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Kickstarting your Sewing: Ideas from Moda Designers' Blogs
Kickstarting your Sewing: Ideas from Moda Designers' Blogs
Published:
Jan 14 2016 - 06:00
There are rumors in the virtual world that blogging is dead—that Instagram and Facebook are taking over and readers just don’t read blogs like they used to. Sure, blogs are tough to keep up, but many people still enjoy connecting with online friends through their written words and photos.
In addition, blogs can be downright useful. I’m currently away from home, with my sewing machine and a little fabric but without patterns and books. While trying to figure out what to sew it dawned on me that there is a wealth of project ideas and information in blogs. So, courtesy of some of Moda’s designers, here’s “news you can use”—projects and ideas to get you sewing in 2016.
• Amy Ellis has a terrific post on AmysCreativeSide about adding a quilt sleeve to your quilt—just in time for her quilt that's been accepted at QuiltCon next month. Congrats, Amy!
• Lisa Bongean had a post in December with a great snowball quilt that uses precuts and would look terrific in just about any fabric (although it’s especially charming in her Snowman Gatherings lines) In the same post, she has a recipe for Mexican Chicken Bake that looks cozy and warming on these cold winter days. Yum!
• A recent post on April Rosenthal’s blog is the answer to my dreams—what do I make with my mini-charm squares besides EPP hexagons? She’s got a great tutorial for a mini-charms baby bib and I’m going to make one RIGHT NOW—I needed a baby present.
• The most recent post by Barb and Alma of Blackbird Designs features a complete quilt design—the Hyde Park Pattern that uses two jelly rolls.
• Lots of us had New Year’s Resolutions that involved using up our stashes. Sherri McConnell’s offering some great tips and tricks for Quilting Your Stash on her blog. I so admire how much she accomplishes and love the way she’s broken down the steps for getting organized to get it done—she’s posting weekly about how to make stash-sewing happen. Here is week one and week two.
• Pat Sloan’s blog has links to her podcasts, where you can listen to inspiring quilters, designers, authors, and others while you’re doing your own sewing.
• One of Moda’s most active bloggers is Barbara Brackman and in the sidebar of her Civil War Quilts blog is a link to her Material Culture blog and fussy cutting tips and tricks from Becky Brown. (Also very useful for English paper piecing.)
• In a December post, Vanessa Christensen of V&Co listed gifts to make and one of the projects would be great even after the holidays—Homemade Hand Warmers. (She also has a recipe for 3-minute fudge, but that would NOT be helpful with certain resolutions I may or may not have made.)
• And though it's not about sewing, I love 1canoe2's post in praise of handwritten letters. We all love to find them in our mailboxes but aren’t always good at writing them. This blog post includes lovely stories about getting mail and five great pointers for writing your own. Tip number 1: It doesn’t have to be perfect!
So there you have it. Who says you can’t get something for nothing?
Do you have any favorite posts from Moda designers? (And we’ll post with more links to projects, tips, and tricks from Moda designers’ websites, soon!)
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