Interested in hearing this post as audio?  You can do so here!

I love a good quilt kit. In this too-busy life, a well-designed kit can give you fast success with a minimum amount of fuss.

I realize some people think quilt kits are “cheating.” So unless your quilting experience is being governed by a state board with graded exams, I can’t see where this is a cheat! And again, why are we making arbitrary “rules” that make people feel excluded from our lovely, vast community?

YOU get to do your quilting practice YOUR way

In my opinion, anything that helps you have fun making your next project gets top marks.

Seven reasons why I love quilt kits:

1. It’s an all-in-one package: A quilt kit usually includes all the necessary materials needed to complete a project. This makes it easier for those new to quilting to get started in a snap.
2. They’re usually made with high-quality materials: A kit often includes high-quality fabric, which means your finished project will look great and last a long time. Thus, if we’re going to use our precious time, let’s make sure the quilt lasts.
3. You already like the finished quilt: If you worry about wasting time or money, a kit is a great way to guarantee you’ll like what you make. You’ve already seen the finished result and liked it enough to be interested in replicating it!
4. Kits help you with fabric choices: if you’re new to choosing your own fabrics, or nervous about getting it just right, or just can’t make one more decision right now, a kit solves that problem for you. So just buy one and get sewing!
5. Kits are time-saving: With a quilt kit, you don’t have to spend hours searching for the perfect fabrics. Everything you need is included, usually down to the binding.
6. Quilt kits are inspiring: Kits often come with patterns that can introduce you to new designers. So your next project can be inspired by this one!
7. Kits are convenient: You only need to go to one shop for everything. Also, if you buy it online, it will magically appear at your door!

Image above: Faster Fourteen quilt pattern by Hunter’s Design Studio, Kit featuring e bond Root fabric from Free Spirit at Crimson Tate (Spring 2023)

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Quilting Loves YOU. We do this to make things just for YOU.

We have something for EVERYONE:

You’re a beginner? We have building block books and lovely helpers in fabric stores for you.

You learn better in person? We have talented teachers all over the world to teach you.

You can’t make it to class? We have hundreds of online classes waiting for you.

You’re making your 3rd quilt? We have easy patterns to help grow your skills.

You want a community to quilt with? We have guilds, Facebook groups, and Instagram swaps to bring you new friends.

You can’t get to the store? We have catalogs and websites for you to shop from.

You want to make something complicated? We have patterns and books for that.

You want to learn a new technique? We have more books and workshops for that.

You want to make a fast gift over a weekend? We have yet more patterns for that.

You want to color coordinate your projects? We develop collections of fabric that are designed to be used together.

You don’t want to use a single line of fabric? We develop fabrics that are designed to be supporting players in your projects.

You don’t want to choose the fabrics? We make all sorts of kits.

You want to quilt it yourself? We have lots of books and tutorials to make that easier, and wonderful domestic machines for it too.

You want to quilt by checkbook? Our long arm artists are waiting to collaborate with you.

Your sewing machine budget is modest? We can get you sewing on a vintage garage sale bargain.

You want the sewing machine equivalent of a luxury car? Yep, we’ve made those too. Sadly they don’t cook dinner, though!

You want to do it by hand? We have needles, threads, and notions created specially for hand work.

You like tools and gadgets? We’ve made tools and rulers for just about everything.

Your sewing space is tiny? We have Ikea hacks and and storage tips for you.

Your sewing space is opulent? We can show you how to make the best ergonomic choices to fill it.

You need a fabric themed vacation? We have retreats and cruises for you.

You want to show off what you make? Beyond social media, we have many shows and exhibitions for you to enter.

You want to sew for charity? There are hundreds of ways to donate a quilt to a worthy cause.

So yes, wherever you are in your quilting or fiber art journey, there is someone in my industry making something just for YOU. We can meet you where you are, and help you get where you want to go in your quilt journey. Come play with us! Quilting loves you!

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The original Star Wars movie’s Princess Leia Organa was one of the few movie heroines of my youth.

She wasn’t just “the girlfriend” and she didn’t fit the “helpless damsel in distress” model of the cartoons I grew up on. She held her own against the bad guys, and gave the good guys a solid run for their money. I loved that she was sassy and resiliant, and could tongue-tie the ever-so-cool Han Solo.

