I’m excited to share that I am offering my first-ever self-hosted, live virtual workshop! Quilt Your Life: Milestone Quilts for Every Moment is a quilt planning workshop scheduled for December 19, 2020 from 7pm-9pm EST.
I will be hosting the workshop via Zoom and have listed registration in my Payhip shop. I’m super excited to be taking this first big step into being able to share my creative process with all of you while everyone stays home and is safe in the face of the rising COVID-19 cases in the US.
There has been so much talk about “pivoting” businesses because of the pandemic, and to be honest, March brought so many family changes, stress, and uncertainty, I instead opted for the “put the business on the back burner” course of action, and focused on helping my kids through virtual school, working through the emotional toll of having all five of us home all the time with no outside help or friends fully in our bubble, and finding the new rhythm needed to help all of us meet our emotional needs and be gentle when someone is having a rough day. This is hard. We spent a LOT of time outside, hiking in remote locations, hitting up the secret beaches, and working in the garden. It’s been hard work on everyone’s part, but I think we have actually begun to find our stride. Only took 280 days or so, but I’ll take it!
Now that we are getting back into the swing of virtual school once again, I’m ready to dive into this next step. This workshop is designed to introduce you to the idea of creating Milestone Quilts–quilts that document some aspect of your life–and help you create a plan to create your own such quilt.
I have been exploring the world of Milestone Quilts for the past 5+ years, beginning with Finn’s Milestone Quilt made during the first year of his life, and I have learned so much along the way. I have also confirmed the powerful positive feedback loops that can be created by making a quilt like this, especially this past year when my 2020 miles quilt kept me running despite the upheaval of life as we knew it.
As we are entering the final weeks of the year, my 2020 miles quilt (#my2020milesquilt) is still getting me out in the below freezing weather to run. Without a single race since January 1st, I’m pretty happy with the fact that I’ve met my goal of running more than 500 miles this year. This quilt has also helped document many other important aspects of the year, from the group runs with my fellow running quilters at QuiltCon right before the pandemic began, to the first days of lock-down, to the week I joined a virtual Womxn Run the Vote relay and logged 50 miles worth of activity, including 29 running miles–my longest mileage week by a lot. This quilt will tell a story, that’s for sure!
Even with fairly regular running, I’ve been slacking on my cross-training exercises, and my body notices. For that reason, I began a short, one-month-long milestone quilt tracking plank. push-ups, and Russian twists, to help motivate myself to do even just 1 set per day during the month of December.
Nearly halfway through the month, and it’s working! I’ve done some amount of exercise every day, and I haven’t woken up with a sore back or neck since! Positive feedback loops are the best! Note: I am making two versions of the same quilt, with different color assignments, so the photo above shows progress for both. Same data, same length of time, same block pattern, same fabrics, just different color assignments for the activities and intensities. Pretty neat, huh!?
If you are interested in learning more about Milestone Quilts and how to make a plan to quilt your life, I encourage you to join me for my virtual workshop this Saturday evening. It’s going to be loads of fun! I’m also working on creating printable pdf planning documents to help you track and plan your activity, so keep an eye on my Payhip shop for those. In the meantime, I hope that your sewing is bringing you peace and that you are staying safe, at home as much as possible and masked when out and about! Be well, my friends.
The lap quilt option finishes at 53″ x 60″ and can be made larger or smaller simply by including more or less trees. I’m looking forward to wrapping up in this quilt once we get through this pandemic!
The pillow option finishes at 20″ x 20″ but can also be customized by switching out different tree options, or by choosing different fabrics. There’s also a table runner option that finishes at 12″ x 53″ and will certainly brighten any setting.
Head over and buy 
Amanda 
Note that Amanda chose to add her own personal touch by sewing vertical stripes into the side borders; that bit is not included in the Staggered pattern.
Anja of 
Darlene 
For this quilt, she used Giucy Giuce’s Spectrastic fabrics paired with Libs Eliott’s Venom fabric for the background, both by Andover fabrics, and it’s so much fun. I love how adding a non-solid background fabric changes the aesthetic of Staggered. You can find Darlene on Instagram 
Natasha 
Shannon Spicer 
Kerry of 
Ultimately I decided to widen the center of the Twin size so that the overall aesthetic and assembly for each size was more similar, so the Twin version included in the Staggered pattern is this one, with two additional columns. Debbie Griffiths 
She used an Alison Glass Sun Print 2016 jelly roll plus the “Path” (text) prints from the Sun Print 2019 with Robert Kaufman Manchester Metallic in Licorice (black with gold sparkle) as the background, and holy smokes does it shimmer and shine!!! Alyson had a pretty epic photo shoot for this quilt, too, complete with video to show how much the gold metallic shines in the sun when the wind blows.
