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May 8, 2016
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. We should all be recovered from our quilt show by now. So many lovely inspiring quilts. Will I live long enough to make all the quilts I’d like to try? I’m sure that for almost all of us, that answer is no! So which quilt project is next on your list? Although applique is for me almost a four letter word, I admired so many of the quilts which combined piecing with applique. Maybe that will be my next challenge to myself. But I digress. Have you ever tried locker hooking? I did quite a bit of it a few years back and then moved on to another hobby. I do really like the old fashioned look of mats and rugs made with this technique. I happened to get Ami Simms’ newsletter this week in which she gives a very nice tutorial on how to […]
April 17, 2016
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. In my last post I talked about using or losing your scraps. One of my strategies which kind of combines the two ideas was to clean out my scrap bins to give a bunch away. At our guild’s upcoming quilt show (Apr. 22-24) there will be a scrap pool to play in. (Pay a small fee, get a bag, jam as many scraps of your choice into the bag to take home!) I have some pictures following to show you my “success”. I have been keeping the two bins (one for darks and one for lights) somewhat under control by giving away my smaller scraps to Robi, our guild president, who will work with scraps smaller than I like. But nevertheless the lids and sides of the two bins are usually bulging. So I thought I’d put a big dent in that with a garbage […]
March 31, 2016
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Do you have lots of “stuff” in your sewing room or craft room that you haven’t used in ages? Me too. I saw a series of posts on a paper crafter’s web site. She is going through her stash a little bit at a time, and either using the trove of supplies or putting them aside for donation or the trash-losing them. In each of her posts she gives ideas for how she is using some of the supplies, and sometimes also explaining why she is losing some of the other supplies. She has challenged her readers to play along with her, and to share how they are using or losing the overflow in their own stashes. I thought this might be a fun thing for us quilters to try also. So here we go. The category for this week’s “use it or lose it” […]
March 4, 2016
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Went to the car wash the other day. Can’t tell it from the looks of the car now. I’m always a bit nervous about getting the wheels of the car lined up with those tracks that pull the car through the “washing machine”. When “he” says to put it in neutral, that’s my signal that I’ve done it correctly. What else do neutrals have to do with anything? Well for us quilters they usually mean “lights” or “backgrounds”. Each year I set myself a quilting goal. Last year it was to use more orange in my projects. I think I succeeded pretty well on that, and was generally happy with the spark the orange gave to my projects. This year’s goal is to be more adventurous in my choices of backgrounds…to stay away from the whites, ecrus, and very pale fabrics. My first full size […]
December 13, 2015
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Have you recently discovered that there is going to be a gift exchange at your book club, or your “mommy” group? …or that your gift cards for the postman, newspaper delivery person, nail girl look kind of lame stuck on their cardboard backing? Here is an easy fabric ornament that you could whip up in fairly short time (if there’s any of that to spare!!). I have made these before and they really do go together quickly. I would follow Ami’s directions up to the handstitching part and then follow Kevin’s lead from there on out. I have not found it necessary to put in the firmer backer that Ami added, although it is nice if you want to have a place to write the year or a short message. I have never seen that sticky backed template plastic that she used. Has anyone of […]
March 16, 2015
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!)
October 16, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. It’s now official. Nancy Mahoney will be our national teacher for the 2016 quilt seminar. She is in all the quilt publications, so I’m sure that even if you’re not familiar with her name you have certainly seen some of her work. Here’s a link to her blog. Go explore and get to know a bit about her. Please be thinking about what you’d like to see in the open years in between our seminars, instead of a seminar. I’ll be asking for ideas in the months ahead.
September 16, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Got any spare fabric around? (LOL!) It could be used for gift wrapping instead of paper. In this video the demonstrator also suggests silk scarves. I don’t know about you, but I have many of those just sitting in a drawer from my working days. I often wore a basic T or light weight sweater and put a scarf on to jazz it up, or to make it match a particular skirt or slacks. Although scarves are coming back, they aren’t the same style as the ones in my drawer (of course not, that would be too easy). I think this fabric wrapping would be particularly nice on gifts for your fabric loving friends. Much better than paper that ends up discarded. See what you think. It looks quite easy to me. Click here. Here’s another gift wrap idea for using up smaller pieces from […]
September 9, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Busily getting the last of seminar preparations completed. Fielding lots of e-mails from those quilters coming from a distance. Where to stay? Where to eat? Are there quilt shops near by? Where else can we shop? Those are the FAQ’s for this week I think! As I’ve gone through my own e-mail each day, I’ve just copied and pasted a few links that I think might be of interest to you. No time to do much more than that these days. I hope I’ll see you at seminar! funky stuffed pumpkins click here found this via a Facebook friend, I have heard several of these comments after demos I have given. Yikes. And BTW what are quilting chakras? Every comment on every quilt blog ever: click here. beautiful star quilt, perfect for featuring a collection of fat quarters or for using up scraps: click here.
August 29, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I think this idea from Jenny Doan is super. You may remember that last summer we came up with a few ideas for these Jelly Roll 1600 quilts. They are archived in the side bar of the blog or you can just search for jelly roll 1600. Many quilters love these because they are so fast, and just as many dislike them because of the “boring” appearance. I don’t know which camp you’re in- I’m in the camp that thinks this idea is great. Click here to see Jenny’s video with an idea for changing up the appearance a bit. Watch to the end. If you went to summer camp, I think you will remember enjoying the same sort of silliness that Jenny and her assistant get into! I will tell you that when you make them with a jelly roll of batiks, they are […]