layover. Airport sewing is actually pretty fun! And I’m very proud of myself for remembering to add a tag!

Buuuuut…. I didn’t take a final finished object photo! Next quilt I’ll get some glamour shots for sure, but here’s the quilt without the binding…

Piecing all the blocks together definitely resulted in some contrasting shapes I wasn’t expecting, but I love the overall look. Both recipients also seem very happy with it, which is ultimately what matters the most. I absolutely love designing custom quilts for the important people in my life, and my next baby quilt will be the most important yet! Stay tuned…

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🧶 What am I making now?

I finally finished my Hawaiian quilt wall hanging! I’m planning to write a longer newsletter with all the details and include plenty of resources for Hawaiian quilting in general. But for now, I’m so happy it’s complete!

Do you label your finished objects? Are you currently working on any gifts? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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I clicked on it, scrolled down and there was another recommended children’s book about indigo. I clicked again. Before I knew it, I had a dozen textile-focused children’s books saved to my library account.

At the end of the day, I had requested six children’s books with some relation to textiles. Let’s take a look at the books I discovered!

My Indigo World by Rosa Chang: A Korean-American author gives the history of indigo along with her current work using the plant dye.

Blue by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter: Gorgeously illustrated history of indigo around the world that doesn’t shy away from some of the more sinister history of indigo cultivation.

Before Colors by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Madison Safer: Such a fun and informative book about pigments used throughout history. I learned a lot from this book, and I have spent a fair amount of time learning about natural dyes and pigments!

The All-Together Quilt by Lizzy Rockwell. More appropriate for younger readers, tells the story of a multi-generational quilting group.

Louise Bourgeois by Amy Guglielmo, illustrated by Katy Knapp. Engaging biography of the artist for older children, really nice illustrations.

A Line Can Go Anywhere by Caroline McAlister, illustrated by Jamie Green. Another great biography, I especially loved all the quotes from the artist. I saw a Ruth Asawa retrospective several years ago so it was very insightful to learn more about her childhood and creative process.

Overall, I was impressed with how all the authors shared such in-depth information in a fun and age-appropriate way. Even though I’m well out of the target age range, I found all the books highly engaging. Definitely check them all out or add them to your own library!

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🧶 What am I making now?

I’m back to work on another quilt! I don’t have all the colors cut yet, but I’m really excited to piece this one!

What are your favorite children’s books? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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It was a great afternoon of quilty goodness. The Brooklyn guild allows any member to submit up to two quilts, and there are no prizes or jury, so it felt like a truly representative show of the diverse members. Dr. Myrah Brown Green gave the keynote talk, which inspired me to go home and keep on making. Here are a few of my favorite quilts from the show!

I couldn’t leave the show without treating myself to a beautiful bit of fabric from my favorite shop in NYC - Loom and Stars. I already know what my next quilt will be, and this fabric will be a part of it!

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🧶 What am I making now?

I’m still working on one surprise quilt, but I have another make to finally show you :)

My niece recently had her birthday and I made this super cute dress for her!

I used the Petal Wrap Dress pattern from Twig and Tale, blue cotton/linen from my stash, and the woodland animal fabric I picked just for her and purchased from Loom and Stars. The pocket is decorated with trim I repurposed from my mother-in-law and the buttons came from my stash, which are mostly from my grandma. The super cool part of the dress? It’s reversible!

I had so much fun making this cute dress, especially because I was able to put so many meaningful touches into it. The longer I make things with my hands, the more I realize that every thoughtful touch makes the object infinitely more special. It’s a virtuous circle that makes me want to create ever more meaningful items.

Has the work of other textile makers inspired you lately? Let me know in the comments or reply to this email!

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Are we liking the new every other week publishing schedule? 2x/ month definitely feels more manageable with my life at the moment!

Speaking of life, will it ever slow down?? I feel like each year just goes faster and faster and at times I feel like I’m grasping to keep up. I’m finding that having some specific projects with deadlines is a good way for me to stay more rooted in the present moment. Currently I’m working on two gifts for two special little girls. I’ve really savored every step of the making process, from design ideation, to fabric selection, to execution, which in turn has helped to slow time, at least when I’m in the flow of making.

One of the projects requires buttons, so I turned to my favorite button tutorial for a review. Perhaps you’ll find it helpful?

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In the past few weeks, we also commemorated the 114th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25th. I saw some digital signage around the city about the anniversary, but I haven’t made it to the site yet, which now has a permanent memorial. The fire caused 146 deaths, mostly of young women, and resulted in significant workplace protections. Sadly, this tragedy was replicated many folds over in the Rana Plaza collapse, the anniversary of which is coming up later this month.

