What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 LOL --- I have entered a couple of things into my electronic to-do list, but it's going to take some work to get started to make it truly useful. Baby steps. Meanwhile, I had made a paper list of 12 things I wanted to accomplish in Studio B this week, and I crossed two off yesterday and almost completed 3 more! These are all small things - not actually piecing a quilt, but finishing off bags, or other small items. But all is good!

I get a daily email from the to-do app listing my tasks. I'll have to check ...

For my January 2026 Artisan project, I’m sharing a few of the gifts I made in the past two months since they are now given and public!  At long last I have conquered my greatest hurdle with the *enormous* Janome M17 combination sewing and embroidery machine: learning how to use the Artistic Digitizer software (remember, I’m a completely new to machine embroidery, just learning what the correct words and phrases are to ask how-to questions).  The M17 is brilliant and easy to use, but I tend to learn by clicking here, clicking there, and not following a linear ...

Goals are such a wonderful thing or not! I'm using BMI as a relative indicator, rather than fixating on my weight. Let's just say that I want to convert some fat to muscle or lose it altogether. While I can use my waistband as an indicator, I prefer to use BMI. I like goal-setting and numbers. 

The big reason for this is the creep! You know— you know your weight was X ten years ago, and now it's X PLUS. I don't like the plus, but I also know that I might gain as I get ...

So some days are better than others! Yesterday was not such a productive sewing day. I could be disappointed in myself, but seriously? What will that do? NOTHING! I rack it up to a sewing day when not much got done, and push for a better day today. 

However, something so monumental happened yesterday that I think I was in shock and couldn't really focus on anything else!

One of my goals for 2026 is to get my embroidery design files in order. That task is overwhelming because those files are everywhere. Where does one start and how? How ...

And????? Do you think I made it? I did!! The eighth dog quilt is quilted! However, I finished it this morning - too heck if it wakes up the family! I had a lot of interruptions yesterday afternoon, and I was too tired to stand at the machine last night. So it's done, but it's still on the long arm. I'll take it off once the girls have their walk. Oops -- girls and the boy!

A lot happened, and it was all for the better. Instead of my having to chase a couple of people down, they contacted ...

Happy August Peeps! Way back in May (where has the time gone?) I participated in Mastering Color Confidence on C&T Publishing’s CreativeSpark Online Learning platform. Christine Barnes, Joen Wolfrom and I were hosted by the fabulous Amy Barret-Daffin to talk about the new book and also talk about one of our favorite subjects: color. This… Continue reading Let Your Quilts Sing

A Creative Life There are times when one must exercise certain skills in order to maintain the level of proficiency one has, or in this case, someone requested cookies & cream something for a breakfast meeting we’re having. Baking is a skill wherein I’m still learning the rules as there are still so many things… Continue reading Baking, Quilting, Writing

Happy Monday Quilty Peeps! It is a little cloudy and rainy here in Central Texas and from what I can tell it’s going to get kinda warm today and stay kinda warm through the week. My sewing machine made the return trip to the studio this morning so that once I’m done with writing and… Continue reading Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

I hope you all go back and read the comments that people leave on the blog. Some of them are hilarious! The yellow car? That's like not seeing the forest for the trees! 

And yes, high maintenance is fluffy extra stuff. I'm not a fluffy extra stuff person. I never have been, and I never will be. Some people post videos of high-maintenance routines that would blow your mind. Are they real? I hope not. I came across a woman going on a cruise, and before she did anything, she deep-cleaned the bathroom and everything else in the ...

Are you ready for a Free-Motion Quilting Class? Well, friends, wait no longer! Join me at Upper Blanco Textile Studio Friday May 16, 2025forFree-Motion Quilting An Introduction 10 AM to 4 PM Bring your lunch or visit Uptown Blanco Restaurant for some really amazing food! Free-Motion Quilting: An Introduction covers all the important things like… Continue reading Upper Blanco Textile Studio: Free-Motion Quilting – An Introduction

18 months ago we moved into our newly renovated house and had a lot more space.  We had spent all of our money on the renovation so we were not in the market for buying furniture.  Some people set aside money for doing that but we just don't do that.  So I kept my eye our on freecycle for furniture.  We had only been back in the house for 6 weeks when an advert came up for two two seater sofas, and they were only about 2 miles away.  I asked for them immediately.  It wasn't that surprising ...

OK—so what do you do when the book you're listening to is depressing? The book is "When the World Fell Silent," by Donna Jones Alward, and it is about the Halifax explosion (1917) when they were in the midst of a war. I totally get that times were tough. Many people died in the war, the explosion, and the Spanish flu. It just seemed that the two women in the book were saddled with EVERY possible calamity. Even the prologue foreshadowed terrible things. 

I hate abandoning a book, so I persevered. I'm now down to one hour ...

And as John (Denver) says -- It's good to be back home again!!

It was a pleasant surprise to see how busy the fourth and final day of Salon Quebec was. Shows usually peter out, but this one kept going strong until almost the end, making the day pass quickly. 

Many people came to the booth, and I was pretty handy at presenting a sewing machine in French. I need to find a place in Montreal to stay for six months! Imagine how much better I would be. And I could offer my services (for free) at a sewing machine ...

Oh, what a huge disappointment! Yes, they smoothed out the ruts without adding fill, but they did not add pavement to those parts. 

No extra pavement in the forest!

Thick pavement!!!!

Here's a prime example of why that list of ten things I set out to do two days ago is still incomplete. Three items remain on the list. 

We've lived in this house for almost 21 years. Several times a year, we get letters addressed to the previous owners from a utility company. We have an up-to-date account with the utility company. 

For 21 years, I've tossed those letters addressed to the previous owner. When I recently received two, I decided to open them. As I suspected, there was nothing significant in them. But this seems like ...

Yep -I'm deleting from SENT and then emptying the TRASH folder. I don't have time to deal with it today, but I'm happy knowing that I've found a good part of the culprit. However, I'm still a long way from cleaning up that email. I'll do a little bit each day! If I were to add up all those "little bits" each day, I'd need a long, long day!

But all is good! You can't sweat the stuff you can't deal with that day. Just tuck it in the back of ...

We’re back with another guide for cross stitch beginners. If you don’t already know, we’re sharing a Learn to Cross Stitch Series with releases twice a month sharing everything from floss to finishing. We’re guiding you through the basics of this timeless and traditional art!

In the second installment of our Learn to Cross Stitch series, we’re continuing where we left off from the first post (which you can go back and read if you missed it) with a Beginners Guide to Cross Stitch Floss & Needles.

Last Friday was World Water Day and this next Friday is Mermaid Day, so this week’s free motion design just fits in!

The Mermaid’s Tail design is based on the clamshell grid. This design can be quilted pretty densely, but stitch it out as big as you want. You could even use a ruler to help you create the semicircular arcs. The clamshell gird is used upside down, making it look like scales. Scales on a mermaid’s tail!

Fill the clamshells with teardrops that fan out from the centre. Use as many teardrops as you like.

There ...