All Booked Up Quilted Bookmarks

In the Stash Artists membership, I'm sharing a mini quilt pattern each month of 2026. This month, I really embraced the mini and designed the All Booked Up quilted bookmarks. Aren't they cute?

The bookmarks finish at 2" x 6", not including the ribbon. Since they're so mini, I went for simple, scrappy piecing with a bit of reading-themed text. There are three piecing designs and three text designs, which can be mixed and matched for 9 different bookmarks. They're so quick to make, you could easily make one for all your reading friends! (And if you're not a Stash Artists member yet, join us now to get access to the All Booked Up pattern right away.)

I made my first set with hand embroidery. I did simple backstitching using Aurifil 12 wt thread (one bookmark also has a handful of french knots), and did it all while traveling for the h+h trade show. It was a great travel project. 

Bonus points if you can identify the book I used for a background!

I really love the addition of the hand embroidery! Tip, if your backstitched lines aren't as smooth as you'd like, make your stitches smaller. Larger stitches tend to make choppy lines, whereas small stitches make lines look nice and smooth.

Then, since not everyone is into hand embroidery, I made a second set using fabric markers. I used the fine tip end of my Ohuhu fabric markers.

I wasn't sure the fine tip of my fabric markers would be fine enough, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it was exactly right and worked perfectly for the small text. And no, these aren't freehanded! My writing is nowhere near that neat! The text template is included in the pattern and can be used for either embroidery or fabric markers.

Here are both of my Bookworm bookmarks. I love that there are endless possibilities for making unique bookmarks, with the different piecing and text options, and then incorporating all your favourite scraps and different ribbon colours, too.

I opted for simple quilting after assembling the bookmarks, using white Aurifil 50 wt thread to outline the piecing.

I kind of expected the flying geese design to be my favourite bookmark, but the horizontal stripes with the teal embroidered Bookworm ended up being my favourite of them all. Which one is your favourite?

If you love mini quilts, stash-friendly and scrappy patterns, and virtual sewing sessions with friends, then come join us in the Stash Artists membership! Once you join, you'll get access to the All Booked Up pattern and more. We're an international group and we'd love to welcome you, too 😊 

My First Quilt with Karen Neary

This has been a crazy busy month, with the h+h trade show, Nathan's high school graduation (and family visiting for it), and then us traveling for Zachary's university convocation. With all of that, the last Friday of the month really snuck up on me and I almost forgot about the My First Quilt interview. Thankfully, I remembered late last night and was able to get the post ready this afternoon. Whew! This month Karen Neary is sharing the story of her first quilt.

From her home in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Karen Neary has been obsessively designing quilts full time for more years than she cares to admit. Her work has appeared in books and magazines, and her quilts displayed in shows around the world, including France and Japan.  Karen even designed and made a quilt presented to Sir Paul McCartney to mark his visit to Nova Scotia in 2009. She takes great joy in making, and teaching. Her particular love is New York Beauty quilts. Karen is a Canadian retailer for Aurifil threads and has a well-stocked online shop of threads plus her books and patterns.

You can connect with Karen at her website, her blog, on Instagram, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.

And now, here's Karen's first quilt!

What year did you make your first quilt? What prompted you to make it?

My first quilted project was when I was around 8 years old and made a Dresden Plate potholder, hand pieced and hand quilted. It proudly hung in my grandmother's kitchen for many years.  My first big quilt was a very traditional log cabin made for my eldest son's first bed, well over 30 years ago. 

What techniques were used in that first quilt? Did you quilt it yourself?

The quilt was pieced in red, blue and white scraps which included some of his baby clothes. The blocks were put together in a "barn raising" setting. Having no rotary cutter (and no patience for scissors) I tore the fabrics into 3" strips and sewed them together by machine using the 5/8" seam allowance I had learned from garment sewing. The squares mostly finished to around 12" and the quilt fit a double bed. After joining the blocks, I "birthed" the quilt by sewing it right sides together with the backing and turning it to the right side.  I then machine quilted it just in the ditch between the blocks. It's a wonder it held together at all. The batting used was "Mountain Mist" polyester, a popular choice at the time. 

Who taught you to make the quilt?

My grandmother Myrtle Davis was an avid quilter who taught quilt-making in her community, and I learned from her...although I sure could have used her help making that first one. I wish I had paid more attention to her instruction. 

Are the colours you chose for your first quilt ones you would still choose today?

I absolutely love the red, blue and white palette and use it often still. I get why so many world flags use this combination as the colours work so well together.

Did you fall in love with quilting right away? Or was there a gap between making the first quilt and the next one?

