Cutie Quilt: Share and Share Alike

I have been playing with my walking foot on my home machine lately so I pulled out some Country Days fabric from Heidi Boyd (affiliate link*) and pieced a Share and Share Alike Cutie Quilt just so I could quilt it.  That's perfectly normal, right?  Lie to me.

The farm animals and crops on this fabric make me want to live on a farm (or at least buy more of this fabric).   And they make me want to quilt carrots.  Oh how I wish I were kidding about that.

I've always been intrigued by quilting spirals.  Fortunately, the fabulous Pat Sloan taught me how to quilt a spiral with my walking foot in her Teach Me to Machine Quilt book! (affiliate link*)

I threaded Hedwig, my HQ Stitch 710 machine, with my FabuLux Rocking Horse thread

and started quilting my spiral.  This thread color is my secret weapon.  It seems to blend with everything, but it would be more precise to say that it has blended with everything I've tried it on thus far.

This quilt is now bound and in my giveaway pile, but I'm not sure who shall receive it.  When the right person comes along, this quilt will be waiting for them!

Yesterday was day one of thirty-three days at home.  I am more excited than I can possibly express to be home for 33 straight days!  During that time I'm trying to find my cutting table.  It may take all 33 days, but I'm committed to the task.

I am working on On Ringo Lake and stitching up the scraps from my table into little Strippy Charm Pouches

Maybe if I make 1,000 pouches, my sewing table will be cleared off?
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*If you purchase something using an affiliate link I may, at no additional cost to you, receive a small commission to help keep the quilty love flowing.

On Ringo Lake -- part 2

I'm late for Sunday's link-up for On Ringo Lake, but I have a great excuse!  I just got home from my last teaching trip of the year at Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL.

As soon as I got home, I made a single flying geese block.  Only 199 more to go!

Check out everyone else's progress HERE.

I hoped to make more blocks tonight, but I will admit to being plum tuckered out.  The quilters occasionally wear me out, but the travel is actually the hard part.  If you don't believe me, believe my suitcase:

I wore this wheel down to the point where I had to drag it to my car today.  I'll look into replacing that wheel... after I get caught up on my sleep!

I'm home for 33 days and will rest a bit, but stay tuned for some fun quilting news.  I hope to reveal some of my top-secret projects soon!

Florida Wildlife

I am flying home from teaching at Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL today.  I am a bit nervous about these flights, though.  I was packing my luggage this morning and noticed a few specimens of Florida wildlife smuggled themselves into my suitcase and I'm worried about what TSA will do!

Thanks so much Susan!!!

The porcupine and owl will each hold bobbins, scissors, and pins on the side of a sewing machine.  I think that one will live on Errol at home and the other will live on Hedwig at home and travel with Pigwidgeon when we travel.

If they don't violate the wildlife regulations of the airlines.

Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL day THREE

I spent another excellent day at Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL.

The Handi Quilter Amara was behaving beautifully as Susan was quilting carrots:

For some unknown reason (cough* Bits N Pieces students *cough), I teach about carrots A LOT!

A student gave me a Dove chocolate after class and this was the message inside:

Who wants one of these "permission slips" while in a quilt shop?

One of my students challenged me to quilt her shirt today:

Challenge -- accepted!  Stay tuned to see what I can do with this.

A little behind the scenes look into my wild Friday night.  I was in bed with these before 8pm watching Netflix:

My students wore me out yesterday!

Today is my last day of teaching.  This has been a wonderful trip and I hope I get to come here again some time soon!

Guess What Day It Is?

It's the first day of the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge!

I'm teaching at Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL this week.  The quilters here are FABULOUS.  And there are cupcakes.  And it's Florida.  So I might never go home.

I had a great opportunity to swap cards with one of my students.  She makes the most beautiful notecards:

I am grateful for the gift and was thrilled to have a fabric postcard with me to exchange with her!

Thanks, Tari!

The Sweetest Job Ever

If you asked me what my dream job would be, it would be to teach quilting and be associated with great companies like Handi Quilter.  I'm living that dream!

Some days, though, my job is even sweeter than others.

I am teaching Handi Quilter classes this week at Tomorrow's Treasures in Ocala, FL.  The shop and quilters are, of course, fab!  But there's a little something "above and beyond" about this shop:

IT'S LOCATED NEXT TO A CUPCAKE SHOP!!!!!

What's a quilter to do?

This quilter did this:

And she enjoyed it very much in her hotel room last night!

I can't wait to learn what they will be selling today!

They Know How to Make a Girl Feel Special

For about a decade, I've taught several times a year at Bits N Pieces in Pelham, NH.  These folks are like family.

Aren't they a friendly bunch?

They have a very active longarm quilting club and members of that club pulled together a sweet surprise for me:  each made a copy of one of my quilt patterns, Arbor, and quilted it with techniques I taught them over the years.  They interrupted my trunk show with some show and tell of their own:

We grabbed an outdoor photo between the raindrops:

Cutie Quilt: Sweet Tooth

One of my favorite Cutie Patterns is Sweet Tooth.  Apparently it's one of your favorites, too, because it has already beaten two other quilts and is still in the running for the Cutie Madness contest.

