Blog – Page 29 – Amherst Quilters Guild

June 27, 2014

A little of this and that…

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

Wandering back to Wednesday’s wanderings…

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

I’m back!

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

Exciting new fabric designers

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 […]

May 28, 2014

free tutes

Hi everyone, Mary Ellen here. This post will just be a collection of links to free tutorials. a quilt for when you’re not in the mood to be precise: crinkle quilt pincushion pattern, but that’s not the interesting part: hair receiver! button art for you or the kids: button art I’m so done with pantyhose!: pantyhose flowers If you want to get in the running for a prize celebrating my talkativeness, read yesterday’s post (a milestone). If you leave a comment on today’s post you will also be in the running. And yes you can enter more than once, so comment away!

May 27, 2014

a milestone

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. This post is a milestone-my 250th post at this blog. I talk a lot I guess. If you read all the way to then end, I’ll tell you how to enter to win a prize from me to celebrate this “achievement”. One thing you might know if you’ve read these posts for a while is what some of my favorite blocks are. Take a minute, can you name of few of my faves? … Drunkard’s paths should be in the list. Here’s a link (click here) to a modern looking drunkard’s path. I think this one would be great for a fat quarter collection of some of those gorgeous, somewhat solid, fabrics that are now appearing in the shops. How about Grunge from Basic Grey? Love it! Another favorite of mine … hexagon quilts, not grandmother’s flower gardens–bigger hexagons! I tried the English paper piecing […]

May 20, 2014

Watch Bonnie Hunter for free!

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Want to watch Bonnie Hunter on The Quilt Show for free? Follow this link to her website (click here) and she will give you the steps to follow, including the code for free access to the show. This is for a limited time only, so don’t miss it!

May 16, 2014

What to write about today?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. How do I find something to write about nearly everyday? Strange how the mind works. Usually I’m just commenting on something I got in my e-mail or that has recently happened in “life”. For example… In today’s e-mail I got my blurb from “The Quilt Show”, the Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims adventure. When they first put the show up to the web, I paid for a subscription so I could watch the videos like I used to enjoy Alex’s Simply Quilts show on HGTV. Now though I just do the free stuff, since there are so many free videos available all over the web. Today in the e-mail there is a slideshow of free patterns from Bonnie Hunter. In it you’ll see 2 of the blocks Bonnie will be teaching at the fall seminar for us: Boxy Stars and Pineapple Blossom. Also shown is […]

May 12, 2014

Quilting hits the national news

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I don’t know if you’ll think it’s a plug for quilting or for Jenny Doan, but none the less it helps to get the word out about quilting. Would you have expected to see a spot about quilting done by Harry Smith for national coverage?! I didn’t see this when it aired in February; I’m a fan of a different network. Maybe I’ll have to reconsider that. click here

May 11, 2014

quilting makes you sharper

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I missed this spot on NPR last week. Patricia Ohtake, a member of our guild and one of our seminar teachers, pointed it out to me. She followed up on the research and is writing about it for our newsletter. But the main point–quilting makes you sharper! Wouldn’t it be great if we could get a prescription to take frequent quilting classes?! click here