What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Thanks for the great comments—I need to respond to some of them! But YES, those Open Earbuds are better for ear health. I never thought about moisture and infection as potential side effects of wearing regular earbuds, but if you wear them long enough, it could happen. Well, no worries in this house. 

However, I will say that I've already lost my open earbuds. WHAT? Foolish me? How could I have done that? And I'm happy about it. OK—now I've totally gone off my rocker, you say. Nope—I lent them to DH to try ...

 Last weekend we were getting ready to leave for a caravan rally.  Gemma decided to make life difficult for us, with all the hustle and bustle of packing the caravan going on.  "Why not give my people a hard time and hide for a while", she thought.  We were all ready to go and searched here, searched there, to no avail, then searched again.  Robin finally found her curled up and keeping low in a place I had already checked twice!  I don't know why she acts like this, after all she goes away in the caravan once a ...

Another tablecloth, another story.  This tablecloth was purchased as a kit, way back in the mists of time.  So long ago I can't even remember where and when I bought it.  I thought it was lovely, the design was marked on the linen fabric, the lace edging was attached, and all the threads were ready and waiting.  But, I'm not really an embroiderer, and long ago I decided that I really didn't like working with stranded threads.  So the kit sat, lonely and forgotten, and I seem to remember it was discovered when we moved homes from ...

Do you like mysteries as much as I do? Here's one that I haven't been able to solve... yet. When we returned home from our road trip last week this T-shirt was in a fat envelope along with the accumulated mail. No card, no return address. Someone sent it to me and I have no idea where to send the thank you note! I love it, have already worn it several times, and am actually wearing it right now

Do you like mysteries as much as I do? Here's one that I haven't been able to solve... yet. When we returned home from our road trip last week this T-shirt was in a fat envelope along with the accumulated mail. No card, no return address. Someone sent it to me and I have no idea where to send the thank you note! I love it, have already worn it several times, and am actually wearing it right now

...a year makes! Our little Augie is all grown up! It hardly seems possible that he's been with us a year now. It sure didn't take him that long, though, to train us. The best seat in the house isn't a seat at all; he's the resident "hearth hound"!He's filled our hearts and home with pure, unconditional love over the past twelve months.And in other news around the house, (I'm trying to catch

...a year makes! Our little Augie is all grown up! It hardly seems possible that he's been with us a year now. It sure didn't take him that long, though, to train us. The best seat in the house isn't a seat at all; he's the resident "hearth hound"!He's filled our hearts and home with pure, unconditional love over the past twelve months.And in other news around the house, (I'm trying to catch

I've just finished  knitting three of Aunt Ev’s dishcloths.  Not my own Aunt Ev, I’ve never had one of those.  And I have to say, that sadly, all my Aunts have passed away over the years.  I found this particular Aunt Ev on the internet, under “Make it Do” patterns, declaring that this pattern was Aunt Ev’s favourite dish cloth.

When we were on holiday over Christmas and staying with Robin’s sister and hubby, Kaye admired a knitted dish cloth I was using in the caravan.  So I gifted her the second one I had ...

Another month has rolled by, which  means another colour to use for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks.  My Little Bricks were done first.  I’m making two versions of this.  Zig Zag blocks stitched in a row, then the original Little Bricks pattern, both versions very simple to make.  Not many big pieces of yellows in my stash, but I found enough small pieces of different yellows to make my blocks

Yellow Bricks in yellow

Happy Blocks were next, and they do certainly look bright and happy sporting their sunny yellow hues.  I found three boy themed squares to ...

A weird thing I've discovered living just ten miles from downtown LA is that loads of people keep backyard chickens! If you drive through some neighborhoods early in the morning, you can hear the cock-a-doodle doo's! 

The urban farmers include one of my DH's colleagues; he and his wife regularly gift us with a dozen beautiful eggs, in assorted sizes and colors. I truly never knew a plain old unseasoned egg could taste so good. 

This is my thank you gift to them. The message is one they included in a note that came with one of ...

 So is anybody else doing their spring cleaning?  Since this is my 30th year of quilting, I thought it would be a good time to downsize the stash that I've been collecting all this time.  Recently we did over our dressing room/fabric closet and this is as far as we've gotten.

The Before

Notice what great shelves the upcycled church pews made?

 Almost all of my sewing time this week was devoted to finishing the turquoise and gray wedding quilt.  Several hours were spent at the sewing machine, adding lines of quilting with turquoise thread using my walking foot.  The herringbone part of the quilt was quilted with diagonal lines following the pattern of angles of the turquoise strip piecing. 

The backing of this quilt is turquoise flannel--so soft and warm!

I did the hand stitching of the binding in the car.  I had some solid turquoise in my stash which was used for the binding.  I just noticed the thread formed ...

... Christmas is over and, as of today, packed up and put away again until next time! I always wait until Epiphany, Three Kings Day, to take it all down. January 6 was my grandmother's birthday; she's be 120 years old today. She was the one who impressed upon me the importance of leaving Christmas for the full twelve days. When we lived in Puerto Rico we experienced first-hand the true

... Christmas is over and, as of today, packed up and put away again until next time! I always wait until Epiphany, Three Kings Day, to take it all down. January 6 was my grandmother's birthday; she's be 120 years old today. She was the one who impressed upon me the importance of leaving Christmas for the full twelve days. When we lived in Puerto Rico we experienced first-hand the true

I've been on mental vacation for the past couple of days, because I just wrapped up a couple of big projects.  So I started procrastinating the next big thing on my list by cleaning up my studio and selected portions of my home. 

But then I wound up procrastinating my procastination with this gift project idea, just in time for the holidays: Wall art/kitchen art/potholders from old freemotion quilting practice pieces! Here's some of what I've made so far, in the guise of cleaning up my house:

You may have noticed that I was missing in action last weekend...no blog post!  Christine and I were away for the weekend at Camp Kintail.  The camp hosts two crafter's retreats every year and we try to attend both.  We both made great progress on the projects we brought with us and the meals and accommodations were fabulous!  The camp was decorated for Christmas, inside and out. The other retreaters were sewing, knitting, crocheting, doing paper crafts, making cards, making blankets, etc.  It was fun to see what everyone was up to and to visit with friends, old ...