What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It’s the first day of March and I have a new design for you to free motion quilt: Billiards!

This simple echoing design will look great as an All-Over Quilting Design. I admit, I wasn’t the best at quilting it on my longarm. I’m still working on building control over the machine’s movement, which is why I place a bag of beans on the top of the quilt. This helps add weight from the quilt surface and makes the machine slightly easier to control.

But the very best way to build the skill for travel quilting ...

Yo-Yo’s are typically something we piece by hand and collect in bins and then eventually stitch together by the million. But I think this can also be a quilting design too! See what I mean in this new video:

Yo-Yo is built off a grid so if you’re working on plain fabric, you’ll need to mark lines 2-5 inches apart. What we specifically need are the intersections where the gridlines come together. Aim to hit those points as you curve up and down within each square.

While filming the video, I wasn’t happy with my stitches ...

It’s time to learn how to quilt Heat Wave! This is an awesome border quilting design that’s faster to quilt. See what I mean in this new video:

Heat Wave is a lot faster and easier to quilt than the Pyramids in the Sun border design from earlier this month. This design can be free hand quilted and the result is a flowy design that adds nice movement to your quilts.

I did use the Ditcher Ruler again to help me control the longarm and travel stitch between the Heat Wave shapes. With practice and patience you won ...

I have a fun new border quilting design for you today! Let’s learn how to quilt Pyramids in the Sun, a cool design combining ruler quilting and free motion quilting together.

Click Here to find the 2-inch Circle Ruler I used in this video. I definitely needed to use this ruler to quilt the outer curves of my suns. Obviously I need more practice to get my echoes looking as good!

Find the Ditcher Ruler here – This is the ruler I used to quilt the evenly spaced straight lines for the pyramids and the pinstripe lines within. If you ...

The final part to this Christmas Tree quilt has to finish with some background quilting. I decided to use Sharp Stippling, one of my favorite quilting designs, to fill in the background around the Christmas tree with soft movement and a navy blue color.

Quilting the Background of my Christmas Tree Quilt

The background of a wall-hanging quilt is always going to be the largest area to quilt and could be the most time consuming. I decided to quilt this area quickly with Sharp Stippling, stitched on a 1/4 inch scale.

Most quilters like to match thread, especially in ...

It’s time to quilt a feather block on point using QCT 5! I knew I wanted to fill the background around my Christmas Tree with something fun, both to make the stars stand out and to reduce the amount of time consuming background quilting I’d need to do. The solution – Maximized Feather Blocks stitched with Quilter’s Creative Touch over the stars!

Quilting Feather Blocks on Point with QCT 5 in my Christmas Tree Quilt

I’m now using Quilter’s Creative Touch 5 Pro, but everything you saw in this video will work exactly the same with ...

I’m back and quilting with rulers once again on my Christmas Tree Quilt! I absolutely love how these simplistic lines and curves worked over the glittery fabric presents on the bottom of this quilt.

Quilting Glitter Fabric with Rulers in a Christmas Tree Quilt

Click Here to find the Rulers I used in this video. I have six rulers made by Grace Company and in this project I used the Ditcher and Mini Slide rulers the most.

Check out my quilting system with the Qnique 21 and Continuum Frame. Yep, I still love this setup, though I’m thinking ...

It’s finally time to start quilting my Christmas Tree Quilt! Two years ago I pieced this massive green and glittery quilt for fun and to experiment with every kind of glittery fabric I could find:

I couldn’t wait to start quilting my Christmas Tree quilt, but then our basement flooded and life got in the way of finishing this project. Now two years later, it was finally time to get O Christmas Tree unfolded and on my frame!

I’ve picked several quilting designs and some fun techniques to play with and over the next few weeks I ...

So which longarm is better – a Qnique 19, 15R, or 15 PRO? Learn more in this video:

Quick links to things in the video:

Qnique 19 Longarm – As mentioned in the video, this machine can do 2000 stitches per minute, has a touchscreen monitor, and has 15 inches of vertical quilting space – see the video for what this means!

Qnique 15R Longarm – This longarm can quilt 1800 stitches per minute and has the original handlebar controls (no touchscreen). You’ll have almost 10 inches of vertical quilting space with this longarm.

Qnique 15 PRO Longarm – This is the longarm that ...

