Having just pressed a quilt top for one of my bee quilts, I know that this seam-flattening trick isn’t well-known. If you’ve ever sewn a four-patch and always pressed to the dark side in both steps, you know how quickly that seam gets bulky. The 5 layers of fabric can turn into a hard nub that will break needles when you try to quilt over it later. I had a look around online and while there’s one or two references to this trick, there are not many clear photos to show the beauty of it. This works for 4-patches, 9 patches and anywhere you’re joining a whack of squares where you don’t want a bulky seam allowance.)

As if I didn’t have enough projects on the go for summer, I’ve jumped in feet first to one of JulieFrick’s crazy schemes. 60 Blocks of Summer. The basic idea is to sew 60 quilting blocks over the course of the next few months. Actually, that’s not just the basic idea, that IS the idea. Starting now, ending September 3rd.

For the basics of getting started and working out how to sew the strips on, Heather Bailey has a fantastic primer. She really nails it. What I’ve found though is that there aren’t many resources for how to hand sew and finish the binding. Most of the tutorials I’ve found simply say, “tack down the loose edge.” I wanted specifics! And I wanted them on a site that wasn’t all 90′s web design style with flashing clip art and calico prints (not to mention the animated cats.) So I made my own with photos and hopefully this helps somebody else out.

Do you ever get hit with inspiration and you have to start a project RIGHT NOW? And finish it, RIGHT NOW? Of course you do. That’s what startitis is. I was hit with a crazy bout of this type of quilting madness last weekend. It was as though I hadn’t sewn anything in weeks and the ideas were just pouring out of my fingers. Being that I sew for a living, when the mood strikes to stay at the sewing machine on the weekend, I know I’m on to something.

Maritza sent me a link a few months back to a modern quilting guild that was just starting up in New England. Conveniently the first meeting was held at my favourite local fabric store, Fabric Corner, so I went along to suss it out. I’m not one for big formal meetings (and these aren’t, really) but I love to get together with other sewists and gab about fabric and tools and such.
The newly formed New England Modern Quilting Guild just had its third meeting in Portsmouth, NH at the Portsmouth …

Way back ages and ages ago before we moved, sometime in June of 2009 I started working on a new quilt. I still haven’t blogged about it here, but I think it’s time is now. I’m not 100% in love with where this is going, but it’s pretty nonetheless.

I picked a block out of an old quilting book I have. The book is Scrap Quilts and the block is the Flying Squares. It’s a bit fiddly with one inset corner seam, but I’ve worked out a system to make it …

It feels like I didn’t really get that much knit in 2009 and that’s partly true. I didn’t really have much personal knitting or sewing time and if I’m honest, I didn’t feel much like knitting for the middle half of the year. My mojo has come back in full swing though and if my plans for 2010 work out the way I’m thinking, I’ll get a tonne done and I’ll be able to share all the secret projects too come Q3.
Let’s recap and nutshell this past year’s projects, shall …

I know a few people who are wading deeper into quilting waters, so I thought I’d put together a couple tips for them. Not so much a life preserver as just a pair of water wings.
Other folks like Ashley and Oh, Fransson! have put together some great starter points for the new quilter, so I’m not going to dive into that. I just wanted to share one or two of my faves for piecing. Like always, it all comes back to pressing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it …

Remember waaaaaaaaay back in September of 2006 when I started that brown coin quilt? This weekend I finally finished it. Normally on Saturdays the last thing I want to do is spend another 8 hours in front of the sewing machine (hazards of sewing for a living) but I was feeling the need for an FO.

The quilt top had been finished for a while, so all that needed to be done was to baste the top to the backing and batting and quilt the darn thing. I chose the …

As the temps dipped below freezing I started digging around for blankets for the kitties. We have several afghans they can curl up in, but I can’t leave them out unsupervised now that Teek has shown himself to be a teething chomper. He’ll take a big bite of an afghan and pull his head back trying to rip pieces out. How did I manage to adopt a yarn eater? Gah! I needed to come up with an alternative for cat warmth.

Enter my ugly first quilt.
When I wanted to learn …