I also had a chance to finally visit the main campus of the Met Museum recently. I only managed to see a fraction of the museum, but what I did see was very inspiring. Luckily the museum offers pay-what-you-want pricing for NY residents, so I’ll be making frequent trips this summer! The current exhibit in the textiles gallery showcased silk printed fabric produced in the US by a Swiss company, partly driven by tariffs. Timely stuff! Clearly history loves to repeat itself.

After I bought my Met tickets, they sent me a newsletter with a really interesting video from their archives - a woman in India creating a soft sculpture from scraps. The five minute video is a fascinating glimpse into another time and culture, an inspiration to work with your hands, and also a bit of ASMR?

Lastly, I wanted to share a book recommendation with you! I recently finished the recent historical novel Isola by Allegra Goodman, which is about a French orphan marooned on an uninhabited island in present day Canada by her cousin/guardian in the 1500s. It’s a wild premise, but based on a real person! If you loved reading Hatchet as a kid, this book is very much for you. Textiles play an interesting role, both as a class-signifier during the main character’s life in France, as well as a coping mechanism for her nurse through all their experiences together. It’s a reminder that textiles and clothing are more than decorations, they are essential to survival, especially in cold climates.

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🧶 What am I making now?

My secret gifts are progressing well, but I need to wait a few more weeks before sharing those. But here is some evidence that I am working on them :)

Is life going extra fast for you lately? Is making helping you slow down a bit? Leave a comment or reply to this email to let us know!

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I try to keep her in mind when I learn about new technologies or gadgets. While I like to think of myself as being open-minded, I’m also very skeptical of any gizmo that claims to be life-changing. Do I really need an air fryer? Or can I just spritz some potatoes with olive oil and turn up my oven really high to make some fries?

That was my opinion when I first heard about “projector sewing”. Meh, I shrugged it off, just another way to trick sewists into spending more money on something, have to buy new patterns, take up space, yada yada. But recently, I’ve changed my mind.

It all started when I decided to sew a dress for my niece. I found a super cute pattern online, but then I faced that tough decision - how do I actually get the pattern from screen to fabric?

I don’t have a printer anymore so print at home was out. Plus I hate taping all the pieces together. I could have made a copy shop version, but I don’t have good storage for rolls of paper. That leaves one option left for a digital pattern- using a projector.

Which I now happen to own. Instead of getting a TV when we moved, we opted for a small but mighty projector to watch movies and shows at night. I wondered if it would also work for projecting sewing patterns.

I spent the next few days in research mode, but every tutorial I saw involved permanently mounting a projector to the ceiling of a dedicated sewing space and projecting down onto a large cutting table. That would not be possible in my situation.

I wondered, can’t I just aim the projector at the wall and tape up some paper to trace? So I gave it a chance.

Using instructions from Projector Sewing, I taped my cutting mat to the wall in preparation for calibrating my projection. Don’t laugh, but I only have an 18x12 inch cutting mat right now.

Then I went to PatternProjector.com for the actual calibration. This is a free site that allows you to calibrate and then project your PDF pattern. It also lets you manipulate your pattern, for example hiding size layers you don’t need.

At first, I was really struggling. I was trying to manually move the sides of the calibration grid and I just couldn’t get consistency across the grid. For a few minutes, I almost gave up and resigned to just ordering a copy shop pattern. But I decided to give it one more go. This time, I got it to calibrate immediately! The trick was to size the projected rectangle exactly to the size of the mat, then tweak from there. I didn’t do that at first because the directions said you need at least a 24 x 18 inch mat to get an accurate calibration. I spot measured my calibration and it seemed accurate, so I just went with that!

Next, I taped up some paper I had leftover from another pattern drafting project and started tracing. I love that Pattern Projector hid all the extra sizes! I didn’t play with the other features, but I think you can also change line width too.

My projector is great in that it will auto-adjust to size, but every time I stepped in front of it to trace, it would resize. Luckily when I moved out of the way it returned to the calibrated state but it was still a learning curve. If I moved the PDF in my computer to be closer to the edge of the projection, I could trace without upsetting the auto-adjust.

Before I knew it, I had my pattern pieces cut out! And I am now a projector sewing convert! One of my big pain points with sewing is the pattern prep and I feel like this method makes it so much easier. I’m thinking the next time I do it, I might get some wrapping paper with the grid in the back so I can calibrate and trace in one step.

If you’re interested in trying out a projector on a wall for sewing, I have a few tips.

• Use painter’s tape to attach your cutting mat and tracing paper. Or fabric if you want to trace straight on there. I personally prefer to make a paper pattern piece first.

