What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Hubby with his Ryker.  He's loving it and it has taken a load of worry off my mind. I now notice them on the road; many more than I would have thought.  I guess with the population aging and bikers wanting to bike no matter the age, it makes sense these rigs become more popular.

When I was getting ready for my April Quilt & Sew-In, I prepped an easy and quick quilt using the many polka dot fabrics I have.  I paired them with some striped fabric and cut all into 2 1/2 inch strips.  I got the inspiration for this quilt which she called the Ernie Quilt. For me, it’s best to have something fairly mindless, quick and gratifying for when I am facilitating a retreat. This worked!

Here is the quilt top on the design wall at the retreat:

And, very unlike me, I quilted it as soon as I got ...

Next up on the frame is another Hurricane quilt.  This top was sent to me by sweet reader Phyllis Donohue (who is in her 80s!), a lovely patchwork with gold sashing.  I loaded it, but before I could really get to quilting, something happened.

I twisted my knee somehow, not once but twice, and pulled at least two ligaments.  I put myself into a compression brace for a couple of days, but that wasn’t doing the job, so now I have a bigger brace.  It is getting better, but activities are curtailed for a bit as I am spending ...

A customer request came from Angie for a HAVANESE paper pieced block similar to her pet.

After seeing this adorable Havanese, I was motivated to do it justice.

Sometimes it takes a couple of tries before I get an image that makes me happy. This image was my best HAVANESE.

Abigail sent this cute photo of a cushion she is making using my KING CHARLES block.

Kelsey sent this adorable photo of a pillow using my CORGI block. This reminds me of Andy Warhol’s paintings.

Elaine created these sweet pillows using the CHINESE CRESTED block pattern.

When a customer ...

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to see a finish. Something. Anything. Since sitting is a bit of a problem still, I decided to finish something at the long arm. Hey, if you can't sit, stand.

So I dug around in the bin of "ready to quilt" tops (RTQ--they aren't UFOs if I intend to finish them) and found the easiest, smallest little pink quilt in the pile. I didn't count how many are in there, because some things are best left alone. As you can see, the bin is full. 

Life is good!  Here I am in Central, NY making a very special cactus quilt for a newly discovered sister.  I have a half sister (Mary) whom I have known my entire life.  Two years ago Mary wanted to submit our DNA to Ancestry.com to see if we really did have Native American ancestor’s as our mother said.  Turns out we don’t.

My mother used to tell me in a hushed voice “you have sisters in Canada”!  I always wondered if that story was true.  Turns out it is true!  I have two sisters on my Father ...

At the beginning of this year I joined 2 sew-alongs. But I didn't blog about them because I had a feeling that I'd fall behind. And fall behind I did. I haven't even started one of them, and the second one ... I'm several months behind too.

So the last thing I need is yet another sew-along, right? Well, when Suzy Quilts started her Mod Mountains Sew-Along, I felt the urge to join in. Suzy has this magic of making everything look shiny, exciting, and fun, and I felt myself being pulled in. I tried to resist ...

This beautiful quilt top was brought to me for quilting and presented a number of quilting challenges.  The top maker was a local quilter and she wanted it to go to the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project.  She did a wonderful job with the piecing in pretty pinks and greens.  Since I have run out of longarm volunteers, I told her to give it to me and I would finish it.

The first challenge was the backing.  It was pieced in several sections with seams running both horizontally and vertically.

When the seams run perpendicular to the leader bars, you get ...

My lovely neighbours are expecting a grandson any day now, and they asked me to make the new baby a quilt. I do not normally sew on demand, but I was happy to make an exception for them. We live in the best neighbourhood. The group of residents around me swap not only cups of sugar but also everything from stockpots to crayfish, and we spend a lot of time together socially.

The colours roughly fade from light to dark. Roughly.

From my stash, a blue and white elephant print caught Mrs Neighbour’s eye, and a raindrop print I ...

Last week I started a new project. I didn't NEED a new project. I have a long list of quilts I want to make and more project boxes than I am willing to admit to. And this project is not even on the list. Although technically, using my collection of jelly rolls is a goal. Why is it so hard to unroll a jelly roll? For me, I think it's just a case of finding the right project because when I saw this

Last Saturday I spent the day with Bay Area Modern Quilting for a fun day of Planned Improv. One of my favorite parts of teaching Planned Improv workshops is seeing the wide variety of projects that grow out of the same starting rules.

Here's just a glimpse of some of the beautiful work that was created on Saturday.

Some quilters stuck with solids. Rhonda used a monochromatic palette and Mary used a Tara Faughnan bundle of solids. Gerre opted for arranging her cool colored units to have a checkerboard center.

Sue opted for both uphill and downhill seams in ...

Mission Impossible is an appropriate name for this quilt on SO many levels.  It's a high school graduation quilt for my oldest son Lars and it's "due" to the church office in ELEVEN days (on May 26th).  I decided yesterday that I am totally okay with missing that deadline if it comes to that.  The Quillow Service at church isn't until June 9th, two weeks after that deadline, and that's the date that's more important to me.  So I'm adjusting that May 26th "deadline" to an Aspirational Goal, like how we "shoot for the ...

Here is a little progress I made this week, and it is on a scrappy quilt. My favourite kind of quilt.

I didn’t have much time to sew this week, and I crave for some sewing time by the end of the week.

This morning, I pulled out my long left out leaders and enders project from the top drawer of my sewing table and I brought them out from my sewing room (where my little boy is still asleep when I have free time to sew) to my living room where I have another machine set up (this ...