Category: Uncategorized

 

I am excited to have a talented guest on my blog today.  Mara, from The Quilt In Progress, is sharing how to make the cutest, and quickest, fabric book marks.  Take is away, Mara!

*Steps to Making a Quilt Top using this Traditional Quilt Block Below*

Dear Star Flower, how I love thee.  Let me count the ways:

1. You are simple to make. (Think Half Square Triangles)
2. Your beauty is timeless. (First appeared in the middle ages)
3. Simplicity never looked so good.
4. Your versatility is stunning.
5. I have you hanging in my quilt room.

Welcome to my turn on the Galentines / Valentines Blog Tour!  I hope you TOOK THE QUIZ to see which Traditional Quilt Block you are paired with.  (You can also enter to win this lovely fabric bundle from Cottoneer below). If you are paired with the Star Flower / Eight Pointed Star, you’re matched with my pick!

I am going to share a simple way to make this traditional quilt block with a fun twist.  And if you make enough of them, how to put them together to make a quilt top.

MAKING A STAR FLOWER / EIGHT POINTED STAR BLOCK
I am giving you the easy way to make this block.  We’re going to avoid the diamond shape and Y seams, and stick with using Half Square Triangles.  CLICK HERE to get a cheat sheet on making HST’s.  I’m also designing the block with a slight variation.  The finished block will look like this:

How is this a variation, you might ask?  Here is a picture of a traditional block without any variations:

To Start:
1. Cut (2) 6″ squares in Color A.
2. Cut (2) 6″ squares in Color B.
3. Draw an ‘X’ on the wrong side of both Fabric B squares.

4. Place (1) Color A 6″ square RST with (1)  Color B 6″ square.
5. Sew ¼” away from drawn lines.  Dotted lines show where to sew.

6. Cut on the drawn diagonal lines.  Without moving fabric, cut on the vertical and horizontal lines as well.

7. Press open, with seams toward the darker fabric.  Trim to measure 2 ½” x 2 ½”.
8. Repeat these steps with your second Fabric A and Fabric B 6″ squares.  You will have (16) 2 ½” HST’s.
Arrange your HST’s and sew together to form your Star Flower.  Press seams open as you go.

Now let’s take this one step further.  You can make (12) Star Flowers to make the following quilt top.  I made a mock up with Amy Sinibaldi’s new Mayflower line for Art Gallery Fabrics.

To do this, you would just need to add some sashing in between each Star Flower.  It can make a traditional and stunning quilt top.

What do you think?  Is the Star Flower one of your favorite traditional blocks as well?  If you do end up making one of the blocks, be sure to use the following hashtags so we can see your work: #quiltycupid and #QuiltersCandy.

Have you taken the Quilty Cupid Quiz to see which block you are paired with?  And if you haven’t yet,  be sure to enter to win this lovely fabric collection from CottonJoy.  Happy Galentines!

 

**Save $100.00 on Bonnie Christine’s Surface Pattern Design Course**
Find out how!

Have you dreamed of designing fabric?  Or maybe walking into a store and seeing a notebook with your artwork on the cover.  Even if you just want to learn Adobe Illustrator, I have an exciting offer for you.

Once a year an exceptional course is offered to teach people how to use Adobe Illustrator, along with inside tips on the business of surface pattern design.

I took this class 2 years ago.  I LOVED this course!  I loved the friends I made in the course, 2 of which are now fabric designers (one for Riley Blake Fabrics and the other for Art Gallery Fabrics).  I use what I learned in that class every day for my business.

If you want to get a feel for what the class offers, join a FREE master course beginning February 10th.

If you know this course is for you, I am offering a $100.00 discount for the course.  If you sign up for the course with my affiliate link, I will reimburse you $100.00 off the total cost of the course.  You will have to make sure to use THIS LINK to join the course in order to get the $100.00 reimbursement.  You can sign up for the course from February 18th – 25th.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you have about the course and what I learned from it.  I am an open book, and only share this with y’all because I can back it 100%.

 

 

Have you wanted to write your own quilt pattern?

I am sharing the two most useful tools I use to create and write my quilt patterns, plus I’m sharing a coupon code for one of them!

WHAT I USE TO WRITE QUILT PATTERNS:
1. I first design my quilt using the Electric Quilt 8 program (EQ8).  It is THE BEST program out there for creating quilt patterns.  I’ll show you a little video tutorial of what it can do.

