Sunday Kind of (Quilty) Love

Sundays are made for relaxing, recharging, and relationships. After church, I find it's a great time to unwind by doing a little website surfing. So to that end I give you a few sites I've found recently. Some are quilty, some are just interesting, and some are of interest to a quilting blogger.

First, I wanted to share that free motion quilting instructor extraordinaire, Patsy Thompson has been playing around with ruler work lately and she's done a video you will enjoy.

I have become obsessed with the blog of softie designer, Abby Glassenberg. First of all, her softies are adorable, but she writes a lot about what's going on in the world of crafty, creative blogs and the work of the professionals behind them. I find it fascinating, a bit overwhelming, and very, very interesting. I'm working through her archives and am up to page 32 if that tells you how much I like what I'm reading.

Do you find yourself in a quilt shop looking at the yummy, must have fabric, knowing that it can't all come home with you? You start trying to do the math to calculate just how much you need for that quilt you want to make. While I don't have a problem with ever buying too much fabric, I usually do have a budget. If you are too conservative and get home without enough fabric for a particular project, it can actually be more expensive than buying a smidge too much. If you have a smart phone or tablet, you can take advantage of a yardage calculator. There's a few out there, but here's one from Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It's free!

With the popularity of online classes like those at Craftsy, the internet is turning into a hugely exciting classroom. How do you find good classes that fairly compensate the teachers without spending a fortune? Checking reviews is the best answer. Looking for free classes is good too. Can't go too wrong with free, though sometimes you get what you pay for. You can pace yourself by setting a budget, waiting for classes to go on sale (Craftsy is awesome at this! They even have a wishlist you can set up so you know exactly which class it was you wanted to buy the next time they have a sale) or try Skillshare.

Skillshare, an online class site has a free option in which you can take any class you want, but you can only watch 1.5 hours of content. I didn't find any quilting classes there, but did find a few knitting and crochet classes. There are a lot of interesting classes for business, blogging, writing, photography and various aspects of design and some other non-fiber crafts. Some of the teachers are obscure, while others are pretty well-known. I've found that 1.5 hours per week is just fine for me for some classes that I might never bother to pay for and also some classes that I might not normally be able to afford. I'm going to start using it as a weekly reward.

Now to wind up this post and return it to the subject of ruler work, it's time for some eye candy. Linda Hrcka at the Quilted Pineapple does absolutely gorgeous quilting on her long arm. She combines curvy feathers and ruler work to finish some lovely quilts. She even has a page entitled Eye Candy. It is sweet!

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the kind words. I'm blushing. :-) Well, I need to be better about posting and especially updating the eyecandy. I have tons to share, which is my favorite thing to do. I just there was a few more hours in each day!

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  2. Hi Amy, At first glance I thought I didn't have time to read your posting today. I took a little time out and read every word, also, visited the Quilted Pineapple.....oh, so glad I did. What beautiful quilting Linda does. It was a real pleasure seeing her beautiful work. I also checked out Abby's softies and even downloaded the free PDF pattern. What cute little stuffed animals!!! Now I need to check out Patsy Thompson's site. Have a wonderful rest of the day and thanks for all the great information.

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