February 2019

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. This is an amazing video of an artist using a few tools, and magic markers to make a spectacular mandala on a wall. It is so much akin to the medallion quilts which often win the big prizes at national quilt shows, or those Judy Niemeyer quilts for the totally patient and ambitious quilters!  Click here. The math student and teacher in me remembers back to learning and eventually teaching compass “constuctions” in geometry class. Most students either loved or hated them-nothing in between. If you’re old enough to remember learning that in math, where did you fit in? Working with a compass and ruler–Loved it or Hated it? Here’s a clip from an artist who makes her mandalas in the sand on a beach. Deliberately makes them impermanent to be washed away by the tide. Click here. Perhaps some of you will remember a […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. As I’ve been changing the quilts for the new month (bringing out a few heart/Valentine quilts) I’ve also been washing a few of the things that are going back into storage. This is a topic that can divide us into the red quilters and the blue quilters. We have several of those topics. I find them out when beginner quilters ask me my opinion and then tell me what other quilters have said. Example 1: pre-wash your fabrics or not (me? yes unless they’re small precuts) Example 2: steam or dry iron? (me? the more steam the better, but I have learned the hard way to press and not iron) Example 3: hand stitch or machine stitch your bindings? (me-90% of the time by machine. It is not relaxing for me to sit and stitch those miles of binding, and why not use some of […]