Happy almost holidays everyone! I just wanted to tell you about a new free paper-piecing block pattern you can download from me over at Sew Mama Sew. The Icicle Star is a great block to adorn a pouch or pillow or as the center of your own medallion quilt, and the download includes 6" and 12" block templates so you can go big or small! Check it out right here!


Happy holidays!

Wow, December has arrived, friends! Time for a new Lucky Star, the last in the 2014 series. The Persnickety Star is a really unique paper pieced star, with an interesting, irregular frame around the star to draw you into that center star, and some additional star points around the frame for extra pop. It may look like a lot of pieces, but it comes together surprisingly easily!


How are you doing with your Lucky Stars? If you're saving them for your next sewing retreat or a rainy day, no worries, but if you're making them, I'd love to see them! You can add hashtag #luckystarsbom on Instagram or Facebook to share them! Have a great day :)

It's no secret that I adore working with solids, so when I found out that Kona was celebrating their 30th birthday, I wanted in on the fun! I love the crisp, graphic look at that solids bring to any project, and Kona has the largest selection of colors so I'm often sewing with Kona solids! Today is my stop on the Kona 30 blog hop, in which thirty fabulously talented designers are sharing the fantastic quilts that they've sewn up to honor Kona and their 303 amazing shades. The quilt I've created for Kona's big birthday is my Eternity Ring quilt and pattern!

For my contribution, I created a new pattern which I'm calling Eternity Ring. I wanted to play around with the idea of a paper pieced wedding ring quilt, as curves and I have yet to really play nice with one another. My Eternity Ring quilt is sewn up in gorgeous, rich Kona solids in shades of emerald and fuchsia, with one singular block sewn together in grayscale. I love the contrast the one gray block brings to the whole quilt. I pulled some of my favorite shades of Kona, like Kona Pond (quite possibly my all-time-favorite Kona solid), Kona Cerise, Kona Iron, Kona White and Kona Black and threw in some newer favorites, Kona Kale, Kona Dark Violet, Kona Charcoal, and Kona Lemon for this beauty. The blocks alternate to create a faux double wedding ring look, which is created through four paper piecing templates, which come together to create the quarter-block units for completing the blocks.


Never paper pieced before? No worries! The pattern comes with detailed instructions, accompanied by photographs to help visual learners work through the pattern. You can also take advantage of a great deal on my new Craftsy class, Start Foundation Paper Piecing, which has boatloads of tips and tricks to make paper piecing a fun, addictive experience!

This foundation paper-pieced quilt pattern is now available through my Pattern Shop as well as through Craftsy, yay!! The pattern also includes a complete cutting list and fabric yardage instructions for four different quilt sizes: baby, lap, twin, and queen.
And to celebrate the wonderful 30 Years of Kona Cotton Solids, I'm doing a little giveaway today - you can enter the Rafflecopter below to win a beautiful charm pack of the Kona Brights and a copy of my Eternity Ring pattern as well! You must enter to win by the end of the day today, November 30th, so hop to it!




a Rafflecopter giveaway 

There's only a few more stops on the 30 Quilts for 30 Years blog hop, but there's plenty to catch up on if you haven't seen all the fabulous quilts! You can also see all 30 designs in Kaufman's 30 Quilts for 30 Years Lookbook. Check out the great collection of Kona quilts by all of these fabulous designers listed below!

Week 1: 
Saturday, November 1st: Johanna Masko 
Sunday, November 2nd: Alyssa of  Aria Lane 
Monday, November 3rd: Dorie of Tumblingblocks 
Tuesday, November 4th: Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations 
Wednesday, November 5th: Daniela of Cozy Quilt Designs 
Thursday, November 6th: Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts 
Friday, November 7th: Anita Grossman Solomon 
Saturday, November 8th: Debbie of Esch House Quilts 

Week 2: 
Sunday, November 9th: Alex of Teaginny 
Monday, November 10th: Darlene Zimmerman 
Tuesday, November 11th: Nichole Ramirez with Aurifil 
Wednesday, November 12th: Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts 
Thursday, November 13th: Lee of Freshly Pieced 
Friday, November 14th: Julie of Jaybird Quilts 
Saturday, November 15th: Latifah of The Quilt Engineer 

