What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I'm glad to know I'm not the only space nerd who also enjoys quilting. We live in an amazing world. People like my parents went to school in horse-drawn cutters (like a sleigh) and wagons, or they walked several miles. No electricity for my parents when they got married in 1954. No TV, no running water! And now, from the comfort of their Lazy-Boy chairs, they are watching the Artemis 2 circle the Earth while we hear everything they are saying in crystal clear voice communication. 

The last 100 years have been amazing. 

Not to disappoint my students ...

It was a positively boring day yesterday! The third-level Microsoft support called, and she took about 5 minutes to poke around my Outlook setup, then decided it needed to be escalated to a higher level! Yikes!!! But Microsoft and Google don't seem to like talking to each other, and there's an issue with syncing. Now I understand why it takes so long for my email to sync - that's always been an issue, but I never thought much about it. If Microsoft is willing to spend time on it, I'm happy to oblige! I have another call ...

It was a wonderful day - AGAIN! I took tons of pictures, but not much to share with you. It was all for the two classes and the UFO club this weekend. The two presentations are totally prepped. I give the groups until 6 AM the day of the class to submit their pictures. I had an issue getting back to sleep at one point, so I was up in the middle of the night. Everything is DONE for today. Nothing new came in, so nothing new to add this morning! 

I will have to share the homework for Colour My ...

How many times have I lamented that I need just one more day? A few I know. Well, guess what? I just got one more day!!

I had something planned for today, and it got postponed until next week. So that gives me one more day to prep for the two classes and the UFO Club on the weekend. YAHOO!!!!!! 

I will warn you that this blog might be a bit off-putting to some. It's filled with great joy, much happiness, more energy than you probably need (It's only five AM), so I apologize. Heck no -- I won ...

 A fairy ring! That's a terrific concept to explain the circle of fungi I spotted. It wasn't on my lawn - it was on the property line separating two front lawns on a different street. I took a closer look and OH MY --- what clusters of fungi!

Here's a better picture of the fungi. OH MY!!! It's almost a perfect circle!!

The fairy ring

And look how dense the fungi are!!!! That's pretty incredible. I've never seen anything like it before. I walk past those two houses every day and only noticed this now! 

Clusters ...

YES—I know I should shut my computers down once a week. I should attempt to do that on Saturday night and boot everything up on Sunday morning. It also helps that if you send an email with pictures to yourself, you actually touch SEND! Oh, I don't know how often I've done that. I "send" an email and wait for it to arrive, except it doesn't. Then I decide to resend it, only to find the draft on my phone. FARCE! 

Today stretches ahead of me with NO commitments. Yes, there is a Virtual Retreat today ...

 From time to time, one must charge the Fitbit. I had plugged it in the other day, only to realize that the charger was not connected to anything! Oops. 

So I had it charging yesterday morning. I try to put my phone under the Fitbit as it charges, so as I grab my phone, I'll remember to grab the Fitbit. That did NOT happen, and I was part way through my walk with Murphy when I realized - no Fitbit. NO!! 

I was a bit dismayed, but I soon got over it. I can simply not track that distance (about ...

the mess created by creative zoom sessions

I've been busy. With my gifted studio space I am making good use of it. There's no wi-fi, so I tend to just work and not stop to make videos or write posts, etc.  As a result I've been less visible than usual, which has been a good thing to do from time to time. Regroup, rethink, reprioritize, and in general concentrate on what I like, what I want and less on what I think I "should" be doing. Painting has taken me back to beginner status.  I'm just figuring things out, testing out the materials ...

I'm a huge fan of Karlee Porter, who is known for her unique and awe-inspiring graffiti quilting. Although I own all her books, I wasn't quite able to understand the concepts well enough, until I finally took a Graffiti Quilting Master Class with her awhile ago.

I’m sure I have done this before, but its always good to revisit things. We are a business where we teach long arm quilting and rent our machines so that you can finish your project yourself. We do all the maintenance so you don’t have to. We have a variety of thread to choose from and try to offer further classes so that you can grow on your long arm quilting journey.

Before all of that happens, we have a beginning class we require you to take. In this class we talk about getting your quilt ready for ...

Every now and then, I run across some article or blog or whatever that sort of draws me in and then holds on to me for a while. I often leave a tab open to the last page I visited so that I can easily return to the site. Most recently I've begun keeping a list of sites that I thought I might share with you. The Sewcialists is one that's chock full of interesting articles about sewing. 

A few highlights that I especially like 

• challenges. Though, honestly, I haven't tried any. They do look interesting and ...

Yesterday I posted this article about sewing mistakes that even seasoned sewists common make. The idea is to help you avoid some of those mistakes. Caring for your machine and tools and choosing the right needle all seem like a given, right? I am ashamed to admit it, but I've been guilty of all of them. 

You get on a roll and just keep going. You know there's dust clogging up the gears, but in just a minute... Or I think I hear a funny sound, I'll finish this then take a look... Or, my favorite, there ...

 All of us, even the "old pros" (like me) make mistakes. For the majority, those mistakes come from habits that we've cultivated over time. And once they become routine, they require time and work to dispose of. 

What are some common mistakes in the sewing world? These are a few that I've observed. Some I have broken, some I can't seem to keep out of my quilting life, and some I've observed while teaching quilting classes.

Not taking care the sewing machine. Let's start at the most important part of your hobby, your machine. It ...

contemporary embroidery posted a photo:

week four of my free online embroidery class is now live on my blog
karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/2020/04/embroiderin...

I hope to be a lifelong learner; I pray that I never get to that place where I think I've learned all that there is to learn. My grandmother used to tell me that every day spent without learning something new was a wasted day. Recalling that now, probably told to me when I was Jr. High age, was most likely in response to thinking that I already knew it all!  We kept the grandchildren late last

I hope to be a lifelong learner; I pray that I never get to that place where I think I've learned all that there is to learn. My grandmother used to tell me that every day spent without learning something new was a wasted day. Recalling that now, probably told to me when I was Jr. High age, was most likely in response to thinking that I already knew it all!  We kept the grandchildren late last

Ah, QuiltCon. My favorite quilt show. The only show I feel like I must attend. The place where I feel overwhelmed and inspired, intimidated and rejuvenated, all at the same time.

Last weekend I attended QuiltCon 2020 in Austin, and as always, it was an exhausting but fantastic time. I tried not to overload myself, but still ended up with 4 classes over 2 days. It was supposed to be 5, but I had to cancel one at the last minute.

I took 2 longarm classes (Fill It With Style, More Than Just Lines) with Jodi Robinson where I learned ...

What can you not sew without? In this post, I share several items I wouldn't want to sew without.