Best wishes to TFQ for a happy birthday!<\/p>\n
January always feels fresh and shiny-clean to me. It also goes by much too quickly and becomes February, which is always a month that seems depressing to me.\u00a0 This year January is chaotic – too much family and work stuff is happening and I am running from one place to another like a crazy person.<\/p>\n
I have resolved<\/a> to finish up some projects and use some patterns that have been hanging around. I am not doing a ‘refrain from buying’ challenge like many, but I am trying to buy responsibly when I am in a quilt shop. I am also tracking what I use so I can use up more than I buy and use up more than last year as well. Liesl at Oliver+S talks about simplifying, challenges and setting deliberate goals<\/a>. My personal take on the key to success is doing what works for you. When I see something I don’t want or need, I put it in the ‘to donate’ box.<\/p>\n Doing More Good<\/strong><\/p>\n The past several months have been tough for California and other places. The\u00a0Ventura Modern Quilt Guild\u00a0has launched an effort in support of the Thomas Fire Victims. Scott Griffin, VP of Ventura Modern Quilt Guild has designed a beautiful\u00a0Perkiomen Valley Block<\/a>\u00a0to make as relief for Thomas Fires victims.\u00a0 Click on the block name to view the size and fabric suggestions.\u00a0 Choose any solids or prints you wish to use, lights and darks as indicated. All blocks go to superbuzzy (address is included on the block information file).\u00a0There is no deadline on block submission, but we would like to get quilts assembled out to the needy folks in January and February as they begin to rebuild. The guild will\u00a0assemble them into quilts for those in need after this devastating fire.\u00a0VMQG will be arranging sewing and quilt finishing soon.\u00a0If your guild is interested in participating in this project, please contact them at communications@venturamodernquiltguild.com<\/a>. Review the other opportunities to help Las Vegas and the Wine Country at previous posts.<\/p>\n Fabric<\/strong><\/p>\n Fabric is a joy and a problem. We love it so we buy it, pet and look at it. We also dream about what we will make with it someday. Then we have to store it. Storage is always a problem no matter what kind of house you live in. thus the fabric spreadsheet. It was started, as far as I know, by Pam of Hip to Be a Square podcast<\/a> fame. Others have taken up the mantle including Cheryl of my guild who has written another essay<\/a> on the subject that includes a recap of her 2017 purchases and usage.<\/p>\n Tips & Tricks<\/strong><\/p>\n Megan has some tips<\/a> on using Jeni Baker’s drawstring bag pattern, specifically how to put the directional fabric so it is right side up on the lining<\/em>. The pattern talks about using directional fabrics for the outer fabric, but apparently the information doesn’t work for the lining.<\/p>\n AllPeopleQuilt.com has some storage ideas<\/a>. I don’t think they are rocket science, but they do make me drool a little bit. I love those wire drawers. There\u00a0 are 43 various article snippets to click through. I also like the washi tape idea-pretty and useful. Additionally, there are tags at the end of the article, so readers can find other related articles. If you click on the ‘organize your sewing space<\/a>‘ tag, you can see examples of gorgeous sewing spaces. No solution will be best for everyone, because all of our spaces are different. Use these articles as inspiration.<\/p>\n Patterns, Projects & Tutorials<\/strong><\/p>\n Charlotte Hawkes, of the Scrapitude<\/a> pattern, has a newish pattern out, Summer Stars on Fawn Lake<\/a>. Valerie put me on to it and I am sorely tempted, though my to do list<\/a> is also on my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Best wishes to TFQ for a happy birthday! January always feels fresh and shiny-clean to me. It also goes by much too quickly and becomes February, which is always a month that seems depressing to me.\u00a0 This year January is chaotic – too much family and work stuff is happening and I am running from … Continue reading “Various & Sundry 2018 n.1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[453],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-39098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-453","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\/39098","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}