The Magic of Tumbling Blocks

Tumbling blocks are quilts of illusion! The traditional tumbling blocks pattern lends the appearance of three dimensions. When made from strip sets, they do not required complex piecing or Y-seams. Here are two fabulous quilts we enjoyed at recent shows!

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3-D Blocks, made and quilted by Laura May.  

In this beautifully made quilt, each block is created with light, medium, and dark solids, creating the 3-D illusion. The red ribbon on the right denotes a second place prize at the 2025 Quilt Arizona show!  Laura May says, "When I met my husband in 1975, this design was painted on a wall in his bedroom, using just three colors. When I saw this pattern I decided to make it for him." Based on a published design: Arcade Game by Jaybird Quilts. 

Cat's Meow - 3D Stacked Blocks by Natalie Baker, quilted by Wanda Ginn.  

Beautiful batiks create the sophisticated look of this quilt. Natalie created this quilt from strip sets; no Y-seams were required! Natalie Baker says, "Starting as a strip quilt this ordinary beginning quickly turns into a geometric challenge... Mastering left and right sides of triangle accuracy completes the 3-D block illusion." (Can you see the vertical seam that bisects the light-colored diamond on top of each block? That shows where the strip sets are sewn together.)

Note: We searched for this pattern by name {Cats Meow - 3D Stacked Blocks} and found a link on Pinterest to a book titled ABC 3D tumbling blocks... and more by Marci Baker.]  For more Quilt Inspiration, please check out our FREE Pattern Day for Tumbling Blocks (CLICK HERE!) 

 

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 Quilt Arizona show (quilt by Laura May) and the 2025 Tucson Quilters Guild show (quilt by Natalie Baker.

Quilting with Kaffe Fassett fabrics! (2)

What do we love about Kaffe Fassett's fabrics? Their vibrant colors! For more than two decades, Kaffe Fassett has inspired quilters to go wild with color and texture. Here are some gorgeous quilts showcasing fabrics from Kaffe Fassett Collective.

Note: Check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on beaded jewelry, patterns, & collectibles! For continuous free quilt patterns, please follow us on Twitter. 

Stone Log Cabin, made and quilted by Ann Martinez  

This quilt was based on the "Stone Log Cabin" pattern in Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Italy. Ann Martinez says, "My inspiration came from my stash of Kaffe Fassett's fabrics... I only had enough fabric to make a wall version of the pattern."  We love the color combinations and black-and-white accents!

 Shadow Block Illusion, made by Gail Witt, quilted by Jessica Jones 

Gail Witt says, "I used my extensive collection of Kaffe fabrics for my Shadow Block quilt.  The optical illusion of a shadow provides depth and dimension.  Jessica (Jones)' straight line quilting is the perfect complement to the design.  The quilt was based on the 2015 Shadow Block online tutorial by Debora Exum.

Midnight Sensation by Yvonne M. Flores, quilted by Quality Quilterz

This quilt has a fascinating kaleidoscope effect! Pattern for this quilt was a mystery quilt by Michelle Renee Hiatt (the Holiday Sensation Medallion Series 2022).  Yvonne Flores says this was her first Mystery Quilt!  "I decided to purchase the kit because the outcome was unknown.  The class was taught by Joyce Holley.  Piecing was done using the Studio 180 precision rulers to achieve perfect points."

 

Note: For more Kaffe Fassett fun, check out our *FREE* patterns for Kaffe Fassett Quilts:  CLICK HERE for Part 1 and CLICK HERE for Part 2!

 

 

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 Arizona Quilters Guild show (Shadow Block Illusion) and the 2025 Tucson Quilters Guild show (Stone Log Cabin, Midnight Sensation.) 

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Best Use of Color (2)

The recent QuiltCon show was filled with beautifully designed and made quilts. "Best Use of Color" was not a specific entry category, but these beauties stood out - not only for design and technique, but also for their color.  (For PART 1 of this series, CLICK HERE!)

