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August 3, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. The demo night at guild last month was a success as always. My only wish is that there would be a way for those who are demonstrating could visit the other tables and see what other fun things are being shared. As Roxie announced, I will be sharing more Christmas ideas here on the blog to continue with the Christmas in July theme. Can you believe that on some of the radio stations they are already doing a countdown of the shopping days left?!! No wonder the holiday has become so commercialized. This first link I’m sharing is one of my go-to’s for free Christmas patterns of all kinds. There are ideas for quilting, sewing, crocheting, knitting, cooking… If you like the idea, you can sign up to get e-mail notifications from them, but that is not a requirement at all. Try them out here. […]
July 31, 2014
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
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
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
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
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 […]
June 27, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I finally got the mulch spread all over the flower beds. Wow, the body protests a full day of labor. Remember those days when we could work hard for 8 hours and then go partying until all hours? Those days are long gone for me. I still enjoy the parties, but the recovery period is a killer. I should buy stock in one of the analgesic companies! Cool feather block. Great for Gen X’ers or scrap hoarders: click here. Very cute for fashionistas of any age: click here. She calls it a scrapbuster, but I think this block would be nice in coordinated fabrics too. How about shades of one color, or for honey bun strips? click here. Just finished up a series of classes for beginners. Thinking about what new projects to do when the class series is repeated in the fall. The first […]
June 18, 2014
Hi everyone, remember me? Ha ha! Yeah, for how many times now, life just sweeps me away from this blogging fun… It doesn’t help that I contribute to few blogs, (this one, my own and one for WNY MQG) so this little time needs to be divided even more. But hey, it just asks for better organization, right? Yeah – sounding like a broken record here, but hey – I am not giving up!! 🙂 So what we didn’t think will ever happen – did – SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!! 🙂 First roses are opening up in my garden and peonies are almost done. This Japanese iris finally bloomed after about three years of waiting – but it was worth the wait. This deep, deep color in the first morning light makes me smile every morning… I really love this color!! Yet – I don’t really use it as much […]
June 14, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’m back from my trip to Disney with the godsons and family. I am so glad for this WNY weather. The heat and humidity in Florida were beastly in my opinion. Temps in the low 90’s and humidity around 60-70%. That is not for me, thank you very much. Of course both kids and adults got a bit cranky from the heat, so we would return to the hotel pool each afternoon for a cool off. But I must say the Disney crew sure has everything under control; everything so well-organized and running like clockwork, as we said in the old days. Now with everyone relying on phones instead of clocks for keeping time, what new saying will arise? Running like phone-work just doesn’t have as nice a ring to it. Before I left on my trip, I asked for comments to my post about […]
May 29, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’ve been watching videos and reading blog posts about the recent Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. Lots of great cool “stuff” coming. One that I’m going to be truly excited to see will be the fabrics from a new design group called Cotton and Steel, who work with RJR fabrics. The names of these 5 women were already familiar to me-some have published books in the “modern” quilting movement. Melody Miller, the ringleader, has already made a name in certain circles of “sewists” as we are now called. I think of my self as a “sewist” more than a quilter, because I sew all sorts of things. Quilts, garments, home dec, crafty items … The fabrics from Cotton and Steel have tickled the sewing gene for me. I’m anxious to try some of them out– in who knows what kinds of projects. See what you think […]