Random.org picked #4. Congratulations Kelly P.!!
Kelly P
You all are doing great!! It sure doesn’t seem like it’s been long enough for a hundred posts. Well done!!!You all are doing great!! It sure doesn’t seem like it’s been long enough for a hundred posts. Well done!!!
I thought this collage I found at Oopsey Daisy said it all for the Mother’s Day post.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s. And to our mom’s… we love you!
Halloween arrived on Monday!
I love waiting for the UPS guy. Too bad he doesn’t bring them inside for me though. They’re too heavy to lift so I have to unpack them on my front porch. My neighbor’s probably think I’m just so excited to get packages, I can’t wait to bring them in before I unpack them!
It’s Trick or Treat from Riley Blake. We ordered 7 bolts.
Some ribbon and buttons to match.
And some charms squares.
I think Daisy needs a new Halloween leash out of the tossed candy fabric. That would be so cute!
Have a great weekend everyone and be sure to check back on Monday for the giveaway winner!
Doesn’t that title make you smile:) It’s a new embroidery book I found one day while shopping at Joann’s with Paige. I can’t tell you how thrilled and excited I get when I stumble upon new embroidery designs. And this one has stitches in it that I’ve never tried before! Yay!!!
It’s Japanese dimensional embroidery.
If you ever come across Japanese craft and embroidery books, don’t hesitate to pick one up. Most are written in Japanese but a seasoned quilter/embroiderer can figure it out. It’s even worth it if you want to just look at the pictures. They do amazing handwork!
Have you tried the Cosmo Floss from Japan? There is none better. The good ole stand by, DMC, doesn’t even compare. If I had a local dealer of these, I’m afraid I’d be broke. It’s like candy. All the colors we’re used to but it doesn’t knot, it slides through the fabric like butter, and lays flat. This floss is about $1.00-$1.20, but well worth it. It’s available at the Stockroom on Etsy.
Cottage Garden Threads from Australia. I bought these from her Etsy shop. I had been stalking this floss for a while now, and figured, why not? I might have a disorder though. I’m not sure if I’ll actually be able to use these. They are just too pretty to cut into and it would have to be a seriously special project! They’re sooo soft. Yes, I’m petting them right now:)
Remember my post on this cuteness? My life Embroidered.
I found its sister on Etsy, and it’s on it’s way to my home! It translates to My True Nature. These french embroidery books are adorable and I can’t wait to make something supercute from this one too.
Let’s not forget the USA on our trip. Crabapple Hill is my favorite embroidery designer. I must have this latest piece. Dresden Poinsettias!
And last, here are my latest embroidery purchases from the quilt store. A quilt pattern from This and That Pattern Company called “simple Things” and a redwork called “Winter Twitterings” by Pearl Louise Krush.
Time to get to work. I need more than 2 hands or 24 hours in a day to get all this hand work done!
I’m sure y’all noticed our new logo that Paige added not too long ago to the blog and Etsy.
We have a talented graphic designer.
Holly Shoulders
Think • Creative Design
email: hashoulders@comcast.net
http://thinkcreativedesign.weebly.com
We asked her to design something modern/whimsy, with daisies, in a blue/green combo. It’s exactly what we had in mind.
We had some note cards and business cards made up too. We couldn’t be happier with it Holly. Thank you!
In exchange for her work, she asked if we could make her a couple of gumdrops for her children. We made the large gumdrops and used Amy Butler’s Daisy Chain in pink and turquoise.
We hope your kids love these as much as we love our logo! Thanks again Holly:)
Wanna make your own gumdrops? We’re holding a gumdrop class if you live in the Chicagoland area. All you need is basic sewing skills. Click on the Contact us and drop us an email if you’re interested. You will be addicted to gumdrops too!
Paige is also giving private machine quilting lessons, one on one, for anyone interested in learning machine quilting. The class can be tailored to your experience level, so that you will feel confident in your machine quilting.
Can you believe…100 posts already! We’ve come a long way and we’d like to thank everyone for their support by having a giveaway.
We’re giving away the Bliss Table Runner. Paige did a great job machine quilting it.
And how about the spring/summer issue of Quilt Samplers Top 10 Shop Hop to go with it. My favorite magazine, which I wait ever so patiently for twice a year. You’ll love it too!
Just leave us a comment to enter. The giveaway ends Saturday, May 7th. I’ll post the winner on Monday, May 9th.
Good luck everyone!
The Garden of Ideas Shop Hop was this weekend. Can you believe that this will be my 1st shop hop? Paige and I thought it might be fun to take y’all along with us. So, let’s go…
1st up, Basket Cases Unlimited. We absolutely love this tiny shop in the country. It’s one of those shops that is small but seems to have what you were looking for. Being a barn in Clare, Il, makes this shop quaint. They sell handmade baskets, soaps, and herbs downstairs, and the quilt shop is upstairs, along with a longarm. Always friendly and always a project in the works for these ladies.
Busy, busy, busy…
My purchases from Basket Cases. Some Sugar Pop and Central Park.
Tammy Tadds, Sycamore, IL. If you love bright colors and fun fabrics, Tammy’s is the place. She’s been in the Quilt Sampler Top 10 Shop Hop magazine and designs her own fabric and patterns. She has a great decorating style. Her favorite colors are pink and green, and the shop reflects that with her pink phones, pink wheelbarrow, and don’t even get me started on the pink Christmas tree. This is one stop I don’t miss at Christmas!
I’m in love with this quilt!
And this wool pillow.
Is this just about the cutest shop you’ve ever seen? I had more pics from Tammy’s, but with Mother’s Day coming up, I can’t show those:))
Great ideas from her shop are that every time you come in you get to choose a 5″ square from the jar and don’t forget your jelly beans:) It’s just a fun store!
