What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I decided to get a jump on New Year’s resolutions and began organizing my fabric stash. Since I haven’t done much garment sewing since I started quilting (nearly 20 years ago) I decided to start with the fabric normally used for that purpose ie. non-cotton fabrics. I came across a pattern         that I had cut out and embroidered when I found out that I would become a grandmother for the first time (More than 28 years ago!!).

My daughter had decided on a carousel theme for the nursery. I embroidered a carousal horse and when we learned that ...

It’s been a fun and busy week.  A friend has a family farm and invited two of us for a 3 day sew-in.  All that time concentrated on sewing and friends (and food) was such a treat! I put the main body of this batik and black & white quilt together.  I cut the squares after I reorganized my batiks a while back.  Now I’m working on the borders.  I need to cut a little more and look forward to a finish before the end of the year.

Yard/house chores have taken some of my time.  We mainly ...

Disclaimer: This post was prepared for publication on Friday the 13th. It seems I failed to actually set it to post. Therefore, this year I'm short a post and this one is a little late. Hopefully I'll do better in the new year.

Every year I vow to buy less fabric than I use. This might be the first year I accomplished that lofty goal.

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 ...

I thought I better write before I forget everything I did. I've been pretty busy in my sewing rooms.
To finish where I left off in the last post, here is one more top that I put together this summer from a layer cake. I added a few more fabrics to the mix to reach this size. I like it. Even these huge 16" stars. I think I'll do it again someday but with smaller pieces.  I'm still trying to decide if I want to add a border.

I'm trying to keep this roll going after the Sunflower quilt.  I managed to put two baby quilts together for Shala's newest grandchildren and enjoyed making something that was small and simple. The little pink quilt has an embroidered centre that I did while re-familiarising myself with the Janome MC500e Embroidery machine.  It was totally from my stash.  The boy's quilt is a little range of fabric I fell in love with in a quilt shop after Lucas was born.  Couldn't resist of course.

Now I have Kea's Star Wars quilt up on my design ...

Lots of prep has been going on here.  Saturday I leave for the mountains for the Fall Quilt & Sew-In! Even though I’ve been doing retreats for thirteen years, I still get a little antsy and anxious a few days before it begins.

Blocks have been prepped for the charity quilts from the bin of precut scraps above. There are a couple of layout possibilities for one:

And here is the layout for another quilt:

A bucket of blocks with instructions are available for anyone who chooses to complete one or more blocks. They then put their name in for ...

Way back in September 2011, I visited my online quilting friend in small town Kansas - Parsons to be exact.  It was a very special time for me and I so enjoyed meeting Barbara and her daughter Jackie.  Because of Parsons geographical position, it was easy to visit four states within a couple of hours - it sits near the crossroads of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.  Such fun!
While I was there, Barbara asked me to give a talk to her local guild, then it became a few of the little outlying guilds until we ended up with 70 plus people ...

Whew! I’ve been gone for the last two weeks.  The first week I went to a sew-in with some great gals, came home on a Saturday, and left on Sunday for a week vacation with hubby! Some careful planning made it doable and it was all totally worth it!

First, the Sew-In.  A good friend planned this time for us at the same place where I have the Quilt & Sew-Ins – at the Meadowbrook Inn in Blowing Rock.  This place is like a second home to me so I was thrilled that we gathered there.  How convenient it was that ...