Quilt Stories - Makers' Spotlight

Have you made a quilt using one or several of my patterns?

Upload a photo and I'll share it with my audience - we all love to see what others are making and you get a deserved moment in the spotlight! 

Tell us about your inspiration, the recipient, specific materials or colours used, or any other details you'd like to share.

As much or as little as you want – your statement will be displayed together with your photo.

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Now let's have a look what other quilters from our lovely community have made! 🖤

A dragon in a fiery frame

Maker: Didi (Rehoboth, Delaware, USA)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"This adorable dragon quilt is for my grandson. I love the hand quilted smoke that flows around the background and the scales that I quilted in his body. I'm in the process of making the castle pillow in coordinating fabric to go with it."

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

A duck family waiting for a new baby girl

Maker: Deborah Sutton (The Midlands, United Kingdom)

Date of submission: July 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"My best friend's daughter is due to have a baby girl in October 2025, so I really couldn't wait to make Duck March for her new addition. Papa Duck completed the nursery set, as I turned him into a matching cushion. Now we just cannot wait to meet her!"

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Patterns:

A dragon in the reading nook

Maker: Laura F. (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA)

Date of submission: July 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"I'd been wanting to make the dragon quilt for a while. I resized it slightly, and then embroidered children's book titles on blocks to make the books. I think it's my favorite quilt that I've ever made. Thanks for the pattern!"

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Pattern:

  • Mini Dragon Dreams (PDF)

(Custom books by Laura)

A real-life fox tale

Maker: Pam (Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada)

Date of submission: July 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I made this wall hanging as a memory quilt. One summer, a pair of foxes and 3 kits denned on the corner of ours and our neighbour’s properties, and spent their days wandering all over our properties, playing, eating strawberries, catching mice, and annoying the dogs. Our gentle giant, Ben, was perplexed by their behaviour, couldn’t get the kits to stay off the property, and ended up not eating or sleeping. Finally, our neighbours took off to their cabin with their dogs, and we loaded up Ben in our vehicle and went to visit friends, driving for 4 hours for a few days respite.  Ben got his appetite back and slept for 3 days to recover. By the time we got home, the fox family was gone!  When I saw the fox tale pattern with 3 foxes I just had to make this. We also had a crow hanging around that summer as well, so I added a crow too.""

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Patterns:

Tutorial:

The sweetest dragon in fairy land

Maker: Andrea Moll (Florstadt, Germany)

Date of submission: July 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“Made for my niece last year. She loves it!"

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Patterns:

  • Dragon: Mini Dragon Dreams (PDF)
  • Fairies: Fairy Sisters (PDF / printed booklet)
  • Flowers: from book "Blühende Quilts" by Ula Lenz

(Custom arrangement by Andrea)

A maginificent space quilt for a growing boy

Maker: Rae Atkins (Northland, New Zealand)

Date of submission: July 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“For one of our grandsons, Cayden, as he's moving to a big bed."

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Pattern:

  • Star Cruisers (PDF / printed booklet) - Rae added one extra row of star blocks at the bottom

A happy (scrappy) fairytale scene

Maker: Hilary McFarlane (Sydney, Australia)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I made this Dragon Dreams quilt for my first grandchild. I began sewing in early March 2024 and finished the top just before Felicity was born in August 2024. As soon as I saw Dragon Dreams, I knew it was the perfect design for my new granddaughter’s quilt. My daughter and her partner are both avid gamers and my daughter has been playing DnD since she was a teenager. I added the Princess story book - a pattern by Kate Basti - as a nod to my new little “Princess Granddaughter”. The Fairy Wren is a nod to her Australian roots and I drafted the pattern myself. Every Dragon needs a castle in the sky to dream about and this one was inspired by a FQS pillow pattern that I redrafted to fit in the sky area. I used a variety of low volume fabrics from my stash for the background fabrics. There are even some fabrics that represent the UK, including London Underground fabric showing the towns in London my daughter has lived in. Felicity was actually born 6 weeks early, so, as I made a frantic flight from Australia to the UK, one of my lovely friends bound and labelled the quilt when it came back from the long arm quilter. It was brought over by my husband when he came over a few weeks afterwards."

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Patterns:

  • Dragon: Dragon Dreams (PDF / printed booklet)
  • Book: Tall Tales by QuiltWithKate (PDF)
  • Crown, wren: self-drafted by Hilary

A golden D&D inspired dragon

Maker: Christine Knox (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I made this quilt for my son and daughter-in-law. They are expecting
their 1st child and our 3rd granddaughter. They are avid Dungeons and Dragons players, so we decided this was the perfect design. I used the same colors in the baby's room. Additionally, I quilted the background with the dice designs in 3 sizes from the game.”