When she came back in the most recent movie, she was now General Organa, and like many women of my generation, I took pride in her rise to that rank. Luke ran off to hide and sulk; Han ran off to continue being a scoundrel; but Leia stayed and kept fighting.

I also respect Carrie Fisher, the actress who brought Princess Leia to life. I liked that she just told it like it is with easy, yet pointed, humor, especially in the PR frenzy before The Force Awakens. I admired how she pointed out that we, as women of any age, are held to impossible standards of youth and beauty, as if they are the only things that matter.

She was so much more. As are we.

The General Organa Quilt has paper-piecing patterns for two versions of the words:

It also includes both paper-piecing patterns and templates for the parts General Organa herself that have odd angles. The printed pattern is lengthy (all those letters!) so be sure to read it through before you print or you’ll be wasting paper

The General Organa quilt pattern is available here in my shop. I will be donating all proceeds from both this pattern and The Droid is Not for Sale (Rey & BB-8) to Chick Tech, a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to retaining women in the technology workforce, and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers.

And may the Force be with you!

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Word quilts are making a resurgence, and I want to tell you how this book can help you make them, whether you use its alphabet or one of the many other alphabets that are available in our quilty world.*

First of all, Quilt Talk® has a FULL alphabet: uppercase, lowercase, numbers, punctuation, special characters (all the ones above the numbers on your keyboard) and all the accent characters for Spanish and French languages.

It includes a chapter on how I do paper-piecing without using special rulers or tools, and how I pre-cut for paper-pieced letters to minimize fabric waste. I’ve had a lot of people write me about how easy my paper-piecing instructions are to follow, especially for paper-piecing newbies!

But the most useful parts of the book are probably the sections on how to SIZE your words and space your letters. Most letter patterns come in sizes that quickly get big, and if you want to say more than a few words you’re likely to end up with an unnecessarily huge quilt. This book covers the easy math for making the words come out the size YOU want them to be. And here’s the bonus… these concepts can be adapted to ANY alphabet patterns.

The book also has a great section on how to choose your fabric values and pattern textures for maximum impact. If you’re going to take the time to make a word quilt, let’s make sure it can be easily read!

So even if you’ve found another alphabet you want to try, Quilt Talk® will help you make the best use of it!

For a more detailed description of what the book covers, read here.

*And here’s a shout out to a few other alphabets available:

• Denyse Schmidt’s The Proverbial Quilt (print) (pdf)
• Tula Pink’s Modern Alphabet (pdf only)
• Elizabeth Hartman’s Refrigerator Magnets
• Diane Bohn’s (From Blank Pages) My First Alphabet and My ABC’s
• QuietPlay‘s extensive alphabet options

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The poor thing was loved to pieces, and Jessica asked me if I could rescue it for a few more years of cuddles. Challenge accepted!

As before, a disclosure: I know little about professionally restoring and conserving quilts, so please don’t look to me for authority. I just try to solve the problem with the resources I have, and we’re not trying to keep these things in museum display condition! We’re just trying to love them a little longer

The first thing I did was to separate the layers. It had a thin flannel sheet in the middle as batting (that had mostly turned into shaggy handfuls of lint) and the backing flannel had long since given up most of its fuzz. It was once tied through with something akin to perle cotton, but most of the ties had torn through or come unknotted.

The front was mostly polyester (you can see that some pieces were once garments – they had seams in them!) and a few squares of velour, now shredded to pieces.

I tossed the middle, and put the back and front through the wash. That polyester is bulletproof… when the apocalypse comes this quilt, the cockroaches, and Keith Richards will be the only things left standing!

I found some vintage polyester on Etsy (a trendy Kelly green with white polka-dots), and replaced all the velour squares with it.

Preserving the alpine print flannel on the back was important to Jessica. It was terribly threadbare and full of holes, so I culled the best chunk of it, and appliquéd it over some new green flannel.

And then added another flannel layer to it for batting, and sent it off for a quilt spa day with Nancy Stovall.

The quilt was originally envelope (or pillowcase) bound – no binding, and tied. Denser quilting makes the fabric in quilts last longer, but there’s no way to long-arm something AND envelope it. So we went with traditional layering, and I went shopping for polyester to make a binding.

