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August 18, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Visited Bonnie Hunter’s site this morning. Found this link to a clip about making scissors by hand. Would love a pair of these! Click here. Bonnie is just home from a recent quilters’ trip to Great Britain. That girl sure gets around–she’s home right now, but before she comes to us in mid September, she’ll be spending time in Alaska teaching. Weaving modern cloth on old looms (found in side bar at link above): click here Here’s a bit of trivia for you. The roots of modern-day computers are linked to weaving. Joseph Jacquard came up with a system of punched cards for weaving patterns which eventually inspired the binary code of ones and zeros representing the punched or unpunched holes in the cards. Those ones and zeros were linked to electronic circuitry being on (the one) or off (the zero). And the rest is […]
August 7, 2014
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. We spent time yesterday at the museum getting the mailing of supply lists, etc for this fall’s seminar all set. They will be going out in today’s mail. Please pass the word to your friends who do not have the internet that they should be expecting them in a day or two. We set a record this year–16 mailings going to Canada! Several all the way in Toronto! We sent to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Long Island… More than half are to non-members; many out of the immediate area. Must be the avid readers of Bonnie Hunter’s blog. Right now, as you know if you are one of her subscribers, Bonnie is in Great Britain-London for the past day or two! She really gets around. We have had a cancellation for a seat in her Crumb Piecing class. If you are interested, go to our guild page […]
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 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 28, 2014
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
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
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!