• Don’t fret too much if you don’t have the “right” size cutting mat or other grid surface. Mine was smaller and it calibrated just fine.

• Trace the pattern lines with a pencil. The white paper I used looked very similar to my wall with the projector and I didn’t want to worry about ink marks.

• If your projector auto adjusts, try to position the pattern pieces toward the edge of your dominant hand so your tracing arm doesn’t affect the projector’s focus.

• Start with a simple pattern to get used to tracing vertically, it was a bit of a new experience for me and I was glad to have a simple outline to follow.

• I traced this project on a cloudy day with a shade pulled, but if you’re projecting in a sunny spot you may need to wait until a lower light situation because it could be hard to see the lines.

• Projecting on a wall solves a lot of issues other tutorials discuss because you have a lot more flexibility with moving the projector closer or farther away from your wall as needed. When you mount on a ceiling, you are limited in how far away you can be.

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🧶 What am I making now?

Olive and I are working on the dress for my niece using my projected pattern pieces! So far, all of the fabric is cut out and I hope to start sewing it together soon.

In my downtime, I’ve also been hand-quilting the background of my Hawaiian quilt project. I’m basically just winging the stitch placement but I love the organic look of it so far.

Have you embraced any new technologies for your crafting lately? Let me know in the comments or reply to this email!

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I realized I never shared my finished “India” quilt, so I thought I’d pop in with a process post of how I went from a few scraps to a bed-sized quilt. It’s a long letter, so let’s jump in!

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The moment I saw the above insta post, I was smitten with the quilt! I loved the colors, the geometry, the delicate hand stitches - just perfection. Fast forward a few months later to when my mother in law gifted me some leftover fabric from an outfit she had tailored. I was obsessed with the fabric - a light blue, geometric batik- and knew I wanted to feature it in my next quilt.

I cut it into 2.5 inch squares and got to playing.

Below is my first attempt. I loved how the “bullseye” came together like the inspiration quilt, but all the patterns looked too busy.

While I tried to simplify the color scheme in the next iteration, I still wasn’t happy with all the variations of the navy fabric - but I was trying to use my stash exclusively. This was around August 2022…

And here’s the final design - outside of the inspiration fabric from my MIL, I tried to keep the patterned fabric more subtle. I had to purchase a bit more orange and white fabric, but everything else is from my stash. The 4 outermost orange squares on the diamond tips were actually a more neon orange that I dyed with black tea to tone down! They came out perfectly! I finalized the fabric placement and sewed all these strips together at a quilt retreat in October 2022…

While the inspiration quilt had the patchwork covering the majority of the quilt, I wanted my design to be limited to the center. I decided to complete the quilt rectangle by attaching navy strips to the patchwork strips. I started that in November 2022…

Per my photo metadata, I didn’t finish piecing the whole top until September 2023! Life happens I guess?!?

I also realized that the quilt top was just not big enough. I divided the leftover navy fabric I had to add more length, but it was still a little short width-wise. I wanted a wide quilt so there would be fewer chances of overnight blanket-hogging - mostly by me. Wanting to use my stash, I added some dark orange to the sides. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. I contemplated it for a few days then decided to go with it as it would get binding attached and mostly hang over the bed. In December 2023 I finally declared the quilt top finished.

Meanwhile, I decided to use some ikat fabric I bought at a shop in India for the back, but there was one problem… I didn’t have enough. Luckily, my partner went to India in the fall of 2023 so I sent him back to that shop with a fabric sample and yardage requirements. Miraculously, the shop had just enough left! Olive graciously assisted me with piecing the back on NYE 2023.

Quilt sandwich completed, I needed to choose a quilting strategy. I decided to go simple and stitch in the ditch horizontally following the strip pattern. For the blocks of navy I added for length, I decided to switch direction and quilt vertically. I measured out two inch lines with a ruler and chalk. Finally, I quilted the orange edges horizontally.

Quilting continued all spring and into summer of 2024. Quilting an almost king-sized quilt on a home sewing machine was a bit overwhelming. But I took my time and eventually all the lines got quilted.

Due to the size of the quilt and the fact that I squared up the top as good as possible before I made the quilt sandwich, all I did after quilting was trim off the excess batting and backing, no further squaring. And honestly, it looked perfectly fine!

With our impending move, I hustled to get the binding on so I could pack the quilt for our new home. With my newfound thimble skills, I managed to handsew the binding on in about 7-10 days!!! I used a sturdy blue fabric from my stash that is super easy to attach so that helped my speed, in addition to my strong motivation. By July 2024, the quilt was completely finished!

