Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Getting out my green quilts for St. Paddy’s Day. I found the pieced shamrock that I made last year and only got to enjoy for a short time. I’m thinking about making another runner or square to use up the left over green scraps from last year’s project. I think this is the pattern I will use, but I’m going to make just one or two shamrocks instead of the whole runner. Click here if you’re interested. (Here’s the link to last year’s shamrock block. click here.)

Now let’s take a stroll down memory lane. If you’ve been quilting for a while you may remember when quilted clothing was the rage among quilters. Many of our quilt shows featured a Saturday afternoon fashion show with quite a few of us parading our projects to warm applause. Some of those creations now turn up at ugly sweater parties around Christmas! Since there were not nearly the number of options for batting back then as we have now, if one wasn’t very careful the garment might tend to give a Michelin man effect due to the high loft polyester batting that was the rage. Where am I going with this? In my UFO closet I have come across 2 partially completed sweatshirt makeovers. Both are from classes here at BNHV–one at a guild seminar class taught by Alice Donaldson, and one a Saturday class taught by a teacher whose name I have forgotten sadly. I’m asking if you think they’re worth completing. Could I get away with wearing them these days?

In case you’re wondering if anyone still makes quilted clothing, I’m sharing a post from the Aurifil blog that I ran across recently. Here’s the link. Click here. In one of the five links in the article the author discusses batting choices. I’ll be honest, I had best results in my later garments when I used old flannel instead of batting. I learned from the quilters in my family to reuse old flannel sheets and thin towels in quilts and small projects that were made for utility rather than heirlooms. I like flannel in runners and placemats that will be used at the table because the loft is so low that glasses and stemware do not get “tipsy”.  A well washed flannel sheet usually has quite a bit of usable yardage around the edges, between the top and bottom sheet you’ll get enough for most projects. The back of a man’s flannel shirt also yields a lot of usable cloth. So as we’re coming to the end of Buffalo’s flannel sheet season and you’re deciding which sheets to keep and which are ready to be recycled, think about whether you can use some in your quilting projects.

Comments? Did you have any quilted clothing? Or do you still? I have a quilted bomber jacket which I sometimes still wear in the fall as a lightweight outer garment.