Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting - An Interactive Class with Natalia Bonner

Hi firends! I'm super excited to announce my upcoming interactive class. 

It's finally here! Natalia has been traveling the United States and Canada teaching her widely popular class, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting. Now is your chance to take this class online, and more in depth then ever. 

Class starts June 11th, 2018! Register today, limited number of students.

Picture this - more than 50 quilting designs to create modern quilts with classic style! Natalia's instructions are detailed videos that make it much easier to get beautiful results on your quilting or sewing machine. Tips for choosing batting and thread, layering and basting, starting and stopping, and prepping your machine are included.

• Clear step-by-step videos takes the mystery out of free-motion quilting 

• Learn how to quilt all-over, as background filler, on borders, and on individual blocks 

• Loops and swirls, feathers and flames, flowers and vines, pebbles and more!

This hands-on class will last six weeks. 

Week 1 - Machine Quilting Basics

Week 2 - Allover Quilting

Week 3 - Background Fillers

Week 4 - Borders & Sashings

Week 5 - Custom Quilted Blocks

Week 6 - Quilting on Applique

*Classes will be available forever after purchasing and Natalia will answer questions and be interactive on the group page for one month following the completion of the class.

*On Moday of each week a new video will be posted, in each video Natalia will post a detailed video explaining in depth and showing you step-by-step how to quilt each of the motif's.

*On Friday of each week Natalia will be LIVE on video chat for one hour, at 10:00am MST to answer any questions you have had during the week practicing the motif's you've learned at the first of the week.

*Supply lists will be sent to registered students beginning on June 1st, 2018.

*Tuition includes the book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, before class begins you will receive a hard copy of Natalia's book. ***If you already own the book, please contact Natalia via email, nataliabonner2@gmail.com.***

**This class will be hosted in a private facebook group, you must have a facebook account to take the class.**

Click here to register today!

UQSM - 2018 - Quilt Show in Sandy Utah!

Last week I spent the week in Sandy, Utah teaching at UQSM. So far this year I've been traveling and teaching quite a bit this year and after this event I'm feeling more energized and excited about the future than I have in quite some time!

At the show I taught four, hands-on classes, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, Next Steps In Machine Quilting, Creative Background Fillers and Visual Guide to Free-Motion Quilting Feathers. I had full classes and my students were fabulous. I loved watching them improve on their machine quilting skills from the beginning of class to the end of class, it's so gratifying to be able to witness the light-bulb moment.

Summer at Piece N Quilt - Introducing 5 New Quilt Patterns

Hey quilty friends! I hope you've all had a fabulous summer! I really cannot believe how fast this summer went by. My daughter is already back in school and my son starts Kindergarten next week. This will be the fist time in 10 years that I've had both kids in school and it's really going to be different around here. 

Besides the general craziness of summer my husband broke his arm and we had a little car crash, we're all fine but we've got some fun new memories. :) Over the summer I had the opportunity to go "home" to my hometown a few times, travel with my kids to California and try really hard in the time I had at home to get caught up on machine quilting. 

Kathleen, my mom and I also designed 5 new quilt patterns featuring our upcoming fabric line, Thrive. Thrive will be in quilt shops in October and we can't wait to see what you all make from the fabric. :)

Yay! Paper patterns are here!  #thrivefabric #splicequilt #pendantquilt #scrappypinwheelquilt #standtallquilt #makeapearquilt

A post shared by Natalia Bonner (@nataliabonner) on Aug 3, 2017 at 8:08am PDT

I'm still working on getting all 5 of these fun quilts quilted, generally I squeeze my own quilting in on the weekends or at night, that's why they still aren't done yet, but once they are I will share details about each one. In the meantime, if you're dying to get your hands on one of these patterns you can check them out over on our website.

I've got a busy fall schedule coming up including teaching in Mississippi, Chicago and California. There are still openings in my Mississippi and California classes, and I'd love to see you at one of the upcoming events. 

I hope you've all had a fabulous summer and can't wait to share some of the gorgeous quilts that I machine quilted over the summer. 

Happy quilting!

Natalia

Quiltcon 2017

The full event catalog with all of the workshops, lectures and other events will be made available by June 1st, with registration opening for members in late June and the general public July 1st.

I can't wait!

Road to California 2016

Photo via @rayssewcrafty on Instagram.

I can't believe it's already been a week that I've been home from California. Time sure does seem to be flying lately.

While at Road to California I was able to teach 6, full day classes and also attend and share my quilts and books at Roundabout. It was a busy week. But being able to meet so many new friends makes it totally worth it, and when their quilts start to come together, or something clicks in the machine quilting classes I feel like a proud parent all over again. It's so much fun!

I tried to take pictures of every single one of my students and their progress, but some of them slipped away before I got a picture...if you were one of those, please email me pictures! I love them!

Come Sail with Me! - Quilted Works Quilt Cruise!

April 2-9, 2016 I'll be cruising with Quilted Works! I'm so excited about this event and would love to have you join!

