Spring is going to be here one day.  Though it’s the shortest month, February always seems so loooooong.  Makes me feel like Spring can never come!  But it will!  It does every year – so I’m counting on it!  In the meantime making a Spring table runner just might make the time pass more quickly.  Busy hands, and all that.

Briarwood Cottage’s Spring Pocket Table Runner has beautiful, delicate looking applique in the corners, leaving the center open to showcase your quilting. The table runner measures 14″ x 30″.  The pocket pattern (just $5!) includes instructions for matching placemats.

What a fresh looking design!  Searching for Direction can be made with normal square edges. Or use the Easy Scallop tool for the scallop edges and add a new technique to your arsenal of talents!

All Things Spring is just packed with projects in a Spring theme.  Many of the projects have instructions for multiple sizes.  Enjoy  piecing and applique as you make wall quilts, table runners, placemats, table toppers and more.

This cute Spring Pickins’ table runner by MH Designs features paper pieced tulips.  Never tried paper piecing?  What are you waiting for?!  You might just love the technique.  It give you ‘perfect’ results! And if you do fall in love with paper piecing, Mary Herschleb has several dozen beautiful patterns, all constructed with paper piecing.  Bonus tea towel instructions are included in this pattern.

Spring is on the way . . . . get your table runners ready!

Don’t you just love to hang a quilt?!  That good feeling you get from finishing a quilt for yourself can only be topped by hanging it up for display.  Go ahead and spoil yourself – make a quilt a month!  There are several series of mini quilts that have a design for each month . . . .

The Calendar Pocket series are little patterns for just $5.00.  Each month has a table runner pattern that feature soft edge applique.  Perfect for decorating.  Make an extra block from each table runner pattern and you will have all the blocks you need for a calendar quilt at the end of the year.  The December pattern includes the instructions for the 50″ x 64″ calendar quilt. Start now and you’ll have that calendar quilt ready just in time for Christmas gift giving!

If you like the folk art look, Indygo Junction has a series of monthly little quilts called One Day In The Country.  Make mini quilts or make each month for use in one large quilt…. or do both!

Love Sunbonnet Sue?  She’s busy all year with scenes in redwork, making this the perfect project for handwork in the evenings.  The finished block for each month is 5.5″ square and can be used in so many different projects.  They are adorable little pieces of art.

Through the year by Prairiegrove Peddler includes instructions for two projects, plus instructions for a year end sampler quilt.

Little Quilts Squared Again! are cute appliqued 12″ square blocks.  Bright and cheerful, they have a touch of whimsey, and will be sure to bring a smile to any viewer’s face.

Browse the patterns for the other months and see if you can pick one series that you want to make.  It’ll be hard to pick just one – they are all pretty cute!

Warm your heart and your home with a Valentine quilt.

Ribbons and Hearts is beautiful sampler style quilt.  The borders of alternating narrow and wide nicely frame all the wonderful busyness of the center of the quilt.  Choose your method of applique – hand or fusible.  This wall hanging finishes at 34″ x 38″.

96 happy, scrappy hearts make up the Bee Mine Quilt.  Instructions are given for strip pieced hearts but you can choose to skip the strips and make solid hearts.  Either way, look out scraps -you’re going down!

No applique, just piecing, for this large lap sized quilt (60″ x 68″).  Blended Hearts , to symbolize love and marriage, this would make a great wedding gift.

Simple straight piecing and easy fusible applique make Heart Strings a quick, cute finish.  If that curved top scares you, never fear, there’s an option for a straight top.  I love the dangling heart, don’t you?  16″ x 39″

A pair of lovebirds and their love filled home.  For My Tweetheart is number 2 in a series of Tiny Treasures Wall Hangings. Finishing at 7 3/4″ x 18 1/2″ there will always be room for any of the monthly themed Treasures.  If you make this one, be careful, you just might get hooked – they are that cute!

Carry your heart with you wherever you go.  Hearts in Bloom is a beginner friendly pattern for a 18″ square fully lined tote.  Go ahead, brighten your load!

Browse the rest of the Valentine themed patterns to your heart’s content.  You’ll be sure to find one that expresses your love.

Are you planning projects for this new year?  It’s a great time to start a Block of the Month quilt.

