our other hobbies – Page 4 – Amherst Quilters Guild

May 3, 2012

a bit shady

Hi Y’all, Mary Ellen again. Shady #1: The huge tree I wrote about a few posts back has been down for about a week now. A friend has been busy cutting up the majority of it for firewood. He’s down to the huge parts of the lower trunk now, so work has slowed down. You can imagine how much saw dust has been generated. My dog thinks it is a great cushy mattress and has enjoyed laying in it. His fur is the soft fine type, to which sawdust just loves to cling. Hence lots of sawdust has come into the house. I spent some time yesterday cleaning up what the loose sawdust I could-not easy because of the rain of late making it heavy and clingy. I was surprised how heavy and dense wet sawdust is-had to fill the paper lawn bags only part way full. They got to […]

May 1, 2012

getting back to real life

Hello all, Mary Ellen here Aren’t those photos on Marija’s post fun to look at? It’s nice to have time stand still for a moment in each shot, so I can really give a good look at everything in each photo. Somehow when it’s all happening in real-time, things go by so quickly they can’t be savored. How did Marija find time to take all those shots, with everything else she was doing at/for the show?! Real life is back–getting caught up on laundry, tried to catch up on yardwork but the rain intervened yesterday (will finish when it dries out), grocery shopping, dog training class, sewing for an upcoming class, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da. When I chose the pattern I will next be teaching, I was looking for a small-scale project that used some traditional blocks and could be made up quickly for gifts. I chose one that uses just […]

April 24, 2012

Any gardeners out there?

Hello all, it’s ME. Just in case we ever get to dig in the dirt here’s something for the gardeners among you. Got my shoes muddy this morning looking around to see what survived the snow yesterday. The trillium which were gorgeous 2 days ago, are looking pretty sad this morning. And I think the jack-in-the-pulpits are a lost cause, I’m afraid. The later daffodils are iffy. What a strange weather year we’re having. I’ve heard it said that gardeners are eternal optimists, since we don’t usually see the fruits of our labors right away. I have a coffee mug that says “A garden is never finished.” Ain’t that the truth?! We’ve seen quilt gardens before-love the plantings arranged to look like quilt blocks. I think a feature telling exactly what plants were used to execute the garden is new though. I went to Nancy Zieman’s new website looking for […]

April 23, 2012

what else do you like to do?

Hello again. I have too many hobbies for the amount of time I have to spend. (and I have the supplies to go with them!) Just found out that my retired painting teacher is coming out of retirement and will again be offering classes. I haven’t done much painting in about 5 years. I think it might be the Irish in me, but I had just been thinking about how much I used to enjoy painting, wishing I could find another good teacher, when her letter arrived in the mail inviting me back to her class! Somewhat spooky, but not the first time something like that has happened. I also enjoy rubber stamping-mostly making cards for myself to use and for Operation Write Home. Different, but related color skills, than those used in quilt making. Found this blog post at a site I’ve followed for a while now. I love, […]

April 21, 2012

on the run

Hello all, Mary Ellen again. I’ve been running like a chicken with no head (can you youngsters picture that, or is it now one of those old expressions with no visual?) these days. I’ll bet any of you involved in getting the quilt show up and ready are likewise. No time for much of a post today, but here is a link to a slideshow of quilts by Robbi Joy Eklow. Nothing I would ever make, but I love them, especially the Steampunk series. They are fused, artsy quilts in great vibrant hand dyed fabrics. Enjoy! More time tomorrow for blogging, especially if it is still raining. I need to transplant the things from two flower beds around the big maple that is coming down. Planning on tomorrow and Monday–but I have heard rumblings of the S word for Monday. Really? Aren’t we done with that yet? TTFN

April 15, 2012

Slow down Sunday

Good morning all, Mary Ellen here. Do you remember when Sundays used to be a day of rest? Stores were closed, not much was happening outside of the family. Maybe a musical performance, a club get together but generally it was a day to reflect and rewind. Couldn’t we please go back to that? Catching up on a few of my favorite blogs this morning. I tend to follow a group of rather “modern” quilters in blogland. I think it’s the fabrics they choose that I like so well. The blocks are generally just traditional ones done in a slightly tweaked way. Sometimes they are improvised or wonky, sometimes the pieces are skewed a bit-rectangles instead of squares, ovals instead of circles for example, often they are just as they’ve been made for a hundred years. One quilter I’ve always associated with free form wonky blocks is Gwen Marston. Her […]

April 12, 2012

all buttoned up and buttoned down

Hi, ME again, Still on a bit of a button kick. I wonder how we get those expressions into our language. If you are a reader of ours from the previous blog, you know I am a lover of words and language. Thinking on other expressions and definitions of button that we have in our vernacular. I’m certain that buttons will come around again. I’ve decided that if I want to buy any button boxes at this season’s yard sales, I ought to make a dent in the ones I have. Been looking on my favorite craft sites and at Pinterest (have you joined or visited there yet?) for button crafts and have found a few that will make a significant dent without being too tacky. I was inspired by Paula’s comment about covering a picture frame with buttons. I need a graduation gift before long and I think a […]