Archive of ‘iQuilt linkup’ category
It’s Thursday and it’s time to get your quilt on! Quite literally, it’s FREEZING here in Canberra!!
Thank you to those of you who noticed that I’ve been quiet. I have a thyroid anti-immune disease and it is playing up at the moment. Whilst I’m mostly fine, the last couple of weeks I had a good day followed by a bad day. Thankfully the fatigue and general unwellness that my mean old thyroid brings, seems to be on the way out 
I’m off to a Guild meeting tonight (yay!) unlike last Thursday when I was half comatose on the sofa and the FABULOUS Ms Midge offered to step in at the last minute and host I Quilt for me. Yay for awesome, quilty friends!! Thank you Midge xxx
This week I’m featuring another fabulous quilty lady, Karen of Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals.
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
Karen wrote the most marvelous post last week full of FANTASTIC quilting tips! She quilts on a Janome Horizon with Aurifil thread and has some advice specific to her machine as well as some really good, general quilting advice. Karen doesn’t drop her feed-dogs, rather she covers them, she also uses a bobbin genie and supreme slider. With my Bernina I feel the extension table is smooth enough for quilting but I’ve heard great things about supreme sliders. Karen also uses Machinger gloves which I find to be excellent for quilting on the domestic machine. Thanks for the tips Karen!!
Image used with permission by Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
While you’re over there make sure you check out her work, she is a really talented quilter and I love that she shared her top tips with us last week. That’s what I wanted I Quilt to be all about; sharing the process so that we can all improve our quilting <3
Image used with permission from Karen’s Quilts, Crows and Cardinals
Speaking of sharing the quilty love, this evening on Instagram I happened across an awesome hashtag: #machinequiltingtips
This advice is aimed at longarmers and there is some FANTASTIC advice there!!! Check it out if you’re a longarm quilter, please share your tips and support the wonderful online community that we have <3 My top tip for both longarm and domestic quilting is to relax and not worry about perfection. Closely followed by my second top tip which is to never sew/quilt when tired! 
Speaking of this online community… I reached a big milestone on Instagram this week and will be celebrating with a giveaway over the next few days. If you’re not on Instagram, head on over, if you are, keep your eyes peeled The giveaway will be limited to Instagram (don’t worry, I’ll have an awesome August giveaway here on the blog) because it’s all about celebrating the great IG community I’ve pulled out some fabric and I’m thinking of doing a stripy, binding bundle <3 As much as we all love fat quarter bundles, I was thinking of some WoF stripey prints that can be used for binding. Sound good?
Now it’s your turn to get quilty! Link up your quilting process, visit three other linkers and share the quilt love <3
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday and it’s time to get quilty. The ever lovely Ms Midge is hosting I Quilt this week. Please head over and link up your quilty process! If you would like to host I Quilt linky one week, please send me an email or contact me through the contact page.
Midge has just given her blog a makeover, so even if you’re not linking this week, I encourage you to pop over, check out the quilty goodness and say hi!
Happy Quilting xxx
It’s Thursday and it’s time to linky up your quilty process here at Pretty Bobbins! Sometimes I think too much, I always have. In fact one of my favourite things to do is quilt and think (I’m not one to watch TV and piece, I prefer the company of my own thoughts). This week I’ve been thinking a lot about being a professional quilter and blogger and what that means. But first up I want to feature the incredibly talented Jess of The Elven Garden.
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
I remember first coming across Jess and being so incredibly impressed with her quilting. Seriously amazing stuff! She is now teaching and has been published in magazines and is generally a bit of a quilting superstar in my books I’m looking forward to meeting Jess in real life and sharing a room at QuiltCon next year!!
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden – saw this in person, it’s AMAZING!!
