Hello everyone! Septembers Chapter 9 is out! Be Kind is a continuation of the Have Courage chapter from last month. Here are some of the completed chapters below, and a look at where we are so far! Almost done! It’s never too late to sign up, the posts will remain and you can sign up any… Read More »Chapter 9 ~ Dear Daughter Quilt

Hello, Friends! I finished all six of my double 9-patch blocks for my Tilda version of the American Patchwork & Quilting Scrappy Celebration quilt the other day, so now I have two tidy stacks, six of each style. The center square of my double 9-patch block is a dusty pink Tilda Solid that coordinates perfectly with the tiny ditsy pink flowers on the green print, by the way. It's looking weirdly gray in the photo, and my cutting mat that is actually pink IRL is looking more red in the photo. Not sure if it's some difference in the camera of my new phone or something different with the lighting in the new sewing room. 9 inch Finished Blocks for Scrappy Celebration Having no design wall (yet?) in my new house, I am using my EQ8 quilt design software (this post contains affiliate links) as a virtual design wall instead. Below you see the EQ rendering of the Scrappy Celebration quilt from the pattern designer, and as I finish a set of blocks I just take a picture of one of them from straight on and crop it square, import it into the software and set the scale to 9" (because they are 9" finished blocks), add the block photo as a fabric, and then change the appropriate blocks in the quilt to plain blocks that I can just "paint" with the photo of my completed quilt block. That was probably clear as mud to those of you who don't use this software, but if anyone out there is new to EQ and wants a fuller explanation of what I'm doing here, feel free to email me for more complete instructions. Why do I bother to do this at all? Because swapping out the generic solid colored blocks in the pattern rendering with my actual blocks helps me to get a better sense of how my colors and prints are working together and guides me in selecting fabrics for subsequent blocks. I'll also be able to print out the final image, once all of the plain blocks have been replaced with photos of my actual blocks, and use that as a roadmap for assembling the quilt top. EQ8 Scrappy Celebration Rendering Showing Finished Blocks Not that I have any idea what I'm going to do with this quilt once it's finished. I just thought it was pretty when I saw so many versions of this quilt online during the QAL last year -- and immediately I started thinking about how I'd want to quilt it... so I had to go ahead and start making the top just so I can quilt it! Speaking of quilting, let's all admire this picture of my client Kim's lovely Heart Quilt. Kim used Lori Holt's unique 10" iron on Heart Quilt Papers (available here on Etsy), to make her blocks and I quilted it for her with Wild at Heart E2E design and 40 wt 2-ply Madeira Aeroquilt thread: Wild at Heart E2E in Madeira Aeroquilt Thread Isn't that pretty? Aeroquilt is a new-to-me thread that I've been quilting with lately. It's a lightweight matte polyester similar to Superior's So Fine, but even lighter weight (so a lot less visible than most other quilting threads. I think it might be less expensive than So Fine, and it performs beautifully in the Bernina Q24. The only downside is that Aeroquilt generates a truly ridiculous amount of lint in the bobbin area, for a polyester thread. I'm willing to deal with lint from cotton threads for the same reason I'm willing to empty the lint from my clothes dryer after laundering 100% cotton sheets and towels -- the beauty and other advantages of natural fibers are worth an extra cleaning step. Aeroquilt can be used in both the needle and the bobbin on a long arm machine, but I've been loving how well it pairs with MagnaGlide Classic 60 wt prewound bobbins. Enough about thread for today! And Now, for the Big Announcement... You guys, my long arm machine is set up and running smoothly at my father-in-law's as I showed you in my last post, but this move has been wickedly stressful for my whole family and I need a breather. I am just not ready to have quilt tops showing up on my doorstep again from all over the country and my closet filling up with 20-50 quilt deadlines hanging over my head. I love all of my quilting clients, really -- have loved getting to know each one of you as we collaborated on special projects over the years, but I need to reclaim a big hunk of creative time for myself and I have been presented with an opportunity that is working a lot better for me right now at this particular point in my life. Here's what happened: There is an awesome quilt shop in Naples, Flash Sew & Quilt, that I wrote about here a year ago when I shopped there for my Halo quilt pattern and my Tilda fabrics. I've shopped at this store several times and it is just a beautiful shop -- fantastic assortment of Kaffe Fassett and Tilda and other current fabric collections and precuts, all of my favorite battings, Bernina and BabyLock machines, Aurifil and Wonderfil threads, patterns and kits and all of this in a beautifully merchandised shop with soaring ceilings and plenty of natural light. It's like stepping into Willy Wonka's factory, if Willy Wonka sold fabric instead of chocolate. Seriously -- if your travels take you anywhere in Southwest Florida, you need to check out Flash Sew & Quilt. Flash Sew and Quilt of Naples, Florida As soon as we got to Florida, I made a beeline for Flash to pick out my Tilda precuts for the Scrappy Celebration quilt I started working on during the Agony of the Unpacking. Then I went back to Flash in April when I was working out how to set up my sewing room, to look at the Horn and Koala cabinets in person. Cindy was helping me with all of my questions about the sewing cabinet options and I was talking about all of my different machines and what kind of sewing I do... and it turns out that Flash was looking to hire someone part time to do long arm quilting on their Bernina Q24 in the shop. My first instinct was "why would I want to do that?" But I agreed to at least talk to the owners about it. Square Meander Stitched in Aeroquilt Thread on Client's Quilt Well, I met with the owners Mike and Bridget and they are just as wonderful as their quilt shop. They are letting me set my own schedule, work as few as 2-3 days a week if that's all I want to do, and they are fine with letting me load and quilt the way I like to do it rather than following someone else's methods. They even ordered in a bunch of those yummy Aurifil Forty/3 long arm quilting threads that I love because I requested them -- and they bought enough to sell to customers as well, by the way, so if you haven't been able to find the big yellow cones in a shop near you, you can get it from Flash. I have no more unpaid administrative work, things like keeping track of batting and thread inventory, placing and checking in orders, bookkeeping, promoting my work on social media, etc. (I would rather write a thousand words about a quilt here on my blog than have to post a single picture on Instagram!) Quilting for the quilt shop customers, I'm not responsible for anything besides the actual long arm quilting and occasionally helping their Bernina Q Series customers trouble shoot challenges with their long arm machines, which I also enjoy. I have coworkers for the first time in decades, and the staff at Flash has been very kind and welcoming. I still get to meet with clients when they drop off their quilts, especially the ones with questions or concerns or who want help choosing a design, but it's also nice that some other clients will drop off a quilt on one of my days off and someone else at the store can measure their backing and help them fill out the form. Best of all, when it's 5 PM and I have just a couple rows left on the quilt on my frame, guess what happens! Do I keep working all night long until my husband is texting me and telling me to come to bed like I did so many nights in Charlotte? NO I DO NOT -- because my coworkers want to go home and they kick me out of the store so they can lock up! It felt weird at first to shut down the machine when the quilt wasn't finished yet, but now I've decided it's awesome. Seriously, it feels so liberating to just literally leave work behind at 5 PM by driving away from it, and then have the whole evening to just relax and do other things with my family. Is this what normal feels like?! Hello, my name is Rebecca Grace and I'm a Recovering Workaholic... Aquamarine E2E, Aeroquilt Thread on Client's Seasonal Stitchy Stars Table Runner What I enjoy most about longarm quilting professionally is the opportunity to meet so many wonderful creative people, whether locally or through email consultations with mail-in clients, and to see and collaborate on so many different beautiful quilts. It is very satisfying to load a quilt top onto the frame and then see it transformed and brought to completion by the quilting, and then see how happy and excited the clients are when they pick up their quilts. If I can do that just a couple days a week, quilting on the quilt shop's machine, and have the rest of the week (and all of my own machines) entirely at my own disposal for my projects, I think that might give me the best of both worlds, with built-in physical boundaries (locked doors and alarm systems between me and waiting customer quilts when the store is closed, LOL!) to prevent me from giving up all of my nights and weekends to just one more quilt, squeezing in one more rush quilt to meet a deadline, etc. Some of my longtime quilting customers are going to be disappointed by this news, but I know so many amazing long arm quilters across the country, and I'd be happy to refer you to someone else who will do beautiful work for you, seriously. Just shoot me an email. Of course, if you're local to Southwest Florida (or local during the winter season), I can still quilt for you if you bring your quilt top to Flash Sew & Quilt. That is quite enough for one blog post, don't you agree? I need to go cut out pieces for my next six Scrappy Celebration blocks and -- spoiler alert! -- I think it's time for more adventures with Y-seams! I'm linking up today's blog post with the following linky parties: MONDAY Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts TUESDAY To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt WEDNESDAY Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter THURSDAY Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation FRIDAY Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday SUNDAY Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Last year I went to see The 12th Quilt Nihon on display at the New England Quilt Museum with some of my quilty friends. I took tons of pictures to share and I’m just now getting them posted, it’s totally worth waiting for! I was really inspired and blown away by all the beautiful work and detail.… Read More »Quilts Japan: The 12th Quilt Nihon

