Free Pattern: Circle of Friends Challenge Quilt for Modern Quilts Unlimited

Here are some pictures of a little quilt I quilted for Victoria Findlay Wolfe back in 2015. I recently saw pictures of it hanging in a EZ Simplicity booth at QuiltCon which reminded me I have never shared the pictures.

Never Too Young to Sew

My kids are a little obsessed with learning to sew. I know this is because it is all they see me doing (actually I do every other household activity too - but I sew an awful lot.) I'm sure if I was doing kickboxing they might want to do that too (nah ... they would still just want to make things!) My eldest is 5 now and I have begun to let her use a little sewing machine that my husbands grandmother gave us. She is so cute on it.

We recently made some watercolor dyed wooden blocks for my nephews first birthday. This was a SUPER fun project to do - I took it one step further away from fun though and started to give the kids a detailed lesson in color theory and making new colors ... sorry kids ... Mummy couldn't help herself. (The link is from Fun at Home with Kids which is one of my go to places to find fun to do with the little people - we did it a little differently and used ziploc bags which kept the mess to a minimum and we only needed a very little liquid watercolor.)

The blocks were beautiful - we became entranced and as they dried they became brighter.  How could we package them?

Ruler Work

I understand that you can now use rulers with other machines - not just longarms. I believe Janome now has a ruler foot as well as rumors that Bernina will have a ruler foot soon?

I need help with ruler work - so I tracked down an Handiquilter ruler expert. Debby Brown. When I mean 'track down' - I harassed the poor lady until she gave in. Debby is a busy busy lady teaching all around the world and for Handiquilter and she does a lot of work with her local quilt shop the Quilt Basket in Pawling, NY.

March Lesson (& Giveaway): Choosing Fabric & Batting for Free Motion Quilting

January Lesson: Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting
January Roundup: Beginners Guide to Free Motion Quilting - Roundup
February Lesson: Thread
February Lesson: Thread Roundup

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Through my charity Quilting A Memory I get to work with all sorts of fabrics for families who have lost loved ones  I have quilted with everything from mens vests to woolen kilts to satin wedding dresses. So far the only fabric I have had to say no to was a thick toweling dressing gown. So it might not surprise many of you to learn that I am anything but a fabric snob. To me fabric is fabric and fabric can be made into quilts.

I know there is a whole thing over designer fabric versus the cheaper prints you can buy at JoAnn's. But I also know that fabric lines who have produced cheaper fabrics for JoAnn's now have quilt shops begging for the same material.

Again my mantra is - if you like it - use it.

My other mantra is - if you are practicing - don't spend the big bucks. Your neighbors 1 year old baby is not going to notice that the train print is from JoAnn's rather than a designer beauty. Keep it cheap - your whoopsies won't hurt as much. 

FABRIC
From a free motion point of view I can give you the following information with regards to fabric.

February Lesson: Thread & Giveaway Results

Just to recap that the February lesson on Thread is posted here.

Congratulations to Lynn from Nebraska Views - I hope she has lots of fun with those variegated threads. Lynn's name was picked out by the ever trusty online random number selector.

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I just wanted to briefly list all the different threads that people talked about. If there are some brands here you have not heard of - try them - they might surprise you. I list in order of popularity:

Aurifil
Don't forget that Aurifil have threads in lots of different weights of cotton that you can experiment with. I suspect people don't know that they also have a poly made for longarm machines as well as a 100% nylon thread. You can read more about their products here. http://www.aurifil.com/