
Welcome to this month’s edition of Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd where we share our favorite quilting or sewing tips and tutes! This month’s I have a tip on how I organize some of my quilting patterns and a little more about my site moving experience. But, before we get into that, I have a summary of last month’s link ups and then my tips, and finally the linky party to celebrate this month’s link ups. Looking for all tips and tutorials on sewing and quilting – new or old – just share one of your favorites with us. You have until the end of the month so there’s plenty of time to write something up!

Last Month’s Link Ups
Here’s a list from last month’s link ups! I am so grateful to those who share their tips and tutorials each month. I do sometimes add one or two, and since the linkup party is slow, and, I may just turn this into a monthly newsletter with Tips and Tutorials I have found. I’ll see how the next couple of months go – any feedback you have on this, I welcome (email me here).
- Cutting 45 degree diamonds and parallelograms
- Quilt Block Basics — Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs)
- Quilt Block Basics — The Y Block
- Block 1 of the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL
- SAHRR Baby quilt

Tutorial: Organize Your Cards


A few months ago, I had the pleasure of joining in a blog hop with Villa Rosa Designs. This sent me to look to organize my cards a little better, and get a monthly subscription. My fabric needs to be put to use and I love pulling a group and bagging it with a pattern.

How can I make this easier? The truth is I have a number of quick card patterns and decided to put them in a file folder (they slipped out), so I looked for something better. Some are cards that are 4 x6 and some are 5 x 7. And some are printouts, so those needed something for 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheets.

On the bed in the office was some photo card sheets and I thought those are perfect.
I found a folder and started. I split them by types of fabric, so I could quickly look for them. THe categories I sorted them into were: 2 1/2″ strips, border prints, charm packs, fat quarters, layer cakes, panels and yardage. Yes, I made labels with my Brother Label maker* and a page for the front cover.

I already found two patterns that I like with two of my collections, so they are bagged and ready to rock and roll when I am. A plan I didn’t know I needed but now I have. I love this! When new patterns arrive, finish living in a project bag, or I locate them on my hard drive, I can add them to the this so I have inspiration at the ready!
Tip: Know When to Fold Them

I spent the better part of 6 weeks trying to work out some well documented bugs in my system with Bluehost. A week ago, I spent an hour on the phone with support trying again to work this out. Finally, I a asked for and spoke to a manager. He spent time to understand my problem, assured me I would be at the front of the line for help and I would from someone via email. So, when I hung up, I was on the phone for 2 hours total. I am still waiting. The odd thing is, the problems were well documented (I ran a help desk in another life), and I could point them to exactly what I needed but they could not and did not respond at all. I also had more outages in a month than I ever had with Siteground.

So, Friday I moved back to Siteground and am happy. I can reach my site. Bluehost was blocking me making a bad situation difficult. With Siteground, I have been getting questions answered and still may have one thing to get fixed – my posts may not be publishing at the right time – but it takes publishing each one to refine the problem. Meanwhile, I hear back from support or chat within an hour someone gets things taken care of or points me in the right direction. If you are interested, here is an affiliate link*.
Can you help?
Meanwhile, I have two questions.
1. Let me know if you are having troubles with the photos in your email and what device/operating system you are using. I’d like to get a small test group going so I can work on this.
2. Do you know a wordpress guru? or a hosting guru? I am pretty good at technical things but I would love a contact or two for some of this.
If you can help with either of these, email me here. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Join the Linky Party

Now it’s your turn to post, and the rules are simple – write up a tip or group of tips or a tutorial that is quilting or sewing-related and link that post below. The linky party is open from 12:01 am on the 22nd, through midnight on April 30th. The post does not have to be new but should be one that hasn’t been linked to Tips and Tutorials in the past. If you don’t have a blog, please send it to me (kathleen@kathleenmcmusing.com) and I will post your tip or tutorial for you!
Past Tips and Tutorials
In case you didn’t know, if you have missed some past #TTot22, you can check them out in the tab at the top of my page or on my Pinterest board.
Coming Up on My Blog
There is lots going on in my studio. I have 2 blocks cut and ready to sew and am about to quilt Ships Ahoy! I hope to be doing more quilting and less computing!
Ships Ahoy
Fixing a T-Shirt Quilt
Fab Farm SAL – Block 6 (5/29)
Fab Farm SAL – Block 7 (6/5)
Diatom QAL
Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL