Embroidery Dreams

Clover and Violet have a very detailed and wonderfully done tutorial called Embroidery 101 which will teach you a lot about hand embroidery and then provide you with the patterns each month to practice with. They tell us about the supplied, transferring designs and how to do many stitches.  They have some cute projects, especially for babies.  Also, check out their patterns.

Once you get hooked on embroidery, you must make a special bag to hold your supplies and you can just take your project anywhere you go.  Sew Sweetness has just the nicest bag for this. It even has separated compartments for your floss and the embroidered front panel definitely let's you know what it's meant for.  Great project.  She has just a ton of bags and projects to try, where do you start?  Here is also her pattern shop with even more projects.

It was 22 degrees below zero this morning.  And the next couple weeks look little better.  My husband delivered gas to Ontonogan MI this week and said he met three zombies up there.  If you don't know Ontonogan, it's at the end of the world on Lake Superior, a lovely place for sure, but really far away from everything.  This weather can certainly take it's toll on the best of us.  Keep up your spirits and look at your seed catalogs.  Diana

Ideas

Brown Paper Packages has a really cute way to use scraps and make a baby quilt.  The Scatter Sunshine Quilt is very simple and very pretty.  This is truly a scrappy quilt and I think they also call these a "crumb" quilt.

Samelia's Mum has two clever quilts that she shares with us.  The first is called 1 + 2 and is easy and great looking.  I really liked the Fresh Diamonds quilt and I have learned to love half square triangles so this is a good one to practice on.

Piece n Quilt has a nice pattern for jelly rolls and it makes an Irish Chain style quilt with appliqued flowers. I think this quilt would fit the bill for our quilt show in October.  It is called Gobble Chain.  It's also very large if you need a Big quilt!

If you love Log Cabin Quilts, you will need to get this free ebook about making them and sizing them. This is offered by Landauer Quilt Books and Beyond.

If you're doing spring cleaning and come upon a bunch of antique hankies, here's a great idea to use them by Polka Dot Chair.  It looks so sweet and so is the little baby posing on it.

Anyone who couldn't make it to our Monday night meeting can still get in on making our wrist pincushion.  I will bring the extra kits and try to make it by late morning or early afternoon to show you how to make it or help with a "re-do" for those who had difficulties.  It can be fixed if you don't like how yours turned out.

Also, the tickets for the raffle quilt are now available so please think about who will absolutely need to buy tickets from you for our lovely quilt.  Stay warm.  Diana

Russian Quilters and Tokyo International Quilt Show

I found a Russian website featuring the Tokyo International Quilt Show from 2012.  Just because it's from a couple years ago doesn't make it less interesting.  Click on each picture and it makes it larger and much prettier to look at!  Also, do you see the purse that is the pattern that Marge demonstrated last month?  It look very nice as a purse or tote, don't you think?  Here is the Tokyo Show from 2014.  You will enjoy this one too.  Evidently, Russian quilters love going to the Tokyo Show and who wouldn't?
The Russian site also have an exhibition page with a lot of links. Remember to push your translate button so you can enjoy in English unless you can read Russian.  You really should look at the Horse Exhibition that they did as a contest, they had a lot of entries, each more beautiful than the other.  That's all I'm put up today as you can spend hours at the Association of Russian Quilters, I'm so impressed.   Diana

Winter Woes and Keep Quilting

The Quiltmaker's Block Network has some new episodes.  This one is on working with selvages and how to make them into blocks.  Another episode is about making flying geese components.  If you look right above the videos, they have an index of two seasons of their videos, just in case you missed some and want to catch up.

I love embroidery, I'm not good at it but I sure can admire it.  Here is a wonderful website with hand embroidery for costumes for a tv show.  Really amazing stuff. Michele Clapton is the artist behind these pieces.

15 Signs you know you're a quilter, provided by Quilting Daily.  You should go down to the comments sections as the readers are adding more signs.  I think I have all of them and I know I've definitely washed my fabric before dirty laundry!

More snow, I'm losing the will to live...and Thursday is supposed to be another mess.  Stay warm and keep shoveling your roof!  Diana

Meeting Cancelled and Rescheduled

Well, Old Man Winter is up to his old tricks again!  Our Monday meeting is now cancelled due to snow storm Carol which is due to hit us tomorrow.
The meeting has been rescheduled for Monday, February 24th at 7:00 p.m.  The Quilt Show Planning  group will meet that same day at 5:30.
Remember to bring your scissors, needle and thread to the meeting, as Diana will be presenting a Make and Take Project.
Also, please spread the cancellation message to our members who do not have access to the Internet.

AQS Phoenix And Blend Fabrics

The AQS show in Phoenix is now a memory but for those of us who didn't get there, here is an interview with the Best of Show winner, Kathi Carter.  Her quilt is spectacular!  If you want to know more about the rest of the contestants, here is a list of the winners.