HEY, YOU GUYS!! My Tabby Mountain quilt is officially Quilted, Bound, Laundered, and finally, FINALLY finished: Highlights from the Tabby Mountain Photo Shoot Having been inspired by the mad photography skills exhibited by other quilters on social media, I dragged my husband around against his will took advantage of an overcast Saturday afternoon to drive around in search of the perfect location for a photo shoot. My favorites are the ones where I wrapped the quilts around the bronze bull statues in the Ballantyne Corporate park. 2000 lb. Bull Sculpted by Peter Woytuk, Quilt Made By Me But you can't really get a good look at the quilt in the bull photos. A Bridge Over a Golf Cart Path at Ballantyne Country Club I picked this spot because I liked the texture of the stone bridge and the flowers below were just the right shade of purple, but alas the quilt is tiny in order to get the bridge AND the flowers in the shot, and you can't see any detail. "Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties," 57 1/2" x 72" You can see the quilting texture better in this shot. By the way, the sides of this quilt do lay nice and straight and flat. It's an annoying optical illusion from the diagonal quilting lines that is making the edges of the quilt appear wavy. "Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties," 57 1/2" x 72" The vibrant colors look best in this photo, taken on a shady patch of the lawn. Gotta Have a Rear View Here's how the back ended up. I ended up really liking this extra wide backing fabric, even though it was a bit of a pain. The sateen weave frays like crazy and is especially prone to being snagged by pins and needles during the quilting and binding process, but I love the soft sheen and it feels really nice to the touch, too. Post-Laundering Texture And one more for the road: So, to recap, this is the free Tabby Mountain Quilt pattern that was designed by Tula Pink for Free Spirit Fabrics, showcasing her Tabby Road fabric collection. You can get that pattern here. I understand that some of the prints in this collection are already selling out, but I found an etsy seller who has fabric kits still available for this quilt here (you're welcome!). Honestly, this quilt is ALL ABOUT THE FABRIC. I did swap out some Kaffe Fassett prints for the weird eyeball fabrics that I didn't care for in my own quilt, and I found near-equivalent solid color fabrics from other lines because my local quilt shops don't carry the Free Spirit Solids that are specified in the pattern. Also -- and this is important -- if you follow the cutting directions and yardage requirements in the pattern, your large scale print fabrics will be SIDEWAYS and/or UPSIDE DOWN instead of right side up in your finished quilt. This would bug me SO MUCH -- I'm glad I caught that and purchased additional yardage of my prints. And I fussy cut my absolute favorite print, the Disco Kitties, so that a kitty cat would be featured and centered nicely in each of those triangles. Disco Kitty from Free Spirit Fabrics in 2 Colorways I used this Creative Grids ruler to make it easier to cut out the large 30 degree triangles quickly and accurately: The Creative Grids 30 degree triangle ruler was definitely a worthwhile purchase, in case you're considering making a Tabby Mountain quilt of your own. I doubt I'll make another quilt EXACTLY like Tabby Mountain, but I think something similar would be a really cute way to showcase Christmas fabrics or novelty prints for a baby quilt, especially now that I've finally figured out how to piece the giant triangles together accurately. Using the Creative Grids 30 Degree Triangle Ruler to Fussy Cut Prints And now, for the Nitty Gritty on the Disco Kitties: Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties is only my SECOND quilt with my APQS Millenium longarm quilting machine. This is my FIRST custom quilt on the longarm machine, FIRST time quilting with acrylic rulers and templates on the longarm, and many other firsts (winding my own bobbins with the scary Turbo Winder, first time ripping out bad stitches, first time with lots of different threads...). This was supposed to be a "quick and easy" quilt for practicing with my longarm machine. I started it in January and it's now the end of May, so it has been a good 5 months in the making (let's all roll our eyes together, shall we?). I used Hobbs Tuscany Wool for this quilt, a variety of different quilting threads (primarily Isacord and Glide trilobal polyester), and the backing is a luscious extra-wide sateen fabric also designed by Tula Pink, "Freefall" in Orchid colorway. All of the quilting is hand-guided -- unfortunately I don't have a computer on this machine. Today I'm linking up and partying with: · Finish It Up Friday at www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com · Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com · Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/2018/06/plus-quilt-in-island-batiks-finished-or.html ·TGIFF Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, hosted this week by http://devotedquilter.blogspot.com/

