Wednesday, February 27, 2019

New ACS Episode: Machine Quilting with your Walking Foot

Some find it weird that this "I've been a longarm machine quilter for 20 years" gal has fallen in love with her walking foot.  I'm late to develop this crush, but I've fallen hard for the walking foot.

I filmed a series of Annie's Creative Studio episodes featuring the walking foot and Machine Quilting with Debby Brown: Walking Foot episode 1 is now available:


Are you tired of the added cost of sending your quilts to be finished by someone else? We want to help you learn to quilt your own quilts on your sewing machine with expert Debby Brown!



In this Quilter's Skill Builders episode, you will practice several attractive quilting designs achieved with a walking foot or even-feed foot. Join Debby as she demonstrates how to quilt five styles of straight-line stitching, piano keys, plaid, cross-hatching, zigzag and squared spiral.



In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

•             Quilt unfinished quilt tops on your home sewing machine.

•             Maximize simple straight lines.

•             Accurately space quilting lines.


Annie's Creative Studio is a subscription-based platform where members can watch an unlimited number of classes about quilting, knitting, crocheting and more.  If you aren't yet a member, sign up here for a free trial.

If you are already a member, sign in, go to Quilters' Skill Builders, prepare some practice quilt sandwiches, and get stitching!

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

New ACS Episode: Piece-Full Days

I love teaching quilting and love all of my classes/episodes equally.  HOWEVER, I might have screamed with joy when offered the opportunity to film the class for Piece-Full Days:


This quilt jumps on my "I love scrap quilts!" button with both feet.  I pulled all of this fabric from my scrap bin and even though it's a rather large quilt (64"x78"), the scrap bin looks no emptier (although somewhat less blue/green/aqua)!

So here is my newest episode on Annie's Creative Studio:


If you have lots of scraps and leftover fabric strips, this is the perfect quilt project for you! The more variety in your fabrics, the better your quilt will look. In this Learn, Make, Create! episode, expert quilter Debby Brown demonstrates how to clean out your scrap basket and create this treasure at the same time.



In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

•             Choose a controlled or a super scrappy palette.

•             Sew accurate ¼” seams.

•             Piece tricky triangles.


Annie's Creative Studio is a subscription-based platform where members can watch an unlimited number of classes about quilting, knitting, crocheting and more.  If you aren't yet a member, sign up here for a free trial.

If you are already a member, sign in, go to Piece-Full Days, download the pattern, and get stitching!

By the way, if you noticed the fabric-twine rug in the top photo

and want to know how to make one of those, I have a free online class about making fabric twine trivets.  Sign up here.

Friday, February 08, 2019

Quilt Finish Friday

As I'm cleaning out my sewing room this year, I've been finding projects and kits I forgot that I had.  I turned an "I no longer love this idea" quilt kit into a "can I keep this?" quilt!


As this is a 70th birthday gift for a friend, the answer is "no," but I'm still tickled at how this turned out.

The original kit had over a hundred 2 1/2" strips in it, and I discovered that I could use them to make my Stepping Stones Cutie Quilt.  After adding some background and fun quilting, I have this quilt and another million (ok, maybe 80) 2 1/2" strips of lovely Fig Tree fabrics.

Should I make another quilt exactly like this?  Or should I see what else I can make from 2 1/2" strips.

Blog Hop by Studio 180 Design and Island Batik

Welcome to all of the Studio 180 Design blog hoppers!  I'm so tickled to machine quilt King's Pawn by Studio 180 Design featuring Twilight Chic fabrics.


This is such gorgeous fabric and it's been fun to add thread texture to this quilt.



Follow along to see some of my quilting ideas here:



Did you just love that fabric?  Want to win some for your very own?


Enter the raffle HERE.

If you are new to my site, be sure to sign up for my newsletter where you can learn about machine quilting and other crafty goodness, like my just released free class on making a fabric twine trivet.


To continue on the Studio 180 Design blog hop, check out the rest of the stops below:

Monday, February 4
Tuesday, February 5



Monday, February 04, 2019

It's a Beatiful Day in the Neighborhood -- Make Believe!

My grandchildren love to play dress-up and make-believe.  I added a Mail Man outfit to the dress-up chest this weekend.


I was worried that no one would know this was a mailman costume, but one of the cousins screamed it out immediately as the present was opened.

There were five children aged seven and under who all took turns delivering the mail.  We filled the bag with envelopes and blank index cards and it was quite the hit.

The vest is adapted from a free pattern I found online.  I found some postage stamp stickers on Amazon as well.

Hopefully they will continue to have fun with this as they retrieve postcards from their  non-make-believe mailbox each week!






Friday, February 01, 2019

Quilt Finish Friday

It's February and (so far) I'm keeping my resolution to finish my quilts as I start them.  Here's a recent finish:


My husband calls this color "orange" but quilters call it CHEDDAR!

I dove into my string bin as I was recovering from medical treatment earlier this month and I haven't sewn my way out yet!

I got the idea for this quilt from the Mod Quilt pattern in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 15 Minutes of Play.  I used strings instead of crumbs and I made the blocks a different size, but that pattern was my inspiration.

I have more string quilts in process, so stay tuned!

Have you made a string quilt yet?