Some Very Exciting News!!

Used with

permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2015 Meredith Corporation. All

rights reserved

Used with

permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2015 Meredith Corporation. All

rights reserved

Used with

permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2015 Meredith Corporation. All

rights reserved

Used with

permission from Quilts and More magazine. 2015 Meredith Corporation. All

rights reserved

I am beyond proud and excited to share some super exciting news.  I made a quilt a while back and it was chosen to be in this February's issue of Better Homes and Gardens Quilts & More magazine.  It will be available on newsstands on February 3rd.  This quilt was made with 40 different solid colored fabrics, all of them are RJR solids and working with them was absolutely lovely.  I appliqued Keys to blocks with HeatnBond Lite- which was perfect for this project.  I had so much fun with the design of the quilt and even more fun quilting it.  I even used my scraps to make a matching pillow.  I really hope you will check it out- and consider making one if you are looking for a fun project to make and practice free motion quilting on.  Let me know if you do make it, I would love to see your version!

Free Motion Quilting Challenge with QuiltShopGal

As you may know I am the featured FMQ teacher for the month of January in QuiltShopGals yearly FMQ Challenge.  If you haven't heard about it please take a second to click over and read all about the challenge and please consider entering.  It is a great skill builder for anyone looking to get better at free motion quilting and promises to connect you to not only other quilt teachers and methods but also a strong community of other quilters who are sharing their work with you as you are sharing with them.  This is so key to the learning process, having encouragement, someone to show off your work to when you are beaming with pride, or to get a second opinion with when you are struggling with something.  I met Angela Walters early in my quilting process and she became a great friend and quilting buddy/mentor.  I learned and grew so much faster having her to share with.  I really feel being connected is a great way to get better faster when learning to learning FMQ.  Darlene of QuiltShopGal has gathered some excellent prizes for you to enter to win by participating too, including a free copy of my book this month- even more reason to check it out! :)

I have been looking through all the challenge participants and noticed one of them had used my book and instruction to create her project.  Connie, an experienced stippler, has found inspiration to branch out and try other designs with my book.  She also did a lovely review of my book, here.  I just love her pillow and the beautiful paisley she quilted all over it.  I am so proud of her for going for it, and thrilled she gave me permission to share it all with you.  Check out her blog post about her work, and please leave her a nice comment telling her I sent you.  I know you will enjoy reading about her process, I sure did! 

Connie's pillow (used with permission)

I would love to see your work if you are using the book to practice FMQ- please don't be shy!  Feel free to email me or post to my Facebook Page and you may find yourself featured here on this blog too, (if you are willing to share with all of us).  It is fun and encouraging to see what others are working on, so lets share!

Quilt Basting Tips

Quilt basting has to be my very least favorite part of quilting.  I love to piece, I love free motion quilting, I even love the feeling of satisfaction I get from slapping a binding on a quilt, but basting... blech.  That said I am always after a tip or trick to make the process easier.  I have a number of quilts to baste in the coming days and I thought I would check and see if there were any good video tutorials on youtube that gave basting tips I hadn't heard of before.  I found four great ones- and the tips are just fantastic.  I can't wait to try some of these methods.  My guy is thrilled that I now have a way to spray baste without his help- and pin baste too for that matter- and my dogs will be thrilled that I can do pin basting on a table top now instead of zoning off an area of the house for floor basting which results in grumpy dogs and grumpy me with a sore back and sore knees.  I loved Nancy Ziemans tip for fusible basting with a mini iron- what a great idea!  I would love to know how you baste your quilts and if any of these videos were helpful to you.  Let me know in the comments below!

 

Nancy Zieman's favorite basting techniques

 

Spray Basting with out pins or help on your ironing board!

 

Basting any size quilt on any size table top!

Love Theme Pillow Inspiration for 2015 Free Motion Quilting Challenge

Hello Everyone, I am so sorry I have been absent for the past week.  I got sick and have a very big deadline for a super secret project coming right up, so I have been a bit busy behind the scenes over here.  But things are getting done and I am feeling better and I thought I would share a pillow and a blog post I did a few years back as many of you are hopefully thinking about your Love Theme pillows for the January part of the 2015 Free Motion Quilting Challenge with Quilt Shop Girl.  I made this pillow when I was much newer to FMQ and it isn't perfect, but I think it was a fun challenge at the time and is a great tutorial for making your own pillow.  Check it out, and maybe you might find some inspiration to make your own.  If you are considering entering the challenge and haven't decided yet I really hope you do, it is a great skill builder for all levels of FMQ and will help you connect with other machine quilters out there, which is so great and a real key to your success as a new quilter. 

click Here to see the blog post showing you how I made this pillow.

In other news Grandma is officially on vacation for the next few weeks and so the thread review I have promised you will have to wait- sorry about that, it was a surprise trip as a gift and I am so excited she gets to spend some time with her sister.  I got the link for a commercial that Brewer Sewing filmed for my book at Fall Quilt Market 2014- I think it is pretty fun, and even though you can tell I am uncomfortable in front of the camera, hopefully it helps detail what the book is all about.  Let me know in the comments if you are entering Quilt Shop Gals FMQ Challenge.  I would love to see your pillow if you do, so please shoot me an email, or contact me on my Facebook Page and let me see!  Hope you all have a great week!

Happy New Year and we interupt this thread review for an important announcement...

It's 2015 already and I can't believe it!  I am a person who loves new year, a new beginning and the chance to make resolutions and work towards new goals.  I never want to stop learning and improving and have always thought the yearly process of making goals and resolutions were also a great time to stop and view the progresses and failures of last year.  It's a great time to reflect on your journey as a quilter, what you learned, what inspired you, what you failed at and what you could do differently if you tried it again...These reflections can really help make next years goals and remind you of how far you have already come.  I had a lot of fun in 2014 but am really looking forward to this new year and all it will bring.  I hope for happiness and health to you all in the coming year, and thank you so much for your support and following me on my quilting journey throughout last year. 

I had planned on sharing a thread review with you today, and I will come back in the next few days to do that, I promise, but a few days ago I was approached by Darlene, formerly of SewCalGal, and now moving to the new blog name QuiltShopGal.  She had done a lovely review of my book which I shared with you all a few months ago.  If you haven't checked out her blog for the absolute plethora of machine quilting information she shares for free I strongly suggest you do.  You will find amazing tips and suggestions as well as many opportunities to meet other machine quilters and share your work.  She is hosting a Free Motion Quilting challenge for the entire year of 2015.  I am so excited for the great opportunity it will provide new quilters to get connected with each other and good teachers and inspiring people in the free motion quilting community.  I am also honored and excited to be the featured expert for the month of January.  If you have my book already you can make the pillow in my book and enter it in the monthly challenge to enter to win some pretty great prizes!  Click over to read all the details and please think about entering the challenge.  The beginning of the year is a great time to make new goals and if getting better at free motion quilting is one of your goals for the new year then this challenge will be the perfect motivation you need to practice and learn and get better.  You will also benefit from lots of great tips, access to free patterns, and the chance to win amazing prizes all year long.  I hope you all check it out, and enter the challenge.  If you use my book to make the pillow for January, or use some of the quilting designs I teach then send me a picture of your work via email or my facebook page and I will share it here this month on my blog! 

The winner of the last book giveaway is QuiltingTangent... I tried sending you and email but the link didn't work so please contact me so I can get you your book!

because every post needs a picture... here is an applique mini quilt I made for Grandma for Christmas... before I quilted it.. I forgot to take a picture of the after.. I will have to get one from her.