What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Remember these gnomes that I showed you last week? I’ve added some different ones to the “collection” this week. I’d signed up several weeks ago to take a class at the quilt shop after seeing how cute the samples were. The design is by Embroidery Garden, and it’s easy to make with the embroidery machine; […]

I recently finished the Basic Cray Quilting Course with Kathy Seaman Shaw.

This class is a prerequisite for all her other classes, which are all free.

The class started in early January. This class is divided into 12 tasks and each one must be completed before you receive instructions for the next task. There are extensive written instructions for each task. The class is at your own pace.

The class contained an incredible amount of information, especially for a free class. The printed materials contain a lot of pictures. For techniques that were better explained visually, there were links to ...

The most recent of the online classes I’m taking from Philippa Naylor teaches techniques of making a miniature quilt. I’ve done some minis before, but I’ve usually paper pieced them; the bit and pieces of the sample quilt for this lesson are traditionally machine pieced instead. I’m not certain that I’ll make the entire quilt, […]

 What kind of a student are you? Are you the one that sits in the back, takes notes (or not), and then never does anything with the material? Are you the one in the front that EVERYONE wants to shut up so they can get out of the class? ( I LOVE these students, and I'm one of them) You could also be the one who sits in the middle, says nothing, absorbs lots, and goes home to review the material and plays, but never asks questions!! And there's are loads of other types in between.

Well, there are ...

I finished stitching a project this week that was designated my do-a-little-every-day project. The concept is simple. Every day I did something to move that project forward.

This is not a new idea, or my idea, but something I’ve heard a lot about lately. Pat Sloan talks about it all the time on her daily videos and uses it to finish UFOs. Karen Brown of Just Get It Done Quilts also talks about this method. Karen uses it to focus on her more complicated projects, using a timer to work on those 30 minutes at a time.

I’m ...

After some epic procrastination, I finished task 11, the iris and hyacinth cluster.

I’m embarrassed to admit it wasn’t that hard and didn’t take a lot of time. I just couldn’t face another task of silk ribbon embroidery. A couple weeks off helped put it in perspective. I like stitching with silk ribbon, but it can be fussy beyond the limits of my patience.

Only one more task to go. I believe the last task involves a lot of beading.

I finished the bunny runner last month, which was my OMG. It felt good to finally get one done. I also finished the star blocks (January OMG).

I have a couple more projects close to done and one small start. I’d be thrilled to get all three of those finished in April.

The Short List categories are UFO, garment, original design, hand work, finishing, classes and other. I’ve used this system for 6+ years to keep me focused. The categories change as my goals and interests change. Categories with nothing in process will not be listed, only active ...

I’ve made some progress on both of my slow stitching projects.

I finished task #10 on the Crazy Quilting Course.

I have two more tasks to go to finish the course.

The Christmas Eve cross stitch is in the home stretch.

The tree branches will extend further over the houses. The backstitching is complete from the right side to the middle. There isn’t a lot of backstitch in this chart. The design has a softer look.

Once a project gets this close to done I tend to sit down and power through it, just to move on to ...

The struggle is real.

Progress continues slowly. I finished task #8, and everyone was right. The needle makes a huge difference when stitching bullion knots.

I had a delay on task #9 because I didn’t have silk ribbon. I had to order it and wait for it to arrive, which happened a lot faster than I expected. Task #9 went quickly.

Now that I see task #10, I’m a little worried I didn’t order enough silk ribbon. In hindsight, I should have bought 5 yards of white so I could paint the colors I needed beyond the ...

I love teaching. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a teacher. I assumed that would be a primary school teacher, and even studied it at uni, completing both my bachelor and also a graduate certificate.  Except then I got married, we started our family, and moved to Japan for a few years. Now that we’re back in Australia and my kids are almost finished primary school themselves, it turns out I’m not a classroom teacher of little kids but am instead using my teaching powers for good in the quilting industry!

And I ...

