Wisteria - Stencil © 2009 Patricia E. Ritter Templates for marking quilts and projects that are constructed of flexible plastic. Our stencils have been designed for both longarm and domestic machine quilters. BORDER / ROW SIZE: 8 inch

Jacquard discounted designer upholstery fabric by the yard at 40 percent off retail pricing. You cannot go wrong with pattern number B654, view it here.

Whole-cloth quilt made from buttery yellow Dupioni silk, 16x20. This was placed in a frame. The center heart pattern is from a book called "The Heirloom Nursery." The corners and top feathers are my own design. They are freehand, utilizing techniques I learned from Sharon Schamber. I took a 4-day class from her at Quilter's Escape in Fortuna, CA.

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I've been playing with YLI Sparkle thread, a twist of #100 silk, in this case ecru silk, and metallic thread, here in gold. It also comes in silver colorways from pale to dark. The feather above is quilted on a very lightweight soft silk from an old blouse, washed and pressed. In real life it is shimmery and elegant, really lovely with the slight sparkle or "fairy dust" from the thread. It is a much lighter and more heirloom look, with a twinkle in the stitches, not heavy like a straight metallic. Background quilting is done in pale yellow #100 YLI silk thread. I used a #70 Jersey needle (YLI recommended Jersey needles for this thread) and had no trouble at all. I could quilt at my normal speed, change directions smoothly with no fraying or breaking. It looks really quite wonderful. If you are quilting through heavier fabrics, a denser batt or backing fabric, or a top with lots of piecing joins or fused areas, of course you would use a larger Jersey needle or even a Top Stitch needle. For every project with specialty threads you must try a stitch-out on the actual materials you will be using in the real quilt, and find the magic combination of thread, needle, tension, and stitch length that works the best, and looks the best. #100 silk thread was used in the bobbin, and I lowered the top tension from default #4 to 1.75. Thread spool was on the vertical spindle of the machine. Many times owners' manuals will give so much info about needles and threads and how to use them on your particular machine, settings, etc. Mine has pages of info, very nice. Now I am busy quilting with a deeper shade of Sparkle thread on a medium colored fabric. The feathers I have tried so far I did in the "old" method where there is no space between each one as in the one here, and I did backtracking or "travelling" to get to the next feather. Again, it worked perfectly, and the doubling of the thread was not obnoxious or too noticeable. It looks wonderful. I'll post photos of that when this small quilt is finished. If it turns out! If not, I'll explain the problems. It's fun to try new things and challenge yourself to improve your own style of quilting or give it a slightly new and fresh look. I probably won't use metallics that often but I love knowing they are there in my toolbox of techniques for free motion machine quilting, and I know how to use them. Try something new today, and keep quilting.....your work gets better everyday! Diane

