What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

In our town of Hendersonville, we have a yearly art walk exhibit of bears decorated by local artists. The bears are on the street downtown for the summer, then auctioned off to benefits local charities in the fall. This year, several of the bears feature quilt patterns. This one had quilt blocks in mostly blues over its back and legs. The bright colors are eye-catching.

This bear wears a sweater with quilt blocks down the front and back.

This one was my favorite, a patchwork of pastels. There are 20 bears in all, four on the corners of five intersections ...

Over a year ago, I attended a class given by a friend of mine, Barb Boatman. She is an amazing artist, making fantastic pieces out of everything you can think of including aluminum soda cans. She was featured in Quilt Folk a couple of years ago and I am lucky enough to have one of her woven and quilted aluminum pieces in my art collection. Anyway, she led us through an exercise that really hooked me. She calls it an Improv Meditation, and it is a handwork project.

The pieces are small, about 5 inches square. They are random placements ...

Last week I got farther along on Koi Pond, and then was stymied once again. I finished beading all the fish, and they look great, but the purple beads do not shine as much as I had hoped. You have to be fairly close to the piece for you to notice them.

The last element I wanted to add was a water lily in the open space in the lower right corner. I pulled fabrics, trying to find something with a subtle print to add some dimension to the applique. Deciding on one that seemed to match the pebbles in ...

Last week, My Sweet Babboo and I did a test drive to time the route and check the roads for an upcoming drive for our MINI club. We are leading a group up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic lunch at Pisgah Inn. There is only one road up to that section of the parkway open to us right now. The Pisgah Inn is open, and we want to bring attention to the business and take our club there to support them. This day, the clouds were settled into the valley so thick that they covered the mountaintops ...

This week, I had a couple of days where I could spend the whole day in my she-cave. It was a good time to load up the embroidery machine and let it stitch while I was working around the room, pulling things out and working on the decluttering. Here are two of the kitchen towels that will be for sale at the fall festival.

I’m still working on the declutter challenge with my guild area, and got the rulers and applique patterns done while the embroidery machine stitched. I started on the fabrics, and took several yards to guild ...

This past week, I have been on a mission to find some small projects that our guild area group can make for our shop at the show next year. Knowing it will take some time to find the right ideas, I’ve been looking for quick projects with pizzazz. Thank you, dear readers, for your input on this subject some days ago. Your comments were immensely helpful, and combined with my research, I am looking for specific things in a project. I think that items with embroidery will do well, as many sewists do not embroider by machine. So something ...

Did you know that yesterday, February 13, was Galentines Day? It is a made-up holiday started by the TV show Parks and Recreation in 2010. It has grown in our culture over the years as a day to celebrate friendships between women. I have two very dear friends who have helped me get through some stressful times this past year. I wanted to let them know just how special they are. Remember the secret project, this is it!

When I saw these fun mugs on the Sulky website, knew what I was going to do. I ordered One Block At ...

Saturday, the Fiber Fair was held at Beginnings Quilt Shop and we set up a large booth space with quilts, quilted table toppers and runners, embroidered towels, and small items. The spectacular quilt from Pam B was on display with a placard stating that proceeds would be sent to Interfaith Assistance Ministry. Unfortunately, it did not sell. So, I am in the process of identifying a way to get it sold or raffled for the benefit of hurricane victims.

I sold a few things, but the wine inspired runners and placemats are all still available. If you are interested let ...

Today’s project is specifically designed for those who have embroidery machines, but it can also be done with fussy cuts and fall fabrics. Who could use a new pretty kitchen towel? Just about everyone, I think. So, even if you do not have an embroidery machine, read on anyway for a great giveaway today and some ideas on how to make a fall inspired towel with fabric.

For the towel, you can start with a towel blank, or make your own from toweling fabric. Mine is 18×24 inches. If you are making your own, cut your fabric to ...

Well, if you heard a loud squeal sometime Sunday afternoon, that was me. I hit on a design for our Fall Fortnight, and I like it so much that I’m going to make several! Oh, now I cannot wait for October!! At this point, I think the event will begin on Sunday, October 13, and have three posts a week until Sunday, October 27. I have some giveaway prizes, and maybe one or two more coming. The pattern will be free, and I’ll have a pdf download for you. It will use up your scraps, and you’ll ...

