What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

No change in the numbers.

This week I worked on Christmas Cottage and the paint chip challenge.  The paint chip challenge is my focus piece.  It’s time to finish it and move on to another project.

Neither piece changed much in the last week.  Instead, it’s back to the haul from the sale last weekend.

Top row:  Sulky variegated embroidery thread (two spools each color), Christmas pattern books (embroidery & cross stitch), and a Heaven and Earth Designs pattern.  That one is so large I doubt I’ll live long enough to finish it.  I may try stitching a ...

I've been busy stitching yellow.  These  little drawstring  bags for foster kids were completed last week, but then I had to go and purchase some suitable coloured cords.  All done now.  The top two have motifs declaring "winner",  with a gold cup and laurel wreath, that's certainly different, and I received this fabric together with a whole heap more from my former neighbour Dorothy.    Then I stitched two bags for boys featuring trucks, tractors and diggers, and the last one with cute farm animals - these fabrics were donated to me recently.

Five yellow draw string bags

String blocks ...

 I've completed stitching three pair of tiny felt Christmas Stockings, which were handed out at last month's quilt club meeting.  Each set of stockings came with an extra strip of felt.  These will be hung on the display of Christmas Trees in December, our club's entry in the Avenue of Trees.

Red, white and green

After putting my thinking cap on, I had worked out how I wanted to decorate them.  They are tiny, so keep it simple, I decided.  Sadly, I failed miserably with blanket stitch, so just did running stitch instead.  I'm sure it ...

 It's always exciting to get unexpected mail, isn't it.  First to arrive was a postcard from France, showing a beautiful mademoiselle smelling the roses.    This was sent to me by my daughter's best friend who is having a marvelous long holiday traveling around several countries with her husband, they are currently enjoying a River Cruise.  It is so nice of Heather to think of me.  In fact last year when they were in USA, she sent me a postcard of Elvis from Gracelands!  I know I'll never get to Gracelands, so that was really special indeed ...

 Our family, including our daughter and Finn, just got home from a week at the cottage.  We did lots of reading on the dock, and stitching in the screened porch.  It was a very relaxing week.  Finn loves it there and could not wait to go down to the dock every morning and evening.  We had great weather although it was smoky for a couple of days from the northern Ontario forest fires. 

I finished the hand quilting on my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt!  I looked up when I started the hand quilting--October 2025.  I must admit that I took ...

This was the 40th Annual Conference I've attended since 1984.  (I didn't go in 1991 or 2016 and the 2020 conference was cancelled.)   I'm retired from the job but not from the profession!  I go to see long-time friends, listen to interesting speakers, learn about issues, and of ...

 This was a busy week with lots of activities every day, so, not much sewing happened.  I did manage to add more stitches to the sky in my cross stitch project and discovered that I was going to run out of one of the colours. I purchased a skein at the local craft shop and I'm ready to keep on stitching. Someone asked last week if there are sunflowers in the picture--the answer is yes...there are several sunflowers in a combination of stitches and beads as well as a button at the bottom of the picture.  I will ...

 I wonder if your head is spinning like mine. Each day is like the blink of the eye. I'm no sooner up and starting the morning when it seems I'm closing drapes and shutting the house down again. Perhaps that is a good thing as it means I'm busy which I feel I certainly am. 

Outside, the world has come alive and so quickly it seems. It's always a pleasant surprise how much colour there is this season of the year. Even the Dandelions are so welcome. I'm calling this one "Me and My Shadow ...

Quilters are in two camps about quilt bindings, they either love it or hate it.  I love hand stitching the binding down, it's the last job to do and then you have finished.   Like this little baby donation quilt with the cozy fleecy back, all clipped up and waiting to go.

Binding time

I have a knitting finish too.  Remember this?  I was stitching it up back in April.  Then it got put aside for a while, don't ask me why, it just happens.

I had a little less than a yard of the sashing and border fabric to set my colour challenge blocks and crossed my fingers that there would be enough to add 2.5" sashing and a 3.5" border.  I cut the pieces out that I needed to do this and had just a few scraps left.  Phew!  I'm happy that there was enough!  Now, I just have to figure out the backing--this will be pieced using fabric from my stash.   I will use a solid for the binding--not sure which colour I will use yet. 

I worked on ...

Well, we certainly can't complain about the weather today.  It was warm and sunny enough to get the washing dry outside.  And pleasant enough for me to sit outside on the patio, under our Arch-gola.  It's hard to believe it's almost the end of May, and it makes me wonder just what Winter will have in store for us all.  Just have to wait and see, I guess.

So, this afternoon, I took my New Zealand panel outside for a couple of hours to do some more big stitch quilting.  Today, I was working on a heron ...

 My daughter was here for the past week and she and Finn went home yesterday.  It was nice to have her here.  Finn was very excited to see her.  He loves it when all of us are together.  I did a little bit of cross stitch this past week, but no machine sewing.  I finished the framing stitches and added more sky stitches as well.  I hope to do more today. 

I think I'm in big trouble, and I need medical attention. Not mental health medical attention, but physical. My leg has been bothering me a lot, and it's time I did something about it. I could barely walk yesterday - at least without pain, and that is affecting my good leg, so there is no time to waste. What do I suspect is the issue? Well, where do I start? Issues with the PCL, which is a tendon on the back of the knee, and the sciatic nerves.  

Don't you love how I'm self-diagnosing? I'll go ...

Your comments put a smile on my face! Yes—there are multiple ways to tackle this mess. What boggles my mind is how I didn't realize what was happening. At one point, the second set of shelves didn't exist, and so there were boxes and piles of books on the floor, and when I wanted something, I was happy to move those. When I got tired of moving, I got new shelves built. Seriously? That just makes me shake my head now. But then? It seemed the perfectly normal thing to do. 

THANKFULLY, I saw the light about ...

OH—after reading the comments this morning, I don't think I'm worthy of decluttering the books! Ever since I was little, my mom taught us that books are precious. And YES - they are, but that doesn't mean you need to own all of them. Or if you buy something, you don't need to keep it! ACK!! I'm in big trouble. 

We had two great presentations in the morning, and I can share a little bit of what I've been working on. One of my goals for 2026 is to finish Sylvia's Bridal Sampler ...

 I blinked and it is May now. We had one summery day amid all the coolness and it is still flirting with overnight frosts. These Daffodils always open too soon and, in their shady spot, don't get to really shine like they should which is a shame. I should move them and the bunch behind there that didn't get to open at all this year.

I've pleased to have finished the quilting on the final  (third) quilt I'm  making for a special family.  I really struggled with the quilting, and couldn't understand why the tension was wrong and the machine was really struggling.  My  Bernina had just come back from a service so should have been running fine.  Eventually, after rethreading yet again, I decided to change the fancy embroidery thread I was using to standard cotton.  What a revelation, no tightness in the tension, no strange noises, and the final quilting line ran smoothly.  When I sent my machine for a ...

 I'm still working with pink, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for April, so decided to make some more draw string bags for the foster kids.  Looking through my big bag of bag making bits and pieces, I found four pink contenders.

There was a black and grey fabric piece which I had pinned some bright pink for the top.  Piggies in pyjamas, and a pretty floral fat quarter I had tucked away which yielded two bags.  So I cut, and stitched, added the linings and the draw string tops, found some suitable cord, and they were all done.