Every year I wait anxiously to hear who won the big awards at International Quilt Festival in Houston. Last night, the Handi Quilter Best of Show Award went to Sherry Reynolds of Laramie, Wyoming for Eternal Beauty. Eternal Beauty by Sherry Reynolds of Laramie, Wyoming won the Handi Quilter Best of Show Award in [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
I've been thinking about all the things that quilters figure out along the way. There is a lot to learn, and as a beginner, you can't absorb it all at once. One example is yardage. Occasionally a non-quilter will ask me how much fabric it takes to make a quilt. I'm not hedging when I [...]
