What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Don’t be too shocked – I have done some actual sewing at last! At work I did a very nice Liberty star quilt for a customer and finally got to grips with the L890 project, “Bloom & Grow”. There were parts that I really liked on the project but others that I would probably change if I do it again or teach it as a Quilt-Along. Mainly, it is not super accurate but it is fast. The point of the project is to experience lots of techniques that the L890 excels at but sometimes I felt that it would have been ...

On Sunday I showed you the two precut packs of Japanese fabrics I have had for some months. My idea was to use them in some way to embellish this green sweatshirt into a jacket. It is the one where I removed a patchwork and lace applique on both sides that was just too much.

When I opened the squares pack, the fabrics were just gorgeous. But they are primarily a black background, which I thought would go better on a black jacket.

I just happened to have one. I purchased a well fitting, petite sized, fleece jacket and sewed ...

I spent Sunday morning being interviewed by a prospective Landlord and am now having second thoughts about a house that I thought was ideal. I have to make sure that the endangered Slow Worms and Newts in the garden thrive. I am not allowed to paint anything even if it is scruffy and can be evicted at short notice if the garden is not correctly maintained. On the other hand, I also saw a Bedford Cottage in Tavistock which is rather small but the Landlady is considerably more relaxed;)

I don’t actually need to rush into anything at all ...

The trouble with being a Maker is that I tend to think I can make something better or cheaper than buying something. For instance, I love linen bed sets but they are so expensive. I investigated buying wide linen to make Fergus a duvet set but it was at least £50.00 per metre just for plain colours which would not be as economical as purchasing a set. 

I went to a vintage shop this week and bought half a dozen old linen sheets for £30.00 altogether. I decided to washing machine dye them in different shades of green ...

We had a pleasantly low-key and damp summer week here in N E Scotland. It was cold and I had to use my electric blanket at night. Freya was here to get her front teeth fitted at last then she worked from home for a couple of days while Nella crafted. 

Fergus sent a great photo of him with some pals at the Scotland vs. Germany football match in a Glasgow pub. He is very homesick but knows that he has to be in Glasgow to give his music career a decent shot. Hopefully he will feel better when he ...

I like to think I am an organised person who puts things away so that they can easily found. I was determined to finish my ArtnStitch teaching slideshow but could not find the crucial USB stick with all the work I had done before amongst all my other USB sticks. Obviously, it should also have been backed up to a hard drive or the Cloud but it wasn’t. I searched high and low all day and looked on every single USB stick, thereby editing each one of those until I remembered that I took it to Norfolk with other ...

I was away at the start of the week, teaching and demoing at Barnyarns in NE Yorkshire. I had chosen to travel by train which was great because I could do some work on my laptop and read a book but not so convenient as having a car at the other end. The Premier Inn in which I was staying was a couple of miles out of town so nowhere to go out for food in the evening. The event was well attended by people keen to investigate purchasing a Q-Series machine or just curious or just tempted by Prosecco ...

The obsessive rabbit hole that I fell into this week was all to do with Travel Journals. I have been accumulating stationery for my (grown-up) children to keep holiday diaries like they did when they were little. Obviously, I had to watch copious Youtube videos and several of the channels recommended a pouch by Delfonics to in which to keep all of the bits and bobs. Those pouches are Japanese and cost a minimum of £40.00 so I decided that I could make my own. Firstly, I ordered a pdf pattern which cost me $5.00 then I had ...

I belong to the most wonderful Modern Quilting Guild, BrisbaneMQG and on sew days I get to marvel at all the talented quilters projects. Justine, a new member, had a pile of colourful 25 patch blocks with 1″ finished black and white sashing. I was immediately taken by their beauty and started making my own for my modern Bee quilt. Digging through my extensive and embarrassing fabric stash I started to gather 2.5″ squares and make blocks. I have caught the bug and it’s great sewing therapy in between other projects. Fussy cutting the black on white fabrics ...

Out with the snowmen, it's February; love and hearts have replaced them on the tabletops and kitchen windowsill! And yet, while all of that is true, here is the greater question:Thank you so much, blogger friends and those in real life who've reached out to inquire about my whereabouts and well-being. I'm fine, just as busy as I've ever been. I had taken on quite a few outside longarm

Out with the snowmen, it's February; love and hearts have replaced them on the tabletops and kitchen windowsill! And yet, while all of that is true, here is the greater question:Thank you so much, blogger friends and those in real life who've reached out to inquire about my whereabouts and well-being. I'm fine, just as busy as I've ever been. I had taken on quite a few outside longarm

While my kids were still at school, Life was pretty busy, getting them to where they needed to be, running a business and entering quilt competitions but at least there was a schedule. These days, I don’t have many time commitments so I can please myself how much work I do. The trouble is that I make myself try to get too much done, all at once, so I hardly ever allow myself any down-time. I felt so harassed that I dug out a planner that I used to have in 2019 up until Life came to a grinding ...

I was 56 on Monday which means it is almost 16 years since I started blogging! I have been thinking… do I have a good work / life balance? Am I creating enough? Am I having fun? Does any of it even matter?! I certainly don’t seem to travel as much, mostly due to Nessie, costs and probably the state of the world. I am trying to be more focussed as I am easily distracted and that can be overwhelming.  

I “allowed” myself some time off for my birthday and had a lovely lunch out with a friend but I ...

It was a snowy week – not that much snow to be honest, although the roads were bad but it was COLD in my workshop. I have just got a digital thermometer out there and yesterday when it was beginning to warm back up it was only 5 Celsius! I was not out there very much unless dressed like an Arctic explorer. I managed to quilt a second sofa cover from fluffy fleece and anti-slip-rug-stuff. I had a bit of a panic when I got an error message that the Q-matic system was not recognising its motors but I discovered that ...

I drove back from Norfolk listening to an audiobook which passed the time easily – Kate Atkinson’s “Normal Rules Don’t Apply”. Even though I had taken some craft projects with me I did not even look at them. I made a slightly rash purchase of the Tula Pink butterfly quilt kit and companion digital designs. I think it was due to a combination of not having a planned project and feeling that working with the digital patterns would be a good learning curve. 

Freya was home when I got back to get her broken front teeth fixed (again). I ...

Nessie and I travelled back to Scotland by train which is a long way with a dog on your lap, sometimes the floor. She was very good, especially at Edinburgh Waverley where we had 10 minutes to change platforms. Thistle (Fizz) was delighted to see me and was especially pleased that she could get access to my bed. Meanwhile my room had been turned into a recording studio and Nella’s room seemed to have been filled with the junk that everyone else had decided they no longer wanted in their rooms. It seems that I will have some serious ...

I know, I know; I've been AWOL with no clue as to when I'd return or why I had disappeared. The last you knew I had my cast taken off and I was footloose and fancy-free again. Well, let's just say that was a very short lived state! Sigh. After a few days of catching up with all the tasks that required two free hands I contracted some sort of virus that presented with almost every symptom you