Open Gate Blog

I do it all!  Lectures, demos and classes.  If you are in need of an experienced quilter for an event, retreat or class, I'm your gal.  I have traveled across the US teaching and lecturing and I love it!  I'm very passionate about quilting and would love to share my knowledge and experience with your group, quilt shop or guild.  You can contact me at info@opengatequilts.com for information and rates. Hope to hear from you soon!

Have you got your Juicy Cactus kit yet?  It's on Craftsy.com and has been selling really well.  People seem to love it.  I designed the quilt using Crafty's new fabric, Boundless Fabrics.  Their Aura Blenders collection.  Here is Juicy Cactus: I love the gradation of color.  When I made it, I used the Tri-Recs Tool by Darlene Zimmerman and my Fit to be Quarter 6.5 & Companion Rulers .  It made it so much easier! Let me know what you think of Juicy Cactus.  Thanks for stopping by!

In our new home, my sewing studio is in a spare bedroom.  I got it all set up and had a space right beside my sewing table for add a design wall.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to make my design wall but I figured it out. What I did was I used yard sticks from Home Depot. I had measured my space and figured out how many yard sticks that I would need.  I used 1 1/2 yard sticks at the top and bottom and 2 on each side.  (I had to cut one yard stick in half to get 1/2 sticks. Mark cut it using some kind of power saw :) Then, I used Warm and Natural batting and cut it to the size of the yard sticks plus 2 inches.  Starting at the top, I nailed the yard sticks in by sandwiching the batting between the wall and the yard stick.  I then worked on the left side, smoothed out the batting and working from the top, did the right side.  Finally, the bottom was done last.  I love it because it has the inch measurements on the yard sticks and I...

They're online! The quilts that I've been showing you for the past week are on Craftsy.com. Click on this link to direct you to the exclusive kits and patterns. http://www.craftsy.com/kits/quilting?sortBy=NEWEST  Thanks for all your support and hope you enjoy the quilts!

Here are the last two Craftsy quilts that I designed for their new fabric.  Here's hoping the kits will be available today!  I will keep you posted.  From Colonial Manor,Welcome Home combines white and red prints to create a traditional basket and log cabin block quilt.  Finally, Looking Glass is made using Aura Blenders fabrics. Thanks for stopping by!

Don't forget the kits and patterns for Craftsy's new fabric lines, Colonial Manor and Aura Blenders will be out this week.  The kits include the exact fabrics that I used for the patterns and include all fabrics for the top as well as the pattern. I had designed 8 patterns for Colonial Manor and 5 patterns for the Aura Blenders.  So far, I've shown you 7 and here are 4 more. Stars and Stripes from Colonial Manor   Night and Day from Colonial Manor   Glory Days from Colonial Manor   Shimmering Galaxy from Aura Blenders   Only 2 more to show you and then hopefully, the kits will be live!

Here are two more quilts that I designed for Crafty's new fabric lines.  The first is from Colonial Manor and is called Regent.  It uses the whites, light blues and dark blues from the line.  This is called Radiant Rainbow.  It is using the Aura Blenders fabrics.  Does this look familiar?  It's similar to Radiant Star!  The background is white and the center star is larger.  Love this quilt too!  Just a few more days and the kits will be out!  I will keep you posted.  Thanks for stopping by!

I just found out yesterday that the launch for the kits and patterns will be next week!  I thought I'd better show you some more so you can see what will be available. Black and Tan from the Colonial Manor collection.  The black, tan and white prints make a lovely, traditional looking quilt.   Radiant Star from the Aura Blenders collection.  The black background makes this lone star quilt pop! More to come in the next few days.  Thanks for stopping by!

Here is another of the quilts that I designed for Craftsy.  This is the Colonial Manor fabric line and the quilt is called Tumbleweed.  For this quilt, I used the light blue, dark blue, white, and beige prints.    Did I tell you that I love our new puppy?  He is really smart and keeps us on our toes.  He already knows how to sit, lay down, and roll over!  The only time he's not chewing or destroying his toys is when he's asleep.  Resting up for the next round of puppy fun! I love my daddy! Thanks for stopping by!  More quilts and Zed soon!

I've been working on a new pattern for Regent's Park.  So far I have the blocks done and I am cutting the sashing strips.  I'm not happy with one of the blocks, so I'm going to redo it.  Here is a sneak peak of the quilt on my design board.  This is the red colorway of the line and I've called this pattern Lady Slipper.  Love this quilt!! The next quilt that I want to show you for the Craftsy quilts is called Juicy Cactus and I designed it using their Aura Blenders fabric line.  The Aura Blender fabrics are mottled colors ranging from lights in white, grey, and yellow to darks in blues, purples, reds and greens plus much more.  The background for this quilt is made using the charcoal grey.  More quilts to come later this week and an update on Lady Slipper.  Thanks for stopping by!

There has been a lot going on in the last year and I'm finally back to blogging.  Sorry for the long delay! Here is a summary of what's happening to me. On my personal life: I got engaged! To the wonderful, smart, sweet love of my life, Mark.  Wedding is planned for October of this year.   I sold my house.  I had lived there for 20 years with my late husband and although there were many happy memories there, it was time to start a new life with Mark.  So, we bought a new one! And, we got a puppy!  We adopted him from a local animal shelter.  His name is Zed and he is a mix of border collie, lab and ??.  He is 6 1/2 months old, super smart and we love him to bits!!  Tillie and Zed get along great and that was my biggest worry about getting another dog.  He is now part of the family and we can't imagine life without him. On my business life: It's been busy! I have a fabric line out with Maywood Studio...