Wondering what to do with your cotton batting scraps?

Cut them into a stack of 3" squares and keep them in a handy place.  They can be used to dust off your machine, wipe off excess oil when performing machine maintenance, and clean off fabric fuzzies from your cutting and ironing boards.

Getting all those pesky threads off the carpet can be a real chore. 

Vacuuming is not always the best solution because the long threads get wrapped up in the beater brush.  A friend of mine showed me a quick and easy way she picks up those threads.  She uses a bristle bathroom brush and runs it across the carpet. The threads come right up and the brush can be maneuvered into cramped, difficult to reach places.

Want to get more out of the free block of the month patterns? 

Choose a second fabric palette or dip into that stash of seasonal fabrics you've been collecting.  Then, instead of only making up one BOM, make up two.  By the time you get to the end of the series you'll have enough blocks for TWO quilts!  If you like, keep one for yourself, and give the other as a gift. 

Want to add sparkle to a quilt? 

Mixing clear colored fabric with grayer colored fabric will do the trick.  For example, say you want to make a red and white quilt.  Using a variety of reds in all the same value and brightness will result in quilt that is pretty but lacking that special something all quilters want their projects to have.  A better solution is to select some bright reds and mix them with some duller reds and perhaps red-oranges. Also, consider a variety of large, medium, and small-scale prints, checks, dots, florals, etc. For an example of how this works, study the fabric choices in Washington's Cherry Baskets, Patches of Blue, and Winter Garden.

Patches of Blue