Attaching longarm quilting feet, to longarms like the Grace 19 and 21 Qniques, can be a little tricky. Here’s a video tutorial on how to easily attach these longarm feet.

 Quick links to the quilt panel and quilting gear I’m using in this video:

The grace qnique longarm 21 Qnique 21 on a 10 Foot Frame

Grace qnique hopping foot set Hopping Foot Set

Qnique longarm hopping foot set 9 Piece Foot Attachment Set

Embroidery thread good for quilting White Isacord Thread

The Qnique 19 and 21 longarms have a very different foot attachment system than the Qnique ...

The most frequent question I’m asked about QCT is how to switch from computer-guided quilting back to regular free motion quilting. Learn how to switch from FMQ to QCT seamlessly in this video:

Click Here to find QCT for your Qnique Longarm or home machine! Yes, this system is compatible with some home sewing machines. I’m planning to use it with my Janome 1600P very soon.

If you’d like a fun project to play with switching from QCT to FMQ, check out the Basket Weave with QCT Quilt Along. I sped up the process of quilting this ...

Last month I shared the Basket Weave with QCT quilt along during Grace Company’s Fantastic Fall Festival. It was a terrific event and I learned so much about computerized quilting as I shared these tutorials.

But finding these videos after the event ended proved a little difficult. I decided to create one place where you can find all the videos and handy design PDF in one place. Click Here to check out the Basket Weave with QCT Quilt Along.

My challenge for this project was to design a quilt panel and to quilt it almost entirely with Quilter’s ...

It’s finally time to kick off Grace Company’s Fantastic Fall Festival! Click Here to check out the events scheduled and watch the live kick off at 11 am Mountain Time!

What is the Fantastic Fall Festival?

This is an online quilt show hosted by Grace Company. Just like an in-person quilt show, there are beautiful quilts, prizes, and giveaways. Even better, there are also online classes, live product demos, and a mini quilt along too!

I’ve created several quilting videos for this Fantastic Fall Festival. This has been my main focus for the last two months and ...

Yep, I’m modifying my Continuum Frame once again, this time by adding an Idler Rail to the back! Learn what this rail does and how to install it in this video:

Click Here to find an Idler Rail for your Continuum Frame! – It’s never too late to add extra rails and make quilting easier and faster. The Idler Rail is a very easy upgrade and will speed up the process of advancing your quilts.

Click Here to learn more about the Continuum Quilting Frame – This is my favorite frame because it will continually grow with you (hence the ...

We’re quilting our last Patchwork Daisy today for the Friendship Quilt Along! I’m quilting on the Grace Qnique 21 to quilt zigzag Zippling and simple ruler quilting designs. Learn how to flow around your block to minimize your thread breaks in this quilting tutorial:

Click here to find our last Friendship Sampler Quilt Pattern. This pattern includes both the Patchwork Daisy block and the Hidden Hearts block patterns so you can finish your queen or king sized Friendship Quilts!

Click Here to learn more about the Grace 21. This is the longarm I’m using in this tutorial ...

We’ve just recently upgraded to Quilter’s Creative Touch 5 and today we’re placing and quilting blocks! By the way, have you been looking for written instructions on Quilters Creative Touch 5? I have great news! Janet George has been hard at work creating PDF guides to help you!

Click Here to find all Janet’s QCT5 Help Files in one place! I struggle to learn something new unless I can read it and see it, so I hope this combination of video and written instructions will help you. You can find instructions for quilting blocks with Quilter ...

Today we’re jumping on the Grace Qnique 21 longarm and Continuum frame to quilt out our eleventh block, the Scrappy Tracks Block! We’re almost done with our Friendship Quilt Along with this scrappy longarm block–just one more to go!

Click Here to check out the Super Slide Ruler I used to create the deep curving lines. I love using this ruler to quilt borders and curving lines in sashing too. It’s a terrific ruler because you have the same curve on both sides which makes it very easy to quilt long lines continuously over your quilt ...

I’ve been hibernating for the last few days as I take my first stitches with Quilter’s Creative Touch 4. QCT is software that runs a new motor under my longarm so the machine moves automatically to stitch designs. Watch how it works in this video on stitching a block on my quilt:

Click Here to check out Quilter’s Creative Touch (QCT). This package includes the motor, drive belts, and software which includes all the designs I showed in this video. It does not include the tablet to run the software.

Click Here to find the tablet I ...