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January 12, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Odds and ends found while blog hopping: Pat Sloan, our 2013 seminar national teacher visits a NYC group: click right here. If you are a knitter and a Downton Abbey fan as well, you may enjoy these free knitting patterns: click here. Stopped at Wegman’s today for a few items not to be found at my small neighborhood tops and almost fell prey to all of that extra “stuff” in the seasonal aisle. That’s why I’ve pretty much sworn off Wegman’s for the basics. I did pick up a new magazine from the Fons and Porter group called Quilting Quickly. It is full of patterns from Jenny Doan and the crew at the Missouri Star Quilting Company. If you are an avid fan of Jenny’s videos on YouTube, be forewarned that many of the patterns in the magazine have already been featured on Jenny’s channel. […]
January 6, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen again. How do we find the time to quilt? I do it by neglecting my housework! (LOL, no I’m not kidding. There are surfaces in my house that haven’t felt a dust cloth in months! I should be ashamed to admit that I guess, but…I’m not. The important, frequently used, rooms are clean and clutter free, but don’t go in the spare bedroom!) Here’s my philosophy-If you drop in unannounced you get what you get. If I know you’re coming, I’ll make a decision. For friends and family I do my best. For acquaintances I may or may not. For strangers-who cares? One of my other vices is an addiction to paper crafting . I love to use scissors, tape, glue, markers, paper… This blog is one that I visit nearly everyday. I thought her post about finding time for stamping could perfectly work for us, […]
January 5, 2013
Hello again. Mary Ellen back. When talking with quilters at the demos and classes I present, the topic of free motion quilting often comes up. I consider myself proficient at FMQ but certainly not an expert. As I tell those who ask, the concept of free motion quilting is very simple but the practice of it is not. There is a long learning curve for most of us, requiring lots of time spent stitching to build muscle memory. I have never met a quilter who mastered FMQ right away. One of the websites I visit frequently, when in FMQ mode, is the one maintained by Leah Day. Lots of ideas for designs, well explained. Her blog gives guidance and encouragement. I’m sure many of you have visited her at one time or another, if FMQ is a goal of yours. This year Leah will be approaching FMQ from a different […]
January 4, 2013
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I never thought I would get hooked on a soap opera. Resisted watching this one until pressure from friends forced me to check out an episode. Got hooked right away. You know which one I’m speaking of, I’ll bet. Yep, Downton Abbey. Can’t wait for the new season to begin, and it’s almost upon us. If you’re a fan as well, there are so many videos all over YouTube lately leading up to the first episode. Here’s one I found fun. So how about you? Are you hooked too? (Keep an eye out, but I’m fairly certain there will be no quilt sightings in any of the episodes. Quilts are probably too common-not posh enough!) If I find that there are lots of Downton Abbey addicts among us, I can add a category to this blog for us to use this season to make “discussion” […]
December 29, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. It’s approaching that time again-the time for goals for the new year. In addition to the old standards-more exercise, less food, finish UFO’s, buy less fabric (actually this goal might be INSTEAD of the old standards!) I’m thinking about adding some new ones to my list. One of them is going to be to start diving into my increasing collections of selvages and make a few projects. I love every project I’ve ever made with selvages and I always get such nice comments when folks see them. Perhaps I’ll take some photos of a couple of them to show you (the ones I still have in my possession). I want to make another big tote bag-I find that I organize my “stuff” for classes and demos by the totebag system (each class or demo gets its own bag) and I could use a few more […]
December 20, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. By now I hope you are all in tune with our upcoming seminar instructor, Pat Sloan. You now perk up for her ads in magazines, have visited her blog, maybe listened to a podcast or two. Great! In 2014 we’ll be hosting another live wire in the quilting world, Bonnie Hunter. You may know I am a big fan of scrappy quilts, love this quote at Bonnie’s site: “If it’s still ugly, you just didn’t cut it small enough!!” She has been the force behind www.quiltville.com for some time now. Over at the Quilty Pleasures blog, from Quiltmaker magazine, Bonnie is featured today. Take a moment to “meet” another one of our instructors-to-be. There are links to her site and to her feature called Quiltcam. As you might expect, it’s a video cam in her studio which she will sometimes make live while she is […]
December 19, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Heard some amusing stories on the radio this morning about regifting mishaps. Perhaps some of you are using “regifting” as a way to cut down on shopping and spending. All of the callers seemed to be of the opinion that regifting is perfectly okay, as long as you don’t regift back to the original “gifter”. Aren’t quilts some of the original “regifts”? We often pass a quilt along to a family member or friend, or down the generations. Perhaps that falls into a different category. I have been regifting for years. I must say though, that I usually try to repackage the gift, or personalize it in some way before it moves on. Somehow just taking the gift and putting it into a different gift bag doesn’t feel quite right to me. In these days of recycling and reusing, I think regifting is just sensible. […]
December 18, 2012
Hello again, Mary Ellen back. Just checked the results of the Morton Masterpiece contest. Our member, Lauren DeVantier, won the viewer’s choice prize! CONGRATULATIONS! If you have seen her work, you know that this quilt is probably truly spectacular in person. I hope she’ll be able to share it with us soon-at least to have it hang in our next quilt show.
December 17, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. We’re in the home stretch now, ladies. Lots left to do, and not too much time in which to do it. Just finished another batch of cookies. I’m hoping to do a batch a day this week. (LOL) And I’m hoping not to eat too many of them before the big day. (LOL even louder) Mary D., one of our past guild presidents, shared this article with me. As you must know if you follow this blog, Pat Sloan is our next seminar national teacher. She is a big presence in the modern world of quilting. Here’s an article from the Sewing Savvy newsletter, helping us get to know her. Thanks, Mary! Back to the kitchen sink, the dinner in the microwave is calling, and I’ve got cookies to package up. TTFN.
December 15, 2012
Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Just finished cleaning up the floor from the crunching sugar sprinkles left by cookie decorating helpers. Had a good time with them. Didn’t get a ton of cookies made, but made a memory instead. I’m happy with that. Here’s a musical treat for you. I love the Sugar Plum Fairy, and this is a different take on it. TTFN