Aren’t Quilt shows fun? I love to see all of the pretty colors and designs that have been sewn together by so many talented people. I am grateful that Amy @Amy’s Creative S…

Welcome to Day 2 of the Text It! Blog Hop! Today I’m sharing The Infinity Quilt. This quilt was designed as a wedding gift for my daughter Holly. Needless to say that this quilt is pretty special! Before the quilting, I added a some decorative running stitches to my infinity symbols using Aurifil 12 weight… Read More »Text It! – Project 2 – The Infinity Quilt

Happy Weekend, quilters! I have an itty bitty amount of progress on my new Halo quilt to share with you today. For those who missed my earlier post about this NewFO project, Halo is a Jen Kingwell pattern that can be found in her Jenny From One Block pattern booklet, available on Amazon here (this post contains affiliate links). Unsewn Halo Blocks On My Design Wall For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on cutting out shapes and rearranging them on my design wall without any sewing. When I searched #haloquilt on Instagram, I found lots of different versions of this quilt, in all kinds of colorways. What struck me immediately was that it's the muddled values in Jen Kingwell's original version that drew me in, the way that her "halo rings" appear to come forward in some places and recede in others, creating an illusion of depth. Other quilters have made some very striking and modern versions of this quilt by increasing the value contrast, limiting the color palette, or restricting themselves to solids, but I was really intrigued by the way Jen broke the conventional "quilt police" rules about value and contrast in her quilt, creating something that feels fresh and modern but also somehow nostalgic and vintage. I want to recreate that in my version of the quilt. Jen Kingwell's 66 x 66 Halo Quilt I printed a full page, grayscale photo of Jen's quilt and taped it up above my cutting table so I can refer to it as I'm chopping up my fabric pieces: Grayscale Photo of Jen Kingwell's Halo Quilt It's so much easier to see what's going on with value when you take color out of the equation! In the grayscale photo you can really see that there is little to no value contrast from patch to patch in a lot of areas of this quilt, but generally speaking, the darker fabrics are used in "halo" rings and for the on point squares in the center of each block. Grayscale Photo Taped Up for Reference A few optional purchases I recommend for anyone wanting to make their own Halo quilt: Halo Acrylic Template Set, available here on Amazon. You can use these templates to trace around and then cut your fabric pieces with scissors, or you can use the templates to rotary cut through several layers of fabric at a time. The templates also have little holes to facilitate marking for hand piecing these blocks, if that's your thing 28 mm Rotary Cutter with fresh blades. A larger diameter blade can't follow the curves of these templates, but a smaller diameter blade won't work either because the screw holding the blade to the handle doesn't clear the thickness of the acrylic template. Odif Grippy Nonslip Coating. This is a new-to-me product that was recommended to me by a friend and I'm loving it so far! You spray it on the underside of your acrylic templates and it creates a tacky surface that resists sliding on your fabric as you're cutting out these curved shapes. It's transparent so it doesn't interfere with fussy cutting, and it's removable if you wanted it off for some reason in the future. I wish I knew about this product when I was cutting out my drunkard's path quilt and my clam shells! I'll be spraying the bottoms of my Star Upon Stars templates with Grippy as well. Calibre Art 14" x 14" Rotating Cutting Mat. The photo above was taken before my new rotating cutting mat showed up, when I was alternately attempting to contort my body into weird angles so I could cut all the way around my templates without moving anything, and then trying to turn big pieces of fabric around on my cutting mat so I could cut each side normally, which wasn't working very well either. The rotating cutting mat is the perfect solution; the positioning of the fabric and template isn't disturbed when you are turning the mat. I was concerned that a spinning mat might move when I didn't want it to, in the middle of a cut, but the slight pressure you exert to hold the template in place is enough to lock the position of the mat securely. My new favorite tool! I used several Fat Eighth bundles of Tilda Pie In the Sky fabric bundles as a jumping off point for my Halo quilt, but I'm pulling lots of other fabrics from my stash and scrap bins for more variety. And I did start a tiny bit of sewing! I sewed the center square-in-a-square unit for two blocks so far: The Center is Sewn Together! I decided I'd better stop cutting and sew a couple blocks together to make sure I like what I'm doing. All of the cut-but-not-sewn pieces on the design wall were looking like a jumbled mess, but it's a relief to start sewing a block together and realize that it's a little less chaotic (and I like it a lot more!) when the fabric patches are actually sewn together. I sewed the center of two blocks so far. This Block's Center is Sewn, Too And of course, the whole time I'm working on this project, I have a Beyoncé ear worm that I can't get rid of! 🎶 🎶 Beyoncé Can See My Halo, Halo, Halo, She Can See My Halo... 🎶 That's all you get from me today. Don't judge me too harshly for my pitifully slow progress; I scheduled a few more quilts this month than I probably should have and that is not leaving much time for personal sewing projects. I should be caught up and "back to normal" by Easter, though. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and happy quilting! I'll be linking up today's post with the following linky parties: Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Welcome to Day 2 of the Text It! Blog Hop! Today I’m sharing The Infinity Quilt. This quilt was designed as a wedding gift for my daughter Holly. Needless to say that this quilt is pretty special! Before the quilting, I added a some decorative running stitches to my infinity symbols using Aurifil 12 weight… Read More »Text It! – Project 2 – The Infinity Quilt