Blend Fabrics has a great website.  Their designs and colors are very uplifting and I enjoyed looking at all their projects here .  This Harmony quilt pattern was simple but with a lot of movement in it. The Hello World Menagerie has terrific fabric in it, how cute for our little ones. I will put this Neopolitan quilt on my list of to-do's.  There are so many here so take time to find a favorite.

Metropolitan Quilt.Com is a wonderful design company with many patterns.  I love this little penguin in the snowglobe.

Embroidery has really caught my interest again this year.  I love Charlotte Lyons designs.  Here is a gallery of some of her designs and her blog is nice too.  You can link to her Etsy site from her blog.  Here is a sample of some of her embroidery!  So sweet.  Take care, get out your needles and embroidery thread and get stitchin.  diana

Block of the Months

I have just put a whole bunch of new BOMs on the BOM page of our blog.  The new ones are listed at the top with some of the older BOMs still there.  I will try and go through some of them and get rid of those no longer linked.

The new BOMs look wonderful, check them out.  Some are free, some are not and are available for a very reasonable fee.  If you want to start a new project for the year, these are the places to visit.  Diana

Upcoming Quilt Shows

If you go down the sidebar on the blog for a bit, you will find a list of shows for the spring, summer and early fall.  Many of us have gone to these shows, this is just a good reminder to put them on your calendar and plan a wonderful road trip!  Some have links so you can get more information if you need it.

Wall Street Journal

What would it be like to be featured in the Wall Street Journal?  How about if you were a quilter and featured in this prestigious financial newspaper?  Well, Missouri Star Quilt Co. was and it's star, Jenny Doan, showed how to take an idea and then turn it into something really great.  I love the fact that her idea helped out the small town where she lives.  The article is here and is inspiring.

Then, Jenny has started her own magazine about quilting.  It's called Block and you can add it to your order of fabric from her company or subscribe to it. You can also subscribe via email to her newsletters and daily specials which are special!  It is so good to hear about a success story and I thought we should all know about it.  Everyone have a safe and fun weekend.  Is anyone dreaming of their garden like I am?  Diana

Dreaming of Stars Blog Tour

Even more star blocks.  Can't get enough of them.  The Dreaming of Stars Blog Tour offers us some great stars and great bloggers.  The Magnolia Bay star block is so pretty and she's looking for a name for it. Kim also has some books about making scrappy quilts, their titles are on the side bar.

Life Under Quilts is also part of the tour.  She has a very pretty, wonky style block. She also has a book, Quilting on the Go, and it looks to be about the hexagon shape.

Love this Star Crossed block from Modern Handcraft.  It is truly striking. Her tutorials are also great, look at that chevron and heart quilt.

Big Rig Quilting as a star named Dream Star and it is paper pieced.  I like the black background of this block; it makes her fabrics just glow as any good star should do.

Kimberly Einmo made a Double Friendship Star with a Twist. Love all the dots in these blocks.  You can make this block with traditional methods or her special design ruler. Here is a link to her books and ruler and it looks like she knows how to use those jelly rolls and 2 1/2" strips.

If anyone can tell me when this severe cold will go away, please email!  Stay warm, sew a quilt.  Diana

Olympic Size Quilting

With the Winter Olympics about to start, you might be interested to know that the "theme" design for the Olympics in Russia is a patchwork quilt pattern.  This press release  by Graphicart News tells the story behind the design. The beautiful designs originating in Russia are very inspiring and I can see how they became a beginning point for further art.  I remember my Grandmother wearing scarfs like the Pavlovsky Posad printed ones and she was half Russian.

I thought this post by Life of Riley was so good.  She showed how she took a photo and a poster to make this wallhanging of a landmark.  Very striking.

Wendy's Quilts and More has some beautiful applique and embroidery in felt. The colorful pieces are so cheery.  Makes me want to do some applique!  Sew today and try something new.  Diana

Seeing Stars

Star quilts and blocks are some of the most popular to sew and here is a collection of them. This link from FavCraft will load up some really nice blocks and quilts, some of unusual, like the one with the drunkard's path in it.  I also enjoyed the cat laying in the pile of fabric scraps, so typical.

Bonnie Hunter has a cute star quilt called Story Time Stars.  Scrappy and great for kids. She also has Cathedral Stars and yet again, this will use up some more scraps. This really is pretty.

Michelle's Romantic Tangle has a great baby quilt that is also fast and easy and very pretty.  It's very graphic too. Little Miss Shabby has a great quilt made with four large star blocks.  Love this super sized Morning Star. Here is a great stash buster block of Little Miss Shabby's. I also loved her Organic quilt featured on Moda Bake Shop.

Judy Laguidara also has a beautiful star quilt called Road to Brownwood.  It has all her clearly written steps. Her website, called Patchwork Times, is a top site to get really beautiful patterns.  Thank you to all the designers and bloggers who share their wonderful ideas and for taking time to do this.   Diana