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Blooming Star by Daphné Parthoens (Belgium) @octopurse 

Blooming Star is made out of 6144 half-inch diamonds (!) arranged in a flower-like shape. It is beautifully machine pieced and hand quilted! Its bold and contrasting colors form a harmonious gradient and give the quilt the impression of being three-dimensional.  Daphne explains that the quilt is an ode to nature and its everlasting beauty. All the little hand quilted pieces are meant to represent seeds planted in the ground to later bloom into luxurious flowers.

 The 95 by Vicki Ruebel (Nevada) @OrchidOwlQuilts (Additional piecer: Judy Dale).  

The cool analogous color scheme provides a lovely backdrop for the expert longarm quilting on this piece. Vicki Ruebel says, "This quilt was a team effort between my mom and I.  I designed the quilt in EQ8, my mom pieced it and I quilted it.  We used vinyl to create the circles.  I explored using soft and stable as the base layer of batting with wool on top to pop the quiltng.  The intricate [longarm]quilting is my favorite part of this quilt."

The Pointy Beast by Susan Braverman (Texas) @wildpoppyquilts  

Winner of 1st Place in the Modern Traditionalism category, The Pointy Beast updates the classic New York Beauty block with large scale and striking high-contrast colors.  It says "look at me" from across the room.  Dense grid quilting anchors the design's structured form, as shown below.  A variety of thread colors were used to create nuanced value shifts throughout.

 Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 QuiltCon show in Phoenix, Arizona.

Optical Illusions

Optical illusion quilts give the illusion of movement, shadows, transparency, and/or depth.  We really enjoyed this optical illusion quilt at the recent QuiltCon show.  Calm Amidst Chaos positively vibrates, keeping the eye moving around the quilt! Try concentrating on a red square to see the effect.

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Calm Amidst Chaos by Patti Bourland (Colorado) 

Patti Bourland used EQ8 to draft the blocks, which were machine pieced andmachine quilted without a frame (domestic).  Patti says, "In this hectic world, it is sometimes hard to calm the mind and focus on what brings you joy.  I find that I can tune out distractions when I am creating beautiful quilts."  The machine quilting amplifies the effect; it looks as if sound waves are emanating from the centers of the blocks.

The quilt's message was hand embroidered as shown above.  Calm Amidst Chaos was displayed in the Windham Fabrics Ruby+Bee fabric challenge, which allowed quilters to use three to six fabrics from a specific palette:

Note: This type of optical illusion is also called a "Bento Box." If you enjoy optical illusion quilts, you might be interested in Free Patterns for Optical Illusion Quilts (CLICK HERE!):

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 QuiltCon show in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

Windham Fabrics 2025 Challenge Quilts

One of the top exhibits at the recent QuiltCon show was the Ruby+Bee fabric challenge! The featured speaker for this show, Tara Faughnan, selected six beautiful solids from the fabric collection. Quilters were instructed to use from 3 to 6 colors in the palette to create their quilt. It was so much fun to see what quilters came up with!

p.s. Check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on jewelry, patterns, and collectibles! For continuous free quilt patterns, please visit us on Twitter! 

Folk Bloom No. 2 by Jenn McMillan (Ontario, Canada) @jennmcmillan

Jenn McMillan says, "Based on an original drawing, and inspired by symmetrical folk floral motifs, the design was created as an ode to my love and obsession with the Evil Eye.  A charm to protect oneself from evil, ill intentions or inadvertent curses, I also see it as a reminder to be kind lest I unintentionally curse someone with my RBF." [We had to look up RBF to see what the acronym stands for... LOL!]

In this closeup photo you can see the blue stitching lines that make up the iris of the eye! This quilt was machine pieced and hand appliqued with needle-turn applique. The heart was foundation paper pieced and tied with matching thread.  Other areas were machine quilted without a frame, using a domestic machine with a walking foot. p.s.  Jenn made great use of the 6 fabrics offered in the challenge, shown below:

 

Reverb by Michaela Romesburg (California) @Michaela_G_Romesburg.  

