Just a quick note: I received a notification that all of my old links to Craftsy Classes when they switched to Bluprint are now broken. They’ve actually been broken for quite some time. I just wasn’t paying attention. I honestly don’t have the time to go back and fix them. Sorry about that—there are way too many of them and as you know, I’m having enough problems keeping up with today, let alone redoing work from 5 years ago! If any of those classes interest you, they’re pretty much all still available through the current Craftsy streaming app, so just search there. Craftsy has also completel ..read more

Can you hear my happy dance from there? I couldn’t fit it all in one picture—it being huge n’ all. Something like 108” by some-other-big-number. As I’ve thought about it (I was still debating when I posted my episode), I will definitely be sending this puppy out for quilting. I need to keep truckin’. Made using the Storm at Sea block die from AccuQuilt*, an assortment of batiks, and a whole lot of Aurifil 50 wt “Sea Biscuit” thread, my new favorite neutral. The couple who will be receiving it are California kids, so a sea and beach theme seemed appropriate. Plus, I’ve always wanted to make a ..read more

As I mentioned in my podcast episode, I’ve had a few goings’ on. Here’s a quick gallery. Photo 1: The sew day with friends in my office. The quilt hanging on my wall was made by my Mom—no idea what the pattern was, although it smacks of a block of the month kind of thing, or maybe a book of blocks or something. Anyway, because it has the church block it seemed appropriate for my region office. (If anyone recognizes the blocks/BOM/book, let me know!) Photo 2: A close-up of one curvy log cabin block (using Creative Grids Curvy Log Cabin Trim Tool). You can tell I used three different quarter-inc ..read more

I grabbed two old fat quarters I wouldn’t be sad to have exit from my stash to do a test run on the AccuQuilt Log Cabin die. Mind you, I almost never make a sample block. I usually just dive in. Very glad I was impatient to try it out and didn’t have time to try to sort all the fabrics for the final projects. Sample block it was. It’s supposed to end up a 12” square (or maybe 12 1/2, don’t remember offhand). Somehow mine came out rectangular and no sides were as much as 12”. Something doesn’t look right, but I recounted strips multiple times. Time to go back to the tutorial and see what I did ..read more

So when I was quickly reviewing recent back blog posts to see what I had been working on before I, well, stopped working on much of anything, I realized that I’d posted about starting the 2022 DeCluttering Challenge a year ago but never let you know how it all turned out. Turns out, it turned out pretty dang good! I did, indeed, offload a decent number of books, although I’ve now filled that vacuum back up again. My bookshelf will always be a challenge for me. What was more significant is what I did with my fabric stash. Everything is now on comic book boards except the higher yardage (backin ..read more

I knew it had been awhile since I last posted or podcasted. I didn’t realize it had been over a year. But what a year it’s been. In a nutshell: Several work and vacation trips back-to-back for about three months The last trip sent me home with a COVID souvenir which knocked me out of the loop for about three weeks Shortly after recovery, my MIL had a medical event (still don’t know what caused it) resulting in a month of hospital and rehab center then arranging for in-home assistance—her life changed significantly and she can no longer drive and needs a walker most of the time now—all of ..read more

Although I’ve cancelled by Cotton Cuts monthly subscription, you pre-pay for a certain package. So this week I received the last of the subscription I pre-paid for. As usual, there are a couple I like, most I’m not a fan of. However, now that I’m doing EPP and more scrap quilting, I do tend to look at fabrics with a little different eye now. There’s no such thing as an ugly fabric when you cut it small enough! Nice Ice Baby by Deena Rutter for Riley Blake Designs Night Fancy by Victoria Findlay Wolfe for Free Spirit Fabrics Same line as yellow fabric Rose Lemonade by Wishwell for Robert Kau ..read more

A couple of weeks ago I was perusing my fabric stash for a new project. In this instance, “perusing” is defined by “digging through, excavating, precariously balancing stacks of fabric while pulling possibilities out of the bottom, pushing stacks back into place with elbow while holding found possibilities in both hands….” And I reached a breaking point. For almost the entirety of my quilting life (read: 20 plus years), I have used the ruler technique for folding my fabric. You know the one—use your 6”x24” to fold fabric neatly into a bundle to stack on your shelf. In fact, even after I’d chan ..read more

I’m so proud of myself. Genius…at least for now. If you listen to my podcast you may remember me talking about the sticky problem of how to store my quilt retreat/class/travel bags in a way that would help keep them from getting covered in dust and dog hair. There’s no closet in this room so everything is open storage. I’d had an idea that I could use the hanger rod on the bottom shelf of my fabric stash to hang them up—out of the way but easy access. Bingo—it works! The purple polka dot bag is huge so it’s particularly helpful that I could fold it in half with the clips on the hanger. At som ..read more

Previous unit of the same type but smaller If you’ve been following along in the podcast, you’ll know that I’m now piecing the fourth unit for the block. This unit is a square in a square…in a square. I’m sure there’s a word for that. But essentially it starts with a square, piece four triangles on to make a square on point, and then another four triangles to make it a square-in-a-square no longer on point. If that makes sense. Anyway, looking at the stack of pieces, I knew I was nowhere near close to having enough of the final set of triangles. So tonight I put my big-girl-panties on, as it ..read more