Today was a good day. I finished my two tote bags and distributed to the happy recipients. I went out for Thai food for lunch and Italian for dinner, had a cupcake (yes, to celebrate my birthday), and got lavished with gifts, flowers, hugs and kisses. And now, I get to buy some fabric...

Hi RCTQers! I haven't really been around much for quite a while, and in the past few months I haven't really sewn a thing! I did _start_ quilting my son's Wizards & Warriors quilt, if any of you remember that. But, I haven't made much progress and I have a stack of UFO's. The good news is, I...

Yippee! I made one fancy pillowcase for my oldest son for Christmas! It came out so nice, and it's cute, all in baseball fabrics. Friday afternoon I will make one for my youngest son. He is a soccer man. Wow, that was fun!! Ann

....are stitched with silver metallic thread! I've been working on trying to finish quilting my son's Wizards & Warriors quilt, and it has some fabrics with metallic prints and stuff, so he wanted some metallic quilting. I bought some silver metallic Sulky thread and have been trying to quilt...

I could hardly believe it! My family and I were just eating dinner, and the doorbell rang and my son and I went to answer the door and there was just a box, presumably left by the UPS guy. I saw it was from Debbi in SoCal. We had been trying to meet up, but our schedules weren't cooperating. ...

I just finished up, washed, and sent a brand-new baby quilt to my brand-new nephew. He was born about a week early, and so the quilt was late, and thus I forgot to take photos before I sent it! I'm so sad -- I have never kept a quilt I've made, but I've always had pictures to remember them by! I...

It seems like between getting ready, and then spending 10 amazing days there, I've been gone for so long! There were something like 3000 posts!! I had to just do a "catch up" to all. Anyway, my DH and two DS's and I just got back EARLY this morning on a red-eye from Kauai. We spent 7 nights in...

Hi everyone, I haven't been able to post for a long time, but I wanted to post while I had the chance and let everyone know I'm doing fine, and that I've been snuggling up with my HUG the past few days -- I've been home recovering from more surgery. Thanks again to all who participated in making...

This may be a stupid question, but I'll fire away... Do batik and hand-dyed cotton fabrics shrink less/differently than regular cotton quilting fabric -- in particular vs. one of the Kona cotton fabrics? It's too late for that "you should prewash your fabrics first" mantra -- I already made a...

I hadn't been doing much sewing and had been stuck in the sewing (and life) doldrums. So, I took some fun Halloween fabrics and sewed them all up together and made a little quillow for my youngest son. Boy, did he love that! It make his (and my) day! He was showing it off to his Dad -- how it...

I know almost everyone here is addicted to fabric on some level, but, I don't know if it's because of everything I've been going through with my cancer treatment or what, but I have been seeking lots of comfort through fabric. I just can't keep my hands off of it! It's a problem because...

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to take some of my favorite fabrics and turn them into headscarves to wear during my chemo. If I have to wear something on my head, it might as well be a fabric I love! Does anybody have a pattern, or a tip on how to do a teensy rolled hem by machine? ...

"Desert Brick Road", as I'm calling it, is now all pieced together! Woo-hoo! Check it out on my photos page! Ann http://photos.yahoo.com/annadamson/

I have a box of fabric scraps I am going to get rid of... it might be a treasure trove to someone else! It is a 7" by 7" by 6" box full of squares and strips and charms and etc! There is quite a lot of variety of fabrics in there, pretty much all cotton...most of which are scraps of fabrics I...

Hi all, I need a bit of advice with a baby quilt I have in the plans. I found a pattern I want to use, but I want to add an additional wide border of the featured novelty print to make the quilt a little bigger and to highlight that fabric. Anyway, here it is in a nutshell - the quilt is made...

Hi all, I haven't been around for a while, and actually have not been quilting at all! I had some complications with the chemotherapy I'm on, and ended up in the hospital, and most recently my littlest child has been sick with some kind of virus, and it's been HOT here, and believe it or not for...

Hi all, A few weeks back I posted a request for patterns for making headcovers from quilting fabric. Someone posted a link to a great pattern for a "doo rag", which is pretty much just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I've lost the link and can't seem to get back to that old post, so I'm...

Hello all, I've been away a while, and have just been trying to catch up. There were so many messages it was mind boggling, so I ended up doing a "catch up" and we'll see where things go from here. Good news is: I'm 1/2 way through my chemotherapy treatments. It has been tough so far, but only...

Hi everyone, I was just thumbing through my new American Patchwork and Quilting, and saw an ad for a Maytag cordless iron. A cordless iron sounds like a GREAT idea. My hubby was just asking me what I wanted for Christmas -- a fancy new cordless iron sounds pretty good! Any issues with using a...

Can I use 100% cotton thread in the top (needle) and polyester thread in the bobbin when quilting? I am trying to finish up a picnic quilt for DH, and the top calls for a nice sort of golden/khaki thread which I have in cotton, but the backing of the quilt is solid teal. I could use the same...