About

Welcome! So happy to have you here. My name is Irene and I’m the designer and creator of all things Sugaridoo. Sugaridoo stands for happy and colorful quilt design. On the Sugaridoo YouTube channel you’ll find encouraging quilting tutorials. ‘You can do this. Just give it a try. I believe in you!’ is what I would love to tell you with every video. 

I share everything about my making process, including things that don’t go as planned, including the projects that turn out not so pretty as I hoped. Making perfect quilts is not the goal. Within the Sugaridoo community we don’t strive to make the best quilt with the most perfect seams. We’re not going for the quilt that hardly shows that it was handmade. 

Making quilts is something you do with a lot of love and attention. Let’s enjoy every step of our quilting journey, every stitch we make (or take out with our dear friend the seam ripper). Every quilt is a change to learn new things, to develop new skills. Love what you do! Whether it’s your very first or your hundredths quilt.

How it started

My quilting journey started when I got a new old sewing machine from my parents neighbor. In this post you can see it and the very first fabrics I bought because of that machine. Soon after that I discovered the beautiful modern fabrics that are widely available in the US. The start of my fabric collection.

The first quilt I designed was the quilt I made for my mom. That turned in to the Sugaridoo Sampler, an ebook of which hundreds of copies were sold. I still am so amazed when I see the quilts and projects that are being made from that book. It’s just the best thing!

I’m not sure with which I fell in love first, with quilting, or quilt design. I love drawing on graph paper, I love the math behind a quilt, I love to figure out how to turn a sketch in to a foundation paper piecing pattern. I just love love LOVE to design quilts. Drawing up something that results in a real quilt made with the prettiest fabrics is so magical.

Happy place

Sugaridoo is my happy place. Here I can share everything I’ve learned, everything I’ve designed and all the projects I made.

But it is much more than an one way street of me just sharing things. The Sugaridoo Community is so awesome. Everyone participating in the Sugaridoo Bernina quilt along will know how much everybody helps and supports each other in out Facebook group. I also see this in the comments below YouTube videos and the personal stories you share in replies on my newsletter.

For me Sugaridoo starts to feel more and more like a happy ray of sunlight shining through the internet into homes all over the world. Thank you so much for being part of it.

Lots of love,
Irene