Each month you’ll get a quilty package delivered right to your door with fabric (yum!) and a block pattern.   Everything you need for that month’s block will be right there in one package.  Open it up and dive in or pack it away for that month’s sewing get-together.

Women of Courage is a beautiful quilt with beautiful stories to go with it.  Each month, along with your fabric and pattern, you’ll receive a fascinating story of a brave and courageous woman in world history. Block of the Month quilts tend to be beautiful works of quilting art that are worthy of getting treasured and passed down – how wonderful to have a quilt filled with so much meaning.

Instructions for 50 different blocks are included with the Americana Block of the Month.  Sure, some of the blocks will be ones you are familiar with, but with FIFTY! blocks you’ll definitely learn how to make some new ones.

Do you love stars? Star Light, Star Bright combines stars and wreaths, piecing and applique.  Each month includes a 12″ block, a 9″ block, and a 6″ border block.

Sew Spooky is a 6 month Block of the Month, so this one can be finished in plenty of time for Halloween 2013!  Applique bats surround a neighborhood of halloween buildings – some of them friendly, and some of them spooky looking!

If you’ve never done a Block of the Month before, now is the time to start!   You’ll finish a fantastic quilt a bit at a time.  A quilty package will arrive every month.  All the fabric will be chosen – no need to try figure out what goes with what, and no need to buy a 1/4 yard when you only need a little piece.  What’s not to like?!

Quilt patterns from Pine Tree Lodge (located in Minnesota – have you ever noticed how many talented quilters and quilt designers come from Minnesota? – must be something in the air there!) are full of variety.  Simple pieced patterns, intricate pieced patterns, colorful, muted, applique, piecing mixed with applique, quilts, table toppers, samplers, totes and more!  No matter your skill level, or the type of quilt you prefer, you’ll probably find several patterns that you like.

Homegrown Winter is a sampler with snow scenes, bells, a bright red cardinal, and several traditional blocks : friendship stars, log cabin, flying geese.  Easy applique templates are included in the pattern.  The wallhanging finishes at 34″ x 44″.   Swap this out with the other Homegrown sampler patterns: Spring, Summer and Fall.

 A Parade of Seasons is another group of seasonal samplers.   Both of these sets of samplers are great for cleaning up some of those fabric scraps that seem to keep multiplying.

It’s called Heartstrings, but you can choose pine trees or stars if you prefer.  Use flannel or chenille to add texture.  This makes a great baby quilt.  Grandkids, anyone?!

Daisy Dash uses a modified churn dash block to simulate daisies sprinkled across the quilt.  The pattern includes instructions for four sizes: bed quilt, lap quilt, wall hanging and table topper.  Check out that unusual vine-y border on the lap quilt.

Miss Mabel’s Garden (I have to say I just love this one!) is a collection of patterns with multiple techniques . . . piecing, applique, embroidery.  The book includes placemats, table runners, wall quilts and bed quilts.  Fifteen projects in all for all skill levels.

Be sure to visit the Pine Tree Lodge website where you will find extra downloadable projects to go with some of these patterns.

Most of us haven’t yet seen our first snowfall of the season, but we all know it’s coming eventually.  Snow on the roads usually isn’t a welcome sight, but seeing a snowman will usually bring a smile.  What better focus for a winter quilt than a cheery snowman? Here’s a sampling . . . .

Snowmen Forever offers two options: one is colored with crayons and stitched, the other is appliqued.  The snowmen are then placed in a snowglobe so they won’t melt!  Use as a wallhanging, a pillow, or anything else you choose.

Eight Silly Snowmen dance around in a circle holding, um, sticks.  Toss in some holly leaves, stars, mittens, and birds that all combine to make a fun, busy snowflake.  Also available as a quilt kit – comes with the pattern and all the fabric (everything but the batting). No need to hunt up the perfect fabric; just start sewing!

Here’s a few more Silly Snowmen.  Their winter adventures will make you chuckle, and have you wondering how they will manage to survive until Spring.

Straddling Snowboy hugs a birdhouse as he watches the bird play with his shoelace.  Tiny buttons for eyes and floss for the laces add some three dimensional interest to this wallhanging.

Have fun digging through your scraps to find different outfits for each of these Frosty Babies.  Each on is holding a different prop – just for fun!

This is just a sampling of the patterns available.  Browse all the rest of the Snowman patterns and all the rest of the Snowmen patterns.  Enjoy!