July 2014 – Amherst Quilters Guild

July 31, 2014

Just a quick note…

Hi everyone, hope you still believe this is summer? Brrrr…a bit chilly I have to say, although I am really not complaining!! Some rain is always good for my sewing and cool nights are just wonderful to snuggle under the quilt and sleep well – nothing to complain about! 🙂 Today I am just popping my head in here during the lunch break to share few quick finds that I liked: Here is a lovely quilty quote for you – maybe framed and up on the sewing room wall? And as long as you are in your sewing room, how about busting that scrap basket by making a … SCRAP BASKET?? You will find a complete free pattern HERE. Did you notice how this year all the flowers in the garden kinda just “rush through”? They open to bloom, lovely for few days and – boom! – all gone! […]

July 24, 2014

Guild meeting Show and Tell

Hi everyone, I took me a while but finally getting around to post photos of our July’s meeting Show and tell! I don’t know about you, but I really LOVE meetings like we had in July – with fun demos! As much as I loved doing a demo, I would have loved to see the others too, but I hope you all had fun? If anyone needs any help with that Quick Curve Ruler or the pattern I showed – just let me know! Thinking of it now…I might do a quick “pictures tutorial” here, so you all have a “refresher” ?? What do you think – yes or no? Anyone already made a few Christmas projects after that? 🙂 He… he… I always, always say that I will start early but so far that didn’t happen much… Maybe this year? Well I will finish those Poinsettia pillows, so that […]

July 16, 2014

not quilting, but…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I hope your summer is going as well as mine is. Today’s weather (on the cool side for some) is glorious in my book–sunny, breezy, and temperate! This link is not strictly quilt related, but I think any of us who appreciates fiber art would love to come across something like this. Most of these are from sites in Europe; it seems European hazard fence is more grid-like than what we’d see here. Our chain links I thinkwe might say are more “on-point”! Wouldn’t it be great if this caught on among the craftsmen in our downtown areas? click here How is your summer stitching going? Are you more productive in the summer, or is it too hot to quilt?

July 11, 2014

Inspirations and tutorials

Hi everyone, hope your summer is going great! As much as summer is time for outdoors, I find that I also quilt a lot, maybe because days are longer? I find myself waking up at 4 am sometimes wondering…”is it too early to start my sewing machine?” ha ha! Hey, if it is, I can always cut, or sort fabric, or just daydream of another project… right? 🙂 As I still play with my friend’s Katarina new fabric collection (my last post), I wanted to share with you new Blog Hop party that started this week – many wonderful quilters are playing with these great fabrics and posting tutorials and free patterns! You will find the list of participants on Katarina’s blog HERE and yes, yours truly is there too (so excited!!). There is no definite schedule for this blog but there will be new posts almost every day. I started […]

July 3, 2014

On the edge…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’ve got my bin of selvages out and have been working on a tote bag design. I find playing with the selvages to be fun and relaxing. Really one can’t make an heirloom project (that’s not a challenge, anyone!) with selvages, so it’s not necessary to worry too much about perfect seams or colors matching just right. I ran across this post (click here) at Exuberant Color with great quilts using strips of varying widths. I think they could be great inspiration for selvages. Another idea for the bucket list is born. Here’s a link to a pretty stitched piece. Not too complicated and it’s “summery” looking to me. I love the dotted fabric as the fabric base. (click here) Time to get out your patriotic quilts. I leave them out for all of July (and sometimes August too if summer is busy!) How about […]