One of my favorite ways to create quick flower quilts is to applique with the technique called No Sewing Until You Quilt It. It's a turned edge applique technique created by my friend Ann Holmes that allows you to easily build complicated quilts over a layer of French Fuse interfacing.

In this Combo Kit you will receive:

For this week you can pick up No Sewing until You Quilt It, 1 yard of French Fuse interfacing, and the bonus sunflower pattern for 24.99, five dollars off the usual price of $29.99.

On the topic of applique, we're moving forward with our summer Quilt Along. 

To give you an idea of the finished Goddess, here's a completed quilt top from Carol M., which she shared yesterday to our Machine Quilting Block Party facebook group. Isn't it beautiful? I love the batiks and her color choice, especially the red hair.

Ready to build the Eternal Love goddess quilt with me?  Learn how to use all the information we marked on each piece to connect the quilt together. This feels just like putting together a big puzzle and it's my favorite part of making a fusible applique quilt.

Find links to both the pattern for the Quilt Along as well as a few kits of fabric still available in the link above.

Last week on the podcast I featured one of my Goddess quilts, My Cup Runneth Over.

This quilt began the way most of my goddesses begin: a sudden flash, the image fully formed in my mind, and an overwhelming need to create what I've just seen.

This image came to me when I was neck deep in several projects and feeling very stressed out by life in general, and suddenly I began thinking about how lucky I was to be able to quilt every day. Most 27 year olds are just not able to work from home with their husband and son and have the freedom my lifestyle allows.

As I was feeling this sense of overabundance and deep gratitude, I had a flash of this quilt: a small goddess holding a cup of water which was brimming with bright blue water.

This is where the name, My Cup Runneth Over, comes from.

It’s never too late to learn a new skill! I have decided to learn how to paint with watercolors. Turns out, there’s quite a lot to it and it’s definitely not a fast skill to master.

Watercolor paints are random and weird and I can honestly say I don’t know what I’m doing.

What I love most about learning something new is the flow of trial and error. I paint something and it dries and I have to decide if I like it or not and if I want to throw more paint at it or leave it be.

I’ve ruined a few tests, but that’s kind of the point – they are tests! The more I paint, the more I know how to handle the paint and what to do with it and how much water to add and so on.

This same set of lessons also apply to quilting. Every quilt is a test. Every quilt is an experiment. Make something, finish it and decide if you like it or not. If you decide it’s awful, throw more fabric, thread, yarn or glitter at it (glitter makes everything better) and see if you like it better.

The point is to learn by doing.

Do more stuff. Make more messes. Don't get attached to the results.

I'm off to make more messes with watercolors! What will you make a mess with today?

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day