What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The topic of tolerations seems to come up every once in a while with my clients. It also comes up in my own life.

Tolerations could more accurately be called “energy zappers.”

They are those situations, problems, or things that are really solvable, but that you let stay unattended.

Those tolerations bug you on occasion, and you think they are just a nuisance.

What happens when you ignore them?

Sure, you can put up with a few items, but most of us let the list grow. And, you start to compromise on those items.

You know, maybe that stack of ...

Do you know the story behind the maxims:

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day,” and

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.
And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”?

These words have been credited to Mark Twain over the years. It does sound like something he’d say. In actuality, the original quote goes back to Nicolas Chamfort, who lived ...

Are you overwhelmed?

This time of year tends to be overwhelming for many. Graduations. Graduation parties. Weddings. Work deadlines. Trade shows. Yard work. Weeding.

Just like you, I do feel overwhelmed at times. It can happen when I’m trying to meet deadlines or getting ready for the next Quilt Market or our Creative Arts Business Summit. Or even when life throws too much my way.

When that happens, I stop and remember the “whelmed” model that one of my husband’s clients created.

Whelmed. It’s that space between overwhelmed and underwhelmed. It’s that “just right” space, if ...

Saturday's Song
God is good all the time, 
all the time God is good.
"I will open up my heart and let the Healer set me free!"

Can I get an amen?  :)
Slow Stitching
One good thing about spending time in hospitals is there is plenty of time to stitch!  This year has certainly offered me a lot of time for hand stitching!  The hand piecing QALs I joined have been a blessing.  As we know, slow stitching is soothing to the soul.  Here are some of my latest blocks!  These are from the Hand Pieced QAL from Elm ...

Off to another retreat! I’m a  guest at this one, so I get to do a lot more sewing. Prepping has been going on for about a week and I am SO ready! There’s something wonderful about being in a room full of creative quilters that serves to feed my creativity and productivity.

First – a scrappy flimsy that needs a border. It’s a strip quilt and I’ll be doing more strip blocks, making them into small half square triangles with a white-on-white, and adding as a border.

Second – a baby scrappy quilt that was started a ...

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to have one of our very close quilty friends, Christopher Thompson aka The Tattooed Quilter (@the_tattooed_quilter), come visit the Fat Quarter Shop and make some video tutorials with us! Today, we are sharing the videos where Christopher shows us his newest fabric collections, Blossom, and beginner-friendly tutorials on some more advanced quilting techniques such as applique and foundation paper piecing.

Blossom Basics

Christopher’s newest basics collection, Blossom for Riley Blake Fabrics, is here! This collection comes in 40 different colors, from pastels to saturated colors (and a dash of metallics), and is so ...

Who says pincushions have to look like tomatoes!? The sky’s the limit when it comes to these little patchwork pinnies. Carrie Nelson brings us a delightful selection of 40 patchwork pincushions in her book, Pin Pals. She visited the Fat Quarter Shop studio to film a few videos showing us how she assembles and personalizes each one of these little patchwork gems, and how you, too, can play with these tiny tuffets and make them your own.

Pin Pals by Carrie Nelson

40 Patchwork Pinnies, Poppets and Pincushions with Pizzazz (Martingale)

These pincushions are quick to stitch and so ...

We recently had the wonderful opportunity to have one of our very close quilty friends, Christopher Thompson, aka The Tattooed Quilter (@the_tattooed_quilter), come visit the Fat Quarter Shop and make some video tutorials with us! Today, we are sharing the video tutorials where Christopher shows us tips and tricks on how to photo your project, organize your quilting space, and ways to machine quilt and bind your projects.

How to photo your Project

You’ve made your project: hooray! Now it’s time to photo it for social media but the question is how. If you’ve checked out Christopher ...

The flying geese arcs for my son's graduation quilt are coming along nicely.  39 are finished, and 9 more are needed.  Each paper pieced arc of geese is taking approximately an hour and a half to two hours to complete.  So this week, even before I finish piecing those arcs, I think I need to start cutting out the purple background fabric and working out the kinks of the curved piecing required to turn these arcs of geese into quilt blocks.

This Week's Accomplishments, Bagged, Labeled and Ready for Quilting

Have you looked at the calendar and wondered how you can possibly do all you have scheduled? I used to feel that way until I made a simple discovery.

Time blocking!

Time blocking is a method of allocating or pre-assigning time for specific activities throughout your day. It helps me keep my day and life more balanced. I accomplish more because I have structure to my day, I can focus on a specific task with a high value, and I am able to manage interruptions. I am the one in charge of my day. Here’s how to do this ...

At least for now, that is.  I just couldn’t stand it any longer. I had my scraps sorted by color. None had been precut to any particular size. I devised a plan to get a better grip on things (or at least my scraps!)  There were a lot of larger pieces which I cut into 5 inch strips.

I also cut 2 1/2 inch strips:

1 1/2 inch strips. I have a scrap string quilt in the process for these.

3 1/2 inch squares and 2 1/2 inch squares. There is a leader-ender quilt in ...

When Mr. Domestic asked if I’d be part of his blog hop showing off his new line of Aura fabrics with Art Gallery Fabrics, of course I said yes and started thinking of how I wanted to use these pretty fabrics. What I immediately decided was something simple and practical. Because while I love quilts, I have so many that sit in a chest waiting for their day in the sun. And I knew I didn’t want to do that with these beautiful fabrics. So, I created a Quilted Pocket Organizer. This is a simple wall-hanging that it ...

Hello there, and happy Saturday morning!  I'm pleased to report that I've actually STARTED on my son's graduation quilt.  I haven't sewn a stitch yet -- just prep work so far, but I have a feeling the upfront prep work on this project will pay off with an accelerated pace once I do start piecing.

Precut Geese Patches, Bagged and Labeled

Sewing retreats – so very much gets done! To prepare for a 4 day retreat I’m going to, I cut out not one, but two new projects! The first is for a gift for a little boy. I’ve never done an “I Spy” quilt before and thought it would be the perfect gift for the little guy.  Unfortunately, my stash is not very supportive of this quilt. I did manage to cut 9-five inch blocks and then the request process to friends and my guild for more. I’m going to do “square in a square” blocks, using various ...

Saturday's Song.
This video of God Only Knows by King and Country is shocking, but so true.  I just read that a suicide attempt is made every 28 seconds!  Dear one, God knows you, He never leaves you.  People will let us down, but not God.  Try Him.

Let us all look around us and who kindness.  A smile, a prayer, a gentle touch of encouragement to a stranger/friend/loved one could change their lives.  
Take good care!

Slow Stitching.
My slow stitching project continues to be my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  I'll also be choosing ...

This is a song every quilter I know sings! “They multiply on their own” is definitely a favorite phrase. I was looking through my scrap bins – they are separated by color. One bin is all Kaffe scraps. Hmmm…I feel like I’ve been looking at these same scraps forever now. I’ve never used one of the many “scrap saver systems” that others use, but wanted to do something to empty these bins and start fresh. So….out came the studio Sizzix and the Big Kick.

I cut many of the larger pieces into two and one-half inch strips ...