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Hello all, Mary Ellen here. What’s up with this weather?! I enjoy winter but I’m ready for spring. I suppose this is our annual Buffalo St. Patrick’s Day weather roulette. Could be gorgeous, could be a blizzard-just roll the dice! Once again I’ve got a collection of odd quilty bits for you. The next post I’ve got on the drawing board will actually have a cohesive thread through it! I’ve done this technique for making a binding with a mini flange before, but haven’t seen such a well done tutorial of it. Great technique to add to your bag of tricks. She also gives some good general binding tips. click here  BTW, maybe you are like me and have given up on a paid subscription to the Anderson/Tims Quilt Show online. If you subscribe to the blog or newsletter (free) you still can see many of their guests, in short […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Beautiful morning today. It’s the first morning in a long while when I did not need a hat or gloves while dog walking. Sun’s out, I spotted lots of tulip and daffodils peaking through the soil. Even saw a few snow drops opening up. Definitely teasers that spring is coming. Once again I’ve got some unrelated links for you. fun stuff for quilters, great T-shirts: click here I can relate, but I’m working on it: click here Just finished listening to one of the free QuiltCon lectures over at Craftsy. Because I subscribe to Mary Fons’ blog I got a nudge to go listen to her lecture, billed as one from a member of a Quilt Mafia family. I think she was truly great! Mary spoke for about 45 minutes, with very few visuals, and kept my attention the entire time. She is very eloquent […]

Hello all, ME again! Another collection of only slightly related quilty bits: a collection of quilt blocks celebrating Ireland in case you need a quick table piece before your St. Patrick’s Day blowout party: click here March Madness of the fabric kind: Nominate your favorite fabric line and watch and vote in the competitions for the best (most popular) lines this year. click here You’ll see why: click here. Back to the sewing machine. I’m on block 143 of 145 and I’ll soon be able to start assembling the quilt!

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. I need some new phrases to use when I have just an assortment of unrelated “bits” to post. You know–like “this and that”, “odd bits”, “gee gaws”, and so on. If you have a phrase for this situation, maybe a colorful one that your grandparents used to say, I’d love to add some new ones to my vocabulary. Send them to me! adorable bunny tea towel pattern, perfect for spring and Easter: pattern at Bunny Hill Joe Cunningham: If you’ve been a quilter for a long time, you may be familiar with Joe’s work already. He was in the game of quilting long before it became somewhat camp for men to quilt. He is known for several things, but I remember most the times he appeared with Alex Anderson on Simply Quilting to demonstrate hand quilting. Joe is quite knowledgeable about Amish quilting-both the piecing […]

Hello all, Mary Ellen here. Yesterday I was finishing up a purse I made recently and needed a button embellishment. The way the designer had us complete this purse caused the metal prongs of a magnetic snap to show on the outside of the purse. In her sample she was able to sew on a button with the thread going through a hole in the center of the magnetic snap. Well, as Murphy’s law would have it, my snap doesn’t have those holes. I had originally sewn on a button with the thread going diagonally under the button to avoid the snap. Of course that did not work as planned. The metal edges of the snap’s washer kept cutting the threads, even the dental floss I used the second time I sewed it on. So I was in search of plan B. I have also made the tote bag design […]

Hi again everyone, twice in one day – can you believe it? :) I am popping-in just to show you something I found out just now – you maybe already know it, but there is a very popular voting contest going on one of the also very popular blogs – Sew Cal Gal – called Golden Quilter Award. Well I wouldn’t think it was something so important to share here, but there are several reasons I am: 1. Both of our future national teachers for Seminar, Pat Sloan (this year) and Bonnie Hunter (2014) are among nominees! However, what I found amazing is that next year’s teacher, Bonnie Hunt is not only nominated in FIVE different categories, but she is winning in ALL of them! Including the Lifetime Achievement Award! How about that! That surely says something about Bonnie – good for us next year! :) 2. The categories, nominees […]