Since this fun project is around already all year long, chances are you’ve heard of the Splendid Sampler. If not, just a couple of words to introduce you in all that fun!

The Splendid Sampler is a year-long quilt-along hosted by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson. There are nearly countless designers taking part in the fun and sewing with the Splendid community. Each week you get 2 new 6” x 6” quilt blocks. You can read more about the Splendid Sampler here as well as visit the Splendid Sampler Facebook Group to get all the blocks and exchange ideas and inspiration.

The new block for today is designed by me! What a fun it was to make it!

The name of this block is "Under the Apple-Tree", you can download the pattern here.

When my hobby of doing patchwork grew more and more in something I could maybe someday make a living of, I had a cosy dream: I would invite some fellow quilters during Summertime into my garden and we would sit under the apple-tree, have a sewing retreat full of laughter and fun and enjoy the magic of a Summer-weekend. Today I really live my dream of a full time career as a quilter, and the word apple became even more importance to me: I sit in front of my apple each day to create all my designs and ideas. 

The block has all the colors which you will find in an apple and it looks like there are eight yummy slices.

It must also be fun, to hand-sew under an apple-tree, comfortably seated in a Summer chair, protected from the heat by the shadow of the leaves. I have to imagine this scenario, since I actually made this block already in last November, more during a rainy and cold weather, not the perfect apple-tree-under time (although perfect for a glass of tea and some cookies on the couch). I mention this, because... when I made this block one year ago, I must have been so absorbed in the cosiness of hand stitching that I forgot to take pictures of each single step. Or ... I took them, but then they disappeared in the overwhelming file load of my computer storage. Anyhow - I only found pictures from the finished block. But I guess most of you will know, how to do English Paper Piecing or can find a youtube tutorial. Sue Daley has an excellent series of youtube tutorials about EPP.

What I love about the Apple-Tree Block are the unusual shapes for the EPP-technique. Most of us have done hexagons, at least one time. But this block hast a lot of new shapes to play with. And they will be perfect for fussy cutting, playing with color options. Can't wait to see what you are doing with yours!

(BTW: be careful, the white triangles of the sewn block look symmetrical, but they are not; one of the long sides is slightly longer than the other. So mark them or cut them from paper with different colored sides so you don't accidentally mix them up. On your paper sheet you can recognize them by different colors, white and light grey. Also the both triangle shapes for the corner squares are different, but look so similar that they could be confused. So mark every shape clearly to not get in trouble. Refer to the colors on your pattern sheet).

Imagine you and a quiltfriend, perhaps me - under this apple-tree, with a hand stitching project, a fresh drink and a piece of apple pie. Chatting about the last quilt ideas, fabric collections and upcoming retreats. Should we call this quilter's heaven? :-)

Some Insights and tips about solids

If you know me for a while, you might have realized that I often have some solids in my quilt patterns. Moda asked me about my tips and my experiences how to design a quilt with solids and here is my interview...

TRUE BLUE - Zen Chic Collection for Quilt Market Houston 2016

Quilt Market Houston 2016 was a blast! We had lots of fun with Moda's theme of this season "What's your super power?" The complete Moda booth was decorated with comic sketches and super hero figures. And - it won an award for the cool idea!

We were nearly 30 designers attending the show and we shared a designer area where everybody had their little corner. This is my space.

(Hint, hint: the dress I'm wearing shows one of my newest fabrics from the TRUE BLUE collection).

There are so many new cute, beautiful collection from the other Moda Designers out, that it would be too much to share these all in one post, but you will find all the newest things in the Market catalogue of Moda.

My inspiration for the fall collection was to find something in the Denim style, a blue range of fabrics which pairs well with your favorite pair of jeans.

The color range goes from off white over glacier blue, steel gray, royal blue and dark blue to nearly black. The wall quilt on the booth shows how great the contrast of the different hues work in quilts.

And all these precuts…

It's right: You can never have enough fabric and the Charm Packs and Layer Cakes inspired me for my new pattern series going with the collection.

You can find all my patterns in a PDF-downloadable version here.

I hope you like the colors and fabrics as much as I enjoyed designing them! You are always fueling my flame for new ideas and I am happy and grateful that you appreciate my work and welcome my creativity!

Modern Background Luster fabric collection by Zen Chic has hit stores!

Just in time to sew any festive little projects for Christmas LUSTER has arrived in stores. The glamorous sister of Modern Backgrounds PAPER and INK reminds us that life should have lots of sparkling moments.

Although we think of golden accents in connection of decorating for holiday, there are much more times in life when we want to add some glimmer and glamour.

Think for example of a wedding!

