What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The holiday shopping season kicks off today! I am happy to offer all of you a great sale this weekend. Enjoy 15% off all regular priced fabric, quilt patterns, kits and precuts. Take 25% off sale yardage as well as remnants. Tis the season for sewing gifts for those special people on your holiday list! Orders over $35 ship free within the USA. Happy Shopping!

Our Thanksgiving was lovely – the three of us, plus my parents. We will all be eating leftovers for days! But yum, that is fine with me. We also got to talk to lots of family ...

First, I hope your Thanksgiving, if you celebrate that holiday, was as good as can be expected in this miserable year. It certainly helped me double down on my carbohydrate intake. Second, though I try to keep this blog bragging … Continue reading →

Well, I'm certainly enjoying making this braid table runner pattern. 

This post will consolidate a bunch of other ones -    And try to show/explain my "layout formula" -    For my Upstairs/Downstairs quilt tops -    Using Upstairs/Downstairs - Meredith as my example -    The original post for this one is - HERE -  And I'm going to "borrow" parts of it -  So that I don't have to "reinvent the wheel" - LOL -  === The "inspiration" for this top comes from

If you’ve heard of Foundation Paper Piecing and want to know what the fuss is all about, or if you’ve never heard of Foundation Paper Piecing and now you’re curious, I can’t wait to tell you all about this really cool quilting technique! And, I created a free quilt block – the North Star Quilt […]

I still am of the opinion that Eleanor Burns (Quilt in a Day) has some of the easiest directions out there.  We've taught a lot of her classes and have had her trunk shows in the shop more than once.  While she does 'waste' some fabric, she makes it easy for a beginner quilter to accomplish intermediate construction.  I've met her at several shows and she is NOTHING like she is on her TV show.  She is the kindest, sweetest person ever, but she doesn't have that 'baby talk' voice in real life that sends my Hubs ...

A few weeks ago we went to a wedding.  Yes, we're lucky in New Zealand and we're allowed to have weddings and dancing.

I decided to make a quilt for the happy couple.  I showed them four different options and asked what colours they like.  They chose the Donuts quilt designed by Amanda Jean Nyberg from her book No Scraps left Behind.  You may know Amanda Jean from her long running blog Crazy Mom Quilts. 

As for colours - it didn't really matter because the bride and groom had chosen a pattern with lots of colours in it ...

I decided to stick with the gray patchwork for the inner border on Country Charmer and I well start sewing it this week – thanks for all the input you all gave me.  Some of the pieces will be moved around a little bit before sewing starts – so often the photos show me where […]

Do you all remember when Oprah had her big Christmas recommendation show?  I thought I would do something like that here on the blog.  I have a bunch of things I highly recommend for gifting.

First up, Zenni…for glasses.  I know you’re thinking glasses, really.  The answer is YES.  I always get my glasses from Zenni and recently bought three pairs.  YES, three.  Let me explain.

Glasses come so many different ways nowadays.  The glasses on the right are my regular glasses with progressive lenses.  The red glasses are my computer glasses.  They have a far distance at ...

Hey there, friends.  I hope you've all had a lovely Thanksgiving!  Today is the day that the holiday shopping season kicks off for real and with COVID surging everywhere right now, there is no better time to stay home and shop online.  I have some great stuff to share with you on that front.  Whether you're buying fabric gifts for your quilty friends, or bulking up your own stash for a long COVID winter, these are deals from my favorite shops are ones you won't want to miss.

Friday has rolled around once again - and I imagine most of us are "rolling around" too after stuffing ourselves on Thanksgiving!  It's been a short week for me, as we've been traveling, but I didn't want to let Friday go by without a chance to see what everyone is working on - - so let's get our whoop whoop on!

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As I said, it was a short week, but I did 

have a chance to work on my Christmas quilt...

I’m looking forward to teaching during Virtual Quilt Festival Dec. 3 to 5. This online event is presented by Quilts, Inc., the parent company of International Quilt Festival.

On Thursday, 12/3, I’m one of five presenters in Machine Quilting Forum I.

Focused forum of 20-minute back-to-back presentations from five top educators, including live Q&A and chat for a truly engaging experience. Download a compilation of handouts from each presenter, new ideas, and information on products and processes.

My portion is titled Christa’s Top Tips for Machine Quilting Success:

Learn to become better at quilting on ...

 This morning we started out with getting the turkey in the oven, after dressing was set. Then worked on the deviled eggs, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, and more. My niece was bringing dessert. 

I had to get the cat litter cleaned up and put downstairs, just in case. Then I cleaned up my quilt room so that it was "cat proof." We didn't know if the dogs would be coming as well. The good news was, they didn't come. Daisy did, but she gets along with Sophie really well. Trouble was, Sophie spent most of the day ...

Hexagon quilts can be tricky, but they don’t have to be! Simply grab your favorite jelly roll strips and our brand new 60 Degree Triangle Ruler. Almost like magic, those six-sided beauties come together in a flash—no Y-seams required!

This quilt would dazzle with any 2.5 inch strips, but we sure love Jenny’s choice of Linework and Designer Solids by Tula Pink for FreeSpirit Fabrics. It’s bright, cheery, and oh so fresh! Click HERE to watch the tutorial!

 

yep! almost melted already!

Welcome to this week's list of likes...

we like snow around here, as it's been dry. We woke on Tuesday to about 4-5" but it was a wet snow and started melting with the sun's appearance. I didn't get a pic til 3PM but Milo the model, said it's still high on his boots and hiding the toys. 

Fine Dining

When I cook, I think of what flavors will go together. Last week we made a "greek" flavored dish. 

Olive oil, lemon juice, white wine, minced garlic, chicken breasts, Oregano and ...