Merrily Quilting Tote Bags
July 30th, 2014
My Craftsy Class Has Launched and Here’s a Discount Code!
July 23rd, 2014
Whoo-hoo! My Craftsy class “Ultimate Free Motion Quilting,” is now live! Please join me for a fun and informative class to crank up your free motion quilting another notch! If you’ve got some basic free motion quilting skills, I’ll walk you through a few different trapunto techniques to add texture and dimension to your quilts. I’ll take you through the basics of hyperquilting, and then walk you through some progressively more complex hyperquilting techniques. To top it off, I’ll show you how to couple trapunto and hyperquilting together to create a jaw-dropping trapuntoed feathered wreath! Learning these kinds of skills will take your free motion quilting to a whole new level.
Hyperquilting can be used to create some “over the top” kinds of effects like:
…and it can be used for more understated looks that add rich thread detail but in more understated ways like this:
If you’re not a person who can stitch feathers, don’t think this class is over your head because hyperquilting can be used in all kinds of motifs:
There is SOOO much you can do once you start playing with hyperquilting and trapunto! Don’t talk yourself out of being able to do “ultimate free motion quilting…” jump in with both feet and life will never be the same again! Better yet, click here for the discount code to save yourself some $$ on the price of the class! See you in the classroom!
Playing with Blocks
July 20th, 2014
…quilt blocks, that is! This is my latest block design:
It’s a 15 inch square block that was designed to be a companion block to what I am calling Pennsylvania Dutch Block #1:
These are all machine embroidery applique designs and they hold a lot of texture because the stitching is fairly dense. The flowers in each one are somewhat reminiscent of one another:
That first flower is from PA Dutch Block #1, and this next flower is from PA Dutch Block #2:
(There is a jump stitch in that last photo that hasn’t been snipped away yet!) I’ve also just began playing around with “sub-blocks” that are derivatives of the above two blocks. Here is one:
And here’s a small version of PA Dutch Block #2:
…and here’s what that last block would look like set on point:
Oh wouldn’t it be nice if a day were just 35 hours long? And don’t forget to sign up to win a free seat in my Craftsy class that will be launching very soon! If you’d like a chance to win, make a comment to this specific post from last week by 5 pm on Tuesday, 7/22/2014 (Eastern daylight savings time.)
Rulers, Templates, Embroidery Needles and Great New Patterns!
July 18th, 2014
Hello Quilting Friends!
Are you looking for a great new ruler or template to add to your arsenal of tools? We have new Handi Quilter Wave Rulers, you aren’t going to want to miss. Check out some of our great new additions below!
The products in this newsletter are all new, so for the first week in the store we will be offering most of them at a reduced introductory price. You will not need to enter a discount code to receive these introductory savings and the prices are valid until July 25, 2014 at 9 am, E.S.T. *Please note we are not allowed to offer some products at a discount.
Remember that each and every retail purchase that you make in our store is being tabulated to count toward a gift certificate you may use for a future purchase. We also offer free shipping to US customers on orders over $10.00 and a discount for our International Customers. This is our way of thanking you for being a loyal customer. Please make sure you are logged into your account when making a purchase to properly track your points.
Wave Ruler A 12in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes a 12-inch wave from peak to peak and makes either 1-inch or 2-inch deep waves. Rulerpackaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $39.95… reduced introductory price $35.56
Wave Ruler B 10in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes a 10-inch wave from peak to peak and makes either 1-inch or 2-inch deep waves. Ruler packaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $49.95… reduced introductory price $44.46
Wave Ruler C 8in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes a 8-inch wave from peak to peak and makes either .75-inch or 1.75-inch deep waves. Ruler packaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $24.95.. reduced introductory price $22.21
Wave Ruler D 6in & 3in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes both a 3-inch and 6-ince wave from peak to peak, with .75-inch deep waves. Ruler packaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $49.95.. reduced introductory price $44.46
Wave Ruler E 6in & 3in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes both a 3-inch and 6-ince wave from peak to peak, with 1.75-inch deep waves. Ruler packaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $39.95.. reduced introductory price $35.56
Wave Ruler F 4in
Made from .25-inch thick quality acrylic. Use the HQ wave to make spines for feathers and other designs. This ruler makes a 8-inch wave from peak to peak and makes either .75-inch or 1.75-inch deep waves. Ruler packaging includes instructions for use, safety tips and design ideas. Use with the HQ Ruler Base.
MSRP $24.95... reduced introductory price $22.21
One-Derful One Patch Tessellating Windmill Template
One multi-size acrylic tool with guidelines for cutting 8 sizes of the Windmill shape. Instructions included for cutting pieces so they are automatically on the proper grainline, playing Leap Frog, chain piecing, and making joining rows.
MSRP $14.00… reduced introductory price $12.46
One-Derful One Patch Tumbler Template
One multi-size acrylic tool with guidelines for cutting 7 sizes of the classic Tumbler shape. The smallest is just the right height for 2-1/2in strips. The largest finishes at 6 inches high. Perfect for scrap quilts. Perfect thimble proportions, which is why this pattern also called Thimble.
MSRP $14.00… reduced introductory price $12.46
Fan Favorite Quilt Blade Template
The Fan Favorite Quilt Blade Template is used in making the Fan Favorite and Scrappy Tidbits quilts found in the book, Embroidery & Patchwork Revisited (L11314) The 7-blade fan works into a 4-1/2in finished square. The fan blocks may be embellished with stitches.
