I hope that you will check out my video on moving into to strange new frontiers (to me) in combining colors. I had a 20% Hancock's coupon, and I wanted to get some solids from their Kaufman Kona Solid Mystery Packs. I received many strange and wonderful colors. Some would seam...
May 25, 2022
May 15, 2022
Finished Quilt
Over the weekend I finished the above Hunter's Star Quilt. I moved it from my "Quilting" column to "Done". The next move is to gift. I'm gifting this to a friend...
May 13, 2022
Juki Kirei HZL-NX7
My machine arrived yesterday. I was anxious to try it out. I bought it used on ebay at 50% savings of the current new offerings. It came without the knee lift, but my Bernina knee...
May 12, 2022
New Acquisition
First, I want to start with an aphorism I heard from "Aunt Em" of Aunt Ems Quilts: Worry is a waste of imagination
You gotta love that. I am currently experiencing a backlog in quilt tops that I need to quilt. Though my quilt suspension system helps a great deal in distributing...
May 7, 2022
Finished Quilt Top: LeMoyne Star On Point
Above is my Youtube video of my LeMoyne Star on Point that I just finished. Those compound Lemoyne Stars are very time consuming. I pieced the insets traditionally. But the design possibilities are endless. I had original planned to have these on point with alternating dark/light....
April 16, 2022
Captain's Log: Sourdough Starter + Spinach Fettuccine Noodles
Note to self: If you think that you are going to remember when you started something.... you won't.I'm on day ? of my sourdough starter project. (Grumbles to self per above). (Well, I'm a full week in at least given I tarried on writing this post).My home is so fricken cold (by choice) that...
April 11, 2022
Captain's Log for the Past Week.
Here's my Captain's Log for this week:My hermit thrush and my white-throated sparrows are still here. (My captain's log for overwintering birds).I continue to work on the 49 LeMoyne Stars needed for the quilt that I'm working on. I'm down to the last 5. I continue to enjoy making these,...
April 10, 2022
Pet Peeves: The Slap heard around the World
Chris Rock made a tasteless joke at the expense of Will Smith's wife Will Smith responded with a slap. The news cycle fattens with continued coverage and responses. He later resigns for the Academy prior to their ousting him.Putin invades Ukraine. He remains on United Nations...
April 2, 2022
A Cooking First: Homemade Pasta
I'm intrepid in the kitchen. I like to try all manner of things. Most recently, I began making potato gnocchi, not because we ate a lot of it in the past. In fact, I don't think I had eaten it at all prior to my finding a recipe that called for it that I wanted to try. That lead...
March 29, 2022
Breville Toaster Oven
My Breville Toaste Oven, which is an MVP in my kitchen died. First, the convection fan failed. Then, the unit failed to power. At a replacement cost of $270. Of course you know that I scoured the internet and YouTube in particular to find videos on how to fix. I was...
March 28, 2022
LeMoyne Star Quilt Progress + Importance of "Field Notes"
My serendipitous "designing " of my son's quilt was done with a big fat crayon in the beginning. Well, it started with a gear shift first. I had planned to make the modified Betwixt...
March 26, 2022
Savannah Great Horned Owl Camera
Cornell has Great Horned Owl nesting site on its website. Pictured above (captured screen shot of live cam) are the mother(l) and the chick. The chick has grown remarkably fast getting...
March 23, 2022
Quilting Ruler Guide Hack and Thread Cutting Hack
There are many hacks floating about regarding using ruler guides for improving accuracy/speed of cutting. Let's face it, cutting fabric for a large project is critical. Read your ruler...
March 8, 2022
Goodbye Winter Bird Friends
The White-throated Sparrows overwinter here yearly. They have pulled up the tent stakes to go to their Canadian breeding grounds. (Updated: NO...husbando birdwatcher misreported observed data. They are still here...updated info on their northern return will be provided). The...
March 6, 2022
Daily Stuff
Watching the news is a constant reminder of how fortunate we are in our lives. I rarely complain about "stuff" because it is of little consequence when compared to the burdens of others.I woke up early yesterday and I was on my computer--I received a message that I was almost out of space...
February 22, 2022
LeMoyne Star Block: Compound Diamond
I saw a Lemoyne Star made ultra scrappy. If you click on the picture you will see a Video I created. I decided that I would experiment with the design. To make the above star,...
February 18, 2022
My LeMoyne Star Odyssey
If you want to see my series on YouTube for the LeMoyne Star, you can find it here. I demonstrate (ad nauseum, you may need coffee and Tylenol) how I crafted this block. My blog has been a great indexer of events/interests in my life. I began my LeMoyne Star Odyssey (LSO)...
February 2, 2022
Trying to Cool the Jets. . .
Now that I have finished my Flutterby Quilt top, I'm having to cool my jets so that I don't start the piecing of another top without making headway on my currently unfinished projects.Batting is...
January 25, 2022
My Approach to Mitered Borders
In my real life, I have to solve complex problems--not that mitering boarders is a complex problem. But I rarely put borders on my quilts largely largely because I don't like the way they joins look and mitered corners seemed too complex.Although I have watched videos in the past (maybe...
January 24, 2022
Flutterby Quilt Top Finished
I have finished my Flutterby Quilt top. I moved it on my KanbanFlow board to "Quilt Sandwich".I wanted to codify my learnings through the above video and a few comments here.As an aside, I...
January 20, 2022
Melanie Ham's Passing
I was sad to see that Melanie Ham had passed on January 12, 2022. She was not yet 36, and had a husband and two children. Such a terrible tragedy to be struck down so young. I so feel for her husband and children.She was an accomplished maker with a gift and enthusiasm for teaching. ...
January 16, 2022
More Winter Bird Friends
This weekend, I welcomed Pine Warbler (though he is here year round, I don't see him often).Yellow Bellied Sapsucker: Migration inYellow Rumped Warblers: They overwinter for about 6 weeksI'm still waiting for the Brown Creeper. We also have Red Breasted Nuthatches that occasionally...
January 10, 2022
Wildlife Voyeurism
As you know, once you click on anything of interest to you, YouTube grabs a content shovel and sends it your way. This video of the Deer Pantry in Brownville Maine showed up. These troughs contain native wild oats and acorns to help sustain the deer population through difficult winters.I...
January 6, 2022
Snow Birds + White Throated Sparrows
Virginia became a national news treasure this week with the arrival of the season's first snow. It has been unseasonably warm here, but that changed quite quickly. With the snow came the first Juncos (snow birds). Also, I have a gang of White Throated Sparrows that typically...
January 5, 2022
Block Detective | Holidays and Beyond Free Quilt Pattern
I created a video after I wrote this post which you can see below.This beautiful quilt featuring Laura Berringer's fabric "Winter Botanicals" for Marcus fabrics "Holidays and Beyond Quilt is available...
January 1, 2022
Yes I KanBan! Quilt Project Management
I don't plan to overload my list of resolutions with too much stuff. I can dump my resolutions into the following buckets:Learn More (about anything)Move More Less MessPair...
