Cutie Quilt: Squared Away

All quilts are a treat, but this one was a huge treat to piece and quilt!

I had some Coming Up Roses fabric from Jillily Studios for Penny Rose Fabrics and decided to remake my Squared Away Cutie Quilt.

I (obviously) quilted it with ribbon candy because

1.   It's fun to quilt
2.   It looks GREAT!

Thanks to Nicole at Bits N Pieces Quilt Shoppe, I now know how to machine bind:

What did we ever do without machine binding clips (affiliate link*)?

I plan to travel with this quilt for the rest of 2017.

Come and visit both of us!
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The Blueberry of Happiness

Yesterday I showed a quilt that I quilted with my FabuLux Neon Blueberry thread.  Many of my students look at a neon thread and get scared that it will make their quilting show up A LOT!

I personally love when my quilting shows up a lot, but bright threads can blend if used on the right fabrics.  "But I don't make bright quilts!" you might counter.  Consider this quilt:

It is not bright but it is busy, Busy, BUSY.  OK, it's a little bright, but only the border and binding.   You can't see the Blueberry FabuLux in a photo taken six feet away.

Take a closer look:

That is Blueberry FabuLux (with one line of blue marker that I haven't yet removed).

My backing is a white fabric with a fine black print on it.  I didn't use this bright thread in my bobbin.  I used gray DecoBob instead.  The gray blended with the Blueberry and also made a great stitch on the back.  The bobbin lasts longer with a finer thread and this quilt took less than two size-15 bobbins (home sewing machine size).

Do you have any bright threads that are too scary to use?  Check your stash to see if you have any fabric (or complete tops!) that might carry that thread well!

Wild for the Walking Foot

When I taught at Sanford Sewing Center, I found a deliciously twisted black and white check fabric.  It needed to border this Share and Share Alike Cutie Quilt that I pieced on Errol, my HQ Stitch 510 workhorse of a machine:

I grabbed my FabuLux Neon Blueberry thread and sat down at Hedwig, my HQ Stitch 710, and made some walking foot magic:

I tried to mimic the twisting check with the quilting pattern and I'm so excited about how it turned out!

This quilt is bound and ready to be loved:

I'm having so much fun making these Share and Share Alike Cutie Quilts.  They are quick to make, fun to quilt, and a great size for babies.  Since I'm surrounded by babies and expecting many more, you'll have try to not be bored with all of the photos of this quilt in all different fabrics!

Postcard Edging Tutorial

Last week I shared a tutorial on how to assemble a postcard, but I wasn't specific on how to stitch the edging.  Folks have messaged me asking about it so I shall oblige.

First, I set Hedwig's (my HQ Stitch 710 machine's) tension to zero so that the top thread wraps all of the way around the edge and very little bobbin thread shows:

I set the zig-zag stitch to 4.5mm wide and .4mm long:

I use my even-feed foot and stitch along all edges of the postcard:

I like to stitch around my card twice to make it thicker and fuller because I think once is not enough:

For the second round, I set the zigzag to 5.0mm wide and .2mm long:

I stitch all of the way around again, cut the thread, and secure the edge using Fray Check:

Once I'm done with the edging, I pop the postcard in an envelope and spread a little love through the mail.