Yesterday Jess wrote a post about thinking and quilting. Now I’ll admit that I quilt and think, the two go hand in hand for me. Jess talked about how some of us are mindful quilters and some aren’t and how she’s realised that she is totally happy “just” making pretty things and being happy <3 Jess, I’ll be happy if you keep making pretty things! The world needs more quilt candy, be it mindfully made or thrown together with purpose rather than deep thought involved
Image used with permission from The Elven Garden
Seriously, this kind of talent kills me! ABSOLUTELY stunning! If you haven’t already, please head over to The Elven Garden and say hi to Jess. Her work is all things wonderful <3
Quilting with my Miss
The only quilting I’ve been up to lately is a super simple quilt for Francois, my daughter’s class mascot. The children in her class laid out the charm squares and we made the quilt together at home. We added photographs to the Francois’ scrapbook and I have hung a few copies in my sewing room <3
Triangle quilt in progress
As usual I have been thinking a lot about my business and I’ve decided to aim to have a market stall. We all know that pricing is arguably the hardest part of quilting and I very much believe that we should charge what we’re worth. I have a super hard time following through with this and generally tend to sell myself short. I have decided that everything I make for market will be properly priced. I’ve been timing myself as I’m working and you may be interested to hear my progress.
Cutting: 50 minutes
Layout: 40 minutes
Piecing: 205 minutes
That’s almost 5 hours of work before basting, quilting and binding and this is only a cot sized quilt. Of course I will probably chicken out and charge far less than the finished quilt is actually worth, but at least by figuring out an accurate cost based on time, materials and skill I can educate myself. In this same vein I urge you to visit this post by Mandalei Quilts on working for free. It is definitely food for thought and fits with my own experience of realising that as much as I love to accept free fabric, the work that I put into my work is worth far more than the say $50 worth of free fabric. As a business I just don’t think I can afford to work for free anymore. I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts on this one
So that’s my thinky quilty Thursday Please link up your quilty process below <3
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, yay! It’s almost the weekend 
I hope you’ve got your quilt on and you’re ready to link up to this week’s I Quilt party. This week I’m talking about how I quilt online. But before I get started I want to feature the amazingly talented Christa of Christa Quilts!
“Spiraling Out of Control” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Christa has her own fabric shop so I’m terribly jealous from the outset She is also a talented and successful quilter and her blog is the place to go if you’re seeking inspiration, insights and how-tos. I’m sure you all know Christa, but if you don’t, please pop over and check out her work and say hi!
“Modern X” image used with permission by Christa Quilts
Last week Christa shared some binding tips (and y’all know how much I love that part of the process!). I love Christa’s modern Christmas trees series, you can find the main post here, but definitely check out the posts on the quilting, it’s super impressive!!
“Modern Trees“, image used with permission by Christa Quilts
I love the crisp, sharp lines that she tends to favour and I adore her quilting, especially as she is a real sharer of process, something that this linky party is ALL about!
This week I wanted to talk about being an online quilter. You may be aware of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival run by Amy of Amy’s Creative Side. If you haven’t participated before or you’re nervous about being “good enough” I strongly encourage you to throw caution to the wind and just jump in! I’ve found some of my favourite bloggers through the festival (I’m looking at you Susan of Canadian Abroad) and aside from anything else, it is such a visual feast!
You’d be surprised to hear that I don’t spend as much time online as I used to but I still LOVE all the fun, creative blogger things happening out there. This week I came across “me made May” on Instagram (check out #mmm14 and #memademay) which is all about wearing clothing in May that you’ve made yourself. Inspired to join in and make myself a fabulous outfit (I firmly believe that if you feel good in what you’re wearing and love how you look, you can conquer the world) I got busy last night and stitched up a tova tunic. I’ll post about it later in the week, but you can see a sneak peek
Pink and yellow giraffes! Love my new tova tunic!
Some of my other favourite online quilting activities are Work in Progress Wednesday, Fresh Sewing Day and TGIFF. Please, please, please add your favourite online quilty/creative/stitchy link ups/activities below. If a hashtag inspired me to sew a fabulous dress then I think we need to share more of them!
Now let’s get linky! Share your quilting process and don’t forget to visit three other linkers, we all love comments!!