Winner of 1st Place in the quilt challenge, this stunner is a modern twist on a classic log cabin design. Michaela Romesburg says: "My hope was to create movement through the utilization of color and pattern.  The combination of warm and cool colors create the illusion of space and depth. The added hand applique ring adds to the illusion of reverberation."

Michaela explains that Reverb was designed with harmony, balance and depth in mind. The exceptionally straight fabric lines were foundation paper pieced (FPP).  The final product was machine quilted without a frame using a domestic machine. 

Petal Blossom Fabric Challenge by Jenn Smith (Washington, USA) @Jenn B Quilts

Petal Blossom is a quilt pattern which Jenn Smith designed in the fall of 2024.  At first glance it looks familiar - an orange peel block.  But then you notice it's also a Drunkard's Path* block, with the orange peel sitting inside the Drunkard's path, creating a new block.  We love the way in which Jenn Smith used the challenge fabrics to maximize contrasts. This piece was machine pieced and longarm machine quilted.

 *If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in our Free Pattern Day for Drunkard's Path Quilts (CLICK HERE!)

 

Image credits:  Quilt photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 QuiltCon show in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

"Woven" Quilt

We love optical illusion quilts! Here's a lovely "Woven" quilt done in seven different red, pink, and white valentine fabrics.  This would be so much fun to make!  No Y-seams are required.

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Woven by Kathie Miller, quilted by Tawnya Freeman

Kathie Miller says, "I think I must have wanted to be a weaver but couldn't master that whole loom and yarn thing.  Even better is creating a quilt that looks woven, especially on the diagonal.  I love the happy all-over quilting design that Tawnya [Freeman] picked to complement and complete my quilt." 

The pattern source for "Woven" is "The Libby Quilt" by Erica Jackman for Kitchen Table Quilting. 

If you love this look, you might also be interested in our Free Pattern Day for Lattice and Woven quilts (CLICK HERE!)

Image credits: Photos of "Woven" by Kathie Miller were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 Tucson Quilters Guild show.

Highlights of Quilt Arizona! (4)

The 2025 Quilt Arizona show features hundreds of quilters, many of whom spend the winter months in this sunny locale.  Here are some highlights from the show.  We hope you enjoy our photos!

Note: Please check out our E-Bay shop for great bargains on patterns, jewelry, and collectibles. You also can follow us on Twitter!

Moving Parts, made and quilted by Claire Victor 

Winner of a blue ribbon for 1st place in the Modern-Solo category, plus a special award for Exemplary Professional Machine Quilting, Claire Victor says: "Moving Parts was designed using Procreate [design software]. I am trying to create dimension and motion without shading or painting.  The background quilting design is my modern tribute to crazy quilting.  This is English paper pieced and machine quilted on a domestic Bernina machine." 

 

 

Claire's exemplary machine quilting can be seen in the closeup photos, with different quilting designs applied to each of the "segments" of the design. 

Wonkydoodle, made and quilted by Geri Cavanagh  

Winner of a special award for Excellent Use of Color, Geri Cavanagh says: "This is way outside my box.  I usually make quilts with traditional blocks and civil war fabrics.  I stretched my creativity with this since I had no plan and no pattern. I just developed into this wild and crazy quilt which I love."

She continues, "I found a purple and green print, and a Caryl Bryer Fallert Gradations print, then matched them with colorful, upbeat and wonky fabrics. I started doodling with purple and green strips of various widths. Some were too short, so I cut them which left a hole to be covered with a circle... I had no idea how it was going to turn out. It was fun to use my creativity and let it develop."