If you are interested in buying the EQ8 program, you can use this coupon code to save 20% off their entire website until March 31st, 2020. COUPON CODE: EQ8Elizabeth Website: Electric Quilt Website  Direct Link to EQ8: EQ8 LINK

SEE VIDEO ABOUT EQ8 HERE

2. After I design my quilt, I use Adobe Illustrator (AI) to write my patterns.  I actually used Microsoft Word to write my first pattern.  It worked, but it wasn’t pretty.  I didn’t even know how unattractive and clunky it was until I really started doing my homework.  I will never turn back from using AI.

I have thought about creating an online course for how to write quilt patterns.  I’m thinking it would include step by step  tutorials on using EQ8, AI specifically for writing quilt patterns, and some business tips on marketing, printing patterns, and the like.

Would you be interested in a course like that?  If so, click HERE and I will get in touch and see if there’s enough interest and share some more ideas with y’all.

Do you have other questions about writing quilt patterns?  There’s SO much to share on the topic, but if you have questions, leave a comment and I could even write another blog post answering some more specific questions if there’s an interest.

And if you are a quilter not interested in quilt pattern writing, that’s great, too!  We need both the pattern writers and the pattern users! 😉

If you are interested in writing quilt patterns, I highly recommend looking into the EQ8 program and using that 20% discount while you can.

Happy quilting and quilt pattern writing, if that’s your jam.

If you’re like me, a creative, it can be difficult to stay focused and organized.  Doesn’t creativity mean being scattered?  Okay, I’ve told myself that long enough.  Enough is enough.

There are a lot of planners and people to turn to.  I want to share with you what I am using this year to achieve my goals, and why I picked it.

I decided to use Bonnie Christine’s new Flourish Planner for 2020.  I have watched Bonnie grow her business and achieve her dreams.  When she said she had a planner that comes along with video tutorials on how to organize your year, I was on board.  She has figured some things out, and if she’s willing to share that knowledge, I’m ready to learn and apply.

Inside the planner there are places to track daily habits, set goals at a glance, and then get more detailed by month and day.

One of the things I like most about this planner is keeping track of my daily habits.  Because I have a box to check if I have done certain things each day, simply knowing I will either check the box or leave it blank helps me do my daily habits.  Weird, right?

I remember learning that Benjamin Franklin did something similar.  He wrote a bunch of habits he wanted to work on, and then put a mark for each day of the week that he practiced it.

Here’s Benjamin Franklin’s habit tracker:

Not a bad idea, Ben.  Not at all.  In our own, modern way, Bonnie included a place to do something similar.  Each month you can write habits you want to work on, then you put an X for each day you do that habit.  It has been surprisingly helpful!

Here is a glance at a few other pages from inside the planner:

Another huge help is that this planner comes with a class.  There are a series of videos where Bonnie walks through how to use your planner.  It’s like having a personal mentor helping me get on track.  Here’s a screen shot from one of her videos.

Besides a planner, I also have a large calendar on my wall that Bonnie designed.  I love having something I can glance at that reminds me of my deadlines and what things I have around the corner.

When the year wraps up, I’m excited to write another post on how my year played out and how the planner plaid a role with that.

We’ll see if I achieved my goals!

MY BUSINESS GOALS FOR 2020

1. Add value to membership (studying how to make membership best as possible)
2. Plan and host a large retreat this year.
3. Exercise at least 4 days a week (yes, I count this under my business, because it helps me be more productive).
4. Add at least 1 video tutorial to my YouTube channel per month.
5. Write at least 3 blog posts per month.
6. Get my patterns all in paper format.
7. Reach out to Pattern Distributors and have my patterns carried with them.
8. Enter at least 2 quilts for QuiltCon in the Fall.

How about you?  I would love to hear what you use or do for goal setting.  Do you have something you’ve found that works?  If so, please share in the comments.  I would love to hear about it!

 

Quilters, listen up!  I am here to tell you that sitting and quilting, or cutting your fabric for long periods of time, can reek havoc on your back and shoulders.

Here are a few simple stretches to do every day, or at least while you are sewing and cutting fabric.  I even set a timer for every 20 to 30 minutes, otherwise I lose track of time and pay for it later.

You can watch a YouTube video where I show you these stretches ‘in person’.  You can refer to this blog post if you need a refresher or reminder of some simple stretches.

WATCH VIDEO

NOTE: I am not a certified fitness instructor.  I AM, however, a quilter who benefits from doing these stretches.  I hope these stretches can help others the way they have helped me.

