The Checkerboard Mini Quilt Along

Published: Wed, 10/18/17

Leah's Sunflowers
Hi ,

We have a great newsletter for you this week! From an awesome podcast with an international quilter to a brand new mini Quilt Along adventure to a pretty sunflower quilt, we should have something for everyone.

If you've had enough pumpkins and colorful autumn leaves, how about some sun-dried sunflowers?

My friend Ann Holmes wrote a marvelous book which was instrumental for me in branching out with new concepts in quilting. 

I realize now looking back that learned Ann's technique at a critical period in my quilting experience.

I'd only created 3 quilts at the time and only used traditional piecing techniques.

Watching Ann demonstrate at a guild meeting, I was quickly able to see that using this method was how I could finally start playing with curves and other unusual shapes.

Here are a few of the quilts I've created with Ann's technique:
Sunflowers
Applique
The question I get the most about this technique is - Is it turned edge or raw?

It's actually turned edge applique and the whole quilt is laid out onto French Fuse, a very lightweight interfacing material that you can fuse the pieces to.

This enables you to put together complex applique quilts without taking a single stitch!

Ann's book No Sewing until You Quilt It is the ultimate visual guide to this wonderful applique technique.

Included with the book is 1 yard of French French interfacing - Because this interfacing is so critical to the No Sew technique, it makes sense to get it at the same time as the book. This way you can get started right away trying out this cool new way to construct a quilt.

We are happy to offer this book and French Fuse package on sale for $5 off the usual price of $29.95.


You will also receive a pattern for the Sunflower Quilt pictured below as a download. This gorgeous quilt was quilted by Diane D. and shared on our popular facebook group.
Sunflower quilt
Podcast with Luis Sanchez of Los Mininos de Sanchez
Luis Sanchez
This week I'm chatting with Luis Sanchez, our first international quilter on the show! Luis is a hobby quilter, but he has started sharing quilting tutorials in Spanish to help spread this wonderful craft in his home country of Costa Rica and beyond.

Click Here to check out Luis's YouTube Channel. The videos are all in Spanish, but you can use the translator to read the translation in English.

Luis was raised listening to a sewing machine hum because his grandmother sewed all the clothing in the house and also worked as a seamstress in two factories.

The sound of the machine running was relaxing to him so when his grandmother passed away 7 years ago he inherited her machine.

He learned how to sew first and created basic projects, then moved on to wallets, purses, and bags. From the videos he found he learned the basics and eventually ran across my videos on free motion quilting, but had no idea what I was doing in the video, but thought it could help make his bags a bit better.
Luis bag project
Luis is also an ER doctor and he balances quilting with his career by using the hidden 5-10 minutes in the day to plan projects and get a small amount of stitching done. He also looks at different projects and ideas online in the quiet times of the night when work is slow.

So even though Luis is a very busy person, he is still managing to create beautiful projects and quilts and share his love of quilting and sewing with the world through his videos.


Fun bonus: this is the first time we have solid video of one of our podcast guests! You'll also get a tour of Luis' quilting room.

Looking for more Hello My Quilting Friends Podcasts?

  Teach Quilting in Spanish with Luis Sanchez, Podcast Episode #31
Video
Guess Who's This Month's Quilty Box Creator?
Leah's Quilty Box
It's Quilty Box Time, and I'm the featured creator for October. This month's Quilty Box arrived and I'm super excited to share a big box of goodies picked personally just for you

Included in the box is a pack of Cheater Needles, two spools of Isacord Thread, a little pouch of Soak a wonderful laundry detergent, a Tutu sewing organizer and two yards of my Island Batik Heart Medallion Fabric.

Click Here to learn more about Quilty Box.

I love getting a box of fun gear and beautiful fabrics every month and this month was extra special because I got to work with Patrick to bring you an excellent box of gear and create a fun quilt pattern for us to create together.

I decided to stitch it up a notch this month and create a mini quilt along to guide you through all the steps to creating the Heart Medallion Checkerboard Quilt.

Let's begin my learning how to piece this quilt top together in this new quilting tutorial:
  How to Make the Heart Medallion Checkerboard Quilt, Beginner Quilting Tutorial with Leah Day
Video
The Heart Medallion Checkerboard is a very easy quilt to put together. The key is carefully cutting the Heart Medallion blocks sothe circular design is centered within the square. This is called Fussy Cutting because you have to be a bit fussy to get the block centered exactly right.

Checkerboard Heart and Medallion Quilt
That's it for this week! I hope you enjoy the interview with Luis and give applique a try with No Sewing until You Quilt It. It's one of my favorite books by one of my favorite quilters.

Until next time, let's go quilt.

Leah Day