Finally, the weather seems to be warming up and I hope it stays that way. I need to get some plants for the veranda and move the ones from the Carolina room to the front. I am in a mood for fresh lemons both in cooking and in decorating. So, let’s take a stroll through some past posts to bring together springtime and lemons! First up, a Lemon Tablescape. I still have the lemon salad plates, and the melamine platter, but the little lemon bread plates and yellow cutwork chargers have been donated back to the thrift store. See ...

Our local guild’s small group held a sew day earlier this month to make items for our quilt show shoppe. One of the things we voted on as a group project was a sewing tool caddy, a really clever design. The design uses a flyer/photo stand that is 5×7-inches. I made mine in fabrics with a sewing theme with two background colors for contrast. I cut the main piece larger, as the pattern calls for pre-quilted fabric. It was suggested to cut the main piece and backing an inch longer and wider, then quilt those pieces with ...

For our last project post of Autumn Jubilee, we are going to play with Mason jars in the sewing room, and then preview a few new releases from our giveaway sponsor.

Using Mason jars to separate buttons by color is a fun way to display your button collection. I put bits of Harvest Festival fabrics on the lids. The one on the left has a plastic ring from a cross stitch kit.

Making a sewing gift from a Mason jar is fun for the fall season. Using a pumpkin print, cut a square roughly twice the size of the ring ...

Our first embroidery project of the event is today, but you can still sew along if you do not have an embroidery machine. Fussy cut motifs or hand embroidered designs will work just as well. This project is made to fit a large 3-cup (or 24 oz), wide mouth Mason Jar.

Remember the four flying geese left over from our quilt along blocks? Here’s where we use them. If you are not doing the quilt along, I’ll give you the instruction on how to make four for the project.

First, find a small embroidery about 3-1/2-inches square ...

It has been such an interesting week for projects, with a lot of things in the works. I’ve been working on a Quilt of Valor on the frame, my Japanese art quilt in my chair doing handwork, and crafting in between. We’ve had wildlife visits, too. I’ve been cooking up a storm testing recipes for the upcoming Mountain State Fair, so My Sweet Babboo has been eating pretty well. The highlight of the week was a visit by a pretty female hummingbird, perhaps the mate of the male I was able to photograph recently. It was a ...

Today will be the first of two posts as I participate with Sarah’s blog hop 12 Days of Christmas in July over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I have a sew-along embroidery project for you that you can also make with some fussy cuts if you don’t have an embroidery machine.

So many of us now have wonderful embroidery machines that can make fabulous stitched motifs and lettering. I created this wall hanging so you can use some of those designs. For my project, I have chosen four Santa Claus designs. For your project, choose four designs ...

Readers have been asking to see my sewing space, so today, I’ll give you a good look. The Kenmore was packed up, and placed in another room for now. My new table has arrived and I have begun the process of moving things around. I moved both embroidery machines to the new table, and they actually fit as I thought they would. That doesn’t happen often, LOL!!

I have two rolling drawer units for sewing supplies, and they used to be side by side. Now one is under each table, so I needed to rearrange what was in ...

It is the last day to register for the Embroidery Extravaganza! live class tomorrow. Get stitching with 11 award-winning artisanal instructors for a vibrant multi-class event on embroidery, one of the most popular meditative crafts practiced worldwide. This event features vibrant classes on stitches, motifs, methods, and more skill-building and imaginative lessons to take your embroidery to the next level both hand and machine!

For my readers all over the world, especially those in the southern hemisphere, you don’t have to watch it live. Once you pay for the course, all the segments will be available to watch beginning ...

Three classes and a event with 10 hours of classes are coming up, all on Zoom, that you can sign up for. All are great bargains for the amount of material covered. There is something for almost everyone here, so read on for the details.

First, I am going to try once again to have a Zoom class on my Well Loved Quilt Repair. I did a wait list last year and did not get enough interest to go ahead. Well Loved Quilt Repair pulls together my tips and tricks, and organizes the program according to the types of repairs ...

Our local quilt guild had a program in September with a workshop on making a Sashiko bag. I had not tried this before, so I signed up to take the class. It turned out to be a really fun way of doing handwork that finishes quickly. The needles and threads are large, making it easy to see and do. The stitches are worked by rocking the needle in and out over several stitches, then pulling the thread through. In general, the lines are geometric, but really, anything goes.

One challenge is to stitch the rows in such a way as ...