What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I had a ton of responses after last week’s post on my longarm quilting machine.  I have an APQS Millenium that I purchased after having lots of problems with my Pfaff Grand Quilter and Next Generation Frame.   Read the previous post HERE  to get all the details.

Here are some of the follow up comments.

Janet made a comment, “You also have to be physically able to do it (longarming). There is a lot of bending involved.”

This is a very good point.  I had shoulder issues for some time.  Running the quilting machine was really hard on my ...

This unusual shaped ironing board has been in my sewing room for many years.  It isn’t made anymore, but was great when I was sewing most of my clothing.  That hasn’t been the case for the past 15 years, as I have been doing much more quilting.  I’ve recovered it twice and did a tutorial on that process (Recovering an Ironing Board), showing the process of getting around all those curves.

The previous cover lasted 3 years, but with pressing piecework, I tend to use the same section over and over.  Naturally, it gets very brittle and ...

Yesterday I shared the gift I made for the BAM holiday gift exchange. Today I'm showing off the lovely gift I received from Cheri.

First, she made this adorable Hanukkah gift bag to wrap my gift in. As I declared at the party, this could have been the gift! In case you missed my earlier tutorial post, I'm on a quest to make a bunch of reusable Hanukkah gift bags.

I opened the gift and was a little perplexed. Thankfully it came with an introductory note explaining that it is a magic wallet for quilt blocks. It fits ...

I am happy with my progress for this year so instead of rushing to finish anything else, I decided to move a number of projects forward so they don't feel left out and I can continue to call them WIPs (work in progress) instead of UFOs (unfinished objects).

Here are a few more circles I made for my circle 365 project. It is a project I started a couple of years ago, and was supposed to make one block a day. I decided not to keep my circles simple to avoid tedium, but circles that are not simple take ...

Oh how I like to say “finished!”  Two of these are little, one bigger, but all make me happy.

First, for a couple of little Christmas time gifts, I embellished these towels.  From my stash, I made prairie points and cut strips.  These make great hostess gifts and guild gift exchanges.  They’re also pretty quick!

These next are, as my hubby declared, “Cute, Cute, Cute!”  I found these little dishes at our local Habitat Store.  Buttons added around the rim and magnets on the bottom and voila! Pin dishes.  I am struggling though, I want to keep one.  I ...

Today was our holiday part at Bay Area Modern Quilting. There's an annual tradition of a gift swap among members. In 2017, I made this apron for Gerre. And last year I made a pair of fabric trays for Joelle. This year I was assigned to make for Mary, and she indicated that her favorite colors were purple and teal and that she'd like "anything." I knew immediately that it would be fun to create something for her and decided her "anything" would be a bag, making it a twofer as it fits the requirements for the November ...

Welcome to Month Three and Four of the Barn Quilt BOM from Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. In the first month in August we showed off our fabric choices and I think I might have changed my mind several times during that month. My previous post with the fabric choices can be found here. Then for September, the first block of the BOM was release, you can see that post here. I did decide in the end to stick with the green that I didn’t like last month. The second month we made the in between strip that ...

My friend Sarah Ruiz at Saroy has a new pattern that she just released yesterday. I was able to test the pattern for her and make this vibrant version from the Sassafras Lane Foundation collection.

This is a super quick sew with numerous layout variations included in the pattern. And there are countless other options for arranging blocks. I chose an alternate layout for my blocks.

Hop over to Sarah's blog to see the numerous awesome tester versions of Shake and Bake or straight to Etsy to get your copy (on sale through Sunday, December 8).

I'm participating ...

My mother and I have a holiday tradition of the last few years to attend a holiday tea. For the past two years we have gone to Shadelands Ranch Museum in Walnut Creek, California. This year we changed things up and attended a holiday tea much closer to home. Today we attended the Ainsley House 25th annual holiday tea in Campbell, CA.

The Ainsley House was build in 1925 during the Arts and Crafts movement in the style of an English Tudor Cotswald cottage. I love the roof!

The Ainsley House tea includes tea time (with champagne, sparkling cider, delicious ...

Before I start today’s post I want to say we had tons of comments on my post about my long arm.   I had a few follow questions and I’m putting together the answers for them and will be posting that on Monday afternoon.  That will give you a little time to get more questions in if you have them…and it’s been a busy week here and I haven’t gotten time to get some pictures snapped to go with the post…so you have until noonish on Sunday to get your questions in.

Now for today ...

As I ate my late breakfast, oatmeal, walnuts and blueberries, this morning...

Possibly the most exciting but simultaneously the most stressful part of making a quilt for me is fabric selection. Out of the quilts I've made, if I messed up somewhere, that was almost always where I messed up. That's why I love to buy kits.

But once in awhile, I get an idea to marry a quilt pattern with a fabric collection in my stash, and I get so excited about it that I drop everything else. That happened to me when I envisioned Camille Roskelley's Swoon quilt in Katarina Roccella's Mediterraneo collection.

Mediterraneo features amazing ...