Thanksgiving is the holiday we celebrate here in the USA on the forth Thursday in November each year. It originated with our ancestors as a harvest celebration. It has morphed in modern times into a day that we are mindful of and grateful for all of the things that make us comfortable, bring us joy […]
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I spent several days in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. I had a wonderful time chatting with old friends, new friends, Handi Quilter owners, and those thinking about joining the Handi Quilter family of owners. During my flight home I thought about all the wonderful conversations I had during the week and something stood […]
Read MoreLast week I shared a bunch of photos of intricate quilts seen at the AQS Quiltweek in Des Moines, IA. If you missed it, you can see it here. As an educator, the question I get the most is: How do you decide how to quilt something? Checking out the fabulous quilting on these intricate […]
Read MoreI’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear […]
Read MoreWith this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes […]
Read MoreDid you happen to catch the July 5, 2022 HQ Watch and Learn on Facebook? More grid work! You can watch it here. Kristina used loops in one of her examples. And I promised to do some grid designs with loops this week! Let’s start by talking through Kristina’s design. Break Up Your Grid Instead […]
Read MoreLast week we filled grids with straight lines, curves and S-shapes. That leaves two more of the 5 basic shapes to create even more filled grid variations, swirl and loop. Swirl The swirl is a fun one to quilt because it flows so easily. If you are not proficient at quilting swirls, remember to practice […]
Read MoreWe are back this week to our discussion of grid-work. Next up are filled grids. When you want maximum texture on your quilts, filled grids are the way to go. Whenever parts of the grid framework are stitched and other parts are left un-stitched the result is texture. Why? Stitching tamps down the batting and […]
Read MoreIf you’ve been following along our free motion quilting for beginners series, you know how important practice is. And you probably have a pile of quilted fabric that you’re not quite sure what to do with. Some of them you’ll want to toss. Maybe you breathed new life into a piece by adding a second […]
Read MoreWe have used all the shapes to make continuous grid designs except for the swirl (or hook). So today we will dive deep into the swirly grid design. The Swirl Remember the swirl or hook for the 5 basic shapes? Like the S shape from last week, we need to make some modifications to the […]
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