Sunflower Quilt for Summer!

Published: Wed, 06/24/15

Hi ,

We're officially in SUMMER and I have a beautiful quilt to share with you today! This sunflower quilt was made by Laurel Collier using Ann Holmes No Sewing until You Quilt It technique!

Laurel shared about the technique:

THANK YOU Leah for the free pattern with the No Sew Until you Quilt book... I just adore these flowers, the process was very different but after set up it was kind of like sitting at my desk putting together a fabric puzzle.

It's so funny Laurel should say that because I always liked to call this technique Puzzle Quilting!

To celebrate the start of summer and help you make a super cute Sunflower Quilt of your own, we're running a quick flash sale on Ann's book, a yard of french fuse, and the FREE Sunflower quilt pattern for just $27.95!

Walking Foot Quilting - Zigzag Path
Let's tackle another t-shirt block this week with a fun zigzag design you can quilt with your walking foot!

In this week's video I share many tips about rotating the quilt and echoing while quilting this design in the border of a t-shirt block.

I've received many questions this past week on how to attach walking feet to specific machines. Many machines now have dual feed systems that attach in a unique way to the machine.
For example, the Janome Horizon 7700 that I owned several years ago had a two part walking foot system that locked together to create the dual feed system.

Most of these systems are unique to the machine so the best place to look for help will be your machine manual or your dealer.
Leah, Josh, and James Attend Hero Con
I was THRILLED with the response to my new Light Up Your Life series we're posting on Saturdays. This week I shared  post on how easy it can be to confuse the strong emotions fear and excitement

This weekend I had a great opportunity to practice feeling and expressing excitement during Heroes Con, a 3 day comic book convention that takes place annually in Charlotte, NC.
This was our second year attending the con, but our first year Cosplaying.

Cosplaying is essentially dressing up in a costume and pretending to be that character, usually in a very public place! I was Princess Zelda from Nintendo's Zelda video games.

In the game, Zelda is the damsel in distress that is always needing to be rescued by the hero, Link. There were a lot more Link characters in costume and I tried to get photographs with as many as I could, even the cute kids!

Dressing up as a video game character might seem like an odd thing for a 31 year old woman to do, but I honestly had SO MUCH FUN. It was a creative adventure to build the costume, and even more fun to dress up, put on my funky ears, and pose for people to snap photos on the convention floor.

I also realized that this is the perfect place for young kids to get into sewing and quilting. They're eager to make their own costumes and props, even if they have to use staples and duct tape to do it. These are our future quilters!


Unfortunately James wasn't interested in dressing up this year, but Josh has spent months putting together a unique, original costume - a Soviet era Invisible Man. Here he is improving Cold War 1980s relations with Captain America:
So that's it for this week! Remember to check out our featured book of the week, No Sewing until You Quilt It, which comes with one yard of French Fuse interfacing and the free Sunflower Quilt Pattern!

Let's go quilt!

Leah Day