Good Morning and Happy Weekend! We've been bustling and busy since my last post. Bernie and I drove eleven hours back up to Charlotte, North Carolina to move our youngest son Anders into a new apartment at UNC, spent some time with my mom in South Carolina, and then drove another eleven hours to get back to our new home in Naples, Florida. We drove him up this time because we needed to get his car up there and we had a lot of stuff we were bringing for the apartment, but we'll be flying him home for breaks. Meanwhile, the new bump drapery interlining fabric for my design wall was delivered from Amazon (this post contains affiliate links) and Bernie and I are both SO much happier with how it looks now! 96 x 96 Design Wall Wrapped with New Bump Drapery Interlining When I posted about the first version of this design wall last week a lot of you thought it was fine as long as it was functional, and if it was in a dedicated studio or craft space in my home where no one had to look at it besides myself, I might have agreed with you. But I lobbied hard to get my husband on board with putting the design wall in a very prominent, public part of our home where everyone would walk past it and have to look at it all day long, every single day, and I promised that I was going to make it look GOOD there. In the photo below, we've recovered our 4' x 8' foam insulation board on the right with a 3 yd. length of 54" wide white bump drapery interlining fabric, and you can see how much better it looks than the natural cotton quilt batting on the left panel that ripped, puckered, stretched and bulged when it was glued to the foam board and then screwed into the wall: Batting, Washers + Screws on Left, Bump Interlining + Velcro on Right Since we'd used Super 77 Multipurpose Spray Adhesive to affix the batting to my foam boards, we left the batting in place and just wrapped and smoothed the bump interlining over top of it. Fuzzy interlining sticks to fuzzy batting! We both agreed that the screws and washers looked horrendous, so we used Heavy Duty Industrial Strength Velcro to reattach the panels to the wall this time for a much cleaner look. We also lowered the board a few inches, centering them vertically and horizontally on the wall this time even though that meant completely covering an electrical outlet. (One important caveat to anyone wanting to replicate this design wall in your own home: industrial Velcro is really, really strong, and should be considered permanent. We are fully expecting to have drywall damage to repair when the time comes to remove this design wall and sell the house, and we are cool with that). Here's a closer look at the bump drapery interlining fabric I'm using on my design wall: Bump Drapery Interlining Bump interlining, also known as English Bump, is commonly used in high end custom drapery workrooms with fabrics like silk taffeta. It feels kind of like a cross between cotton quilt batting and flannel. Unlike batting that gets secured to the quilt top and batting by quilting stitches spaced at most 4-8" apart, drapery interlining is only attached to the face fabric and lining fabric at the very top of the drapery panels, where the pleats are stitched, so interlining has a lot more structural integrity preventing it from stretching and sagging, similar to a flannel fabric. But it's also a lot thicker and softer than regular flannel, with even more fuzzy nap to help it stick to the drapery fabric and lining (or to the quilt batting and quilt blocks, in my case). It almost feels like a blanket. I was delighted with how well the bump interlining covered the messed up batting layer and holes from the washers and screws, because I really didn't want to have to start over with brand new foam boards. You can't see any of the damage through the interlining. Yay! Here's a shot of the back of one of the design wall panels showing how we used Duck Tape to secure the wrapped edges of the Bump interlining and to miter the corners: Duck Tape Secures Wrapped Interlining and Mitered Corners Now I have a design wall that we can both live with, that looks great with or without quilt blocks, and I can get back to actually working on my projects! Speaking of which, I'm cruising along with those little rosebuds on my FrankenWhiggish Rose appliqué blocks! Rosebuds Stitched Down! Next Up for FrankenWhiggish: 96 Stuffed Berries I only have eight SIX more rosebuds to secure with hand stitching and then I will be moving on to the very last appliqué element needed for these blocks, the 96 stuffed berries (12 per block) with the fussy-cut flowers. Here's what I found packed away with this project from when I made the first test block TEN years ago: Archaeological Evidence for Stuffed Berry Construction If I knew it was going to take me an entire decade to get around to making the stuffed berries for the remaining blocks, I would have left myself better notes. First thing I'm noticing is that I seem to have cut some of my berry stuffing circles from a scrap of wool batting, and others from scraps of white polyester quilt batting. Which ones did I use in my completed quilt block?! Aaargh! Why did I put both of them together in this project box to confuse myself?! Thank goodness for my blog posts preserved and searchable here on the Internet, but unfortunately I didn't think to specify what type of batting scrap I used in my blog post. On reflection, I think I might have been using wool batting scraps for the stuffed berries on my Jingle quilt, switching to the polyester batting for FrankenWhiggish because I had more of it or because it flattened less when I hit it with the iron, or who knows why. There's just a small piece of the wool batting in the box, but there's a much bigger piece of the folded white poly batting. Maybe I worried that I didn't have enough wool and didn't want to have to buy another package if I ran out. Whatever -- I'm going with the poly. One thing I did have the prescience to include in that old blog post was a link to Erin Russek's YouTube tutorial demonstrating the method I used to make my stuffed berries, so I was able to watch that here to refresh my memory. Seven Sisters Coming in September! Meanwhile, my Seven Sisters pattern and acrylic templates have arrived from Australia, and so have the other odds and ends I ordered for this new Rainbow Scrap Challenge project I'm planning to begin in September. Well, almost everything has arrived -- I ordered the wrong size (4" green handle) Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors by mistake. The micro serrated blades on green ones are the same size as the Apliquick scissors I use for snipping needle turn appliqué, but the larger plastic handles are more comfortable in my hand so I'm going to keep them anyway. I ordered the blue handled 6" Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Scissors for hand cutting all of the diamonds for my Seven Sisters project, and they'll be here tomorrow. It's so much easier to pick the right size when shopping in person (support your local quilt shops!), but I was shopping for these items from the passenger seat of Bernie's car on the drive to North Carolina. The white Pilot gel pens were a tip I picked up from Wendy Welsh's hand piecing tutorial, something I want to try next time I'm marking on a dark fabric. I already have mechanical graphite pencils, Bohin extra fine chalk pencils, blue and purple and pink temporary fabric marking pens, and Frixxion heat erasable pens in my bag of fabric marking tools, but it's nice to have lots as options as every now and again I've run into a fabric that none of my marking pens shows up on. I'll be drawing on the wrong side of my fabrics to mark both cutting and hand stitching lines for this project. I also bought a nice, fresh pack of my favorite Bohin size 10 Milliners needles. I'll be piecing with cotton thread, mostly Aurifil, but there was no need to purchase any thread as I already own scandalous quantities of thread in every fiber, weight and color under the sun. 3 inch Diamonds for Seven Sisters By the way, Karen had asked me what size the 60 degree diamond patches were in my Seven Sisters pattern from Michelle Yeo Designs. The finished size, measured across the length of the diamond from one acute point to the other, is 3". Alright, that's enough blathering from me for one day. Those last six rosebuds aren't going to stitch themselves, and it's time to take Samwise the Spoiled Rottenweiler for his pre-dinner neighborhood patrol. I'm linking up today's post with my favorite linky parties, listed below. Happy Quilting! MONDAY Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Monday Musings at Songbird Designs TUESDAY To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt WEDNESDAY Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter THURSDAY Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation FRIDAY Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre Beauty Pageant at From Bolt to Beauty TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday SUNDAY Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Last year I went to see The 12th Quilt Nihon on display at the New England Quilt Museum with some of my quilty friends. I took tons of pictures to share and I’m just now getting them posted, it’s totally worth waiting for! I was really inspired and blown away by all the beautiful work and detail.… Read More »Quilts Japan: The 12th Quilt Nihon

