Now that it’s official, I can announce Color Mastery is a Benjamin Franklin award winner for Best Craft Book of 2009. The Independent Book Publishers Association developed the awards to honor excellence in book publishing by independent presses. David and I flew to NYC, attended the awards, and celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in Little [...]
Search Results for 'stitch samplers' ↓
Practice Specialty Stitches on Your Project Fabric
Once you’ve created your general mini-stitch samplers, you should be well-prepared for any type of quilting you want to do with your machine. I still, however, create a small sampler before I quilt on a project. I need to see how those stitches will look on the fabric I’m using.
My generic mini-stitch samplers [...]
Experiment with Threads and Stitch Settings
If you’ve created your first set of mini-stitch samplers, then I recommend you create a sampler experimenting with specialty threads and changing your stitch settings. I like using the thicker machine quilting threads from YLI and Superior, so I experimented with regular straight and zig-zag stitches to see the difference the threads would make.
Then [...]
Create Mini-Stitch Samplers
Being an instructor, I dutifully took the free classes offered when I bought my sewing machine years ago. Those classes didn’t even scratch the surface of what my machine could do. It came with a manual, but it didn’t really go in-depth either. I was determined to make the most of my [...]
How Many Specialty Stitches Does Your Machine Offer?
Quilters have fabulous sewing machines that offer more stitches than we’ll ever really use. Let’s face it: most quilters use the straight stitch, zig-zag, feather stitch, buttonhole stitch, and maybe one or two others. But the remaining stitches are lonely, waiting to be remembered and at least acknowledged.
So do it. You [...]
Getting to Know You
What if I told you I could instantly make you a better machine quilter with just one simple technique? And you wouldn’t have to invest in any expensive tools, DVDs, or books. Just use what you have.
Interested?
Here it is:
Get to know your machine better. Spend some time with it. I can always tell the quilters [...]
Annabelle Purse and Sew Mama! Sew! Bag Month
I’ve made many purse patterns and I’m usually disappointed in the results: the pattern looks great, but once I make it I find it’s not really as functional as a purse I could buy. No more.
Meet Annabelle. I spied her at the Quilt Beginnings shop in Columbus, OH, and I fell in [...]
