tips and tricks – Page 5 – Amherst Quilters Guild

simple suggestions for making life easier

May 10, 2012

the continuing war on scraps

Hello all, ME here. Just taking a lunch break before finishing up the binding on an eye spy quilt. What is an eye spy quilt? My definition is that an eye spy quilt is a quilt made of a simple pattern, featuring a collection of novelty fabrics in the blocks. I try not to repeat any fabrics, so for me they are also charm quilts (the original definition which is a quilt which doesn’t repeat any fabric). I also make sure that there is at least one image for every letter of the alphabet. There are lots of games that the recipient (usually a child) can play with their quilt. Since the blocks are made of many different fabrics, my eye spy quilts have a very scrappy look. I like to finish them off with a scrappy binding. Whenever I have a length of binding remaining after completing a “normal” […]

May 5, 2012

My Favorite Things

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Nope, I’m not starting off with words about fabric or sewing machines. My Favorite Things is the title of a concert I went to last evening. The director of the Buffalo Choral Arts Society is celebrating her 25th anniversary as the director, and chose many of her favorite songs for the program of the concert. I know of 2 guild connections to the chorus–Judy Balcerzak’s grandson has a solo in the concert. He is featured in the song “All that Jazz” from Chicago. What a surprise to hear the deep bass voice come from this young man! Kim Guido, one of our members, is a soprano in the chorus. The evening was great. Beautiful singing of a collection of tunes from Broadway shows. There is another performance tomorrow (Sun. May 6) at 3:00 at Rockwell Hall at Buff State. Wonderful way to spend a relaxed […]

May 3, 2012

a bit shady

Hi Y’all, Mary Ellen again. Shady #1: The huge tree I wrote about a few posts back has been down for about a week now. A friend has been busy cutting up the majority of it for firewood. He’s down to the huge parts of the lower trunk now, so work has slowed down. You can imagine how much saw dust has been generated. My dog thinks it is a great cushy mattress and has enjoyed laying in it. His fur is the soft fine type, to which sawdust just loves to cling. Hence lots of sawdust has come into the house. I spent some time yesterday cleaning up what the loose sawdust I could-not easy because of the rain of late making it heavy and clingy. I was surprised how heavy and dense wet sawdust is-had to fill the paper lawn bags only part way full. They got to […]