What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Quite a few of the sew along reels that I film for you are done in my home, and I get questions from y’all all the time about how I organize my personal sewing studio. So, today I’m taking you on a tour, answering some of your most frequently asked questions, and giving you a peek behind the scenes. Keep reading for some organizational inspiration that you can bring into your own sewing space!

Fabric Storage

When it comes to organizing fabric, there are so many options for how to sort and keep track of everything. The best ...

Rulers. Quilting Rulers. You know you have a lot of quilting rulers! Come learn some great ways and how to store quilting rulers.

I am finding myself with more rulers than ever right now! There are the standard ones and recently there has been a surge of specialty rulers. Rulers that help you square up your blocks, make dresden plates, hexagons…you name it there is a ruler for it!

This means that they get in the way, fill up a drawer, end up on the bottom of some random fabric pile and get lost or miss placed. Can you ...

Well, I seem to have some major computer issues this morning. They actually started yesterday, and the biggest problem is with Microsoft Outlook. I've always had issues with that program, and it doesn't disappoint. 

I've had to reboot my computer twice, and it's not even 5 AM. Yes, I rebooted many times yesterday, so it wasn't like I was irresponsible. 

The issue is that it won't synchronize, meaning it won't send and receive emails. Seven emails, all written yesterday, were still waiting to be sent. I see it is finally syncing, and let ...

Decluttering! A lifelong skill that no one teaches, but they should! Clutter creeps up because we don't have homes for the things we own. And we are notorious for buying MORE. For fun, look at this short video. Need I say more? 

Here's something that I've noticed about myself. Years ago, I would quickly get bored at home. I know -- how could that happen? It wasn't boredom so much as the need to talk to someone. So, who did I talk to? Diane and Susannah at Ruti's Needlebed. I'd go over and chat for ...

It's hard to believe, but it's New Year's Eve 2024. Tomorrow, a new year begins with many goals, aspirations, and plans. I don't make resolutions, although how different is a resolution from a goal? 

Remember, we do NOT need New Year's Day to make improvements in our lives. EVERY DAY is a new day, and if you screw up one day, you can restart the next day! 

So, consider making the Stand-up/Sit-down exercise a goal for 2025. You can start at any time, at any age, and at any ability! Yes, even if you ...

Well? How did you make out with the chair squats? I quickly whipped off a few before I started to write this morning. You know what? It gets the blood flowing! 

I once talked with someone who insisted that an elderly family member was healthy (for their age) but had never exercised or gone to the gym. Guess what? The idea of working out or going to the gym is relatively new. Well, it's not as new as we would think—it dates from 1827! An almost 200-year-old concept!

I want to point out that you do NOT have ...

Merry Christmas!!!!!  

Okay—we looked in the box, outside the box, and scoured everywhere, but we are stuck. I needed to sleep on this next puzzle in the EXIT Game, and hopefully, today will be the day to solve it. It doesn't help that my friend, whose son is a wizard at these, mentioned that he was challenged by this particular puzzle. Let's see what happens later today. 

We decided to do another Virtual Retreat Zoom call this morning! If you are around, here's the link. I'll open the call at 10 a.m., and we ...

As much as it was nice to be away and sew with friends, it's nice to be home and get back into the routine! 

The Zooms went well, and there was lots of great show-and-tell, some of which I'll share later this week. Then, it was back to cleaning up the stuff. 

I still had all this that needed to be put away. Again, it was slow and methodical. It's not enough to just shove it on a shelf. A lot of stuff needs to be dealt with, and if I don't do it properly, I ...

I'm not sure I'm happy with Elle's comment about the flannel bits the other day. She said there are DOZENS of quilts in those scraps, and well, I hope not dozens, but there will be a lot. Slow, steady, and focused will get all that flannel out of my house. 

I pulled the two kits from the shelves and added them to that area. I also found one bolt of flannel fabric, but I'm sure at least four or five more are sitting in the fabric bolt area. So yes, if I were to make tops ...

What a fabulous day we had at The Hobby Horse!!! Angie and I had never tag-teamed doing a lecture, but we worked amazingly well together! The students who came went home with their heads spinning on how to get better organized, find more time to sew, cut fabric, and much more!!! 

