Category — long arm

This pattern was featured in the March/April issue of Quiltmaker Magazine. When I saw it, I knew that it would be the perfect stash-buster! It’s so much fun to use up old fabric, so I can go shopping for more!

This quilt is made by hand-appliqueing a central square that measures 24 inches. Then, seven different borders are added that consist of half-square triangles, piano keys, standard borders, and four rectangular areas with more hand-applique. Having lots of large sections made the quilt top go together very quickly, and it was lots of fun!

To complete the quilt, I used a very small stipple in the areas surrounding the appliques, and patterns from Anne Bright’s Merrily Blooming collection for all of the other areas.

To finish everything and add a little more pizzazz, I made yo-yos from fabric, attched them to the flowers, and then added buttons on top! If you click on these images below, and then click again, you will be able to see the full size pictures.

Karen has really captured the freshness of the season with this quilt! I’m always awed by her fabric choices, and her piecing… but this is my favorite one so far.

Spring Fresh Quilt

I just love everything about this quilt — the hydrangeas are gorgeous! Karen and I both think of fresh linens and sunny spring days when we look at these fabrics, and I think she chose the perfect feathered design for the quilting!

Jean chose a wonderful design to place in the empty area of her Dresden project! All of the fan blades were done using a curved line instead of traditional stitch-in-the-ditch, creating a much softer feeling:

Looking for a design to combine with the soft feel of the fan blades, Jean choose a design that could have created a problem if it had stitched in the fan blades. Using the Statler Stitcher and Creative Studio software, if was simply a matter of trimming away all parts of the design that we didn’t want. This trimming function created a smooth-stitching design that filled the empty areas perfectly.

I had the rare privilege of working with Connie to complete a quilt that her mother Eunice pieced. It was done in bubble gum pink and apple green, and completely hand-appliqued. Eunice duplicated this beautiful pattern that was originally published in the mid-1800′s, and her applique is so perfectly done! Connie will be keeping this quilt in a special place to honor all of the beautiful hand work that her mother used to finish this beautiful quilt:

I posted pictures of a quilt called A Mother’s Love last November, and have received many compliments on how beautiful it turned out to be…. but the real credit for this amazing quilt goes to a wonderful lady named Leslie Clarke. She spent countless hours piecing it, with applique and crystals in perfect proportion. She even added her own border to the entire edge that included more applique and crystals! This quilt was made with love for Leslie’s daughter Nicole, and it was truly a labor of love. I had named the quilt A Mother’s Love, but the actual name of the pattern is A Garden Party, and is available from Smith Street Designs.

This past week, Leslie received word that she had won second place in a quilting contest for this quilt! Congratulations, Leslie! Here is part of the story that Leslie included with her entry:

“This quilt was my first quilting project on my new embroidery machine. When the instructor teaching the class on how to use the machine pattern became ill, I decided to forge ahead and also to really stretch and make the queen-size quilt. My daughter was moving to a new apartment, and — since her favorite color is red — it had to be for her!”

If you’re anything like me, the first thing you think of when you are this happy is the Snoopy Dance theme song — this music has been dancing around in my head ever since Leslie told me she won the prize!

There have been lots of requests for these placemats, and we have twelve colors to choose from! Just think of what you can do with these! You can use them unadorned, and embroider them when you have some free time. You can make a set for yourself, and your best friend at the same time. You can turn them into book covers, cake or bread baskets, tote bags or make-up bags — the possibilities are endless! See the close-up pictures below to appreciate the quality and the color choices!

Shown with a suggestion for embroidery

To place your order for these placemats, hurry over to the Embroidery Store and check out our new section for embroidery blanks!

The design that is embroidered on the peach placemat above is from A Design by Lyn and is called One by One. Thank you, Lyn!

This placemat features an adorable butterfly from Designs Sew Fine and is part of the Butterflies II collection.  A contrasting fabric was added to the edge of the placemat, and finished just like a small quilt. This is a great idea! You can make napkins to coordinate with your binding!

Make sure to join the newsletter on the lower left side of this page to be notified of the latest color additions!

I had so much fun doing the Christmas Mantel Scarf, and I wanted to use the pattern in a different way. The design is called Heirloom Lace. I turned the shapes sideways, and added some cross-hatching in the center section to highlight embroidery.

I used embroidery patterns from Carolyn Faulk at Embroidery Designs by Carolyn — they stitched out beautifully. You could make one of these for each season, or for everyday use.

After all of the embroidery was complete, I made a facing for the table runner to hide the embroidery on the back. Then I added a cluney lace to the edges. You can click on each picture twice to see the largest version.

Now available! These table runners are available in kit form, so you will be able to add your own embroidery and edging trims! Click here to order!