Happy Day After Easter to you all!!! My weekend started off with a horrible headache. I did everything, soaked in a hot bath, applied therapeutic oils, did my best to rest, all with no luck. I had a list a mile long of all I wanted to accomplish, but I gave in, rested and read a book that was quite inspirational. More on that at a later date. Although the headache was still with me yesterday, it was not as painful, so I was able to enjoy the afternoon with my niece, her fiance, and her parents. What an incredible lunch they made! Great food, and great conversation, just the perfect Easter Sunday :) So many of you were very generous with your suggestions last week when I put out a plea for help. Wow!!!, did you ever come through with some great ideas. Rather than allow them all to be buried in the comment section of last week's post, I thought I would share some of the ideas with all of you. First, I found this, Pretty amazing. It's from the same Schiaparelli collection that the coat below which I shared last week is from. I too thought that the coat below might be matelasse, but now I'm wondering if it really was quilted. Charade sent in this idea, a vintage Lilli Ann coat from the 1950's. The quilting is trapunto and the collar can be worn up or down. Beautiful piece. I am a huge fan of President Abraham Lincoln. If you have never read, Lincoln The Unknown, by all means, please do. It is probably the most inspirational book I have ever read. Craft Alchemy sent a link to the picture below. It's the coat that he was wearing the night he was killed. Yes, the coat represents a very sad period in the history of America, but the surprise of the incredible quilting is quite inspiring. Carol In Denver suggested incorporating a little fabric manipulating into the quilting of a garment. There are a number of books, all of which I'm sure are available at your local library. Here's a list of some at Amazon. I own the book below, so I'm off to a great start :) The Sewing Loft suggested some work with dragonflies. Just for the fun of it, I googled "dragonfly quilting," and found this picture of a piece in progress. Just the intricacy of the design is great inspiration. Sue from A Colorful Canvas shared her amazing coat that she recently finished. Be sure to pop over to her blog and see the rest of the coat. Ruth commented on the subtle but beautiful hem of the Ralph Rucci dress that I shared a few weeks ago. I really like the idea of quilting not only being an accent, or design aspect of a garment, but also serving a purpose as it does with this hem. A number of you suggested using Alabama Chanin as a source of inspiration. Cynthiacc also suggested Alabama Chanin, but using different fabrics, possibly boiled wool. Using the concept, but making it your own. Elizabeth K suggested getting some books that show fabrics and designs through the different decades. I do have a couple of books in my collection. A great idea. E McAfee talked about the picture below on the left being a fencing costume. I was making a joke about feeling tied in knots, but she really came up with a great idea. The piece on the right is really amazing. Martha said, "You have great instincts, you know." And Mary said, "You have all the skills and savvy that you need." A few others also offered some words of encouragement as well. Sometimes the best source of inspiration is being told that someone else believes in you. Thank you :) With new found inspiration, I wish you a wonderful week! Rhonda

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Every year about this time the leaves turn glorious shades and begin falling, and I begin a quilt project inspired by the colors around me. Above, detail from "Shadows of Umbria," made "just for me" one autumn, because I simply had to dig into my fabric and work with these colors. I always do. It has been so long since I've posted that I almost forgot I had a blog, but today I have some spare time and decided to check in and see what's going on in Blogland. I've been enjoying retirement, although it seems life is as busy as ever, but no travel deadlines for me now, no packing stacks of quilts, samples, and handouts. Life is at my pace and that is good. I'm keeping up with quilting, what is going on, new machines, fabrics, styles, people. And every now and then Oliver and I spend some time at the machine doing a bit of quilting too. Oliver turned 4 in August, and we celebrated with a bowl of fresh guacamole which he loved helping to prepare (he adores fresh veggies, especially sweet corn this year, the silk, of course). His godfather visited and brought him a playstation that he uses many times every day and loves it. And adventures he has had! He made his escape from the house for an entire hour one day by figuring out a way to slither through the opening in the sliding patio door. I came down to see him OUTSIDE, looking IN! He couldn't get back in on his own, and how he squeezed himself into that opening I'll never know, but now that has been revised and I believe he will stay in the house from