Quilt in a Day

Eleanor Burns published her first quilt book, “Make a Quilt in a Day – Log Cabin Pattern” in 1978. Since then she’s designed hundreds of quilts and published dozens and dozens of quilt books. What makes her work stand out from the crowd is its accessibility. Eleanor’s background as a dyslexic child and a special education teacher has given her a knack for making difficult things easier. Her designs are beautiful, but also simple to read and to accomplish. Her methods streamline the process of piecing a quilt top so that you really can make a quilt (the top, at least) in a single day. I use her triangle square up ruler and flying geese rulers nearly every time I make a quilt block. They’re designed to make the diagonal seams in half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles and flying geese effortless and accurate. Compared with its brothers and sisters, this block was a breeze to assemble. In fact, I may just use the pattern to make a whole quilt someday.