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, yay! That means I get to quilt all day tomorrow and read your linkys <3 Firstly, thank you so much for all your comments last week!! You’ve really made me think about what it is that I want, how we’re all going through a similar journey and how much I have to be grateful for. Thank you!! Following on from the theme of last week; (re)defining success, I want to talk about pride. A few times recently I have almost said, “I’m a quilter” but have ended up saying something like, “I’m a textile artist/designer”. Today I’m going to shout it out; I’m proud to be a quilter! Don’t forget to link up your quilt process and feel free to share your thoughts about being a quilter. Quilters rock!
This week I’m featuring the hugely talented Midge of Ms Midge. Midge and I have never met but are very close online friends. I’m not sure how that all started, but it did and now we chat online most days and help each other out, sharing advice and lending an ear when needed. Midge has been quilting for 2.5 years (and is super organised and has all of her quilts in two pages on her blog 2013 and 2014) and holy heck, she is good! With four kids, a successful handmade business and a job outside the home, I don’t know where she finds the time to quilt! I suspect she has a clone or robot or something, because the rate at which she pumps out her amazing projects is truly astounding!!
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
Ages ago Midge wrote a thinky post (she’s good at them, you should follow her blog) and among other things she wrote that I was the first person to call her a quilter. I’m pretty sure that was around the time that I also called her crazy for taking on a quarter square triangle quilt as (I think) her second ever quilt The point is, I was so touched and so proud that my encouragement meant so much to her. She is awesome, she doesn’t need me to tell her that, and yet I’m compelled to do so. We NEED to encourage each other, it feels good to make others feel good and we can take pride in being not only awesome quilters, but a community that encourages, shares and connects at a meaningful level.
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
In keeping with the theme I asked Midge to share three quilts that she is most proud of. She selected the above two and the following quilt. Midge is most proud of her triangle quilt below because the quilting looks perfect from the back. Only a quilter would get that, the pleasure at not only having a beautiful quilt from the front, but knowing that you’ve done a damn good job and the back is worthy of being put on show. You should be proud Midge, all three quilts are beautiful and a testament to your drive, determination, skill and good taste!!
Image used with permission from Ms Midge
I don’t know if I can choose one quilt that I am most proud of. I guess it was probably mean of me to ask Midge to select only three! Every quilt is special, a learning experience, a meaningful gift, a profitable sale. There is pride to be found in each quilt and we should be proud of what we do.
My son’s Rainbow I Spy quilt is probably one that I can pick out as being super proud of. It’s not my favourite quilt of all time (although I’m pretty sure it was at the time), but I was/am proud of myself for working out the layout. It is pieced and was made by fussy cutting every novelty print I had in my stash at that time, placing them in a rainbow gradient and then working out how to piece them. I learnt a heap from that project and gained a lot of confidence. Plus my son loves it and sleeps under it every night <3
So next time I find myself talking to someone outside the quiltosphere about my passion I’m going to tell them that I’m a quilter and not feel the need to hide behind a cool title, explain that it really is for awesome peeps or talk it down as just a hobby. Maybe I’ll get it printed on a t-shirt….
Now it’s time to link up your quilty process <3 Big love to all the quilters out there xxx
An InLinkz Link-up
Happy Thursday and welcome to I Quilt! After getting up at 5am this morning to chat with the adorable Mark Lipinski, I am about to fall flat on my face at 5pm! You can listen to our discussion here (it’s the 30 April 2014 show if you’re reading this later), please be kind, it was early, I hit three coffees in rapid succession and started out pretty nervous! One thing that Mark asked me about is the process pledge which has left me thinking about my quilt process in the bigger picture. If you haven’t noticed, there is a lovely little button over there —> (unless you’re on a mobile device and then it might be down the bottom) If you don’t know about the process pledge, go read about it. It really resonates with me.
I LOVE the process pledge and it is an intrinsic aspect of the I Quilt linky party, but I find that as I get busier and busier with my business I have less time to share my process. I have no idea what the solution is. In actual fact I have been spending a lot of time thinking about what it is I want to do – run a business that contributes to our family income and grab any opportunity that comes my way, OR slowly build a business that is true to what I really love and want to do.
