Machine Quilting Tip #3

Do you love to quilt feathers? Looking for something just as fun, but a bit different? How about leaves. Kim Stotsenberg, over at Sew-n-Sew Quilting, has published a great booklet called Just Leaf It. The booklet teaches how to quilt the basic leaf shape, how to add swirls and curlicues, and includes a sampler of leaf designs for borders, corners, squares, setting triangles, and melon shapes. It also has leaf designs for four different quilt patterns and a picture gallery. I'm including a pic of a small wall hanging that I made utilizing Kim's technique and booklet.

You can purchase Just Leaf It at Kim's blog, here.

If you visit Kim's blog, please be sure to leave her a comment and let her know that you heard about her here.

Machine Quilting Tip #2

One thing I love is the look of curved crosshatching and I've always had my eye out for just the right tool. Well, I've found it and its DeLoa's Boomerang rulers! She has three different boomerangs that have different curves depending on how curvy you want your crosshatching to be, based on 12", 15", and 20" circles. The rulers have increments of 1/4" up to 1 1/4" so you can have a choice of how far apart you want your lines. They also have the increments from the concave as well as convex curves for easier handling. These rulers are intended for long-arm quilters and are made of Plexiglass so they are a bit more expensive than your regular stencil. However, they work great. I just used mine to mark cross-hatching on the baskets of my Bunny Hills BOM. Deloa has a free instructional video on her website... check it out!

Machine Quilting Tip #1

Over the weekend, I taught a no-mark, free-motion feathers quilting class at my local quilt shop. During the class, I shared a number of machine quilting tips with my students. I have additional tips and information that I promised to share on my blog, but instead of starting out with one of my own, I wanted to share this great tip on Aligning the Quilt Sandwich from Red Pepper Quilts. This tip/tutorial is particularly useful if you like to piece your backing and want to align the back with the top. Also, Red Pepper Quilts quilted her mini quilt with a square spiral and shares a very clever way to mark where to take the turns. Please be sure to leave a comment for Red Pepper Quilts thanking her for her tip/tutorial and let her know that you heard about her here. Thanks for visiting and I'll share tip #2 in the next few days.

The Polka Dot Sunflower

If you've followed this blog at all, you know that I teach a class on this sunflower and each time I make another. I decided to break out of my traditional rut and go for the polka dots. So here's a pic of the wall hanging in process. I still need to quilt it, but that will come. In 2010 I promise!

PS - If you see faint stitching on the wall hanging, it's because I've machine basted it with Vanish Lite.

A delightful introduction

Pam (you know her as Library Gal Quilts) and a few of her friends threw a party this weekend to introduce their friends to Miss Meander, their new long arm machine. And do those girls know how to throw a party! Miss Meander has her own studio and it was beautifully decorated with quilts on the walls (what else?), beautiful flowers, a dessert table, and the laughter and sounds of friendships made through quilting. Four gals are the owners of Miss Meander and I predict they will all be quilting up a storm in no time. I am, of course, jealous.

Finished Quilt in 2010 - #2

Several weeks ago I showed you a sneak peek. Here's the finished project. It's based on a pattern from Don't look now. I used a vintage linen napkin as the background and went from there. It was so much fun. I can hardly wait to make another one!