What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I have been trying to use my free time a little more productively. It’s super easy for me to spend a lot of time with my iPad, and time will get away from me. The biggest culprits for me are TikTok and YouTube. Even Pinterest to an extent. 

I’ve been on a placemat kick lately. I make a lot of placemats from oddball orphan blocks or random scraps and donate them to Meals on Wheels. I try to donate about 25 per year. Sometimes I hit that goal and sometimes not. Either way, they are happy to receive them, and they are fast and easy to make.

Sometimes I get tired of random scraps and start looking for patterns I can use to make matched sets. I found another free pattern that I tried out yesterday.

The pattern is called “But First Coffee”, and you can find ...

 Happy 250th Birthday America! My fervent prayer is that all Americans can put aside their differences and their conflicting political opinions and just celebrate how lucky we are to live in a country where freedom and democracy has been celebrated for 250 years. I pray we have many more years of the same! 

There is a super cute pattern I found for a ...

I was browsing different websites looking for layer cake patterns. I have some I have had a while that need to be used. I tend to like the Robert Kauffman patterns. They are easy, but they are also eye-catching. This one caught my interest:

It would be perfect for squares you don’t want to chop up too much. I was thinking about my Kaffe Fasset squares. The only thing I’m not liking is that the quilt finishes 40” x 50”. To me, that’s a little small. Anyway, the pattern is here. I like the graphic appeal of ...

I was at quilt guild yesterday, and will be there today. We had show and tell yesterday after our business meeting, and someone showed this quilt. 

I asked her the name of it, and she said “Bee Creative”. It was so pretty! When I got home I googled the pattern, and found a place where I can get it free! 

We spent the afternoon teaching youth quilters how to make a rag quilt. We didn’t have a lot of kids this time….i think ...

I don’t know if anyone remembers, but I posted a picture of this quilt about a month ago.

The lady that made it said it was a free pattern she’d found “somewhere” and she would look for it when she got home and let me know where to find it. It’s called HoneyBell, and here is a link to the pattern. 

The pattern sample is done in four fabrics plus a white sashing, and the big blocks are cut 9-1/2” square. 

I found another free pattern that I think would be nice for a layer cake. This one is called Boardwalk, and it looks fast and easy! 

You can find the pattern link here. 

We were plunged back into Christmasy looking winter on Saturday. It was beautiful outside in my woods.

This Wednesday morning is cool, windchill making it -18C but the sun is shining so another very pretty wintry looking day. But staying this cool means no melting today.

I've been trying to choose which of my quilt tops to get to ...

We had a snowstorm ten days ago and I captured this shot of Petey from my tv room chair. Ned is still off somewhere in the yard. Neither of them seemed aware of the wild weather all around them. This is the most snow we've had on the ground since living in this house. I can touch the roof in places. It means the ground will get a lot of water this spring and after a couple of drier years, that's a good thing. 

 Below is Ned on a trail we only get to walk on in the winter so it is a little bit special to be there.This is the wetland area that is usually under a couple feet of water. I imagine all the peepers, frogs, toads and other critters that are snoozing below our feet when I tramp along there. 

 This is a painting by William Kurelek called "Balsam Avenue After Heavy Snowfall", 1972.  This area of Toronto just had a huge snowfall so I imagine the present day residents doing just this. Shovelling snow is certainly something all Canadians are very familiar with. Do you like the way William used pops of colour here in what otherwise would be a drab background?

I was looking for a pattern to use some (a bunch) of charm squares. I had a vague idea what I was but didn’t know if I could find a pattern. While I was looking, I found this one:

It’s called Four Patch Charm Quilt.

It’s not what I was looking for, but I like it and would consider making it at some point. It requires 3 charm packs and 2-3/4 yard of background to make a 63” x 69” quilt. It’s so pretty with the batiks and navy background, but it would also work ...

I read that the last full moon of the year, called the Cold Moon, is tonight and it is going to be very special by how high in the sky it will rise. Such a height won't be seen again till 2043. It's dark here now at 5 o'clock. Yesterday I took this photo of the back yard bathed in moonlight at that time. Unfortunately, the clouds kept sailing past hiding the moon. Sometimes, clouds add much beautiful moodiness to a December winter sky but my photo didn't capture that sadly. 

I've been thinking about all the turkey dinners this week and put in an order to Farm Boy for our Christmas one. We've done this twice before and enjoyed it very much. Their turkeys are amazing and they even include dessert. Of course, I'll make a couple of our traditional side dishes too and a trifle. 

 Below are a few early winter photos while the snow is a novelty. While walking the dogs, I'm finding the air so wonderful and bracing. But I am a little shocked with just how cold it is already in the season. It was minus 12 with strong wind gusts that took my breath away one day, but it's back to mild and kind of damp feeling today.

Here is my usual kitchen window photo; it was dark enough very early for the big garage light to stay on. That's another thing; here in the Northern Hemisphere we ...

 The light is changing just as I know the transitioning to another season is happening all around me. And it's become one of the warmest Octobers on record so the days have been pleasantly warm with lots of sunshine. There was a noticeable absence of rain till yesterday when it poured steadily all day. Oh my, the colours though, are so wonderful. I brought in these leaves to show Tony who is not walking the back woods like he used to. But he has started to take a brief walk with the dogs late afternoon and so far it ...

There are still blossoms to be spied on my walks. Here is the late flower whose bloom mimics a frog  and this one is housing a little creature made visible by the sun shining through. What a pretty colour!

 Walking the dogs just out the basement door and starting on the nearest trail, I spied something amongst the big old oak trees.  So here is another of my Can you see it? photos.

Maybe now?

Hello Makers,

Here at AGF we love having this blogging community to be able to share and create tutorials, talk about new fabrics and share what’s new here at Art Gallery Fabrics. Unfortunately the Typepad blogging platform we use will be shutting down permanently on September 30, 2025!  You will no longer have access to our previous posts using artgalleryfabrics.typepad.com link but don’t worry we were able to recover all of our amazing content and it is now available using this new link https://agfblog.com/

Please share with all your sewing friends to make ...