That might sound like a pretty easy decision. Even I know what it is I really want. I want to be true to my artistic inner soul, stuff the money and maintain complete creative control. But saying no to opportunities is hard. Super hard. I’ve done it twice recently and I couldn’t really believe that I was doing it. My husband tells me that I need to decide whether Pretty Bobbins is a hobby or a business. Being creative is such an integral part of who I am (believe me when I say that five years ago I would have claimed that I was not at all creative) that I find it hard to assess opportunities based on potential fiscal gain or business growth.
My all-time favourite quilts. When I think of the quilter I want to be, I think of these.
I think that being passionate, pouring yourself into your passion and being happy are key. Surely success cannot be had without these aspects. But I guess I really need to define success. I think I have been defining the success of Pretty Bobbins by whether or not it contributes to paying for our family needs. I have not contributed a single cent through Pretty Bobbins, in fact I’ve spent a bunch of our savings investing in the longarm and supplies, let along all the time invested. My day job is a much greater success at contributing to the mortgage, but it gives me no joy in my soul. So I think I’m going to redefine success and because I’m a social-media-holic and therefore a chronic over-sharer, I’m going to start by listing my quilting successes here. I’m not showing off, believe me. This is making me anxious in the pit of my stomach. So do me a favour and share your successes related to your passion in the comments or on your blog or even by email if you prefer (be it quilting, family, art, farming, car racing, whatever lights your fire!)
- Making beautiful quilts and having the confidence to know that they’re damn good.
- Making a heap of wonderful online and real life quilty friends who share and understand my passion.
- Having a studio (I’m damn proud of my studio).
- Maintaining my blog, even though I don’t blog as often as I would like.
- Being contacted by (quilty) industry types to work with them.
- Receiving an email from Mark Lipinski to be interviewed – that was totally out of left-field and a HUGE faith builder.
- Having quilts accepted into quilt shows.
- Seeing how proud my husband and children are of my work (the kids show their friend’s my quilts when they visit!).
- Having over 800 Instagram followers.
(the above are in no particular order, rather of equal importance, although seeing my children proud of me is the best achievement )
Me in my studio – not so warm now that we’re in Autumn!!
All those things, they are HEAPS more important to me than whether or not I contribute to our mortgage through quilting. But I guess the thing that I can’t list as a success yet, but I think is possibly the most important aspect of Pretty Bobbins, is maintaining artistic integrity. At this stage there is no sponsorship on my website. There is a Craftsy affiliate button in the sidebar and I do work with designers that I respect and admire, and I do promote products that I have purchased and believe in. This is something I need to think about some more. Do I want to remain a quilt artist who only promotes things they believe in and only makes the things I’m inspired to create, or do I want to grab every opportunity and turn my passion into a business and find myself making things for other people? (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing by the way!)
I would LOVE to hear your opinions on these issues!!! In this online, social media based, constantly shrinking world, how do you decide which path to traverse? I’m very conscious of my own mortality, there is only so much time and so many quilts to make. Should every single one count or can we all jump on the sponsorship/money chasing/making bandwagon? Does it impact our voice, our integrity? Does it even matter?
Share your thoughts people and link up your quilty process
An InLinkz Link-up
Welcome to I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins! The last week has been a flurry of activity in the studio as I finished off a heap of quilts and have been getting ready to submit them to a quilt show Entry is due by tomorrow, but if you’re interested you can check it out here.
First up I finished binding “Dream in Colour”. You may remember it from way back last year… On second thought I may not have shared it before… It is pieced using scraps from a beautiful plus quilt (still haven’t finished that one…) and is meant to hang in my studio to remind me to take my vivid, colourful dreams and make them real and tangible.
Made with scraps and quilted with dense, wonky, SLQ
Then I bound my improv, self-reflective, arty-farty piece. I wrote about this quilt a few weeks back, it breaks all of the “rules” and I will be interested to hear feedback from the judges and people who visit the show.
Not the best photo I’m afraid..
I’m also entering the quilt that doesn’t have a name that I recently had in a local show. It mixes hand quilting, longarm quilting, improv piecing, needle-turn applique and goodness knows what else!