Rebecca Grace Shares her Creative Process for Sewing and Quilting, Combining Traditional Hand Stitching Techniques with Computer Technology

Welcome to Day 2 of the Text It! Blog Hop! Today I’m sharing The Infinity Quilt. This quilt was designed as a wedding gift for my daughter Holly. Needless to say that this quilt is pretty special! Before the quilting, I added a some decorative running stitches to my infinity symbols using Aurifil 12 weight… Read More »Text It! – Project 2 – The Infinity Quilt

Happy Weekend, quilters! I have an itty bitty amount of progress on my new Halo quilt to share with you today. For those who missed my earlier post about this NewFO project, Halo is a Jen Kingwell pattern that can be found in her Jenny From One Block pattern booklet, available on Amazon here (this post contains affiliate links). Unsewn Halo Blocks On My Design Wall For the last couple of weeks, I've been working on cutting out shapes and rearranging them on my design wall without any sewing. When I searched #haloquilt on Instagram, I found lots of different versions of this quilt, in all kinds of colorways. What struck me immediately was that it's the muddled values in Jen Kingwell's original version that drew me in, the way that her "halo rings" appear to come forward in some places and recede in others, creating an illusion of depth. Other quilters have made some very striking and modern versions of this quilt by increasing the value contrast, limiting the color palette, or restricting themselves to solids, but I was really intrigued by the way Jen broke the conventional "quilt police" rules about value and contrast in her quilt, creating something that feels fresh and modern but also somehow nostalgic and vintage. I want to recreate that in my version of the quilt. Jen Kingwell's 66 x 66 Halo Quilt I printed a full page, grayscale photo of Jen's quilt and taped it up above my cutting table so I can refer to it as I'm chopping up my fabric pieces: Grayscale Photo of Jen Kingwell's Halo Quilt It's so much easier to see what's going on with value when you take color out of the equation! In the grayscale photo you can really see that there is little to no value contrast from patch to patch in a lot of areas of this quilt, but generally speaking, the darker fabrics are used in "halo" rings and for the on point squares in the center of each block. Grayscale Photo Taped Up for Reference A few optional purchases I recommend for anyone wanting to make their own Halo quilt: Halo Acrylic Template Set, available here on Amazon. You can use these templates to trace around and then cut your fabric pieces with scissors, or you can use the templates to rotary cut through several layers of fabric at a time. The templates also have little holes to facilitate marking for hand piecing these blocks, if that's your thing 28 mm Rotary Cutter with fresh blades. A larger diameter blade can't follow the curves of these templates, but a smaller diameter blade won't work either because the screw holding the blade to the handle doesn't clear the thickness of the acrylic template. Odif Grippy Nonslip Coating. This is a new-to-me product that was recommended to me by a friend and I'm loving it so far! You spray it on the underside of your acrylic templates and it creates a tacky surface that resists sliding on your fabric as you're cutting out these curved shapes. It's transparent so it doesn't interfere with fussy cutting, and it's removable if you wanted it off for some reason in the future. I wish I knew about this product when I was cutting out my drunkard's path quilt and my clam shells! I'll be spraying the bottoms of my Star Upon Stars templates with Grippy as well. Calibre Art 14" x 14" Rotating Cutting Mat. The photo above was taken before my new rotating cutting mat showed up, when I was alternately attempting to contort my body into weird angles so I could cut all the way around my templates without moving anything, and then trying to turn big pieces of fabric around on my cutting mat so I could cut each side normally, which wasn't working very well either. The rotating cutting mat is the perfect solution; the positioning of the fabric and template isn't disturbed when you are turning the mat. I was concerned that a spinning mat might move when I didn't want it to, in the middle of a cut, but the slight pressure you exert to hold the template in place is enough to lock the position of the mat securely. My new favorite tool! I used several Fat Eighth bundles of Tilda Pie In the Sky fabric bundles as a jumping off point for my Halo quilt, but I'm pulling lots of other fabrics from my stash and scrap bins for more variety. And I did start a tiny bit of sewing! I sewed the center square-in-a-square unit for two blocks so far: The Center is Sewn Together! I decided I'd better stop cutting and sew a couple blocks together to make sure I like what I'm doing. All of the cut-but-not-sewn pieces on the design wall were looking like a jumbled mess, but it's a relief to start sewing a block together and realize that it's a little less chaotic (and I like it a lot more!) when the fabric patches are actually sewn together. I sewed the center of two blocks so far. This Block's Center is Sewn, Too And of course, the whole time I'm working on this project, I have a Beyoncé ear worm that I can't get rid of! 🎶 🎶 Beyoncé Can See My Halo, Halo, Halo, She Can See My Halo... 🎶 That's all you get from me today. Don't judge me too harshly for my pitifully slow progress; I scheduled a few more quilts this month than I probably should have and that is not leaving much time for personal sewing projects. I should be caught up and "back to normal" by Easter, though. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and happy quilting! I'll be linking up today's post with the following linky parties: Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Last year I went to see The 12th Quilt Nihon on display at the New England Quilt Museum with some of my quilty friends. I took tons of pictures to share and I’m just now getting them posted, it’s totally worth waiting for! I was really inspired and blown away by all the beautiful work and detail.… Read More »Quilts Japan: The 12th Quilt Nihon

