What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I made a temperature quilt for 2022. Have you heard of them? Just Google temperature quilts and you’ll find lots of examples!

Making a Temperature Quilt

The idea is to record the high and low temperature for each day. Assign a fabric (color) to temperature ranges and use the fabric associated with the high and low temps each day to make a block. Sew all the blocks together in chronological order and you’ll end up with a visual representation of the year’s weather. It can be pretty darn beautiful!

Choose your block

You can choose whatever block ...

I made a temperature quilt for 2022. Have you heard of them? Just Google temperature quilts and you’ll find lots of examples!

Making a Temperature Quilt

The idea is to record the high and low temperature for each day. Assign a fabric (color) to temperature ranges and use the fabric associated with the high and low temps each day to make a block. Sew all the blocks together in chronological order and you’ll end up with a visual representation of the year’s weather. It can be pretty darn beautiful!

Choose your block

You can choose whatever block ...

Last week we decided that ribbon candy and wishbone are pretty popular designs. And according to the votes, they are about equally popular!  So lets have some fun with ribbon candy this week and explore some ribbon candy variations.

Handi Quilter Ambassador, Jane Hauprich, has an excellent video on her YouTube channel with 10 ways to change up your ribbon candy. Jane shows the quilting path by drawing on a white board and then she actually stitches the designs.

I’ll show you some screen shots of the designs here, so you’ll know what’s in store when you ...

Last week we decided that ribbon candy and wishbone are pretty popular designs. And according to the votes, they are about equally popular!  So lets have some fun with ribbon candy this week and explore some ribbon candy variations.

Handi Quilter Ambassador, Jane Hauprich, has an excellent video on her YouTube channel with 10 ways to change up your ribbon candy. Jane shows the quilting path by drawing on a white board and then she actually stitches the designs.

I’ll show you some screen shots of the designs here, so you’ll know what’s in store when you ...

It’s a great debate. Which is a better quilting design? Ribbon Candy vs Wishbone? I personally think both designs have merit. They are both versatile and both are classic. But when it comes to fun of quilting, I think the wishbone wins.

I’ll describe how to quilt each one and then you can try them on for size and decide for yourself. Let us know in the comments which one you vote for.

Ribbon Candy

Ribbon Candy is the signature design for a certain Handi Quilter educator from New York, whose name rhymes with chocolate cake. (haha)

If ...

It’s a great debate. Which is a better quilting design? Ribbon Candy vs Wishbone? I personally think both designs have merit. They are both versatile and both are classic. But when it comes to fun of quilting, I think the wishbone wins.

I’ll describe how to quilt each one and then you can try them on for size and decide for yourself. Let us know in the comments which one you vote for.

Ribbon Candy

Ribbon Candy is the signature design for a certain Handi Quilter educator from New York, whose name rhymes with chocolate cake. (haha)

If ...

I’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear of breaking our machine kept us from ever touching that part. Now, with a longarm, we are told in order to adjust the tension we need to start by setting the bobbin tension.

There really is nothing to be afraid of. Getting ...

I’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear of breaking our machine kept us from ever touching that part. Now, with a longarm, we are told in order to adjust the tension we need to start by setting the bobbin tension.

There really is nothing to be afraid of. Getting ...

With this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes it’s just enjoying the zen of stitching with my Infinity. Never for attaining perfection.

Here is a post I wrote about 4 years ago. It’s still true today.

A friend sent me this:

I don’t know where it originated, so I can ...

With this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes it’s just enjoying the zen of stitching with my Infinity. Never for attaining perfection.

Here is a post I wrote about 4 years ago. It’s still true today.

A friend sent me this:

I don’t know where it originated, so I can ...

We filled half-square triangles with loops to create some fun texture. Now let’s get a a little crazy and create some more fun with loops.

Work on the diagonal

It’s time to branch out and try a little something different. Rather than travel horizontally or even vertically, we can choose a diagonal stitch path. We’ll start simple with an easy loop design.

Start by choosing your grid. Go back to the beginning of our grid discussion to remind yourself how to do that.  You can use the piecing or mark a grid on your fabric using your ...