Quilted Works is very excited to be offering a Quilting Cruise! We would love for you to join us on this sewing voyage where we will enjoy a 7-night Eastern Caribbean Cruise. You will still be able to enjoy all the amenities of the ship and the shore excursions. Then, when we have "sea days" we will all be busy sewing!

Teaching in Texas - Cabin Fever: 20 Modern Log Cabin Quilts & Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting

I just returned home from a fabulous weekend in Dallas & Fort Worth, Texas. It was a very full weekend, but so much fun to help so many awesome ladies make fun quilts and learn to free-motion quilt on their domestic sewing machines.

Teaching In Northern Idaho

I spent the last couple of days in Norther Idaho at the Northern Idaho Quilters Guild. It was a great guild and a lot of fun to spend a couple days with them.

It was also fun to visit Northern Idaho, you may remember that my mom is from Boise, so growing up my family spent a lot of time traveling in Idaho, I think the last time that I was as far north as Couer d'Alene was when I was about four years old, so it's been a few years. It's gorgeous there, and my mom would be so proud to know that I was amazed at all the pine trees in Northern Idaho. :)

A-Maze Me Quilt - Modern One-Block Quilts

Last fall my husband and I traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to teach at Q-First in Quilting. It was a great trip and Laura's quilt shop is adorable. 

Teaching in North Carolina & Kentucky!

The last two weekends were busy for me! My husband and I traveled to North Carolina and then the next weekend we were in Kentucky. Teaching classes and sharing our quilts from Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting & Modern One-Block Quilts. We had so much fun, I think I'm finally recovered from it all! :)

 My first class after arriving in North Carolina was "Lattice" from Modern One-Block Quilts. I really love this quilt, it has the smallest pieces of any pattern in the book, so I think it's the most time-consuming, but the result, it's totally worth it!

We had a small class, this picture shows almost everyone in it. But they were awesome! They all finished several blocks in the class.

My second day in North Carolina I taught Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting in the morning and then in the evening shared about 30 of our quilts in a trunk show. It's always so much fun to share our quilts, but the most exciting part of the night, was seeing the ladies from my class that had gone home and made several more "Lattice" quilt blocks and then brought them back to share! I love them all!

North Carolina was gorgeous! The ocean was so pretty and I got to eat Crab Cakes while sitting on the coast! That's exactly what I wanted to do!

Thanks so much to the Quilters by the Sea for having me!

The next weekend we were in Lexington, Kentucky at Q-First in Quilting. 

Shortly after arriving we drove past this gorgeous barn with an awesome barn quilt. 

Now, some of you know that my family and I have an ongoing joke about "creepers," the people that would pull over in front of my parents home and take pictures, come to the door and ask about their home and so on. Well, when I saw this gorgeous barn I pulled a creeper move and totally pulled in their driveway to take pictures! I love this!!!

Then I found Q-First in Quilting, the store is gorgeous with lots of light and space to move around, not to mention tons of books, patterns and fabric! The first night in Kentucky I shared our quilts in a trunk show, the pictures above are a little collection of the photos that the girls from Q-First took and shared on Instagram. I mostly love the picture in the bottom left with Lauren in the middle of all the quilts! :)

 The second day in Kentucky I taught "A-Maze Me" from Modern One-Block Quilts! These ladies rocked the class! They were speedy sewers and I loved the color combinations that they all came up with!

Erin, was one of my students and finished her baby-size version of "A-Maze Me" I absolutely love, love, love the color combination that she chose for her quilt, and the idea to use the blue as the background, genius! I love it so much!

Last, but certainly not least! Laura, the owner of Q-First in Quilting had previously made this awesome version of "Chruned" pattern from Modern One-Block Quilts, I love her color choices! 

Thanks so much Laura, and everyone in Kentucky for having me! 

Nebo Modern Quilt Guild Trunk Show

Last weekend I took a little road trip to meet up with Kathleen and share our quilts at the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild. If you live in the Nebo area, you should totally join this group, they are so much fun!

photo by Marion McClellan

Anyways! It's always fun to get to go to quilt guilds and shops and share our quilts and our journey through quilting and pattern designing and most of the quilts from our books, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting and Modern One-Block Quilts.

Next week I'll be traveling to teach a few classes and share a couple trunk shows in Kentucky and North Carolina, if you're in those areas I'd love to have you in my classes!

Thanks again Kira and the Nebo Modern Quilt Guild for having us!

Teaching in Troy, Michigan

 Last week my husband and I traveled to Troy, Michigan. It's always fun to travel and share my quilts and teach. I shared a trunk show with the quilts from Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting and the quilts from Modern One-Block Quilts.

We had a sold-out Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting class, the ladies in the class were fantastic, full of energy and eager to learn. I was so impressed by the talent and willingness to learn in this group.

 While in Troy, my sister, whom I haven't seen in 2 years and her two daughters drove from Wisconsin to spend a couple days with us. It was so great to see them, and also, meet my little niece Tenley for the first time!

