Trying not to lose my scissors

My sewing space is in our bedroom. There’s a table with my two machines which doubles as my cutting table (hooray for Ikea and height adjustable tables!), and there’s the ironing board on the other side of the room. While this leaves me some open space for pin basting quilts or playing with colors and fabrics while planning a project, it means I bounce back and forth between the machines and the ironing board a lot. I have one pair of fabric scissors. They are forever not where I am. There are lots of solutions to the problem: buy more …

Tutorial: Blackford’s Beauty

Over at Stash last month, we held a little Christmas in July event. One of our activities was a Block Challenge: make a block (any block!) from any of our Christmas fabrics, bring it to the shop, and vote on your favorite of all the blocks on display. We announced our winner in early August. ‘Course, none of us who work there were eligible to win, but that didn’t stop us from making up some blocks of our own. And because I seem chronically unable to pick the simple project, I made up a complicated block called Blackford’s Beauty. Had …

Tutorial: Square in Square Block

Welcome to March! For us northerly types, the days are visibly longer already, and the buds are swelling on the trees. One of these days, the sun will stop teasing us, and we’ll all squint and complain about how bright it is. March is my month to lead Sew.Quilt.Give. It’s probably unnecessary for the bee participants, but I’m taking the opportunity to write a tutorial for my chosen block, the Square in Square block. It’s a first for me (the tutorial writing, not the block), so if you have any constructive feedback, please share! This block is a variation on …