December 2021

Hello all, Mary Ellen here, I’ll be glad to see the end of 2021. Hoping that 2022 will bring the end of all of our COVID travails. I’ve started on a long overdue clean up of all of the fabric scraps I’ve saved. First I decided to throw away the small scraps that I thought I’d be using in paper foundation piecing. That made a lot of space in the 2 bins. I had originally divided the scraps into lights and darks–but I found that there was a lot of crossover. How light is light? How dark is dark? I now have them sorted by color–using the great big ziplock bags which I then put into the 2 bins. Novelties are in their own bag, black/gray in theirs, and browns in theirs. Do you have a good system for scraps? I’d like to get them organized into some method where […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here.Are you, like me, in the last minute scramble of making sure you have gifts for everyone? I had forgotten about getting things for the newspaper delivery person, the mail carrier, and a few others. I also have some very nice neighbors who help me out frequently so I can’t forget them! I came across a very easy and cute pattern for origami gift bags that I will be making as part of the gifting–plan to load them with some cookies or quick bread. You might like to try this pattern out too. Honestly it takes longer to choose the fabrics than to construct the bags. I’m a fan of Gudrun Erla’s patterns and you’ll find this one and some other nice ones at her website under the shop menu, under free patterns. I think you’ll like these. I can vouch for the easy apron pattern […]