Sorry I missed yesterday - went to a party in the afternoon and then lost track of time. Today I have something special to share with you. The other day I told you a little about my start in quilting. One thing I left out was the wonderful online guild that I found. While hunting on the internet I found The Quilt Pattern Magazine (www.quiltpatternmagazine.com). This electronic magazine is phenomenal. Once I subscribed and saw how great it was, I bought all of the back issues. TQPM celebrates its 7th anniversary in January. Each issue has about 7 patterns. There are usually 2 or 3 BOMs going on. Usually there is a pieced, an applique and a mystery but that's not a guarantee. The one thing you can count on is patterns that are fully tested. It is nice to know that you don't have to worry about them. The reason I'm talking about TQPM today is that I have a pattern coming up in the January 2018 issue. It is the 11th pattern of mine that TQPM that I have published. I have another 4 scheduled in 2018. As a bonus, you can get a discount on a subscription using the secret code CDMQ at http://www.quiltpatternmagazine.com/program/S/?D=CDMQ. Now for a look at the design. It's called 'Practice Makes Perfect' because you'll have the chance to practice making strip sets, half-square triangles and flying geese. I try to make each of my patterns with 2 different combinations of fabric. Changing the fabric can give a pattern a totally new look. Here is a picture of my second version of 'Practice Makes Perfect' - doesn't it look fun? Well, that's it for today - hope to see you again tomorrow.
Today's post is about our new pet. Well, not exactly a pet - more like a repeat visitor. I'm posting a video below. the structure you see is our bird feeder that provides some cover and protection for the birds like junco, chickadees, and doves that visit this time of the year. We also have suet for the woodpeckers and the other birds. We have had more snow than usual for this time of year and the temperatures have been low so there hasn't been much melting yet. Our new 'pet' doesn't have a name yet. We tend to name the creatures that we see regularly but this one still needs to be named. (S)he is outside visiting right now. This is the 4th night in a row. The visits the last 2 nights was around 3 am but he got here around about an hour and a half ago. This is not the fastest moving visitor we've had. I hope you enjoy the video. It is sped up so you can get a flavor of the visit from beginning to end. Enjoy the video and see you next time! When I started quilting in 2012, I worked for an insurance company with primarily men. My work week varied from 50 to 70 hours a week. I wasn't aware of a local guild nor of any quilt shops. Because of the lack of time and other resources, I bought most of my fabric, notions and tools online. I searched for videos on YouTube and found Cozy Quilt Designs and their monthly strip club, Leah Day and her marvelous free motion quilting, Missouri Star Quilt's Jenny Doan, and Deb Tucker of Studio 180 Designs.
Now I have a wonderful local guild and enough quilt shops close enough that I have to be careful not to visit too often. I decided that I'm not a fan of making scrappy quilts so using jelly rolls or 2-1/2" strips for quilts wasn't my style. Love to look at them though! I keep trying free motion quilting and have improved some but still need a lot of practice. I love the variety of patterns and the fun, quick tutorials from MSQC. These are also mostly scrappy so not for me. This past August, I became an extension of the Deb Tucker's Studio 180 Designs family when I became a Certified Instructor. In future posts, I'll describe the benefits of each of the tools and highlight some of their marvelous patterns. Until then, take care and sew on. As I suspected I am tuckered out after an awesome guild holiday party!
See you tomorrow! Short post for today - we have satellite internet and we lost it for most of the afternoon and evening. Too much snow was sticking to the dish. I think I need to get out there and put some wax on it so the snow will slide off better. We got a little over 5" plus some mix in the middle of the day. It seems to have finally stopped now which is a wonderful thing.
The most wonderful thing about it stopping is that my guild meets tomorrow night. If the snow continued, schools would be closed and then our meeting would be cancelled. That would be very sad because it is our annual party - there will be lots of yummy finger food and fun and show and tell. It is a wonderful meeting and it would be shame to miss it. If I don't blog tomorrow, it will be because I had too much fun at the party and was exhausted when I got home. Take care all - see you again soon. Today I worked on my guild's 2018 BOM. The 12 monthly offerings will include 20 different star blocks. The information needed for various projects for using the blocks will be provided in Month 1. I will be making charity quilts out of extra or practice blocks donated by guild members. Part of the BOM offering is videos for piecing each of the blocks. Today I finished taking the video for the second block. I still need to edit both it and the first video. The kick off will be at the January guild meeting on Wednesday, January 10th. The first month has only 1 block - the New England Star. Here it is: I will post my 'real' New England Star after I share it at the guild meeting.
See you tomorrow - I hope to have a mystery quilt top to share then. As promised here is my snow report. It started snowing a little before noon and went until midnight. A full 12 hours of snow. We got a total of 4" of snow. It looked beautiful falling. I love how the woods look with the fall leaves covered. The mountains are still green in Vermont on the west side of the Connecticut River. The best sight was the blue sky that finally peeked through the clouds towards the end of the day. I have another piecing project to share tomorrow - see you then.
deb-tuckers-studio-180-design.myshopify.com/The promised snow is here. It started snowing before noon and is predicted to continue until midnight. We were supposed to get somewhere in the 1"-3" inches but now the total will be in the 4"-7" range instead. The last I looked about half an hour ago showed about 2-1/2" so far. We live at the end of a road. The town hasn't plowed yet but they did come and spread some sand. We don't need or expect to go anywhere before Tuesday so that's fine with us. The weather was the perfect excuse to stay at my sewing machine except to cook dinner. Dinner was a delicious beef stew and biscuits. This is the perfect meal for a snowy and cold day. I can't share everything that I was working on today. Gifts need to stay secret until they are opened. Just know that I was using the most beautiful deep shade of peach thread. There is one project I can share with you though. I teased you with pictures earlier this week. Today I finished the top. The pattern is called Mandala and was designed by Running With Scissors Quilters for Studio 180 Design. I love how it turned out. Don't you? It went together quickly and easily with the use of the Tucker Trimmer I and V Block tools from Studio 180 Designs. The pattern is at the printers. When they are in, I will add them to my store. I can already envision this in red and green for the holiday season. Doesn't it have the look of a marvelous tree ornament?
It is my hope that my guild will select this pattern for a workshop in 2018. Or maybe the one I started working on today. Or maybe .... I love the Studio 180 Design tools. They make all of the patterns so much easier to assemble. Stop by tomorrow to see the beauty of fresh snow from New Hampshire. Take care until then. The best laid plans of mice and men. Enough said. Due to a misunderstanding today, my husband treated me to date night. That doesn't happen often. When I came down form sewing, the table was set, dinner was started, we cleared the table and started working on a jigsaw puzzle. It was amazing.
That means the pictures I meant to take and share are just figments of my imagination. At least I know what I will blog about tomorrow. We are supposed to get some snow tomorrow night so I plan to have some neat fresh pictures for you on Sunday. You can be sure that I will be inside quilting away while its cold though. See you tomorrow. I forgot to post yesterday but I'm not dropping the ball completely. I'll be back later today with another post. The habit of blogging isn't fully formed yet but it is getting there.
See you later! |
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