ATCs: Feet

What is a 4-letter word… used for walking, dancing, measuring, sewing and found on certain pieces of furniture? "Feet" was the theme for the March Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap. Here are the interpretations for this month's theme. I hope they put a spring in your step.

"Happy Feet"
Happy tells of one penguin's journey.
by Sharon Griffith

"Getting Back in Again"
by Liz Armstrong

"Treading on Daisies"
by Bonnie Stevens

"Keep off the Grass"
by Marilyn League

"Who Goes There?"
by Linda Smith

Do you think it's wrong to love one foot more than the others? You have to flip open the cover of this ATC to find out...

Is it wrong to love one foot more than the others?

If you are a quilter, you will understand perfectly.

"The single hole quarter inch piecing foot!"
by Karen Downer

"3 feet = a Yard"
by Veronica Hofman-Ortega

 A little chocolate can also get your feet doing a little "happy dance." Happy Spring to all of you!

A Retreat: give yourself permission to attend

One of the retreat strip projects.

Need a break from daily chores? Need a change of scenery? How about spending some dedicated time enjoying the pleasures of working with fabric and thread?

Your opportunity is right around the corner at "A Stripper's Paradise Quilting Retreat" sponsored by Pins and Needles Quilt Shop. The retreat is scheduled for May 2 - 4, but you must register by this Friday! Call the shop today, (423) 668-8734.

At the retreat, I'll be teaching several fun projects using pre-cut fabric strips. We'll open the package and start sewing!

Need to get refreshed and renewed? Now is the time to invest in yourself.

Oh, and you might learn a few new quilting techniques, have fun playing games, win prizes and make some new friends. What could be better?? How about a massage? (Yep, that's planned, too!) 

Hope to see you there.

Free-motion heirloom quilting with Silk Thread workshop

Happy first day of Spring! Brush away the cobwebs and open your mind to the possibilities from trying a new quilting technique. For me, it was sampling Kimono Silk Thread by Superior Threads with a few heirloom machine quilting tips from Joanie Zeier Poole.

Free-motion heirloom quilting sample (approximately 6" x 6").
Kimono Silk Thread and wool batting.

Susan Hyder over at Hyderhangout Quilt Fabric and More asked me if I would be interested in teaching this project through her Superior University monthly program. (Free-motion quilting… silk thread… how could I not???) Absolutely!

This wholecloth mini quilt is a small project that is a perfect introduction to several techniques and supplies:

• free-motion quilting with 100 wt. silk thread
• heirloom quilting by machine
• quilting with wool batting
• using cotton sateen fabric for a wholecloth quilt

and I will be presenting it as a guest teacher for a Superior U workshop at Hyderhangout next month on Tuesday, April 1. Call Susan at (423) 715-2908 to reserve your kit. Yes, you get everything you need to make this project—fabrics, batting, pattern and silk thread!

The silk thread was a dream to work with and the sample quilted up beautifully. This 100 wt. thread is excellent for small, tight background fills and stippling—providing a luscious texture without thread build-up. I usually use 60 wt. Bottom Line by Superior (a poly) for stippling and the silk is just as wonderful... it also feels a little exotic to be quilting with silk. Joanie recommends using Bottom Line in the bobbin, which I did.

The wool batting and cotton sateen also elevated this quilting experience. It was a new adventure for me to try heirloom wholecloth quilting using a design that I marked on the quilt top. My usual free-motion quilting is more intuitive and spontaneous with no or minimal marking.

So, if you're interested in experimenting with silk thread and wool batting with your free-motion quilting, come and join me on April 1. Diane Gaudynski (the Queen of free-motion quilting on a domestic sewing machine!), Joanie Zeier Poole, Gina Perkes and other quilting gurus use silk thread for their machine quilting—come and see for yourself what it's all about.

Kitty quilts: improv pieced, free-motion quilted, and kitty approved

My scrap bender project has been kitty-tested and kitty-approved!

Lucy checks out the kitty crate quilts. He approves! They are ready for distribution.

Done all by machine, the kitty quilts I made for the Cat Clinic were quite quick and easy to make. 

25" x 27" kitty quilts for crates at the Cat Clinic.

These little quilts are a great size (approximately 25" x 27") for practicing free-motion quilting designs using your home sewing machine.

The backs are flannel, so they are soft and warm. Here are a few all-over filler patterns: circles, swirls and free-form feathers...

stars and headbands (or paisleys).

 I also did double loop-d-loops and waves.

The bindings—using the pre-cut 2.5" strips—are also attached by machine. (You can get quite good at binding by machine after you do a half dozen or so of these mini quilts!) The batting is a quilt-shop quality Hobbs Tuscany low-loft poly, for easy care. After washing the finished quilts, they did shrink about an inch in both dimensions, so allow for this when you trim the quilt sandwich before binding.

Bindings done by machine.

I took a prototype over to the Cat Clinic earlier to check the size. Dr. Toumayan showed me another item the cats really like—cat beds. You can see that this one is well used and washed often. So, if anyone knows of a pattern for something like this—or ones the cats can crawl into—let me know.

Another item needed for the cats at the Cat Clinic.
Anyone know of a pattern or a quick-sew technique for making these?

Half a dozen kitty quilts are now at the Cat Clinic.