Published on May 6, 2012
Hey, in case you haven’t seen it, Bonnie Hunter has a giveaway on her blog for the Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks Volume 5 issue. She’s got a block in there called Talking Turkey, and it’s pretty fabulous!
Go to her blog to enter the giveaway, she’s drawing today, Suncay May 6th!
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/05/100-blocks-vol-5-blog-tour.html
Published on April 21, 2012
I’ll be working on a customer quilt today while in the Quilt Cave, but thought I’d share one of the quilts I finished before BroncoFest came along and threw orange and blue all over my work space!
I’m sure Judy Z. purchased it, but I don’t know the name of this pattern. She made it using a Bali Pop batik jelly roll, which is made by Hoffman. If you’re interested, I’ll contact her to get the actual name, but in the meantime you can find free Hoffman patterns here. I quilted it using the free Starburst pantograph pattern by Patricia Ritter at Digi-Tech.
I’ve purchased several digital patterns and have printed some out and taped them together to use, but it is very time consuming and hard to make sure the paper fits together in a straight line!
My goal is to eventually be able to use these designs with the PantoVision software from ABM International. This software will load on a tablet that I can mount to the front of the machine, so I can sew from the front and watch what I’m doing at eye level…and I’m so excited about that prospect! Right now it only runs on a Windows tablet, which I don’t have. So, I’ll have to trade out my Android tablet to make this work, but I’m going to wait for Windows 8 to come out on an affordable device.
This still doesn’t make my machine a computerized system in the sense that I still have to guide the machine myself, but it will be easier on my neck, as well as allow me to interact with the fabric as I quilt.
In the meantime, I’m adding designs to my wish list!
Published on April 17, 2012
I love reading other quilters’ blogs, don’t you? I learn a lot from other people, get inspired by their designs, and generally just love to share in everyone’s love for the art of quilting. Oh, and don’t forget the eye candy!
Quilters are a generous bunch, too. Linda, over at L&R Designs Quilting, suggested a quilting pattern for my Odd Girl Out quilt. When I couldn’t figure out how to do it, she generously made a video of how to stitch it out!
Now, isn’t that the coolest!?!?
Thanks so much for sharing, Linda!
Published on April 14, 2012
For the past week I’ve been working on details getting ready to have my first vendor booth, at the inaugural Boise State Craft Fair.
Of course, I didn’t get everything done. And I’ve put customer quilts on hold for this week, which feels really strange, and instead, working on a Bronco T-shirt quilt. Well, actually, I’ve been working on several at a time, as usual. The Quilt Cave is strewn with blue and orange! The main one I was focusing on didn’t get finished; it’s at the border stage and merrily hanging in the middle of my booth anyway! It definitely got noticed and when I finish it I think it will sell quickly.
It’s been cold at the inaugural Bronco Craft Fair today, and very windy. How cold was it? Cold enough to have on a sweatshirt, windbreaker (that really works!), ear warmers, hat and still need to wrap up in an extra quilt! My feet were like icicles all day!
We have a wind advisory starting at 3pm…I think it started sooner than that, because at 1:30 booths started blowing into the street and one knocked over a bunch of displayed glassware! My quilt stands blew over several times and the quilts were flapping in the breeze. I checked with the event coordinator and she said it would be OK to move to another place, but with so little time left before the end of the event, I didn’t want to break it down and reassemble it again for a 2 hour time frame. As I was packing up, Security came over and confirmed that I should take it down.
The summary for the event: no quilts sold, but I handed out several cards and flyers so I should be getting some calls for quilting services or T-shirt quilts. I also realized I should have more items on hand for people to peruse. The problem is, I just want to make quilts!
This sort of weather, and standing for long periods really wears me out. We decided to forego the Bronco Spring Game and came home. I put my feet up and enjoyed a cup of double spiced chai tea and am contemplating how I’ll finish out the day.
I’ll definitely have a booth next year!
Go Broncos!!
Published on March 11, 2012
I don’t know if any of you remember the hot pink quilt top I started in September last year, and how much trouble I was having with deciding on a border. So, I put it away for awhile.
Then about a month ago, I was reading a magazine article by Kaffe Fasset, and I knew right then and there I wanted one of his fabrics for the border on this quilt!
Well, a couple of weekends ago, I found the perfect border
fabric, and I actually got it applied to the quilt!
I just love it!
I think I’ll put a cozy pink flannel on the back, and use Winline’s 100% Bamboo batting. I haven’t auditioned any specific thread colors yet, the quilting design might influence that decision.
Now I have to figure out how to quilt it. I know a pantograph that would look great on it, but this year I’m really wanting to focus on improving my free motion skills, and this is a perfect opportunity since it’s not designated for any specific person or event. Got any suggestions for me?
