By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador There's a lot of eye candy in the world of fabric these days. I love stopping by a quilt store and seeing new collections beautifully displayed together. When I make a quilt, however, I've found that a single fabric collection is not what I prefer to use. I [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador I noticed something the other day about the way I was staging my patchwork. Do you know what I mean by staging? Staging is what you do to get ready. When there's a parade, for instance, there's a staging area. All the bands and floats and animals line [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador My machine quilting skills are okay. They're not stellar and they're not horrible. They pass, most of the time. They are best when I'm nicely warmed up. Getting warmed up can take anywhere from an hour to a day. I've discovered a trick that will help you put [...]
I spent time with two of my great-nieces recently and they made their first quilts. The HQ Stitch 210 turned out to be perfect for a first-time sewing experience. Based on their excitement, I think it's safe to say I converted them! My nieces are 9 and 12 and they're delightful little people. They are [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador I quilted two projects on a deadline last week, to be published in autumn magazine issues. A looming due date creates some pressure and I don't really enjoy that, but it does force me to finish, and that's a good thing. I used both the HQ Stitch 510 [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador We've gone through all the steps to make a Dresden Plate. Let's talk about a few ways to troubleshoot common problems. Troubleshoot Dresden Plate Problems The most common problem my students face is fullness at the center of the Dresden. When they make the plate and go to [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador We're ready to applique our Dresden Plate to a background block. I always cut my blocks a little larger than necessary and then trim them up after the applique is complete. If you're working without a pattern, measure across the Dresden Plate and add 3" as a guideline [...]
By Diane Harris, HQ Stitch Brand Ambassador I have an ongoing love affair with the Dresden Plate. It began about 10 years ago when I made this quilt from vintage blocks. All Drezzed Up by Diane Harris I’d purchased 20 blocks for 20 dollars (my kind of bargain!) and I made 32 smaller [...]
I have one more strategy I employ when cutting up fabric to make scrap quilts. Once I've done the work of pressing, layering and squaring up fabrics that I'm going to cut, I never cut just what is needed. I make other cuts, too. Here's what I mean. I've layered these four fabrics for an [...]
Most of us would love to get through the cutting quickly, so we can move on to the sewing. I have some strategies for cutting because I don't enjoy it much. Twinkle uses many shades of green from my fabric stash. I make mostly scrap quilts—not necessarily quilts cut from a scrap basket, [...]