Week 3: 
Sunday. November 16th: Elizabeth Hartman 
Monday, November 17th: Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting 
Tuesday, November 18th: Karrie of Freckled Whimsy 
Wednesday, November 19th: Valori Wells 
Thursday, November 20th: Marilyn of Quilt Moments 
Friday, November 21st: Cortney Heimerl 
Saturday, November 22nd: Shayla and Kristy of Sassafras Lane Designs 

Week 4: 
Sunday, November 23rd: Shea of Empty Bobbin Sewing 
Monday, November 24th: Carrie Strine 
Tuesday, November 25th: Rachel of Stitched in Color 
Wednesday, November 26th: Liz of Lady Harvatine 
Saturday, November 29th: Carolyn Friedlander 

Week 5: 
Sunday, November 30th: Elizabeth of Don’t Call Me Betsy - You are here :)
Monday, December 1st: Emily of Carolina Patchworks 
Tuesday, December 2nd: Ken Kaufman 
Wednesday, December 3rd: Grand Finale!

Looking for my Black Friday Sale? It ends tonight! Grab the coupon code right here!
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The last several years I've been more of an online Black Friday shopper, so I'm not heading out to get in any crazy long lines or anything like that today. Rather, I'm spending the day at home trimming the house (and the tree!) with festive Christmas decor. And this year, I'm super excited to be adding handmade stockings to our holiday decorations.



Each stocking features a 6" finished block from my Lucky Stars Block of the Month clubs from the last two years, and I'm so glad I chose to add them. They add so much sparkle to the finished stockings! Here they are, in all their glory!







I used Shea's great Sleigh Bells Stockings pattern, which was super easy to follow and wonderfully well-written. If you're thinking about making stockings this year, I cannot recommend this pattern enough. The shape of the stocking template is just what I was hoping for and the instructions were super clear!

Not a Lucky Stars subscriber yet? Check out my big Black Friday pattern sale as well right here so you can treat yourself to a little something today! Have a wonderful Friday!

Drumroll, please! It's finally time to share my newest Craftsy class, Start Paper Piecing!

If you've followed my blog for more than five minutes, then you probably know how much I adore paper piecing. It's hands down my favorite kind of piecing, and one of my favorite topics to teach. Learning a new technique can be a daunting experience, but with this class, I'm right there with you, on demand, to help you build your paper piecing confidence! Most of the blocks I sew these days are paper pieced, and I love to share my tips and tricks for making the technique as simple as possible.
Start Paper Piecing walks you through a total of seven different paper pieced blocks, ranging from some interesting angled blocks to a few star blocks and even some pictorial blocks. There's a wide variety, and there's me to hold your hand the entire way. I'll tell you about how I fell in love with paper piecing, and give you all the information you need to get started with paper piecing!


If you haven't checked out Craftsy before, let me tell you, you can learn just about anything there. Seriously, they have such a wild variety of classes! Want to prepare a new dessert for your Thanksgiving dinner next week? No worries, Craftsy has you covered with their Sweet & Simple: 10 Classic Desserts class with Nick Malgieri. Are you interested in trying out garment sewing? Let Deborah Moebes help you with her Design & Sew an A Line Skirt class. Itching to make some quilts for the holidays? 3 Blocks 30 Quilts with Kate Colleran has some great setting ideas that will get your creative juices positively flowing. I'm itching to check out the Design It, Stitch It Hand Embroidery class with Jessica Marquez, which looks super fun, but I think you get my point - they really have something for just everyone. The best part is that whenever you purchase a Craftsy class, it's yours to watch as many times as you want, to rewind and fast forward as you please, and to ask as many questions as you want - that's been one of the most fun parts about my first class, Start Free-Motion Quilting! I love getting to interact with other quilters.

So what are you waiting for? Jump in and fall in love with paper piecing! Get a $20 discount on your class registration when you click right here to register. Have a super day!

It's all paper piecing all the time these days in my sewing room, and this weekend I finally finished off a little pattern that's been half-finished for an embarrassingly long while, the Coffee Cup block. This is a mini-pattern, available as a PDF pattern now both at my Pattern Shop and Craftsy. There will be a few other mini-pattern releases over the next few months. Every mini pattern will include a paper pieced block template in two sizes, in this case 6" and 8", as well as complete cutting instructions. These mini-patterns, however, are intended for those with some paper piecing experience, as step-by-step instructions are not included.


