Design Wall Monday

Dear April, I am glad to see you!

In March, I spent:

• 18 nights in
• 6 hotels in
• 5 states. I spent
• 6 more days traveling to and from
• 2 quilt shows,
• 1 training event and
• 3 events at quilt shops. I visited
• 3 more quilt shops while I was on the road. I quilted
• 3 customer quilts, including
• 1 for a magazine (more on this later). I ended my month wishing my son a happy
• 25 year-old birthday. This fact confuses me, since I am only
• 29 years old myself. That is my story; I am not changing it.

If you add all of those numbers together, they equal

• 1 very tired Debby!

One of the quilt shops I visited was Bits 'N Pieces in Pelham, NH. I love that shop! Liz is a wonderful shop owner and the students there are out-of-this-world fabulous! Since my last visit there was marked by a hurricane, followed by tornadoes, flooded roads, and three days stranded in a hotel waiting for the airport to reopen, this visit was 100% pleasure!

I picked up some fabric for my red and white memory quilt and just now had time to make my blocks (see explanation above):

It's gonna be a great quilt!

Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

Last week I drove through Massachusetts and stopped at a cute new quilting shop: Sturbridge Quilting and Sewing Center.

The owner, Gina Zeleznok, is a talented quilter and teacher (she's also a good friend of mine):

I bought some red and white fabrics to make my memory blocks:

Check out Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

Or should I say Design Sofa Monday? I am traveling and took this photo on the sofa in my hotel room.

I decided that I liked the 4-patch center and stitched it down. These blocks make great hand-sewing for travel, so expect more finished blocks in future posts. They are all made from scraps, so each block will be slightly different.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

A bug is running through the internet quilting community. Have you caught it? I have.

It is the Dresden Plate bug. I caught it from The Old Red Barn Flickr group. Deb from Works in Progress has a great tutorial on how to make these blocks. If you check the date of the tutorial, you will see that this bug took several months to incubate. Now that it has caught me, though, I have a very serious case and may never recover:

Is that cute or what? I am just auditioning the 4-patch center; it may be replaced with a solid circle eventually.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

Did you see the red and white quilt exhibit in New York City last year? I did not and I am still very sad about that.

I have one of the greatest jobs ever: I get to travel to different quilt shops and quilt shows all over North America. My travel season is from March until November, so I am packing my bags. Every year I tell myself I am going to make a memory quilt with fabric from each place I visit and each year I neglect to get organized and actually do it.

Not so this year! I am making a red and white quilt with fabric from each place I visit. I have already visited Sew Inspired in Simsbury, CT. If you have not yet been to their store, you must plan a trip soon!

I bought a lot of things at the shop, but I bought a fat quarter of red fabric and a fat quarter of white fabric. I made these two blocks:

Each block is labeled with the shop name and location:

I always remember to buy fabric wherever I go, but I hope I remember to specifically buy red and white fabrics at each shop and show so I have a great 2012 memory quilt!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

I love winter! OK, I do hate being cold and I do miss the sun, but in the winter I don't travel much to teach quilting and have time to stay home and sew!

The proof is on my design wall:

The blocks on the left are from a Block-of-the-Month at the Quilt Basket.

The block on the right is a variation of Sugar Pop N Change from Moda Bake Shop. The variation is because I read the directions wrong.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Quilt Therapy

Do you ever have a day when you need to hide in the sewing room and just make something? I had one of those days this week.

I decided to try and thread paint the applique design from this quilt:

I grabbed some thread:

The threads are Accent, Konfetti and Tutti, all from WonderFil.

I sat down at my sweet Sweet Sixteen (my new sewing machine) and tensioned it to run multiple threads:



(I took the time to get it just right.)

I started filling in the shapes:



Suddenly, a flower appeared!



A short time later, the thread painting was complete:



Next it needed to be quilted:



(Now you know my secret: I watch Law & Order dvds on my laptop while machine quilting.)

The inner circle was quilted:



I added some simple quilting in the border and bound it:



This 14-inch square quilt was finished at the end of a day of quilt therapy.

I felt much better!

Design Wall Monday

I've just returned from a tour of North America:

• Quilting With Machines in Huron, OH (teaching 4 classes)
• Machine Quilters Exposition in Portland, OR (working for Handi Quilter)
• Central Sewing in Edmonton, AB (teaching 10 classes)
• International Quilt Festival

I loved being in all those different places and meeting all of the quilters, but I also couldn't wait to get home and start quilting something!

Last summer, I designed and made this quilt. The fabric is Blue Skies from Paintbrush Studios.

This quilt (and I) will be on Quilt It! on QNNtv.com in January. The quilt is currently touring Europe and Asia with WonderFil Threads.

I wanted to see what that same applique design would look like done in redwork (or green-work).

I stitched this from the back side of the fabric using a triple-stitch on my sewing machine. It's a little ragged, but it was fun to just play! Has anyone else done redwork on their sewing machine? Any tips to keep it smoother?

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

That new project I just started? I finished the first block:

Good thing it is only a tablerunner; this one is going to take a while!

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Design Wall Monday

I actually have something on my design wall!





It is a dreary rainy day here in NY, so the photo is not great. Sorry!

In a few weeks I will be filming an episode of Quilt It, a longarm quilting show on QNNtv.com, and these are my samples. I just finished the applique and piecing and will start quilting them in the morning.

How will I qulit them? Stay tuned.

Head on over to Judy's blog to see how everyone else is doing.

Please check out my free-motion quilting videos.