“modern” quilting – Amherst Quilters Guild

February 28, 2016

Who quilts your quilt?

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I’ve been working on several projects lately that all had deadlines. Because of the time crunch I decided I would quilt one myself that I would usually have sent to my favorite long arm quilter. The style of the quilt is somewhat modern, so I decided to try out some of the very dense quilting that one sees on so many of the Pinterest quilts. I did lots of wavy walking foot quilting and some free motion in opposite corners. The quilt measures about 48″ x 60″. I have a new appreciation for women who quilt bed size quilts on their domestic machines. Granted, my set up of my sewing room does not lend itself to positioning lots of tables around me to support the weight of the quilt. That’s my “fault” I guess you could say. I did put my ironing board next to […]

February 16, 2016

wabi sabi

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Sometimes I get great ideas for blog posts sent to me by a reader. Karen G., a member of our guild, put me onto this blog post from that great shop, Quilter’s Corners, in Ithaca. I had never heard of wabi sabi, which turns out to be a Japanese philosophy. It espouses appreciating simpler things and embracing imperfections in daily living. For those of us quilters who are “recovering perfectionists” (a term borrowed from Beth Ferrier, a past seminar teacher for us), wabi sabi is a concept to explore. If you are interested after reading this post from Ithaca (click here ), maybe we should come up with a banner design to hang in our sewing rooms to remind us!

January 28, 2016

your grandmother’s quilts

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you get tired of the cliche that only grandmothers quilt? That your quilt is “not your grandmother’s quilt? That when a non-quilter comes upon a quilt of yours one of the first things apt to be said is “my grandmother used to quilt”? Don’t get me wrong-I have quilts made by my “foremothers” and I treasure them. But…my quilts are not like the ones they used to make. I admire their needle skills but I don’t want to imitate their quilting style. Apparently I’m not the only one. A recent entry in the blog of Quilters Newsletter Magazine shares the author’s view on this whole “conversation”. Click here. See what you think about it all and share a comment, why don’t ya?!

March 16, 2015

3 things we should stop doing

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Although Angela Walters says these are things that machine quilters should stop doing, I think they apply to all quilters–not just machine quilters. If you always send your tops out to be quilted by someone else, the main ideas in Angela’s piece apply to those who are piecers as well. The rest I’ll leave up to Angela: Click here. (p.s. Blog candy coming soon. I’m almost to a milestone in my blogging at this site. Stay tuned!)

March 10, 2015

Getting to know you…

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I hope that most of you know our guild has decided to offer our fall seminars in alternate years, instead of annually as had been the tradition for 40+ years. Costs of sponsoring a national teacher continue to climb, and it seems interest from our members continues to decline. To give us some breathing space to raise some funds to offset cost increases and to work with our membership to reformat seminar to better fit current wants and schedules, we’ve decided to hold seminar in the same years as our quilt show. We’ll use the show as a publicity opportunity to both our own members and non-member visitors to the show. That all said, I want to start making you aware of all that our next national teacher, Nancy Mahoney, is doing in the quilting world. Nancy has two quilts in the March/April 2015 issue […]

January 31, 2015

sewing by and for guys

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Nearly all of us have sewn a quilt for a male family member or friend. But…have you ever sewn with a male family member or friend? Not so many of us. I have mentioned Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company here before. She and quilter Rob Appell are starting a new venture together: Man Sewing. I think it will be fun and I’ve already subscribed to get the first few videos. I have 2 grandsons turning 8 today. Maybe I’ll be able to get a quilter out of one of them. One of them is very interested in any type of machine, and I’ve got a machine with considerable bells and whistles that he might find to be “awesome”. Have a look at Jenny and Rob’s skateboard quilt here. click here Great idea for the boys in those “middle” years. Here’s a link to […]

September 1, 2014

Double disappearing 9 patch

Good morning! Mary Ellen here. I thought I was in New Orleans this morning. It’s so darn humid out-even with the actual temp at 67º I ended up all “dewy” from the humidity. Thank goodness for central air. If you’re a fan of the disappearing 9 patch method, you’re going to like this one-the double disappearing 9 patch. It results in a very graphic, interesting block and it’s quite easy. Give this a look! click here While you’re there have a look at some of her tutorials for free motion quilting. I like her all over patterns with no marking needed! Just came back to add this bit. While exploring the blog above, I found this tidbit. Just yesterday I was puzzling over what to do with the bag full of batting scraps that keeps tipping over in the quilt closet. I like this idea! click here. Have you got […]

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 […]

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!