Here is some eye candy for you all. It is the details that makes something special. Be sure to add that little bit of extra in all that you create. Monica Roberts Collection  Recycled Denim Jacket     A Piece of Vintage-Verbena Nested Treasures   Lovely Piece of Crazy Quilting   Magnolia Pearl  House of Worth      

Learn how to join quilted blocks with this Quilt as you Go method and tutorial for joining quilt blocks.

Good morning, my lovelies! I have missed you! These past few weeks have been busy for me with travel, family celebrations, and moving Son-the-Elder into his off-campus apartment at Appalachian State, and as a result I have quite a backlog of quilts to share with you. Today we're looking at two gloriously colorful quilts, both made by my client Ramona who blogs at Doodlebugs and Rosebuds Quilts. Ramona's Lucky Stars Quilt Detail of Lucky Stars with Grecian E2E First up is Lucky Stars, a pattern by Atkinson design that you can find here on Etsy (this post contains affiliate links). Lucky Stars is a fat-quarter-friendly pattern that is perfect for showing off Ramona's collection of Kaffe Fassett prints and batiks. I love how the sawtooth star blocks are designed so the stars float just within the background fabric -- no risk of losing your star points if your piecing is less than perfect, which makes this a great pattern for beginners, too. I am adding this to my own ever-lengthening list of wanna-make-its! Wouldn't this be great as a baby quilt? Ramona's 76 x 91 Lucky Stars Quilt with Grecian E2E This quilt was unusual for me in that, after some initial back-and-forth with design options, Ramona ultimately left the choice of the quilting design completely up to me and she had no idea how I was quilting her Lucky Stars until it was finished. Ordinarily I consult with clients and make design recommendations, but get their approval on the final selection. I did that with Ramona on both of her quilts, but her original design selection for Lucky Stars didn't work out because the quilting design she chose was directional (meaning that the design had a definite right side up), her backing print fabric was also a directional print, and due to a measuring error (it happens to the best of us!), her backing fabric wasn't big enough for me to load her quilt right side up on my frame. Why I Need 10-12" of Extra Backing Fabric for Long Arm Quilting: It's Those Pesky Side Clamps! This is where a couple of pictures are worth a thousand words' worth of explanations: 5 Inches Clearance from My Needle to the Inside of My Side Clamps Those side clamps have an important function, holding the quilt backing fabric taut from side to side on the frame so that no wrinkles or pleats get quilted in on the underside of your quilt. I ask clients for backing fabric that is straight and square and at minimum 10-12" wider and longer than the quilt top (bigger is better!) to ensure that I can quilt all the way to the edge of the quilt without the machine hitting those side clamps. You can see that even better in the photo below: Extra Backing Width Ensures the Machine Head Doesn't Hit the Side Clamps As you can see in the photo above, I can sometimes make do with a backing that is not as generous in length as I would like by positioning the quilt top really close to the top edge of the backing fabric that is pinned to the horizontal edge of my canvas leader, but I really can't quilt all the way to the sides of a quilt if a backing isn't wide enough to keep the clamps out of the way. When clients are generous with their backing and give me more to work with than the bare minimum, I can straighten and square crooked edges without running short and I have more freedom in determining which direction to load the quilt for best results. So, once we realized that Ramona's backing fabric wasn't wide enough to load upright on my frame, her options were to either send me a different, larger backing fabric or to choose a different, nondirectional design so I could load her quilt sideways for quilting. Well, she wanted to keep her beautiful multicolor peacock print backing fabric but she did not want to go back and look at designs again, so she just asked me to "surprise her" instead. How I Choose Designs for Other People's Quilts What I don't do in this situation is select a quilting design based on what I would pick if it was my own personal quilt. My goal is always to find the design that the client would choose, if the client was able to magically see what that design looked like on her quilt ahead of time. So in choosing a design for Ramona's Lucky Stars quilt, I wanted to find a nondirectional quilting design with shared elements and a similar feel to the design she originally wanted, Karlee Porter's Clamshell Succulent E2E: Karlee Porter's Clamshell Succulent E2E You can see how that would look weird if it was sideways on a quilt instead of right side up! Here's another design that Ramona was considering for Lucky Stars, also unfortunately directional: Patricia Ritter's Tail Feathers E2E The designs Ramona liked had a playful feel, a staggered layout (what we'd call a half-drop repeat if this was wallpaper or drapery fabric), and simple feather-like motifs. The Tail Feathers design also had a fun spiral element. Nancy Haacke's Grecian E2E The line drawing above is what Nancy Haacke's Grecian E2E design looks like turned sideways, the way I quilted it on Ramona's Lucky Stars quilt. See how it has