What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Last week I wrote about making my temperature quilt. I had several questions about how to apply the binding while the quilt is still on your longarm frame. I explained this in a past post, but thought you might like to see it again (or see it for the first time!)

I’m willing to bet 9 out of 10 of you bought your longarm machine because you were not happy wrestling that large quilt through your domestic machine to do the quilting. Am I right? We solved one problem. But, then what do we do? We finish the beautiful ...

At the start of December 2022 our friend, Helen Godden, started her annual Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-long. Helen is our Handi Quilter Ambassador who lives in Australia. She’s an accomplished artist and a superb stationary machine quilter. I decided to join in the quilt-a-long and take you all along with me. So today I will share my journey, some things I learned along the way, and the finish.

In the last post about this topic I showed you how I prepared my fabric with Helen’s design by tracing her pattern. I made a few changes (thanks Helen for understanding ...

At the start of December 2022 our friend, Helen Godden, started her annual Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-long. Helen is our Handi Quilter Ambassador who lives in Australia. She’s an accomplished artist and a superb stationary machine quilter. I decided to join in the quilt-a-long and take you all along with me. So today I will share my journey, some things I learned along the way, and the finish.

In the last post about this topic I showed you how I prepared my fabric with Helen’s design by tracing her pattern. I made a few changes (thanks Helen for understanding ...

We received lot of questions recently about powering your Handi Quilter longarm machine. It’s a great question to ask! You definitely want to protect your investment in your beloved quilting machine.

I posted back in the summer about this topic and you can read the entire post here. It explains how to choose the proper surge protector or UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) for your machine. Read it now, we will wait.

More information

I want to answer a few of the most frequently asked questions here, in order to expand on the previous post. The expert answers come from ...

We received lot of questions recently about powering your Handi Quilter longarm machine. It’s a great question to ask! You definitely want to protect your investment in your beloved quilting machine.

I posted back in the summer about this topic and you can read the entire post here. It explains how to choose the proper surge protector or UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) for your machine. Read it now, we will wait.

More information

I want to answer a few of the most frequently asked questions here, in order to expand on the previous post. The expert answers come from ...

I spent several days in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. I had a wonderful time chatting with old friends, new friends, Handi Quilter owners, and those thinking about joining the Handi Quilter family of owners. During my flight home I thought about all the wonderful conversations I had during the week and something stood out to me. Of those Handi Quilter owners who visited, many had specific questions about tension. We all know good tension is key to good quilting results.

There are so many resources to help you with learning how to tension all the yummy threads we ...

I spent several days in Houston at the International Quilt Festival. I had a wonderful time chatting with old friends, new friends, Handi Quilter owners, and those thinking about joining the Handi Quilter family of owners. During my flight home I thought about all the wonderful conversations I had during the week and something stood out to me. Of those Handi Quilter owners who visited, many had specific questions about tension. We all know good tension is key to good quilting results.

There are so many resources to help you with learning how to tension all the yummy threads we ...

Last week we decided that ribbon candy and wishbone are pretty popular designs. And according to the votes, they are about equally popular!  So lets have some fun with ribbon candy this week and explore some ribbon candy variations.

Handi Quilter Ambassador, Jane Hauprich, has an excellent video on her YouTube channel with 10 ways to change up your ribbon candy. Jane shows the quilting path by drawing on a white board and then she actually stitches the designs.

I’ll show you some screen shots of the designs here, so you’ll know what’s in store when you ...

Last week we decided that ribbon candy and wishbone are pretty popular designs. And according to the votes, they are about equally popular!  So lets have some fun with ribbon candy this week and explore some ribbon candy variations.

Handi Quilter Ambassador, Jane Hauprich, has an excellent video on her YouTube channel with 10 ways to change up your ribbon candy. Jane shows the quilting path by drawing on a white board and then she actually stitches the designs.

I’ll show you some screen shots of the designs here, so you’ll know what’s in store when you ...