It always amazes me how many people feel that they have this stuff down pat. Heck, I teach it, and I'm still learning! It was a great session. We're continuing with another session and new topics in October, so check that out. 

The afternoon was devoted to ...

Our days are warming but with that we seem to be having a lot of windy days. It has been quite destructive in some areas. The wind was very strong earlier in the week, eased off, and then returned last night. I spent a large part of the morning cleaning up my front yard which was full of rubbish from neighbour’s bins. When I headed out to an appointment I found a large part of the road blocked by a fallen tree. Spring starts tomorrow – let’s see what that brings.

In amongst all that I managed to take ...

The Zoom sessions for the "day job" are complete! For the remainder of the year, we'll be doing in-person events, and I have some booked near me! So watch for events at Sew Productive in Milton and Thimbles Quilts and Sewing in Windsor (Lasalle). They are going to be fun and informative, and I've been making NEW samples. 

That leaves one in-person event today (all packed) and two Zooms to prepare for tomorrow. The final writing assignment is almost edited, and I'm doing well. I'm a little behind schedule, but it's doable to complete it ...

My storage woes are far from being over. Every place I look - Google Drive, One Drive, my laptop -- everything is red-lining! The biggest issue is I need help understanding what is going on. I have files that are sitting on my phone that are also sitting on Google Drive. Some of them do not download when I download from my phone, but I see that I can do that manually on the computer. I best try downloading today and then manually moving what doesn't come automatically. 

And despite deleting many emails, the storage space has not budged. Why is ...

Yes, sewing a few little projects for keeping bits and pieces.

I started with a small zipper pouch. It popped up on FB, so I had to watch it several times before I could remember all the steps. No link, I’m afraid. I forgot, then couldn’t find it again. Here is my first try.

It’s a small one, about 4 inches each way.

It has a bagged bottom.

So I figured I didn’t have to stick to the original measurements and found a piece of the Splash fabric – waterproof.

This is about 8 inches long. So ...

The treadmill of life! We can't avoid it, but there are days when I get on, the program is set to MARATHON, and I can't get off! I had two successful events yesterday for the Husqvarna Viking Designer Epic 3. I'm home today and have two presentations this morning - they are prepped and ready to go. We have a Virtual Retreat tonight and tomorrow, along with two more classes tomorrow morning. 

Then it's off to Winnipeg to Carellen Sewing Center for three days. Then I'm home, and that's the end of business travel for ...

As quilters, we tend to accumulate quilts. Lots of them! You might store them in a basket or cabinet, on a quilt ladder, or pile them on a bed. The quilts we create are so nice to look at that it’s a shame to hide them away. The fix is The Quilt Keeper quilt rack for storing quilts, comforters and blankets. It’s a simple solution for storing and displaying quilts. Read on for a fun giveaway!

This beautiful design is easy to install, and the removable metal bars are easy to use. You can easily slip the bar ...

Time sure flies when you're having fun, and another week has come and gone! It's Friday again, and you know what that means - it's time for us to get our whoop whoop on!  Let's go!

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After all the quilting and binding I've done over the past two weeks, something got into me - a major urge to clean up!  I've been doing some deep thinking about my stash while doing all that quilting and binding, and finally just jumped right in with guns blazing!

Wait!  I know that sounds terrible - but I'm ...

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. I will get them answered; I'm a tad busy at the moment. I didn't even get a chance to open my Adventure advent calendar yesterday. 

However, I'm happy to report that I finished everything I had planned, which was good!

I sent Zoom links to everyone who wanted to sign up for the EQ8, mySewnet embroidery software and digital cutter discussions for TOMORROW. If you have yet to receive an e-mail, let me know. Some people put everything in the same e-mail, and it's hard to catch everything. I'm NOT ...

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means if you order through the links, I earn a bit of commission on the sale. Days, maybe minutes, after I started cross stitching, I realized I was going to have a storage issue. Small storage ottomans seemed like a great solution. There was an ottoman for...

The post Storage Ottomans appeared first on Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara.

It's 6 AM, and where are my retreat friends? Most people know that I go to bed early, but I've been known to stay up later -- I just don't always say that. But I'm pretty consistent on when I get up. Last night, I was working on something (you'll see it later today) that needed to be done, so I stayed up a bit later than usual. As a matter of fact, I was the one that closed the call last night. 

And then I was up early this morning and have already got a ...