The quilting proved challenging… all those chunky poly seams and intersections did not want to glide under the machine foot unattended, so Nancy ended up hand guiding it into swirls that artfully missed the problem spots.

I found a navy poly, and cut a 3” binding from it. What an adventure… it didn’t want to press in half, nor turn nice corners.

It’s back home with Jessica and Steve now. And I hear their pup is thrilled to have it on the bed!

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SQUILT is a valid word in my family – it means Special Quilt, and is reserved for the most honored quilts: the “loveys,” the “woobies,” the ones that achieve Velveteen Rabbit-like wearing out because they’ve been blankie-dragged through good times and bad. They’re not competition-worthy specimens, but they are fiercely fought over when it’s time to veg on the couch.

Squilts are the ones we’ll run to save in a disaster.

The word was first coined for this quilt, whose official title at the time of making (20 years ago!) was Spaceman Spud’s Squilt.

My son, Steve, and I are both big fans of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and the adventures of Calvin’s alter ego, the alliteration-loving Spaceman Spiff. Steve (sometimes called Spud), like many young boys, had a healthy interest in space adventures which was supported by a trip to Space Camp in Florida when he was 10, and endless sets of early Space LEGOS®. We came up with the idea that I would make him a space-themed quilt, and I began to collect fabrics for it.

Sometimes the things you’re looking for just aren’t out there, but it was a time rich in fabrics that would work: stars, suns, moons, planets and galaxies, celestial prints, zodiac constellations, spaceships, and whatnot.  A year later I began the quilt, using the book Square Dance, by Martha Thompson*. It was all the rage at the time

I finished it right in time for Steve to have a bad bout of pneumonia. He spent a couple of weeks on the couch with it, breaking it in. It quickly became his favorite Squilt, and despite owning many others**, it still is.

When I went to visit him this summer, it came home with me in the hopes that I could shore it up for another 20 years of love.

The inexpensive flannel on the back had become very threadbare, and was worn through in lots of places.

The binding was completely shredded.

Several spots on the front were worn and sun damaged. The cheapest of the fabrics (I wasn’t as discerning 20 years ago as I am now) were faded and showing a lot of wear from the quilt not being quilted densely.

We decided not to replace any of the front fabrics – frankly, I would almost need to re-make it. In the end, we opted to put on a new back (right over the original), re-quilt it with a denser, long-arm, edge-to-edge pattern, and re-bind it. I should stress here that I know very little about quilt restoration and conservation, so please don’t look to me for professional advice for that! Steve just wanted to love this squilt for a few more years without substantially changing it, so this was the best we came up with.

I enlisted my friend Nancy Stovall to do the quilting. She chose a great space-y, swirly design that added a lot of stabilization to the shifting fabrics (I had just quilted it in the ditch 20 years ago), but still left the quilt with its comforting suppleness. Let me tell you, Warm & Natural batting that has been loved for 20 years is a wonderful thing. It still has all its integrity (no balling up or migration), and yet softens up to drape like buttah. We didn’t want to lose that as it was one of the best things about snuggling up with this quilt.

On the back went heavy, high-end, woven Mammoth Flannel from Kaufman Fabrics. Hopefully it will wear a lot longer than the original chain store flannel. This quilt is proof positive that quality materials will last longer. Every cheap fabric in it is suffering, while all the Hoffman celestial prints are still going strong.

Finally, a new binding. I usually do double bias binding on all my quilts, with a hand finish. Bias lasts longer, and while it still wears out, it doesn’t split as easily as straight binding. And I’m proud to say I unpicked every stitch of the original hand binding finish, so I think I can say my handwork is good enough to hold up!

I have half the binding left to finish (yes, I have lots of ORANGE clips!) so it will be going home to Steve soon. It’s never been away from him so he’s anxious to get it back!

** Steve’s Rule for Mom’s Quilting: For every quilt made for any purpose, there will be one quilt made for Steve. He has informed me that I am woefully behind in my obligations since beginning Hunter’s Design Studio!

