What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Are you going to be spending more time on our sewing machines now that the weather is getting colder? I know I am! That means we have some time for a bit more in-depth learning with this week’s pattern. The pattern Twist will probably be familiar as it has been around for a while. It is basically an orange peel variation, but instead of an arch shape we are using a shape that resembles a gentle wave or a hill / slope.

The asymmetry in that shape adds so much movement in your quilt! I know that the design is ...

Get out your bright threads, especially the neon colors. I suspect you don’t use those very often. Here is your chance! This grid design Diamante is a fabulous one tot stitch out with a thread that really shows up on your fabric. Its whole purpose is to create a dazzling design.

Pattern Tutorial

The pattern is based on a diamond or triangular grid . You can use square grid instead. In general, they give the same result. The diamond grid is visually easier because you can’t get confused by the lines on your fabric.

The design is stitched out ...

Did you see the Northern Lights two weeks ago?

I have to report there was nothing to see where I live, because dawn came too early for us. There was just too much light in the sky to be able to see the pretty colors. I live in a pretty densely populated area anyway, so even looking at the regular night’s sky to see the stars is a bit of a challenge. I can see some constellations with very bright stars, but that is about it.

I am making up for missing out on all the celestial events of ...

Last Friday was World Water Day and this next Friday is Mermaid Day, so this week’s free motion design just fits in!

The Mermaid’s Tail design is based on the clamshell grid. This design can be quilted pretty densely, but stitch it out as big as you want. You could even use a ruler to help you create the semicircular arcs. The clamshell gird is used upside down, making it look like scales. Scales on a mermaid’s tail!

Fill the clamshells with teardrops that fan out from the centre. Use as many teardrops as you like.

There ...

Lemon, lime, oranges or mandarin oranges.

I adore the scent of citrus! Cleaning products, candles, bath products, you name it! I love a wedge of lemon in my coke and add in all the ice cubes!

Do you have a scent or flavor that you adore?

The design Lemon Slices is based on an orange peel grid, and it creates a lovely texture which keeps your quilt nice and cuddly. The design can be stitched out with a quilting ruler if you want to. It depends on how smooth your curves turn out and what size grid you are using ...

This Orange Peel Stars design has several stitch paths to choose from. The first one is based on one of my tutorials from 2017.

Stitch path 1:

Stitch out an orange peel design first to stabilise your fabric. Best results are achieved by using a ruler, but I am known to free hand them if the shapes are small (blue lines in drawing below).

Once you have filled your block with Orange Peels, enter the space inside of the Orange Peel, starting from the left. Echo around that space in an inward spiral (green lines in the drawing below). Once ...

Let’s add some hearts to our classic quilting designs!

I have selected several classic free motion quilting designs and I each week I will share a variation of that design where hearts are ‘onboarded’. So when Valentine’s day approaches you will have a set of patterns to choose from. Put that quilt together for your special person.

This hot pink Orange Peel Heart sample is stitched out on a 1″ grid that I premarked using a template and ‘iron off’ pounce powder. I love the fact that you can iron the chalk off and that it doesn’t ...

Remember the third request for my brother and his wife’s baby quilt?

‘Please add a Flower of Life quilting design on this baby quilt.’

Some of you may be familiar with the Flower of Life design because its use in New Age imagery this century. With the name ‘Flower of Life’ only being just over 20 years old, the overlapping circle design itself is very much older and can be traced back to the 7th or 6th century BCE (wikipedia).

The request for this circle design came from a precious memory where the mother-to-be was taught how to draw ...

So happy to announce that the ‘Tea with Kate’ kitchen quilt is finished.

This wall hanging will be on display hopefully soon on a wall near my kitchen. I am happy with how it turned out, even though all the stitching seemed to take for ever. read more