Quilting in a Frame

 Have you ever hand quilted on a frame?

I tried hand quilting on a frame decades ago.  But I was used to quilting on a hoop and decided not to buy a frame.

I was pretty amazed when I recently watched a video about how quilting on a frame is an endangered craft in the UK.  You can watch the video here.  Of course I had to look this up and I was rather amazed at what I found.

Heritage Crafts, an organization focused on preserving crafts in the UK had some staggering numbers to share.  It considered this kind of quilting "critically endangered" and the figures quoted shocked me.  The total number of "serious amateur makers" lists 11-20 individuals.

Quilting in general is not considered endangered just the technique of doing it in a frame.  But here in the USA,  many people still quilt on a frame and there are often "sewing bees" still listed in newspapers in the United States.  

You can read the numbers the Heritage Crafts cites here.

Do you have a lot of hand quilting in a frame where you live?

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: October 17, 2025

 

Hello and welcome to Flower Friday!

I suspect this is the last Flower Friday of the season.  The temps are in the 30s here and there are less flowers blooming in our neighborhood.

I did find a few marigolds as Lucky and I strolled.

And some asters:

And even a St. John's Wort towering above a now dead plant:

Wishing you a safe and happy day!

100 Dresses

 

It was a rainy and somewhat dreary weekend which was fine.  I cleaned out the sewing room, got some prep done on new projects and enjoyed sewing videos in the evening.

I'm not a garment sewist but I do enjoy videos on sewing clothes.

One that really struck me was a real interesting piece was about the "Tailor Dad" from China who made his daughter 100 dresses.  This was a lovely piece on how he taught himself to sew and how this helps his relationship with his daughter.  The dresses are amazing.  An article on the Dad is here and at the bottom of that page is the video I watched.

This story reminded me of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.

This is a wonderful book published in 1944.  I gave a copy to my granddaughter years ago.  It was also earned the Newbery Honor Award.

And all this reminded me of a panel that is available to buy.  It's called The 100 Ladies Embroidery Cloth.  The panel is meant to be embroidered and colored.  The ladies are small but it's an interesting concept.  It is manufactured by a Japanese company, Lecien.

Let me know if you watch the Tailor Dad video!

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday This and That: October 14, 2025

 

I keep the above sign near my computer  😄

Welcome Tuesday's This and That.  I don't think we've had one for some time.

Ellis and Higgs is a German website that has some really nice (free) tutorials.  You can see them here.

***

I don't order much these days for sewing but I made an exception for Daisy and Grace templates.  I really enjoy working on the quilt-as-you-go pieces while we watch tv at night.  

So I decided to order more templates because I found some tutorials of other things I would like to make.  The only place I knew would have the templates was Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Daisy and Grace has them but the company is in the UK and therefore subject to tarriffs.  

What I didn't realize was that Missouri Star now uses Amazon for delivery.  I ordered in September.  Two days later the package was shipped out and arrived at a carrier station.

The problem?  When the package didn't arrive on time, I tracked the order.  It cited that the order would be late.

The package was "in transit" for 12 days until it arrived in New Jersey.   

I'm just letting you know that if you order from MSQC, you package could take way longer than you expected.

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: October 10, 2025

 

Happy Flower Friday!

We got some rain early Wednesday and we might even get some more this weekend!  Yippee!  How is your garden doing?

I received chrysanthemums for my birthday.  One from my friend Molly, one from my brother, and another from my cousin.

I was surprised by this mound.  My neighbor threw a packet of 
"wild flower seeds" that they recieved in the mail with an advertisement.  We are all surprised at the results!

That's it for this week.  Hope all is going well in your garden!

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Temperature

 We're not officially in a drought again.

But parts of a local creek are dry.

Our county is considered "abnormally dry" while nearby municipalities are now officially in drought.  We are being asked to cut back on water use.  That is not difficult at this point.  The price of municipal water has gone up so much that most of us are really stunned at our latest bill.

A few weeks ago, I talked about making a temperature quilt in 2026.  A lot of you had really REALLY good tips and advice.  But I think one reader asked, "what will you do with the quilt afterwards?"   And that made me pause.

