"I Am Bat" Color Block Quilt: Machine Quilting Tutorial

Machine quilting this quilt has been a bright spot in my last month.  I had so much fun with the bright colors and the "accuracy isn't important" aspects of my latest quilt finish.

Join Color Blocks Volume 4 (for free!), download the scrap quilting pattern, and watch how I machine quilted this quilt just in time for spooky season.

I used my 4" Offset Circle Stencil and pounce to mark circles, then I stitched either a line or a spiderweb in each circle.  No two spiderwebs are the same and they all are imperfect.  

I used WonderFil Tutti Grass thread; it's shades of pastel greens but looks bright against the dark purple fabric.

Sometimes when I finish a quilt I wish I had made a different choice for the machine quilting.  For this quilt, though, I can't imagine anything that would have made me happier than these wonky spiderwebs!

New Color Block Pattern: Henri Flamingo

Are you ready for a quick and easy scrap quilt?  Make the Henri the Flamingo Color Block quilt!

Since it only requires one Color Block this won't empty your pink scrap bin, but this is an adorable way to make a dent.

I've taught this as a guild workshop for a few years and now the pattern is free for you.

Try it with a light background, a dark background, or in any color combination you'd like!

To get this pattern, enroll in my Color Blocks vol. 3 class for free and download the .pdf file.

A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance, so be flamboyant and make this quilt!

Guessing Game

I need some baby boy quilts, so I dug out my box of 2 1/2" blue scrap squares and started making Color Blocks (8-inch 16-patches).

When I emptied my pink scrap box, I made 135 Color Blocks.  I think that box was a little smaller than the blue one, so I'm guessing that I'll make about 160 blue Color Blocks.

I've already made 17 blocks and some of the squares are in piles next to my sewing machine waiting to be stitched.  

So, how many blue Color Blocks do you think I can make from this box?

(Mis) Matched Socks

 I finished a fun pair of socks while I was out of town hanging out with my Mom.  

Back in the 80s, I treasured two pair of Bobbie Brooks slacks that I purchased on a deep discount, one in each of these colors.  Both yarns were Core Gusto, one dyed by Cece's Wool in upstate New York and one purchased from Yarn Bits and Bobs in Pittsburgh.

I added a Doodle (charted colorwork) from The Doodle Knit Directory and worked an accent diamond stripe around each ankle.  It's a little tricky because knitters can pull the yarn too tight and make the sock skinnier when using two yarns.  I think I successfully avoided that!

After I made the first sock, I decided to make the second in the opposite colors.  Kind of a matching pair but not really.  

My mother in law has known each other for 42+ years; she knows I'm weird and loves me anyway.  She apparently has strong opinions against mismatched socks.  When I finished the socks, I simply had to wear them to her house, take off my shoes, and point to my feet.  She laughingly said "You have to make socks that MATCH, Debby!"  

Just for her, I think my next pair of socks will have crazy stripes, but be identical to each other.  We'll see if that satisfies her.

In case you didn't catch it, I adore my mother in law.

An Away-from-home finish: Storm Junior Sweater

I'm away from home for an extended period of time and I truly miss my sewing room.  Fortunately I also knit and knitting is quite portable.  

After finishing a pair of socks, I got to work on finishing a sweater for one of my grandsons.

The pattern is Storm Junior from PetiteKnit.  I saw this as a class sample at Pick Up Every Stitch yarn shop in Mt. Kisco, NY.  This classes didn't fit into my schedule but I was brave, bought the yarn at the shop, and decided to try making the sweater on my own.

"On my own" means "with a few panic-filled phone calls to my daughter and several YouTube videos," but I did finish and am happy with the results.

This Petit Knits pattern had some non-intuitive shaping that made perfect sense once I figured it out (i.e. start in the middle of the back and then knit up over the shoulders).  I already knew how to knit from a chart but learned how to do an Italian cast off, how to rib for a neat folded neckband, and how to join and cast off the neckband at the same time.  New skills that I'm sure I'll use again in future projects.

Italian Cast Off

I used some yummy yarn in a color that my daughter-in-law picked out:  It's a lovely merino wool in a blue/gray that might look more dull in the photo than in real life.

My daughter and daughter-in-law both knit and will appreciate and care for this hand-knit sweater that will hopefully be worn and covered in mud as the precious boy explores the world around him this fall/winter.

Yes Sir, Yes Sir, Three Pairs of Socks

 I have a dream of only wearing hand-knit socks, knit by me in all sorts of fun and funky colors and patterns.  That dream is not yet a reality, but...

I just finished my third pair of shortie socks.