From initial design conception to final binding stitch, this quilt project took about two years. It’s definitely my most ambitious quilt to date and my most cherished. I love both sides of it so we frequently rotate which side faces up on the bed. When I finished, I swore I would never make another bed-sized quilt on my home machine, but looking back, it wasn’t so bad. I think I might be ready for my next “most ambitious” quilt. While those ideas are percolating, I’m just happily enjoying my “India” quilt.

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🧶 What am I making now?

I pulled my Hawaiian wall quilt out of storage to start quilting the Ti leaf design. I tried the traditional Hawaiian quilting technique I learned last year, but I was just not getting it, so I switched to my method of hand quilting. Overall I like the effect and improvised where to place the quilting lines.

I’m also working on a baby quilt, but that design is top secret for now ;)

What have you been making lately? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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Ever since, those paperbacks have been some of my most cherished posessions. So cherished that they were among the select few books chosen to make the move to New York. After the first few days of the move, I started to miss reading. I typically have a stack of library books on my bedside shelf at all times, but I hadn’t gotten my New York Public Library card just yet. If I wanted to read, I’d have to choose something from my tiny, personal library. After assessing my options, I picked Anne.

The last time I did a re-read of the books, I was a teenager, so I was really curious to see how I would like them as a full-fledged adult. Overall, I found the first book very charming. It was fun to reacquaint myself with Anne and all her eccentricities - she hates her red hair, has a robust vocabulary, longs for puffed sleeves on her dresses, and is always getting into unintentional mischief. It’s easy to love Anne because so many aspects of her personality are relatable. During this re-read, I was especially attuned to her vivid imagination. Of course, I noticed it as a child, but I had forgotten how often she uses the phrase “scope for imagination” when describing situations that are ripe for reinvention.

I love that Anne is constantly seeking out people and situations which cultivate creativity and innovation. As an adult, it is easy to see things in only one way, whereas Anne could easily look at something, a pond for instance, and rename it the Lake of Shining Waters and imagine all sorts of idyllic things happening there. Reading Anne, I’m reminded to shift my perspective and see all the possibilities inherent in any situation.

Another trait of Anne’s that I noticed is that she is most definitely not a crafter! Whereas her adopted “mother” Marilla is always knitting or sewing something, Anne struggles with needles and thread. For Anne, sewing and knitting are necessities of life in rural Canada, not a fun hobby. Reading Anne’s struggles with needle crafts makes me grateful that I get to do it as a fun hobby that results in useful (mostly!) finished objects. I honestly don’t know if I would enjoy knitting and sewing so much if it was compulsory for me to be able to dress myself.

I’m not the only knitter who is inspired by the Anne of Green Gables series. Aimee Sher has a collection of knitting patterns inspired by Anne with a modern touch. I actually have the Marilla’s Mittens pattern but haven’t made them yet! Joanna Johnson also has a book of Green Gables-inspired patterns. Indie dyer Ash & Bumble has a Scope for Imagination sock yarn, plus other Anne-inspired colorways.

Despite Anne’s aversion to knitting and sewing, I’m not surprised that so many knitters are drawn to her stories. While Anne could look at the world around her and invent fabulous tales, we look at skeins of yarn and imagine cozy, customized garments for ourselves or our beloved kindred spirits.

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🧶 What am I making now?

I started a new hat! The weather has been quite chilly lately and my ears are feeling it! I’ve also been noticing a plethora of people wearing simple beanies with a deep folded brim, which I don’t have but I think would keep my ears toasty. I’m knitting the Muntra hat by Katarina Linnhagen in leftover Cumbria by the Fibre Company that I have in my stash. The cast-on was a little tricky but I love the polished look that it gives the brim. It’s also nice to have a small, mindless project on the needles.

Are you a fan of Anne of Green Gables? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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That all changed after I took a Hawaiian quilt class. Hawaiian quilts are 100% hand-sewn and hand-quilted. During class, the instructor had us put on her leather thimble for the hand-quilting portion, as you are required to press down on the needle hard, through multiple layers of fabric, to produce a tiny quilted stitch. The thimble was a little bulky and a lot awkward, but it did prevent the needle from puncturing my delicate digit as I tried to make the desired stitch.

After the class, I continued working on my Hawaiian quilt sample in my usual way. But once I finished the applique part and moved on to the quilting, I realized immediately I would have to invest in a thimble if I wanted to ever finish the thing with all my fingers intact.

At first, I wasn’t sure which kind to get. The old fashioned metal kind was out, obviously. I liked the idea of the leather thimble, but I read they can wear out fairly quickly and it was still a bit cumbersome for me. After a bit more googling, I decided to try a silicone thimble with a metal tip. The silicone would hug my finger snugly and the metal would protect my fingertip.

As soon as I received the thimble in the mail, I tried it out on my Hawaiian quilt. I was still a pretty clumsy quilter, but the thimble blew my mind! I could now replicate the quilt process I learned in the class! I used it on some other hand-sewing projects and whoa, what had I been waiting for??? The learning curve lasted about 5 seconds and then the lil dude sped up my process so much that I hand-stitched the binding to a baby quilt and a bed-sized quilt in record time. Stitching with the thimble went so much faster since I wasn’t trying to reposition my fingers all the time or pausing to give my hands a break.

I humbly learned a few lessons from this little episode:

1. If all the experts are using a thimble for hand-sewing, maybe I should listen to them.

2. Being comfortable and pain-free is better than looking ridiculous.

3. I tend to overestimate the learning curve of a new technique and it usually doesn’t take that long to get acclimated.

4. Trying out new tools/techniques usually reinvigorates my crafting.

I’m now a few months into my thimble era and I am never going back! I’m trying to replace scrolling with stitching, so I’ve been keeping small projects + my thimble out at all times. The results have been…mixed, but quilt coasters are managing to get finished so I’ll take that as a win! If you’ve been holding out on trying a new tool or swapping out an old one to improve your experience, just go for it! We all deserve to craft comfortably.

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🧶 What am I making now?

This week I did a lot of gift sewing with my trusty thimble so I can’t share too much, but here are some snipped threads from the projects :)

On Sunday we took a day trip to the Met Cloisters, a replica medieval monastery! It was so unique and inspiring, especially this Unicorn Tapestry Room.

Have you ever waited too long to adopt a new tool? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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I didn’t have a Rhinebeck sweater to wear, and considering the weather was going to be in the 70s and sunny, I opted for a knit tee over a silk blouse with jeans and walking shoes. Even then, I still ended up slightly overheated.

We left the city in the morning and made our way to the Hudson Valley on a beautiful yet carsick-inducing winding road. We pulled into Rhinebeck village around noon, grabbed some food as I heard the festival lunch lines could be atrocious, and made the short walk to the fairgrounds.

My first impressions of the fairgrounds were “wow, there’s a huge variety of food stalls and the lines seem… fine”. Or maybe I’m just jaded from seeing lines of people in the city stretching for blocks to get into a sample sale.

The first building I checked out featured award-winning yarn that had been submitted to the fair, as well as rows of food vendors. With all the hoopla about Rhinebeck, it’s easy to forget that the main purpose is to celebrate NY sheep and wool. Seeing the handspun and the adjacent spinning competition inspired me to check out submission guidelines for next year.

Next I explored the multiple buildings with fiber vendors. It was inspiring to see so many local farms and yarn brands, as well as some Midwestern companies that made the trek east. As I’m currently in a “stash down” phase, I resisted picking out anything during this first pass through.

Next came a visit to the livestock barns where the sheep were. This was a highlight as my little niece LOVES animals and “Baa baa black sheep” is her favorite song. Everyone was super nice and encouraged her to pet all the animals. Even the adults enjoyed petting them as we seemed to be surrounded by longwool breeds with the best curls. So fun to pet!

Next we walked through an educational barn which was full of rare sheep breeds. It was fun to see the variety of breeds and feel the fiber. The compact Southdowns were my favorite!

Next we did more shopping and I made my first and only fiber purchase of the day - naturally dyed roving by Forage Color! I’m not sure what the end product will be, but this color really spoke to me and two of the braids are a wool/linen/silk blend which I find very interesting!

Feeling shopped out, we watched some frisbee dogs, got a box full of lamb snacks, and shared an ice cream sundae to close out our Rhinebeck adventure.

Overall, the day was super fun and I’m thrilled I was able to go! I was a little disappointed not to see any knitting “celebrities” but I’m sure if I had gone Saturday- the busier day- I would have. There’s always next year! And maybe it was the heat, but it seemed like the majority of people were in normal clothes and not handmade. I was hoping to see some really intricate sweaters, but it was definitely not sweater weather out. Heading back, our group split and two of us opted to take the train back to the city. The train hugged the shore of the Hudson River the whole way, which made for a spectacular view to finish off the day.

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🧶 What am I making now?

Progress is slow going, but I did knit a few rows of my sweater!

Have you been to Rhinebeck? Other wool festivals? Leave a comment to let us know or reply to this email!

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After a whirlwind of a summer and early fall, I’m finally moving at a slower pace and feeling ready to restart the newsletter. This summer saw many big life changes - I started a new job and moved to New York! I also spent time with family in Iowa and Wisconsin, made a trip to St. Louis to see friends, plus several trips to New York before our final one-way ticket here.