Enter Sarah Homfray.  I love her youtube channel on embroidery and other creative projects.  The project I was inspired was on her "Sarah Homfray Creates" channel.  

Instead of a quilt, Sarah chose to do a sampler years ago.  It was essentially a long ribbon of embroidery and can easily be hung up anywhere.  You can see the video here.  She even provides links on how to record your temps and weather.  For rain or snow she added beads or sequins and I'm going to be looking through my notions this weekend to see what I have.

Foruitously, I found some things I can use for this project at the quilt guild show.  The first important piece was this thread binder I bought for 1 or 2 dollars:

It even came with thread!

I also found some striped fabric that I'll use for my temperature lines.  I will sew about 4-6 inches across each line.  You can see the fabric behind the binder above.  I figured this is easy to do in the evening and I want to try and practice some new embroidery stitches.

The daily chart that Sarah shares a link means that I can easily keep track of precipitation and temperatures.  

So technically this will be a temperature sampler but I like the idea and it's much easier to complete.

What do you think?

Have a safe and happy day!

Jenny's Quilt

 

I finished Jenny's quilt last Friday.  It was a memory quilt of her mother's blouses after Paula was killed tragically by a boy who was high and crashed into her.

I won't lie.  It was a tough quilt to make for many reasons:  the shirts Jenny chose, the fact that so many of her blouses seemed to have darts everywhere, and most of all--the shirts still had Paula's scent on them.

Jenny visited my mom on Tuesday so  I took the quilt over for her.  It was an emotional day but she loved the quilt.

Anyway, here is the layout I chose.  I asked Lizzie to quilt it with lots of hearts and she did!

Have a safe and happy day!

Oh Deer!

 

One day a doe walked along the park path eating acorns.  She saw the old lady and the little poodle up ahead but continued walking towards them...chomping acorns all along the way.

She was passing the old lady when the poodle decided to stand on his hind legs.  It was as if he said, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe ran off into the bush and the poodle was very proud of himself.  That happened about two weeks ago.  

We saw the same doe last week.  This time she was eating the brush aside of the path.  Her photo is above.  Lucky stood on his hind legs, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe chewed her acorns and stared at him. "I'm not falling for that trick again" and my pup reluctant and disappointed had to continue on the path.

It's acorn season and we are nearing drought conditions so we are seeing deer at the park almost daily.  On Sunday we had this doe with two fawns.  One of the fawns and Lucky appeared to be fascinated with each other.

Pennsylvania and Maine continue to lead the cases of lyme disease so we continue to be vigilant about ticks.  We also keep an eye out for bucks.  The rut season has probably begun and bucks can be aggressive.  So we also keep a look at for that but so far it's only been female and baby deer.

Hope you have some wildlife to keep you entertained too!

Have a safe and happy day!

The Crazy Quilters Craft Show!

 

I'm a member of the Crazy Quilters Guild here in Allentown.  I really like the guild and on Saturday, we had a quilt and craft show.

I took a lot of photos and thought I would share them with you.

We had a special corner just to focus on our community service work.  

We also had a boutique where we sold things are quilters had made, fabric, and a silent auction.  This photo was taken in the late afternoon.  A lot of thing had been sold by then.

We also had demonstrations throughout the day.  I didn't attend those because I was working as a white glove attendant in the church.

Even outside the main church we had various exhibits of quilts:

Inside the church was full of quilts our members made.  These weren't for sale.  They were just an exhibit and we met so many nice people!  Some even decided to join our guild!

There was about every kind of quilt you could imagine.  The diversity and the craftsmanship was truly stunning!  

One of our members redesigned the blocks from Tula Pinks 100 Modern Quilt Blocks and we loved that!  She had the blocks falling 😁

And here are lots of other quilts:

We had a lot of fun working the show but of course, we were all tired afterwards.  I didn't even work the entire day like some members (had to go to Mom's, etc.).  I will see, I did sleep really well that night!  It was a really fun event!

Hope you had a great weeekend!

Have a safe and happy day!