Published on February 12, 2012
Last weekend I worked on a customer’s first quilting project, a T-shirt quilt. Her mom brought it to me and said they weren’t sure how to finish it. It’s about 50″ X 50″ and is really cute; she made it out of her company shirts.
The biggest problem was that she had not stabilized any of the T-shirts. They were simply cut out to show the logo and sewn together, and then she added some raw edge applique patches in some of the open areas. She sure took on a challenge for her first project using those stretchy fabrics! AllPeopleQuilt.com has a great tutorial on how to make a T-shirt quilt, and well worth signing up for the site.
Because the fabric wasn’t stabilized, and therefore the seams weren’t flat, I decided that a double layer of high loft polyester batting would 
probably help the situation….and I was right! OK, maybe 2 layers was a bit overkill, but I had absolutely no tension issues!! 
The initial design objective was an overall meander, but as I was working, I thought that a bit of highlighting was called for so I outlined the patches and logos. Overall, I’m very pleased with how it has turned out.
Published on February 4, 2012
I tried a new technique using a satin blanket binding over Christmas break.
This is a purchased panel that used fleece, flannel and minkee in the top. I added high loft fleece and quilted it with a freehand flower design,
using a flannel back that matched one of the patches in the top.
Since I’d never used the satin before, and wanted a mitered corner like my traditional quilts, I went to YouTube! I found a very clear and easy video on the ExpertVillage that explained the process.
Since the time that this project was completed, I saw a PBS Sewing with Nancy show that demonstrated how to sew the corners down and miter them all at the same time. I really liked the technique because the corners turned out crisp. I haven’t found the video online, but if I will keep my eye out for it.
Even though my project turned out really cute, I wish I’d seen Nancy’s technique before I’d finished mine! My corners were left open, which bothered me, but I couldn’t figure a way to close
them without making the seams obvious, so I just decided to let it go, which was hard for me to do!
I don’t usually like high loft batting, but it worked really well to fill in the fullness that the different fabrics created, and gave the blanket a lot of weight. It will be perfect for tummy time!
Published on January 29, 2012
I’ve been remiss in posting some of the projects I’ve worked on in the past 3 months.
This is a quilt done by Cathie, one of my favorite customers. She is a woman after my heart and worries way too much about whether her points match…!
I love quilting her 
projects because they lay flat, are square and such a work of art.
I love the pattern on this one; it’s matches the colors perfectly, too! You can’t even see the quilting, though, which is kinda cool….
Published on January 6, 2012
I got a new training video, PajamaQuilter Rethreaded, about freehand machine quilting techniques, from Dawn Ramirez, the Pajama Quilter, in the mail a couple of days ago. You’d think I would have ripped it open, huh? Nope, it’s still sitting on the love seat, waiting for me to have some free time!
I found out Dawn was having a sale from a blog post by Mary Johnson at MaryQuilts.com and decided to splurge a little on it, as I’ve seen some really nice quilting on some charity quilts that she’s done, and she swears by this DVD.
I’m taking the dogs to the groomer, I’ve got a sew day tomorrow, and I need to see about getting some shoes repaired and return a pair. I’m thinking I won’t be viewing the DVD tomorrow, either!
If you haven’t discovered MaryQuilts.com, please visit her site. Not only does she offer free scrap patterns, she runs another site called Heart Strings Quilt Project which makes string quilts for charitable organizations.
Published on December 14, 2011
Last weekend, while I was sick, my husband helped me organize the rulers in my sewing room by mounting all of the hardware. All I had to do was tell him where everything should go!
I bought two wall hangers for my longarm rulers from Simply Renee called Clip it Up. They were initially designed for scrapbooking, but when I saw a photo on one of my quilting Yahoo chat groups where they had been used to organize the rulers, and immediately when I went to the site and discovered they were 50% off! So of course I got two!
The first step was to take everything off the wall. Boy, did I get a reality check on how many rulers I actually own!
Deciding where I want anything hung on the wall, especially when it involves putting a hole in the drywall, is an absolute chore, and it takes me forever to decide! DH always says “I can fix it if you don’t like it there’” but I never change my mind and pull them out.
Once he mounted the first one, I hung the nested circle set, and it took all of 10 seconds to decide to mount the second one right next to it.
I decided to move another hanging ruler organizer that was mounted over the sewing machine over to the cutting table area, too. Then he installed several hooks in various places for those miscellaneous 
items, and now I have a place for everything. He even suggested that the larger rulers get hung on the wall in the stairwell, since I don’t use them that often and they’d be out of the way. What a great idea!
I love that I can now see all my rulers!
My goal, besides getting everything off the floor, is to remember to practice with the longarm rulers so I will be more comfortable offering them as an option for my customer quilts.
I can even see all of the specialty cutting rulers for piecing that I have, too, and maybe I won’t keep searching for yet another method to make my half square triangles! Maybe I’ll even start that spectacular quilt I’ve been planning.
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