Several guilds here in Nebraska have been anticipating a visit from Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame for about 3-1/2 years. That's when they booked her recent visit to our state. It's a long time to look forward to something! The thing that always hits me is how much better the quilts look in person than [...]
I started thinking about the idea of belonging last week during a meeting of my local quilt guild. By "belonging" I mean more than just being a paid-up member of a quilt group. I've lived in five different places over the course of my adult life. Each of those places reflected a different season of [...]
For current owners of HQ Stitch machines, the best place to find information about HQ Stitch accessories is online at hqstitch.com. There are lists of which accessories are included with each machine, and there are lists of the optional add-on accessories. Let's start with the HQ Stitch 210, the perfect little take-along or starter machine. [...]
What's that you say? A practice sandwich? Yes, that's right. You need a sandwich of fabric, batting and backing so that you can practice new machine quilting ideas, warm up your muscles and your memory, and try out all kinds of stitches before you put them on your quilt. My oft-used practice sandwich is [...]
I love a day spent in class with a great quilting teacher and my sewing machine. What could be more fun? Unless you're having sewing machine problems. Then it can be pretty frustrating for you and for the teacher, who often has to help you trouble-shoot. I've been a student many times over the past [...]
We've been talking about the need to adjust the seam allowance when your patchwork isn't coming out accurately. If you own an HQ Stitch 710, we covered this in an earlier post. But if you own a different machine, there are two ways to adjust a seam allowance. Many times, my students aren't aware that [...]
