Julie wrote her blog post<\/a> about the CQFA Retreat, which corrected a few things I said wrong in MY blog post<\/a> about the Retreat and her work. She has a good view of the back and side of me, if you want to see what the back and side of me look like. It is also a good view of my 3 drinks, my flowers, my mess. That is how I work: organized chaos.<\/p>\n Patterns<\/strong><\/p>\n A friend asked me about a pattern for a binder cover and before I could wrap my head around the question and answer it, she found one<\/a> that looks like it would be quite sturdy for even the heaviest binder.<\/p>\n I have been fascinated with casseroles recently. Though this has been a relatively warm winter, my body craves hot, thick and saucy foods and soups. Listening to A Prairie Home Companion doesn’t help. I saw a variety of casserole carrying covers in Minnesota<\/a>, but the one I really liked was a kit with uninspiring fabrics. I came across a casserole carrying cover<\/a> tutorial, which I shared with my Minnesota hostess. She is thinking of making a shower gift including the casserole cover as well as an apron, hotpads, oven mitt and trivets. I thought that was a clever idea.<\/p>\n If you are crazy about Block of the Month projects, check out this list<\/a> of many, many BOMs. They are organized by technique. Darla of the Scientific Quilter<\/a> podcast passed this tidbit along. City Quilter has a few BOMs available<\/a> as well. Love the Amish look!<\/p>\n I like that the author showed a variety of house quilt<\/a>s made from the same pattern. It really shows how to inject creativity into a pattern.<\/p>\n Gigi’s Thimble has a great star pattern<\/a> that I thought would work well with the BAMQG 16 patch blocks<\/a> we are making for charity. Don’t get me wrong! I love those 16 patch blocks. I have already made the four packs into blocks and am working on a block from my own scraps. Gigi’s block reminded me of the 16 patch and I thought it would be a good way to make the quilt slightly larger, if necessary. The post includes a tutorial.<\/p>\n Designers<\/strong><\/p>\n Moda has a new designer who started with an Etsy shop for papercrafts. Read about Jenn Ski<\/a> on the Moda Newsletter blog.<\/p>\n Here is an interview<\/a> with Cynthia Mann, owner, designer, proprietress of the FabricWorm and Birch Fabrics. Remember the great visit<\/a> TFQ and I had with her?<\/p>\n I received some really nice comments when I posted my Swoon blocks to the Swoon-a-long Flickr group. I saw a really nice Swoon quilt<\/a> after that. Individually, I am not that fond of the fabrics, but I really like the combination. I do not subscribe to the “buy ugly fabric, because it will make the pretty fabrics look better” line of thought, however, I think that the khaki (not ugly, BTW, just not to my taste) really makes the other colors shine.<\/p>\n Creativity<\/strong><\/p>\n I saw a blog post<\/a> (thanks, Amy of Creative Mom Podcast<\/a>!!!) about documenting a day in your life. I like the idea, but my life is not as pretty as the photo in the blog post. Still, I like the idea. It would be good for a scrapbook page as well. What do you think?<\/p>\n Are you doing the Creative Prompt?<\/a> DO IT! I need some friends who participate! Thanks.<\/p>\n Are morning routines a creativity killer? Annie Murphy thinks so and talks about why in this article<\/a>. Apparently not being allowed to be groggy and unfocused for a little while prevents those inspired ideas from having a chance to manifest. Murphy also talks about commuting damaging our brain cells. I blame corporate America. The solution: lie in bed a few minutes longer, stand in the shower a few minutes longer and watch YouTube videos while drinking your coffee. “Laughing babies and a double latte: now that\u2019s a way to start the day.”<\/p>\n What is your morning routine? Does it involve any creative endeavor? I write in my journal. It isn’t quite stream of consciousness, but close. I try and do a brain dump so my mind is clear when I get to work and any non-work related thoughts are memorialized on papers, so I can get back to them later. I also want any work worries safely sheltered on the journal pages rather than in my mind. Doodles are sometimes included.<\/p>\n Quilt World News<\/strong><\/p>\n The catalog<\/a> is out for the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Send me tweets if you make it. I am not going this year, but someday.<\/p>\n There is a quilt podcast meetup at the Mid-Atlantic Show this year. Pam of Hip to be a Square, Sandy of Quilting…for the Rest of Us, the fabulous Frances of The Off Kilter Quilt and many others will be there. I am actually tempted to hop a plane and go. If I were only so rich! I hope someone bring their microphone and does some podcasting from that meetup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I listened to four audiobooks by the same author in December while I was off. Then, I listened to them again in January while on the train, while doing the dishes, while sewing, while doing boring tasks at work, at lunch, at the quilt retreat in a room full of other people; in short everywhere. … Continue reading “Various & Sundry 2012 #2”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[400],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-12064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-400","tag-various-sundry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i869.photobucket.com\/albums\/ab257\/bluemerleboutique\/sewsweetnessbutton.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center>I have had a messenger bag fetish lately. Laurie Wisburn of Tufted Tweets fame led me via Twitter to this very practical messenger bag<\/a> pattern. I haven’t made it, but it looks very good – plenty of pockets, good size and adjustable.<\/p>\n