Category Archives: quilting

Finding Quilting Inspirations… in Magazines!

When you think of where quilters are most likely to find inspiration you might immediately think of online resources, such as Instagram, Pinterest and a wide variety of quilting blogs. But did you know that 85% of “dedicated quilters” look for inspiration and information about quilt making from magazines? According to the Quilting in America™ 2017* survey, a Dedicated Quilter is one who spends $500 or more per year on the hobby, including books, magazines, fabric, tools, supplies, etc. The survey also revealed these other fun facts about Dedicated Quilters and their magazines:

  • Dedicated Quilters have spent an average of $136 on books, magazines, and DVDs in the past 12 months.
  • They read an average of 3.4 magazines regularly and spend an average of 6 hours a month reading quilting-related magazines.
  • The top reasons they read magazines is to learn new tips and techniques (88%), get quilt making inspiration (75%), find out about quilting products (63%), look at photos of quilts (62%), and find block patterns (60%).

I personally enjoy reading a lot of quilting magazines, both the grocery store variety and the high end, specialty magazines. To me, the appeal of magazines are many: no glaring “screen time” and no hunching over a computer; magazines are battery-free and can be enjoyed anywhere, from a couch, pool or airplane to an office building while you are  you are stuck waiting for a boring appointment; you can cut out images for a vision board; you can cut out pictures and file away patterns for a later date, in your “someday I’ll have time to make this” pile; and finally, they are made by industry design professionals so they are very pretty and enjoyable to just sit back and absorb.

The next time you are looking for quilting inspiration, education, or simply relaxation, pick up a magazine or two!

*Presented by The Quilting Company brands: Fons & Porter, McCall’s Quilting, Quilters Newsletter, Quiltmaker, and Quilting Arts in cooperation with Quilts, Inc., producers of International Quilt Market & International Quilt Festival.

Gifts Quilters Could Really Use

Quilters are a selfless lot. They spend untold hours upon hours making beautiful gifts for others and ask nothing in return. During this gift-giving time of year, they definitely deserve something, but what? Here are some suggestions for gifts that quilters really could use:

  • New Quilting Scissors – Destined to be at the top of the list, you know you ruined Your Quilter’s favorite scissors when you used them to cut cardboard, burritos, wire or even roof flashing. You owe a replacement pair.
  • Restaurant Gift Cards – Remember when Your Quilter spent frantic days non-stop to finish that cherished baby quilt or that unforgettable wedding quilt? Well, they are going to do that again one day soon and they are not going to have time to cook dinner. Have someone else do the cooking for you both. Extra points for take-out!
  • Fabric Store Gift Cards – Your Quilter can never have enough fabric so give a little help to build their stash. Be sure to support local, independently owned quilt shops!
  • A Good Chair – If the gamers get fancy chairs with all kinds of lumbar support, then so should the Quilters, after all, quilting is sitting… for creative people.
  • A Really Big Magnet – Preferably on a stick! Tired of walking on quilting pins in the carpet? Well, if Your Quilter had something to pick those tiny little fellas up with, you wouldn’t be finding them while in your sock feet. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
  • Thread – To the uninitiated, this may sound like a terribly boring gift idea, but I can assure you that Your Quilter would find a rainbow box of threadmore delightful than a box of chocolates.

Armed with this handy list of useful suggestions, I hope you can find a nice gift for Your Quilter, because you know as well as I do… you are getting a quilt!

The Rewards of Shopping Local


Everyone loves online shopping: it’s so easy, convenient, and you get exactly what you want showing up at your doorstep. It would be naïve to say we should refrain completely from online shopping – we are just not going to be able to put that toothpaste back in the tube. We should, however, be aware of our choices and make a conscious effort not to forget about local businesses that make up our communities. Not only do these local businesses rely on us for their survival, but their survival benefits us as well. Let’s think about how:

  • Local businesses are owned and operated by our friends, our neighbors, our kid’s best friend’s parents – all people in our communities. These people represent “the little guys”. Big online retailers and megalithic marketplaces are already getting enough tax breaks and other incentives, its up to us to help the Little Guys buy supporting them with our dollars.
  • Money spent locally in our communities goes back into local economies and helps us, too. When we spend our money in a Local Quilt Shop, that business pays taxes to our towns. That money goes to school, roads, police and other local services in our towns – all making our lives better.
  • Shopping local is much more fun and interactive than sitting behind a keyboard. In a time when “working from home” is all the rage, shopping local enables the chance to get to get out of the house, talk to other people, and learn about new patterns and projects you otherwise wouldn’t have.
  • Local Quilt Shops have many unique products you would never find online, items ranging from beautiful hand-dyed materials to tools and accessories made by local artists.

Now get out of your pajamas and make a trip to your Local Quilt Shop. You will be glad you did!

Don’t Stress Out… Quilt!

I’m just about out of thread

As we are heading into the busy holiday season, now is the time we often feel a lot of stress. Between trying to finish end of the year projects at work to all the festive seasonal preparations, it can be an overwhelming time.  It hardly seems like the time to break out a quilt project. But did you know that quilting actually has numerous physical and mental health benefits? Here are few of the nice things that quilting can do for you:

  • Generates a sense of accomplishment – Sure your company didn’t meet its “stretch goals” for the year, but you finished little Suzie’s quilt. Win!
  • A natural anti-depressant – Crafting activities such as quilting, knitting and other handiwork cause your brain to release the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, the so-called “happy chemicals”.
  • Keeps your brain active and engaged … and thereby postpones cognitive aging and dementia. The more complicated the task the better, so bring on those double wedding ring quilts!
  • Reduces stress – What could be more relaxing than looking at colorful fabrics and shaping them into something both useful and beautiful? Reducing stress lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke. So, quilting might just save your life someday!

The Worst Day Quilting

Quilting is better than working any day

The worst day quilting is still better than the best day working, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a pretty bad day quilting! We asked our readers “What was your worst day quilting ever?” and got some pretty “bad” responses. Here are some of the worst:

  • Sewing in a block upside down and not noticing it until after it was quilted.
  • Miscalculating the yardage needed and running out of an irreplaceable vintage fabric.
  • Spilling a glass of red wine on a baby quilt top the night before the shower.
  • Finding out your husband used your good quilting scissors to cut wire… as evident by all the mysterious notches in your cuts.
  • Sewing an applique block to your pant leg.
  • Deciding to pre-wash your fabrics and finding out that one of them wasn’t color fast.
  • Discovering the hard way that the cat got accidentally shut in the closet and then relieved himself on an unfinished, folded quilt top.
  • Investing untold hours into a Dresden Plate baby quilt with scalloped edges for a family member only to be told by the recipient “This is lovely, but I already got a quilt for the baby… at Target”.

Your well-meaning husband mistook a bag of quilt tops waiting for the long armer for a clothing bag destined for the donation bin.

  • And, finally, the winner of the Worst day Quilting was hands down (no pun intended): Cutting the tip of your finger off with a rotary cutter. Don’t worry, this fearless quilter went straight to the ER and her steadfast dedication to quilting was unharmed.