Hi ,
I hope you had a wonderful New Year and holiday season! This is a crazy busy time of year for us. From end of the year inventory to planning out our new exciting projects we plan to roll out in 2017, January is always a
busy, exhilarating month.
It's even more exciting seeing the new Flower Festival quilt blocks show up on our Facebook Group! The block on the right was posted by Gayle C and I think she was the first quilter to post a new block for the new year!
As you can see, this year's Machine Quilting Block Party is going to be literally blooming with beautiful flower blocks each month. This year we're going to dig
deeper with more intense piecing, applique, and three types of machine quilting - walking foot quilting, free motion quilting, and ruler foot quilting. Would you like to join the Machine Quilting Block Party? Click Here to find Block #1.So far hundreds of quilters have joined in the fun
and will be making the Flower Festival quilt month by month this year. If your New Year's resolution was to improve your machine quilting skills, this is definitely the project for you!
Finished Sunrise Surprise Showcase |
A huge congratulations to everyone who finished their Sunshine Surprise quilt in 2016! Thank you all for such a terrific year. We have had so much fun quilting along with all of you and I love seeing your progress block by block.
I love this brown / neutral Sunshine Surprise created by Cathie W:
This version of Sunshine Surprise with green and yellow created by Regina D. is so cheerful: Carol M. made her Sunshine Surprise quilt much larger by doubling some of the blocks and adding borders:
Aren't these four quilts just beautiful? I'm delighted by the variety of colors and the many ways quilters made Sunshine Surprise unique. Yes, you can still find the patterns for Sunshine Surprise right here.
If you were part of last year's Quilt Along, please note our Facebook Group will stay the same for this year's Flower Festival Block Party. We're keeping the same group and you can continue to post questions and photos about the Machine Quilting Block Party right here.
Quilting Basics Free Video Series |
To get started on the right foot for free motion quilting in 2017 I've created a new series of Quilting Basics video tutorials.
This series of videos will guide you through all the basics of quilting and answer a lot of your
questions as you're just getting started.
To begin, let's learn more about fabric preparation and cutting. This is one of the most important steps to creating a quilt because it set the foundation for everything to come and every step will be easier if your fabric is prepared properly.
I know prewashing and starching fabric is not everyone's favorite first step to quilting. It's a bit of a hassle, especially when you're in a hurry to get started cutting out the pieces for your quilt.
But it's also the only way you can guarantee your
fabric colors won't bleed into one another after creating your quilt. Trust me, it's absolutely crushing to see fabrics bleeding into one another after taking all the time to make a quilt.
Once you've learned how to prewash, it's on to piecing your quilt blocks accurately and with perfectly matched seams.
If you're following along, you don't want to miss out on learning how to piece our first block, a Blooming Nine Patch.
Podcast - Looking forward to 2017 |
On the last day of 2016 I put together a short podcast all about the new year and my hopes for 2017.
If you listen through to the end, you'll know that I'm no longer sharing full length transcripts. While I loved sharing the
transcripts, it was just not sustainable for our business. It came down to either publishing less frequently or shutting down the podcast completely, and I made the simplest choice possible - just stop horsing with the transcripts, Leah!
Simple and Open. Those are my words for the year. I want to be open to working with more quilters, collaborating to create beautiful projects, and open to new experiences and opportunities to learn.
So that's it for this week. I hope you've had a wonderful start to the year and you'll join me for another year of learning, growing, and quilting together. Let's make 2017 our year to bloom
as we create the Flower Festival quilt together.
Let's go quilt,
Leah day |
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