Archive of ‘Free-Motion Quilting’ 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 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
Hanging Organizer Tutorial fit for a wee princess!
When the super talented Sarah Jane put the call out for blogger to work with her new line, Wee Wander, I couldn’t help but put my hand up!
Today I’m sharing a tutorial for a Hanging Organizer. I have a lovely three year old daughter who certainly could do with a little help organizing her important and precious belongings and she just LOVES her pretty new organizer <3
Fit for a princess!
Let’s get started! You will need…
Supplies:
- 1 panel Wee Wander
- Backing fabric (32″ W x 29″ H)
- Wadding (28″ x 25″)
- Hanging sleeve (5′ x 23″)
- 1 piece clear vinyl 11″ x 15″ (I repurposed one of those clear zip bags that pillows and linen come in)
- 12″ x WOF (width of fabric) for binding OR purchase aprox 250″ premade double bias binding (you will have lots left over!)
- 60″ ribbon for clip strip and hanging
- 24″ long piece of dowel rod for hanging
- usual quilting supplies
Gather your supplies
Prepare and quilt you Wee Wander panel for quilting. I cut backing to 32″ x 29″, wadding 28″ x 25″ and the panel to 21″ x 24″. I changed threads a few times and let Sara Jane’s whimsicle design dictate my quilting. TIP: I always find it best to quilt wall hangings quite densely so they sit nice and flat.
Quilt to your heart’s content!
Once you have finished quilting your panel, trim it so it is nice and square, then set it aside.
Trim your quilted panel
Prepare your binding. I wanted to feature a number of Sara Jane’s prints for the binding, but you can use pre-made double bias binding or make your own. You will need 105″ binding for the outside of the organiser and four smaller pieces for the plastic pockets:
- Pocket A 37″ of double fold binding
- Pocket B 36″ of double fold binding
- Pocket C 29″ of double fold binding
- Pocket D 43″ of double fold binding
Prepared your clear plastic/vinyl pockets. Cut one each of:
- Pocket A 3″ x 9.5″
- Pocket B 5″ x 7″
- Pocket C 5″ x 3.5″
- Pocket D 9.5″ x 6″
Bind all four sides of A, B and C. Bind three sides of D (leave one of the long sides raw).
Binding tips
Cut a 23″ length of ribbon for your clip strip. My ribbon is .75″ wide.
Place your pockets where you would like them. DO NOT PIN THEM!! I decided to fold the bottom two corners of pocket B in a little so that the pocket sits out and can take bigger objects. TIP: make sure that you don’t place your pockets directly over the parts of the panel that you would like to feature.
lay out pockets
Once you are happy with the placement of your ribbon and pockets you can pin them carefully within the found section. The pins will leave holes in the vinyl so please be careful
Pin your pockets on the binding so that you don’t mark the vinyl.
Sew your pockets in place. I used a walking foot as the bound vinyl is somewhat bulky.
Sew pockets in place
Prepare your hanging sleeve. Take your 5″ x 23″ strip of fabric and fold both short ends in by 1/4″ and again by 1/4″ to conceal the raw edges. Sew in place, fold in half with wrong sides together and press. Center your hanging sleeve on the top back edge of your organiser (raw edges togethre) and sew in place within the 1/4″ seam allowance.
Apply binding. I applied my binding to the back and then machine stitched it down to the front. This is a quick,easy and neat way of binding. Crazy Mom Quilts has a great tutorial here.
I applied my binding to the back and then machine stitched it in place on the front
Use your remaining ribbon and dowel to hang your organiser in place. Fill with all your precious items <3
A place for everything and everything in it’s place <3
Then let your wee one re-organize to their heart’s content!
Thanks for stopping by and a big thank you to Sarah Jane for always producing such beautiful illustrations and for turning them into fabric that we can use and love! I’ve loved being part of this blog tour <3 You can find out more about Wee Wander here <3
In a few weeks I will be teaching the first of a few quilt classes featuring my pattern, Starry Skies, at HobbySew Beclonnen. It’s a fun quilt that is originally lap sized but can easily be enlarged. Read on for details and quilt candy <3
April was such a whirlwind of activity that I haven’t had a chance to blog about all the quilts I finished! Today I’d like to share Starry Skies (#2) with you (and subtly mention an upcoming class that I’m teaching ). I also want to apologise that I didn’t post I Quilt last week, I spent Thursday night in ER with my son (he is OK, just a little glue holding his scalp together!)
I first made this quilt a year or so ago in a very different palette for a Kate Spain blog hop. I love the pink with the grey, but this time I wanted higher contrast.
