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 [...]
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. [...]