those feathery elements, a fun spiral, and the staggered half-drop repeat layout like her original clam shell design choices, yet this design doesn't look at all "wrong" when I quilt it sideways. Grecian (Sideways) on Lucky Star Other reasons I chose Grecian for Ramona's Lucky Star quilt include the way the quilted spirals tie in with several of the Kaffe Fassett fabric prints (like the blue/purple print in the lower right corner of the photo above) and the feathery shapes echo the shape of the flowers in that green and yellow/orange print fabric (in the upper right corner of the photo above). Despite all of the thought that went into picking this design for Ramona, I was extremely relieved when she got her quilt back and told me she loved it! I used Quilters Dream 80/20 Select loft batting for Lucky Stars and YLI 40 Tex Machine Quilting Cotton variegated thread in color V76 Kyoto Garden for this quilt. We'll talk more about the thread in a minute... Here's what Ramona's Lucky Stars top looked like before I quilted it: Ramona's Lucky Stars Before Quilting Ramona's Oriana Quilt The second quilt Ramona sent me was Oriana, a pattern by Lisa Hoffmann-Maurer that you can find on Etsy here. I love the graphic impact of these stratified spheres! Ramona's Oriana Quilt with West Wind E2E Ramona chose the West Winds quilting design by Christy Dillon, a versatile edge-to-edge design that imparts a lot of movement and dramatic atmosphere to her Oriana quilt. Detail of West Wind Quilting on Oriana For Oriana, we used the same Quilters Dream 80/20 Cotton/Poly batting, but this time I used So Fine color 519 Barely Mint 50 weight polyester thread. Here's what Ramona's Oriana quilt top looked like before she sent it to me for quilting: Ramona's Oriana Top Prior to Quilting Considerations When Choosing Quilting Thread So... Did you notice any difference in the way the actual quilting stitches look on these two quilts? I stock a LOT of quilting thread. Thick threads, skinny threads, cotton threads, polyester threads, shiny threads, matte threads, in every color of the rainbow, because different kinds of thread LOOK different when they are stitched into a quilt. I am not a big believer in "one size fits all," "one thread fits all," or "one batting fits all!" So how do I decide which thread to recommend for each quilt? With Ramona's Oriana quilt being made up primarily of solids and tone-on-tone print fabrics, I knew the quilting design was going to stand out nicely no matter what thread we used. No danger of the quilting design getting "lost" in busy prints. I didn't want the quilting design to compete with or detract from the strong piecing lines in this quilt, so I suggested a lighter weight thread that just kind of melts into the quilt without drawing a lot of attention to itself. We could have used an off-white thread in a color that matched the background fabric, but instead I used So Fine 512 Barely Mint that has just the slightest blue-green tint to it. Looking at the finished quilt, you'd think it was white thread, but that little bit of color in Barely Mint helps it to blend into the saturated colors of the circle fabrics better than a stark white thread would have done. So Fine 50 wt Polyester in 512 Barely Mint for Oriana Here's what that thin, fine thread looked like stitched into the quilt: With Lightweight, Blending Thread You Mostly See Texture Ramona's Lucky Stars quilt is comprised of a glorious assortment of bold multicolor prints and batik fabrics. Whereas with Oriana the quilting design was going to show up no matter what, with Lucky Stars there was a greater possibility of the quilting design getting completely lost in all of those busy prints. So for this one, I recommended a showy 40 Tex Machine Quilting Cotton thread from YLI in variegated Kyoto Garden colorway: YLI 40 Tex Machine Quilting Cotton in Kyoto Garden for Lucky Stars See the difference? Although you might expect threads labeled "40 Tex" and "50 weight" to be similar, these two threads use totally different measurement systems. The 50 weight So Fine thread I used on Oriana is the equivalent of 25 Tex (and in the Tex system, smaller numbers indicate thinner threads -- completely the opposite of the "weight" system), and a strand of So Fine is only about half the thickness of a strand of YLI Machine Quilting Cotton. That's why the quilt stitches -- and the quilting design -- are able to hold their own against the variety of patterns and colors of Lucky Stars: Heavier Weight Variegated Thread Draws More Attention to Quilting Stitches Since Ramona isn't local to me, I sent her photos of the threads I wanted to use for her approval once I had her quilt top in hand and was able to audition different threads against her fabrics. One Last Look at Lucky stars Thank you, Ramona, for entrusting these gorgeous quilts to me for quilting! 😁 PSST!! I'd Love to Quilt for YOU! By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you! I am currently scheduling quilts for completion in late October, so please let me know ASAP if you are working on quilts with holiday deadlines. Click here to learn how easy it is to book a quilt with me! I'll be linking up this post with my favorite linky parties, listed on the left sidebar of my blog. Have a wonderful week, and happy quilting!

Long Arm Quilter Rebecca Grace Discusses the Pros and Cons of Wool Batting, Showcasing a Client's Gorgeous Hunter Star Quilted with Abundant Feathers.