I am in Pittsburgh for a few weeks and both my mother and my mother-in-law are bothered that these socks aren't identical.  I am absolutely unbothered by that and since they are my socks, we're all good.

I made these socks from a single cone of Laines du Nord Watercolor Sock yarn.  

The label says the color is Brown/Blue.  Than confused me until I looked online and found that it's a nickname for Brown/Blue/ Green/Yellow.  The longer name fits the color better than the nickname.

Both pair of shortie socks I have made before were knit from the ankle to the heel to the toe.  For these socks, I knit starting at the toe (Turkish cast on) 

then heel (wrap & turn)  

then ankle (super-stretchy cast off) using a pattern that shall remain nameless.  It was a free pattern online and if you've never knit this type of sock before, the pattern does not explain enough to help you complete the sock.  I *might* have cussed a wee bit when knitting the first wrap & turn heel.  Fortunately my daughter and her wife are both expert knitters and my dear friend is a knitting pattern writer and yarn shop owner.  I'm surrounded by knitting GENIUSES.  

With their help, I finished the first sock and then was able to knit the second sock by checking my notes.  I will knit this type of sock again and don't want to discourage you from these techniques; simply use a more instructional pattern or take a class at your local yarn shop.

I am itching to cast on another pair of socks, but first I want to finish grandson #four's sweater.  I have half a sleeve and the neckband left.  Then I can start a new pair of socks. 

Maybe I'll do two-color socks with a pretty pattern?  Or color block socks?  So many choices!

Finished: Forever USA Wool Table Mat

I went to a retreat at Primitive Gatherings in Wisconsin in late June.  One of our projects was a wool mat, Forever USA.  Starting so late in June made finishing in time for the Fourth of July nearly impossible for me.  I didn't want it to end up as a neglected UFO, however, so I kept working on it until it was finished.

I'm new to wool applique so this is far from perfect, but I learned a whole lot.  I picked up a copy of Wool, Needle & Thread when I was at the retreat, and that book helped me a lot.

This season of life is really busy for me as I'm out of town at least a week every month hanging out with my mom.  I don't want to let the things that are important to me fall away, though, so I try to stitch a little every morning with my first cup of tea.  I've been watching a course on Great Courses about Greek mythology (yes, because of the new Odyssey movie coming out).  A little bit of information is sticking in my brain, a little bit of stitching is getting done, and I find I've been able to stitch most days!

I promised myself that I'd start another hand-stitching project so I pulled out something completely irrational to work on next.  

These are two-inch 4-patches and one-inch hand appliqued pink circles.  

It's a good thing that there are a lot of Greek gods to learn about because this is going to take FOREVER!

How Quickly Can You Quilt a Quilt?

I often tell my students "The best thing that ever happened to machine quilting is Pinterest.  Also, the worst thing that ever happened to machine quilting is Pinterest."  So many pretty pictures of perfect machine quilting make us think that all quilting has to be complex and time consuming!

Last weekend I taught "Quick E2E Free-Motion Quilting Designs" class to a longarm quilting group from Quilters' Corner at Middlebury Sew & Vac (virtually), because sometimes you just need to hold the layers of a quilt together.

I pulled out a Suitable for Framing quilt top from my Color Blocks, vol. 1 Scrap Quilting Class and mounted it on my longarm.

Yes, I floated the quilt; don't judge.  There are pros and cons to doing so, but this was to showcase quick quilting, right?

I decided to stitch a simple wiggle across the quilt every two inches.  Fortunately the blocks were made up of two-inch squares and each sashing and border was four inches.  It was pretty easy to eyeball the quilting without any marking at all!

I knew I wanted my wiggles to run from the top to the bottom of the quilt so I mounted the quilt sideways.  I could quilt horizontally but end up with vertical wiggles!

I bound up this scrappy quilt using leftover blue binding strips.  The quilt was finishing in a no time at all and is ready to be loved (and laundered) as it will be gifted to my friend's new grandbaby.

A New Ta-Da! for my Toes

 I had some Passenger Princess time last week while we drove to check on our parents and I finished my latest pair of socks!

I make short socks because having anything above my ankles makes my legs swell (thanks, heart failure!).  These are wool so they work great as shortie socks with sneakers in the summer and also with some of my funky Fluevogs in the winter.  

My go-to pattern is Rye by Tin Can Knits.  The original pattern has garter stitch detailing down the front, but I don't have any time for that nonsense (Garter in the round?  Heck no! If you know, you know).  I've adapted the pattern to fit my feet and can pick up any ball of sock yarn and make myself the perfect pair of socks.

Not willing to leave good enough alone, I want to try something new so I cast on socks using Twice Sheared Sheep's pattern.  They are toe-up and I already learned Turkish cast on.  

