Now that my new fabric collection, Honey Locust, has shipped to stores, I am busy making all the things!  The first project I made was a quick one using the Echelons Cheater Print.

I whipped up a new ironing board cover (I know, I know, I just made one with my last cheater print), but I couldn't help myself!  It's such a quick project, and I thought these softer colors would go beautifully in my sewing room.

THIS is the tutorial I use to make ironing board covers.  I've shared it many times before.
It just takes an hour or so to make, and I often have all the supplies on hand.

It's such a sweet, happy print and oh so quilty, don't you think!!??

This little ironing board cover is bringing me a lot of joy right now.  

I also really love my Oliso iron.  I love the color, the weight, the heat, the long automatic shutoff feature, and the extra-long cord!  This is my second Oliso iron.  I had my first one for 7-10 years and knew I would be getting another one when the first one broke en route to a quilting retreat!

Anyways, if you're interested in making one of these covers too, I've got just the amount of this cheater fabric you need to make one just like it, listed in my Etsy shop HERE.

I would also love to make a quilt coat and a tote bag with this cheater print.

What would you make with it?

Honey Locust - My New Fabric Collection!

 About a year and a half ago, I began working on my newest fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs.  It's called Honey Locust, and I am happy to announce that it has finally shipped to stores! 

Honey Locust is an homage to my grandparents, who lived in a cute little house on Locust Avenue in Pleasant Grove, Utah, for many years.  Before that, they lived in Laie, Hawaii for 25 years.  My grandpa was a cowboy and a history professor.  My grandma was a quilter and a homemaker.  Their home in Pleasant Grove was on the historic registry, and it was full of learning and love (as well as lots of quilts and antiques!)  I have many memories of riding horses, learning skills such as quilting and canning, working alongside family while painting their picket fence, and singing songs while my grandpa played the guitar and taught us about our heritage.  We worked together and played together at that sweet little house on Locust Avenue, and I miss my grandparents dearly.

In this collection, you'll find cozy colors such as grove green, sky blue, berry pink, honeycomb yellow, lead navy blue, petal pink, saddle brown, and linen.  The names remind me of Pleasant Grove, picking cherries and grapes on my grandparents' property, Utah (the beehive state), my grandpa - the teacher and cowboy, and fresh linen sheets hanging on a clothesline. 

The large floral print (bottom fabric below) is called Gigi's Garden.

The grandkids called my grandma Gigi (she is the namesake of my company!)

There are 9 different prints plus one "cheater" print.

I'm kind of obsessed with the cheater print and want to make "all the things" with it!

The cheater print was inspired by a quilt I made several years ago (and that was inspired by several antique quilts I had seen around).  I kept meaning to write a pattern for the quilt, but it just never happened!  When it came time to design a cheater print for this collection, I knew I wanted to recreate the quilt on fabric!  I love that design, and I love that the blocks are even smaller than the ones in my quilt.  Everything is cuter when it's tiny, right!?

Honey Locust Rolie Polies, 5" Stackers, 10" Stackers, and Fat Quarter Bundles are available.

I hope you're seeing just how scrappy this collection is!

So many prints and colors!  It's been a blast to work with!

I've designed 3 new patterns to go along with Honey Locust.  First up is one of the first patterns I ever designed - with a major update!  I omitted some outdated appliqué and included one more size option.  It's called Square Root and it's 2-1/2" strip-friendly.

Next up is a row-style quilt called The Locust House Row Quilt.  Again, it was inspired by my grandparents' house.  My grandma also had a few row-style quilts that I admired greatly so I knew I wanted to design one for this collection.  It finishes at 62" x 81" and would make a great block of the month program for any shop!  Or a great scrap buster project if you want to make it on your own!

And finally, Checkered Spools.  In honor of my grandma, who taught me how to quilt!  It comes with instructions for two size options and is 2-1/2" strip-friendly!

I can't wait to share more with you soon!  I am busy making all the samples for these quilts (and more!) so stay tuned!  For the most up-to-date info, follow me on Instagram (@gigis_thimble) or check-out my Etsy shop for new patterns and fabric by clicking HERE.

I'd love to hear what you think of Honey Locust and the patterns I've designed to go along with it!

And if you really want to do me a favor, please tell your local fabric store about this collection!  I would appreciate that so much!  Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for stopping by today!

Sewing Machine Mat and Organizer Tutorial

 Hi friends!  Today I want to share a fun project I made for the Riley Blake Designs YouTube channel!  It's for a sewing machine mat that will keep your notions close by and organized during any sewing session, whether you're at home or away.

You've probably seen tutorials for these mats before but this one uses my Pineapple Block Cheater Print which is part of my Feels Like Home fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs.  Any cheater print would be cute for this project but you know I love Pineapple Blocks! This print features little 6" Pineapple Blocks so it has a big "wow" factor and would be cute in any sewing space.

Mine just so happens to match an ironing board cover that I made a few months ago. 

You can check that project out HERE!  It includes a link to the tutorial I use.  

The sewing mat has a large pocket on one side that is meant to hang off your sewing table.  You can customize the size of each compartment to hold all of your favorite notions. I especially love taking my mat to quilt retreats so that all of my notions stay in my own sewing space.  There's usually a lot going on at retreats and it's easy for things to get misplaced.

It also has ric rac on the side so you can roll it up for easy transport.

You could use some beautiful ribbon instead if you prefer.

Check out the YouTube video HERE for all the details.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy quilting!

Finished Uneven 9-Patch Quilt

 Hello friends! On November 30th, I shared a free pattern (on my blog) for an Uneven 9-patch quilt and today, I want to share my finished quilt! (Click HERE for my original post about starting this project.)

I wanted to make a 2-color quilt for my king-size bed using these two fabrics I designed.  The cream fabric is called Seeing Stars for the Hush Hush 4 low-volume collection for Riley Blake Designs.  And the green fabric is called Sketchy Leaves for my Feels Like Home collection with RBD.

I worked on the quilt top throughout December 2024 and finished it right after Christmas.  It was fun working on something kind of festive in December but I love that the fabrics aren't Christmasy so they'll be great in my bedroom all year round!

It's a big quilt!  It finishes at 112" x 102".

I found this beautiful fabric for the back.  It's so classy and matched the green well.

My cute mom stopped by my house one day and helped me line up the backing pieces so the print matched up.  So glad we took the time to do that!  She is a really good seamstress so she showed me some good tricks!

Pretty darn good, right?!?  Thanks mom!!!

I had my quilter, Jen Ostler (in Highland, UT.) quilt it with a 1" grid pattern.  Grid quilting is always a favorite of mine; it's so timeless!  Jen did her signature move and quilted an extra little object into the quilting (in this case - a quilty star) which makes for a fun game of I-Spy!  Do you see the star below?

After I bound the quilt in the same green Sketchy Leaves fabric, I found some coordinating pillows to tie everything together.  I already had the artwork above my bed so I just pulled light green, natural, and gold colors from those prints to use as my pillow colors!  I got all of the pillows that you see here from a wonderful local shop called Layers Bedding.  It's at Gardner Village in West Jordan, Utah.  They add the perfect finishing touch and make my bed feel so cozy and inviting!

I love how the different sizes, colors, textures, shapes, and prints of the pillow fabrics add a lot of warmth to the room.  It took a lot of time to find the perfect combination but it was fun. The process was similar to doing a fabric pull for a quilt and I love that part of quilt-making!

If you want to make a quilt like this, you can download the free pattern HERE.

It includes instructions for 5 quilt-size options and would be cute in any colorway!

Have you ever made a 2-color quilt?  They're so classic; I just love them.

Tell me, what colors would you use if you made a quilt like this?