This time I surprised even myself. After cutting 850″ of 2 1/4″ bias, I sewed it to twelve (what was I thinking???? clearly I was not thinking….) placemats and a 44 by 15″ table runner, ironed it, glued it to prep for machine sewing. Then, in about 65 minutes I got the second side of ALL the placemats AND the table runner SEWN! Check out the pictures and video!

Another task done.

This one stitched up quicker because I didn’t have to search for my supplies, there was less stitching and I was familiar with the stitches. The purple curve is done with a boatload of very tiny chain stitches. The pink curve is stem stitch.

Task #8 includes my nemesis, bullion stitch flowers. I may have to practice before I add them to the class piece. This project uses cotton rather than rayon floss, which I hope decreases the difficulty.

I’m keeping an open mind.

Once again my progress was limited to the Basic Crazy Quilting Course. I finished task #6, embroidering over seams with pearl cotton.

The threads are vintage, picked up at an auction many years ago. I bought a bin of threads, magazines and various bedroom linens with embroidery patterns ranging from not started to almost finished. Thank goodness I had it because it was the only #8 pearl cotton in my stash.

All that fussing around to get straight, even stitches took time. I believe the embroidery continues in lesson #7.

Net Fabric Used: 0

How did you do this week ...

January turned into one of those months when a whole lot of nothing got done. Best to put it behind me and move on.

Last month I talked about limiting active sewing projects to two, avoiding overwhelm. That didn’t happen either. Projects are everywhere. Again. I have a variety of projects to enjoy, depending on my mood.

The Short List categories are UFO, garment, original design, hand work, finishing, classes and other. I’ve used this system for 6+ years to keep me focused. The categories change as my goals and interests change. Categories with nothing in process will ...

No fabric in or out this week. This is my most boring stash year ever.

Thanks to everyone for all the good wishes last week. I’m finally feeling better and working on my projects again. It feels good to be sewing and stitching.

I finished the task #5 in my Crazy Quilting class.

I haven’t received the next task yet. Today I will work on the star blocks that I intended to finish this month. That definitely won’t happen.

Net Fabric Used: 0

How did you do this week?

1 Chrisknits

2 Julie in GA

3 maggie ...

Little involving fabric happened here this week.

I managed to get a freak infection that both blurred my vision and made sitting anywhere near a light extremely uncomfortable, all while feeling fine. Things are returning to normal, but there were many hours of sitting in the dark doing nothing.

Yesterday I finished task #4 in the Crazy Quilting class. My base block is sewn together on a foundation and framed for stitching.

I’m many tasks behind most of the class, hanging out with the stragglers at the rear. Maybe this week I can catch up a bit.

Net Fabric ...

Nothing new to report.

I had two meeting nights and two doctor visits this week which kept me busy. I finished the next task in my Crazy Quilting class, a mock up of the class block, but nothing else.

Tomorrow I hope to sew it together, among other things.

Welcome to everyone that joined us last week. I love seeing your projects and watching you use that stash. The more, the merrier.

I’m way behind on comments, but I do read them and respond. That will be another goal over the next few days.

Net Fabric Used: 0

How ...

No fabric movement this week. My first finish this year will be a long time coming.

I pulled fabrics for my crazy quilt class.

This class runs differently than any other I have taken. Participants must post each assignment to the class blog. The teacher comments on your post and emails you the next assignment. If you don’t finish the assignment and post pictures, you don’t get the rest of the class. Talk about motivation to do the assignments!

The next assignment is a fabric mock up using the project template.

Net Fabric Used: 0

How did you ...

Just a quick post to share that registration is open for Kathy Shaw’s Basic Crazy Quilting Course. You complete the class at your own pace. Kathy teaches a lot of different crazy quilting and embroidery classes, but you have to take this course before you can enroll in any of the others. All her classes are free, and there is no requirement to buy books, templates or any other supplies.

Enrollment is open through January 7^th. I don’t know when she will offer the class next. Last year she offered it at this time and again in ...