And imagine the wonderful quilt you can give the young couple sewn with the whites, eggshells and fogs of Modern Background LUSTER

The motto of this fabric line is: 

Life should not only be lived it should be celebrated!

So let's celebrate together!

Go to your local quilt shop and ask for LUSTER or simple shop online for the new fancy modern glamour!

And to give you some ideas, what to do with the fabrics, even if there is no wedding on your schedule or holidays are already over…

here are some of my new patterns.

London Night using 1 Jelly Roll

Play and Hint of Luster using 1 Charmpack each

Right now I'm offering a discount for multiple pattern purchases, so if you want to benefit from it (ends Sunday 23rd, 12pm) read more on my newsletter archive and take advantage!

I had a lot of fun creating this line, and I hope, you will like it too!

HEY DOT fabric collection is coming to stores these days

Great news, dear quilting friend! The brand new collection HEY DOT of Zen Chic will arrive in stores very soon. They are scheduled for the August delivery.

The cotton fabrics for your patchwork and quilt projects are all in the wonderful high quality fibers we know from Moda.

HEY DOT is, as the name suggests, a collection playing with a variety of dots. Dots with my own twist on it: There are the well-known polka dots, but mine have some handwritten notes on it (one says “can’t live without fabric”, and this is true). Other polka dots are just from a sketched texture.

And there is a fun multicolor print with dots looking like candies.

One of the designs has dots with letters in it or signs and the letters form words.

Some of the dots are so tiny, that the design makes for a great blender, which you can use with all kinds of other fabrics.

Another print shows dots so close together, that the dots themselves disappear and you rather perceive the space between, which seem to be little stars.

The collection plays with all kinds of dots and you know: Every fun quilt needs some dots inside, doesn’t it?

For the colorways I decided to go with primary colors. The dots are young and fun, so the colors should be too. I used the same green, grey and white as in the previous collection FLOW, so that you can combine the both. The aqua and orange are also very close to the former collection, while I added yellow, red, fuchsia and pale pink to widen the color range.



The white color way makes for perfect low volumes.



The fiery red is yummy, combines wonderfully with the fuchsia and pale pink and the red-and-white polka dots are classy.

sunny yellow



calm aqua



fresh green



And of course there are new patterns for this collection, I will introduce all of them in my next post.



HEY DOT is a collection for happy quilts, for a young family, for girls or kids, for bag projects and for a cheerful home dec. Wouldn’t it be fun to jump into a bed with such a yummy dress!

They are also great for garments

So have an eye on your favorite shop’s news. They will announce the arrival these days. Or even better: send your preorders in to make sure you will get them as soon as they arrive!

Moda Bella Solids Designer Select

Did you know, that Moda is coming up with a new product: a fat quarter bundle of 12 assorted solids in the very popular high fiber quality Moda is known for.

What is the special thing about those 12 colors in one bundle?

A DESIGNER (hear me say that magic word) has curated the color scheme. And, you know, it is always good to relay on a person experienced with and educated in color! You might ask “which designer” and the answer is: a whole couple of, maybe your favorite one.

Seven Moda designers started to curate their special bundle, a bundle that reflects those 12 colors, which coordinate best with their style.

You are a fan of Fig Tree? Welcome to a bundle of vanilla cream, strawberry red and olive green plus more of her well-known colors.

Bonnie and Camille are your heroes? Good news – you can now have the Bella Solids in fresh aqua, tomato red, pink, pistachio green, white and more in one bundle. 

You will also find bundles of Sweetwater, V&Co., Me & My Sister, Kate Spain and Zen Chic (yes, that’s me).

Some of the above designers keep their color scheme very consistent through all their collections, other change their colors from collection to collection and their style is consistent in their graphics for example.

I am one of the second group, changing my color scheme frequently. So when to decide which colors are typically Zen Chic I went with some, you will find very often in my ideas, like Zen Grey, Graphite, bleached white, orange, apple green. But I also thought of what is currently in stores (FOR YOU and FLOW, HEY DOT will come) and what would blend in well with hot trends. So I added pink, aquas, and a light salmon, deep burgundy.

(Ok, I have to be honest: I could create four or five more different assortments, just for the fun of it, and still find reasons, why those are typically Zen Chic, haha). Tataa, here is the Zen Chic Bella Designer Select.

Zen Chic Bella Designer Select

And there are more good news: Some of the designers who curated their bundle developed a pattern to feature it. And the cool thing is: you can use each bundle with each designer’s pattern, since all are based of 12 Fat Quarters of a different color.

Now here comes my pattern. It’s a free download

You can download your free pattern here

The settings are very versatile, and this it how it looks,

Or will it look like this? You choose J 

You have a lot of setting options with this pattern.

I hope you enjoy this gorgeous new product as much as I do!