Let's Go Visit

My Quilt Infatuation is a colorful and fun site to get ideas and links to other creative quilters.  Here is a great list of tutorials, each one cuter than the next.  She also has many link parties that she participates in and its fun to check them out.

Karin Jordan Studios has a lot of modern ideas for quilts.  I really like some examples of her "big stitch" quilting and lots and lots of tutorials.  What about the drama of these blocks!  Also, check out her shop.

I think I've mentioned Better Off Thread before but be sure to check her out again.  I just love all the designs and need to make a few...

Wonderful Ideas

Simple Simon and Co. is a great place to find quilty stuff and also cute things like little boys shirts.  The Peaches and Cream quilt looks so summery and not that difficult to do and uses 10" squares.  Here are tips for making better quilts.

U Create has a tutorial for the cutest camper quilt.  This is perfect for the month of June and making your camping plans.

The Willow Market is a lovely blog with many sewing ideas and patterns and quilting world information.  This tutorial about isosceles triangles makes a lovely quilt with one simple shape.  There is a lot to check out here.

The Family Hearth has some really cute baby item ideas and links to many more.  The tutorials are cute too, especially love the little spool pincushion.

Film in the Fridge has a lot of colorful ideas and quilts. The tutorials look like wonderful ways to use up scraps and smaller lengths of fabric too.  The Intersection Block looks like a lot of fun.

Our Monday sewing session was fun and a lot of cute strippy blocks were made and Terri even had a finish on her's!  Hope everyone considers coming to our sewing sessions each month.  Next one will be fun too.

Have a great weekend and stay cool in the upcoming heat wave.

Wonderful Blogs for May

Hope everyone celebrated the beautiful weather and had a great Mother's Day.  Did you get to sew a little or find a little time for yourself?

The Amy Barickman website and blog is kinda different.  It has a lot of free content that are vintage images and also downloads of embroidery and sewing.  Most all of it looks vintage.  Here is the link to quilt label images and also some of the embroidery patterns to download.  I love the vintage stuff.

The Crafty Quilter has a lot of cute things to see and sew.  Those orange peels are really cute. Her tutorials are great and especially those Christmas ones!

Better Off Thread has a lot of big bright projects for you to see.  The colors are so inspiring.  Her free tutorials are here and please take a look at her shop patterns.  Some look like a challenge but a wonderful challenge.

Suzy Quilts has some great stories and one about barn quilts.  Here are her free patterns. Here are tutorials on how to sew with various fabrics and weights of fabrics.

Podunk Pretties is an unusual name but has pretty things to see.  She has some great flower patterns and butterflies to go with them.

Tonight is our meeting so am looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Sewing Makes Me Happy

Sometimes the weather is warmer, that's a good sign.  Easter was warm and nice in the afternoon and I hope everyone had a great holiday.  The next holiday, especially for PNQ, is Memorial Day.  Our veteran quilts are very important for us and for our community and I think are much appreciated by vets and their families.  Backing for your projects are still available. Beautiful finished vet quilts just keep appearing at our show and tell and I am always amazed at all the creative ideas that come forward when we think of others.

I think you'll have fun looking at Freshly Pieced and all her wonderful ideas.  She has many quiltalongs and tutorials and patterns available for sale.  There's tips for paper piecing, many blocks and quilts and you have to love that Arkansas Traveler block and the Harlequin pillow.  Much great stuff.

Here is the link to Love All Around by May Chappell that was mentioned in Freshly Pieced blog. May has a great blog with a tip section and also sells some wonderful patterns.

Peta at She Quilts A Lot has a nice blog with great ideas.  I like the fresh clean look of her projects and patterns.   Aren't these mini houses cute?

I just love this Jennie from Clover and Violet.  She is one busy woman. Firstly, she has pages of patterns to purchase.  Then if that isn't enough, she has pages of tutorials and patterns that she's listed for us for free. So once you go down the first page, hit more patterns and you'll see.  If you love to make purses or pencil bags or clutches and all sorts of smaller cute things, this is really for you.  Plus quilt patterns too.  What fun.  You have fun today too and sew a little something to make you happy.

