What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

This year, we’ve put together something extra magical for all of our quilty friends (and the people who have them on their gift list)! Whether you’re shopping for yourself or someone else, the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide is your one-stop shop for finding something special this holiday season. To make your browsing (and sharing) a bit easier, use the links below to jump to the category you’re interested in!

Stocking Stuffers

Tis the season to surprise your favorite quilter with unique and useful stocking stuffers! Add ...

read more

October last year, I did a tutorial post to make Halloween Trick or Treat Bag. It was a post to showcase what that Baby Lock Sashiko machine can do. It was one of my most popular posts. Then, I found out that many people were interested in how to make the felt pumpkin I made to accessorize the bag. The felt pumpkin was something I made up at the last minute and hand sewed, so I didn't include that in the tutorial. Today, I am going to share the tutorial and a printable pattern! I hope you will enjoy ...

read more

 I don't get much time for personal sewing these days. As a shop owner, most of my sewing time is spent on store samples and class samples. One of my nieces is getting married soon and she asked me to make some little duffle bags for her to give to her bridesmaids. So all last week, in between my regular shop duties, I made 7 duffle bags for her.

I used fabrics from my stash so all of the fabrics I used are older, discontinued fabrics. For the zippers, I used a package of By Annie's zipper by ...

read more

I made this table runner for my mother many years ago using fabric I have purchased in Cyprus.  

read more

 A simple scrappy pin cushion. 

read more

As I’m designing items for sale in my flea market booth, I am considering several things at once.

~ People want to buy something handmade that someone else made

~ Time invested in each item vs. how much to charge

~ What do customers want to purchase? Practical items or splurges?

I discovered by putting some hotpads out that they sold very quickly. It was right before Christmas so gift giving could be a big motivator. Handmade makes it a one-of-a-kind item.

I can quickly make simpler designs, but a more complex design may be appreciated and purchased sooner. Or not, I ...

read more

 I started this back in the summer, it became Part II of a wedding gift.  Cute - a modern version of Christmas trees.

The pattern is a freebee from Art Gallery Fabrics, "Tepee Adventures".  It's written as a lap quilt so I had to make more blocks and kind of re-jig things to get a queen size quilt.  Most of the fabrics came from my stash, with the exception of the backgrounds and the border, and I think a couple of fat quarters.

This was made as a gift for an animal lover.
All fabrics from my stash, although the ...

read more

I haven’t sewn or quilted for a while, once I got the last baby quilt finished. My husband advanced progression in the Alzheimer’s disease. He was placed in a nursing home where he died peacefully. It has been a rough several months for me, but I’m learning again all that makes me happy.

First, I wanted something to fill my time like a part-time job, but without the exposure to public. I will have to live as if my immunity is very low, just to protect my health. I found a flea market in a place I ...

read more

Christmas is just around the corner! I feel the holidays should be spent with family and friends, not buzzing around finding last-minute gifts. If you’re still trying to decide what to gift your crafty friends who love cross stitching, look no further. These gift ideas for cross stitchers start with everything needed to get stitching and round out with different notions that will add fun and flair to stitching projects.

You can shop my Cross Stitch Holiday Gift Guide, full of my personal favorite cross stitch notions that double as great holiday gifts!

Cross Stitch Organization

For me cross ...

read more

It’s the jolliest season of them all! That means it’s time to deck the halls and spend time with loved ones. It’s also time to check names off your gift list! If you’re looking for ideas for your fabulous quilty friends (Kimberly’s Stitch Squad, I’m looking at you), I’ve gathered some of my favorite gift ideas in this Holiday Gift Guide for Quilters to help you with your holiday shopping.

Quilt Books

Patterns are perfect for gifting quilters, and quilt books really deliver! Scrappiness is Happiness by Lori Holt is full of ideas ...

read more

I love this one, and I think I say that each time I finish another quilt for another grandchild.

What a bonus it was, when I used some print fabrics as backing squares! My scrap baskets overflow and being able to use larger squares of some of the prints made me feel as though I was making progress in using up the scraps. Well, as any quilter can tell you, it hardly made a dent. It feels as though some of the fabrics will live forever and probably reproduce. I see fabric from dresses made in the ...

read more

 My mom pieced all of these and sent them to me for quilting and binding. 

The first is a wall hanging.

She bought the fabrics and panel in a kit from Jordan Fabrics. I added backing and binding fabric from my shop. 

See mom, I got them done!

read more

Before we can talk about the purple quilt, let me tell you a little bit about a red quilt I made 10 years ago... 10 years ago, when my mom turned 60 years old, to celebrate her special birthday, I made her a red quilt. There is an old tradition in Japan that when you celebrate your 60th birthday you wear a red vest and hat with your family and friends. My mom didn't want to wear them AT ALL, so I made her a red quilt instead. Even though I was born and raised in Japan, I had ...

read more

One of my high school ASL students, Kira, just finished up her first year at college.  She was involved as an officer in PAH ...

read more

I do know that they have always been popular and never been away.  I sell ready made scrunchies on my Etsy shop and they sell well.

read more

He is a real hoot, and busy all the time. He loves the toys with a push button that unleashes a lot of noise, but he also concentrates on a new skill and works until he masters it. He did that with the bubble pop silicone toy, stacking toy blocks, and I’m sure he will do the same with this.

I found it on Pinterest. It’s simple, and the goal is to feed the beads through the buttonholes until you reach the end. Both sides have interesting fabric. I chose leftovers and made each side a 9-patch, though ...

read more

 Here is the last handmade gift I received. Last, but certainly not least!

It's called a Hold Tite. The link will take you to the free pattern.

It's a holder for these SewTite notions. They are magnetic and the holder has metal inside for the magnets to stick to.

As you can see, I have a nice collection of several styles of SewTites. They are great for holding small pieces (applique pieces and English paper piecing and probably other things too) instead of using pins or clips to hold things in place.

And there is also a place ...

read more

 My sewing friends are always so creative when it comes to gift giving! I got two adorable little items: a teeny-tiny pin cushion and an adorable needle book.

The pin cushion is so stinkin' cute! The pin in it is a small applique pin. And it looks huge because the pin cushion is so small.

She went to Harbor Freight and looked around to see what she could find that she could repurpose. This is a bolt screw cover less than 1" in diameter.

Someone else made me the needle book. Here is a close-up of the inside.

I have ...

read more

 I used two of the Golf themed Itsy Bitsy panels and the Block Talk pattern for this quilt. One of the panels was used for the center blocks and the second was used for the border. The framing fabrics I used are a black print, a gray print and a white print and the accent fabric is a grass print which I also used for the binding.

read more

Celebrate the spookiest day of the year with the 2021 Spooky Box from Fat Quarter Shop! This box is oozing with phantasmic fabric and eerie items that will have you howling with delight.

Hometown Halloween Fat Quarter Bundle by Kimberbell for Maywood Fabrics
Spooky Box Exclusive

This assortment of fat quarters from Hometown Halloween by Kimberbell for Maywood Fabrics delivers frightful fun! This 7-piece bundle will give you thrills and chills with bats, witches, spiderwebs and even bunting. Glowing with rich Halloween colors, this fun bundle will haunt you with sew many quilt ideas!

Check out the full Hometown Halloween ...

read more