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Amid all these changes, I made an effort to be on my phone less. I set my phone to display in grayscale only so it’s less interesting to look at. This has been highly effective at making the phone less appealing and now when I switch my phone to color to examine a photo or something, it’s so jarring I switch it back to black and white ASAP. I also set time limits for some social apps and I mostly don’t ignore the cutoff warning when I hit it!

Overall, I’m loving this evolving usage of my phone, but it’s also left me completely clueless as to what is going on in the knitting/sewing worlds. I haven’t checked my Meandertextiles insta account in a long time - and that’s where I follow all the designers and makers in the craft community. Anytime I get a crafty newsletter, it displays as black and white on my phone so I’m unaware of the latest color trends.

The ignorance I’m feeling is sort of blissful! Despite my big move, I was able to finish my India quilt, plus a baby quilt for a friend. And I’ve also made progress on my Hawaiian quilt and my knit sweater. I think having less influence from online helped me focus on my own making priorities.

I feel that my digital minimalism may affect this weekly letter, but I’m not sure just how yet. Perhaps I’ll reduce the frequency to monthly? Bimonthly? Or maybe the focus on textiles will expand to encompass more topics? I’m sure the right pace will sort itself out but for now I’m feeling energized to restart this project.

My digital minimalism has also made me a very bad marketer/promoter! I had two articles come out over my newsletter break and I am excited to share them here!

First I had an article about sheep breeds come out in the “Reference” issue of PLY Magazine. What an honor to write for this publication! Get a digital copy here .

My second article about women in the Art Nouveau movement recently came out in Making Stories, a beautiful publication and online yarn shop based in Europe. Order a print or digital copy here.

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🧶 What am I making now?

In the lead up to my move, I wasn’t doing any crafting, but I’ve finally picked up my knitting needles again! I’m still working on this cotton/linen blend pullover and I’ve connected the front and back and am now knitting the rest of the body in the round. Of course, the first time I joined back in the round I did it backwards. So after frogging a whole round and rejoining, I’m now happily knitting along!

Have you made any changes - big or small - this summer? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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The older I get, the faster the calendar pages turn over and somehow May is halfway through! We celebrated Olive’s six year adoption anniversary this past week and it’s hard to grasp where the time has gone! In those years she went from a cross-eyed abandoned kitten to a confident cat queen.

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In this vein of reflection, I’m also feeling it’s time to set down the keyboard and embark on my second annual summer break from this newsletter. Summer is my favorite time - I believe I am at least 65% powered by the sun - and there are not enough hours in this too short of a season to absorb it all, plus craft, plus write a weekly letter.

Before I step away, I thought it would be fun to do a goal check-in. At the beginning of the year I listed out some concrete making goals and I am now curious to see what sort of progress I’ve made.

1. Finish the India quilt - I’ve made a lot of progress on this one! I am almost done with the the walking foot quilting and then it just needs the binding, yay!

2. Finish the Roan shirt - Yikes, I haven’t touched this since last year…

3. Finish 9-patch quilt - I also haven’t touched this one but I do have a recipient in mind, so I’m planning to work on this as soon as I take the walking foot off from my sewing machine.

4. Breed study shawl - I have all the yarn for this and the pattern picked out, I just need to start.

5. Orange cotton/linen sweater - this is on my needles now!

6. Try zero waste patterns/learn pattern drafting - I have not made anything yet, but I have read some books from the library on the topic and watched some drafting videos on Creativebug.

7. Robe - not started but I still want to make it!

8. Dress with block print fabric - also not started but also I still want to make it.

Not on the list is the Hawaiian quilt block I started in a class in February and which I’ve been working at fairly consistently. So my 9th goal project of the year is to finish that as a wall hanging.

Looking through the list, I’m proud of myself for only adding one additional project to my list of goals! I’m also happy with the progress I’ve made so far, especially with not feeling 100% inspired to be crafting all the time.

My plan for the next three months is to enjoy summer life and let some creative ideas percolate so I have fresh themes to write about in the fall. I may check in once a month or so with some timely updates and project photos, but I’m not committing to any set schedule.

I hope you have a great summer (or winter, if you’re in the southern hemisphere!) and allow yourselves grace to embrace the rhythms of whatever season of making you are in!

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🧶 What am I making now?

I’m still stitching away at this Hawaiian Ti leaf design, but I’m definitely over halfway finished!

Do you have any exciting summer plans coming up? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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A few weekends ago we went for dinner with friends and then my partner surprised me with a visit to an Open Studios event! It was fun to wander the halls of the old building now home to a variety of artists and see all the different artworks.

