my bags are packed.... I'm ready to go! And New Products/Giveaway!

Hi Friends~
The time has come I have been waiting all year for- Quilt Expo is in just a few days and tomorrow I get on a plane to meet Grandma and both of us are headed to Madison WI for 3 glorious days of quilty fun.  If you have been following along you know that I am giving 3 lectures there at 4pm daily.  Last I heard there was still space in my lectures so if you would like to hear all about the book and get to see the book samples live as well as lots more fun Free Motion Quilting talk then get yourself signed up here.  Make sure and look through all the classes and lectures and sign up for a few if you are attending- there are so many great ones to choose from.   If you are coming to my lectures- I have a treat for you- One lucky person in each lecture will be randomly chosen to win a prize pack from Thermoweb with tons of fun sewing/quilting products including my very favorite fusible fleece!

I am very excited to tell you all that BERNINA has asked me to do some free motion quilting demos in their booth on the show floor.  I will be doing free motion quilting demos at 11am and 2pm daily in the BERNINA booth.  See me stitch all the designs in the book live in action.  I will be there to answer your FMQ questions and take requests of designs you would like to see demonstrated.  I am really looking forward to getting to spend some quality time on a BERNINA and to get to show you all how I quilt my designs in person.  If you aren't going to the show and would like to see me quilt the designs in the book don't forget that I have 2 episodes of Sewing with Nancy that I filmed last year which you can view online for free.

I have a new product I have been working on for a while which is finally ready and available for sale in my Etsy store.   This is for all of you who roll your eyes when I tell you that sketching is the best way to get good at free motion quilting fast.  Some of you, like me, love an excuse to sketch or doodle your day away and have no problem filling pages with free motion quilting designs.  Some of you (like Grandma) don't quite feel the love with the sketchbook and pen.  She has always felt overwhelmed by the process and staring at a blank page of paper stressed her out.  Sketching or doodling was never a good fit for Grandma and I know there are more of you like her out there.  I decided to make sketching "cheat sheets" or design aids as I will call them that will help the overwhelmed beginner get started.  I have PDF files for sale in my Etsy shop and you can download the design you want and print out the pages (4 in each design) and grab a colored marker and draw right on top of the drawings I have made.  You are literally getting sketches I have made myself and getting to "cheat" by tracing over top of them instead of having to start from scratch and fill a page yourself.  The best part is that you are still learning muscle memory by practicing this way and by me doing all the initial work for you it becomes fun and relaxing instead of stressful.  Start in the middle of the page and follow the continuous line of stippling all over the page- or trace around hundreds of small pebbles never letting your pen leave the paper. Eventually you will build up enough muscle memory that you will have no problem drawing or quilting these yourself with no aid.  The great thing about PDF files is you can print these pages over and over and keep practicing until you feel comfortable.  I am hoping these are helpful to those of you who want to get better at free motion quilting and are having a hard time with sketching/doodling the designs as practice.  I would love to hear what you think and if this is something you would find useful.
 I have decided to give-away 3 PDF files to commenters below- This will go through Sunday and on Monday when I am back I will have another blog post complete with pictures of the show and will announce the winners.  To enter all you need to do is comment below telling me which design you would choose first and if you think the idea of doodling to learn FMQ faster is stressful or exciting.   The winners will get the design of their choice for free!  Thanks for following along, hope to hear from you all in the comments below and looking forward to meeting some of you in my lectures and demos later this week at Quilt Expo!