What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Hello Quilting Friends!  Today I'm super excited to share a sneak peek of my latest FREE project.

 One of the most challenging parts of making a quilt is the actual quilting.  I suppose that's why longarmers have wait lists that can be several weeks or months long.  When I purchased my midarm on a frame I had big plans of quilting for others someday.  The only problem was I don't like the quilting process.  I had grand illusions of the quilting machine making the quilting process more enjoyable.  Ten years later and I really don't enjoy quilting anymore than I did on my domestic machine.  Sure it is easier but enjoyable? Not really.  

Over the last week I've managed to find little bits of time to work in the studio.  Usually about an hour or two but there has been a couple of days I never even stepped foot in here.  Working out of my color pallet normally is a chore but when you all you have time for is working out of you comfort zone it's much easier.  I didn't care about the colors as much as did about just getting some time to play with fabric.  Lessoned learned, no more whining about color pallet, just enjoy that you ...

 Raise your hand if you have more than one quilting gadget or tool you have never used.  Me? ✋✋ To be honest I'm not a gadget person.  But every once in a blue moon something comes over me to purchase a tool with the intentions of "someday" designing a quilt around using the impulse buy gadget.  These days I try to stifle the excitement of a new quilting gadget.  The urge to purchase the Applipops was intense.  They have a great marketing strategy of put them in your face nonstop on Facebook and Instagram.  About a year of watching the ...

 It's time to recover the ironing station in my studio.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with the cover other than I'm tired of looking at it. Over the last year or so I would occasionally lay another piece of fabric over it but would not staple it in place. 

Since it's still in good shape and only needs to be washed to remove the starch I decided to carefully remove the staples.

The blue and yellow leaders and enders project is moving along nicely now that I've changed gears from a leaders and enders to a get it done mode.  Patience for the leaders and enders process is something I still need to work on.

 Yesterday I pulled out the green scraps cut and pieced back in February and March.   The original plan was to start a scrap saver system sorta like Bonnie Hunters of Quiltville or Lori Holts of Beeinmybonnet.  Well old habits are hard to break.  My quilting style is cut it and sew it.  So that's what I ended up doing.  I just couldn't help myself.

Hello Quilting Friends!  I just wanted to pop in and give you an update on my current leaders and enders project.  Slowly but surely I'm finishing up the cornerstones and sashing.  

When most of us think of a leaders and enders project we think of a Bonnie Hunter quilt.  Bonnies quilts more often than not do not have one consistent fabric let alone two or three.  The idea to keep this a 100% leaders and enders quilt sounds like a good idea but I'm at the point of just get it done.  Learning to use the leaders and ...

 Well I'm still sorting fabrics and making plans for new projects. If you missed out on the mess I made you can read about it here.   These may or may not get made but at least the scraps will be a little more organized.  I do this every now and then.  While organizing my mind can create some beautiful quilt designs that may or may not be made.  It's also very therapeutic.  Just standing here looking at this mound of fabric makes me sigh.   What a glorious site to behold.  Instead of designing a quilt I think I ...

Look what I found!  How in the world did I forget about these?  Better yet how did I find them?  Oh my goodness the rabbit hole I've been down in the last week.  

 The blocks for my current leaders and enders project are complete.  It took a little longer than expected to finish them.  For some reason I thought since it was a simple pattern with few pieces it would be farther along at this point.  In reality finishing it may take working on it during a couple more quilt tops.

 Hello Quilting Friends!  Yes, removing stains from quilt blocks is a piece of cake.  Almost weekly in the quilting social media world I see a quilter who is at their wits end trying to remove a stain from a quilt.  Quilters being kind and generous people for the most part offer up their best advice.  More often than not the advice requires a deep pocket...$$$$.  Well I'm here to tell you specialty products aren't always the best.  Ever heard of Occam's Razor?  In laymen's terms it means the simplest solution is usually the best solution.

 Squaring up quilt blocks is not something I typically need to do.  But with applique blocks it's the best way to ensure your blocks will finish at the correct size.  Even the best of quilters can have some shrinking of background fabric during the applique process.  So as a general rule applique background fabric is cut 1-3 inches larger than the finished size of the block then trimmed to the correct size after the applique is stitched in place.  Most the time the trimming down is fairly simple process. Just press the block and square up to the correct ...

 The progress of the Sugar and Spice quilt is moving along at a pretty good rate. I'm not used to working with a kit so I'm being very careful when cutting the fabrics. Included in the instructions is a cutting warning added by the quilt shop not the quilt designer.  Most of the fabrics in this can not be found anymore.   All of the background fabric is cut and I have about 10" x WOF leftover.  Yah! Adding it to my stash.   

 Hello Sweet Friends!  There's so much to share today.  You might want to grab a big ole cup of whatever before we start our journey down into the Quilters Rabbit Hole.   What exactly is the Quilters Rabbit Hole?   I called it a journey but it more like a virus, its contagious. The experts(suspected to be associated to the Quilt Police) say The Quilters Rabbit Hole(QRH) is a new strain of The Quilt Bug(TQB) we saw it rear it's ugly head way back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. 

The symptoms of QRH ...

 Hello Happy Quilters!  The sun is shining here in Podunk.  Maybe not outside but inside it's sunny and 70 degrees.  The On Ringo Lake quilt top has been finished for a couple of days.  The backing was made from 2 different green prints pulled from my yardage stash.  A yellow backing was my first thought because I knew I had about 8 yards of white dots on yellow but my goodness it was just too much yellow.