I love when Brad is able to travel with me, not only is it nice to have him there, but there is no way I could haul around 6 heavy suitcases without his help!

Thanks again to the CAMEO quilt guild for having me. You were all so much fun to spend time with.

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.

Small Business Saturday - Suppose Quilt Boutique

This past Saturday, for Small Business Saturday, Kathleen and I had the opportunity to visit Suppose Quilt Boutique.  An adorable quilt boutique in Preston, ID.

We were able to share all 22 quilts from our new book, Modern One-Block Quilts and also some of the quilts from my first book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting. 

The ladies at the shop are adorable, (yes, we couldn't resist buying more fabric) and it was so much fun to mingle with family and make new friends.

Thanks so much to Jo & Kathy for having us.

Now, it's time to bury my head in the long-arm, only 3 weeks until Christmas and I've got a lot of quilting to do before then. :)

Have a great day!

Boise Basin Quilters

This past weekend Kathleen and I, along with my kids and husband, had the opportunity to travel to Boise, ID to teach and share the quilts from our books, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting and Modern One-Block Quilts. We shared our quilts at the Boise Basin Quilters, a huge quilt guild that was very well organized.

photo via instagram

They had told us it was a big group, and it was, there were about 250 in attendance that night. 

Kathleen is originally from Boise, ID so it was fun to connect with old friends & family and make new friends. Thanks so much Boise Basin Quilters for having us!

photo via Boise Basin Quilters facebook page

Email Natalia to schedule a trunk show, or check out our events schedule here.

Cotton Shop - Provo, UT - Come hang out with me!

This Saturday, August 17 from 12-2pm I will be hanging out in Provo, UT at the Cotton Shop!

I'm super excited to go hand out in this darling store, share the quilts from my book Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting along with some of our quilts that have been published in magazines and I'm thinking I may bring along a few of the quilts from our new book, Modern One Block Quilts!

I hope to see lots of my Utah friends there! :)

Have a great weekend!

Teaching at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop in Brunswick, Missouri

This past weekend my husband and I traveled to Brunswick, Missouri to teach at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop's annual July event. 

Sew Sweet Quilt Shop is located in a small town, but that doesn't mean the shop is small. 

I was so happy when I walked inside, the store is absolutely darling, cute fabrics, quilt kits, everyone there was so friendly, they even had a darling little play area for kids!

The retreat was held just down the street from the quilt shop. I was able to teach 2 classes, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, a class right from my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting. I also taught the quilt that's on the cover of my book, Orange Slices. Both classes were so much fun. The ladies learned a lot and I loved seeing them put their own little twists on the ideas and techniques that I had to share with them.

My husband even popped into class and captured a few pictures of me teaching. :)

The town of Brunswick is a darling town with super sweet people and yummy food! Every meal we ate was so delicious!

We stayed at the Ashlyn House, Bed & Breakfast, a charming B&B on the main road in Brunswick.

Jeanette & Jessica, the owners of Sew Sweet Quilt Shop did a wonderful job with the retreat, every little detail was covered. The theme was a tropical theme which was so fun and cheery!

Thanks so much for having me teach Jessica &  Jeanette!

Take a minute and visit Sew Sweet Quilt Shop online!

Chicken Quilt

Last fall I traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was a fun couple days and I had a lot of fun teaching and helping the students in my classes create fun quilts. 

One of the classes that I taught was Susanne McNeil's chicken quilt made from jelly-rolls.

Judy was one of the students in my class, I've actually met Judy a few times now and machine quilted several of her darling quilts.

During the class Judy was able to get all 6 of her chicken blocks pieced. She then went home and put the rest of the quilt together. I love how bright and happy her chickens are.

Judy then sent me her quilt for some machine quilting. We chose to quilt it with an all over pattern, chicken wire.

I love the look that it created.

Thanks for letting me quilt your darling chicken quilt Judy.

Email Natalia for more information about teaching and trunk shows. 

Teaching ~ Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting

Tonight I'll be teaching part 1 of a 3 part class from my book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting at my local quilt shop. 

photo via instagram

I'm pretty excited about this class. It's always fun to go and share my passion with others. 

I've been preparing to teach for a few weeks now, but just today I decided to highlight a few points that I thought were extra important, things I really wanted my class to learn. For some strange reason it felt so weird to write in my book..... But I did! :)

**Shop owners, there is information on class plans for your shop available here.

**If you're interested in having me come to your shop or quilt group to teach or share a trunk show email me today!

Have a great day!

Cabin Fever Quilt Retreat!

My sweet friend Emily, from Crazy Old Ladies is hosting a quilt retreat in just a couple months! Emily is so much fun I'm sure this retreat is bound to be a ball!!!!

I'm so flattered that Emily has asked me to come and share a little trunk-show, I'll have all the quilts from my new book, Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting, and some from some of the other books that I have quilts published in. I can't wait!

You can read more about this fun retreat over on Emily's blog or just sign up here!

Can't wait to see you in February!

Contact me today if you'd like me to share a trunk show at your quilt guild or retreat.