Quilters on the Road, Quilters at Home, Quilters Everywhere

Here is a very interesting article about the Vacilando Quilting Company which operates out of an airstream trailer.  Laura Preston and her husband travel the United States in their Airstream, both working out of it and somewhere along the way, Laura decided to learn to quilt.  The article tells about how the American landscapes influence her designs and how she manages to run a business and make quilts out of a 200 square foot home.  Makes me want to become a nomad.

Lily's Quilts is a company out of the UK.  She has a good deal of quilty news and information on her site and blog.  She has some very interesting and differently named patterns on her tutorials. The ET Phone Home quilt block is nice and the chubby and fat Dresdens and the Big Little George.  Actually, I liked them all.

Christa Quilts has posted a lot of pictures from the Las Vegas quilt show. She also has a group of tutorials to take a look at.

Let's hope it continues to warm up more.  I saw some green grass in my yard!

Snow Day Ideas

Sew So Easy has a wonderful article about the history of the sewing machine and how it evolved into the little machine we couldn't live without.  Have you ever thought about all the work of sewing clothing by hand for your family and household let alone piecing a quilt for every bed?  Back in the 70's, I hand pieced one quilt.  All the seams at the intersections of the seams have popped apart after a few years of use and washings.  Not a pleasant sight and certainly not what you want happening.  It was a queen sized error on my part as I found out my stitches were not tiny enough.  So a machine that sews well and consistently is a wonderful thing.  The ladies of Sew So Easy also have some cute ideas for St. Patty's Day.  Most of them look quick too so you could whip them up for yourself or grandkids.   I've been eyeing up that Easter Egg too and the Bunny.  Maybe it will warm up someday so the rabbit will decide to come to northern Wisconsin.  We have snow outside this morning.

I know I've showed us Diary of a Quilter before but Amy is worth a frequent visit.  Her articles on the projects she's working on or finished are inspiring as are her tutorials.   Such good ideas here.  Her shop with patterns should be looked at, most are available as instant gratification PDFs.

Happy Quilting Melissa is a great place to visit and every Tuesday she has a giveaway!!!  So comment on her post about that and maybe win something.  Melissa has tutorials and more tutorial, (love the Star Spangled runner) and videos and patterns for sale.  So spend some time looking about.

I was going to upload some photos from our show but blogger and my computer don't like each other today so I will try another day.  It's a snow day so do some sewing!

Familiar Places

What about that wind?  Pretty scary and many of us were without power at one time or another.  I'm grateful for my wonderful electricity and being able to power up my sewing machines and even more important, my lights.  Nothing like sitting in the dark with a needle you can't use.  Anyway, we all love Moda.  Moda Fabrics blog is probably familiar to you but worth checking out again.  They are starting a BOM called Block Heads and it looks very nice and you will recognize some of the designers of this quilt.  Actually, this is a Block of the Week so would that be a BOW, I'm just saying.  The Moda blog is always posting something so it's a fun read.  Their free and fun page is just that so check them out.  I love the Cake Mix Recipes, these are not desserts, they are quilt blocks.

McCall's Quilting blog is another familiar place but worth checking out.  Every Friday they are putting out a new pattern.  Check out those cute dresses.  Here are all their Friday freebies in one place. Have a great Thursday.

Yucky Weather? Keep Quilting!

Will it ever get warmer?  Will this sloppy snow and mud ever leave?  This is surely the worst part of the year and I'm feeling a little bit of the cabin fever.  One good thing, the sap should start to run and it's maple syrup time.  This is also close to St. Patty's Day and I found the cutest table runner.  We All Sew, the Bernina blog, is featuring a runner designed by Hummingbird Highway and it made with Scraps!  So really all the scrap hoarders, anyone who loves green and those off Irish descent could be very happy about this runner.  You still have time to get it done and use it too.

Hummingbird Highway also have a blog called Winging It! Scrap Therapy.  So check out her blog and website, she has some great things happening.

The Fort Worth Fabric Studio is another blog to take the time to read thoroughly.  The Spring Bunny tablerunner is a cute free pattern for another upcoming holiday.  The tutorials offer a lot of ideas and patterns too.