now on. I had a few new grey hairs from that little escapade, and perhaps his innards are slightly compressed too. I visited Bigsby's Sewing Center in Elm Grove to see what's new, and had a great time with Riley, their saved kitten, now a large sweet cat, who showed me how to work an IPad. He has a game where he chases the pink mouse and he even knows how to swipe the screen to go to the next game. Ah, cats. Smarter than we knew. Recently I held a small class for two professional quilter friends and it was wonderful to experience teaching again. We quilted, laughed, shared and had two good days at our machines. During that time there were many things that came to mind about quilting and I will list some of them here for you to consider too: I know this is something you have heard over and over, but clean and oil your machine (if oiling is appropriate for your brand/model) frequently if you quilt or sew often - I do it every 3 or 4 hours. After a big project, be sure and do this thoroughly. The bobbin area is especially important, get rid of lint and gunk, shine a light in there, and gently get all the lint, threads, "stuff" out. Clean thread guides on top too. Then add a drop of oil where metal rotates around metal in the bobbin/hook area, slowly run the machine to distribute it, and remove excess. Quilt or sew a bit on a sample to work out any excess. Above, using my microbrush (or a cotton swab, and a brush is good too) to clean the hook area. After all lint and gunk is removed I add a drop of fresh sewing machine oil here. Note the warning on the machine telling operator to close the door! I have to remind those in my classes to do this all the time. Just shut this door and things will be good. If you hear strange noises in the machine or suddenly your tension is not right and no matter what you do can't be adjusted, you might have something damaged in the bobbin area. Stop; don't continue quilting if a noise alerts you or if stitches look bad. In our class we discovered a metal part on the bobbin case had been damaged on an older Bernina. Once it had been repaired the machine worked perfectly. Many quilters have an extra bobbin case on hand or perhaps one comes with the machine and you can try that to see if it solves the problem. Bobbins can become damaged or bent through use, over time. Try a new one, wind it, see how that works before you assume the worst. Don't always blame your skill level or inexperience for something that isn't working right on your machine. It can be something very tiny, maybe that you can't see, that could be causing the problem. Many times the simply re-threading top and bottom of machine, checking to make sure the bobbin is in correctly and wound correctly, cleaning in the bobbin area, all might fix the problem. Replace the needle, try another spool of thread if you have one, a new bobbin wound with fresh thread. All these things are tiny tiny problems but added up can cause huge issues with free motion machine quilting. When you are shopping and see new exciting products, make sure they can be used in the way you plan. That gorgeous thread might not work in the top of the machine, only the bobbin if at all. What needle will work best with it? Ask the people at the store for advice; a specialty quilt/sewing store will have trained people to help you. We had fallen in love with an assortment of threads, but Rosemary said it did not work well in the machine even though it would thread ok, the "twist" of the thread caused problems. So we put that back and looked for other delightful choices. Try something new with your quilting. Set yourself a challenge to research and come up with a new technique or design that you can add to your next project. This not only adds interest to the finished quilt, but keeps you interested in your quilting. It's so much fun to draw something, figure out how to quilt it, make some samples, practice it until you are proficient, and use it in a real quilt. We tried some grid-based designs, zentangle ideas, freehand florals. You need more than loopy backgrounds for quilting designs; some focal point motifs are important too. Many floral designs can be done with some sketched in guidelines or a starting point, then add freehand petals, details, leaves, echoes. Below, a grid-based background I tried around a feather. It appears to be on-grain squares, but in reality it is on-point squares stitched first, then each filled, one at a time, with a log cabin style spiral technique. It was a bit tedious, went faster the more I did, and I love the finished look, so definitely will be adding this to my projects. I hope you are taking some time for October's bright blue skies, and autumn leaves if you have them where you live. It is one of the highlights of living in Wisconsin, the vistas of color as you make the turn in the road and see nature's glory for a fleeting time each fall. Even a bright red leaf fallen on the sidewalk is a chance to marvel at color, composition, design. Enjoy, and keep quilting! Your work gets better every day. Diane

