The wonderful thing about meeting other quilters is that you know they are good people. Anyone that can commit time, money and brain space to craft a gift for others (often strangers) are my kind of people. So when I was invited to join the Beaconsfield Quilters Guild for a shop hop, I was happy for the opportunity. For those that don’t know, Beaconsfield is on the west side of Montreal. And last year, my daughter moved to the south shore of Montreal. And I am always looking for excuses to travel there.  One of the lovely people I met at Quiltcon this year was Nicole Brisse and she ..read more

Like many quilts, every video is a journey. I usually think I know where I am going, but I often end up somewhere unexpected. My new Foundation Paper Piecing video was quite the ride.  I often start with an idea and my brain gathers up everything I know. Then I add research, experiment a bit, and then I untangle it all to spin out a script. When I get stuck, sometimes it’s because I have started in the wrong place. But more often it’s because the subject is too big and I need to take a smaller chunk. This time it was both. I started with an existing pattern that I have made se ..read more

This year, one of my resolutions is not to feel like I am so behind all the time. In the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to be mindful of how much time it takes to get tasks done. I had a lightbulb moment while editing my last video that there is a whole step of prepping to prepare that I have never accounted for before. I had received the first draft of my weekly video from my editor. Before I can start my edit I need to map all the files on my drives. Some are new and need to be downloaded. Some are from previous videos and I need to find where they are stored. Sometimes the files ..read more

Well, Quiltcon 2024 is a wrap. Quiltcon 2024 has set records for attendance and the number of quilts on display (for Quiltcon that is). The vendor booths were also sold out and after 4 days they were exhausted but happy. I was a bit surprised at the weather. I thought it would be warmer than home and had only brought a heavy sweater. Surprise!!! Luckily, I did find a light coat on sale to get me through the chilly evenings.  I made the decision this year not to burden myself with camera gear and the pressure of making videos. I wanted to walk the show, meet my friends, make new ones and ..read more

February is here and has brought back the sunshine. I didn't realize how much I had missed the sun until I felt it on my face last week while walking Mando. We have been taking every opportunity to get outside and walk.  Unfortunately, it also came with February hair. Looking in the mirror first thing in the morning is scary enough. When you add to it the dryness of central heating and the head flattening that happens when you wear a hat day in and day out, it brings a whole new layer of crazy.   But not even that can ruin my good spirits! I have come off the declutter challeng ..read more

Welcome to Day 20... the penultimate day of the Declutter Challenge 2022. We are just about at the end. Just today and tomorrow. For most of us, it will be impossible to declutter your fabric in one day. And honestly why should you. As my friend Doris says, fabrics are our paint, if there was no fabric, there would be no quilting. It brings us joy, soothes our souls, and refills our bucket. And with all the hard work we have done in the past 20 days we have been making space and some of that space can be claimed by your fabric.  If you need to declutter some fabric, first start with the ..read more

Welcome back for day 19. We have three more days to go. The finish line is in sight. I know we can do it. Today we are dealing with our widebacks and yardage. This is the fabric that we purchase in quantity. And because of its size, it can take up a huge amount of space. It might be on a bolt, it might be in a plastic bag, or hiding in a rubbermaid container somewhere. There are also different types of backing. Cotton, sateen, flannel, fleece, minky and more. Because of their size they can be very awkward to fold and handle. And some are so slippery, they can also be hard to store. So like a ..read more

Today we are dealing with your batting and batting scraps. Out of all the scraps, batting can take up a fair chunk of square footage in your sewing space. Not only are we dealing with scraps in all sorts of sizes, but we are also dealing with different types of batting. And one of the top items you can make is often called Frankenbatting. It’s splicing the pieces together to make a bigger piece that you can use in your quilting. I explained how to do it in the video but the major point to make is that you should not mix up your batting types as they shrink at different rates.  So from y ..read more

Today might feel a bit like yesterday... we are tackling our kits. Kits are fabric bundles that might or might not have a pattern. You might have purchased it from a store or simply put it together for yourself. Remember those fabric bundles you may have set aside yesterday during UFO day? Those are also kits. The big distinction between kits and UFOs is that the fabric has not been cut. That is you have not committed your fabric to a particular project. There’s still time to pull out and put them back into your stash. So you need to ask yourself why haven’t you made it yet? Have you fallen ..read more

Welcome to Week Three, Day 15 of the sewing space declutter challenge. This week is all about your projects, fabric and batting. Today our challenge is to find all the projects that you have started. It doesn’t matter if you call them WIP’s (Works In Progress) or UFO’s (UnFinished Objects) or WOMBAT's (Waste of Money, Batting And Time), let's get them all out in the light of day. And when I say started, that means that there is some cut fabric or half sewn blocks, or partially constructed rows. Any fabric that you find that you have pulled and not cut, we’ll classify as a kit. Just put those ..read more