* NOT an affiliate link

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The first quilt is one I made about 20 years ago:

This quilt is known in my family as “The Black and White Quilt That Wasn’t Supposed To Be Green” and has been a “working quilt” for quite some time. The pattern is called Milky Way, from Rotary Roundup by Judy Hopkins and Nancy J Martin. This book and its sister, Rotary Riot are still great books for block-based stash-busting ideas. I remember collecting black and white fabrics for ages to make it. When it came to the 4-patches, I tried dark red (went brown), navy (disappeared), turquoise (screamed too brightly), and finally the green. I ended up making several other quilts from all those rejected 4-patches!

The quilt was mostly employed as a cover for my white couch, especially if we were slouching on it with our dinners. When my son moved away 9 years ago, it went with him. Somewhere along the line, an ex-girlfriend grabbed it to put between her car (that was stuck in snow) and the car that was pushing her out. The quilt came back from that experience with a huge L-shaped tear in it, all the way through to the back side.

We decided that, although the quilt has plenty of years left in it as a beach/car blanket, restoring it to its former glory wasn’t necessary. Whew! I no longer have any of those fabrics in my stash. So I went through my scrap and test block piles, and dug out some funky stuff. I stabilized the tear on both sides using Heat Press Batting Together Tape,  glue basted the edges of some scraps/blocks down, straight stitched the edges, and then stippled through it heartily.

It’s not a terribly elegant solution, but it’s okay. Function matters more than form here, and we’ve decided to just keep patching this one, like the Japanese technique called boro. I think it might become an interesting document of my fabric history at some point, and if nothing else, I hope my son and his wife have some great picnics on it!

Next up is this one:

It’s mostly polyester double-knits! It was made by my daughter-in-law’s grandmother, and has great sentimental value to her. She asked if I could do something to make it last a bit longer, and I’m honored to be trusted with it. So this is the next one under the needle, and I’ve already ordered some vintage double knit from Etsy to replace some velour squares that are in shreds. I’ve never sewn this type of thing before, so I anticipate quite an adventure.

Stay tuned!

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I made this particular hedgie pincushion pattern a couple of years ago for Janome. Since then, mine has beefed up his collection of needles, and is looking very hedgehog-like!

I decided to tidy up the Hedgie Pincushion pattern a bit, and put it in the shop here. The pattern doesn’t look like the ones I usually write – it’s a photo tutorial instead, with step by step images, which I think do a nice job of showing you the important little details. The hedgie is about 5” long, nose to tail.

I hope you’re changing your needle regularly – perhaps making one of these will help keep you motivated!  Be sure to share with me your photos of your Hedgies on Instagram!  I’m @huntersds there!  Be sure to use the hashtags #hedgiepincushion and #huntersdesignstudio when you post your photo.

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When I posted it to social media over the weekend, I had a few requests for details on how to make this quilt, so here they are!

First, you’ll need the pattern for Big Hearted. The pattern has three sizes – this is the middle of the three, the LAP sized quilt, which finishes at 44” x 63” (Orlando MQG is asking for a minimum of 40” x 60”).

This quilt is really fast to make… I’ve made it five times now, and once I’m done choosing fabrics, the top takes me about 3 or 4 hours #sewingatthespeedofsam

INSTRUCTIONS

On Page 4, modify the cutting instructions as follows (my color choices in parens for reference):

• Background fabric (black print): follow as written (note, if your fabric is 44” wide, start with 8 strips and cut the ninth if needed)
• Heart fabric (black and white print): follow as written
• Inner Heart fabric: skip and follow colors below
• Center Heart fabric: skip and follow colors below
• Accent Heart (white): follow as written
• Inner Border (black and white print): follow as written
• Outer Border (black print): follow as written

COLORS

You need 7 colors to render your rainbow. I used Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Teal (blue/green), Blue, and Purple.

Cut 1 strip of each color, the same width as the background fabrics x WOF

• Red: Cut 12 1/2”
• Orange: Cut 20 1/2”
• Yellow: Cut 22 1/2”
• Green: Cut 24 1/2”
• Teal: Cut 6 1/2” and 12 1/2”, plus 2 squares 2 1/2” x 2 1/2” and 4 squares 1 1/4” x 1 1/4” for the snowballs needed to make the Accent Heart
• Blue: Cut 20 1/2”
• Purple: Cut 12 1/2”

ASSEMBLY

• Make the Accent Heart per the instructions at on p5 (step 3).
• Lay out the parts of the quilt top per the drawing on p6, making the changes below (step 4).
• Omit all P, Q, R, S, T and U pieces.
• Replace with the cut colors from above. On the Teal column, place the smaller Teal piece on top, then the Accent Heart, then the larger Teal piece.
• Follow the assembly instructions in the pattern to complete the top.