If you've done more than a block or two with paper piecing, you've probably noticed that the process of paper piecing does not change from block to block, the technique is identical, so that's precisely why I'm introducing these mini-patterns. Quick and easy fun paper pieced blocks are a great way to add some fun pizzazz to a zipper pouch or a tote, or to use in a mini quilt!



Each mini-pattern also includes a piecing diagram to show you exactly where each piece in the block winds up.

Love the idea of paper piecing but haven't given it a try yet? Stay tuned tomorrow for the official release of my newest Craftsy class, Start Paper Piecing! I'm super excited to share the projects with you all. Have a fantastic day!

You know you really love a sewing machine when you buy it twice! And that's what I did just recently - I've been sewing on a used Juki TL98Q for over the last year, and after a completely-my-fault-mishap with it in which I broke the presser foot lever, I decided it was a sign that I ought to buy the new model, the TL2010Q. So that's exactly what I did from my local Juki dealer Gigi's Fabrics, and oh my goodness, it's true love :)

Goodness gracious, how is it already the second week of November?! Deadlines and work has been fast and furious over the last several weeks, hence my absence here around the blog, but I'm trying to get back into the swing of writing and setting up posts in advance. First up is catching up with the Lucky Stars Block of the Month Club!

The November Star is the Arcadian Star. As usual, this star has loads of potential, and can be really quite unique depending on your color placement. Here's mine for this month:

I also made an Arcadian Star for Spring Market for Robert Kaufman, with a bit of a different look. I'm not usually much of a purple fan, but I really like it in this block!



We've got just one more Lucky Star Block of the Month coming up, for December, and that will be a wrap on the Lucky Stars Block of the Month Club! Not a member yet? No worries, you can still join in the paper piecing fun right here. And not to worry, I do have some new paper piecing patterns coming very soon through my brand new Craftsy class, Start Paper Piecing, which will be coming out later this month. Stay tuned!!

Oh my goodness, we're getting to the end of the calendar! The first of the month is here again, this time to ring in October. This month's Lucky Star block of the month is the Galactic Star, a supremely dimensional block with lots of attitude.


This block is pieced using irregular triangle templates, which is a good bit different than the majority of the Lucky Stars blocks thus far, but not to worry - it's definitely not rocket science :) In fact, I think you'll really enjoy the simplicity of this block and the different looks you can create! Don't forget to tag your photos if you share them on Instagram or Facebook with #luckystarsbom so I can see what you create! As always, you can join in the block of the month club at any time by visiting my Pattern Shop, and you won't miss a single pattern from the series!

Do you remember the big craze around the Single Girl quilt a few years ago? There was a great quilt-along hosted by Katy Jones focused around the beautiful pattern by Denyse Schmidt, and it was my first foray into curves. I even managed to make a king-sized Single Girl quilt top through it all, but it was a painstaking experience for me, to say the least. I have always loved the concept of wedding ring quilts and the beauty in the piecing, but curves and I have yet to really become good friends. I've been kicking around the idea of a twist on a double wedding ring quilt for a while now, and I thought more specifically about the idea of making a ring-style quilt using angled pieces that create the illusion of curves, which led to my Chain + Link pattern last year. It was a satisfying finish, but I didn't feel "done" with the idea of an angular ring, so I kept fiddling, and that's where my newest pattern, Eternity Ring, comes from.



My Eternity Ring quilt is sewn up in gorgeous, rich Kona solids in shades of emerald and fuchsia, with one singular block sewn together in grayscale. I love the contrast the one gray block brings to the whole quilt. The blocks alternate to create a faux double wedding ring look, which is created through four paper piecing templates, which come together to create the quarter-block units for completing the blocks. In the grand scheme of my paper piecing projects, this one comes together fairly easily and quite straight-forwardly.



