What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Tomorrow is Earth Day and it is the perfect time to make our yearly pledge to help our planet by recycling, repurposing and reusing. I’ve talked about some of these ideas before in various posts, but it has been awhile since we looked at them. So, I’ve pulled a number of ideas from several past posts, and a couple of new things for our chat today. We live in a beautiful world, and I know if everyone can do just a little, it will make a big impact. Let’s start with a lovely shot of our local ...

read more

I have wanted to find a mock neck vest with a bit of personality for a while. Whenever I went out, I kept my eyes peeled, but no luck. One day, I came across this sweater at TJMaxx. The sweater itself is not my style, but I saw potential. I will share what I did to refashion this sweater to a mock neck vest. 1. Cut off the bottom. I didn't need the black + white border and I had enough length, so I cut it off.
2. Cut off the sleeves. Before I decided to buy the sweater, I ...

read more

My mother-in-law had two special sweatshirts ordered – Grandma’s pumpkin patch had the names of all her grandchildren. Granny’s pumpkin patch had the names of all her great-grandchildren.

After her death in 2019, my husband’s sisters wanted to know if I could think of anything to do with the sweatshirts. I’ve made pillow covers before out of t-shirts, but I wanted to do something different for these.

I decided to stitch around each name-with-pumpkin to make a small quilted ornament. I keep batting scraps in a tub in case they are useful for small projects, and it ...

read more

I enjoy searching through a thrift store, not knowing what I will find, and what project it will be perfect for. I keep a list on my phone of certain items I’m specifically looking for, like the photo frames in 5×7 or 4×6 sizes that now hold family photos on my wall. Other things seem to jump into my arms and I take them home.

A few days ago I noticed a tub of jumbled shirts. Each one could have stains, holes, or tears, and the price was 25 cents each. The cashier saw me collecting some ...

read more

My daughter-in-law once told me her preferences for a purse are that it have a long strap for a crossbody position, and that it zips closed. I thought I would try a crossbody as well and came up with the following tutorial.  My wish is that you use it for personal sewing or gifts, fundraisers or group instruction. If you wish to share a photo of one that you’ve made, I’d love to see it! Please don’t sell my idea as your own.

Prepare the book. In choosing a book I look for something decorative on the ...

read more

When my husband had to cut down our flowering crabapple tree, I grabbed some branches with the dried apples still on. Added LED lights from Joann's with brown floral tape and, voila, romantic low lights. Much more natural and interesting than those found in stores today. The lights are plug in which emit a copper glow. Note the vase; I made it in a freshman ceramics seminar in 1970 at Barat College.

read more