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If you read a significant number of blogs or magazines, you've probably heard about the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The book is by the Japanese organizational consultant Marie Kondo, and has a magical effect of inspiring you to clean out your closets and drawers. I started reading the book in December, and ever since, I've been employing its tips for simplification and de-cluttering, which includes taking the time to clean and organize my sewing room.


While sorting through drawers, I came across a number of cut fabric squares from past projects. Rather than letting them languish any longer, I decided to turn them into quilt tops for my local chapter of Project Linus, and get them out the door.


Each top is crib size, and features polka dots, solids, calico prints, and white borders. Each was a quick and satisfying finish, and it's so nice to know that these fabrics will now be put to better use!


Have you read Ms. Kondo's book? Has it left you feeling similarly inspired to organize and de-clutter your space?

I gifted my mom this sashiko pillow a few years ago, so for her birthday last month, I made her this mini quilt featuring blocks of hand-stitched sashiko embroidery.


The fabric squares were actually from a coaster kit, but since coasters tend to be in abundance in our family, I decided to use the small squares to make a wall hanging instead.


I alternated the squares with a chambray, and backed the quilt with a navy and white Japanese print. Since the squares already featured so much stitching, I kept the quilting simple and stitched in the ditch. I bound the quilt with a topographical print from Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures line.


I really love how this mini quilt turned out, and thankfully, so did my mom!

P.S. There are still a few spots left in the embroidery class that I'm teaching at Gather in Cary, NC, tomorrow night, and I'd love to have you join if you're local and interested!

Though I posted about it on Instagram, I realized that I never shared the news here on the blog: I am now stocking a selection of five unique prints by Maze and Vale in the shop!


Leslie is the powerhouse behind Maze and Vale, designing and printing all of the fabrics that are sold by this Australia-based company. She is also the organizer of the yearly Handprinted: a fabric swap, which I've had the pleasure of participating in twice (blogged here and here).


I worked with Leslie to select the designs and colorways you see in the shop, each of which are printed on an organic quilting-weight basecloth. These design-and-color combinations are completely unique to Salty Oat; you can't purchase them anywhere else! Additionally, Leslie recently announced that she'll be retiring two of the designs I stock---Gathering and Love Hearts---so now is definitely the time to grab them if you love them as much as I do.


Happy sewing!

Do you have projects that begin in one place and wind up in another? When I started this quilt a few years ago, my idea was to create a colorful, scrappy checkerboard quilt, inspired by those by Red Pepper Quilts. At the time, I pieced five blocks and set them aside, assuming I would continue to add to my pile as I collected more 2.5" scraps.


Fast forward to earlier last year, when I came across...