Category Archives: quilting

How to Stop Losing Things: A Quilter’s Perspective

I can lose anything

I can lose anything, including the glasses right on top of my head. One of the problems with quilting is that it involves the simultaneous use of many things, and that means losing things all the time. Searching for stuff is a huge waste of time – time you could be spending quilting! It’s very frustrating and it’s enough to make you want to take up a simpler hobby, like reading. Do not despair, my creative friends, there are ways to stop losing things (as much). Consider these:

  • A place for everything and everything in its place – I’m sure you heard your Grandma say this many times, but it really is true. Try to have a place for the important things that you use for every project (scissors, rotary cutters, rulers, etc.) and make an effort to return those things to their spot every single time.
  • Take time to clean up – It’s hard to find time in our busy lives for fun things like quilting, so it would follow that it’s even harder to find even more time to clean up. But, if you can take just 2 or 3 minutes and the end of each day to straighten up your crafting space, it will be much less of a disaster and “finding things” won’t become an archeological dig.
  • Containers, containers, containers – I can’t say enough good things about containers. Put all the “stuff” for a particular project in one container. It will be easy to clean up and easy to take out when you have time to start working on it again. A perfect example of the value of containers occurred over the summer when I suddenly had to move. I put all the things I was going to need (pattern, fabrics, trim, buttons, thread and other notions) for a special Christmas stocking project I had been planning into a big Ziploc baggie. Incredibly, I was able to make that stocking for my BFF even when my house was still a mess from the recent move.
  • Have spares – lots of them – For the cheap stuff, sometimes it pays to just have lots of them. This is how I solved my problem with my glasses. I keep lots of cheap “readers” everywhere. I also have about 40 pairs of tiny thread scissors. However, I have only one pair of “good scissors”, the ones for cutting fabric. Which brings me to my final point…
  • Never let anyone borrow anything – Especially your good scissors.

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Make Time for Quilting

Make time for quilting!
Everyone is very busy these days. “Working from home” is basically like working around the clock. A recent poll conducted showed 64% of folks “working from home” are spending an additional 8 hours working on the weekends! How are we supposed to find time for quilting? Here are some tips on finding time for some much needed relaxation through our favorite hobby:

  • Keep your sewing station set up – I had a small place and I used to sew on my kitchen island. This meant setting up and cleaning up multiple times per day for meals. It was such a hassle that I was discouraged from even getting out my sewing stuff in the first place. I later moved to a tiny sewing table in the corner of the living room, where it could stay set up all the time. Now I can sit down to sew for just a few minutes here or there. Even a few minutes a day makes a world of difference to me.
  • Get up earlier – My other half grew up on a farm and always jokes about “getting up earlier”. I am not a morning person, but I gave this a shot and it really works! Instead of working all day and waiting to have your “me time” after you are exhausted, try getting up an hour earlier so you can get in some sewing while you’re fresh and optimistic about the day. I’ve also found that starting out the day doing something fun makes the rest of the work day seem less tedious.
  • Double dinners – Everyone needs to eat, but why waste time cooking every single day? Cook a double batch one night and enjoy no cooking and less dishes the next day. Fill your freed up time with more quilting. Get your other half to do the same thing and now you are only cooking once every four days!

I hope you can be creative and find some time for quilting today!

Six Fun Things You Can Make with Hexies

Put a hex on it

Quilting with hexagons, “hexies” for short, might not be new, but it is definitely trending now. Most of you have probably seen one of the most famous examples of a hexagon quilt, Grandma’s Flower Garden. One little hexagon in the middle surrounded by six others as “petals” makes a charming flower motif. Stitch up a few zillion of these, by hand if you are really determined, and you can have a beautiful heirloom quilt. But what else can we make from this fun shape? Let’s take a look:

  • Pincushion – Make two hexie flowers as described above, stitch with right sides together leaving a small space for turning, stuff and whip stich closed. You’ll have flowers on your sewing desk all year long.
  • Easiest table topper ever – Start with one hexie of any size, let’s say 6”, and stitch strips to each of the six sides in a concentric fashion. Stop anytime when the topper is big enough for your taste. Go festive with holiday themed fabrics or scrappy to use up some stash.
  • Coasters – Make a sandwich of fun prints with a middle layer of stiff interfacing such as TimTex. If you make the bottom hexagon 1” larger all around than the top, you can do an easy self-binding.
  • I-Spy Quilt – Use a 4”, 5” or 6” template to fussy-cut novelty fabrics for an I-Spy quilt that is as much fun to make as it is to gift.
  • Needle Book – Make two lined and finished hexies for the front and back with a few felt “pages” in between. Blanket stitch them all together on one side and the only thing you will lose your needles in is cuteness.
  • The Perfect Portable Project – Once you’ve mastered this shape with some of these easier projects, make Grandma proud by tackling your own Grandma’s Flower Garden quilt. Those handfuls of little hexagons make the best take-along project ever. You can take everything you need with you in a lunch baggie – no sewing machine needed!

Have fun with some hexies today!

Not Those Scissors

Don’t even think about using my scissors for that

My family is always taking my scissors. It’s bad enough that they take them, but then what they use them for is even worse. My poor scissors have been used for everything from cutting tortillas (thanks, kids!) to roof flashing. Trying to keep the family from using your good scissors is a true exercise in futility.

Recently, I saw an ostensibly clever product for sale in a quilting magazine. It was a set of rubbery silicone tags (like those “bracelets for a cause” that everyone wears) with the “appropriate” use printed on them along with a corresponding icon. One was for paper, one for thread and another for fabric. Although adorable, I think this product will totally miss its mark because the very concept of the product insinuates that the offender does not know that they are using the scissors for the wrong purpose. The problem is that, to the uninitiated, there are no special purpose scissors. To non-quilters, scissors are scissors. They cut. They make one piece into two pieces. Any scissors can be used to bifurcate any thing.

You can try these cute little tags if you want but I think the only real way to keep your quilting scissors from being used to prepare tonight’s dinner or repair the roof is to hide them. Hide them, and just to be really safe, sprinkle a dozen or so cheap “decoy” scissors all over the house. You know, the kind you get for a dollar at the office supply store at back-to-school time. Sure, they won’t cut fabric or even paper worth a darn, but you know your family is just going to use them to cut wire anyway.

What to Do When You Run Out of Fabric


The “go to” defense of quilters accused of buying too much fabric is quite often “I have to buy it now because later it will all be gone!” This is a very valid claim. The way the quilting industry works is, most fabric lines are printed once or twice and then they are “retired”, never to be printed again. What if this was your favorite fabric? What if you run out in the middle of an important project? What are you to do? Here are some practical suggestions:

  • Find It at Another Shop – Obviously, you already checked the Local Quilt Shop where you made the original purchase. Now it’s time to look elsewhere, including online. You will need to know the designer and the name of the fabric line. You will find that information printed on the selvage. Many of the smaller shops, especially the online shops on eBay and ETSY, do not sell out as quickly as the larger brick-and-mortar stores. They are more likely to have inventory left long after the big shops have sold out. I was delighted to find fabric to make curtains from the same line as a baby quilt I made for my son this way.
  • Reverse Google Image Search – Believe it or not, I have successfully used a reverse Google image search to find fabric but I only learned about this capability recently. Go to the main Google search page and in the upper right corner there is a link called “Image”. Click there, upload an image of your fabric and see what Google can find. This works best for very distinct prints, but it does work. I once found some extra green and red candy-stripe fabric that I “needed” to finish a Christmas project.
  • Facebook – There are many Facebook Groups for Quilting and Sewing. Join some and upload an image of your needed fabric. You’ll be surprised at how many people not only know the name of the fabric line and designer, but also have some to spare. Quilters are inherently very generous people, they will share. I once found the very same vintage fabric from Denmark that my grandmother used to make a knitting needle case over 40 years ago!
  • Make Do – Well, you tried all of the above and are still out of luck. You are going to have to make do without it. Either find something “close enough” to finish your project, or deliberately mix it up and thereby “hide” your fabric shortage with some fabric that is completely different. Sometimes the most beautiful quilts are the improvised ones. Remember, that is how quilting got started – by cutting up old garments, flour sacks and other random bits and scraps.

Running out of fabric isn’t the end of the world. But, remembering those times that you did will be good justification for buying “just a little extra” next time!