Last year we took our longest trip: to Glacier National Park from Colorado. That might not seem like a feat, we have a travel trailer after all. And it’s not, but our preference is to maximize our time and minimize the time spent doing routine tasks, like shopping for food. We have some food sensitivities […]
Kimberbell: I thought this would be a good alternative to RNK Embroidery Perfection tape, as it’s readily available on Amazon, but it has some downsides: not enough structure to provide stability for flatback stitching, and not sticky enough for repeated use. I tried to use it for a full block, and became too irritated to […]
“Mom, I feel overwhelmed.” My son came to me the other day. Truly he has a lot on his plate. Our conversation led to a topic I’m really passionate about: creativity. It’s not just that I spend my life in la-la land. I live in the same world you do. I have the same ups […]
EPP: It depends on the pattern, and depends on how you are joining blocks together. If you are making the Temperature Quilt pattern, you can remove the papers once all the sides have been sewn. If you are making National Park blocks, you may see that I don’t baste all the edges of the outside […]
It’s always nice when you can get lots of mileage out of one pattern; believe it or not, you can get a good amount of mileage out of this pattern. Using the Bighorn Sheep pattern, you can create a Desert Bighorn, and a Dall Sheep. The Desert Bighorn Sheep can be seen throughout the western […]
In this blog post, you’ll find some helpful tips for making the Glacier National Park project in Quilts and More magazine. Creating a realistic block is much easier than you think. To start, look at some photos of Glacier – notice the colors and the textures of the mountains, sky, foliage. If you are looking […]
There are 2 ways to make your park stamper pattern. For both, you must scan your stamps into your computer. I have found that the easiest method uses a free Canva account, the other method uses PowerPoint or Canva with Spoonflower. You can use Adobe Illustrator if you have it, but it’s not necessary. (I […]
Would you believe that my National Parks quilt project started out as the Road Trip pattern? I had no intention of adding to it, but quilters started asking “What would you use for _______?” “I need a ______ block!” And some 200 patterns later, here we are. You might be daunted by a gargantuan task […]
“I don’t have time…” We’ve all said it. Maybe that’s the point. We aren’t meant to fit it all in. Every time we travel I ponder the pace of life. There used to be a time where people didn’t fill every moment with something. It was marked by times and seasons. Spring, summer and autumn […]
When I started making the National Park patterns, the one color I didn’t have was brown. I had strong opinions about brown (in that I didn’t like it). I bought 2 brown Kona solids, an orange with a splatter print, a sky fabric (which ended up being my ABSOLUTE favorite), a black with some lines, […]