A view to the many quilts I've created over the years. I have also added recent smocking projects to the blog.

Hallo Ihr Lieben, ich habe wieder experimentiert mit Trapunto. So ist ein Türquilt für mein Nähzimmer entstanden. Die Trapuntowirkung ist einfach genial. Seht selbst. Hi everyone, I have experimented with trapunto. I created a door quilt for my sewing room. I love trapunto. See for yourself. Liebe Grüße Grit

Thanks for all your enthusiasm and comments about my upcoming tutorial for SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge! I know many taking part are beginners, and also many are experienced quilters, so I had to aim for all levels in my explanation of quilting a feather plume. The sample, above, is done with #100 YLI silk thread on silk dupioni, Hobbs wool batt, and I made it about 10 or more years ago when I first started quilting feathers freehand after years of drawing and tracing my own feather designs, and before that using stencils. It still looks fine. I would do it a bit differently now (the spacing on the spiral at the base of the spine is too close, should have more puff to make it stand out from the background), but don't be afraid to learn this technique and use it right away on your quilts. The only way you'll improve and be smooth and confident is to quilt tops. Repetition on a real quilt is the key. Some things we should remember: Feathers are unique to the quilter, but they do have some basic things in common. The "flow" of the feather or elegance is based on the angle that is formed as it touches (yes, it must touch) the spine, or central line. My feathers have a narrow angle, maybe about 20 degrees or less, depending on the curve of the spine. You will find many stencil feathers come to the spine at a much bigger angle, more than 45 degrees. I call this angle the "tilt" of the feather and like to keep mine very tilted. I'll try and find a stencil that has chunkier feathers for you to see, and show it in a future post. I include both long, fat, thin, large and small feathers in a plume to make it look more interesting and natural. It's not necessary to do this if it is easier for you to make them all the same, but many quilters like the "no restrictions" of feathers in all sizes. Avoid straight lines. If there is one straight line in 40 feathers, the eye will go right to that. Always try and curve the lines gently, not abruptly. It sounds easy, but all of us tend to see "home" and head straight towards it. In my tutorial there is one straight line feather - you'll probably see it right away, but I left it in and continued. The echo space between each feather needs to be very consistent and even, as if you have a twin-needle in the machine. This looks really hard, but in reality it is a resting time as you quilt, as you don't have to think about where you are going. A nice medium speed is good; too fast and you get out of control, too slow and the line isn't smooth. Look ahead of the needle, create the space and make that even. Don't look at the stitches. There will always be some "odd" feathers in your design. Don't worry about them! With all the swirls and curves, one strangely shaped feather won't stand out. If they are all strange, perhaps you have invented an entirely new design.....! If you quilt one side of the feather better than the other, start on the good side first the next time. Take a break, just a few minutes, before doing the second side, and really think about where you want to quilt, the shape you will make. Concentrate! It's ok to stop, needle down, take a breath, then proceed. This isn't quilting where your life or income depends on it; this is fun. It will go faster as you get better and more experienced. Be very careful when you resume quilting, start slowly so the needle doesn't jump to a new spot. I usually begin by raising the needle and then starting so I'm sure the needle is in the right place. On my Bernina I do this by touching my heel to the foot control - needle is raised, or lowered with that action. Make small plumes for practice, with a spine about 5" long. Make several. Take a break, start a new practice sandwich, then make some more. If you do one incorrectly and then try a new one next to it, your eye will see the bad one and reproduce it one more time. Get a new sample so you start fresh. Remove thread tails so they don't get in the way or distract you. When you reach the spine don't keep running the machine if you are not sure where to go next. A knot of thread will build up top or back or both in about 3 stitches, so stop the machine, readjust hands, figure out your plan, then proceed. I hope these tips will help you, even if you are not in the Challenge. Quilting feathers is a beautiful thing, something that not only is relaxing but also fills your quilts with lovely designs and gets them finished before you know it. Snow here in Wisconsin, beautiful flocked trees, blue skies and sun. Time to quilt! Diane

J'invite celles qui n'ont pas pu s'y rendre et aussi les autres à me suivre au fil des allées et des expositions... Le thème de cette année "Flower Power" a donné naissance à un gigantesque tapis faits de yoyos et de potirons: Avant l'arrivée de la...

3 kostenlose Schnittmuster für Haarbänder im Vergleich - Turban-Haarband, Schleifen-Haarband oder Piratenkopftuch? Für jeden ist hier etwas dabei.

"The Fine Art of Echo Quilting" ~ Warm-up exercise My classes in the upcoming AQS show in Des Moines Oct. 3-6 are almost filled. Thanks everyone for signing up, and I hope you will love what I have to share with you about machine quilting on a home sewing machine. The photo above shows one of our warm-up exercises for echo quilting to get you comfy and ready to do some more challenging quilting. Sometimes these warm-ups turn out so well students have gone on and used them in quilts, with pretty threads, as focal point quilting. Some have expanded them to fill entire spaces around other designs as wavy, lyrical background quilting instead. Once you get the hang of even echoes and even stitches, it's fun and easy to do this. Remember, don't "lazy susan" or turn your quilt sample, even if it is small enough to do so. You'll be at a loss when you quilt a larger quilt in a home machine and cannot turn it. It's best to learn right from the start to quilt in all directions, deal with the visibility problems you face in a home sewing machine, learn to adjust machine speed so you don't overshoot or make mistakes in blind spots. And there will always be blind spots. This little sample is not perfect, lines are not perfectly spaced, it was done in a class as a demo. You don't have to have perfection to create something beautiful and unique. Instead of making a new sample to show you here that would be a bit better, I used this one so you will feel confident about class, and look forward to coming and exploring quilting with me. There are a few openings left in "It's Bananas," a 3-hour class that will focus on this design, below, that many have tried from my Quilt Savvy book. If you want to perfect it, get it to look its best, this class is for you. Beautiful Bananas However, it is also for those of you who simply want to improve all your quilting designs, as much of what I will share with you is what I've learned over the years working with so many talented quilters who have taken my classes. These important things will be included in all my classes to help you improve your own free motion quilting, be more at ease and more confident. I want you to love your own quilting. To register for this class, go to this weblink at AQS. Fall is in the air here finally and quilting is as well. I'm packing my teaching samples, preparing handouts, and planning my trip to Des Moines. I hope to see many of you there, even if you aren't in my class, please say hi. Keep quilting! Your work gets better every day, Diane

