What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Good morning, my friends. Happily, I got a better night of sleep last night. I was dragging yesterday. After writing my post, I did some slow-stitching, and then slid down on the couch for a morning nap. It was a short nap. We needed to drive into town to run some errands. When we got home, we had some lunch, and then I lay down for another nap. That too was short. The two naps helped me keep my eyes open during the time when I was supposed to be awake. However, they did nothing for my energy level, and ...

I went to The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Novi, Michigan yesterday. The exhibits were interesting and the vendors varied from the usual quilt show crowd. Many types of vendors were missing though. Not one thread company had a booth.

I didn’t plan to buy anything, even though many vendors had beautiful fabric at deep discount prices. The Quilts of Valor booth got me though. Because they want their quilts to have a patriotic feel, they were selling fabric that didn’t fit colorwise for $1 a bundle/cut. I picked up the check and the neutral bundle first ...

 We were in our third ever quilt show a few weeks ago.

This was the first show we did, back in October 2022.

I felt it really showed the shop.

Here's a quick video.

Good morning, my friends. It's a rainy day here at the Three Cats Ranch. It rained some yesterday too. It makes all of us tired just looking at those gray skies. We're promised a few more sunny days this week, but then I'm afraid the Big Dark will be on us until next spring. Sadie was resting up on the bottom rung of her kitty pole. Apparently she was too exhausted to jump to the top.

While they slumbered, I ...

Good morning, my friends. It's a rainy day here at the Three Cats Ranch. It rained some yesterday too. It makes all of us tired just looking at those gray skies. We're promised a few more sunny days this week, but then I'm afraid the Big Dark will be on us until next spring. Sadie was resting up on the bottom rung of her kitty pole. Apparently she was too exhausted to jump to the top.

While they slumbered, I ...

 Hello Everyone,

I spent a wonderful, warm fall day with friends and family and traveled to Plymouth, CA for the Sierra Gold Quilters Show.  I loved seeing this version of my October Magic pattern!  It was so well done, and I loved the colors.

I know the last pictures I posted from the show were awful, but I spent an evening editing these. I did some cropping and some light adjustments, as I thought the others looked over-exposed because of the too-bright lighting. I will try to pick up where I left off. 

These next two came from the border workshop we did in the winter. I still haven't finished mine.

I love both of them. Maybe it will inspire me to get mine back out and finish it!

The show went well, but I’m so glad it’s over. It’s a lot of work, and I’m exhausted. The quilts were great this year, and I took lots of pictures. Unfortunately, I’m having trouble getting them uploaded from my phone….I’ll show what I can and save the rest for another day.

Well, Festival of Quilts 2023 has already been and gone! I arrived at lunchtime on Wednesday for set-up after an overnight stop in Glasgow. It takes quite a team effort to set up a longarm stand where we had 2 Bernina Q-Series frame machines and 6 sit-down machines. Things can be a bit fraught until everything is all sorted out. When you finally get dinner and a long awaited beverage you wonder if you will be able to get up bright and early the next day. Of course, you always do;)

Imagine my surprise the next day when people said ...

This week I got down to putting together some class specs and requirements. It has been a while since I came up with “lesson plans” so I struggled with the discipline. I usually aim to plan more than is required which is what most primary school teachers do to keep the fast workers occupied. I will be teaching my Northern Lights improv curves class in Glasgow next month but I decided to add another element which is improv bridges. I am experimenting with machine appliqué methods. The original class was just free-cut strips but I decided to give the pupils ...

Just about every other year I travel to Athens, Ohio, to take in Quilt National, one of the more prestigious art quilt shows that’s been around since 1979. This year for my birthday my husband drove me three hours each way, and took a long walk while I gawped to my heart’s content at the 81 works this year’s jurors had selected. Size, style, techniques, and subjects were varied; which is perfect for representing the diversity in art quilts.

I’ll try to recap some of the themes and trends I saw this year, and provide photos ...

 Today we were up early and off to pick mom up. We stopped at Starbucks on the way. 

Arrived around 9 am and met the women we were to work with. There was Karen, Karen, Karen and others. lol Karen was the gal that called asking us to judge, Karen 2 helped mom with her quilts and Karen 3 was recording the information as we were going. 

They had some awesome quilts. I had more blues then red or white. I gave 1 white ribbon to someone. I gave about 6 reds. A lot of quilters didn't have the ...

Last week we went to an afternoon of “Outlander” related talks at the Willow Tea Room in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. I had not realised that the event was an off-shoot of a whole Outlander Conference at Glasgow University so there were some diehard fans in attendance. One of them was not at all convinced when told that Falkirk is not in fact at the heart of the Highlands. Nella and I had made Jamie Fraser t-shirts for the occasion but nobody even noticed. The first talk, given by a guy from the Jacobite Society, was disappointingly dull as he read ...

I spent the week in Norfolk alternating between spending time with Nella in Norwich and my folks in Loddon. The weather was very hot and humid some days. We did not do anything terribly exciting. I found my Mother a new butter dish and cruet set from Ebay. We went for a stroll along the promenade in South Lowestoft and bought a new electric scooter for my Dad which should be easier to put in the car for outings. 

The drive back north to Scotland was a bit of a marathon at 13 and a half hours. There was slow ...

No change in the numbers.

We went to Quilt National in Athens, Ohio this weekend to see the exhibit. There are always new and different techniques in the quilts on display. It’s interesting to see what people come up with.

We stopped at a quilt shop in Nelsonville, Ohio, but nothing screamed that it needed to come home with me. My drawers runneth over, so if it isn’t screaming at me I’m not buying.

On the home front, I meant to put a close up of Shikishi in last week’s post and forgot. Here it is ...

Recently I did a stint at the Summit County Historical Society’s booth at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Akron, Ohio. Much of my time was spent explaining features of the Society’s antique and vintage quilts on display, but I carved out 10 minutes to race around the expo exhibits. I photographed only one quilt – Ben Hollingsworth’s “M. Matisse Chambres a Louer.”

Ben explains its origin story and years-long making process here. When I first laid eyes on it I didn’t know all that. All I knew was this quilt ticked several boxes for me ...