What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Mikayla’s Grace is a wonderful charity in my area of Wisconsin that supports families with a baby in the NICU (neonatal ICU) and those who experience the death of a child or pregnancy loss at hospitals in the Dane County area.

Crafters from all over make beautiful handmade baby items that they sew, knit or crochet and send to Mikayla’s Grace — from gowns, hats, and booties, to baby blankets and quilts. Several times a year volunteers meet to assemble these donations into care packages and deliver them to local hospitals to distribute.

Melissa recently sent out an email ...

This week’s challenge for Project Quilting (Season 15.5) is “wearables”. You can turn clothing into something else or “quilt-ify” something you wear or make a clothing-themed item.

Here are the normal rules, and you have one week from start to finish to meet the challenge.

• Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline.
• Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count toward prizes.
• Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have ...

This week the Project Quilting 15.4 challenge is hour glass”

I knew just the block I wanted to use. Half square triangles pieced into a shimmering star. You can see the hour glass shape in the white star tips!

It was a very simple project and was cut, sewn, quilted & completely done in only an hour and a half.

After making 8 half square triangles, I added 8 squares to make 4 blocks measuring 4.5” (4” finished) each. Then I sewed the 4 blocks together forming the star (8.5”, 8”;finished). Next I simply added a 2 ...

When I saw the Challenge from Project Quilting for this week “Inside Out” the first thing I thought of was a rag quilt, or a quilt with raw seam edges showing on the right side. NOPE. (Everyone will be doing that.)

So next I looked up the phrase online. Besides the title of a new cartoon Disney movie, most posts were about how to “birth” a quilt by sewing the top & backing/batting right sides together & leaving a seam open to turn right side out to finish it instead if binding. NOPE.

Nothing else I saw or read inspired me ...

I try to participate in Project Quilting every year. It’s a great excuse to try a new technique and play.

This week’s challenge is “Sky Color (not blue). We’re supposed to create a quilted item within one week start to finish.

I decided to try a resist technique I saw demonstrated by Quilter Julie B. Booth on Quilting Arts TV (Episode 1703 “You can’t resist this”). She demonstrated how to use ordinary liquid dishwashing soap as a resist on fabric.

Here’s a youtube Quilting Arts TV preview… see it on the end:

This week Project Quilting Season 14 (2023) has as their very last challenge: Conquer Your Fear

They say in their post, “if you only do what’s safe and comfy, you’ll stagnate and grow soft.” I agree. You need to push your boundaries from time to time … and get out of your comfort zone.

As you probably know, the challenge is to make a quilted object (any size) from start to finish in one week using the challenge title as your inspiration. And post a photo at their website before the deadline.

So, after pondering all the fears that ...

So this is the last Project Quilting challenge (season 13)for 2022. As you know the challenge quilted project can be anything (from a quilted coaster to a full sized quilt) but has to be done (start to finish) during the challenge week. It’s amazing what quilters can accomplish.

I don’t have a lot of time this week, but I really wanted to make something simple so I don’t miss out on participating this week.

I used my Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) computer program to quickly design a doll quilt/table topper with a strip of flying ...

Like many of you, I can’t stop thinking about and praying for the brave people of Ukraine as they are under attack. As Lella Boutique said so beautifully in her recent blog:

“Sunflowers are powerful and relentless in their pursuit of light … It seems so fitting that Ukraine’s national flower is a sunflower. Sunflowers have become a powerful symbol of the Ukrainian people; their heart, strength, and determination to fight for the good. It’s impossible not to be inspired by their spirit. We pray for these heroic people to overcome the evil at their door. We pray ...

The challenge for this week’s Project Quilting Season 13.2 inspired me: “In Silhouette”. Participants have only a week to begin and finish a quilted item for the challenge, and it took me a few days just to come up with the idea.

But once I did get the idea, I was off and running or should I say off and sewing)! I found the perfect fabric for the background from my stash of hand dyed and painted fabric. It reminded me of a sunset.

I free motion quilted the background first using a variety of variegated threads. Next ...

We’ve got mounds of snow outside, temps below zero, and covid all keeping us at home. So when Project Quilting announced it’s challenge theme of Virtual Vacation, I was on board! It was so nice to dream of a vacation while thinking about a quilt to make for the contest.

You’d think I’d be dreaming up a vacation to Florida, sunny Hawaii, or some other place warm. But I happened to see a photo on Pinterest of the Bayfield Wisconsin area in our beautiful northern Wisconsin winter, and it reminded me how much I miss our ...

It’s the very last challenge week for Project Quilting Season 11 (2020). A big shout out to Kim Lapecek (Persimmons Dreams);and her cohort Trisha Franklin (AKA Quilt Chicken) for making this challenge possible, and for cheering us up during a very unusual and difficult time.

They couldn’t have chosen a better challenge theme “Vibrant and Vivacious”. Working with bright colors was just what we all need to distract us from all that’s going on and to help cheer us on.

I chose a border print of red poppies from my stash. So bright and cheerful, the ...

I’m participating again this year in Project Quilting, and this week’s Season 11.5 challenge is “Give It Away”. TRISH we must be on the same wavelength (LOL)!! Just the week before the challenge I made ten baby quilts for one of my favorite charities, Mikayla’s Grace! What are the chances? See that blog post here.

BUT those quilts won’t count for entry into this week’s challenge. The rules clearly state the quilt has to be made–beginning to end–during the challenge week. That’s not a problem… I see by their website that ...

So this week’s challenge for Project Quilting is “Put a Heart on It”. I’ve been wanting to do another Lil’ Twister tool quilt AND break into a beautiful Moda charm pack I just got by American Jane called “Merry Go Round”. I love the bright & pastel spring flower-like colors.

So here goes! How do you make a Twister heart? First position all the 5 inch squares into a large patchwork quilt top, kind of in the shape of a heart. This one is 7 x 7 squares.

Sew it altogether, then add a border out of the same ...

So as you’ve heard me talk about before, Project Quilting is similar to Project Runway–you’re given a challenge & a limited period of time to make it, start to finish…but no one is voted off! It’s the creation of Kim Lapicek with her friend, Trish (AKA Quilt Chicken), and helps take the “cabin fever” out of the middle of winter here…although they have quilters from all over the world entering!

This is Season 11, Challenge 2: And the phrase is “Team Colors”. Well, I’m from Wisconsin, so of course (being football season) it’s ...

When I found out the theme of this week’s Project Quilting challenge: NOTABLY NUMERIC, absolutely nothing came to mind. Then I remembered a kit I bought at the Madison Quilt Expo a couple years ago. It’s for an advent calendar wallhanging designed by Leanne & Kaytlyn Anderson of Whole Country Caboodle.

Everything I need is in the box (except for the batting & backing).

I loved this fabric and pattern, but every year around Christmas I never seemed to get around to it. Well, now’s my chance! …even if the holidays have come and gone, I don’t mind ...