What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Brrr and Good Morning from chilly North Carolina! The poor sea of daffodils are all weeping from this cold! Of course, for me, this means a day of sewing!

Two years ago I cam across a Twelve Days of Christmas ornament series made from felt. It was love at first site! Uncharacteristically, I ordered the full set of patterns (from Larissa Holland, mmmCrafts). At first the pattern set seemed pricey, but oh the detail, exquisite design and excellent instructions made it so worth it. I even ordered the set of felt to make them with. I printed the patterns out ...

I was flicking through old notebooks looking for the contact details of a customer who left the wrong number on my answerphone and it was obvious how much more I used to do. There were pages of scribbles of things to do and projects that were underway. Whenever anyone asked what I was up to I would always answer that I was super-busy. Nowadays, I think it is an achievement if I make my bed or collect eggs from my hens.

I did actually do 3 customer quilts this week – one freehand babygro quilt, a small Starwars alphabet quilt and ...

This one may very well do me in! Several years ago, after seeing a friend’s finished quilt “Jolly Tartan Quilt”, I was in love. Having scoured the internet, I found one last kit available and scooped it up. I’m finally in a good place to commit to this project. There are thirty (30) different fabrics – oh my! I’ve gone about this very methodically. The kit was put together beautifully. Each fabric was labeled with a letter to correspond with the instructions.

First, I made an enlarged copy of the cutting instructions for each fabric and then cut ...

This April I’ll be heading to two quilt retreats. Not having any works in progress to take with me, I got busy prepping for the first retreat. Two charity quilts were prepped – baby quilts, 36 inches by 36 inches using 3″ finished squares. I even have the backings and bindings ready to travel. It would be a hoot to come home with two completely finished projects!

My next endeavor is for the quilt pattern “Snipits.” I raided my batik bins – oh so many, many batiks. I don’t usually prewash my quilt fabrics, but I do with batiks. It ...

The North Carolina Piedmont has snow! Unfortunately, it soon turned to sleet. And then snow again. So confusing! What it means for me and hubby is a day (plus more) of not venturing out of the house, and a crock pot full of chicken and goodness! For me, it also equals sewing!

Some time ago I pulled a bunch of fabrics in preparation of making a bookcase quilt. I have seen so many on the internet and have wanted to make one for a person who is a great lover of books.

For some of the books I inserted a ...

Tap...tap...tap. Is this thing on? Oh good. 

There's something about a new year that helps one take stock of where things are at and where they may go in the year ahead. It's been a long time since I've done a WIP list post (well, any post really) and I'm feeling the need for a recap of where I'm at with WIPs/UFOs/PIGs and any other acronyms for projects in the works. 

I've started a lot of projects over the last couple of years, but haven't finished many. I have ...

Each year stocking stuffers get a little more difficult for my adult children, but we do love opening our stocking gifts! They both make great use of their kitchens, so I ordered some cotton dish towels and did some creative sewing to embellish them.

This towel uses Tula Pink’s Lineworks zebra pattern. I love how the colorful prairie points set them off.

Again, using prairie points and a checkerboard. These are a little smaller with a fun colorful print.

And, for my son the deer hunter. How funny to be doing a bit of free motion quilting on a ...

It’s been a while and am glad to be back. I was out of town for several weeks and blogging was just not on the list.

Blue batiks, green batiks and a few white thrown in and what do you get? A string quilt! The blocks were positioned to make diamond shapes. This was a LOT of sewing but so worth it! I have found that fleece is a wonderfully warm backing for quilts, and batting is not necessary. So, I went with a dark blue backing and straight line stitching.

I’m really happy with this design and ...

The cows in the field next door escaped this week. After exploring our driveway and leaving a couple of cow-pats, they trundled off down the track and trotted speedily up the road, causing a bit of a traffic jam. I phoned the farmer as soon as I saw the herd dispersing and he quickly rounded them all up again.

I quilted the Bewitched quilt (to be repurposed into a coat) using a Karlee Porter design called “Swivel Circle 2”. The gold lame looks fab, of course and it has made me wonder if I should invest in some new, shiny ...

I had so much fabric left over from Nella’s autumnal selection that it made sense to piece a back for her quilt, even though the top blocks were not all done. Instead of joining large chunks, I decided to make it a bit more interesting and unplanned so I cut up some strips and squares and started joining them together. I would call this method improvisational, even though there is nothing modern or wonky about it. I doubled up the measurements for a Goosey Guddle block so it ended up 4 times larger than the original, taking up a ...