Starry Skies #1
This quilt is great for imaginative quilting! You can really go anywhere. FIrst time around I mixed in some hand quilting and kind of did a shooting stars theme. This time I went for movement again, but more swirls and bubbles. It’s also a great one for using up scraps and gaining confidence with improv techniques. I’m going to talk a lot about colour play in the class as I feel this is an area where we can all always learn more
The texture is really quite fabulous (if I do say so myself…)
As pretty as this quilt looks in our house it is on display at HobbySew Belconnen tempting quilters to sign up to a one day workshop with me on the 24th of May. I’d love you to come along and spend the day piecing with me! You can call the lovely ladies at HobbySew on and book in It’s $60 for the day and you get cutting instructions to take home and get busy in advance of the class so we get the most out of the day.
If you’d like to find out about other upcoming classes you can see them here.
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
Welcome to Pretty Bobbins! Today is my day in Jennifer Sampou’s blog hop for her new line Shimmer. I am super excited to be involved and I have a lovely fabric giveaway for you <3
I was so excited when Jennifer first contacted me to be part of the Shimmer party, and had a lot of trouble deciding which prints to use, they’re all gorgeous! The sparkle of these prints is just fantastic and I really love the wavy line prints, very dynamic and ones I know that I’ll be using again and again.
We’re heading into winter here in Australia and I couldn’t resist making a sparkly, modern lap quilt to snuggle up under and reminisce about summer time. We have beautiful, clear skies in Autumn here in Canberra and photographing this quilt by the lake was a lot of fun. I love how the piecing looks like part of the skyline, totally coincidental but I’ll happily claim good design
I was inspired by Jennifer’s cushions (check out her lookbook!!) and backed it in a super soft, cream minky and it’s super soft and cuddly.
I really wanted to come up with a design that was modern and featured Jennifer’s gorgeous prints. The improv curves with set in contrasting blocks nicely highlight how well this line plays together. I must say, as a longarm quilter some metallic prints are very troublesome to work with, Jennifer’s line quilted BEAUTIFULLY without a tension issue anywhere in sight! If you want metallic highlights and lots of shimmer AND you love to quilt, then Shimmer is a must! As always I used my favourite thread, Aurifil 50wt in 2000, 2600 and 5004.
This lap quilt measures 38″ x 62″ and was made for cuddling <3
I still haven’t decided which way is up and which was is down (is it stormy seas or dark skies over snow?) but I love the subtle prints and tones.
I had a heap of fun finding all the background shimmer that I could. I can’t lie, this quilt was fun from beginning to end
So now that you’re dying to get your hands on some Shimmer I can happily tell you that there is lots on offer! It will be hitting stores soon, but in the meantime you can win some right here at Pretty Bobbins and at each of the other stops on the blog hop (schedule below)!!
All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post before 18 April (I’m sticking to a US timezone for this giveaway) and a charm pack of Shimmer could be heading your way! I will use a random number generator to pick a winner, but if you like you can let me know what your favourite charm square project is
Bon chance!
And if a charm pack isn’t enough Shimmer for you, you can head over to Jennifer’s blog for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the entire Shimmer line!! To enter the giveaway, new readers should sign up on Jennifer’s mailing list and comment on her blog before the end of the hop. Be sure to comment about your favorite projects and why. Existing followers are automatically eligible to win.
BLOG HOP Schedule:
April 1-21.
April 1- Robert Kaufman/Jennifer Sampou- announce blog
April 2- Janice Ryan- Better off Thread
April 3- Alissa Haight Carlton- Handmade by Alissa
April 4- Julie Herman- JayBird Quilts
April 5- Natalie Barnes- Beyond the Reef
April 6- Stash Books- C&T Publishing
April 7- Amanda Jean Nyberg- Crazy Mom Quilts
April 8- Lee Heinrich- Freshly Pieced
April 9- Cheryl Arkinson- Naptime Quilter
April 10-Christina Cameli- A Few Scraps
April 11-Elizabeth Hartman- Oh Fransson
April 12-Faith Jones-Fresh Lemon Quilts
April 14- Katie Blakesley- Swim Bike Quilt
April 15-Amy Smart-Diary of a Quilter
April 16- Laura Nownes, Jennifer Rounds, Pati Fried, Darra Williamson- See How We Sew
April 17-Holly DeGroot- Bijou Lovely
April 18-Jennifer Sampou-Wrap Up
April 21-Jennifer Sampou- Announce Winner of Giveaway FQ Pack of entire ShimmerCollection.