I look forward to the day when I have a full drawer of hand-knit socks to match all of my funky outfits and shoes.  Fortunately, funky-colored sock yarn is easy to find when you buy from indie dyers.

Bomb Pop: Machine Quilting on my Home Sewing Machine

 I purchased the Bomb Pop pattern and fabric at Primitive Gatherings in June so I'd have something to stitch in the evenings when I wasn't working on retreat projects like Grand Old Flag and Forever USA.  I pieced Bomb Pop in an evening and a morning, then basted it while I had those big, beautiful, free-of-clutter tables in the Gathering retreat center.  I jumped right into machine quilting it when I got home.

If you've known me for any length of time, you won't be surprised that I chose ribbon candy for the quilting design in the white strips.  I didn't the red and blue strips to feel unloved, so I quilted them too, but with a wiggle instead of ribbon candy.  I like the contrast of the dense quilting next to the sparse quilting.

I chose white thread for the entire quilt.  Yes, some of my stitch in the ditch shows on the blue and red and I DON'T CARE.  Is that wrong?  I may make this quilt again and quilt it with invisible thread just to see if no-show stitch-in-the-ditch makes a ginormous difference, but I'm completely at peace with how I quilted this quilt.

During the quilting, my bobbin thread decided to get fussy so I had to break out my seam ripper to unpick about 5 blocks of stitching.  The joy of less than perfect tension is that it's super easy to pick out!

I filmed a short video showing how I quilted this quilt.  You can watch it HERE.

I'm in the habit of immediately machine binding my quilts.  The hour I spend doing that instead of letting my unbound quilts stack up keeps me sane.  Looking at a chair full of unbound quilts would make me feel completely out of control!  I've done it before; I know what I'm avoiding.

Like most of the northeast United States, we had ghastly hot temperatures last weekend.  I went outside to try and take some good photos and immediately remembered why I just had central air conditioning installed. I quickly snapped one photo of this quilt and here it is:

I have no particular recipient in mind for this quilt.  If no one comes to mind, I'll take it and some other quilts to give to my local police officers.  

William's Cherrywood Quilt: A Subscriber-Only Video

 Have you ever made a quilt using Cherrywood fabric?  I haven't.  I bought Cherrywood fabric over a decade ago, but I never stitched with it... until now.

I was late making my newest grandson's baby quilt but I think it was worth the wait.

Isn't that yummy?  I wanted to spend a lot of time quilting this quilt since it was so pettable, so there's A LOT of quilting on this quilt.

Ribbon candy (naturally) and free-motion pumpkin seeds:

Free-motion continuous curve:

Free-motion continuous curve, with embellishment:

8-pointed star quilted using rulers:

Free-motion 1-in pumpkin seeds (1960 of them):

Every minute of machine quilting was PURE JOY!  No accidents, no puckers, no drama.  Just hours and Hours and HOURS of blissful machine quilting.

Do you want to see how I accomplished this quilting?  I have a 20 minute video in As the Bobbin Turns, where I post my subscriber-only content.  Are you a member?  You can subscribe monthly or annually and get a behind-the-scenes look and answer the "How did she do that?" question.

I'm caught up on grandbaby quilts for now, but still soooooo far behind on wedding quilts!  Expect to see a run of those in the future.

Halloween + Barbie = A Fun Finish

 In the quilting world, we revere locations like Houston and Paducah, KY.  That's because they are home to famous quilt festivals.  I've been to both places and both are worth the hype.

I also knit.  In the knitting world, the room goes quiet when you mention Rhinebeck, NY.  It's the home of a famous knitting festival, the Sheep and Wool Festival.  While I don't live in Rhinebeck, NY, it is in my county and I get to go without any airfare, hotels, or major planning.  Since my daughter and her wife both knit, it's a fun family outing for us all.

In 2024 I bought some yarn at Rhinebeck from Flying Goat Farm.  It was hand-dyed sock yarn that was wool, some nylon for strength, plus a strand of something shimmery.  One half of the skein was dyed in Halloween colors (black and orange) and the other half was Barbie Pink!  I had to have it!

In recent months, I've been away from home a lot.  Knitting is a no-prep travel project so 18 months later I finally used that Halloween Barbie yarn and made myself a pair of socks

I had such a fun time knitting them and now I get to have a fun time wearing them!  I figured out my personal sock formula of which yarn, which needle (flexi flips), how many stitches around (56), how long for the cuff (10 rows ribbing + 10 rows st st), how long for the foot, and all that jazz.  If you knit, allow me to brag that I did the kitchener stitch on the second sock without looking up the instructions (sewing the toe together and ending the sock).  Be impressed!

