The Stars Over The Thornapple Quilt Show is going on this weekend at the Barry County Expo Center near Hastings, Michigan. The show opened Saturday and will be open Sunday from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. The show is bigger than it was two years ago and features a fun variety of quilts and vendor booths. Thornapple [...]

The CraftSanity Magazine Issue 8 Preorder Sale is on! Preorder your copy by Wednesday (11/14/12) and save a dollar off the cover price! You can also sign up for a CraftSanity Magazine subscription and have the next 4 issues automatically mailed to your home. Here’s a preview of the fun projects, stories and recipes featured [...]

I should be working right now, but I’m a bit preoccupied. This weekend my daughters will suit up in their purple soccer jerseys and I will brush their hair and put it up in ponytails and then I will wish them luck at their game. They will head off to the soccer field with my [...]

First off, thank you to those who posted and emailed kind words of encouragement after I expressed frustration in my last post. I’m very grateful for your support and understanding, and happy to report that I seem to have crafted my way out of my funk. Making stuff is such a wonderful way to reduce [...]

Hello, hello! We just sent CraftSanity Magazine issue 6 off to the printer and I will be posting the preview very, very soon. But first I want to let you know that I’m giving away two free passes to two quilt events at the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe, Mich. These artist talks are [...]

If you love quilts and you’re looking for something to do this weekend, go check out the Thornapple River Ripper Quilting Guild Show at the Barry Expo Center, 1350 N. M-37,  Hastings, Michigan. The show features about 200 quilts ranging from modern to traditional designs, vendor booths and quilting demos. The entry fee is $5 [...]

This is the quilt I selected to received a guest judge award at the Quilts On The Grand 2010 show here in Grand Rapids. Big surprise, eh? It’s a grandmother’s garden hexagon quilt by Mary Lou Ridley of South Haven, Mich. The 75″ x 84″ quilt didn’t receive any awards from the professional judges, but Mary [...]

Finishing this quilt project came down to the wire as expected, but boy am I happy to be done. Crossing the finish line was very unceremonious and that was expected, too. I just left the quilts in a pile on a table at the David D. Hunting YMCA and went home. If I had not [...]

I have five days to finish hand stitching the bindings and hanging sleeves on this stack of ArtPrize quilts. Five days until life returns to normal. Almost there… I’m headed out to shoot a photo for next week’s art & craft column. You can read today’s column about Alban Fischer, editor of trnsfr magazine here. [...]

Even in the busiest times, while in the thick of the most involved projects it’s important to stop and soak up nature’s wonders. The other day I snapped this picture of a rose past it’s prime but still quite beautiful. It’s so important to pause every now an then, especially when your plate is full [...]

Doodle, doodle almost done. I love scribbling on fabric with thread. I machine quilted panels four and five of my charity ArtPrize quilts late Wednesday. High five, everyone! Later today I’ll be picking out fabric for the binding and weaving in thread tails. I can’t quite believe I’ve been working on this project every day for [...]

I finally finished quilting the beast that was panel three of my charity ArtPrize quilt project. I had some thread tension issues in the wee hours of the morning that cost me some valuable time and sleep, but I’m back on track and a little more in tune with my machine. If I’ve learned anything [...]

It’s 4:18 a.m. Mistakes were made. What can I say? I will resume work after I get some sleep. The quilting is about halfway done on the third of five quilt panels. I can do this. (If you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, check out my other posts below.)

My Artprize deadline is less than two weeks away, so I’m in continuous work mode and really looking forward to taking a serious break in a couple weeks. I worked until 2:30 a.m. this morning free-motion quilting the first quilt panel. I thought I was done when I went to bed only to wake up [...]

I know it looks like it I’m wearing a discount Snuggie in the photo, but relax. I just decided to wrap myself in Fusi-Boo for dramatic effect. And it’s actually way more expensive than buying one of those discount sleeping bags with sleeves. If you quilt, you may know that Fusi-Boo is fusible quilt batting. [...]