I’m already hungry and I haven’t had my coffee. After seeing these wool cupcake pincushions at Tammy’s we went on our way to the real thing.
We had to visit Sweet Dream Desserts while we were in Sycamore. Best cupcakes ever! Besides, no one should have to shop hungry, right? They had these blue and green daisy cookies that matched our logo. They jumped in my bag along with a giant sugar cookie for Russell and carrot cake and red velvet cake cupcakes!
Prairie Shop Quilts in Batavia, IL. This is the shop that I learned to do beautiful hand applique. I had a great instructor and I took to it right away. This shop has a longarm in it that can be rented hourly and they even give lessons on it. A great way to test drive before you buy.
Look at this BOM they are doing from Blackbird Designs.
Some great modern prints.
They also do “Challenges”, where you take a theme and interpret it into mini quilt..like art. This seems very challenging to me. I need to learn to think outside the box. This would be therapy for me. Or I’d need therapy after because I’d be so stressed:) I do really like to see what creativity comes from these challenges though.
Paige and I really liked this quilt and thought it would be really cool in bright batiks. Smile Paige!
We then headed to Quilt In Joy to see what was happening there. Kathi said it was the busiest shop hop she’s had! Yay!
Here’s some cool boy’s prints that just came in from Michael Miller. Boy’s tend to get overlooked and sometimes it’s hard to make them a quilt. These would be great pillowcases too. At one of the other stores we saw Space Invaders and Pac Man!
We hope you enjoyed the ride. We had a great time. We were already planning our next trip!
I pulled some of our favorite pics from the designers blogs to show you whats coming soon. Visit Valori Wells and Joel Dewberry for more info on these fab lines. I know Valori has been busy making some pretty cool stuff from Wrenly.
Wrenly by Valori Wells…
And some Heirloom by Joel Dewberry…
Both of these, Wrenly and Heirloom, will be out in June.
I’m pretty sure that both Paige and I are a bit obsessed with dresdens. Paige is working on a quilt that has a giant dredsen in the center and I’m still pluggin away at my embroidered ones. We are planning on having both of those ready by summer. We have high hopes for a quilt show we’d like to enter.
Our latest is the sample we made with the Artful Home Table Runner…I’m in love!
I also made a set of 6 matching napkins to go with it. Both the table runner and napkins have a little extra touch with the teal flange. I think it really sets it off. And Paige’s quilting is awesome as usual!
Of course, I had to make a Christmas one! I used Heather Mulder Peterson’s Christmas line from last year, At Home for the Holidays. I embroidered 6 strand french knots in the middle like a dresden flower. This one isn’t quilted yet but soon will be. It will be available in the Etsy Shop also…that is, if I can part with it:)
We’re also kitting the Artful Home one and it comes with the free pattern! Hopefully I will have these posted on Etsy soon. We’ve been having nothing but rain here and my pics look so harsh with the flash. We need sunshine!
Are you thinking about taking a quilt to a longarm quilter and not quite sure what you need to do to prepare your quilt before dropping it off or sending it out? I’ve pulled together some helpful tips to ensure a better end result with your quilt while helping to reduce the possibility of unnecessary extra work for your quilter and extra costs to you.
- Please piece carefully. Longarmers cannot quilt out bubbles and pleats that have been pieced.
- Make sure that all seams are stitched securely. When the quilt is loaded onto the rollers the fabric is kept taut. If the seams are not strong and accurate they will pull apart. (It’s a good idea to take into account the thread color you are piecing with verses using whatever is handy. I’ve seen purple thread used to piece white fabric and white thread to piece black fabric -it’s not pretty when seams pull apart!)
- Take the time to square your quilt top, batting and backing – I can’t stress this enough! Many times it is not obvious to the longarm quilter until the quilt is fully loaded on the machine rollers. In some cases, it will require extra work for the quilter to unload, square and reload and most likely they will charge you to do so.
- For flat borders, measure your quilt center in three places as shown in the diagram below…1) where the border will be sewn on 2) down the center and 3) the opposite side of the quilt then take the average -this will give you a consistent accurate measurement for the opposing borders. Pin borders on, stitch and press. When stitching your borders on, consider using a dual-feed/walking foot on your sewing machine to help pull both the quilt center and border fabric at the same time avoiding either from stretching more than the other.
- All seams on the quilt top and back must be pressed.
- Back seams should be 1/2″ and pressed open.
- Remove any selvages – they do not stretch and can cause blocks or backings to not lie flat.
- Trim all loose threads – you do not want to see dark thread tails lying behind lighter fabrics.
- Backing and batting must be at least 6-8” longer and 6-8″ wider than the quilt top. This allows the quilter to attach grips to the sides of the quilts to help distribute tension on the quilt evenly…if less, the grips will get in the way of the machine when close to the edge of the quilt. I also recommend the backing and batting be fairly close to the same size, if backing is much larger than the batting the tension grips can only grip the back fabric and because of their weight can cause the quilt sides to sag resulting in uneven tension.
- Before purchasing batting check with your quilter as they may have batting type restrictions. Some battings perform better than others on a long arm.
- To prevent uneven shrinkage, if you have washed your quilt top, you should wash your quilt back.
- If you have a heavily pieced border stay-stitch 1/8” in from the edge around the perimeter of the quilt to prevent seams from unraveling and/or stretching.
- Do not baste layers together. Top/batting/backing should be neatly folded separately and placed in a bag or pillow case to protect.
- Identify the top of your quilt with a safety pin if you have a preference.
Following these simple tips will help your longarm quilter be more successful in quilting your treasure and you being more please with the end result.
SewMod