What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The red scraps were flying in my sewing room this week.  I have decided to do three rainbow scrap challenge quilts this year. When I made the selvage hot pads as Christmas gifts, it quickly became apparent that my selvage collection is out of control!  I had sorted some of my selvages into bags by colour so I grabbed the red bag and some light-weight non-fusible interfacing and made two squares. 

Let's ignore Paul for now.  I have been consumed by the bag making process and my excitement sometimes (okay, often) spilled into his area.  

Island Batik teamed with ByAnnie for the September Challenge.  We picked a pattern of our choice from ByAnnie. I chose the backpack Got Your Back 2.1.  All fabric was provided by Island Batik. I chose Moonlight Sky - designed by Kathy Engle for Kate Colleran of Seams Like a Dream Quilt Designs

ByAnnie provided the detailed ...

Our office recently moved to a new location.  There are no lunch places within walking distance but there is a café in the basement. The food is good and the service is great. Naturally, I became a regular :-) Fami works in the cafe and she is usually behind the counter so it was a few weeks before I noticed her pregnant state. To be sure, I asked Frank - Is she expecting a baby. Frank nodded. When I asked, he told me that the baby is due in October. She'll be going on leave soon.

So I did what most ...

In May, I took a virtual walking foot quilting class with Jacquie Gering with my local guild. Her class was a wonderful variety of walking foot skills. We filled 5 panels with quilting during the 6 hour class.

And... right at the beginning of the class she talked about open toe walking feet. Did you know that a walking foot can have an open toe!? I did not. Our class started at 9am that morning, and when the local sewing machine shop opened at 10am, I called up and asked if they had an open toe walking foot that would ...

The March 2021 Island Batik Challenge is to make a Scrapbuster Quilt.  

Being a new ambassador I do not have a lot of Island Batik fabrics.

 I made steady progress this week on "Love Birds", a counted cross stitch picture I am making for C and M for their wedding which took place late in 2020. My goal this past week was to finish the leaves and start the next large blue flower.  Mission accomplished!  

Here is a closer up view of the section I worked on this week. 

It may take a week or two to finish the blue flower.  There are a lot of stitches in it!

My friend, A, celebrated a birthday this week so I made her a zippered pouch using some ...

I started one more facecloth this week, just because I had the yarn to make it and I like to keep myself busy, especially when ...

Picture the scene at the end of the party.  Empty bottles, missing silverware, dirty dishes, stained carpet, mess everywhere and you don't even know where to begin.

Scraps Explosion

Half Made Blocks

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge feels like a party and it IS a lot of fun...till you get to this time of the year.

Now the party is coming to a close and there are blocks everywhere. How many blocks? Did I lose/misplace some? I was going to redo that one but then forgot. Where do I even start?

Framed Jewel Blocks (Light Borders)

I should ...

I’m working on something new, which is always exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. *Digression alert* That word -uncomfortable – is also used when you go into a doctor’s office to have a surgical procedure done and they say, “This might pinch a little” or when you go to the dentist to get your… Continue reading “Discomfort” & Designing

Exciting News! Both The ThreadGatherer and Global Artisans have put together thread kits for my latest design, The River Rocks Pouch. I’m so grateful to both, for all their hard work in putting these kits together. In addition, both have thrown in discounts to anyone purchasing the kits. Both kits are needed to complete this… Continue reading Exciting News & Questionable Humor

Back to normal - what exactly does that mean these days? We're now able to go to the movies, eat indoors at restaurants, meet in small groups, and a whole lot more. But wearing masks and social distancing is probably with us for a long, long time.

I'm OK with that. I think, as a society, we're a whole lot healthier because of it. I haven't heard many sneezes or hacking coughs. People are either too afraid to do either in public, or they are just healthier!! Which goes to show that if you're sick, you ...

But first I have to begin with this video sent to me by my friend John Kelly. He also sent this to my mother, just in case you were wondering, and for those of you asking why I’m not posting something from her, that’s why. You know I love you, Mom. Musicians from all over… Continue reading A New Design Unveiled!

In keeping with the sh*t-my-mother-sends-me theme since this pandemic hit all of us broadside, forcing us to become bit players in a sci-fi film we didn’t know was in production, here’s the latest from my mother. Thanks Mom! ❤️ (Don’t know what I’d do without this woman…) Can we all just marvel at the sheer… Continue reading Sh*t my Mother Sends Me

I had a load of fun at the retreat. But I have to admit that it is great to be home! The girls, of course, was quite excited to see me and now time to get back to my routine. I have a load of things that have to be done this week, so it's going to be all hands on deck. Well - just my two hands, but I think you knew that!

Ooops -- I didn't find my flower photo this morning, but here are some fungi that I saw on my morning walk. I took a trip ...

OK -- so I'm totally spoiled and totally loving it. But yes - we're back at Fireside Retreat. With the whole pandemic thing going on, we had to move some dates around, and well, this retreat and the last one ended up being very close to each other. Couldn't be helped and well - I don't care.

We're a much smaller group than usual, so we're all spaced out in the house, and loving the extra room.

I wasn't sure if I was going to get everything into the car. Not that I had a lot ...

Yesterday was crazy! I sat at my computer for TWELVE hours of Schoolhouse presentations. OK -- that's not exactly true, I did get a LOT of stuff done. Wait for that. But in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, Schoolhouse is usually a one-day event that takes place at Quilt Market in the spring and in the fall. Quilt Market is a trade show for the quilt industry and not open to the public. They set up the virtual Schoolhouse on Zoom and over two days.

I think I much prefer this method to the in-person ...

A couple of weeks ago I watched Tula Pink's video launching her new black and white fabric line - Linework (It won't be available for months yet, so don't panic).  Towards the end of the video Tula showed two Zip It Up! bags she had made.  I thought they looked amazing so I dashed off and ordered the pattern from the Ribbon Rose in Auckland.