Quilt Stats
name: Eternity Ring
size: 60" x 72"
pattern: Eternity Ring by Elizabeth Dackson, available now through my Pattern Shop and Craftsy
fabrics: Kona Kale, Pond, Maize, Lemon, Cerise, Dark Violet, White, Iron, Charcoal, and Black
quilting: meandering stipple by me in white (#2024) Aurifil 50 wt thread
binding: Kona Dark Violet

Good morning! Monday, Monday again. Bring on the coffee! And bring on the new issue of Quilt Now, it's so bright and cheery - just the perfect thing to accompany my morning coffee. Have you checked out Quilt Now yet? It's a lovely new publication, with uber-talented editor Katy Jones, and issue two is available now, from Pink Castle Fabrics. And I'm super excited to share with you my first quilt pattern for Quilt Now, the Whirling Dervish quilt, a paper pieced extravaganza of a quilt!


Whirling Dervish is a crazy paper-pieced wonder - one that I initially designed with both y-seams and paper piecing, but since I decided that was beyond evil, I reworked the templates to create the block using strictly paper piecing. That being said, this block isn't for the faint of heart, it's intense, but gorgeous, and giant too - the block finishes at 18",


Because the piecing is so intense, I knew the blocks needed some negative space to float on in order to really appreciate all the crazy piecing, so there's only four blocks in the quilt, floated on a boatload of negative space to yield a nice lap-sized quilt.



Issue three is coming out really soon, and I have to say, I've really enjoyed the first two thus far and can't wait to see what's in the next issue! Hope you all have a wonderful Monday :)

September's Lucky Star Block of the Month is the Echo Star, and if you're a subscriber, it's sitting in your inbox right now, ready for you to have some paper piecing fun this Labor Day. If you aren't, you can join in the fun any time right here! This is a simple A/B template block, perfect for some simple chain piecing, with just 8 pieces used to create the finished block. The block uses a little log-cabin-esque piecing method to create the different layers of the star. As always, you've got all the cutting information you need in the pattern, as well a fun coloring sheet so you can experiment with your coloration for the block. I think this block would be just gorgeous in a warm/cool rainbow effect!

The Echo Star technically made its debut back at Spring Market in the Robert Kaufman booth with two other Lucky Star minis and somehow I never got around to sharing about them! The booth was just gorgeous, with loads of beautiful quilts done up in solids, and I was super excited to have a few Lucky Stars featured in the booth. These three little minis now travel with Robert Kaufman to shows and such, as they feature beautiful solids from Elizabeth Hartman's Designer Palette of Kona colors. Happy Labor Day to those of you who celebrate!

Good morning everyone, happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great weekend. I must say, I did indeed have a great weekend, capped off my some super happy mail that was delivered to me on Saturday - the summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited with my name on the cover. Seriously?! Yep, that's my name all right. Wow. Granted, that's not my quilt, but gosh, to see my name on a magazine cover is just beyond astounding to me.

The summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited features an interview with me, which was a lot of fun to do, as well as several photos of some of my favorite quilts, and one of my favorite photos of the munchkin, working away in EQ on a sick day a few months ago. He was super excited when I showed him the picture of him in a real, live magazine.


There's also a pattern from me in the magazine, called Exploding Star. Exploding Star is (shocker) a paper-pieced star pattern that uses several different templates to create the exploding effect. I sewed this one up in assorted solids from Modern Solids II by Alissa Haight Carlton, and I love the sparkling effect they give to the piecing.


The quilting on this mini is done in several different coordinating shades of 50 wt Aurifil, my go-to free-motion quilting thread. There's several different styles of fmq throughout the quilt, in the different areas, which was a lot of fun to do. I also did some "faux" straight line quilting, where I use my free-motion foot and outline certain areas of the quilt. My relationship with my walking foot is a bit lackluster, so I rarely use it - instead I do straight-ish line quilting with the free-motion foot, which is way more comfortable for me.



This issue should be hitting your local Barnes & Nobles and Jo-Anns and such in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for it. There's some really fun patterns inside, including a fun pixelated guitar pattern by Penny Barnes. Have a great day!

