July 31, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you know what yarn-bombing is? I’ve never seen a yarn-bomb “in person” but have viewed many posts about them in my internet travels. Yarn-bombing is the placement of knitted works in surprising urban settings. For example, putting a knitted sweater on a fire hydrant along a busy street. Just introduces a pop of color into an otherwise gray environment. Maybe one would call it knitted graffiti? But somehow I don’t find “yarn-bombing” to be damaging to another’s property. After all if the owner or caretaker of the property doesn’t want it, the yarn-bomb is quite easily removed. Disagree? Personally I would love to come across one of these installations of yarn-art. That brings me to a loosely tied group called “Dispatchwork”. They install Lego art in surprising places. Again it doesn’t seem to be vandalism in my scope, but you might disagree. I think […]
July 30, 2013
Hi everyone, time to get out of summer lull and get blogging again! 🙂 It is mind-boggling to me how in the summer, when days are longer and all that, I seem to have less time for everything? When I say “everything”, I guess I sub-consciously mean quilting, sewing…all that kind of favorite fun, he…he… Does that happen to you? I know we all spend more time outside, tend to our gardens…but still, I always think I should have more time? As I said, mind-boggling. Speaking of garden – this was definitely the year for roses? Mine were just exploding everywhere and making me so happy! I guess the years of protecting them, feeding them, cleaning them from pest do pay out sometimes… “Forth of July” is one of my favorite rose and I think it will make me do a red and white quilt one of these days – […]
July 30, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen again. Before I retired it would really frost me to start to see “back to school” ads in July. The summer isn’t even half over yet! Now I don’t mind at all because some of my best quilting supplies are bought in the back to school aisles. Probably my number one supply purchased at this time of year-in quantity-is Elmer’s washable school glue. I buy both the glue sticks and the liquid glue. It allows me to avoid pinning in many projects, and actually has increased my accuracy. The most frequent use of the glue is for “basting” my bindings to the back of the quilt before I sew them down by machine. When I first learned to stitch a binding on completely by machine, I was not happy with the way the back would look. Despite my best efforts at pinning or basting in the […]
July 28, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen again. Was trying to catch up on my e-mail and blogs this morning and came across a photo of this recipe at Pat Sloan’s blog (our upcoming seminar teacher). (BTW have you signed up for your class yet? We’ll be mailing supply lists out soon, if you want to get yours the easy way please register this week!) Anyway this recipe really appealed to me. I have loads of fresh basil in the garden waiting for the right recipe, and have been overdosing on fresh spinach in my toss at salad bars. If you made your own bread crumbs from Fiber 1 cereal (click here), this could be a very WW friendly recipe. Have a look at the photo and see if you can resist. click here. The text in the blog entry that goes with it is amusing too. I think the ingredients will definitely […]
July 27, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’ve been MIA for a while now. Taking care of an elderly mom who has had several strokes. Things are beginning to come around; keep her in your prayers please. This post was in an e-mail this morning; since we’re having a visit from some of our WNY Modern Quilters to an upcoming guild meeting I thought this would be a perfect quick post. Look around at their website while you’re there to get a peek at what some modern quilters are about. Click here.
July 11, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen once again, If you’ve ever wondered why the thread tension on your machine is so important and sometimes so finicky, perhaps this animation of the formation of a stitch will clear up some of the confusion. Found a link to this at the selvage blog-great fun for fans of selvage quilts. Have a look here. If you’ve ever wondered how you could put zentangle into your quilts, here’s a nifty tutorial. Great for collectors or black and white fabrics like myself. Even small scraps could be put to use. (click here) I love this idea, and am definitely putting on my list. Some more “zentangle-ish” sketches from a quilter. Like the notebook idea she has. Scroll down a bit in her blog to see the “gray-haired” lady in her quilt. I can’t tell if the hair is selvages or just black and white strips, but I […]
July 5, 2013
hello all, Mary Ellen back. I just came across this discussion at another blog on what our quilts are actually worth. I’m not talking the “sentimental” value. Quilts made and given from the heart are priceless. This discussion was among women selling quilts as an income. Those in the discussion are not the big name “professional” quilters, but are woman like us adding to the family income to pay for groceries, electricity, school clothes, prescriptions, etc. You know what I mean. Even though many were selling at craft shows or other small venues, they were wondering what they should charge for the time, materials and expertise in their items. I will admit that I usually under charge for the quilts/quilted items that I sell. Now that I look over the calculations in the post I will link to at the end, I am REALLY under charging. Granted there is a […]
July 3, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen back. I need to finish a quilt. Back when we began the Lucy Goosey quilt-along here, I started making red, white and blue star blocks. It’s a UFO project. I’ve been working on the first version, the one done in tropical scraps, trying to get it finished as a summer project. As I hung the flag out front this morning, I thought I should get out some patriotic quilted pieces. Well…I don’t have many of them. Have to remedy that situation. Do you change out your quilts for the time of year, or for special days? How’s your collection of red, white and blue projects? Here is a gallery of patriotic quilts to inspire you. click here. Have a safe, fun, Fourth of July everyone!
June 30, 2013
Back again, it’s ME. Yesterday since the selection of TV shows was so dismal, I started to go back through some of the things I’ve recorded on the DVR. I was way behind on the Sewing with Nancy shows and started there. I watched two episodes of a series where Nancy super-sized some of Grandma’s favorite one patch quilts. She did the tumbler block (thimble shaped) in one episode and Grandmother’s Flower Garden in the second. Those hexagon pieces are the latest pre-cut from Moda, joining the jelly rolls, charm packs, etc. I’ll be interested to see how the designers show new quilters how to work with them. Usually the dreaded “Y-seam” puts people off. In Nancy’s technique she actually used half-hexies, (trapezoids to me the former math teacher), to completely avoid the Y-seam issue. You can watch those shows at her website I believe, since most of her past […]
June 29, 2013
ME back again, Here is a big name designer including our worst nightmares of quilted clothing in her ready-to-wear collection for this fall. If the model, who probably is as big around as one of my arms, looks like this in it, can you imagine any “real” woman’s figure being flattered by this coat? Couldn’t find many quotes of the price, but one I did find was $650. No there is not a missing decimal point. Six hundred fifty dollars. Yowza! Have a look here, and see if you will be see wearing one this year. If you will, I take it all back. It looks great on you!!