Quilting Boxed Up Sample

 I shared with you recently about the new Cluck, Cluck Sew patterns I just got for my shop and that I made the Boxed Up pattern using the new Swatch collection. Well, here is the completed top.

I quilted in the ditch to stabilize everything and now I am quilting the blocks. Here is what I am doing in the big squares.

I am using the Westalee 2" circle template for the circle design and the Westalee 12" Straight-Arc template for the straight lines and for the stitching in the ditch. I haven't decided what I will do for the border around each of the large squares or for the sashing, but I've got a ways to go to finish the large squares so I have plenty of time to figure that out. I'm lovin' it so far!

If you look at the first photo of the whole quilt top you'll notice that the off white fabric with black dots looks more solid gray from a distance. You really don't notice the dots until you get closer. How fun is that?!

Customer Show and Tell

 I'm sorry I dropped off this week. I came down with COVID and was out of commission for a bit as a result. Doing much better now but still not back to work. The photos I am going to share with you today I took before I got sick. I have been stuck at home since June 12th so these were taken before then.

The above quilt was made by Nancy C. She took the first run of Donelle McAdams' Westalee ruler quilting class called "... And Beyond!" The class is still available in reruns. Click the following link to view the class on the Sew Steady University website: ... And Beyond! Class. Full disclosure the link is an affiliate link so you if you sign up for the class through my link I will get a small financial kick back. It's a great second class for ruler quilting. I would suggest that you take at least one of their beginner classes first, either a virtual class or an in-person one. Or have at least done a little ruler quilting first. It's a nine part class with the first few being just on the piecing and the rest being on the ruler quilting.

I must confess that I don't remember who made the quilt below! Seems like a really long time since I took the photo even though it's only been about 2 weeks.

It's a disappearing nine patch quilt. It is so large that I had a hard time getting a photo of the entire thing!

Westalee Ruler Quilting

 Linda took the very first Westalee ruler quilting class I taught at my shop several years ago. Since that class she has finished more older UFO projects than I can count and taken quite a few virtual classes through Sew Steady University. Linda is participating in the 2022 2nd Saturday Sampler Block of the Month through my shop and she is doing hers quilt as you go style and quilting the blocks with her Westalee rulers. These are the last blocks she brought in to share with me.

There are 12 "blank" blocks in the finished quilt. Linda is quilting each of the "blank" blocks with a different design. I am really looking forward to seeing her quilt when it is finished!

Nancy has also really taken to the Westalee rulers! She took the ... And Beyond! class from Donelle McAdams through Sew Steady University. This is her finished class project.

The ... And Beyond class is a great second class to take for ruler quilting. This is a 9 part class. The first three sessions cover the piecing part and the last 6 sessions cover how to quilt it. It's a great class! All Sew Steady University classes are yours to watch as many times as you need. And when you buy it through the link I provide I get a small kick back.

Q20 Play

 I have been bonding with my new Q20 machine.

I have quilted two charity quilts already with her but don't have pictures of those yet for you. Next time! The first one I just did a quick all-over meander to get used to the machine. The second one I quilted with a ruler that I have had for a while. I'll give details on that when I show you the finished quilt.

Right now I am working on a third charity quilt with her. I'm getting fancy with this one. It is an old digital sample that I got for the shop the first year I opened in 2016.

I am doing this one with a combination of free-motion quilting and ruler quilting. I'm mainly using the ruler to do straight lines since this one is a cheater quilt (that is, the design is printed on the fabric instead of being pieced).

There are flying geese printed along the border but they only go part way along each side. So I did some flying geese that are just stitched.

I have already stitched around each ring in what would be the ditch if it were pieced. Now I am going back and filling in the on-point squares. I haven't decided how I will quilt the rest just yet but something will come to me.

I have been using a couple newish products for these quilts. One is Fusible 80/20 batting from Quilter's Dream. I sure do love this batting! And when they offered me a free sample to try it out a couple years ago I originally said no because I don't like fusible batting! I'm so glad the lady taking my order talked me into taking it! It is fusible on one side and I always fuse the backing fabric to the batting. Then I use the Free Fuse powder to baste the top to the batting.

Basting is not the most fun part of quilting but it is necessary and it really needs to be done well in order for the quilting to turn out nice. However, it is much easier with these two products!

Have you tried ruler quilting?

 I started ruler quilting a few years ago after attending Quilt Market in Houston. I stopped by the Sew Steady booth and watched in wonder as it was demoed at the show by Donelle McAdams. I signed myself up to learn how to do this from Donelle and purchased all the stuff on the spot. Fast forward a few years and I've taught the beginner class I learned through the class with Donelle several times at my shop. When COVID hit Sew Steady pivoted quickly to offering high quality virtual classes. My shop has sponsored several of their virtual classes in the last year or so.

Nancy has taken several of their classes and recently finished the class project from Donelle's "Next Steps" class.

Linda took my very first beginner ruler quilting class several years ago and has quilted quite a few UFOs and other projects since then. Her latest finish is for a new grandbaby.

My shop is sponsoring another class from Donelle starting October 4, 2021. The class is called ...And Beyond! If you are interested in signing up you can sign up following the link below:

Sign up for Donelle's ... And Beyond! Class

All the details about the class can be found by following the link above. Signing up through my shop's link helps my shop. If I get enough sign-ups then I get to sponsor the class for free. I also get a small commission on anything you buy from Sew Steady for the class or you can just contact me directly to order what you need for you.

The great thing about these classes is that you can watch them live (and ask questions) or you can watch them later. With the multiple session classes like the ... And Beyond! class, you have 30 days after the LAST class to watch and rewatch ALL of the sessions of the class. Many of these classes are also available through Sew Steady University and if you purchase a Sew Steady University class then you own the class and can watch and rewatch forever.

For more information about Sew Steady University click here.

Summer Bouquet :: A Finish

I finally got this one finished! The top was completed in September 2017. Click here to read that post and see the unquilted top.

Here it is all finished.

If you clicked to read my previous post you may notice that I didn't use a "scrappy binding made from the fat quarters used in piecing the top." Full disclosure: I can't find the pieces I cut for the binding! I knew exactly where they were before I moved the shop, but now, I have no idea. Oh well! I have an entire store full of fabric so I just picked something else so I could get this finished.

I quilted it myself on my domestic machine (BERNINA 380) using Westalee Templates. I used the Spinning Wheels 36 to quilt the center of each block, the Sashalee Stitch in the Ditch template to stitch in the ditch, and the 12" Arc for the quilting in the sashing. The quilting in the sashing created partial circles which I didn't realize would happen until I was halfway through quilting that part. Happy accident!

Quilting with Templates

July seems to have flown by. I took some time off from the shop for a family vacation. We had a very large wildfire 30 miles away from us that closed major highways. As it happened, we were driving by just a few hours after it started and I took this photo from the car.

It eventually grew to over 108,000 acres in size, destroyed more than 200 homes and became the third largest wildfire in Colorado history. The fire was the main topic of conversation around here for most of July. It caused the closure of our main highway from the east for 8 days. While my home was never in any real danger, it disrupted business, internet and cell phone service and generally cut us off from the east for the first part of July. The name of the fire is the Spring Fire. You can google the name for all the details if you are interested.

In sewing news, I have completed a 6 week course in quilting with Westalee templates. I'm working on finishing up my class project so I can start teaching this in my shop. Here are 6 of the 9 blocks I have completed thus far.

These blocks will be put together with a Quilt as You Go method. Some of the blocks demonstrate border quilting ideas. A few of the blocks are very basic by design as this is a learning project for the students to get used to the technique.