What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Our daughter, Kalissa, was driving home from a 12-hour shift at work.  She called me and we were chatting.  I told her I needed to get two blog posts written yet before I headed up to bed.  She asked me what I was going to write about.  I told her I had an “Ask Jo” segment almost finished but I wasn’t sure what else I was going to write about.

I’ve been writing the blog here for over 11 1/2 years now so I’ve learned that sometimes I don’t even know what I’m going ...

Hello, and welcome to another edition of “Ask Jo”.  I get many comments in and questions from all sorts of places, the comment section here, Youtube, email, and from our Facebook group.  Sometimes I think others of you might want to know the answers as well so I answer them here on the blog.

There was a lot of interest in this quilt that Ronda recently finished…many were trying to figure out the pattern. If you read through the comment section there were many coaching many others through the possible construction of the block.

Blog reader, Pam, sent me ...

Being gluten free means so much pre planning. I have to know what I have for breakfast and lunch so it’s ready to go. Not too hard as I can simply make some grilled chicken for a few days at a time or slice ham in advance.

Today I was enlightened. Everyone was ordering Chick Fil A and asked what I wanted before remembering I can’t eat gluten. But hey, did you know? When I looked it turns out Chick Fil A offers a gluten free bun. It’s individually packaged so it doesn’t touch other buns ...

I love when Carol at Just Let Me Quilt hosts a blog hop! She always comes up with fun ideas. So, for that upcoming romantic holiday, the challenge was hearts… minus the traditional use of red!

I decided to use a free pixelated heart pattern from Elizabeth Hartman as my inspiration. I wanted to go for a spring time look but I might still rethink a couple of those outside purples that get lost at the edge. (Contrast is king, you know!)

I raided my 3.5″ strip drawer for florals, built my heart and had a “Wait, what will ...

I really admire elephants and their strong dedication to each other. I saw this pattern at my local quilt shop, and just couldn’t resist. I’m limiting myself to just nine elephants, rather than the two dozen shown in the design, and I’ve changed how I’m laying them out so that they seem to be more of […]

I told you last week I would show you how to make a stencil from Golden Threads quilting paper. It’s easy and fun and results in a easy, follow-the-line, free-motion quilting guide that will make your quilts look fabulous!

Start with a design

You can take one of your fantastic doodles.

Or maybe something you found in a magazine or a book.

You might have seen a fabulous quilting design in nature,

or on some tile or carpet, or on a tissue box,

or on a plate.

Look at the fabrics in your quilt,

there might be a super ...

I told you last week I would show you how to make a stencil from Golden Threads quilting paper. It’s easy and fun and results in a easy, follow-the-line, free-motion quilting guide that will make your quilts look fabulous!

Start with a design

You can take one of your fantastic doodles.

Or maybe something you found in a magazine or a book.

You might have seen a fabulous quilting design in nature,

or on some tile or carpet, or on a tissue box,

or on a plate.

Look at the fabrics in your quilt,

there might be a super ...

Every choice we make in life is an experiment. – Charles Duhigg

My word for 2021 is choose.

I find too often I am living life on autopilot. I want to make intentional decisions about what I do with my time, what I include in my life and how I take care of myself.

Routine has a place in life, but it shouldn’t be the default. I find great value in questioning everything. I started as a small child and never did stop. Along the way I made some unconventional choices, and I’ve never regretted them.

With this COVID ...

I told you a bit ago that I got my flat top griddle that goes over the top of the stove.  I am loving it…loving it a lot.

One thing I was wondering about though…I don’t ALWAYS want to have meat and veggies which is the meal that it’s mostly used to make.  I wanted some variety.  So I tried making Crunch Wraps.

First off I took avocados and make guacamole using a packet mix.  You can buy already made guacamole too.  I put that in the middle of a large flour tortilla shell.

On top ...

Good day everyone. I hope both you and your families are well. Prayers for a very speedy dissemination of the vaccine.

Quick & Easy Quilts is a new publication from Fons & Porter. It’s a unique publication; a bit different from other quilting magazines. A few words from their website:

Telling a Story – Yours and Ours

Launching June 30, 2020, this magazine features quick and easy projects combined with storytelling elements that make this publication unique. Quick + Easy Quilts is meant to be approachable and the quilts achievable—something welcoming to beginners and still fun for those with more experience. Mixed ...

Hello, and welcome to another edition of “Ask Jo”.  I get many comments and questions from all sorts of places, the comment section here, Youtube, email, and from our Facebook group.  Sometimes I think others of you might want to know the answers as well so I answer them here on the blog.

In a blog post, I wrote about the goodies that had come in the mail for me.  Flannel was in the mix and I wrote that I was passing the flannel as I rarely, if ever, work with flannel.  In response, Mindy asked, “Hi Jo, I’m ...

Well, my doctor feels almost certain I have celiac disease. My prior tests came back inconclusive so rather than pay for those high price tests again, we are trying 30 days gluten free. So far even after the second day I see a difference.

Gluten free isn’t near as easy as you would think. It is close to impossible to eat out or use pre-made foods unless you ask a thousand questions but that’s ok as I’m not really into processed pre-made foods all that much. While it would be much easier to make a list of ...

I was looking through pictures the other day and realized I blogged very little about Christmas and Christmas break.  I had a whirlwind of fun and much because Kayla and Jasper came for a visit.

Jasper hasn’t been here much due to Covid since school started so it was a big treat to spend time with him.  Gannon was so surprised to see that Jasper was a big boy and not all baby.

Here is Kalissa holding Jasper on the left and Kayla holding Gannon on the right.  The boys actually belong to the opposite girl.

Jasper had fun ...

I got quite a few quilts finished in 2020.  I think it was partly due to Covid and partly because I did a big push to finish up UFO projects.  Several of these projects were started or already tops.  This turned out to be my year of finishing a lot of projects.  I took the time to page through the archives and put all of the quilts together on one page.  Grab some coffee and sit down to watch my parade of the quilts I finished in 2020.

We had this quilt called “A Star is Born”, featured in American ...

I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying, “I’ve got you back”.  Oh, my word.  That is exactly how I feel.  I feel like all of you have my back.  I was flooded with fabric over the last two weeks or so.  It’s hard to believe at that time I had zero Halloween fabric and today, I am loaded.

On Friday I decided to start tackling it as all of the envelopes and boxes had to be opened before I could make a quilt!!  Here was the first batch.  Keep in mind that under all of those ...

Like many quilters, I love to make quilts for family members. The latest to receive a quilt is my niece Abby.

Abby is my youngest niece and she lives outside Chicago. She is also a college freshman and her quilt is going to college.

My other two nieces grew up five miles from me. I was blessed that they spent hours at my home being creative. They started sewing early on. If you search back through the blog, you’ll find photos of the work they did, from scrunchies to quilts.

When I started Abby’s quilt, I knew I ...

Husband really wanted to see some of the grandchildren at Christmas. So, Number One Son, his wife and their two boys came over for a few hours. It was a delightful time.

Two days later, we all developed colds.

Three days after that, Daughter-In-Law let us know she had tested positive for Covid-19.

Ah, we don’t actually have colds.

Tests on the three of us all came back positive.

This was particularly scary because I am in a high-risk category due to lung damage from severe pneumonia 6-1/2 years ago.

But, thanks to good genetics, good luck and ...