We filled half-square triangles with loops to create some fun texture. Now let’s get a a little crazy and create some more fun with loops.

Work on the diagonal

It’s time to branch out and try a little something different. Rather than travel horizontally or even vertically, we can choose a diagonal stitch path. We’ll start simple with an easy loop design.

Start by choosing your grid. Go back to the beginning of our grid discussion to remind yourself how to do that.  You can use the piecing or mark a grid on your fabric using your ...

Did you happen to catch the July 5, 2022 HQ Watch and Learn on Facebook? More grid work! You can watch it here.  Kristina used loops in one of her examples. And I promised to do some grid designs with loops this week!  Let’s start by talking through Kristina’s design.

Break Up Your Grid

Instead of filling the grid boxes as is, let’s break up the boxes with a diagonal line.

You might want to mark these lines on the grid (as shown). Or you can just add a little mark, that will remind you which way ...

Did you happen to catch the July 5, 2022 HQ Watch and Learn on Facebook? More grid work! You can watch it here.  Kristina used loops in one of her examples. And I promised to do some grid designs with loops this week!  Let’s start by talking through Kristina’s design.

Break Up Your Grid

Instead of filling the grid boxes as is, let’s break up the boxes with a diagonal line.

You might want to mark these lines on the grid (as shown). Or you can just add a little mark, that will remind you which way ...

Last week we filled grids with straight lines, curves and S-shapes. That leaves two more of the 5 basic shapes to create even more filled grid variations, swirl and loop.

Swirl

The swirl is a fun one to quilt because it flows so easily. If you are not proficient at quilting swirls, remember to practice this shape every day. Your skill will improve and before you know it you’ll be loving to quilt swirls too!

Let’s start with a little larger grid this time. A 5 across by 4 down will work well for this example.

Pro-tip: You ...

Last week we filled grids with straight lines, curves and S-shapes. That leaves two more of the 5 basic shapes to create even more filled grid variations, swirl and loop.

Swirl

The swirl is a fun one to quilt because it flows so easily. If you are not proficient at quilting swirls, remember to practice this shape every day. Your skill will improve and before you know it you’ll be loving to quilt swirls too!

Let’s start with a little larger grid this time. A 5 across by 4 down will work well for this example.

Pro-tip: You ...

Now that you’ve got the basics of filled grids from our last post, it’s time to kick it up a notch and explore some filled grid variations.

If you’ve been following along with this Free Motion Quilting for Beginners series, I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next. IYKYK.  If you’re new here, then go to this post. It is a list (with links) of the first posts in the series. Then you can continue on from there.

IYKYK = If you know, you know.

The Five Basic Shapes.

We used straight lines ...

Now that you’ve got the basics of filled grids from our last post, it’s time to kick it up a notch and explore some filled grid variations.

If you’ve been following along with this Free Motion Quilting for Beginners series, I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next. IYKYK.  If you’re new here, then go to this post. It is a list (with links) of the first posts in the series. Then you can continue on from there.

IYKYK = If you know, you know.

The Five Basic Shapes.

We used straight lines ...

We are back this week to our discussion of grid-work. Next up are filled grids. When you want maximum texture on your quilts, filled grids are the way to go. Whenever parts of the grid framework are stitched and other parts are left un-stitched the result is texture.

Why?

Stitching tamps down the batting and creates low places. Leaving parts with no stitching allows the batting to pouf (Isn’t that a great word? I love words that sound like their meaning. Pouf!). The batting poufs up and creates a high place. The contrast between the low place next to ...

We are back this week to our discussion of grid-work. Next up are filled grids. When you want maximum texture on your quilts, filled grids are the way to go. Whenever parts of the grid framework are stitched and other parts are left un-stitched the result is texture.

Why?

Stitching tamps down the batting and creates low places. Leaving parts with no stitching allows the batting to pouf (Isn’t that a great word? I love words that sound like their meaning. Pouf!). The batting poufs up and creates a high place. The contrast between the low place next to ...