Every Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Veterans' Day I start piecing a patriotic quilt for Quilts of Valor.  A few weeks ago I pulled fabric for my Veterans' Day QOV:

Then the fun piecing began.  One of the fabrics I chose was a batik from Pat Sloan's Sunday Drive line.

After I finished strip-piecing all of my blocks and set them into my quilt, the REAL fun began -- RIBBON CANDY QUILTING!!!!

I quilted row after row after row of ribbon candy and it made me deliriously happy!  If you want to learn to quilt ribbon candy, check out my Craftsy Class.

This quilt is ready to be delivered to Quilts of Valor for distribution to a service-man or -woman.  

On Ringo Lake, Part 1 -- A Quiltville Mystery

Turkey.  Stuffing.  Gravy.  Family around the table.  The chattering of small children.  These are all annual Thanksgiving rituals.  The ritual extends to the next day when I start Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt!

This year it's called On Ringo Lake.  I was able to finish step one in one day!

Check out everyone's progress HERE.  

I can't wait until next week's clue.  I'll be late but hope to catch up before Clue 3 is released!

Cutie Quilt: Share and Share Alike

I have been playing with my walking foot on my home machine lately so I pulled out some Dreamfield fabric (affiliate link*) and pieced a Share and Share Alike Cutie Quilt just so I could quilt it.  That's perfectly normal, right?  Lie to me.

The pattern calls for fat eighths and border fabric, but I had a half-yard pack.  I cut the blocks as instructed and pieced a border and binding from the rest of the half-yard pack.

I've always been intrigued by quilting spirals.  Fortunately, the fabulous Pat Sloan taught me how to quilt a spiral with my walking foot in her Teach Me to Machine Quilt book! (affiliate link*)

I threaded Hedwig, my HQ Stitch 710 machine, with my FabuLux Giggle thread

and started quilting my spiral!

This quilt is now bound and has already been given away.  A sweet woman in my church is confined to a wheelchair.  This quilt was the perfect size for her lap.  She loved it and that works for me, because I love her.
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*If you purchase something using an affiliate link I may, at no additional cost to you, receive a small commission to help keep the quilty love flowing.

This & That from Jillily Studio Blog Tour

I am so thrilled that today is my day on the Blog Tour for This and That from Jillily Studio for PennyRose Fabrics! 

I just returned home from the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas.  Daylight savings time plus dropping temperatures in upstate New York have me yearning for some brightness and cheer in my life.  I swoon over every piece of fabric that Jill has ever designed but This and That is especially wonderful because of the text on some of the prints.  It is an absolutely bright and cheerful line!

I chose a pattern that would contrast a white background with the luscious prints.  As a machine quilting teacher, the design of the quilt doesn't end with the pieced top.  I used wool batting which has loft to help show the contrast between the quilted and unquilted areas.  I chose geometric and organic quilting designs and used white thread throughout.

I'm always asked "How do you know what to quilt on your quilt top?"  I thought I'd show you how I decided on the quilting patterns for this quilt.

STEP ONE:  Decide where the ribbon candy quilting will go.

I'm very serious about this.  I think ribbon candy quilting is the most perfect machine quilting design in the whole quilting world.  When I look at a quilt, my first decision is "Where does the ribbon candy quilting go?"  In this quilt, it went in the inner border and sashings:

This is a 3-inch border which is a little wide for plain ribbon candy, so I added some loops inside each ribbon to fill the space well.

STEP TWO:  Pick a background design.

After I placed the ribbon candy, I added feathers in the background squares.  The feathers give the background a really rich texture:

STEP THREE:  Throw in some high-contrast texture.

This entire quilt is bordered by a three-inch checkerboard.  I wanted to quilt the border, but not distract from the beautiful prints.  I chose to stitch continuous curve in each square.  This simple design stands out beautifully next to the densely quilted ribbon candy:

STEP FOUR:  Frame what you want to feature.

The last decision I had to make for the machine quilting was "What do I do with the large star in the middle of the quilt?"  I decided to leave a one-inch unquilted border around each star point and to fill the middle with a swirling pattern:

I thoroughly enjoyed working with this fabric and quilting this quilt.  It is now on my sofa offering some much needed cheer in my dark and dreary house:

Check out each stop on the blog tour for This and That by Jillily Studio.

Tuesday 11/7/17 -- The Clever Quilt Studio -- Crystal Delaney -- http://cleverquiltstudio.com/
Wednesday 11/8/17 – Ameroonie Designs – Amy Chappell – www.amerooniedesigns.blogspot.com
Thursday 11/9/17 – Debby Brown Quilts – Debby Brown – higheredhands.blogspot.com
Friday 11/10/17 – That’s-Sew-Kari – Kari Steiger – thats-sew-kari.blogspot.com

MAIL CALL: The Letter "I"

The simple letter "I" doesn't make an exciting postcard, but you can't spell R-O-C-K-E-T-S-H-I-P without it!

I stitched the "I" down with FabuLux Cloudy Skies so it would contrast with the turquoise fabric:

I chose FabuLux Wisteria for the satin stitch because I wanted to add more colors to this card:

My "I":

Ready to mail:

Next week I'll finish this series with the "P"!

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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*If you buy something using an affiliate link I may, at no additional cost to you, receive a small commission to help keep this website running.

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.