Several years ago I was helping a friend clean out her neighbor's sewing room and we came across a beautiful piece of handwork. It was a hand-pieced patchwork block from a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt and it captured my heart immediately. Not only was it pretty and colorful, it also told an intriguing story.

QuiltCon, the quilt show and convention presented by The Modern Quilt Guild last month was energetic and fun in so many ways. A real celebration of the art of quilting.

I've found that setting aside 15-20 minutes a day of "play time" works for me. Whether it is spent hand quilting, making a patchwork quilt for a friend, or spreading paints or inks on fabric in my studio for some surface design fun—it doesn't matter to me as long as I am tapping into my creativity.

Judging by the comments on the Quilting Daily Facebook page, a lot of you received fabric and new quilting gadgets for Christmas—perhaps even a new sewing machine? If you're like me, you're now itching to use those new goodies in quilting projects.

We'll never see another date like 12-12-12 in our lifetime, so we're celebrating with a special sale featuring 12 top products from the Quilting Daily Shop at a very special price: $12.12.

If you're looking for some ideas for handmade quilted gifts, I want to remind you of three of my favorites. Two are make-in-day projects. One is a little more involved, but worth the time, I think.

During almost a year of sharing quilting ideas with you via the Quilting Daily blog, I've noticed something interesting: circles are popular. Whether the circles are sewn with hand stitching or machine quilting doesn't matter. Every time I write about circle motifs, the post gets a big response.