MSRP $10.00… reduced introductory price $8.90
Folded Star Stencil
Sparkling clear acrylic stencil for creating perfect 8-pt stars. Can make stars in 5 sizes from 3-1/2in to 8in. It can be used to create stars blocks that have 22.5, 45, and 90 degree angles. It can be used to trace PlumEasy’s Folded Star Hot Pad positions or the new EasyStar block.
MSRP $25.00... reduced introductory price $22.25
Schmetz Embroidery Gift Box 3.7in x 5.5in Tin
Included in box: Embroidery Gold needles sizes 75/11 (item 1824) and 90/14 (item 1825), embroidery assorted sizes (item 1742) and embroidery Twin needle size 3.0/75 (item 1736). Also included – sample spool SulkyPolylite thread and Schmetz ABC Pocket Guide in reusable hinged box.
MSRP $24.95.. reduced introductory price $22.21
Schmetz Quilting Gift Box 3.7in x 5.5in Tin
Included in box: Needles – Quilting size 75/11 (item 1735), Quilting size 90/14 (item 1719), Microtex size 70/10 (item 1729) and Topstitch size 90/14 (item 1793). Also included – sample spool Sulky Polylite thread and Schmetz ABC Pocket Guide in reusable hinged tin.
MSRP $24.95… reduced introductory price $22.21
Schmetz Universal Gift Box 3.7in x 5.5in Tin
Included in box: Needles – Universal size 70/10 (item 1708), size 80/12 (item 1709), size 90/14 (item 1710) and size 100/16 (item 1778). Also included – sample spool Sulky PolyLite thread and Schmetz ABC Pocket Guide in a reusable hinged tin.
MSRP $19.95… reduced introductory price $17.76
Sew Darn Charming
5Baby 40-1/2in x 54in, Lap 54in x 67-1/2in, Throw 67-1/2in x 81in, Twin/Full 81in x 94-1/2in, Queen 94-1/2in x 108in, King 108in x 108in.
From Nite Owl Quilting
By Metsker, Janel
MSRP $10.00… reduced introductory price $8.90
Let’s Eat
That’s What the Fox Says. 17in x 14in
From Susie C. Shore Designs
By Shore, Suzanne
MSRP $9.00... reduced introductory price $8.01
What I’ve Been Working on and a Give Away
July 16th, 2014
I have been plodding away with the quilting on “My Thistle Quilt,” which I am affectionately calling “Big Red” because it’s made of different cranberry/maroon kinds of background colors. This quilt is so large that I don’t have any pictures of it once I had it completely pieced; the photo above is from before it was fully pieced. (4 more borders were added to it after this photo was taken.) This quilt was basted by a long armer friend and I’ve encountered some challenges with it that I haven’t encountered before. (The reason it was long arm basted is that it has a ton of machine embroidery applique and is a very, very heavy quilt. There is just no way that spray basting would hold this baby together!) Anyway, I am having issues with shifting that I’ve not dealt with before and I believe this is due to the fact that:
1. The basting wasn’t done as densely as it should have been done and
2. It has a 100% polyester batting. Polyester is a very smooth batting as compared to a wool or cotton batting so it doesn’t “grab onto” the fabric at all and instead is kind of slick so it can move a little. This same long armer has basted a couple quilts for me before with the same amount of basting, but those quilts all had wool battings and wool has small barbs that like to grab onto things.
Here is a shot of the most egregious issue I have had with it. This is in one of the center blocks:
UGH!!! You can’t miss it! This happened about 4 months ago and I was so upset that I put the quilt away and didn’t even look at it for about 2 months! Now I am working on the rest of it thinking that by the time I return to fix it, I’ll have put so many quilting hours into it that I won’t be able to walk away from it again. All I can do is take out all that stitching and then try to do it again very slowly, trying to ease all that fullness in. Not looking forward to that part…
It took me a really long time to simply outline all the pieces of applique shapes. For the large leaves, I felt like I needed to literally encircle all those scalloped edges like these:
My favorite part so far is a leaf border zone that has McTavishing in it:
That photo above is pretty realistic for the color of that particular border. This is another shot of the same border taken without a flash that gives a better sense of the texture that’s developing:
There’s a narrow border that was hyperquilted that I kind of like. The first round was stitched with Gold Rayon Thread and the second round with a magenta rayon thread:
You can see that I left the cornerstone blocks of that border blank. I’m still trying to decide if I should stitch something in there or just leave them blank. They are very small and I don’t want to put anything in there unless it will add something worthwhile to the overall design. There’s a ton more quilting to go on this baby but if I keep focused, I think I could actually finish this quilt in the next 2 months. It’s good to have an end in sight!
And did I mention a give away? My Craftsy class is going to launch very soon…it’s called:
Wow…Ultimate Free Motion Quilting!!!! Don’t you just love that title?! Anyway, I’m going to give away a free class to some lucky person. All you have to do to enter is write a comment to this blog post telling me what you’d like to learn in the world of free motion quilting. Comments need to be made by 5 pm eastern daylight savings time on Tuesday, July 22, 2014!
THIS GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED…THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED! The winner was Heather J!