I’ve filled out entry forms for a couple of minis but then I remembered the Blessings Quilt and my lovely friend agreed that she was happy for me to enter it.
All in all I’ve entered seven quilts and I’ll be stitching on a heap of hanging sleeves if they’re all accepted! Which is a nice segway to my topic of this week; hanging sleeves. Do you have a favorite hanging sleeve method or tutorial? I used the directions from the Canberra Quilter’s recently, but I know many shows provide specific dimensions. If I am making a small wall quilt for my house, I generally just do a pocket in each corner and hang it with a piece of dowel. This method has the added bonus of avoiding handstitching
Next time I attach a hanging sleeve I am going to go with a D shape, similar to this tutorial by Tallgrass Prairie Studio.
I haven’t featured a quilter this week as I haven’t had the time to seek permission and my Dad arrived today and I really need to get out of the studio and spend some time with him Please add your link below and don’t forget to add the linky button or a link to my blog in your post or side bar. To those of you celebrating, have a lovely Easter and to those of you who aren’t, have a great weekend xx
An InLinkz Link-up
I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late!! I’ve loved those lines from Alyce in Wonderland ever since I first read it as a child. I’m very sorry that I’m late with I Quilt linky this week, I’ve been super busy quilting, but I do hope you link up your quilty process
Over the past week I have finished a couple of quilts
Starry Skies class sample. I love this version more than the original!!
quilted a few others
Carpentar’s Star quilt by Tracy
taught machine binding at Canberra Quilters Modern Interest Group and handed over a a number of class samples (come join me if you’re local!).
Sorry for the terrible iPhone photo, totally out of focus but exciting to see my work hanging in store at Hobbysew Belconnen
I have been pondering my business, how to manage competing deadlines (every second enquiry I get is from someone who needs their quilt quilted yesterday), how to best get my name out there, how to ensure that I continue to get to do fun stuff and enjoy this quilty gig and when to say no. This whole quilty thing is a continual learning process. I feel like I’m good at what I do but there is still so much to learn and achieve!
Improv LV cushion secret Birthday swap gift for Ms Midge
I also had two quilts on display for the first time at a local show which was super exciting. I was lucky enough to get to help hang many of the quilts in the show and learnt so much from that experience. Plus it was a heap of fun!
Me with my quilt hanging in the Queanbeyan Quilter’s Biennial Show
So that’s why I’m a little late with the linky party
Used with permission from http://www.schnigschnag-quiltsandmore.blogspot.com/caption
I did ask the lovely Nadel and Falzbein if I could feature a few of her photos but didn’t hear back. Even without photos of her amazing work I strongly encourage you to pop over to her blog and check out her work. Her yellow and white chevron quilt last week just made my day! It’s beautiful!!! It looks like she is moving her blog, so head over and visit her new site here She has a google translate button on the right hand side, but the quilty candy is delightful even without the words
Used with permission from http://www.schnigschnag-quiltsandmore.blogspot.com/caption
So that’s it folks! Please link up your quilty process xx
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday and it’s time to come link up your quilty process here at Pretty Bobbins!
This week I’m featuring the lovely Marelize from Stitch by Stitch. Marelize’s quilting is beautiful. If you haven’t visited her blog then you must head over now. I’ll wait while you do How AMAZING are her feather samples??? (below) It is no surprise that Marelize was asked to do a demonstration. Seriously beautiful stuff!
Marelize also wrote last week about Instagram taking over her life and her blog getting less attention. I think most of us have been bitten by that bug! Instagram is such a great place to be inspired, share and interact with other quilters. I think the immediacy of instagram and the ease of interaction is a big drawcard. If you’re on instagram, let me know your name in the comments so I can follow your creative journey
Marelize is definitely a source of inspiration for me on instagram and as I’m writing this I’m thinking you might like to check out some of the other talented quilters on instagram. Again, please feel free to mention people in the comments, I happily follow over 700 people LOL
– amazing longarm/freemotion quilting. AMAZING!