Rebecca explores the contradictions within a vintage quilt as she repairs and repurposes it for a client.

Happy FRIDAY!!! The Charlotte Quilters' Guild Outreach committee is doing a drop-off this weekend for charity quilts, and I managed to squeeze one more in for quilting so that I'll have three to turn in this month. I took advantage of the opportunity to try out a new quilting design called Spring Forth. It shows up really nicely on the pieced backing side of the quilt: Spring Forth E2E in Tabriz Orchid Glide Thread, Backing Side I knew the quilting design wouldn't show well on the front of this heavily pieced quilt, and I didn't really want the quilting to stand out on the front of this one, so I tried to pick a design and thread color that would blend in and let the piecing shine. Not every quilt is all about the quilting! Spring Forth E2E, Front of Same Quilt See what I mean? Of course you can see the flowers in the quilting design from up close, which is nice because of the way the flower shape in the quilting design mimics the flower in that lavender-gray floral fabric. Spring Forth E2E in Tabriz Orchid Glide Thread I did have a bit more trouble with my son's graduation quilt (yes, this is in addition to discovering that the quilt top is smaller than planned), but you'll have to wait to hear about that because I'm still fixing what needs fixing and the clock is still ticking, if you catch my drift! Spoiler alert: I've been spending LOTS of quality time with my seam ripper. 😩 Since I have so little to say for myself today, I'll leave you with a gratuitous photo of Samwise the Brave, the Handsomest Spoiled-Rottenweiler in the Universe: Why, Yes -- I DO Know How Cute I Am!! Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! I'm linking up with the following linky parties: FRIDAY Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday SATURDAY UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland SUNDAY Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

Rebecca Strickson’s work as an illustrator and do-er of things based in Peckham spans hair, women, their darker sides, and the finer details.

For my purposes, Myth represents a realization in the artist, depicted through symbols which through force and awe, conjure the same realization in the viewer. To use the natural to represent the supernatural, and thereby realize all levels of reality, most importantly mystery.

PLEASE NOTE: All artworks are created digitally and are printed on matte, archival paper.  © 2021 High West Wild. All rights reserved.

WOO HOO! Here’s the second to last chapter in our Dear Daughter Quilt Sampler! Emails went out on the 16th to Dear Daughter subscribers, so if you didn’t receive yours, please email me! ([email protected]) If you want to subscribe… You can find the pattern In MY SHOP! The Fat Quarter Shop and The Warm Company… Read More »Chapter 11 ~ Dear Daughter Quilt

From Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Alamac for October 29 I learned about folk artist and quilt maker, Harriet Powers. I had never heard of this woman or her quilts until today. I sa…

Issue 30 | Georgia $22.00 164 pages Advertisement free 100% money-back promise Printed in the USA Available for individual purchase OR select Issue 30: Georgia as your FREE bonus issue when you subscribe Nestled in the Southeastern United States, Georgia stands as a captivating blend of rich history, diverse landscapes, and a vibrant cultural heritage. From the dynamic […]

A gift for a friend. She's definitely not into baby pink, so I'm hoping bright is alright!

Today's post needs to be a quickie because I have a full day ahead of me, but I just had to share pictures of how that white-on-white "pieced whole cloth quilt" turned out. My client picked it up yesterday and she'll be surprising her mother with it when she flies out to see her tomorrow. The "Pieced Whole Cloth" Quilt, Bound and Ready for Gifting My client is thrilled with how this project turned out and I can't wait to hear about her mom's reaction to the quilt. This is supposed to be the white on white quilt that she always wanted but couldn't have because of her messy kids and dogs. I think we nailed it, don't you? 56 x 68 Finished Quilt with Bailee Quilting Design It's so hard to get pictures that do justice to the quilting when it's white thread on a white background. The shadowy pictures seem to show the texture the best, but the brighter white photos are truer to what the fabric really looks like. 56 x 68 White On White Quilt with Bailee Design My client opted for me to trim and bind this one as well. The stitch quality on the Bernina Q24 is amazing; the stitches on the back of this quilt look identical to the stitches on the front. Quilted and Bound I love, love, LOVE Quilter's Dream Bamboo batting for ensuring a soft and drapable finished quilt with a heavily stitched design like this one. It's actually a blend of bamboo, silk, cotton and Tencel fibers and it makes this quilt feel so supple and luxurious. It's lighter weight than cotton, just as breathable, and it's a less dense batting than cotton so it stays soft even with a heavily quilted, elaborate design like this one. Bailee E2E with Quilter's Dream Bamboo Batting One more peek: Bailee E2E Pieced Whole Cloth Quilt Final thoughts: I've been calling this one a "pieced whole cloth quilt" because at first glance, it appears to be a whole cloth quilt. Those block seams kind of disappear between the different white and off white fabric squares my client pieced together to create the quilt top. Of course it would have been faster and easier to make this quilt as an actual seamless, whole cloth quilt using extra wide fabric for the top and bottom, but now that it's finished, it's really interesting to me how the areas of the creamier whites in this quilt give it kind of an aged heirloom effect. I like it! This has got to be one of my all-time favorite quilts, and I'll definitely be using this design again at some point. Although it looks super traditional stitched in white on white, I'd love to stitch it out on a purple silk fabric with a chartreuse thread color for a totally different look. Wouldn't that be cool? PSST!! I'd Love to Quilt for YOU! By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you! My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting (on quilts that are a maximum of 71" on the shortest side) is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me. I'm also accepting larger quilts up to 120", but won't be able to quilt those until my backordered Q-Matic gets here for my 13' frame. Alright, I need to end this post and get in the shower so I'm not still in my pajamas when my next new client shows up with her quilt top in an hour! I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties: WEDNESDAY Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter THURSDAY Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree FRIDAY Whoop Whoop Fridays at Confessions of a Fabric Addict Peacock Party at Wendy’s Quilts and More Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, rotates, schedule found here: TGIF Friday