Feels Like Home Quilt

 Anyone else feeling like they need to finish a few projects before the end of the year?  I've got about 

3-1/2 quilts to bind so I'll be watching all the Christmas movies for the next two weeks while I try to get those finished!  I watched Haul Out the Holly on Netflix while finishing the binding on my Feels Like Home quilt.  It was a cute movie about a town that is over-the-top festive and a girl...who is not!

I hosted a quilt-along for this pattern in August and September and enjoyed making it alongside some of you.  I always love seeing the different colorways people choose.  I especially loved the red and white version and the Christmas version I saw.  If only there were enough time and money to make them all!

I used fabrics from my first fabric collection with Riley Blake Designs called, Feels Like Home for this quilt.  The collection has 10 low-volume prints and 14 saturated prints that were all inspired by my hometown and my home - my favorite place to be!

The pattern incorporates Heart blocks, Log Cabin blocks, and Courthouse Steps blocks.  I had been wanting to make a Courthouse Steps pattern since the first quilt I ever made was a scrappy Courthouse Steps quilt.  So this is what I came up with!

The roof unit of the house block is made using a technique called foundation paper-piecing.  There are only 5 pieces in each roof unit and only 13 houses so it's totally doable!  This is a great opportunity to practice FPP if you haven't tried it before.  And I actually have a video tutorial HERE for this specific block, if you want to check it out.

FPP is a great technique for getting challenging angles and accurate seams!  It looks a lot harder than it really is too!  Have you tried it before?

My friend, Jen Ostler quilted it for me.  She is the best.  She trims each quilt, ties it up with a ribbon and attaches a chocolate to the receipt.  She puts her heart into each quilt and is seriously the sweetest person ever!

She also quilts a tiny hidden object into each quilt - which makes for a fun game of hide-n-seek!  This time it was a star.  Can you see it in the photo below?  I love that little personal touch!

The panto I chose for this quilt is called Heart of the Home and I knew before I even finished making the quilt top that I wanted that design.  It's just perfect!

Jen tweaked the panto just a tad to make the proportion of the houses match the proportion of MY houses!  She also made sure the chimneys were on the same side as MY chimneys!  She did that all on her own.  She really is the best!

I bound it with this fun floral stripe from my collection, Feels Like Home.  

It's called Flower Beds in the color Night.

I backed it in Peonies in the color Honey.

And of course, I added one of the simple labels I always use.  I get them from Ever Emblem.  They're so easy to sew into the binding so I don't have an excuse to not label my quilts!  I get the 2" cotton, fold-over, sew-in labels.  If you want to get some for yourself, you will just have to pick one of their basic cotton labels and customize it from there.  I machine stitch my binding down around it because it's hard to hand stitch through it (but then I usually hand stitch the rest of my binding down to the back of my quilt).

This is a big quilt!  It finishes at about 92" square.  Perfect for snuggling or putting on a bed!

I don't know why it took me so long to bind it but I'm so glad it's finally finished!

I love how it turned out!  It was really fun to make and maybe someday I'll make another one...in Christmas fabrics!

If you'd like to grab the pattern, please visit my Etsy shop HERE.

Thank you for stopping by today.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Happy quilting and happy holidays!

From Our House Quilt-Along

Join me in the "From Our House" Quilt-Along with Riley Blake Designs!

It starts today!

It's a classic Log Cabin quilt with a modern twist!  

Each Friday until December 6th a new block (or two or three!) will be released on the Riley Blake Designs blog.  Several Riley Blake designers will be sharing alternate 6" blocks (in addition to what you see in the pattern) so you can pick and choose your favorites!  

I designed a scrappy heart block that I'm calling, Love You.

Click HERE for the free pattern!

From Our House features low-volume fabrics from Hush Hush 4 and some of Riley Blake's new Shades Basics!  I got my hands on some of the Hush Hush 4 fabrics and I am swooning!

These are just a few of them.  There are 21 in the collection.  And guess what!  I was fortunate enough to be able to design a print for Hush Hush 4 (mine is the second one down on the left - with little Ohio stars).

I hope you'll join in the fun!  Click HERE for all of the details about this quilt-along.

Happy sewing!