What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Hoping you read yesterday’s post as it will help make sense of this one. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here and take a minute to read it.

The tale continues….. It was sometime just after the cute cow fabric debacle I decided I wanted to try printing a special fabric on Spoonflower.

I need to back up just a bit. In March I wrote a post about a very special t-shirt my son made for me for my 60th birthday. He replicated a t-shirt I had back in my college days that I dearly loved.

This is a tale of personal stubbornness, my own to be exact. It is a long story because I am quite the stubborn person. Some months ago, I found a cute piece of fabric while shopping at Ben Franklin. It was green with tiny black and white cows all over. I thought it would be fun to use it for a pair of sleep shorts for Julia. Then it sat on the shelf, patiently waiting to be cut up and used.

When I finally got around to making the shorts it all came together quickly. The shorts were so cute ...

Another new make on the Janome M7 using various stitches and features to make a great dress perfect! I found a link to a free blouse pattern on the Australian Peppermint Magazine on Spoonflower. Following the trail of cookie crumbs (or thread bits), I then found the Wide-Strap Maxi dress pattern, which is a free PDF download. They ask if you’d like to make a donation to support the cost of the site, so I did, and I GOT A THANK YOU! Nice! Click on the pattern name or here for the hotlink. Along the way I took pictures ...

 Anyone else tired of the whole "shelter at home" business? Me too. While I am thankful for the safety of my family and friends, and incredibly aware of the privilege to be able to stay at home, I am also so thankful for vaccines and dropping Covid numbers that allows us to cautiously be with other humans again. While zoom is a wonderful tool, nothing quite matches being with others in person. 

This past weekend I was invited to retreat with 10 others who are all fully vaccinated for four days. What a treat!

Along with the whir of sewing ...

Life has been fairly busy around here – lots of garden time, some visiting with friends, reading books and, of course, some sewing. Let’s see what I can share with you today!

First up, I received two incredible quilts for Mercy Hospital! These were quite unexpected and I am thrilled to have them. My friend, Stephanie, is a local long arm quilter with a passion for purples and blues and a strong love of Kaffe Fassett. When she offered these two quilts to me for Mercyful Quilts, I was over the moon. Want to see them?

It’s a miracle…sewing for pure fun! Last summer I ordered the PDF download of this Eva Dress pattern by Tessuti Fabrics in Australia (don’t ask me what delightful rabbit hole I fell into that led me to a fabric shop half-way around the world). I had 2 1/2 yards of art quilter Leslie Tucker Jenison’s fantastic Warehouse District design printed on Kaufman’s Essex cotton-linen blend, a perfect weight for this jumper (there’s also a short sleeve version). Be sure to see the short video below!

 Here we are, spring again! and for a brief time every April the Texas Bluebonnets are in full bloom. Last weekend Hubby and I drove to our favorite Bluebonnet spot for a few photos, as we do. I thought it would be fun to share a little bluebonnet block I made ages ago (and quickly finished into a tiny quilt right before we photographed it).

This is an awesome 6" foundation paper pieced block that is free on Sarah's blog. My original intention was to make a whole field of bluebonnet blocks but, well, you all know how that ...

When I got home from Washington I picked up a project that I started about a month ago. I had it 80% complete and for whatever reason, it was set aside. It was fun to pick it up and finish it. Even more fun that I really like the fit, which as you can imagine, is not always the case!

Using McCall’s Pattern M7122, and a jersey knit by Art Gallery Fabric, I made a fun t-shirt. It has dolman sleeves that are 3/4 length. Being a vertically challenged person, I did cut the sleeves and overall length ...

Hello all and Happy New Year to you. I hope the holidays were pleasant for all of you. While this year was definitely not how we normally celebrate, we did enjoy them. We scheduled a Zoom call with our three boys who live away from home and that was great. Also, my son set up a Zoom so we could just quietly watch the girls’ Christmas morning excitement. That was especially great – seeing them so excited, opening their gifts. Sometimes I wish I could just have a webcam to the girls’ play room and watch them all the time. However ...

These just-perfect sized pattern weights, 3″ on a side, are not only just the thing for YOUR sewing room, but they make quick and easy gifts for anyone you know who sews!

Early in my year as a Michael Miller Fabrics Brand Ambassador for 2020, I decided to use some Marbles (MMF Basic collection) for a ...

June is winding down. Not sure how that is possible but really, it is best not to question things these days. Time passes, some days fly by and others feel so incredibly repetitive. Such is life during a pandemic.

I haven’t shared much lately so I need to get caught up! First off – a little crafting. Julia and I have been trying to spend some time together making projects. A few weeks ago, my son and his wife were here for a weekend (the first time we had seen them since Christmas!!). We spent some time painting small rocks ...

The thread featured in this post was given to my by Aurifil.

Seven years ago, when they were small, I started making garments for my children. They were fun little projects and much faster than making and finishing a quilt. These clothes were all made out of quilting cotton, though once I made a satin skirt for a friend's daughter. Quilting cotton is easy to sew with.

For years now I've been wanting to make garments for myself. In August of 2017, I started listening to the new, weekly Love to Sew podcast. Co-hosts Helen and Caroline are ...

While I don't have a lot to show for what I did yesterday, I did make great leaps and bounds in getting stuff done. A new pattern is written, the assembly diagram was created and now I just have to proofread the pattern this morning before it goes out the door.

There never seems to be any lack of computer work that needs to be done. Whether it's a quilt to be designed, a pattern to write, and now that I've added all this design work in PREMIER+ ECQ that I could potentially embroider - well, there's ...

It was a rainy day but that didn't deter me from the long walk with the girls. Fortunately, it was just a slight drizzle which later became a nasty rain, but I was in the car when it started to really rain.

I had company for my fabric shopping expedition. I got a call from Ronda who was looking for something to do and so we both headed off to Hamilton to look for fabrics.

We picked up some more vinyl - you can never have enough vinyl. I've got quite a variety of colors now so whatever we ...

Oh -- I see there are some great comments in the last couple of days. I'm a wee bit strapped for time this morning so I'll address them tomorrow.

This silly walking business has greatly cut into my time. But once I'm caught up (I'm less than 10 miles behind - I think I made up four miles this week), things will be better. Over 23,000 steps yesterday. Also, I had a lot of private classes this week - everyone wanting to get themselves organized at the beginning of the year.

I won't go into the detail ...

Back in October my daughter told me her friend was wanting a new bathrobe. To which I replied (as you would I am sure) “Oh, well why don’t I make one for him?” Any excuse to sew something, am I right? Anyway, Balam (her friend) was excited and even told me no one had ever made any clothing for him. I certainly didn’t need to hear anymore than that.

A few weeks later, Balam and I met at Ben Franklin to choose a fabric. I had hoped for a thick terrycloth or a nice fleece. No luck finding ...

I decided to get a jump on New Year’s resolutions and began organizing my fabric stash. Since I haven’t done much garment sewing since I started quilting (nearly 20 years ago) I decided to start with the fabric normally used for that purpose ie. non-cotton fabrics. I came across a pattern         that I had cut out and embroidered when I found out that I would become a grandmother for the first time (More than 28 years ago!!).

My daughter had decided on a carousel theme for the nursery. I embroidered a carousal horse and when we learned that ...

I am notorious for starting a project when I have no business doing so. Literally dozens of quilts wait in the wings and I decided that it’s time to start making a dress for my one-year-old niece. Let’s not mention how she is still waiting for a quilt (in progress) or how I have another fabric gift I'm working on for her. But she's almost walking. She needs a dress from Auntie Sarah.

I decided to make her a Jewel's Stripwork Dress in the same style as my daughter's airplane dress from when she ...