What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Happy New Year everyone. 

No sooner had I dropped my mum and dad at the airport on 27 December than I started getting inspired on Instagram.  Often I will start a Christmas themed cross stitch between Christmas and New Year, but this year I started a Christmas quilt and I had the whole top pieced in just seven days.  

But I used the brighter colours from this Christmas gift bag:

The photo I liked was by Edyta Sitar so I used her Laundry Basket Quilts PDF pattern for a Trip Around the ...

My list was smallish for this week

 What better way to end the year than with a new Christmas quilt for my bed.  The 364 half square triangles are the hardest part of this quilt so might as well make them first.

Nothing better than a new Christmas magazine arriving in October, This gives me plenty of time to drool over the designs and actually get one made before the holidays. I think I am going to tackle the cover quilt from Lisa Bongean and Alysha Haran. The quilt is made using 2 1/2″ jelly roll strips so it should be fast to jump on in. Fingers crossed.

the 3 images shown here are Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine.
©2023 Meredith Operations Corporation. All rights reserved.

The magazine has lots of great quilts/projects including projects from Wendy ...

Yes, it's true - I've escaped New Zealand and like many other Kiwis and Aussies I'm travelling in Europe right now.  In fact by the time you read this I think I'll be in Amsterdam.  You can follow my travels on Instagram - @wendysquiltsandmore  or Facebook - Wendy Welsh - if you're interested.  

But I know a lot of you look forward to reading a blog post from me each week, and linking up to or following the Peacock Party links, so I've prepared five weeks of blog posts to keep you covered while I'm away.  Each ...

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We had two good excursions, to Grant Woods Forest Preserve on Saturday and Chain O' Lakes State Park on Sunday.  (Left photo:  Fox River is on the horizon at Chain O' Lakes.) 

Wildflower medley:  spiderwort, yarrow, sorrel.  Cinquefoil, bird's foot ...

I am still clearing out the basket of old UFOs and now I am two projects closer to finishing. Right now it is hard to find time to quilt, so it is nice to finish a couple of things and feel somewhat productive. 

The newer (haha!) project is another from the weird Blitzen fabric line by Basic Grey. This fabric came out in 2012 so it has celebrated a few birthdays. I hope I don’t come across any more UFOs with this fabric. I probably had a fat quarter bundle and should have separated the fabrics into a whimsical ...

Did you have a wonderful holiday? We had a lovely day, with a prime rib dinner. This year I made fresh Brussels Sprouts for the first time. I looked online for the best method to decrease the bitterness, and found that cutting them in half and charring the cut side would do that. So, I prepared the sprouts by cutting off the bottoms, removing the outer leaves, then cutting them in half.

Toss with a bit of oil (I used a garlic oil that My Sweet Babboo gave me for Christmas) and put cut-side down in a pan. Cook on ...

I am not a big seasonal decorator, but I do love Christmas. And for a while I had considered a Christmas quilt.

When I saw the Fall 2022 Scrappy Mystery at QuiltingGail, it was the answer. I made mine a little larger, but the idea remains the same.

And I added a smaller complementary quilt for the back of my husband’s comfy chair.

It is based on this tutorial.

Both were built entirely with fabric on hand. The last stitches were put in the binding about 3pm Christmas Eve. Still plenty of time to enjoy them this year before ...

Merry Christmas! I have 3 Inklingoable Christmas quilt designs for you, with 5-pointed stars, Ribbon Flowers and Dresden Plates. XXX Annika Continue reading →

 Day 23 of my Christmas Countdown and it's my "Oh! Christmas Tree" quilt designed by Wendy Williams.  

I loved choosing all the bright colours for this quilt, and then ...

Day 21 of my Christmas Countdown and it's my Flocks by Night quilt - pattern by Wendy Williams.

It's Day 19 of my Christmas Countdown and it's The Candy Man quilt.

A few weeks ago I blogged about a spur of the moment Christmas quilt I had started.  Well, now it's finished and all ready to be used this Christmas. 

The pattern (Watling Street) was designed by Sheila Christensen and is in her book, Quilts with an Angle.  I made my quilt smaller because I only had a limited number of scrappy Christmas fabrics in my stash.  Can you believe I made a whole quilt from stash? Even the backing and the binding? Well I ...