2.28.2014

Sewing Quick Tips - How-to: Chain Piece

Kathleen and I are always trying to make the sewing process a little quicker, when piecing quilts, especially all the quilts in Modern One-Block Quilts we chain pieced everything. Chain piecing helps to make the process quicker, and if you're like me, I like to sew, then stop and take a break and press. This way my body doesn't seem to get as tired, and it's faster!

2.27.2014

Like an Antique Quilt

Holly over at Moda Fabrics pieced this darling Lush Uptown quilt. When Hollly sent me this quilt she included a picture of an antique quilt, made from the same pattern, and asked me to machine quilt this one just like the original.
Challenge accepted!
Antique, hand-quilted quilts have way less quilting than I typically do, but I love when the machine quilting compliments the piecing. I'm so glad that Holly had the idea to machine quilt this quilt like the original version. I love what it did for the quilt.

Have a nice day!

2.26.2014

Calico Hive Quilt

Lisa is always making adorable quilts, you may remember her Cherry quilt or her Mixing It Up quilt, well today she's got another adorable one that I custom machine quilted for her.
This adorable quilt pattern comes from Lori Holt's book, Quilty Fun, and it's called Calico Hive.
The bees are adorable, so I machine quilted some fun details on them to really make them pop!
Love your quilt Lisa!

Speaking of adorable quilts & Lori Holt, Lori will be teaching a few classes and sharing her quilts in a trunk show this summer at Small Town Quilt Show - In a Big Town Way, there are still openings in her classes, register for a Lori Holt class today!

2.24.2014

How-to: Children's St. Patricks Day Embroidered Apron

Today Kathleen and I are sharing another fun Embroidery tutorial. 

2.23.2014

Teaching at Quiltique- Las Vegas, Nevada

Kathleen and I had a fabulous weekend, we spent the weekend in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. Most of our time was spent at Quiltique.
Quiltique is an amazing quilt shop, it's possibly heaven for us quilters. :)

While we were there we spent two full days teaching from our books, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting and Modern One-Block Quilts.
The students in all 3 classes were all so much fun, two students even celebrated their birthdays there, bringing mini bunt cakes for the whole class!

 Our first class was A-Maze Me. A-Maze Me is one of the patterns in Modern One-Block Quilts. The pattern contains one block repeated several times to create a cool geometric quilt. One of my very favorite parts of teaching classes is seeing the variety of quilt blocks when we are finished. I love seeing the colors that each student uses to make the quilt their own.

 Our Orange Slices class was a fun class as well. There were several in that class who had never done any applique before, and ended up leaving with several beautiful blocks, and the ladies were a hoot, lots and lots of laughs. 
The pattern for Orange Slices is available in Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.
These ladies even got a bonus, Kathleen binds all of our quilts by machine, so she gave the ladies in the class a hands-on demonstration of how-to bind by machine.

One student was a super over-achiever, she made our Twisted Up pattern, from Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting in linens and brought it to class to show us. This quilt was beautiful in linen.
Saturday was a day full of Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, the class was sold out and our students impressed me with their abilities and desire to create!
Many of the students had never done any free-motion quilting before and left with some fabulous quilt sandwiches.
Check out Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting if you're interested in learning my free-motion quilting process.

Thank you very much to Jan, Bob, Jennifer, Kara & Stori, along with all of the other fabulous staff. Your store is fabulous and I'll make sure to stop in again when I'm in town. :)

Contact Natalia if you are interested in having her come to your quilt guild or quilt shop for information about teaching.

2.20.2014

Cabana - a Modern One Block Quilt -- How to: Template Piecing

Okay, I had big plans to wait until next week to share this quilt, but I can't help myself, this is my very, very favorite quilt, at this moment, it'll probably change in a few days. :)

2.19.2014

Tiny Log Cabins

I recently finished machine quilting this adorable Log Cabin quilt. Not only is this quilt adorable, I am amazed by the blocks, the log cabin strips all finish at 1/2" in width, they are tiny!
The quilt was so much fun to quilt. If you look closely at the border I machine quilted flowers in each of the marked scallops.