I was hooked from the moment that quilt hit the bed.  As awful as it was, it made me feel so good to think that I had made it.  All these many years later, I've never lost that feeling with each new quilt. 

Where is the quilt now?

Honestly, I was unsure this quilt still existed, but a search unearthed it shoved in the back of a closet.  Not only did this quilt spend many years on the bed, it was dragged around the house, attended many sleepovers, and always went to Cub and Scout outings.  It has many holes, some from wear, others from sparks from sitting too close to campfires. When it came time for this first son to head off to university, there was no way that raggy old quilt was going with him, so I made a newer version - same barn raising setting, same colours.  By a strange coincidence, the new school colours were red, blue and white. It was meant to be! This time I cut my fabrics more precisely with a rotary cutter and used 1/4" seams.

After only a few blocks in, I realized the quilt was going to be HUGE so I set those blocks aside and started again with 2-1/2" strips. It came out to a much more reasonable size, and got finished up with free motion quilting and an actual binding on the edges. Sadly, it did not survive the dorm room experience.  A year or so later, I found the larger blocks I had set aside and decided to make enough to do a table cover for quilt fairs.  I still use that one today;  nothing went to waste!

Is there anything you wish you could go back and tell yourself as you made that first quilt?

I think I would just whisper in my ear that this quilt would be the beginning of a journey that would bring great joy and creativity to my life. I have been so blessed to be able to pursue quilting as a career.  (And also I would say, pay closer attention to the seam allowance!)

Thanks for sharing your first quilt with us, Karen!

My Trip to h+h Americas 2026

I spent last week in Chicago for the h+h Americas trade show. It's like Quilt Market, but it's not exclusively for quilting businesses. There were yarn companies, garment pattern designers, embroidery kit makers, and more. There were also A LOT of quilting companies - fabric companies, pattern designers, scissors makers, sewing machine brands, notions companies, and on and on. There were gorgeous quilts everywhere and so many people I recognized from online. 

I arrived in Chicago Monday morning and Laura of Slice of Pi Quilts arrived that afternoon. We've been friends online for almost 10 years, but when she arrived at the hotel to pick me up for supper that was the first time we'd ever met in person. It was so good to finally get to spend time together without a screen between us! Here we are in front of her booth.

Tuesday was set-up day for everyone with booths. I chose not to have a booth for my first time attending, so that was h+h University day for me. There were classes and small group sessions and a tour of the show floor (which was still a work in progress, with booths being put together). When I got my badge that morning, it was a bit surreal to look around at the other people in the room and see so many faces I recognized from social media.

Wednesday-Friday was the actual show and I loved wandering and looking at all the booths. So many beautiful quilts, gorgeous yarn, threads of all kinds, and kits for so many fun things. I don't crochet, but had to take a picture of this kit for making Tairn and Andarna from Fourth Wing. I've always loved dragons and I love Fourth Wing, so this is almost enough to make me want to start crocheting!

Even with the dragons and the amazing quilts, the people were my favourite part of the week. I didn't think to take pictures with everyone I met, but I did remember to get some. Here's Laura in her booth.

And Terri of Lizard Creek Quilting, who was right next to Laura.

I got to meet Brandy from the Quilter on Fire podcast. Did you listen to my conversation with her on the podcast?

Hilary of By Hilary Jordan was just as lovely as I thought she would be! She was also dressed in beautiful handmade clothes every day!

I did demos in the Oliso booth on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, sharing about colouring quilts with crayons. I had my brand new In Full Bloom quilt with me, along with my Grateful table runner, so I could show shop owners examples of quilts coloured with crayons. The technique has been around for a long time, but a lot of the people I talked with had never heard of it, so it was fun to share with them. If you've never tried it, either, I have a tutorial for it here - it's a lot of fun and really easy to do!

I spent time late in the day Thursday and on Friday taking special notice (and notes and pictures) of how different quilt pattern designers had put their booths together. How were they hanging quilts on the walls? How were they displaying quilts not on the walls? What else did they have in the booth? I'm dreaming and scheming for how I can display my own quilts in a booth someday (next year?). Since I have to fly to get to the show, I paid special attention to display ideas that could be packed in a suitcase, like this stand in the Sassafrass Lane booth that was made of PVC pipe and could be disassembled for transport.

I also loved how Kori of Olive and Grace Studios used embroidery hoops to hang some of her quilts.

After years of dreaming about going to Quilt Market, it was so fun to finally make the dream come true (slightly altered to be h+h Americas instead). Now to see if I can make it work to go again next year and maybe have a booth of my own!