You can start to see the gold glimmer in this photo, but be sure to head over to her Instagram feed at 
Staggered is a fun, easy, extremely versatile pattern that is a great way to showcase your favorite fabric line. Perfect for precuts, this would be a fantastic pattern for that precious fat quarter bundle or jelly roll you have stashed away. I used the new Alison Glass Sun Print 2020 fabrics by Andover Fabrics for mine, and it seriously brightens my day. My kids are already asking who gets the finished quilt! I especially love how the Menagerie fabric from Sun Print adds some twinkle among the other rich range of colors. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Alison Glass fabrics, and this *might* be my favorite line of hers so far.
The range of greens-teals-blues are especially to die for! I just love how they play in this Staggered quilt. You can probably tell, but I’m smitten!
I quilted my Staggered quilt using coordinating 50wt Aurifil threads– I have another fun release to share–from my very own curated collection of Aurifil threads, called 
I also created a Facebook group called 
You probably remember the improv, make-it-up-as-I-go 
While I was piecing my newest Quilt Theory quilt, 
Thus, the Glade Pillow was born. A free bonus pattern for all who purchase Into the Forest, the Glade Pillow uses up a large majority of your scraps, and the pieces are actually sewn while you piece your quilt blocks. That’s a win in my book. I hope you like it, too.
I had a fun photoshoot for this pillow, caught right at dusk with two of my little ones in tow, and thought it would be fun to show you a bit more about the pillow, as well as share peeks at our fun photo shoot. The light is low, and less than optimal, but the photos and memories made are fun ones. It turns out kids have as much fun with a fancy arm chair in the forest as quilters do!
First, how about some more details about the pillow? Here’s the backing, which I absolutely love! I made an envelop closure but plan to add snaps or buttons in the near future.
I used scraps from my Into the Forest quilt backing, 
I had fun quilting my Glade Pillow with an assortment of 
Getting photos of this pillow proved a bit tricky, since an eager 2 year old helper often means photos like this (above). Add a 7 year old sister helper, and they quickly morph to this:
Seriously cute!
Finn was soon once again distracted by a nearby plant, so Maddie stepped in for her turn.
Big girl helper, in so many ways! After the photo shoot, Maddie wanted a turn with my camera. With the strap securely around her neck and extra reminders to be extremely careful, I let her commandeer the camera.
As a result, there’s a bit of proof of what it looks like to have quilty photo shoots with little ones’ help. My middle son was inside intently building with legos and had no interest in helping with our forest romp, but it was really fun to wander into the forest behind our house for a bit. Maddie and Finn had a wonderful time rolling around and being silly in the grass afterward.
It’s finally time to share one of the big “secret sewing” projects I’ve been working on behind the scenes for the past few months! Those of you who are also on social media have most likely seen the announcement that I have teamed up with six (6) other pattern designers to launch a new company called 
First, I’d like to introduce you to 
Living in midcoast Maine, an ocean path felt like the perfect inspiration for my quilt. I wanted to embrace the simple beauty of nature while providing a pattern that could be adapted to fit any color scheme, style, or decor.
I should note here that the stunning photos included in this post were taken by 
Using simple construction from easily cut triangles and sashing, this quilt comes together in a breeze. Generous negative space provides room for intricate free motion quilting, or you could finish it with simple modern straight line quilting.
Many thanks to 
I quilted Ocean Path with echoing, organic triangles within each colored portion using 50wt 
All of the Quilt Theory patterns are simple enough to be printed on 4″x6″ cards or a single page downloadable pdf. At only $3 each, they are perfect for gift giving or collecting, too!
To celebrate the launch of Quilt Theory, I am giving away a copy of my pattern, Ocean Path (printed or PDF, your choice!) along with a PDF of all of the Quilt Theory Coloring Pages. I’m also including 
, and sadly I do not yet own the book. I was sent the patterns for these blocks over the summer and I’m eager to make some more. (Amazon affiliate link above, fyi)
Night Quilter 