The next day I went for a bike ride and when I finished I found myself in the middle of a Polish Constitution Day performance in the park. The band was just starting up and the performers were decked out in historic costumes. It was super fun to experience!

This past week I went out of town to visit family and we stumbled across even more fun art!

While at a Spanish-themed food court, I learned this fun fact about the relationship between sheep and tasty churros.

Then as we were walking down the street, we were greeted by upbeat music and delicious smells - we had stumbled across a Taiwanese street festival. We walked around the festival which was adjacent to an art space, so we went in. I loved the wall of sticky note inspiration!

There were also more traditional works hanging, like this multimedia piece by Jin Ko featuring a needle and thread.

While I’m still struggling with finding my own inspiration for making, I definitely delight in seeing beautiful art and textiles out in the wild - it feels like creative seeds are being planted and will soon set down roots and sprout for me.

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🧶 What am I making now?

I’m enjoying working on my Hawaiian quilt block when I have a few minutes between meetings. I think I’m slightly over 25% finished with the applique now!

Are you noticing more art and textiles as you go about your day to day life? Let me know in the comments or reply to this email!

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Now AI has entered the building. We are told it can improve our lives in myriad ways: polish your resume, write a to-do list, recommend a meal plan. I work in healthcare and try to keep up-to-date on the latest happenings. Pretty soon, AI will be listening to your doctor’s appointments and writing up the progress notes. Cool cool cool.

I am not a Luddite and I don’t hate AI. I think it has the power to replace the human effort needed for a lot of mundane tasks, which will hopefully free up time and energy to put into more creative pursuits. I just don’t want us to surrender our creativity, our “human intelligence” to this new tool.

Despite the advances of AI, we still need human intelligence to make our lives worth living. Even if we trained ChatGPT on every type of error-free knitting pattern, then asked it to write a perfect sweater pattern, it would still probably miss the mark. That’s because AI can’t actually knit a sweater, it can only tell us what the instructions would be from ingesting lots of knitting patterns. It is only when human hands get involved that we can truly know if the pattern will work or not.

A good knitwear designer will know where to add ease to a pattern to make it comfortable and flattering. They will know how to grade for different sizes, so that the design looks consistent on a range of bodies. They will know which yarn to use at which gauge to get the ideal fabric. And yet with all this planning and experience, once the sweater is actually knit up, the pattern may still need some tweaking to get it just right. This is human intelligence in action.

Naturally, the design process is iterative. While this ultimately leads to the best product, it also leaves plenty of openings for errors to creep in. That is why the editing and testing phases are so crucial. But published patterns are never really error-free because they can’t control the biggest error generator of all - the user.

I’ve knit several large cable projects during my knitting career, and I’ve made a glaring mistake during each one. A few rows after the mistake, I notice that I’ve crossed the cable incorrectly or made a knit stitch instead of a purl. Then I come to a crossroads: Do I pull back my work and pray I don’t cause any dropped stitches? Or do I let the work be and keep the mistake in as a historical marker to my humanness?

I most always choose the latter. On the one hand, I’m sort of lazy. But on the other, I like having a little reminder in my projects that yes, this is a handmade object so yes, there are some mistakes. To err is human, no?

So while I don’t want to pay for a pattern that has an error in every other sentence, I really don’t mind coming across the occasional mistake or making one myself. I want a design that is conceived and created by humans. I want to see their individual creativity and ingenuity converted into a written pattern. While it’s charming to see AI-generated images of quilts covering buildings, the AI program didn’t have that vision on its own, it was prompted by a human. So let AI automate tasks or write a to-do list for us, but let’s leave the creativity to us, the humans.

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🧶 What am I making now?

My summer sweater is growing! I finished the back and forth section for the front and have moved on to the back.

And I finished quilting all the blue sections of my quilt! I just have to quilt the orange side panels and then I can move on to squaring this thing up and adding the binding! Fingers crossed I have something in my stash that will work well for the binding :) I really don’t want to stall my progress any further by having to shop for more fabric for this project.

And, a big thanks to for featuring Olive as the Pet of the Week! Olive is always the pet of the week in our household, but the external validation of her cuteness hasn’t gone to her head… too much :)

For Knitters & Crocheters, The Place To Be: Yarn Bay

Pet Of The Week: Olive The Cat

Katie is a yarn spinner, dyer, maker, and lover of textiles, who runs a design studio called Meander Textiles, and her accompanying newsletter. I love her writing style and the making adventures she shares, you’ll always learn something reading her posts…

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2 years ago · 7 likes · 3 comments · Jodie Morgan

How do you feel about AI? Are you using it in any of your crafting endeavors? Leave a message or reply to this email and let me know!

