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I named this pattern “Bling” because the main part of the design is an abstract representation of a sparkly ring. Can you see it?? Last week we cut out our fabrics and this week it’s time to sew them together to make Bling blocks! I like to lay out all of my pieces stacked up in order next to my sewing machine.

I’m making the scrappy background version, so as long as there’s good contrast between my lights and darks, these are going to look great! You can also use all of one background fabric for a ...

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I’m back with more fun free motion designs for you to try! Whenever I teach in person, I emphasize the importance of sketching out your design, quilting it on a practice sample, then making a quilting plan to quilt an entire quilt. Watch my latest tutorial below, and then give it a go!

Quilt These Designs on Surplus Strips!

Now, I invite you to try quilting these designs on a real, full sized quilt. I Stitched out the Spiral flowers on the soft, pastel version of Surplus Strips, and a secondary design on the gray version. While supplies last ...

The fastest way to finish a quilt is to assembly line all of the steps. That means I like to cut out all of the pieces first, then sew as much as I can until I need to stop and press. I test out of all of my patterns by following my own directions while making the quilt, and I tend to make my quilts several times so you can rest assured the instructions will be correct.

So this week it’s time to dive in and cut into your luscious fabrics to make *your* version of Bling! Depending on ...

Who’s excited to join me for the Bling quilt along which begins next week? All you need is a copy of the Bling quilt pattern to follow along, and each week’s assignment will be posted right here on the blog. But just remember, you can totally quilt along at your own pace!

Click here to get the optional Bling quilt kit – made from Dazzle Dots!

I will be making this version of Bling from my Dazzle Dots 1 and 2 fabrics. I love how the softer pastels in the background make the more saturated colors pop!

I also ...

For this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs I’m showing how to use your walking foot or dual fee to quilt two spiral spiral variations: continuous Round Spirals and Overlapping Spirals. Watch the full video on my YouTube channel below:

Get the Kits!

While supplies last, I still have Sparkling Stars kits made from Stitchy and Optical Illusion kits in black and white. I quilted wavy spirals on Sparkling Stars and Overlapping Spirals on Optical Illusion. I think this was the perfect design for both of these quilts! You’ll use the same technique that I show ...

Apologies for the delay in last week’s link up. WordPress had a moment and took the blog down Sunday morning. Once real people looked it over on Monday, they restored it.

Not enough fabric out last week to count.

I fell off the no buy wagon yesterday. It was a good run while it lasted. I was thrifting with a friend and this piece of silk was $2. Leaving it on the shelf was not an option.

I also made a small piece to test a round mattress finish for embroidery. I couldn’t find a tutorial online and ...

I asked followers amongst all of my social media channels if they wanted to create Bling or Beaded Lanterns for our next Quilt Along, and the majority voted for Bling, but not by much. So guess what?? I’m actually going to make both!! We will kick off with Bling then follow up with Beaded Lanterns after. See below for details and QAL schedule….

Bling Quilt Along Schedule Begins July 17!

• Week 1 July 17 – Cutting
• Week 2 July 24 – Making the Blocks
• Week 3 July 31 – Quilt Top Assembly
• Week 4 Aug 7 – Catch up & Basting
• Week 5 Aug ...

When practicing your free-motion quilting, I recommend trying a variety of curvy and geometric designs. You may decide you like one style over another! In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs you can practice both techniques when you stitch up Ribbon Loops or Harlequin! Click play below to watch:

Bonus Video – Quilting Ticker Tape

My Ticker Tape quilt shown behind me in the video, is quilted using single ribbon loops. I love making the same quilt multiple times to try out different fabric combinations and quilting plans. Check out my bonus video below, showing I quilted Ticker ...

I have a big bag full of scraps, lots of trimmings  and little leftovers from various projects. Occasionally I would tip everything out on the floor, looking for some particular colour, but really, it was a mess, and I was getting sick of it.  

Full to overflowing

So one fine day, I took the bag out to the patio table, and tipped it all out, it was high time for a sort out.  The colours were all separated, and it was easy to tell that the neutrals were by far the largest pile.  My aim was to see how many ...

We are back to walking foot quilting with another fun machine quilting video tutorial for you to watch. Check out Diagonal Crosshatch and Irregular Crosshatch. Click the image below to watch and let me know which design you prefer!

Click here to watch the complete 99 Machine Quilting Designs Video Series for free!!

Have You Checked out My Latest Kits?

It’s one thing to practice your designs on small samples, but you really get the hang of things when quilting them on a real, full sized quilt. I’ve been having fun putting together all sorts of fun kits ...

Have you been watching my free series of domestic machine quilting videos? New episodes drop each week and you can watch them anytime, on your own schedule for FREE! This week I have 2 for you to catch up on. First of all, learn how to quilt fun free-motion wavy lines. They are fast and easy to stitch! Check it out below:

If you want to take your quilting up a notch, stitch this design in both directions and it becomes an interesting, organic wavy grid! You can stitch this as an edge to edge design, or in smaller areas ...

Today I’m playing catchup with 2 new videos from my 99 Machine Quilting Designs series. These are free videos I’m sharing each and every week, from my book of the same name. I like to teach a variety of walking foot AND free motion designs to make the best use of your home sewing machine! First, check out this fun pebbles variation called Cobblestones:

This is a dense design that I would use sparingly, and it looks great as a background fill surrounding other, less dense designs.

Walking Foot Wonders

If walking foot quilting is more your thing ...

We are making some changes around here (all good I promise) so I really need to clear out some of my older fabric lines, like ASAP! I’ve just reduced all clearance fabrics by the yard to just $7.95!! This is a great time to stock your stash with borders, backings and lots of gorgeous color. Hurry though, because these are all out or print, so once they are gone they’re gone forever!

Click Here to Shop My Clearance Sale and Save!

But Wait, There’s More…

In addition to my sale fabric by the yard, I also ...

My latest episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs covers three variations of one of my staple designs: Pebbles. This is one of my favorite designs to use in my quilts, as it’s easy to quilt once you get the hang of it and endlessly versatile. Check out the video below if you want to give it a try:

Featured Quilt: Beaded Lanterns

This week’s featured quilt comes from one of my free quilt patterns, titled “Beaded Lanterns.” I originally made it in solid fabrics to really show off my free motion quilting. I quilted pebbles in the background ...

No fabric in this week, a miracle since my Guild had their annual fabric sale. The fabric just wasn’t speaking to me. I bought this stitching frame instead.

I’m not sure how that ended up in the sale, but I’m grateful to have it.

At the thrift store later, I found this Hinzeit pattern with the charms. DH is an avid fisherman, and the charms made it too cute to pass up.

In the sewing room, work on the shirt continues. I’d really like to finish it this month.

Fabric In: 0

Fabric Out: 17.25 ...

Fabric can be such a mess! You cut off your selvages…..now you have no idea what the fabric line is.

You cut the larger piece into a smaller piece…now you have no idea what size you really have now.

There is a monster pile of pieces of fabric….who knows what you really have?!

Today, we are going to learn together a new sewing room idea and how to conquer the problem of fabric.

 About 10 days ago, I drove 90 minutes and met up with this sweet friend.Then we drove another 90 minutes to Lovington to visit a favorite quilt shop that was closing.Every shop has it's own personality and this one was so good. They had something for everyone...novelties, western, 30's, Civil War reproduction, Kaffe, holidays, batiks, modern, and blenders. The sales had been going on

embroidered cloth.