Quilt Stats
name: Exploding Star
pattern: by yours truly, available in the Summer 2014 issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited
fabrics: assorted solids from In the Beginning's Modern Solids II
quilting: linear L's, zig zags, pulleys, wishbones, and faux straight-line quilting all in assorted coordinating shades of Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread

This quilt was something I sketched out nearly two years ago and it languished in my design notebook until I pulled into EQ a little over a year ago and shared it with the lovely folks at Modern Quilts Unlimited. I had a crazy idea of using the Riley Blake neon solids that had just come out at the time, and thought it would make a really bold quilt...bold is quite possibly a giant understatement with this quilt!

I didn't realize it was possible to have cold weather after June 1st, but on my trip to Minnesota last week, I was super thankful I had packed a light coat! While I was in town for the Minnesota Quilt Show, I trekked into downtown St. Cloud to find coffee. I was able to find a cute little coffee shop, Central Perk, but along the way, I found myself in windy 50 degree weather. Normally, that would be nice and refreshing, but when you've been in 90+ degree weather for many weeks, 50 feels a lot colder than it used to. After my first coffee trip, I came prepared, with my hoodie to help keep me warm, but it was awfully nice to feel the brisk Minnesota wind. I had a lovely trip to Minnesota, in spite of a couple of minor travel snafus, and I had a great time teaching there!
I wanted to share a new mini I made for my paper piecing class, Discover the Joy of Paper Piecing - this little mini uses three Lucky Stars blocks from the 2013 Block of the Month club plus a bonus block that has not been part of either the 2013 or 2014 club (pictured above). I love the look of a beautiful paper pieced block in solids, but I wanted to have fun with the background, so I snagged a fun black and white pin dot from my stash for the background. I think it gives the blocks a less serious, harsh look than they would have otherwise, while still leaving the blocks crisp and graphic. I had such a great time with this class. It was a great group of students, and I can't wait to teach it again soon. In the meantime, I can't wait to find a place to hang this little mini until the next time I teach this class!




Quilt Stats
name: Lucky Stars Jr
size: 24" square
pattern: three Lucky Stars 2013 blocks plus one bonus unreleased block
fabrics: assorted Kona solids and black on white pin dot
quilting: meandering stipple in 50 wt white (#2024) Aurifil
binding: black pin dot on white to match background of mini

I'm guest posting again today over at Sew Mama Sew, sharing my top three methods for testing out quilting stitches without sewing a single stitch. I don't know about you, but I positively detest having to rip out quilting stitches. I think most of us prefer to avoid the seam ripper when possible! So I really like getting an idea of what my stitches might look like before stitching them, thus preventing as much ripping as possible. Check out my post right here :)


Speaking of quilting, if you are looking for some new quilting stitches to master this summer, you might want to pop over to Craftsy over the next few days, as they're having a giant summer sale, with big deals on all their classes, including Angela Walters's latest class, Little Changes Big Variety. Have a great day!

Remember my Mod Nine Patch quilt from eons ago? Okay, it was two years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago :) When my sweet friend Sara Lawson told me she had designed a fabric line for Art Gallery and showed me some swatches a while back, I was equal parts super excited for her and just itching to make something with her new prints! The prints in real life most definitely did not disappoint. Rich colors, fun prints, and I absolutely adore the black and white NeighborHoods print. I will definitely be buying some serious yardage of that one :) As soon as I saw the prints in person, this quilt is what popped into my head - it's perfect for prints like hers, prints that aren't exactly small scale, that need some size to properly shine.

The other reason I think this quilt came to mind is that I really loved the colors, and I knew that if I used the same design tactic I used with my original Mod Nine Patch quilt (solids + fun prints) that it would be really awesome, and I'm super happy with how this one turned out.

I had forgotten how quick this quilt is to put together, so the other thing I worked on with this finish is an update to the original free tutorial, adding several different size options as well as some new diagrams and such. The new free pattern is available right here.
Sara's new line hits stores any day now, so keep your eyes peeled for it - you're going to need some. Trust me on that :)

Quilt Stats
name: Jungle Ave Mod Nine Patch
size: 48" square
fabrics: Jungle Ave prints by Sara Lawson for Art Gallery Fabrics (coming out super soon!) and assorted coordinating Art Gallery Pure Elements Solids
pattern: Mod Nine Patch free pattern by yours truly
quilting: simple stipple in white 50 wt Aurifil
binding: Art Gallery Pure Elements in Caviar (black)