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Pattern:

Merribobbin Stashkeeper

Maker: Inarticulate Quilter (San Diego, California, USA)

Social Media: @inarticulatequilter (Mastodon.art)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“The very first cotton fabric I purchased when I started quilting was a whimsical Christmas tree print - and I have been collecting Christmas fabrics ever since [...]. Then I saw the Dragon Dreams pattern from Apples and Beavers and the most perfect way to show off all those Christmas-y fabrics I’d been saving for the last 20 years arrived like a knight in shining armor, or in my case, like a sleepy dragon that would watch over my hoard of holiday fabrics happily ever after. Meet Merribobbin Stashkeeper, Protector of Perpetual Projects, AKA Bob. Bob uses they/them pronouns. This may have been the most fun I’ve ever had piecing a quilt [...]. I am not typically a pattern user and I was a little intimidated when I saw there were 24 pages in the Dragon Dreams PDF. But Apples & Beavers made everything so simple to follow [...]. Amusingly, despite all the Christmas fabric hoarding, I didn’t have enough of the green plaid to make all the triangles in the border. Adding the lime dot center accents were an unplanned save, but now I think it’s one of the elements that makes the whole quilt. This quilt has become one of my all-time favorites! [...]"

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Patterns:

A turquoise dragon king

Maker: Gudrun Wüst (Lohmar, Germany)

Website: www.quilters-point.de

Social Media: @quilters_point (Instagram)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I love this pattern and just had to sew it."

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

A dragon guarding a fairy kingdom

Maker: Joanne Robinson (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“This is for my grandson's 3rd birthday.”

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

A purple unicorn dream

Maker: Mimi (Singapore)

Date of submission: June 2025

Social Media: @fat8quilt  (Instagram)

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I love unicorns and this pattern was a joy to make!”

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Patterns:

  • Unicorn: Unicorn Garden (PDF / printed booklet)
  • Bird: customized version of Little Crow (PDF)
  • Sun, cloud: Big Island Sky by Whole Circle Studio (find it here)

A quilt emulating a favourite stuffie

Maker: Nancy Johnson (Palm Springs, California, USA)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I've always wanted to make the dragon quilt. One day when I was once again looking at a picture of the pattern I sent it to my son who lives in Chicago and I told him I really wanted to make this one day. Their reply was a picture of a stuffed dragon that was toted around by a lovely 3-year-old who is a close family friend. They said “this is Dexter. He has been this little guy’s favorite toy since birth.” So that was all the inspiration I needed to
get moving on the quilt and try to have the quilt emulate Dexter. I just recently moved to the Palm Springs area of California. And I've not been able to find a place to rent a long arm to do my own quilting. However, I did find someone who did quilting and decided that since a birthday was coming up this needed to get done quick. To my surprise and at very little expense to me, the quilter did an amazing job quilting. With smoke coming out of Dexter's nose and scales all along his body and outlining his wings, I could not be more pleased with how this quilt turned out.”

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Pattern:

A little girl's guardian

Maker: Stella Callighen (Stittsville, Ontario, Canada)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“This quilt was made for my great niece who was born at 29 weeks gestation. The FPP fairies represent her (Audrey) and her big brother (Eoin). The dragon represents her feistiness!  Audrey is a thriving 15 month old today! 🥰”

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

A unicorn with magical octopus flowers

Maker: Tabitha (Richland, Washington, USA)

Social Media: @tcl_quilts (Instagram)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"I made this quilt for my granddaughter. She had outgrown unicorns when I was almost done with it and was collecting octopuses instead, so the flowers in the quilt are made with octopus fabric. She was also collecting elephants and my sewing machine just happened to have an elephant stitch!! I know, right? So I sewed the binding on with elephant stitch and I “tattooed” her initials on the unicorn’s bottom. It’s cool!”

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Pattern:

Two sweet tooth fairy pillows

Maker: Didi (Rehoboth, Delaware, USA)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I made these tooth fairy pillows for my grandchildren, complete with a pocket on the back for a tooth and tooth fairy money.”

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Patterns:

A dragon awaiting a new baby

Maker: M. Y. (Australia)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

“I have always loved this dragon quilt and waited for ages before a new baby was to join our family. We didn’t know whether baby was a boy or girl so I chose purple and green as my main colours. I waited till we knew baby’s gender before adding the crown which is a deep pink with sparkles (not obvious in the photo). As it turns out, purple and green are colours used by suffragettes and our baby girl was born in the Year of the Dragon. It couldn’t have been better!”

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

Midnight bats (Dorothy's first FPP quilt!)

Maker: Dorothy Bullard (Huntington Beach, California, USA)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"The Bat Buddies pattern was so cute, it was irresistible! I had never tried FPP, but my sister, who was looking over my shoulder, said she would buy me the pattern if I would make it for her. It’s a deal! I printed the pattern but was still hesitant to start. But October was nearing! I had to finish it before the end of October, right? I finally shopped my stash (she loves purple!) and bought some background fabric. I had never done inset applique either, and was a bit hesitant there, but the instructions gave perfect results. Look closely if you can, and you will see that I quilted a bat in the moon. I was able to give the quilt to my sister before the end of October and she absolutely love it! And now I have added FPP to my skill set. A double win!”

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Pattern:

  • Mini Bat Buddies (PDF)

Peace reigns in the Dragon’s Kingdom

Maker: Claudine aka Gigi (Arlington, Texas, USA)

Date of submission: June 2025

Quilt story (maker's statement):

"I made this quilt for my great-grandson. He has trouble sleeping at night, so I told him the dragon would protect him in his dreams. He loves it, and he told me it works!"

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Patterns:

Tutorials:

And what's YOUR quilt story?

Did you love reading these?

Now it's your turn – please add your own chapter to our quilt stories collection! We can't wait to hear it! 🖤

SUBMIT YOUR QUILT STORY