What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It’s finished — finally! I’d pieced this top ages ago and was “stuck” on how to quilt it until Lisa Calle came to my rescue with some suggestions. It was mostly ruler work, which was a challenge on my lovely Bernina 790Pro — a domestic machine. That involves pushing the quilt sandwich through the machine, […]

I made this quilt top several months ago and then waffled forever (as usual for me) about how I wanted to machine quilt it, finally getting some ideas from Lisa Calle, whose work is amazing. I have to say that I really love free-motion work (especially feathers), though I have a long way to go […]

Welcome to week three of the Island Batik (Lumin Fabrics) Ambassador Irish Chain Blog Hop! This month, we are excited to have Accuquilt as our sponsor. Each ambassador received the GO! Irish Chain Block on Board (BOB) 10” die. This month's task is to create an Irish Chain quilt using this die and a special Winter 2024 fabric bundle.

Today, Carol Stanek from Stitch with Color and I are sharing our interpretations of Irish Chain quilts made with Jerry Khiev's Merry Moments Winter Fabric Collection. Additionally, we received 2 yards each of Green Christmas Trees and Neutral Champagne ...

 I recently purchased a BERNINA Q24 long arm with Q-matic (computer program) for my shop. My favorite local long arm quilter recently moved away. I knew I would need to find another way to get my shop samples quilted and so would all of her other customers. So I decided to go into the long arm quilting business myself.

The machine arrived about two weeks ago. I've been watching the video class I purchased from BERNINA as well as reading through the workbooks I received trying to learn as much as I can as fast as I can. I ...

What can I say? I was on a roll and just couldn’t wait to see how each of these little birds would turn out. So here are the final five birds, all ready to be combined into a quilt top! My Bernina has really had a workout in the past several days! The photo on […]

March’s Island Batik Ambassador Challenge is called "It’s All Up to You," meaning the Ambassadors have a month to create any project of any size, theme, and technique using Island Batik fabrics. This gives us a chance to have a little fun this month.

Yes, I know — I have two block-of-the-month projects going, but I needed something to work on at our guild’s (sort of) monthly sewing days. One of the BOM projects is too quick for an all-day session, and the other requires my embroidery module; there’s not enough room for that at the sewing days, and […]

I am excited to share a ...

A couple of years ago, when I traded in my lovely Bernina 790Plus in favor of the Bernina 790Pro , the only thing I was a bit sad about was losing the beautiful “skin” I’d purchased for it. Unfortunately, the lady who had been making a wide variety of skins had shut down her business. […]

Several days ago I saw an email that piqued my interest. Telene Jeffrey, from South Africa, designs absolutely gorgeous wholecloth quilts. I love wholecloth quilts, but it’s been a very long time since I’ve made one. Since she has so many exquisite designs, I decided to start out small by doing her free design before […]

I saw this adorable design for a trivet on Embroidery Library — and it was on sale! Win-win, right? I’ve been doing some baking for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so it was nice to do something in my sewing room and to let my machine know that I wasn’t ignoring it.

This quilt, like the previous one, is literally in the bag. I’m storing them both in bags until time to gift them to the intended recipients. This one is from a pattern called Strip to Be Square, by G.E. Designs. I know the colors may suggest “baby quilt,” but it’s not; I simply made it […]

I signed up for a class at the Houston Quilt Festival that begins later this month. In looking at the supply list, I noticed that I’m going to need to bring scissors — something more than merely thread snips. What’s a girl to do but quickly make a scissor case to transport the scissors? Luckily […]

About a year ago, I traded in my Bernina 790Plus (which I *loved*) for the Bernina 790Pro. I thought long and hard about it, but I couldn’t really see a down side; the Pro has all of the fabulous features of the Plus and some amazing additions. One of those additions, and the one that […]

I’ve had this design for a couple of months and finally got around to making it today. It’s just a little mug rug (from San Francisco Stitch Company), but I wanted it as a sort of souvenir, even though we weren’t in Paris for this year’s Olympics. It only takes a couple of hours to […]

Oh gosh—I'm a hypocrite!!!! I went to the event and brought something home! No, it was not a brand-new, top-of-the-line sewing and embroidery machine, although it was very tempting. No - it was a charm pack. 

A charm pack

I got caught up in the moment! When they went around with a bag of prizes, I reached my hand in, and this is what I got. Wait—I cheated and peeked into the bag to get something I might use rather than some swag that I would not! I can easily sew those squares together and make a child ...

There are times when a sewist uses a machine needle for a very short time and then has to change types. What to do with the partially-used (but not used up) needle? I’ve always simply put them back into their little plastic boxes, making sure they were as far to the left of the box […]

My husband and I give our grandchildren a Christmas ornament each year. To give a bit of background, we had no Christmas ornaments when we married, so I made a point of giving each of our daughters an ornament each year so they’d have a little supply when they began their own homes. That naturally morphed into […]

If you’ve read this blog in the past, you’ll know that I like many of the various bag patterns from https://byannie.com. A few days ago, one of our grandsons stopped by with his iPad Mini, and I was horrified to see that it was “naked”! What if he dropped it? It could be scratched or […]