Shoulders

Grab your left wrist with your right hand behind your back.  Then lift your chest and tighten your abdominals so that you feel the stretch in the front of both shoulders.  Hold for 20 – 30 seconds.  Switch arms and repeat with the right wrist.

Triceps

Reach your left arm overhead with the elbow bent. Grab your left elbow with your right hand and gently push your left elbow back until you feel a nice on the back of the upper arm.  Hold for 20 – 30 seconds. Repeat on the opposite side.

Upper Arm

Bring your left arm in front of your chest, hand held straight.   Grab your upper left arm with your right hand, gently pulling your left arm toward your chest.  Feel a light stretch.  Hold for 20 -30 seconds.  Repeat on the opposite arm.

Neck and Back

With your left arm in front of you and out to the left of your body, Cross your right arm over your left, interlock fingers.  Tilt your head to the left until you feel a slight stretch,  Hold for 20 – 30 seconds.  Repeat on the opposite side.

Chest

Interlock fingers behind your back.  Press your chest forward and arm back until you feel a slight stretch,  Hold for 30 seconds.

LOWER BACK and HAMSTRINGS

The following has helped me with my lower back pain.  Again, this is just my experience.  If you have serious back pain or injury, consult with a medical professional for help.  I have learned, however, that a lot of lower back pain if due to tight hamstrings.  So the next two stretches focus on your hamstrings, which in turn can help with lower back pain.

TOE TOUCH

Keeping your back straight, reach your fingertips to your toes.  Notice that I can only make it to about mid shin.  That’s okay.  Go as far as you can until you feel a slight stretch.  Make it a goal to get lower and lower as you do your stretches regularly.

HAMSTRING STRETCH

This is a more advanced pose, as far as stability goes.  If holding this pose is too tricky, use a desk or sturdy object to hold on to.

Bend your right leg to rest on your left upper leg. Squat until you feel a slight stretch.  Hold for 30 seconds.  Repeat on the other side.

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I also got a great Christmas gift this year.  It is an AMAZING hand held massager.  It gets the job done!  If you are feeling tight anywhere, just turn this on, swapping out the head of the massager based on what you want it to do, and it really gets the tightness gone.  You can adjust the speed and strength of the massage, and its easy to use on yourself or have someone help you.  Here is a link to the one I have:

GET MASSAGER

There it is!  Be sure to visit the video tutorial HERE if you want real life demonstrations on these stretches.  Leave a comment with your favorite stretches and what has helped you avoid quilting aches and pains.

If you know me, you know I love the look of hand quilting.  I even have a tutorial on hand quilting an entire quilt top.

Here’s a couple of my older quilts with hand quilted work:

Recently, I posted a video on Instagram doing some hand quilting quilt binding, (that’s a mouth full!) and the questions came flooding in.  I decided it was time to share tips on how to hand quilt your quilt binding.

WATCH MY HAND QUILTING YOUR QUILT BINDING VIDEO TUTORIAL

Here’s the video I shared on Instagram. Note: This is NOT my tutorial video.  To watch the tutorial, click HERE. 

 

TO GET STARTED:
You will need the proper thread, needles, thimble, and scissors.  I also like using needle grippers , a magnetic needle minder, and a needle threader.  Those last items aren’t musts, but I do love using them.

 

Once you have your supplies and your quilt binding is ready to be sewn to the back of your quilt:

1. Tie a knot on the end of your thread and hide the knot under your binding.

1. Once the knot is hidden, pull your needle from the bottom of the binding to the top.  Make sure your knot, needle, and thread have caught your backing fabric, but NOT the front of your quilt.
2. Do a simple stitch all around your backing, making sure your needle and thread only catch your backing and batting, not the front of your quilt, so that your stitches do not show on the front of your quilt.

1. Don’t worry too much about the length and size of your stitches.  If you REALLY dislike some of them, unpick and redo them.  Just remember that the purpose of hand quilting your binding is to give a handmade look – and handmade looks imperfect.  So embrace your uneven stitches!
2. When you are ready to end your stitching, or you run out of thread, pull the needle to the backing of your quilt.  Tie a knot (or two) as close to your backing as possible.  NOTE: make sure your knot is placed on your backing so it will be hidden by your binding.  For visuals on this, watch my YouTube video tutorial HERE.

NOTE: To read notes on the following pictures, hover over each photo to read the captions.

I hope this makes you excited to try hand quilting your quilt binding!  I love it, and I hope you do, too.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me.  I’m happy to help.

WATCH THE VIDEO TUTORIAL HERE