I've received a lot of questions this month about quilt care. How do you store quilts and how do you wash quilts were the two top questions so this week I've shared a new quilting tutorial on how I wash my quilts.

It's honestly an easy, no-worry process to wash a quilt if you prewash your fabric before cutting. Yes, I know it takes a bit more time and effort in the beginning, but I love being able to throw my quilt in the washing machine and not worrying a bit about the colors bleeding into one another.

Of course, precut fabrics are the one tricky element to modern day quilt making. It's hard to wash small precuts without the edges fraying and turning into a wadded mess in your washing machine.

In this case, I follow the same instructions I shared in the washing tutorial, but I also throw in 3-4 dye grabbing sheets. These are special sheets you can find in the laundry section of the grocery store that are designed to pull excess dyes out of the water.

Another thing is to set a timer and be ready to pull your wet quilt out of the washer as soon as it's done. The longer a quilt sits wet, the greater the chance for bleeding dyes.

I hope these tips help you feel more confident about washing your quilts. The whole point of this wonderful craft is to make quilts we can use and enjoy, and that includes getting them dirty!

So that's it for the Leaf Peepers Quilt Along. This fun project has carried us into the fall and I love having this bright quilt on my table. Of course, it's never too late to begin this quilt project and now you have step-by-step videos to guide you. Click Here to find the Leaf Peepers Quilt Pattern.

For last week's Hello My Quilting Friends Podcast, I tried on a new hat: book narration. I've always loved reading aloud and this was a wonderful adventure sharing the first chapter and a half of my new book Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

I hope you enjoy this sneak peek into the magical world of Quilst (no, that's not a typo!) I had such a fun time writing this book and yes, I'm definitely planning on narrating the entire book and offering an audiobook version too.

I'm still working out the details on how I'll record and edit the files, so an audiobook edition will be out much later than the print book which is currently available to preorder.

Click Here to preorder Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt and save $3 and I'll sign your book too!

Last week I managed to install this bright red baby quilt on my longarm. I began quilting this quilt on my home machine and decided to move to the longarm frame so I could finish it more quickly.

So this week my challenge was to match up with the established quilting design and continue quilting it with rulers. It was a pretty complex design, but I managed to quilt around all the blocks and I love how it turned out.

I decided to leave the borders empty after quilting the center of the quilt with rulers so I could quilt them with feathers. Make sure to check next week's newsletter to find the tutorial on quilting feathered borders on a longarm.

I know we're only halfway through October, but many quilters are already asking about next year's quilt along so I decided it was time for a sneak peek.

To answer the most pressing question - YES - it's going to be a year long, quilt-as-you-go Quilt Along. Every month you can pick up a block pattern and learn how to piece AND quilt your blocks with me. 

Best of all, this is going to be a stash busting quilt along! If you've been looking for an excuse to pull out all your itsy bitsy pieces, this quilt is definitely going to be the perfect project to use them all up.

More details will be coming soon, so make sure to check in with each week's newsletter for more details.

One last note: we have a major update coming to the Free Motion Quilting Project in the next week or so. I've been working on a major overhaul of this blog so you can post photos and questions directly on the tutorials. Be looking forward to a new place to learn about quilt making and share your progress in the new Friendship Quilt Along in 2019.

Let's go quilt,

Leah Day