Magpie Quilts

Even though I've been quilting for over 30 years, there's always something new to learn or ways to improve my skills. I happened to see a post about ruler quilting on one of my social media feeds and looked into it a little to see what it was all about.  That little foray into ruler quilting led to a class at my local quilting shop and a purchase of a ruler foot for my specific machine and a set of basic rulers to get started.  I made up a simple table runner from some pretty fabrics and after a little practice on a practice piece, I tried this new technique out.  It's not perfect, but it looks pretty good for a first attempt on a project.  I'll need a lot more practice, but I'm watching all the Angela Walters and Amanda Murphy videos to hopefully learn some tips from the experts!  And ta-da! A finished table runner! Rail Fence Table Runner What techniques have you learned recently? Where do you go to learn new things? --Ann

Every once in a while, the sewing room needs to get a little clean up and organization. For me, this can happen at many different times through the year but always results in increased productivity. I try to sew on 2-3 days during the week, sometimes only for a short time, but other days I sew much longer. Packaging mini kits When I'm cleaning up and folding fabrics and putting them back where they belong, I will often see a combination of fabrics that I might have an idea for. I'll put those fabrics together, take the time to dig out the pattern I am thinking of (or maybe just draw a little sketch) and put them all together in a baggie.  That way even when I have a little stretch of time to sew, like maybe half an hour or so, I'm not spending that whole time looking for fabrics or patterns. I can just grab one of the pre-packaged bundles and get right to work. And then before I leave my sewing area, I'll put everything back in the baggie or in a project box (pi...

Like any quilter who's been on social media for a while, I've seen my share of Elizabeth Hartman patterns done up in a variety of colours and combinations. Frankly, I've always been a bit intimidated by what looks like incredibly complex quilt piecing.  When I was asked to make a quilt with a sloth theme, I wondered what that might look like and as I searched for ideas, I discovered that there actually was a sloth pattern out there! My only guidelines were sloth theme and the colour purple, so I pulled out a fat quarter pack of purple prints that I had. Each sloth would take one fat quarter of fabric plus the fabric for the faces, tree and the background. And  the pattern was a PDF download, which made it super easy to get started. I had a natural Essex cotton linen for the background and some bark-like fabric left over from another long ago project. I carefully cut out the pieces as directed. And there were a lot of pieces! As you can tell, I used sticky notes t...