– beautiful, beautiful work! Another talented longarm quilter <3
– lots of colourful projects and lovely quilting!
– Jess has a beautiful sense of style and palette and her quilting is GORGEOUS!
– her current project is stunning! LOVE!
– not only is she a font of information, but her quilting is specatular!
The list could go on forever really One thing I would like to say is, if you’re on instagram, please use hashtags. It increases your exposure and it helps instagram addicts like me find you. I often scroll through the hastags of #quilting #midcenturymodern #quilt #interiors Help a girl out and go hashtag crazy
This week I wanted to talk about quilting locally. When I was living in Nouméa all of my quilty interaction was online. Over the course of the past three months I have joined three local quilt guilds and I’m loving it! I find the meetings are a great way to socialise with people who share the same passion, a great place to get inspired whilst ooohing and aaaahing over quilts and, if I’m being honest, a great escape. It’s the only “me time” I take and I really enjoy it!
This evening at the Canberra Modern Quilt Guild we will be swapping nametags. It’s a secret swap so I’m going to post this when I get home with some photos. I shared a sneak peek on instagram the other day when I was selecting binding and typically went with the unusual choice I hope my swap partner likes it! I think the purple brings out the warmth of the orange and is a nice surprise. The blue was the safer choice and I like to live life on the edge I did improv curves with some favourite scraps and Essex linen and hand-stitched with Aurifil 12wt. A little FMQ on my Bernina with a lovely King Tut variegated thread. Lots of modern techniques in there
Here are all of the secret name tags from the swap at the meeting this evening. I love the feeling of belonging in this guild and I love the different aspects and personalities of all three guilds that I attend. One of them meets EVERY Friday night! I only go to every second or third meeting, we’re just too busy for me to be out every Friday.
I’m much quieter at guild meetings than I am on the blog, but I’m trying my best to be more outgoing. It’s that whole new people/situation anxiety thing, which is another reason I love instagram, I can feel confident in my studio and online at the same time I’d love to hear how you build your confidence and get to know local quilters
So that’s it, let’s get linky. Please remember to visit three other linkers and add a link to my blog or the linky button to your post or sidebar Thanks for linking up!
An InLinkz Link-up
It’s Thursday, it’s time, I Quilt and I’m guessing you do too So come link up your quilting process! This week I’m talking about quilting for a cause which is something that I think many of us have done. I was completely inspired by this week’s feature quilter, Kathy from Kayak Quilting.
Used with permission from Kayak Quilting
Kathy made a stunning grey house quilt. I love the mix of straight wavy line quilting and swirls. It really is a fantastic quilt, high in contrast and full of clean, sharp lines. But what I loved most about Kathy’s post last week was this: “A few hours each week my husband and I get to tutor children who have experienced homelessness…suffice it to say it is a gift to us that we have the opportunity to play a small part in these kids’ lives.”
Used with permission from Kayak Quilting
Kathy thank you for reminding us that we can use our quilting for others. Kathy’s lovely house quilt is going to be part of a silent auction for a Housing Families’ upcoming Gala. I don’t want to get all “holier than thou” on you, but I do want to give a virtual high five to all you special quilters out there who are using this wonderful art of ours to do good. Giddy up to you!! Please take a moment to go check out Kathy’s work at Kayak Quilting, thanks for sharing with us Kathy xx
Must quilt names into quilts at every opportunity! Hint: do not try this at night! Ask me how I know…
The past few days I have been quilting a lovely memory quilt (which is awfully hard to photograph without sharing all of the customer’s personal photos). There is a definitely travel theme going on and I love all of the cute prints.
Tres cool Paris and London prints <3
Last week I shared my binding tips and some of you shared your favourite tips back. I found these methods super useful, thanks to Quilt Paradigm and Mel of We Shall Sew:
Reversible Binding tutorial
Reversible Binding tutorial #2
Susie’s Magic Binding
So that’s it from me. Please remember to add a link back to my blog and/or the linky button to your post or sidebar. Please visit three other linkers. We all love visitors!
Happy quilting!!