hurrahhhhhhh! (although just realised it's upside down. opps!)

Edition of 100, 18 x 24, $45 Signed and Numbered SOLD OUT

Häromdagen la jag upp en bild på instagram (@simolibo , följ mig gärna där 😉) på en body med stjärnapplikation på. Den har inte kommit upp på bloggen än men eftersom jag tyckte att det var så rolig…

Most of you know that I free-hand my feathers 97.5% of the time because of the tight deadlines I work with. I generally don’t like to spend the extra time marking my quilt tops — the…

"Blossom's Journey" Pilgrim/Roy Challenge Quilt 2012 Live Auction AQS Show, Paducah 2012 40 1/2" square My quilt is finished! I was invited to be part of this year's Pilgrim and Roy Challenge, a group of quilts made by well known quilters to be auctioned live at the AQS show in Paducah to raise funds for the National Quilt Museum. The quilts were due last April but because of health problems I was unable to complete mine until this winter. But it's done, will be exhibited at the quilt show in the convention center with the other magnificent quilts already featured and displayed this past year. To see them and think about bidding on one or more of them, click here. The quilt auction is Thursday evening April 26, 6-8 p.m. with food available beforehand in the food tent. You can bid online if you won't be at the event: http://www.quiltmuseum.org/auction1.html The quilt was made of a packet of challenge fabrics by Moda from Hancock's of Paducah, and I added two additional fabrics to complete the design. Quilting motifs are original, including the animals from my Quilting Whimsy digitized embroidery designs for OESD. The animals were traced to the quilt, but the feathers surrounding it are done freehand and are not symmetrical or matching, totally organic. I thought the birds, cats, and rabbits looked best surrounded by flowing natural greenery. I used YLI #100 silk thread and YLI Sparkle thread, and Pellon Legacy wool batt, and the lovely piping/binding was made using Susan Cleveland's Piping Hot Binding materials, book, and technique, which worked wonderfully. Love it. Below is a detail of the border quilting. I will add more photos in an upcoming post so if you are interested in purchasing this quilt you will have more detailed information. If you are going to the AQS Show in Paducah, you can see it there, which is always so much better than a photo. The motifs are outlined in taupe/gold YLI Sparkle thread which gives it such a richness and vintage warmth. All of the quilters involved in this project made stunning quilts, and we hope you will be generous and bid and support the museum. Your contribution will be tax deductible, plus you will own a piece of quilting history from some of your favorite iconic quilters. I hope whatever quilt you choose to buy you will be thrilled with this opportunity to own and see every single day something that will enrich your life so much and do so much to support our museum. The museum belongs to all of us, and we have to do as much as we can to support it. The story of this quilt is all about Blossom, a lovely and amazingly sweet little tabby cat who found our home in the snows and ice of February, and went through a long and incredible journey of trust with us to find a new life. While that was going on, I made this quilt, a happy diversion for Oliver and me, and included the two cats on it to represent this ordeal. The "Trip Around the World" pattern is very fitting indeed. It has a good ending, and Blossom has a new home with a family in our town. The quilt I hope will find a new home too. Please spread the word about these quilts so as many people as possible will know about them and think about buying one of them. I thank you so much. I am making plans to go to Sneak Preview at the AQS Paducah show and opening day, so please say hi if you see me, whip out a feather plume to show me, and I will be happy. Can't wait to see the quilts, see old friends, do some shopping, see what everyone has been making! Keep quilting, your work gets better every day! Diane