About Me

Leila Gardunia, quilt designer, author

Welcome!

I Love Quilting!  Writing 'How to" quilting tutorials, sharing scrap quilt patterns, and quilting tips-and-tricks here is so much fun. I love modern quilts with traditional roots - the scrappier, the better! 

I made my first quilt when I was about 10. I was inspired by the Little House on the Prairie books and made a hand pieced nine patch block. In my child's mind,  I thought the "small stitches" described in the book meant "narrow seam allowances" so now my small quilt is literally coming apart at the seams.


I didn't piece again until I was about 25. A friend convinced me to participate in a local quilt shop’s block of the month program. I thought it would be pretty lame. Boy, was I wrong! I was hooked. 

I love the mix of planning, designing, picking out fabrics, cutting them up, and sewing them back together. It's the perfect right brain/left brain combo for me. I continued to make quilts regularly, but my all encompassing quilt obsession started when we got high speed internet and I discovered there was a huge world of on-line quilting. I jumped into that world feet first and started this blog, Sewn by Leila, in 2010.


           

I am dedicated to sharing content that will teach and inspire others in their quilting. I co-authored You Can Quilt! Building Skills for Beginners and have an online beginning piecing course, You Can Piece! at iquilt.com.

When I'm not cutting up fabric, you'll find me listening to audiobooks while cleaning the kitchen, working to convince my five kids and husband that we really don't need to get a dog, and trying to sleep in.

I am so glad you are here! Please, feel free to email me if you have questions about anything on this blog. And sign up for my email list to stay up to date on tutorials, giveaways, and pattern releases. You can sign up here (and get a free quilt pattern!) 

Happy quilting!
Leila Gardunia

leila.gardunia@gmail.com
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6 comments:

  1. Hi Leila, I came across your feathered star, paper pieced and was wondering how to put the pieces together after they have been sewn. I'm new to paper piecing and although I can sew them, i'm a visual person and cannot always see how they are put together. If you could help me with this I would appreciate it, or if there is a tutorial on your blog spot that shows this I would appreciate you letting me know. Thanks Terry

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  2. Hi Lelia, Thank you for your instructions on how to draw the templates for the Drunkards Path block. I had already ordered a pattern elsewhere and as it was a PDF pattern when I printed it out the size was not correct and I could not adjust my printer. In desperation good old Pinterest came to the rescue and I found your tutorial. It is brilliant thank you
    Margaret. Australia

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  3. Dear Leila, I participated in your original SkillBuilder tutorial and will be forever grateful! I printed off each lesson as you posted it on your blog, and even after I'd made each blog, I continued to refer to the notes many times, and still have them in a binder. I put your blog on the sidebar of my blog so other people could discover you, but haven't visited you myself for quite some time due to all the other quilts going on in my life! But today I popped in to see if you are still around, and here you are! Full of great ideas, always an inspiration to this Aussie down under :-)
    Gina
    Patra's Place of Stitching

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  4. OOOP, error correction:" even after I made each block, not blog!"

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  5. I am going to start your Year of Scrappy Triangles Jan 1, 2019. I can't decide if I should make 1 of each or 4 of each. Will the blocks still "flow" if I only make 1 of each? Thanking you in advance for your opinion.

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    1. I'm so glad you are going to be working on it in the New Year! I don't think having just one of each would interrupt the flow. They are so many pieces in each one, I think the crazy scrappiness works. The main consideration would be how big you want your quilt. Decide that and make as many blocks as you need.

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