I've already cast on another pair of socks so I don't forget my magic formula for socks that fit me!

I recently sorted my bag of purchased sock yarn and found that I can knit a pair of socks every month for a few years without buying more yarn.  While that won't actually stop me from buying more yarn, it's very comforting that I am well-supplied and not likely to run out soon!

How I Machine Quilted the Village Quilt on my Home Sewing Machine

I had sew much fun quilting my beach-themed Village Quilt!

This quilt came together as part of Tracy Mooney’s Quilt Along.  The quilt along is still active, so follow along with Tracy at Sew Supportive. My houses reminded me of the bathing houses at Dendy Beach near Melbourne, Australia.

I added a fun beachy fabric for the back chose a simple wave machine quilting design that felt like the perfect finishing touch for the beach theme. Sometimes the simplest quilting designs are the most effective, and the wave quilting finished this quilt beautifully.

Of course, quilting plans have a funny way of evolving once you get started.

I was completely engrossed in listening to The Count of Monte Cristo while quilting and kept quilt as the Count got his revenge. What started as simple wave quilting turned into even more texture as I added asterisks and switchbacks across the quilt.  Apparently, I couldn’t stop quilting until the Count’s revenge was fully complete!

One of my favorite things in life is quilting while listening to an audiobook and this book/quilt pairing was supremely satisfying.

I’m so happy with how this quilt turned out. The fun houses that I stitched with love + breezy wave stitching + added texture = The perfect quilt!

Head over to YouTube to watch my machine quilting tutorial.

Have you ever found yourself adding “just a little more quilting” because you were hooked on a great audiobook? 

Color Blocks Catch Up -- Shamrocks (volume 4)

 I just finished machine quilting Shamrocks, a small seasonal quilt from Color Blocks, volume 4.

 

The machine quilting for this quilt was so quick!  I was almost sad that I didn't get to enjoy the process longer.

The Shamrock Charm Stencil from Full Line Stencils was the focus of the machine quilting plan.  I would mark and stitch a shamrock, stitch loops around it, and then mark and stitch another shamrock.  It was as easy as 1-2-3!

Color Blocks Volume 4 is free until I finish all of the content.  If you enroll now, Shamrocks and all other patterns and tutorials will be yours for free forever; only new enrollments will have a cost attached.

February Project Round Up

 Honeybloom Quilt

Grandma's Album

Heart Pop!

Eureka! I Discovered a New (to me) FMQ Pattern!

 Years ago, I pieced the free Fat Quarter Shop Jelly Roll Mystery Quilt.  The complete pattern is still available free online.  I knew I wanted to quilt swirling snowflakes and I finally got around to quilting them!

Oh.  My.  Heck!  This new (to me) free-motion quilting pattern is THE BEST!  I'd be shocked if other quilters hadn't done this pattern before, but it was something I saw in my mind and really wanted to try stitching on fabric.

Doesn't that look great!?!?!?!  It was a simple motif, twisted and repeated to fill an entire quilt.

I'm laughing at the irony of being excited about this snowflake pattern when I'm at the point of winter where I mutter "I'm so over this winter" under my breath many, many times a day.

Join my As the Bobbin Turns community for subscriber-only videos like this one.  Join monthly or annually and get a peek over my shoulder as I create in my studio.

How I Machine Quilted Tracy Mooney's Heart Pop! Quilt on my Home Sewing Machine

It all started with a pile of purple fabric in my stash.  My sister loves anything purple so in my mind, that fabric was meant to be made into a quilt for her.  When I saw Tracy Mooney's Heart Pop! quilt pattern, it was all over but the cutting, piecing, and stitching.  (Tracy filmed a tutorial on how to piece this quilt.)  I love when everything falls into place!

Most of the machine quilting happened during the New York Blizzard of 2026, when snow was piling up outside my sewing room window and I knew I had nothing to do but quilt until the roads were clear. My soundtrack was the hum of my sewing machine and the roar of my husband's snow blower.  Snowstorms are much more fun when someone else is dealing with the mountain of snow!

To lean into the heart theme, I decided to machine quilt columns of hearts down the quilt using my  home sewing machine, my ABC Circle Heart Stencil, a pounce pad, and some yummy Omni-V and DecoBob threads.  Watching those heart shapes emerge row by row was pure joy.

Honestly, is there anything better than snow-day sewing? While I didn't get to skip school and chose to not go outside to play, I gave myself permission to spend hours doing I what I loved.  

I filmed while I was quilting, so head on over to YouTube to watch how I quilted this beautiful quilt!