If you want to see what people are making for this project, hop over to Instagram and search for #stitchedwithlove, #quiltsforpulse, #orlandolove, #orlandomqg. I’m so proud and humbled to be part of a community that makes such wonderful things.

This quilt is in the capable hands of Nancy Stovall at Just Quilting PDX for some long-arm artistry. I would also like to note that the fabric and quilting were donated by Me+You/Hoffman California Fabrics, and the batting was donated by The Warm Company. I’m more than thrilled to have their support to make such projects. There are many, many companies in the quilting industry donating the materials necessary to making and finishing these quilts, and I thought it important that you should know about them so you can support their products if you so choose.

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I’ve been told I shouldn’t use such a harsh word on myself, but it certainly is a clear statement of facts: I offered one of my quilts to QuiltCon, and it was not accepted for display. Don’t worry, my self-esteem is still quite intact… I love the quilt I made, and no amount of quilt show rejection will change that!

I have not attended the last two QuiltCon shows, so my impressions of what got in is somewhat distorted by the limitation of what can be seen on social media. I will say that, while I saw some envelope-pushing work in the feeds, I saw an incredible amount of “been there, seen that.” I have wondered on more than one occasion if the displayed quilts were chosen more for their illustration of and adherence to the definitions of modern quilting (as put forth by the Modern Quilt Guild) than for being perhaps more challenging examples of where quilt-making is going in the moment. Really, how many wonky what-evers (set off-center in a solid background with matchstick quilting) should be displayed? We get it! Point made! Mind you, it is their party, so they do get to groom the guest list. I will be attending the show in Pasadena next month, and am looking forward to making an informed opinion or two about the works in person. And of course, I’ll be sharing those thoughts here!

Here’s my rejected entry:

I made this quilt top in 2014 as I was developing my Five Stars pattern, with not a thought in my head about sending it to competition. I had been playing for some time with the idea of nesting stars, and thought the complexity of nesting them offset was a modern way of looking at things. I chose the color palette because I love ORANGE and teal, and love them both when paired with gray. I chose batiks as I’ve worked with them for years, and love the texture they have over solids. While they are often dismissed in a modern guild or shop as “your mother’s fabric,” they are one of the most hand-made fabrics available to us, a quality that I believe important to contemporary social and ecological interests. And if I’m being candid, I liked the idea of challenging the modern structural ideas with some batiks.

Photography by Bill Volkening

Once the top was done, I was so happy with it that I was bouncing about the studio. I knew my utilitarian quilting skills would do it a terrible disservice, so I hired Nancy Stovall to take it to the next level, and couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome. Truly, she leveled it up out of the park – it’s stunning. It was at that point that I thought, perhaps, I should show the quilt.

In general, quilt show competitions (not exhibitions – the distinction is important) bother me a bit. As a formally trained artist with an MFA, I find it frustrating that the usual criteria that separates the winner from the runners is craft. And for the record, I’m a HUGE proponent of attaining good craftsmanship; I just don’t think it’s the only thing to look at.

While I have no idea if the QuiltCon judges will be checking quilts for square and checking the binding miters to see if they are stitched (don’t laugh, I was critiqued about the lack of stitches in my miters some 20 years ago on a quilt that went to Paducah), the fact that such technical nit-picking seemed to outweigh artistry made me abandon competition years ago. I was tired of getting judges’ notes about my miters, and having no mention of my artistry, choice of colors, or my prowess with hand-dyeing my fabrics. I see us wanting our work to be considered ART, but then still approaching it like it’s CRAFT. It’s hard for Craft to ascend to Art when it’s judged less for the artistry than the craftsmanship. By these criteria, a Monet would be rejected because the paint was a bit thicker here than it was there.

I know… it’s a bit of a chewy conversation, but hey, I’m trained in thinking about art this way, and these are the thoughts I ponder in the wee hours. You can take the girl out of art school, but it’s hard to take the art school out of the girl!

Anyway! The quilt won’t be heading to QuiltCon, but no matter.

Oh, and I still don’t sew down my miters ;-p

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