Today is sewing day at the townhall so hope to see some of you.  Here are some more show photos:

If I repeat some, ignore it as I close to 300 photos and forget what I upload sometimes.  Have a good quilty day.

February Quilt Inspirations

A Bright Corner is a great blog, cheery and informative.  Andy has a great organizing basket to sew and that was the first item I saw, its bright and yellow too.  Think of all the scraps or fat quarters to put it that.  Her tutorials are here.  She has some nice blocks, I think one in particular is very unusual. Then her quilt patterns are nice too from simple to a little more complicated.  All would definitely be great for beginners and seasoned quilters would love them too.  I like that Charming Lucy quilt.  Then her "other tutorials" are just loaded with all sorts of patterns and ideas.  A Bright Corner also has original patterns for sale so be sure to check them out.

Simple Simon and Company has clean, modern ideas in their quilts.  Their shop offers fabric and unique quilt ideas.  Their blog is good too.  Peaches and Cream is a good example of some of their free blog quilts so be sure to read past posts and check them out.

Elm Street Quilts has a lot of inspirational ideas.  She sets monthly goal for her projects and encourages other quilters and sewists to do the same. Their patterns are available and also tutorials and blocks so take a look.

New Places to Visit

For those who might be travelling near northern Illinois from July1 - September 30, you might want to check out a six county quilt fest going on called Northern Illinois Quilt Fest.  The web site is calling it From Barns to Bedcovers and it tell about the festivities going on in each county during these months.  It really does look interesting and if your down that way, visit their site and make a plan.

Annemarie of GenX Quilters has a great blog aimed at the newer quilter perhaps or a young audience but this old quilters found it a great site to visit.  Thats the great thing about quilting I think, it's really ageless. GenX has a whole lot of information to offer.  The first thing I noticed was the blog about The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird.  This lady used to live in California and now lives in southwestern Wisconsin. She does presentations about her book and blocks so that's interesting...maybe an invite up North!

GenX Quilters also has great tutorials and she has a 57 block library that links to all these wonderful blocks around the web.  I have to tell you about one that really caught my eye, the Twisted Cathedral Window by Krista of the Spotted Stone.  This looks so different and what  a neat hand project for the summer so please go check out her blog.  I'm planning on checking out all 57 when I find the time!

I also enjoyed the Sometimes Crafter.  Christina has a blog with many interests and I enjoyed her pattern page and her tutorials very much.  Many of these are smaller, faster projects like a cottage mug rug, a Kindle case for those who use them, an egg cup pincushion and a crochet hook case.  I'm thinking gift ideas...

One last place today was CraftBuds.  Lindsay and Mary started this site to promote homegrown businesses and do a nice job of it in addition to have some great articles and tutorials of interest, I love the summer headbands project!  If you want to learn how to promote your blog, this is a great place to find out.

This should keep you busy for a while but hopefully, not too long away from your quilting.  diana

Why Do We Quilt?

This is a topic I've been thinking alot of lately.  As waves of political chasms sweep our state, world disorder seems to be the norm and now natural disaster strikes yet again, this time in Japan; I beat a hasty retreat to my upstairs and the sanctuary of my sewing room.  It looks like chaos in my room but I can reach over and find the fat quarter that I knew was there, the pattern that I needed today and that pincushion with just the right needles poked in it.  There is a great relief in my organized disorganization and after all, I am in charge in this place. I control the fabrics, the colors, my choice of threads and what I will put my time into.  With one sweep of my hand, I can dismiss one project and happily start another.  I can't think of anywhere else I can do this, so I think that is why I quilt.  Not to make wonderful quilts for my family (though that is a great side effect of this obsession), not to use up my stash or even totally as a creative outlet.  I think I like the control, I am the queen of my little quilting kingdom!

So that is my weekend question.  Why do You quilt?  Are you the queens of your little kingdom too?  Please leave some comments as I think it will be really interesting to read responses.
Thanks.
Diana, Queen of the Realm of Tangled Threads and Tiny Scraps