The Year Without Quilting

May 24, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

I didn’t plan it really. It just happened.

I stopped quilting. And it was good. Really good.

I spent January and February of 2015 designing and stitching like a maniac, making a couple of art quilts to submit to a juried exhibit. I didn’t expect that they would be accepted, so I wasn’t surprised to receive the “Thanks, but not this time” letters.

It’s not that they were no good, but I am realistic enough to say that when it comes to the type of design that the quilting world considers “art” these days, I have neither the experience nor the artistic eye to compete. It was the first time I’d really tried to “say something” with a quilt, and probably no one but me actually “gets it” which is fine. Read More

10 Ways to Mark a Quilt from fabricbias.com

Ten Ways to Mark a Quilt Top for Quilting

February 4, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

I’ll admit it. I’m old school. I like marking quilting designs as opposed to just winging it and making it up as I go along, and my quilting quality is much higher when I have a line to follow. And to be honest, I mark designs for machine quilting and not hand quilting, so I guess I’m only sorta old school! 😉

Over the years, I’ve tried sooooo many different methods for marking quilts; some are easy and work well, some are only so-so but still good to have in mind just in case the easier methods don’t work for some reason. Here are ten different methods and tools to transfer quilting designs to your quilt top: Read More

A Mini (Almost) Finish

January 25, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

This week was pretty awesome on some counts, and kinda flat on others. The biggest awesome bit? LittleOne passed her drivers license test and is now driving herself around! Woohoo! My taxi hat is officially OFF now, forever I hope!! Less yo-yo-ing in the car and more quilting is never a bad thing, right?

With my new found productivity I was able to make good progress on this little quilt, and put the last stitches in the binding last night: Read More

Where the Inchies Are Variation, detail by Nadine Ruggles

New Inchie Quilt! Where the Inchies Are Remake

January 20, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

I’m totally excited about my latest finish! It’s a fun little quilt that I made for Valentine’s Day, and also just because! Just because I had some red and pink scraps laying around, and just because I wanted a quick-to-make project with Inchies. If you follow on Instagram, you’ve seen some sneak peeks already, but now I have some larger pics of the quilt and of course, the addicting little Inchies. Read More

Love Notes, in progress detail by Nadine Ruggles

Word of the Year: Momentum

February 2, 2014.Reading time 13 minutes.

I’ve decided my word of the year for 2014 is Momentum. It’s most definitely not “because”–I’m just not even going to get started on that. Yes, I know it’s the beginning of February, not January. While many people are reflecting at year end and thinking ahead to the new year, I’m still recovering. Yes, it takes that long to get over the holiday season for me some years!

Momentum is awesome while you have it. I know because I had it for many years, and I wouldn’t have been able to push a book from concept to completion in just over a year without it. These days, there’s no momentum. I move in fits and starts, and not always in a forward direction. Read More

The Making of ‘Tis Just the Wind

January 24, 2014.Reading time 9 minutes.

I promised (a very long time ago…) to share some of the construction details about ‘Tis Just the Wind, the project I made especially for the Wicked Blog Hop in October. When I decided to participate in the Blog Hop, I knew wanted to make something seasonal, but not screaming cutesy Halloween or spooky Halloween–Wicked was apt description of what I wanted the finished project to be. Read More