I've been making simple Log Cabin quilt blocks and I'm having a great time imaging where the design could go. I'm using a free pattern from Quilter's World in a mystery sampler called Awash with Color, Block 1. I'm starting with lights so that my last addition is darks. I'm sewing from my stash and [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador There are many great resources for quilters offered online at no charge, and who doesn't like a deal like that?! On most Fridays, I will share a freebie with you that I like. Could be a pattern or a tutorial, a quilting motif or something entirely unexpected. Sound [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador My most recent UFO piecing was intense. I finished up Hexie Framed and Vintage Zigzag—and both gave me headaches. Hexie Framed, a design by Emily of Quilty Love The patterns were clear and well-written. I had plenty of fabrics to choose from and because of the pandemic, plenty [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador I finished piecing a project on May 7, just 16 days after I started. It was a challenging project for a couple of reasons but now that it's finished, I quite like it. My Gypsy Wife quilt top, a design by Jen Kingwell I am not much of [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador During the last few weeks of 2019, I took inventory of the unfinished projects in my studio. UFOs (as they're called in quilt world) don't bother me or cause me guilt, but seeing them all together did motivate me to reimagine them and do some serious finishing in [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador I finished the New Wave Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman recently. If you missed it, here is Part 1. Because I live in the middle of nowhere and because I have a stash that's been growing for 35 years, I am pretty committed to sewing with what I have. [...]
I'm making the Quiltville Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter this year, along with tens of thousands of other quilters. I've done it twice before and I enjoyed it each time. This year's quilt is called Good Fortune, and it has some string pieced units. My HQ Stitch 510 made short work of them. I needed [...]
I've been working on a new Christmas quilt called Christmas Figs. I started with a fat quarter bundle of Moda by the same name, and then I added in more reds and greens from my stash. I cut the first few blocks before I went to a retreat in September. They looked a lot like [...]
In the spring, I designed a little sampler quilt for a retreat I'm co-hosting this fall. I did the piecing on the HQ Stitch 510 and then I quilted it on the 710. This is Petit Patchwork. The idea is to help retreaters learn some new skills and perfect some basic skills by making 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 [...]