Here is my little tip about scallops, if you plan to scallop your border and  want your machine quilter to custom quilt something in those scallops, mark them ahead of time, just like Terri did with this quilt.

Have a great day! 

2.17.2014

How to: St. Patricks Day Embroidered Dish Towels

Kathleen and I are so excited to share our newest tutorial with you today. Not only do I LOVE these dish towels, but we made a fun video tutorial to go along with them. 

2.12.2014

Quilt Cast!


This morning I spent a little time chatting with my friends Amy of Amy's Creative Side and April of Prairie Grass Patterns. It was fun to talk about all things machine quilting, and we chatted a little bit about Small Town Quilt Show - In a Big Town Way
Hop over to Amy's blog to listen to our chat. :)

2.10.2014

Peaks and Valley's Quilt

Last week I spent a few days machine quilting this beautiful Peaks and Valley's Quilt for Stori at Quiltique Quilt Shop.
I'll be there teaching in a few weeks so I've been machine quilting a few quilts for them.
The original version of this adorable quilt was designed by Tula Pink and machine quilted by Angela Walters and published in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. 
Stori loved the quilt and asked me to machine quilt her quilt similar to the original version. 
This was so much fun, the quilt is darling and with a double batting the quilting really pops!
I don't normally take pictures of the quilts I quilt before I began the quilting, but this time I did, and I think it's fun to see how the quilting can transform a quilt.
I also shared a few pictures on Instagram while I was quilting, it's always so much fun to hear all the positive comments while I'm quilting, they are so encouraging.

2.06.2014

Swirls & Whirls - By Sherri McConnell

Last fall I had the opportunity to custom machine quilt this adorable quilt for my friend Sherri of A Quilting Life
I was beyond thrilled and happy for Sherri when I heard that this quilt was appearing on the cover of American Patchwork & Quilting, April 2014! It's such a cheery quilt, I'm honored to have machine quilted it for her.
Here is how it appears in the magazine, oooohhhh and look at that adorable scrappy binding!
Well done Sherri!

2.05.2014

Year of Machine Quilting: Free Motion Quilting for Borders

Last month I shared how overjoyed I was that over the course of 2014 I will be sharing articles in Quiltmaker Magazine. Well, can you believe that it's already time for the second lesson, this month's lesson is all about borders.
The complete article starts on page 46.
This issue of Quiltmaker Magazine is available on newsstands everywhere.

Don't forget.....Over the year the my publisher, C&T Publishing, has agreed to join the fun and a few lucky readers will have the chance to win copies of my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.

2.04.2014

Pillow Collective

Hey friends! I'm super excited today to be joining Amy - from Amy's Creative Side. Amy is hosting a fun Pillow Collective. Lots of tutorials and ideas for pillows, pillows are such a fun way to add color to any room.

Today I've gathered up a few of the pillow tutorials that Kathleen and I have created over the years and we are sharing there here, in one post!

Take a minute and head over to Amy's blog to see more pillow inspiration!
Have a great day!

Small Town Quilt Show - In a Big Town Way

I can't believe it's already 2014 and Small Town Quilt Show - In a Big Town Way is just under 5 months away! Kathleen and I along with Michelle and Sue have been busy planning exciting activities for the event! We're planning a Pajama party, with some fabulous prizes, including some gift certificates from Fat Quarter Shop! You'll want to be there!

We've got a great line-up of teachers;

Tina Lewis

Can't wait to see you all in a few months!





2.03.2014

2014 Aurifil Machine Quilting Tip - February

Last month I shared my first Aurifil Machine Quilting tip, that tip was all about thread. This month, tip #2 is all about needles! 
I believe needles are a VERY important part in the machine quilting process.
I always use a titanium coated needle, also I recommend changing your needle with each project. I also really like to use embroidery needles for my machine quilting.