What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

In just a few days many of us will be traveling to Nashville, TN, for QuiltCon, which begins on Thursday. I pray that you all have safe travels and that you enjoy the show. If you're planning to attend QuiltCon on Friday, let me know. (Leave a note here or email me at mary.marcotte@gmail.com.) I'd love to meet you, perhaps for lunch, and to have a chance to get to know you in person. It's almost always better, don't you think?

Well, I caved and started a new quilt. What’s more, I talked my sister into doing it, too! She’s my partner in crime for most of my quilting activities — how could she say no?

But when you see it, you’ll stop wondering why I gave in.

It’s a new Quilt-Along by Barbara Brackman, hosted on her Civil War Quilts blog HERE. Not only is this a very interesting blog for Civil War history, especially pertaining to quilts and textiles during that time period, but she hosts great quilt-alongs. I’ve resisted a couple in the past ...

Having just spent most of my week with a bunch of teenagers who all plan to attend a college, I thought it might be a nice idea to take a look at some of the college memory quilts that are on Pinterest. 

I'm often asked what inspires my work.  Well, how long have you got?

There really isn't an easy answer to this as I'm inspired by so many things.  Sometimes I get so much inspiration from one thing that it leads to a series of work.  This was so when I began to see rusty objects over and over again and the more I saw, the more I noticed rust in many other places.   This overload of inspiration lead to two series - Corrosion, which was inspired by the rust itself, and Oxidisation, which used fabric and threads dyed ...

If you’re participating in the Summertime Samplers Block-of-the-Month program through Sew Sweet Quilt Shop this year, we’re already up to Block 6 this month!

I’ve been remaking some of the blocks using my scraps, just because I had so much fun with these quilts, and wanted to see them done up in more ways. Here’s my third version of Block 6:

I really, really like making this block, and I think I might make an entire quilt just out of these blocks, done up all scrappy like this. In my spare time, of course!

That’s ...

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Hi Everyone!

The felted lighthouse piece is done!  It is called Ninini Lighthouse, which is the actual name of the lighthouse in Lihue, Kauai. I ended up using a facing and keeping the edges clean. I hope to mount it on a canvas or better yet, inside a shadow box frame.

Now it’s time to turn my attention to something new.

I am always attracted to tropical places, scenes, plants, people, etc. And I recently got to spend my birthday at such a place- Punta Cana in the Dominican ...

Have you ever wanted to try English Paper Piecing?  We made a small tutorial on the basics of the process quite some time ago, but sometimes you need a little more direction and ideas for easy projects.  Carolina Moore‘s new book with Nancy’s Notions, Learn to English Paper Piece, is a great starting point!  Here’s a […]

I felt the urge to make a new Valentine’s project this year, and I wanted to do something with embroidery.

I thought about designing something completely new, but I’m still in love with my “Be Mine” Valentine appliqué wall quilt pattern, so I decided to use it to make a little stitchery mini quilt.

Here’s the original appliquéd wall quilt, which measures 20″ x 20″.

For my stitchery version, I reduced the size of the appliqué pattern, and embroidered it. It fits into an 8″ square. Then I used a couple pieces from my stash to add ...

A couple of years ago AHIQ held a challenge to make Chinese coin quilts. Ann and Kaja made some gorgeous quilts; in fact, Ann made several. Today I ran across a couple of familiar-looking quilts on Pinterest. You probably guessed it. Two of their quilts! I'm not certain that they should be on Pinterest, but there they were.



Since I was searching for an inspiration for today, I got straight to it. Here are both of those and several more. 

Ann's quilt (Fret Not Yourself)

Kaja's quilt (Sew Slowly)

My sketchbook continues to occupy me each day, even when I was on holiday in Gran Canaria last month.

First a catch-up of the few days before we went.....

Rusting compound over stencil on watercolour background

Fabric collage with stitching and buttons

Wooden stamp with added pen drawing

Collage lettering on map background

Sometimes you need to do something else. You totally love your main “thing” (in my case it is clearly art quilting), but you need a break. And sometimes, that makes your main “thing” even better. I’ve learned over the years that good design is good design, whether it is landscape, interiors, architecture, photography, painting, sculpture, apparel, the principles are the same. So I have taken online classes in drawing and photography and been enriched.

Don't you just love old maps? If you're answer is yes, then I have two suggestions for you today. Firstly, go to the AHIQ blog and see what others have done with the 2018 map challenge. It's  impressive. This link brings you straight to the wrap-up but you can navigate your way around from there.

Not just modern. Not just triangles. Modern triangles!