Freedom, made and quilted by Frances Murphy

This original design was given the NACQJ Award of Merit  by the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges.  Frances Murphy says that she pondered how to tell a story about freedom. She used birds because they are icons of freedom (as reflected in the saying "free as a bird".) The theme is depicted in 4 panels, from the open door of a bird cage on the left, to birds flying over the city, to birds viewed in their natural habitat in the wild. She says, "I love working with graphic design and color to create emotion and depth in my quilts."

Peacock Patchwork, made and quilted by Linda Hopkins

It was so much fun to see this colorful and unique quilt with its many details. Linda Hopkins says, "When cleaning out my Crazy Quilt fabrics, I discovered a multitude of peacocks.  In this color-washed Crazy Quilt I have incorporated vintage doilies, beads, buttons, and many of the peacocks that I purchased over the years. Enjoy the journey." (And so we did!)  Winner of Honorable Mention at the show.

Bottle Vases, made and quilted by Merci Apodaca

Made with machine-embroidery appplique with organza overlay on vases, this lovely piece won 2nd place in the Machine Embroidery category.  Merci Apodaca says, "I chose to make this quilt because it reflects my love of flowers.  It's been challenging growing flowers in AZ.  The next best thing would be to embroider flowers.  Published design: Anita Goodesign Embroidery.

 Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2025 Arizona Quilters Guild show.

It's Modern Quilt Month! (2)

We're celebrating Modern Quilt Month at Q.I. This is the second of FIVE posts. According to The Modern Quilt Guild, modern quilts often use bold colors and prints, high contrast, graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, and/or expansive negative space. Enjoy!

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Silk Parquetry Impression #2, made and quilted by Joyce Kaiser. 

 Original design.  This piece was created using a grab bag of silk strips from "Leilani Arts".  The raw edge strips were sewn to batik units onto a muslin foundation using Holoshimmer or gold thread. Beading of opposite corners [was] added to enhance the silk rectangles.

Gamma, made and quilted by Maria Barr

This quilt seems to vibrate with motion! Maria Barr says, "[This is] such a cool optical illusion, I almost changed the name to "Warp Speed Ahead"! Pattern source: Devon Iott (Miss Make). 

 Gridlock, made and quilted by Karen G. Fisher 

This quilt appears to glow from within, thanks to the creation of intricate dark-to-light gradients.  Karen G. Fisher says, "Gridlock combines all six "grids" I've designed over several years (five of them are in my book*): Triple Sudoku, Matrix, Miriam's Grid, Triaxial, Graduated, and Herringbone." *Pattern source: Karen Fisher's own book, titled "Easy Grid Quilts".

Embellishing, a controlled color palette, and fussy cutting control the chaos. Above, you can see large beaded spirals; other parts of the quilt (shown below) are embellished with metallic buttons and gold trim. Southwestern design fabrics add to the intricate textures. 

Cool Porte Cochere, made and quilted by Kathy Kutansky

Here is an original quilt showcasing fabrics created through surface design! Kathy Kutansky says, "This spring I took a week long Zoom workshop with Pat Pauly.  Using screens, rubbings and direct painting, I created most of these prints. It's really fun to work with these unusual fabrics."

 Kites over Cabin at Night, made by Russ Beasley, quilted by Kris Neifeld.  

This original black and white quilt is the essence of modern design, forming a tessellation. Russ Beasley only used black & white solids because he "loves simplicity".  He says, "I saw a similar picture on Google Art and thought it would be a great quilt. I configured a template for the kite and the square.  I concluded that partial seams [were] the only way to go. I then decided the rows would need to be constructed from the center out also with partial seams."  

The photo below shows the "kites" that make up the design.  Check out the perfect piecing!

Image credits and awards: Photos were taken at the 2024 Tucson Quilters Guild show. Silk Parquetry Impression #2 won 1st Place in the Art Abstract category, plus a Judge's Choice award. Gridlock won 1st place in the One Person - Large Pieced category. Kites over Cabin at Night won 2nd place in the Modern Quilt category. Cool Porte Cochere won an Honorable Mention.