There are many things I love about the HQ Stitch 710, but one of its top features in my book is the 1/4" Clear View Foot, which is used in conjunction with the straight stitch needle plate. It gives a nice, solidly scant quarter-inch, and my patchwork is improved because of it. It's important that [...]
I taught at a retreat earlier this month, and some of my students struggled with their seam allowance. More specifically, they couldn't wrap their head around the idea of measuring the patchwork instead of measuring the quarter-inch. Do you understand the difference? I gave them this exercise. Use patches cut 1-1/2" x 2-1/2"; five from [...]
A while back, my friend LeeAnn Meduna gave a guild program on her machine quilting journey. She started out quilting on a domestic sewing machine, and later she got a longarm. Her quilts were beautiful and inspiring, but one thing she said really stood out for me. LeeAnn brought along her sketchbook, in which she [...]
I really love rickrack. I add it to quilts whenever I can. Just about any excuse to add rickrack works for me! I've had a hard time managing its application, though. Pinning never works. It just doesn't stay in place. Positioning it as you sew doesn't work because then it's hard to get it placed [...]
Most traditional basket blocks have the basket oriented across the diagonal. Here are some examples. Sometimes you need a basket that sits at the bottom of the block instead. I designed a sampler quilt recently, and I wanted a basket with the base along the bottom, so I designed this one. [...]