If you need some more Shimmer in your life you can check out Shimmer on the Robert Kaufman Website
And if all of that isn’t enough, The Cotton Patch (CA, USA) is taking pre-orders of Shimmer.
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
Welcome to I Quilt linky party! This week I’ve been brave and got my improv quilting on If you’re new, please feel free to join in the fun and link up your quilty process. Don’t forget to visit three other linkers and add a link to my blog or button to your sidebar or post
This week I am featuring the lovely Serena from Sew Giving. I’m not sure when I first ‘met’ Serena, but I love following her quilting and sewing adventures. She sews the cutest items for her two little girls and seriously looks like she is having fun being a crafty gal, Mummy and farmer. Her deer cushion with the 3D pinwheel has to be about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!!
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
Last week Serena shared her first foray into free motion quilting. I love a quilty gal who shares! Such an awesome effort, the flowers in the border look perfect, I’m pretty certain that my first attempts at FMQ were nowhere near that neat!! You have to check out her post for the dancing elephants on the binding! Seriously good planning to get those buddies to line up LOL
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
This week Serena has shared her experience straight line quilting on her new machine compared to her old machine. Serena, I’m guessing that the walking foot on your old machine was not up to scratch. I also find that I get the best results SLQ if I consistently start and stop on the same sides, rather than going in one direction and then back in the other. If you go back and forwards it can increase the drag and give that kind of pulled/tugged look on the quilting. Not that you need any advice now, your most recent SLQ is PERFECT!! Well done xx
Image used with permission from Sew Giving
This week I have been working up a frenzy. I have so many commitments that need to be met over the next ten days that I am really having to work super hard and yet not burn out. I’ve been stitching til midnight most nights and this morning I woke at 5am because I realised that my domain name was set to expire and despite months of warnings I still hadn’t sorted it out! I ran down to the studio and was super relieved to find that I had set it all to auto renew so I still own my blog LOL *phew* Could have done with another hour or two of sleep though…
Of course in the midst of all the deadlines I figured that I deserved a treat so I pulled out an old WIP and decided to get stuck into it. This WIP is almost a year old. It is a really introspective piece and kind of a self portrait in an abstract kind of way (too arty? LOL) I guess I had been thinking about it in the back of my mind but I was a little hesitant as it was half quilted and I of course wanted to finish it on the longarm.
This is where I got up to in May 2013 on the Bernina and where I started this week on the longarm.
Anyway, I decided to forget about the rules and I loaded it onto the longarm half quilted and pin basted. I removed the pins closes to the top edge and thread basted it in place and then did the same for the sides. I only removed the pins as I moved onto each section. I think if I had removed the pins earlier I would have ended up with an uneven mess. Funnily enough I backed this quilted with an unused IKEA sheet. Man, quilting sheets is a right pain. I’ve done it many times and I don’t recommend it. I totally killed the needle on the longarm quilting this beast, but it was certainly much easier than I’ve found machine quilting sheets on the domestic machine.
The grey essex linen blend is quilted with 50wt Aurifil on my longarm. The white with 40wt Aurifil on the domestic Bernina.
I felt like a total kick-butt rebel quilting this baby. Breakin’ the rules man and going nuts! ;) But seriously, it was fun to quilt and it was a good experiment to see not only how to take a partially quilted piece and finish it on the longarm, but to see my growth as a quilter. Pretty much all of the grey area was quilted on the longarm and a small section of the white area. I’m hoping to enter this into a few shows and I really look forward to people’s reactions. I think it’s OK to break the rules as long as you’ve mastered the techniques. I wonder how other’s will feel about me breaking the rules… I hope the quilt police are kind
I had so much fun creating texture and I really had no plan of what I was doing or where I was going. I kept kind of thinking “over fertilised”, it felt like an alien jungle with too much growth and very organic and unplanned.
I plan to bind it in the next few weeks and take proper photos, but the above picture gives you a good idea of how I have grown as a quilter in the past year. The white was done on the Bernina after I’d been free motion quilting for about a year. The grey is done after about two years quilting and three months on the longarm. I must say, I’m pretty happy with how well the longarming is going
So that’s it from me for this week. Tomorrow night I will be with the Queanbeyan Quilters for the launch of their exhibition, so if you’re local and at the event, please say hi! I hope to pop back to the exhibition again over the weekend, but it will depend on other commitments. You can find all the details here. There are two amazing raffle quilts, so pop in and buy some tickets if you can
So that’s it quilty folks. Be brave and break some quilty rules, you never know where you’ll end up and it might just be awesome! Thanks for linking up and please remember to visit three of your fellow linkers, we all love comments <3
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!!