Lou Ann from Maryland had this to say about her Table Runner Kit: “It is every bit as beautiful as I had expected.  My weekend project will be to finish it and put it on my table.  Thank you so much for your beautiful work!  Now, do I want to add a monogram to the small area like you suggested ………. add something to the middle ………. to the ends of the middle so I can use my candelabra.  I have a lot of thinking to do as I loved your suggestions – all of them!!!”

When I saw the pattern for the popular White Chocolate Quilt, I just knew I had to make one. I had lots of scraps in the beige tones, but not enough for the larger squares, so I decided to modify the layout to use the fabrics I already had. By adding shades of green for the larger squares, I created my White Chocolate with Mint Quilt.

The first step was to piece lots of fabrics together on the longarm machine to create strips that could be cut into squares. Next, I placed fabrics right-sides together on the longarm, and used a digital pattern to sew lots of half-square triangles together. After all of the cutting and pressing was done, the blocks were assembled. It took a large surface to try a few layouts — arranging and rearranging until I found one that I liked. All of the large blocks and border were pieced, and then it was ready to quilt!

You can click on the pictures below to see the steps I used for assembly. Each picture will open to a larger size when you click on it again.

You can order the original White Chocolate Quilt pattern from McCall’s Magazine.

Here’s a project I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time …. a Christmas mantel scarf.

Using a design called Heirloom Lace from One Song Needle Arts, I quilted six repeats of the design across a fabric panel that was 84 inches wide. The total height of the design is just a little bit over 18 inches. When the designs were complete, I put another layer across the top of the “quilt sandwich” while it was still on the machine.  Straight lines were sewn down the sides and across the bottom — leaving the top edge open for turning. I trimmed all of the excess fabric, clipped the points, and turned the facing inside out. Minimal pressing was required to smooth out the points, and the top edge was serged closed.

See below for more pictures. Don’t forget, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.

Have you ever seen quilts with wavy borders? The border pieces that you cut according to the charts included with these directions (and other patterns that you have purchased) could be a little bit too long
to be attached to the quilt center that you have completed. Everyone uses a slightly different size seam allowance — and when you multiply the effects of the difference across an entire quilt top, the differences can be significant. If you already have some long border pieces cut and ready to apply to a quilt top, that’s OK for now.  We want them to be a little bit too long to make it easier to use the following process.

You’re probably thinking “Why can’t I just sew a border along one side, and then cut off the excess when I get to the end?” The answer is that you will be stretching your border fabric as you attach it to the quilt top. All of the excess fabric will then end up being a wavy border, which makes it very hard for the person doing the actual quilting to get your borders to lie flat.

Here is a picture of the very bottom of a quilt that is almost finished:

You can see that the majority of this quilt is complete. As the excess fabric has accumulated down the sides of the quilt, it “has to go somewhere”. In other words, it all ends up at the bottom. In this case, pleats were needed to remove the excess fabric — and that’s never the best approach.

Please resist the urge to sit down and sew your borders onto your quilt top without taking a few simple measurements first! You will stretch the edges of your quilt top, and you will end up with wavy borders ,
guaranteed! When you have wavy borders, your quilt is much harder to quilt, it won’t lay flat on a bed or table, and it won’t look right hanging on a wall. Just a little bit of extra measuring at this stage will
save you a lot of frustration later.

We will be following that old advice “Measure twice, and cut once”. You don’t want to make any mistakes here. First, make sure your quilt center has been neatly pressed, and that all seam allowances are flat
on the back. Lay your quilt on a large flat surface (a floor comes in handy here, but a large table is even better!) and use a metal tape measure. Lay the tape measure on the quilt in the center, measuring from top to bottom. Make a note of this measurement. This is the number you will use to cut two of your side
strips to the proper length.

Use your tape measure to see how this center measurement differs from the measurement along the edge. You may be surprised to see the amount of difference between the two numbers!

Pin the two side strips to each side of the quilt, making sure the fabric is distributed evenly. Place a pin in the center, and one at each end. Then keep adding pins until you feel that all ease is distributed evenly. Sew the border strips in place. Press flat.

Now lay the tape measure in the opposite direction (going from side to side), but make sure it’s in the center of the quilt, not along the edge. Make a note of this measurement. You might want to check again to see how different this center measurement is than one taken at the edge!

Cut your two remaining borders to the proper measurement, and pin as directed above, easing in any fullness.

Repeat this process for the rest of your borders, if your quilt has additional pieces.The more borders you have on your quilt, the more you will love using this method after your project is complete! I’ve received countless phone calls after teaching this method, and everyone of them is from someone who is now confident when it comes to this final step.  Too often we are in a hurry by the time we get to the end of the piecing process, and just want to get it done. It’s worth a few extra minutes when it comes to the long life of your quilt!

No more wavy borders!