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As I was pondering this dilemma on a walk, the words inspiration and dedication bubbled up in my consciousness. I’ve definitely been lacking the inspiration to make, but what if I could up my dedication to making? Would that help?

I’m good at getting inspired. I have a million project ideas and I’m sure I’ll never get to all of them. I love pulling out all my fabric or yarns and playing around with different color and texture combinations. I can easily get dozens of new ideas of things to make just by practicing this exercise.

And then there is the fun of starting a new project. It feels like the first day of the school year. I’m excited for all new classes, new teachers, new outfits, and NEW NOTEBOOKS! Anything seems possible and I’m open to all the new experiences I could have. And then I go to my classes, review the syllabi, and the monotony of the routine sets in more strongly than the excitement I felt just days before.

Unlike school, knitting and sewing are completely optional. I could start twelve projects in one day, and there are no teachers telling me to finish them for a grade. It’s just my own internal motivation, for better or for worse. Sometimes I am able to complete a project purely based on inspiration. But lately it feels like the inspiration isn’t enough.

That’s where the dedication comes in. Once I start working on a project, I do feel happy to be moving my hands and flexing my creative muscles. I’m just low on the inspiration to pick up projects that are past the starting phase and a long way off from finishing. How can I lean into my dedication to making to see my projects through?

So far, the best answer has been my morning routine. I started getting up a bit earlier a few months ago so I can have some more “me” time before I start work. It’s the perfect opportunity to fit in some making. As I’m knitting in the peaceful low light of the early morning, I can feel the enjoyment from moving my hands. I get a tiny zap of happiness with every row completed as the garment gets closer to its final shape. I try to drop the feeling of obligation towards a project and try to lean in to the meditative qualities of making by hand.

I know this season of low inspiration will pass. I’ve gone through it before and I’m sure it will happen again. But as an older, wiser person, I know that I don’t have to wait until inspiration magically reappears. I can rely on dedication to get back to what I love, and eventually, the inspiration and excitement to create will return.

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🧶 What am I making now?

With a bit of dedication, I added a few more rows to this sweater.

Otherwise, I was trying to enjoy the nicer weather this week!

What are your strategies for reigniting inspiration? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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As soon as I found out she was on her way, I bought a couple charm packs at Cotton Cabin quilt shop while I was on a quilting retreat in Iowa.

I got some books from the library for inspiration, but nothing really appealed to me, so I sketched out some ideas.

The charm packs had a mix of black and white and pastel tones, so I settled on a simple striped blanket with a rainbow gradient. And I wanted to incorporate some of the black and white charms into a secondary pattern within the colored rows.

I envisioned a black and white squiggle border and even bought some fabric, but once I brought it home, I didn’t like the contrast of the larger squiggles with the smaller patterns on the charms.

Then came the fun part of mocking up the quilt! I tried really hard to make the black and white charms work in the main design, but it just wasn’t popping as much as I wanted.

So I ended up making each colored row a single tone, but I alternated with lighter and darker charms. For the border, I decided to use the leftover charms - I had a bunch! and I put them in a fairly random order that I thought looked good against the main pattern. The charms didn’t fit into an exact border, so I got a little creative and cut up some of the black and white charms to create the corners and add the extra inches I needed to make everything fit.

For the back, I wanted a single piece of fabric to be a contrast to the patchwork front. After buying the charm packs, my partner and his mom went to India, so I sent them with some fabric samples and instructions to go shopping. He came back with the fabric below and I loved it! The fabric is incredibly soft and the pattern colors go nicely with front, but it’s not an exact match. I like that each side is unique so it’s almost like two quilts in one!

Over the winter I made the quilt sandwich and used the walking foot on my home machine to quilt it. I didn’t want the quilting lines to be too dense, so I just followed the seams of the patchwork for a more lofty effect.

I had a mustard yellow fabric that matched the back flowers and coordinated with the front, so I used that as the binding.

I sewed the binding edge to the back by hand so it is invisible and the quilt can be truly reversible.

It was such a joy to design, source the fabric, and create this quilt for my niece. I got so much satisfaction just from the creative process of making it, so now seeing her play on it just gives me bonus happiness!

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🧶 What am I making now?

I am steadily making progress on my orange knit blouse. I try to do a little bit every morning and that’s been a really nice way to start my day before jumping into work.

Sunday morning I woke up motivated to work on the quilt for my bed, so I chalked out the lines on the top and was able to quilt everything I planned. I figured working the top and bottom in quadrants would be the most efficient way, so I have three sections left. Then just the orange sections on the sides need to be quilted and this beast will be done!

Have you made a gift quilt before? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email!

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