Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here My daughter (who lives across the country from me) recently bought an old Bernina so she could restart the sewing journey she started as a kid. She's made a couple pillowcases and is now starting on her first solo quilt. She texted this week: To which I replied: I do not yet know what she's doing about it. But I am going to get to quilt the top on my longarm for her, so I'll get to see it in...
19 days ago • 3 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here You know what brings me joy? Creating baby texture quilts. There's something magical about imagining tiny fingers exploring different fabrics, discovering the world through touch. And seeing these quilts years later, worn with love? Creating something that becomes part of someone's life journey makes every stitch worth it. Texture Baby Quilt Journey My first step in making a texture quilt is...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here Have you ever showed off a quilt to someone and the first question they ask is "How long did that take?". I admit, sometimes I feel a little snarky and almost respond with the number of years I've been sewing - because we all know that every quilt builds on the next. But I often wondered myself. Not to justify the time or calculate worth, but just out of curiosity. That's one of the reasons...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here I posted another video on machine issues last week with all the common reasons needles break. As always this explains the why behind the 'rules'. These are the kinds of subjects that are included (all in one place and without ads) in my Master Your Machine course. I'm just about ready to move towards making quilting specific videos now, but have one more that I really want to do for people...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here I had a good laugh at myself this week... Last week I posted a video on YouTube explaining the reasons behind the most common reasons for thread breaks on your sewing machine. You can watch it here: And then this week I sat down to sew and my thread seemed to keep getting caught underneath the needle plate and breaking. I kept playing with the bobbin, not finding an issue...getting annoyed....
3 months ago • 3 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here I’ve been focused on binding lately. I am starting work on another of my late mother’s UFO’s. So this morning I made binding for 6 almost identical Peter Rabbit baby quilts. It's quilt factory in the studio right now Note that all the fabric for 5 of the quilt tops hasn’t been cut yet, but I have already prepped the binding because: it made me feel good to get a task completed, and some of...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here Happy 2025! Yes, it's already a couple weeks in. But I went under for a while there. I had kids at home for the holidays through the first week of January. After they left, I did have one good week during which I finished a top (see below), but then I just needed to take a little more time to hide out and decompress. As I was coming back to the world, my daughter showed me her 2025 Bingo...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here Is it getting a little nutty at your house? It is at mine, even though I purposely cut my schedule to make time for all those holiday things! One thing I have not eliminated during these last two weeks of the year is my 100 day #seweveryday challenge. You may not hear much about what I’m working on, but I have been sewing every day. Quiet creative time every day has made such a difference in...
5 months ago • 1 min read
Smart and Magical Tips and inspiration for your quilting journey Need to say goodbye? Unsubscribe here You know those cutting instructions at the beginning of a pattern where they list the border lengths? There's a reason you might want to wait until you've pieced the rest of the quilt before cutting those border pieces... In this new video, I use two quilt tops to show you why measuring your actual quilt center matters more than following the pattern measurements. Seeing the two tops side by...
6 months ago • 1 min read