Fenced In Cutie Quilt -- Machine Quilting Tutorial

Whenever I'm home and and quilting for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, or Veterans' Day, I like to pull out some red-white-and-blues to make a quilt for veterans. This year I pulled out a fat quarter pack from Pat Sloan -- Paradise Park. It was GORGEOUS!

Cutie Patterns require 16 fat eighths and Fenced In also require yardage for borders. I didn't have yardage... but I had the other half of each fat quarter! I pieced the border using those leftovers.

I decided to machine quilt this using the walking foot on my home sewing machine. That's such a fun and soothing way to spend an afternoon!

I filmed a quilting tutorial for this quilt so you can watch how simple it is to create this curvy cross-hatch texture at home!

If the video doesn't play, use this direct YouTube link.

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Fenced In Cutie Pattern

White Konfetti 50-weight cotton thread

White DecoBob 80-weight polyester thread

Batt Scooters

FREE August Color Blocks Quilt Pattern -- Shining Brightly

I've been away from home for the last 26 days.  I spent a week in Wisconsin at the Primitive Gatherings Naughty or Nice Retreat and the rest of the time I've been in Pittsburgh, keeping my mom company while my sister travels.  

Preparing for this, I made a black and gold (Pittsburgh sports teams colors) Color Block quilt for August -- Shining Brightly.

Being born and raised in Pittsburgh, I have a lot of family here and their babies need Pittsburgh-themed baby quilts!  You can choose to make this in any color you like, however.

Pink/Purple/Mint would be pretty.  Blue/Green/Yellow would be great.  Red/White/Blue would make a great lap quilt for a veteran.  Dig into your scraps and see what colors work for you!

Join my FREE 2025 Color Block Class, download the pattern, and get stitching!

I should be home in another 2-3 days and can't wait to start machine quilting this!

Blue Squared Away Cutie Quilt with Pumpkin Seeds -- Tutorial in As the Bobbin Turns

I think I've warned you of my current obsession with pumpkin seed quilting.  I've used recently it on a few quilt borders (here and here) and wanted to see if I could easily stitch it all over a quilt.

I'm also currently crushing on my Squared Away Cutie Quilt pattern so I quickly stitched one up in various blue fabrics similar to these, basted up my quilt, and sat down to machine quilt.

When I needed to mark, I used a 1 1/2" grid stencil and pounce powder and happily quilted this up!

Doesn't the texture look great on here?

Imperfectly done, but still perfect, right?

This quilt now belons to my new grandson's one-year-old cousin.

Watch the full video tutorial in As the Bobbin Turns, my collection of exclusive subscriber videos.

July Color Blocks Quilt -- "Either / Or" Machine Quilting Tutorial

I've been hiding in my air-conditioned sewing room this summer with plenty of time to machine quilt. I haven't asked myself, "How can I finish this quilt quickly?" lately since I have nothing but time to quilt.  This month's Color Block quilt, Either / Or, is custom quilted and used a lot of thread.  I enjoy the process and love the finished quilt!

I used white thread for all of the quilting and it looks great on both the orange and the blue blocks.

I quilted the four-patch blocks with ribbon candy, continuous curve, and swirls.

I quilted the Color Blocks quilts with continuous points (?) and ribbon candy.

I love the little stars in each block!

Join my FREE Color Blocks 2025 class to download the pattern and watch the machine quilting tutorial.

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Materials:

• Batt Scooters
• White 50-weight Konfetti cotton thread
• White 80-weight DecoBob polyester thread
• Ribbon Candy Stencil

Bowl of Cherries Cutie Quilt -- Custom Quilting Video

 I pulled more fabrics from my Garden Gatherings Fat Quarter Tower to piece this Bowl of Cherries Cutie Quilt.

This quilt turned out to be everything I wanted it to be and so much more!!!

Any quilting edge-to-edge quilting design would be sufficient to hold the layers of this quilt together, but I was in the mood for custom quilting.  

I started off by quilting curves using a machine quilting ruler.  I filmed a class for Annie's Attic that will teach you everything you need to know to start quilting with rulers on your home sewing machine.

I quilted ribbon candy between the curves and then stitched some feathers to fill each block.  I teach these feathers step-by-step in my Machine Quilted Feathers online class. 

I quilted the borders with more ribbon candy and more feathers!  

I show all of this quilting plus a trick for spacing feathers in a border in my latest YouTube video.  

Watch it now!

These are the first two Cutie Quilts I've made from the Garden Gatherings Fat Quarter Tower.

 

I still have more fabric left and will make more Cutie Quilts soon!

July Color Blocks Quilt -- Either / Or FREE PATTERN

 Got Scraps?  Sign up for my FREE 2025 Color Blocks Scrap Quilt Along for a year of scrappy baby quilt patterns and machine quilting tutorials.

July's quilt is a two-block quilt called Either / Or.  It takes very little fabric from stash and uses a lot of scrap 2 1/2" squares.  If you've been quilting along for any part of the last five years (can it really be five years!?!?!?), you have processed your scrap fabrics into 2 1/2" squares and can easily stitch this quilt together!

While I love all of my Color Block Quilts equally, I really Really REALLY love this one!  

What two colors will you choose for your quilt?  Go to the Color Blocks class, download the pattern and planning page, and get stitching!

5 Simple Steps to Stitching with Pro-Stitcher Premium™

Most of my online quilting content is free-motion quilting on a home machine, with some stationary longarm and longarm content thrown in. But did you know that I also teach quilters how to use Pro-Stitcher Premium, a computerized quilting system that works with Handi Quilter and other brands of longarms? My husband laughs every time he thinks of me teaching anything related to computers. Me (calling hubby at work): "Jeff, the printer isn't working." Him: "Is it plugged in?" Me: "Shut up." Click.

Let's just say I'm not a natural with computers. I've tried and cried and dug in and got confused and cried some more and finally figured out what is essential to know to use this program.

My in-person students leave class with confidence and have been asking for videos they can refer to from home, so I filmed one. 'Cuz I'm nice like that. Head on over to YouTube to watch the video

Download this Infographic HERE.

I plan to film more of these.  I take suggestions!

Squared Away Cutie Quilt featuring Pat Sloan's Bird Song fabric

Do you have a quilt pattern or machine quilting pattern that is just like a hug?  Squared Away is my comfort quilt pattern and ribbon candy is my comfort machine quilting pattern.

Squared Away is the very first Cutie Pattern I designed, and I've made over 20 of these.  Since it uses 16 fat eighth cuts of fabric, I get to enjoy so many fabrics in each quilt!  I could make this quilt every day and not get bored.  

I could also machine quilt this quilt every day with ribbon candy and never get bored.

Pat Sloan's Bird Song fabric from Benartex was gorgeous to work with.  

As I was making this quilt, it told me who it would belong to and the quilt is winging its way to the new owner.