I taught a class in Shenandoah, Iowa earlier this year, and my hostess treated me to the progress on her guild challenge quilt. It’s remarkable so I wanted to share it with you. She started by drawing these four fabrics randomly, and at first glance, you might think that was disheartening. Carolyn began with [...]
There's an exercise I do in order to stretch my quilting muscles. It's a good way to try something new without making a huge commitment of time, energy or expense. I make a set of three similar quilts that finish at 8" x 10". The piecing is one simple block with some improvised borders. Any [...]
I'm making a scrappy quilt from vintage fabrics plus a few newer prints in my stash. It's based on an antique quilt I saw during Show & Tell at my guild recently. It's made of simple stitch-and-flip units like the one above. They're also called easy corner triangles. Ordinarily, you sew from corner to corner [...]
I'm in Layton, Utah for a few days this week to attend the annual event for Handi Quilter Retailers. There are quilts on display throughout the conference center and I wanted to share some of them with you. Harriet Carpanini quilted a vintage top in double pink and a variety of indigo fabrics for a [...]
Straight to the Point: Read Your Sewing Machine Manual Expanded Version: During a class I taught recently, one of the key points was to shorten the stitch length on the students' sewing machines. I repeated this instruction several times during the early part of the class, as I always do. This was one of [...]
I keep finding new things to love about the HQ Stitch 710. The latest is the Locking Stitch. You can use it when you want an invisible stitch that will not come unsewn at the beginning and the end of a seam. I've been quilting a small sampler that I designed for a retreat this [...]
If you've been considering a new machine, the time to get an HQ Stitch is now, during our Spring Cleaning Sale. The savings are tremendous! Here are the specifics on what you can save at your local Handi Quilter retailer who handles HQ Stitch: Save $200 on the HQ Stitch 210: Perfect little take-along [...]
I've been having a great time building a stitch sampler with my HQ Stitch 710 by Handi Quilter. A stitch sampler is what you create by sewing out special stitches to see how they look, how they behave and so on. If you never sew them out, you can't imagine ways to use them and they [...]
My local guild has "sew day" three times a month and I attend when I can. In the past, I took my best machine because I'm most familiar with it and I often needed its features. But these days I take along my HQ Stitch 210, and I love it. Lightweight at just 12 pounds. This [...]
I have relationships with my sewing machines. We are friends. If you sew a lot, you know what I'm talking about. This means that whenever I get a new machine, like the HQ Stitch 510, I have to get to know it before we can really be buddies. I love the process of becoming acquainted [...]