Last week I shared a bunch of photos of intricate quilts seen at the AQS Quiltweek in Des Moines, IA. If you missed it, you can see it here. As an educator, the question I get the most is: How do you decide how to quilt something? Checking out the fabulous quilting on these intricate quilts got me to thinking about some intricate quilts that I have done in the past. Quilting intricate quilts, just like any other quilt top, has to be decided on a case by case basis. There is no hard-and-fast rule on how to choose designs ...

Last week I shared a bunch of photos of intricate quilts seen at the AQS Quiltweek in Des Moines, IA. If you missed it, you can see it here. As an educator, the question I get the most is: How do you decide how to quilt something? Checking out the fabulous quilting on these intricate quilts got me to thinking about some intricate quilts that I have done in the past. Quilting intricate quilts, just like any other quilt top, has to be decided on a case by case basis. There is no hard-and-fast rule on how to choose designs ...

Today I’m sharing some of the best tips I can think of for new quilters. As a newbie to the quilting community, I had the joy of making my first ever quilt and documenting it here on the Jolly Jabber. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve gotten a lot of advice from those with more experience. If you keep reading, you can learn about the top five things that I think new quilters should know before making their first quilt, according to someone who just made theirs!

Together we can tackle the challenges that beginners often face ...

I’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear of breaking our machine kept us from ever touching that part. Now, with a longarm, we are told in order to adjust the tension we need to start by setting the bobbin tension.

There really is nothing to be afraid of. Getting ...

I’ve got a cure for your tension headache. Tension is the first thing you need to learn when starting out with longarm quilting. It’s not hard to learn. Many quilters have a bit of a mental block about it. We have been told repeatedly to not touch the tension on our domestic machine’s bobbin. Fear of breaking our machine kept us from ever touching that part. Now, with a longarm, we are told in order to adjust the tension we need to start by setting the bobbin tension.

There really is nothing to be afraid of. Getting ...

With this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes it’s just enjoying the zen of stitching with my Infinity. Never for attaining perfection.

Here is a post I wrote about 4 years ago. It’s still true today.

A friend sent me this:

I don’t know where it originated, so I can ...

With this series of posts about free-motion quilting for beginners, I have been emphasizing the importance of practice. I encourage all my students to quilt every day. I think of practice not as attempting to achieve perfection, but of attempting to improve. It is a way of generating new ideas and trying new techniques. Sometimes it’s just enjoying the zen of stitching with my Infinity. Never for attaining perfection.

Here is a post I wrote about 4 years ago. It’s still true today.

A friend sent me this:

I don’t know where it originated, so I can ...

Last week we used a diagonal path for filling a grid. Let’s take off on a tangent and try a few new things with using diagonal quilting combined with grids.

I like to try to find a way to quilt a design that makes it easy to stitch AND gives me great looking results. Win-win! In the design I’m going to show you this week we use a square grid to create a diagonal style fill design. The square grid’s function is to keep our stitching nice and even and symmetrical. The path we use makes it ...

Last week we used a diagonal path for filling a grid. Let’s take off on a tangent and try a few new things with using diagonal quilting combined with grids.

I like to try to find a way to quilt a design that makes it easy to stitch AND gives me great looking results. Win-win! In the design I’m going to show you this week we use a square grid to create a diagonal style fill design. The square grid’s function is to keep our stitching nice and even and symmetrical. The path we use makes it ...

We filled half-square triangles with loops to create some fun texture. Now let’s get a a little crazy and create some more fun with loops.

Work on the diagonal

It’s time to branch out and try a little something different. Rather than travel horizontally or even vertically, we can choose a diagonal stitch path. We’ll start simple with an easy loop design.

Start by choosing your grid. Go back to the beginning of our grid discussion to remind yourself how to do that.  You can use the piecing or mark a grid on your fabric using your ...

We filled half-square triangles with loops to create some fun texture. Now let’s get a a little crazy and create some more fun with loops.

Work on the diagonal

It’s time to branch out and try a little something different. Rather than travel horizontally or even vertically, we can choose a diagonal stitch path. We’ll start simple with an easy loop design.

Start by choosing your grid. Go back to the beginning of our grid discussion to remind yourself how to do that.  You can use the piecing or mark a grid on your fabric using your ...