Come Stitch With Me

What is the one activity, hobby, or interest that the bulk of your time and extra money go toward?

Me?

If you said sewing, crafting or quilting – you’d be correct!

My quilting skills have certainly improved since retirement. I’ve had the time and energy to take classes, watch YouTube videos and practice, practice and practice!

Today, I took a Walking Foot Wonders class with Christa Watson. My quilt guild invited her to be this month’s special guest teacher and lecturer. I’ve anticipated this class for months. It was so worth it! I can straight line quilt and do basic diagonal cross-hatching just fine. I get hung up on more decorative designs using my walking foot. Even on my smaller “travel” machine, I tackled wavy lines, “organic” cross-hatching, angular designs and spirals. I’ll soon be putting my new found skills to work with a wavy spiral quilting design on a charity quilt. I’ll be using my Janome 8900 for that to take advantage of the 11″ of throat space.

Christa Watson will be teaching at several events over the next year, including QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh, NC. I highly recommend taking one of her classes if you can.

Now, it’s time for dinner!

Georgia Bonesteel is probably best known for her PBS series, Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel. In my book, this quilty icon is up there with Eleanor Burns, Marianne Fons & Liz Porter. I really wasn’t planning to go to Greenville again this year, but the opportunity to see Mrs. Bonesteel in person was a real draw. Hubs encouraged me to take advantage of the opportunity to see her now, rather than wait until later. I might not get another chance. Very true.

Sew glad I went. Yes, traffic was a beast both ways, but the opportunity to hear Georgia Bonesteel speak about her process and see her trunk show was well worth it. Unexpected bonus: a very nice conversation with one of the instructors (Sara Bond) over lunch. I sat at a random table to eat and struck up a conversation with her. She said I really needed to plan on getting out to Sisters quilt show in Oregon at least once. It’s on the list, along with Road to California and the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA…and Paducah….and Houston. 🙂

1. Your local public library – You can borrow books to your heart’s content (or the library’s limit). Ask a librarian if you can
borrow books via interlibrary loan.

2. Digital block collections – bookmark these sites for future reference. Quilt guilds often use blocks found on these
sites for guild challenges and charity projects.

Quilter’s Cache

Generations Quilt Patterns

Patchwork Square

All People Quilt

3. Social Media – Peruse Pinterest, FB and IG for inspiration. Search YouTube for a video on how to make the block.

4. Books for your Quilting Reference Library – Yes, you can find just about anything online, but having some basic reference books in print is still a good idea. Sometimes your wifi doesn’t work! Here are two books I find extremely helpful:

Add this one if you are absolutely obsessed with quilt blocks and their history: