How to Quilt Infinite Stacked Curls

Isn’t this a sweet and romantic border design? The infinite stacked curls design relies on two common elements – curls and loops. In the video, Angela quilted the infinite stacked curls in a 2” border with registration lines marked every 2”. Need a good chalk pencil or fabric marker to mark your own borders? We’ve bundled our favorites in the Perfect Marking Trio pack!

To quilt the infinite stacked curls, begin in the middle of your border. Travel to the center of your marked section and quilt a curl up towards the top of your border. Travel back along your curl and quilt another curl towards the bottom of your border. Make sure to quilt your curls in different direction. In the video, Angela quilted her top curls counter clockwise and her bottom curls clockwise. On the divider lines you’ve marked quilt stacked loops, similar to an infinity symbol.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt infinite stacked curls, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me on the Quilted Joy Facebook page, use #quiltedjoyfmq on your Instagram photos, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

How to Quilt the Big Basketweave Border

The big basketweave border is a really simple design for your larger borders. We’re going to use the elements of a traditional basketweave design and open them up for a looser result. Before you start quilting, you’ll want to add some registration lines to your border to keep your basketweave fairly even. In the video, we used a 3” border and divided it into 3” sections with the chalk pencil included in our Perfect Marking Trio pack.

Starting at the top left of your border, we’re going to quilt loose wavy lines from side to side. Work your way down the section. It doesn’t matter how many wavy lines you quilt. You will want to make sure you end at the bottom right corner of the section. To fill your next section, quilt your wavy lines going up and down. Again, don’t worry about how many lines you quilt and instead focus on ending on the top right corner of your marked section. Continue along your border alternating the orientation of your wavy lines in each marked section.

Keep it Curvy

You might have also heard these wavy lines called refrigerator coils or wormy lines. The key to quilting the big basketweave is to keep your lines curvy. We want our big basketweave to be loose, open, and flowy. Try to avoid quilting any points or sharp angles between lines or at the corners where you transition from one direction to the other.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the big basketweave border design, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me on the Quilted Joy Facebook page, use #quiltedjoyfmq on your Instagram photos, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

The first Saturday in May is the annual Running of the Roses and here in Louisville, the whole town comes to a stop to watch the horses run. This year the long shot, Rich Strike, won. It was incredibly exciting!

To honor the Kentucky Derby I created the Run for the Roses quilt and showed how it was made on Episode 3913 of the Love of Quilting PBS show. It features a super simple Rosebud block and a simplified Jacobs’ Ladder block to make a wonderful medallion.

Plus, on the show, Sara shared some of the festivals she loves in Michigan including a contest in the Cherry Festival where they measure how far you can spit a cherry pit! I’d be terrible at that but I’m willing to try!

Of course, the best part of the Run for the Roses quilt, in my opinion is the outside border. With the rose come the thorns but these are super easy to make. Wait till you see the trick! My good friend Melanie P. did the piecing for this quilt. I designed it and quilted it. I hope you like it!

The Run for the Roses quilt was featured in the May/June 2022 edition of the Love of Quilting magazine. We have a few autographed copies left but get them quick because once they are gone they are gone! If you’d like to watch the episode you can find it on your local PBS affiliate or you can get a monthly subscription and watch all of our episodes on the Quilting Daily website.

This time you’ll never believe what the hardest part for me was but it happened on day one of taping the Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting 4000th series. The line I was supposed to say on camera was, “You are watching the 4000 series of Love of Quilting.” I tried and tried but COULD. NOT. DO. IT! There are a handful of words I’m not capable of saying. I had no idea 4000th was one of them! So, Sara came to my rescue and said the line instead. I’m not sure what my hangup was. By the way, the other word I can’t say is “Umbilical.” Thankfully that word does’t come up in common conversations. HA!

I want to take a moment and share my TV nails with you. Are they not the CUTEST! I get them done when I get to Colorado and this time I was over the moon with the skills of my nail tech. ADORBS! Every time I look at them it makes me smile. Having blue nails was a bit of a first for me but I’m in LOVE.

Take a Peek at the Quilts from Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting 4000 series

I’m also in love with all the beautiful quilts we have in this season to share with you. If I had to pick a favorite, though, it would be Bluegrass Jamboree. Wait until you see the shortcut method I found to make the two main blocks at once! Typically they would be paper pieced but my good friend Melanie and I figured out how to make it from strip sets so they can be traditionally pieced! Woot!

I think you’ll also love my table runner pattern- Scoops by the Seaside. It is adorned by Party Points! Yep. Not prairie points- PARTY POINTS! Wait until you see them. They are lined with a contrasting fabric and really add an incredible touch to the table runner. Plus we go through a different way to finish a quilt’s edges. In this case, we faced it.

And, take a look at that show stopper of a quilt hanging behind us. That one is Sara’s and it looks like it glows, right? I was so intrigued with all the different types of fabrics she used from flannel to chambray. I’ve never worked with chambray. Have you? It is a bit more fussy as it ravels a bit when piecing but it looked beautiful in her quilt.

Of course, my favorite day of taping the Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting 4000 series is the day we play with the APQS Millie on set with Quilt Path. One of the quilts we feature in the series is Feather Love. I used one column of this quilt as a table runner and on the show we played with feather plumes. On the show we talk about curls, twisted ribbons, hooks, and variations of all the above. Plus, at the end we sat back and let the Quilt Path computer system take over and quilt the outside feather border for us. Fantastic!

The Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting 4000 series should start airing across the country in late summer. Once the editor is done with her magic the shows will also be available for watching online with a Love of Quilting Subscription here!

Chemical Formula for Beauty

This blue beauty is from Anna. She is a relatively new quilter and she wanted to make a quilt for her husband the chemist. Hexagons are a big thing in chemical formulas if you didn’t already know. So she made this blue hexagon quilt. When picking out a pattern to quilt on it, she took a gamble and chose Argyle which was this hexagon pattern. We wondered if the hexagons on the hexagons would be too much. I think they were perfect! Can you tell that the quilting really pops? She used wool batting. I hope her husband loves it as much as we did.

Geometric Glory for Graduation

Shawn brought us this geometric glory. I wish I could tell you the pattern name, but I searched all over for it and never found it. Isn’t it glorious? There are a lot of y seams and the planning required was enormous. She made this as a graduation gift for the boyfriend of her daughter. He had commented to her daughter that he thought the whole making a quilt thing was kind of cool and that it would be amazing if she made him a quilt. So she did!

She quilted it with a pattern called Onion skin and with a variegated thread, Fantastico Stained Glass. We even wound bobbins and used it on the back. It turned out amazing. He better be a May admirer himself!

Sensational Sunflowers

Now this one is a bit more traditional. This is a Dresden plate from Kimberly. The original pattern was smaller, but she was having so much fun, she just made a few more blocks. I think it is stunning! She quilted this with Toss Up, which is this great pattern that is a little bit floral and a little bit swirly. It was a great choice and Kimberly quilted it beautifully.

She was nervous when she started longarm quilting. It had been awhile since she last quilted with us. What a happy quilt, and I am sure a happy recipient once it was done.

Adorable April Renters bring sweet wedding gifts

Quilts are a traditional gift to give for a wedding. Kristie is giving this one as a wedding shower gift for her son. She couldn’t believe her luck when she saw the fabric with the ducks. It was the bride’s chosen wedding colors. She fussy cut the ducks into blocks in order to incorporate them. And then finding a beach bird to bring the bride into the quilt the same was just serendipity. She quilted this with a great panto called Adorable. Is there a better panto for a wedding quilt? Twin hearts…I think not.

So that was just a few of our April renters. Lots of beauties that deserve admirers. I’m looking forward to see what May has in store for us. Hopefully even more quilts to inspire us! We’d love to see what you’ve been up to. Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook. And be sure to check back in with us after we’ve had a chance to see what the May renters have brought us.

We had so much fun chatting with Adrean and peaking around her quilting studio! Don’t you just want to be her best friend? There are a lot of aspects of Adrean’s space that we’re super envious of – like the large room, the beautiful view, the quilt wall behind her machine, and the home theater right next door! But best of all is all the furniture and pieces Adrean and her husband have repurposed and adjusted to make them perfect for her needs. When can we move in?

We wanted to get to know Adrean Thomas a little more after our Looky Loo Studio Tour, so we asked her a few other questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?

Adrean: I’ve been quilting since I was about 8yrs old. My grandmom is the one who taught me to quilt and sew…she was a seamstress and lead the church quilting guild. I was a hand quilter until 2011 when I retired from active duty in the Air Force (28yrs).

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting?

Adrean: I began longarming after attending my first quilt show (The International Quilt show in Houston 2011) that’s the first time I saw a longarm…and once I had put my hands on it…I was hooked!

QJ: What longarm machine do you have and why did you choose it?

Adrean: My first longarm was an APQS Freddie, then after 7 yrs, I traded it in for a Millie. When I attended the quilt show, of course I test drove all the longarms, Gammill, Handi Quilter, Innova, A1, and APQS. For 2 days I went round and round on each machine, talking with the sales person, and others who own the various machines, and the APQS machines just seem to be simple and seamless to use and the stitch quality was excellent…it had just enough bells and whistles without being over complicated.  But most of all it was the warranty and customer service availability that pushed me over.

QJ: Do you have a computerized system? If yes, what do you enjoy about it? What led you to choose it?

Adrean: I just recently purchased a computerized system about 7 months ago. I’d always wanted one but couldn’t justify the cost seeing how I still work a full-time job as an Instructor/curriculum developer for the Army, and I was able to keep my turnaround time for my quilt customers around 1-3wks depending on if the quilt was a panto, or custom work. Well after COVID hit, I began teleworking for my job…this allowed me to be home all day, and with the upcoming xmas holiday season, I was getting swamped with new customers, so I thought now is a good time to invest in a computerized system and let the increase in my revenue pay for it.

What I enjoy about it, is that my time is more efficient which allows me to work my day job and quilt…this opens the door for me to keep accepting new customers and stay on target with my turnaround time. However, I’m a hand-guided quilter at “heart”!  I still very much love and enjoy doing pantos hand-guided at the back of the machine and for most of my smaller quilts that’s how I still do them because I do my panto work in manual mode around 80% speed so I can get it done quite faster than the computer…having a computerized system is like having the best of both worlds!

QJ: When you think about your quilting life prior to getting your longarm machine and now… What can you do easier? What do you love about longarm quilting?

Adrean: I LOVE everything about longarm quilting… I mean what’s not to love! Maybe the cost. I knew when I bought mine I wanted to turn my love and passion for quilting into a business even though I still work full-time. I will be retiring from civil service July 2022 and can’t wait to quilt full-time. What can I do easier by having a longarm? Everything, if you ever tried quilting a queen size quilt on a domestic machine… you know what I mean. I applaud those who are talented and skillful enough to accomplish it. I just didn’t enjoy it as much, but I love piecing quilts.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

Adrean: When I first got my longarm I was all into custom work, especially ruler work. And I would say that’s my niche, detail custom ruler work. But we all know pantos are the bread and butter of most small business longarmers so as I developed my muscle memory in hand guided pantos I wanted to take a stab at working in manual mode (I love a challenge) and all my quilting friends who had longarms were scared to death of the manual button. Once I made the leap, I never went back so now that’s how I quilt my pantos. And rulers are a girls best friend when doing ruler work. As you will see on my wall, I have a plethora of them!

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

Adrean: Right now it’s juggling between my quilting business and my full-time job. There are so many other things I want to do in support of my quilting like create a quilt pattern, host a quilt-a-long or quilt tutorial, get published in a quilt magazine; so many dreams!

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space?

Adrean: It’s Big. Lol of course it could be bigger but transitioning from a 12x13ft bedroom to a 20x25ft bonus room is a big plus! Because of the space, I’ve been able to configure the room in a couple of ways. For example before I had my cutting table in the middle of the room like an island, now it’s part of my work “U” pattern. I also have the most gorgeous view from my 3 big windows so during the day, the sunshine is awesome!

QJ: What would you change about your space if you could?

Adrean: I guess it would be what most quilter’s say they don’t have enough of… storage! Almost every wall is covered with something to make storage and I’m still working on a better storage strategy. I’ve been looking at some IKEA storage solutions.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter?

Adrean: Don’t be so critical of yourself. Make time to practice. Challenge yourself, that’s a great way to find your strength and weaknesses, enjoy the journey!

QJ: What quilt project are you currently working on?

Adrean: Whew! I have several projects I got my toes into. But it’s this one project that was very challenging and I almost gave up, but then I found the solution and it’s turning out beautiful. I really would like a few minutes to talk about how I got it to work. Although I’m midway through it I decided to video it as a journey and will post to IG and Youtube when the quilt is all done.

QJ: What quilt project is on your bucket list?

Adrean: So I’ve lived in San Antonio, Texas since 2005 (Hurricane Katrina brought me here) so being in TX you would think by now I’ve made a Lone Star Quilt…nope! So this is the first on my bucket list.

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style?

Adrean: I have a love for both modern and traditional quilting styles, and when I’m quilting something of my own or a customer lets me quilt whatever I want, I mostly try to incorporate some of both, unless the fabric or quilt pattern speaks heavily to one or the other. But if you asked me to quilt something freehand on the spot, it would be feathers so I guess I’m traditional at heart but I say I’m more a transitional quilter blending both modern and traditional styles.

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread?

Adrean: I’ve been a Quilter’s Dream girl since the day I owned a longarm. And I go back and forth between Superior Threads Magnifico, and Glide threads. I started my thread collection with superior threads so that’s what most of my thread collection consist of.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget?

Adrean: You are going to laugh, but it’s a pair of angle long tweezers (I’m a surgical nurse so they are actually a surgical tool call Debakey’s) and a tiny crochet needle. Whenever I’m on the longarm, these are a must! When sewing it’s my knee up bar, WOW what a great invention!

QJ: Do you quilt for others? If yes, what is your business name and where can people find you online?

Adrean: Yes I have an official longarm quilting business Especially for You Quilts, and you can visit my Facebook page or Instagram to see pics of my work and customer reviews.

QJ: What are three things you’re loving that you’d recommend to your bestie?

Adrean: The 3 things I’m loving right now are

• My Instapot with the Air fryer lid
• My GoPro (I can attach to my Millie and video my quilting)
• My favorite app right now is Milanote

Thanks again to Adrean Thomas for letting us look around!

Shelley made a Solid Choice

This first quilt comes from Shelley. This pattern is called Solid Choice. She found it in the American Professional Quilter Magazine issue 162, Feb. 2020. She made it awhile ago, but didn’t get around to quilting it until now. Using the IntelliQuilter that we have on our APQS Lucey, Shelley was able to find the perfect pattern to put on this top.

It is called Argyle. Isn’t it lovely. I like the mirrored angles. She is keeping this one. It is the first time she has quilted with the computer. She did a good job.

A Local Gem

The pattern for this one is from a local designer, MJ Kinman. She makes these gorgeous gemstone quilts. The quilt was made by our own Mary Jane and I think she did a phenomenal job of it. This quilt has all the birth stones of one of her children’s family, all the kids and the parents. She is making them for each of her children. We were concerned with what color thread to quilt with it. Black would look great on the background, but would likely disrupt the feel of the stones. Any one color could look poor on the diamond and white would look poor on the background.

We settled on Essence. It is a very thin clear nylon thread that looks a little like fishing line, although much much thinner and therefore softer and flexible. Her quilt fairy was a little nervous about it. She had never quilted with it before, but there were no issues for the entire quilt. It ran beautifully and the results speak for themselves. What lucky kids to be getting such lovely wall hangings.

Lo and Behold, a Deco

Next up is a quilt from Sheila. She made this pattern called Deco from Lo and Behold Stitchery. This is the baby sized version of the quilt pattern. She thought it was so elegant in its simplicity. But she wanted it bigger. So she got out her graph paper and her calculator and she resized it herself. She quilted it with a pantograph called Calder. It has a nice modern vibe that went well with it. I just love the color and the two tone nature of this quilt. I think it is lovely.

A stash quilt for March Renter Quilting Madness

This one is a stash quilt. I love the bold colors and scrappiness of it. It was made from scraps from her stash as well as her mother’s stash. All the blocks are made from half square triangles, but every block is different. There is so much you can do with a Half Square Triangle!

The backing she found here just made her so happy. It is called Cheerful Polka Dot from Windham Fabrics. Isn’t it just perfect for this quilt?! She quilted it with Square Spiral which added a lot of lovely texture to the quilt.

Staying Gold with Ruby Starr

Finally we come to Erin’s quilt. This was a kit, and it just spoke to her. She knew she had to make it. It is a Ruby Star panel quilt called Stay Gold she got from Stitch Supply Company. She quilted this with Bubbles using the IntelliQuilter on our APQS Lucey. I think it turned out so cute. I love the fun prints from the panel that were put in the center of each block. The colors are also amazing. Erin was able to use a backing from Ruby Star. Their fabric is 100% cotton, but oh so silky to the touch. Just really lovely stuff.

March was a great month for quilts. March Renter Quilting Madness brought us some bright colors and cheerful designs. I’m looking forward to see what next month will produce. As the weather warms up, many of our quilters will be heading outside to tend to their gardens, but I’m sure we’re still going to see some very lovely things as well. We’d love to see what you’ve been working on as well. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. Sharing our creations can inspire all of us to even greater heights!

First, the Neighborhood of Houses

So the houses, though not strictly in the center, are definitely the center of the design. So what we put in them is critical. Originally, I thought that we could put siding or bricks on each house. Or maybe even windows or some other feature like that. But that would have taken a lot of time. So what could I do in a reasonable amount of time and still do justice to these houses.

I decided on drawing a heart above each door with a diamond in the door. I would use refrigerator coil to travel up the side until I reached the point to add the heart and diamond then on to the roof where a simple swag and tear drop would complete the roof and back down the other side. It’s simple, but pretty and brings to mind the love in each house for each other.

Next, the Corner Nine Patches

Next I wanted to sort out the corners. This inner border is both an opportunity and a challenge. It is the same color as the scrappy background of the houses, so it causes the nine patches in the corner to sort of float. One of the ways to treat those nine patches would be to treat them as one block, but because of the border, it would look off center.

So instead, I draw in that inner border to the background. I’d put a heart, to tie into the houses, into each of the nine patches and then meander around and through all the cream background fabric. This would include around the houses and the trees. Not only does it fill in the background, but it gives me the opportunity to travel between the different elements. The key to filler like this is to be mindful of my exits. Don’t fill in everything so solid as you pass that you “paint yourself into a corner.”

While I’m at it, I’ll also quilt the trees. Working up one side and down the other I put in some curved lines for each bough and straight down the trunk. At the base of the trunk is an opportunity to connect to the next house. Having a path to connect to each element means fewer starts and stops to do.

Don’t forget the center!

Now we can tackle the inside. The border around the center blocks is a great place for some feathers. You don’t have to treat the three inner borders as individuals. I’m going to ignore the seam and just put a feather through all three like they were one piece. First we start with the keystone feathers in the shape of a figure eight. After I’ve chalked out the spines I can start quilting in my feathers up one side and travel back down the spine to do the other. The mitered corner is my boundary for the tip of the spine, no marking necessary.

For the snowballs in the center, I’m going to do something pretty traditional. We’re going to use crosshatching. The path I take to put this crosshatching in is more complicated to explain than to show. We have a downloadable worksheet and a video that illustrates this process very well. In a nutshell, you draw a rectangle and then travel to the next point to draw another rectangle. It is a very efficient way to do this traditional design.

Finally we come to our outer border. Here I’m going to put in some beadboard. I’ll put a heart in the corners to tie into the houses a little and then travel along the outside edge of the quilt to then drop in a double line. I’d mark out where I want these to go of course to keep them evenly spaced.

How Tracey did it

And there you have it. This is how I would quilt Tracey’s House quilt if it were mine. Now what Tracey has chosen to do is slightly different. She decided to do much of what I suggested, but instead decided not to put any hearts.

She also replaced the fillers I suggested for ones of her own. I especially liked the clamshells in the houses. All of her choices turned out really well and she has completed a quilt she can be proud of. Good job, Tracey!

How to Quilt the Starflower Parade Design

The starflower parade design is perfect for your larger borders. In the video, I had a 3” border and I grabbed my favorite marking tool to draw registration lines every four inches. At the center of each of those four inch sections I also added a small tick mark. These tick marks and registration lines will help me keep the starflowers evenly spaced and centered.

This design uses two design elements you’re probably familiar with at this point – bunny hops and loops. Starting at the bottom left corner of your border, quilt a bunny hop towards your center tick mark. Quilt a loop as you approach the center tick mark and bunny hop towards the top left corner. Next, quilt another bunny hop with a loop towards the center. Bunny hop again towards the top right corner. Quilt a final bunny hop and loops towards the center and bunny hop out towards the bottom right corner of your section. Each marked section will have half of a loopy star marching down your border!

Perfect for Spring

The starflower parade border design is so much fun to quilt! It’s easy and repetitive, perfect for some meditative machine quilting. Do you have any quilts that are ready for this design? I think it would look fabulous on a spring floral quilt. Or even in the border of a patriotic quilt! Where would you quilt the starflower parade?

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the starflower parade border design, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me on the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

In this article I’ll walk you through what I require from my favorite piecing thread. (Which is quite different from what I need from my machine quilting thread). If you want to jump to the conclusion and find out what my favorite piecing threads are… head to the bottom!

First, I always piece my blocks with a good quality cotton thread. This is because I’m going to hit that seam with a very hot iron and I need the thread to be cotton to put up with the heat!

My “Must Haves” for a good cotton piecing thread are:

Low Lint

When I piece a quilt on my sewing machine, I want to take good care of it which means I need to keep it clean. Ask yourself when is the last time you cleaned your bobbin area or put in a fresh needle. If you don’t know… do it now! It makes a tremendous difference in the life of your sewing machine. Take good care of it and it will take good care of you!

Skinny thread

An accurately pieced quilt top will make the machine quilting process so much easier! When I’m piecing a block, I want to be sure I’m using my very best 1/4″ seam but did you know the size of the seam is influenced by the thickness of the thread used to sew that seam? Crazy, right? Think about how you press your seams to the side. You have the thickness of the fabrics but you also have the thickness of the top and bobbin thread.

Using a skinny thread will help reduce bulk. I prefer to use a 50 weight or 60 weight cotton thread. Do test your seam allowances when you change your piecing thread to be sure what you believe is that mysterious scant quarter inch seam, is actually correct! By the way, if that mysterious scant 1/4″ alludes you, try our seam gauge and seam guides they will help you correctly position your needle for the perfect seams!

The Right Color

For my favorite piecing thread, I prefer piecing with a linen or very light grey color. Sometimes during the machine quilting process, high loft batting can pull at the seams of a unit and expose a hint of the piecing thread. This is especially true in quilts that have had their seams pressed open. I want a color that disappears on both light and dark colors. This is another reason to go for a skinny cotton thread, too!

Economical Cone

Cotton thread can be pricey and I go through a LOT of it! So, while I might get a small cone to try out a thread or for a special color application, what I want when I piece is a big ol’ cone of it so I can zoom through my blocks without having to stop down so much. Many domestic sewing machines don’t have a way to run anything except spools of thread. But you can use a thread stand or even a super simple thread stem tool to make running large cones of thread a snap!

Get to the point, Angela, what is your favorite piecing thread?

Okay! Let’s do this… but wait! There are two I swoon over. Don’t make me pick! What are those two?

Cairo-Quilt which is made by the same folks who make my beloved Glide thread I love to use for machine quilting. And right behind it?

Soft Touch by YLI which is a 60wt 100% cotton. My Pfaff Creative Icon loves it too!

The runner up would be… Konfetti made by Wonderfil! It is a 50wt and so lovely to use.

If you are like me you’ll want a BIG cone that lasts and lasts and lasts and is a GREAT value, too! If you are trying to find your fav, grab a small cone of each kind and try it. I’d love to know what you think!

How to Quilt Loops and Diamonds

Before I started quilting my loops and diamonds I pulled out my trusty chalk pencil and a ruler. I want to keep my loops evenly spaced, so I marked every two inches in my border. Start about a quarter to halfway up your border and swoop down into a loop. Make your loop fill the marked space. On your marked line swoop into a point and swoop back out to another loop. Fill your border with loops! Now on to the second pass!

Once you’ve quilted your loops, break your threads and start back at the beginning. In this pass, you’ll quilt hops over your loops. At each intersection, leave a little space between your two points. You could quilt this design with just the points between your loops, but I wanted a little more there! I decided to quilt a diamond at each intersection. I placed my diamonds so that the points from the first pass were in the center of each diamond.

Make this Design Your Own!

Not a fan of diamonds? Place a different design in between your loops. There are countless possibilities! Look at your quilt for inspiration. Is there a repeated motif in your fabrics, like hearts, flowers or leaves? Try quilting one of those shapes in between your loops instead.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt loops and diamonds, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me on the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

There are lots of ways to draw your quilting ideas on a quilt. One of Angela’s favorite methods is to draw on a picture on her computer with a paint program. There are loads of paint programs available, but Angela’s current favorite is GIMP. Take a look at the video below to see how Angela auditions quilt designs with GIMP!

What is GIMP?

GIMP, or GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a free and open source image editing program. It works on all the major computer operating systems out there including Mac, Windows, and Linux. You can download the free GIMP software and its updates at gimp.org.

There are so many things you can do with GIMP, like graphic design, illustration, and photo editing. For our purposes, we like to open our quilt photos in GIMP and draw quilting ideas on the photo.

Opening a Photo in GIMP

It’s super easy to open a quilt photo in GIMP! From the top menu bar, go to “File” and select “Open.” Or use the keyboard shortcut, Command O on a Mac or Control O on a PC. Find your quilt image in the file folders, select it, and click open.

Alternatively, you can find your image in your computer and right click on it. From the drop down menu that appears, hover over “Open With” and select GIMP. Now you’re ready to start auditioning quilt designs with GIMP!

Using Layers

When we’re auditioning quilt designs in GIMP, one of the most useful features is the ability to create layers. Layers are used to adjust one part of your image without affecting another part. When you import an image into GIMP, your image will be your first layer. We recommend clicking the lock button on your image layer so you can’t change your original image.

Create a new layer by clicking the new layer button at the bottom of the layers window. Name it whatever you’d like, for simplicity we start by calling our layers drawing 1, 2, 3 to get things started.

The Brush Tool

With your new layer selected, grab your brush tool from the tool window on the left side of your screen. The brush tool lets you draw or paint on your image. You can adjust the size of your brush to make it thicker or skinnier. Or you can change the color of your brush to make your designs easier to see.

In our tutorial we changed the brush color to white because it shows up really nicely on the dark blue quilt and set our brush size to 5 pixels.

Auditioning Quilt Designs with GIMP

Now that you’ve created a new layer and you’ve selected your brush tool, it’s time to start auditioning quilt designs with GIMP! Try out a design in your blocks. Not sure about your first idea? Create a new layer and try a different design.

In your layers window, you’ll see there are little eyeballs in each layer. You can turn your eyeballs on or off to reveal or hide the contents of your layer. This makes it really easy to try out a variety of designs on your quilt all in one place!

Consider Getting a Pen Tablet

You’ll often hear Angela say things like, you don’t have to draw a design well to quilt it well. And this is so true! But, it’s kinda hard to draw with a mouse, you know? When auditioning quilt designs with GIMP or any other paint program on your computer, it’s much easier with a pen tablet.

A pen tablet is a drawing pad and a stylus that acts as a mouse for your computer. The stylus looks and feels just like a pen, making it so much easier to draw on your computer! There are lots of fancy and expensive pen tablets out there.

At Quilted Joy we’re using the Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet for auditioning quilt designs with GIMP. It’s the smallest one they offer and it’s more consumer level than some of the bigger and more expensive professional ones out there. (We are not at all affiliated with Wacom, we just like and use their product.)

Those are the basics of auditioning quilt designs with GIMP! There are loads more features within GIMP, and countless tutorials online explaining how to use them. But for drawing different quilting designs on your quilt photos these basics are all you’ll need to get started.

Go download GIMP, and start auditioning quilting designs on your own quilts. We’d love to see what you’re working on and hope you’ll share pictures of your quilt tops, quilting ideas, and finished quilts over in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook!

However, because there are three of them…. that was a HUGE project! I wanted to make something fast, simple, and something that didn’t require a lot of brain power because being a mom to triplets has drained mine! HA!

BirdMan’s graduation quilt, called Louisville Spirit, is featured in the March/ April edition of the Love of Quilting Magazine. I designed it using the colors from his college, the University of Louisville. I dug through my stash and found more red and black/white strips than I realized I had. (Isn’t that the way with scraps?).

I really love the ease of making strip quilts but I wanted to spice it up a bit by making the strips a little off center. Normally you’d lay the first strip down on the diagonal of a block and add strips to each side until your block was as big as you’d like.

What I did instead was position the first strip a bit wonky off the true diagonal. This will mean some of the blocks are “left” and some will be “rights”. However, my brain can’t do that. I can never remember what is a left orientation of a block and what is a right. So… I think about the map of the US. I need some blocks where the strips go from Washington State to Florida. I need an equal number of blocks where the strips are laid down from New York to California. That way I know I have the right and left versions needed to make the diamonds form in the Louisville Spirit quilt.

Throw in a few pops of yellow for the Cardinal bird beak that is the UofL mascot and I really love how it turned out. Plus, I did this with a quilt as you go method using fusible batting. Be sure to watch the Louisville Spirit episode for more info about that time saver!

If you’d like to buy the pattern for Louisville Spirit you can get it over on the Quilting Daily site. And, if you decide to make one of your own, I’d love to see it! You can share your quilts with me in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook, or tag me @quiltedjoy on Instagram!

I must confess that I’ve only had time to make one for two of my kiddos- BirdMan and GooseyGirl. She got the blue and white version pictured above. I’ve assured RocketMan that his quilt is coming and that I love him just as much as the other two! Now I just need to clone myself and get that last one done!

Art Deco Rulerwork

Carolyn’s daughter-in-law wanted a quilt that was Art Deco. So Carolyn got online and found this fabric. It is lovely and definitely Art Deco. So for quilting she wanted to learn something new that she has never done before. She wanted to use rulers. We were able to find the perfect ruler that fit that elongated arc perfectly. This is the largest ruler from a set of 6” swag rulers.

The swag rulers we have are sets of four rulers that are all the same width, but with progressively larger heights. Used together you can create some very lovely borders for custom quilts. Used separately, we created a lovely elongated clamshell design that worked beautifully with her fabric. It gave it just the right amount of pop! Great job Carolyn, especially being it was your first time with rulers.

A renter retrospective with classic log cabin blocks

What kind of retrospective would be complete without a classic block like a log cabin. This quilt was brought in by Gina. She made this gorgeous log cabin for a friend and then decided that the colors and everything were not quite right for that friend. So instead it’s being given to the dog groomer. What a lucky dog groomer!

I love the colors! I think the mix of fabrics is perfect. She quilted this with Square Spiral, a popular pantograph we have here. It added a very lovely texture to this already lovely quilt.  

The Phases of the Moon and free motion

Erin has brought yet another quilt that I may have to make someday. This is a pattern called Clava from the website Miss Make.  Erin chose to use Ruby Star Speckled line to create her circles. I think it was perfect. It adds just enough interest to those large spaces without being distracting from the overall design.

To quilt this she decided to draw on the idea of these being the phases of the moon, so she covered it with craters. She drew large varying pebbles all over the quilt, which I think worked out perfectly. Don’t you?

Three yard quilt in plaid

This last quilt was done by Cheri. This was made for her daughter-in-law for Christmas. She did the very smart thing of giving her a box of fabric with quilt options and allowing her to pick out which quilt she preferred. This is it. This pattern is called Town Square and it’s from Donna Robertson at Fabric Cafe. She makes these great patterns that take three one yard cuts of fabric. Unfortunately, the book from her that we have available does not have this quilt in it.

I like the colors and the plaid she chose. It has a very cozy vibe. Cheri quilted this with Seamless which is a great loopy meander. What a lovely gift!

Now that a new month has started, keep the quilts coming for our next renter retrospective. I can’t wait to see what March has to offer. We’d love to see what you have going as well. Connect with us on Facebook or Instagram and share your quilts. We’re always inspired by what you show us.

I love that pattern too, but my bucket list quilt is a log cabin. I’m not sure how I’ve gone this long without making one but I just haven’t. So, I told her mine was a log cabin and that we should each make our bucket list quilt for the next season. Sara laughed and said I’d really set her up for that one! A New York Beauty quilt is MUCH harder than the log cabin. I had to laugh!

So, I decided to find a way to incorporate the log cabin block in a design. My chance came with the Cozy Moments quilt but, of course, I couldn’t just do a regular log cabin, right? Instead, I made the blocks into elongated rectangles which pulled the log cabins into diamond shapes.

Each of the blocks in the Cozy Moments Quilt is 8″ x 16″ so they are very big. The blocks are all paper pieced and the fabric is warm, cozy flannel! I love all the plaids, stripes and checks!

Have you pieced with flannel before? There is a wide range of flannel out there. Some are high quality, quilt shop type flannels and some have a more open weave. I was so impressed with the Riley Blake Wooley Flannel line I used for the Cozy Moments quilt. It is luscious, thick and worked really well for this quilt. I designed this quilt and my friend Melanie Peterson pieced it. I used an all over, edge to edge design to quilt it up and love how snuggly it is!

This quilt reminds me of all of my dad’s cozy flannel shirts as I sat next to him on the couch watching M*A*S*H over and over. It was his favorite show and I’m pretty sure I could recite every episode by memory! He LOVED it! I miss my dad but this quilt reminds me of those cozy moments.

This quilt was featured in the 3900 series of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting show on PBS. You can learn more about the quilt, notes from the show, and specialty tools used in the episode here. You can also purchase a digital PDF pattern for Cozy Moments here. Have you made the Cozy Moments quilt? I’d love to see it! Be sure to post pictures on social media with #quiltedjoy so I can find your quilts!

1. Support Is Critical

You MUST use a ruler base if working on a stand up machine or, if working on a sit down domestic, have a large flat work space that is flush with your machine’s throat. There is a lot happening when using a ruler. It is imperative that your ruler be supported so it doesn’t flip up while you are working with it. An unstable ruler can easily get crunched by your machine’s foot and it can damage your machine. So… pinky swear promise me you will use a ruler base or a work table.

On my APQS long arm machine the ruler base slides onto the throat of the machine easily. I do slide it off when I’m not doing ruler work just because I don’t want the bulk or weight of it there if I’m doing free motion quilting.

On my Pfaff Creative Icon I have an acrylic table that was made to nestle up the throat so I have a wide area that is flush with the needle plate. Not only does this support the ruler, it also supports the quilt! This makes it easier to maneuver the quilt and the ruler.

2. Step Out With The Right Foot

You wouldn’t go hiking through the Rocky Mountain with flip flops, right? Well, choosing the right footwear extends to sewing as well. On my APQS long arm I can choose from a variety of feet but when using rulers I prefer the standard ruler foot. This is the foot that ships with the machine by default. I likely use this foot for 90% of my ruler work.

The other foot I like is called the Clog foot by APQS but I like to call it the Ninja foot. I call it this because I don’t want you using it until you feel skilled with your machine. It has an open toe so you can see well going around applique but it has a high profile along the remaining three quarters of the foot so you can use rulers. Since the toe is open, it is possible to get the corner of a ruler caught by the opening so I recommend this foot only to those who feel more confident with their machine.

If you are using a sit down domestic machine it is critical that you have your manufacturer’s ruler foot mounted to the machine. This foot is made to hop and allows the fabric to more easily flow under the needle. A ruler foot has walls that prevent the ruler from getting to close to the needle.

3. How High Do You Hop?

Machine quilting rulers are thicker than regular piecing rulers. They are 1/4″ thick acrylic so when a long arm foot hops down the edge of the ruler it is tall enough that the foot won’t hop OVER the ruler.

However, there are two kinds of sit down domestic machines- high shank and low shank. The shank refers to the knuckle on the foot. If you try to use a regular machine quilting ruler on a low shank machine it will crunch down on the ruler as it is too thick and you can damage your domestic sewing machine. If you have a low shank domestic machine, be sure to purchase low shank machine quilting rulers. Low shank rulers are labeled very clearly. You’ll know if you have a low shank ruler because it is the same thickness as the rulers you use to piece with.

My Pfaff is a high shank machine and I can interchangeably use my rulers for both my APQS long arms and my Pfaff Creative Icon. If you want to use rulers on your sit down machine, please contact your dealer or manufacturer and they’ll be able to tell you straight away what kind of shank you have.

4. Grab Some Training Wheels

There is a LOT going on when quilting with rulers. You have to hold the ruler down, keep it in position, guide the machine AND think about the design you are trying to make! If you are new to rulers it can feel overwhelming. I recommend you add some grippy dots to the back of your rulers to help them stay where you place them. It is like adding a third arm into the mix and will give you better stability.

Another option would be to use a ruler that entraps your hopping foot. I really love the SID ruler for my new long arm quilters. To use the ruler, remove the machine’s foot, position the opening under the needle and then remount the ruler foot so it is now entrapped. Because your hopping foot can’t wander away, it makes it easier to control. Training Wheels engaged!

5. Think About Spiders

No, not that kind of scary, hairy spider! I’m talking about splaying out your hand like a spider. You want as many parts of your hand stabilizing the ruler as possible but reserve a finger or two to ride on the fabric next to the edge of the ruler as well. Remember that the safest, most stable portion of your ruler is between your thumb and forefinger. Try to keep your ruler foot in the area of the ruler. If you are quilting a longer span and your ruler foot has to move outside this safety zone, stop the machine in the needle down position and walk your hand up the ruler like a spider.

Consider how you cut a swath of yardage when piecing a quilt with your big 24″ long ruler and your rotary cutter. You hold down the ruler and cut but if you don’t move your hand up the ruler and reposition it, your rotary cutter will push the ruler out of position. The same thing happens when using longer machine quilting rulers. You will need to reposition them to keep everything stabilized.

In general, I save my longer machine quilting rulers for specialty applications like long diagonal cross hatching and use rulers that aren’t much bigger than my hand for my day to day ruler work.

This panel was designed to be cut up

This is a quilt from Cindy. She made it for her friend to take with her to Chemo treatments. Purple and Green are her favorite colors. Cindy found a fabulous panel called What Cancer Cannot Do from Block Party Studios. She quilted this with a pantograph called Honey Drops. She also chose a Minky backing fabric and quilted it without batting. This made the quilt incredibly drippy and snuggly while still being quite lightweight. What a sweet gift for someone who could use the support!

Valentine’s Day in our January Review

Colleen made this beauty using Melissa Mortenson’s All the Hearts Block of the month pattern. You’ll notice that Colleen didn’t follow Melissa’s pattern exactly. That is the beauty of quilting.  She made this quilt for her granddaughter who was born on Valentine’s Day and she made it to suit her perfectly. She rented our APQS Lucey long arm with the Intelliquilter so she could quilt a pantograph called Hippi Love. I just think the wee blossoms in the corners of some of the hearts and the flourishes add an extra pop to the quilting and all those hearts. 

Black and White Quilt for a Wedding

This quilt is a large one! Starla told me that she just kept adding rows because she didn’t think it looked big enough. It’s big enough, Starla! This King sized quilt is for her son’s wedding. He asked for a black and white quilt and that is what she made him. I never would have thought that cream could be used as a pop, but I think it does. It adds some dimension to an otherwise two tone quilt. Starla quilted this with free motion squiggles. With all the drama in the different prints, I think it really was the best choice.

Split Rail Fence inspired at Disney World

Inspiration can come from the craziest places. This quilt was inspired by a Lion King sign at Disney World. It is a batik split rail fence where the outside edge changes direction and color. Sally made this for her son and quilted it with the IQ on Lucey. She chose a pattern called Hourglass. It adds some lovely texture to this quilt with all of its curves and points, subtle and alluring. A great addition for our January review!

Memorial Quilt for a Caregiver

Memorial Quilts are awesome. They are sweet reminders of lives that have passed. All of the plaids in this quilt were scraps from shirts used in memorial quilts from people who were at a care facility. Joy makes memorial quilts for the families of these people when they pass. This quilt is made of remnants from those quilts. She is giving it to one of the nurses who works there and cared for these people. What a wonderful gift. She quilted it with an all over meander. I really like the on point blocks and the pieced border.

We got to see a lot of quilts this month and were only able to show a few in our January review. We saw a couple of late Christmas quilts, and several Valentines Quilts. In February, I hope to see green and spring themed quilts. We could use some sun after all of this snow! Stay warm out there and keep quilting. And connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We love to see what y’all been working on. It inspires us, too!

And then you’d reevaluate your life choices as you realize that your pattern will require a BUNCH of these little birds in the air. But… what if I told you I found a way to make them FOUR AT A TIME!!!!

Seriously, I can’t tell you how excited we all were at Quilted Joy to figure this out. It saves so much time and gives a beautiful traditional block new wings!

Because we could make them four at a time, I used them in the border of my new Songbird Stars quilt! Don’t you love how it frames out the center blocks?

And, speaking of those center blocks… those are ALSO made from four at a time Birds in the Air units but these are made much bigger and in a different color way. They are the momma birds! I crowned each out with half square triangles and a plain square.

The result is that the ENTIRE center of this quilt is made from one block- it is just rotated differently to give the look of the two different starts. Isn’t that FABULOUS? Can you tell I’m in love with this quilt?

I couldn’t wait to show my Songbird Stars quilt and birds in the air blocks to Sara on the Love of Quilting set. It is so fun to surprise her with a technique she isn’t expecting.

Keep your eye out for our the latest Love of Quilting episodes and the Songbird Stars quilt on your local PBS station. If you don’t get it on your PBS station, you can buy an online subscription to the series here.

Fabric Folding Pen

Looking to improve your piecing accuracy? This pen is magic. The solution is a softener that helps seams lay down incredibly flat- even stacked seams! This pen changed how I piece! Plus, since you only use a couple of drops of the solution, it lasts a LONG time!

Thread Stem Tool

I love using cones of thread instead of spools. It is so economical! But if you have a sit down domestic sewing machine that won’t accommodate big cones… this simple, inexpensive adapter is what you need to easily feed the thread off a big cone and up into your sewing machine. Simple tool- big results.

Hugo’s Amazing Tape

This stuff is super helpful in my studio. I use it most often to wrap around thread to tame it so I don’t have a bazillion thread tales running loose in my drawers and shelves.

Alex Anderson’s 4-in-1 Essential Sewing Tool

What can’t this thing do?!? It is a seam ripper (in case a friend needs one), a stiletto (for those pointy bits under your needles), a presser (to smush seams down quickly), and a turner (to poke out the corners). So useful!

Ideal Seam Gauge and Ideal Seam Guides

Figuring out where that dang scant quarter inch is on your machine can be so hard! This tool comes with a seam gauge so you KNOW it is right and it has a seam guide that pops down onto your machine.

Studio 180 Piecing Rulers

These rulers… I swear by them. I love them all but especially the Tucker Trimmer. It is my most used, most helpful ruler when trimming up my pieced units before sewing the rows together in a block. It has strong diagonal lines for alignment and clear guidelines. I have to contain myself when I see the inventor of these rulers at a quilt show. I’m a HUGE fan girl.

Cat Head Pins

Let me say that again… CAT HEAD PINS!!! Adorable!!!!

Zirkel Magnetic Pin Holder

I love how I can flick my pins in the general direction of my Zirkel and the magnet just sucks the pin right in. Plus, when I drop a pin I can wave this over the floor and BOOM- that pin flies right up where it belongs.

Drawing Wheels

When I’m making design decisions for my quilting plan with rulers, these drawing wheels are incredibly important. You don’t need them for straight edge machine quilting rulers but you do for anything else. When drawing out your quilting plan on paper you’ll use these wheels to add the 1/4″ that the hopping foot adds to a ruler. If you don’t use something like this when playing on paper the ruler you think will work WON’T give you the right size when you take it to the longarm.

Aqua Eraser Pen

LOVE this thing! You fill it with water and it has a felt top point. It makes removing any registration lines/dots you make with a blue water erasable pen or a purple air erasable pen come out easily. If I have to do significant marking before quilting, then I’ll use a water spray bottle or dunk the quilt. But for the more casual marks/dots/hash marks… this is what I use to remove the marks.

Cornerstones on Charmaine’s Quilt

As I said the sashing jumped out at me first so that is where I started. I noticed that the cornerstones along with the corners of the blocks created a square that framed out the on point square in the cornerstone. In order to help with cohesion of the sashing to the blocks, I decided that I wanted to bring in the hourglass units from the blocks into the center of the cornerstones. So after outlining and filling in the hourglass, I then outlined the pieced part of the cornerstones. I included phantom corners to really pop that square effect.

Moving out from there, I echoed that center square out into the sashing where it lines up with the piecing of the blocks. That makes the outermost square of our cornerstone. I would have stopped there, but I was afraid the space just inside the outside square was too large, so I decided it needed one more time around with an octagon shape.  Those additional diagonal lines also help with cohesion as I used them again in the sashing and blocks.

Sashing

The sashing was simpler. I stitched inside the seams along the top and bottom and then created longer diagonal lines from each corner across to the midpoint of each line and back to the corner. This created an argyle look that I further enhanced by filling in the outer triangles. Here I would have to break my thread. I try to make designs that flow from one end to the other without too much backtracking, but sometimes it just can’t be helped. And on Charmaine’s quilt, it couldn’t be helped.

The Blocks

The blocks are much of the same design as the rest of Charmaine’s quilt. I didn’t know what to call these lines, but maybe we can refer to them as diamond cuts, because they do remind me of the facets that are cut into diamonds and create a diamond shape. By putting these diamond cuts in all the triangles, I was able to wrap around the entire block and touch every square. In the center square, I added another hourglass block. In the outside squares I created, with filler, a suspended corner that lines up with the three other squares to frame the larger square on point square in the center of each block.

How she did it

I had a lot of fun designing this quilt for Charmaine and she did use a big part of what I came up with in her finished quilt. She decided to do her sashing a little differently, which also looks really pretty. It makes more of those diamond like facets in the sashing. She also decided to do fewer diamond cuts around the outside of the block which kept the quilt from being quilted quite as densely as I had originally thought. It turned out absolutely lovely. You should be very proud.  

If you want a chance for me to design your quilt, post your tops in our Quilted Joy Clubhouse Facebook group. I’m always on the lookout for the next top. There are so many of them out there that it is hard sometimes to pick just one. We’d love to see what you are working on in any case, and the feedback from your fellow quilters can help you decide how to quilt it even if I can’t. Happy Quilting!

Our first Exclusive Quilt Kit!

Nocturnal Forest is our first exclusive quilt kit with an original pattern designed by Angela Huffman. The piecing uses common blocks and shapes like half square triangles, nine patches, and hourglass blocks. The easy to follow instructions in the included pattern will show how to quickly make some of these common shapes, making the pattern perfect for beginner quilters and advanced quilters looking for a quick project.

The quilt’s center block uses the Nocturnal Fabric Panel designed by Gingiber for Moda Fabrics. This panel has four equal sections containing an animal drawn by Stacie Bloomfield. Our quilt pattern only uses one of these corners, so you can pick which of your favorite forest friends you want to use. Will your quilt have trotting foxes? The inquisitive rabbits? The roaming bear? And don’t forget the patchwork owl. We also carry some of the beautiful precuts from the same Nocturnal fabric line!

Try one of the three suggested quilting patterns

While designing this quilt, we took special care to consider how you might want to quilt it. You’ll notice there’s oodles of open, negative space. These areas are perfect for showing off your free motion quilting skills! And for those with chronic “stand and stare” syndrome, we’ve also included ideas for how to quilt Nocturnal Forest in the pattern! So often, quilt patterns just say “quilt as desired,” but that phrase always leaves us wondering what are our options?

In the Nocturnal Forest quilt pattern we have included three potential quilting designs for three different skill levels: beginner, confident beginner, and more advanced. No matter how you feel about your skill, there is something you can try. You can even pick and choose design elements from each of the three quilting suggestions to create a design that’s unique to your skills and style! Be sure to watch the video above to see Angela’s quilting design process for our Nocturnal Forest quilt sample.

Finish your quilt with backing and thread from Quilted Joy

The Nocturnal Forest Quilt Kit comes with all the fabric you’ll need to make your quilt, the pattern, and quilting suggestions. But why stop there? We wanted to make sure this would be an easy project to kick off your new year, but also an easy project for you to finish! We’re offering this kit in two options: the standard kit with all the items mentioned above, or the deluxe kit with two machine quilting rulers. The included rulers are perfect for quilting your Nocturnal Forest quilt with the suggested quilting designs in the pattern!

And because we love our thread, we also have a coordinating Nocturnal Forest Thread Bundle! This bundle includes the three Glide threads and one Affinity variegated thread Angela used to quilt her Nocturnal Forest quilt. We made sure to choose a mix of threads that will either blend or shine well with the fabrics. And of course, you can’t quilt your quilt without a backing fabric! We also have a Nocturnal Forest Backing Kit available with an adorable grey owl print fabric. You won’t even need to seam your backing fabric together, it’s the perfect size as is for both sit down and stand up longarm quilters!

Come take a walk in the moonlight with us as you create the Quilted Joy exclusive pattern, Nocturnal Forest! Get your own kit before they’re all gone. And be sure to post your Nocturnal Forest Quilt on social too! Use #quiltedjoyfmq on Facebook and Instagram, or post your pictures in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse so we can all see your progress!

So often quilting is a solo activity. It’s so special that Chris and her sister, Tam, have this well-organized studio to play together in. It’s not often we see a space with two longarms, an APQS Millie and an APQS Lucey, side by side! It’s even more inspiring that Chris and Tam are welcoming their quilt group into their studio for monthly meetings.

We wanted to get to know Chris a little more after our Looky Loo Studio Tour, so we asked her a few other questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?  

Chris: About 45 years

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting? 

Chris: Eight years

QJ: How have you grown your skills? 

Chris: Practice. Videos. Books. More practice. Private lessons. Karen McTavish, Kelly Kline. 

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you? 

Chris: What design to quilt. I love free motion. No computer. Seldom do pantographs. 

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space? 

Chris: Sharing with my sister. All the room we have. 

QJ: What would you change about your space if you could? 

Chris: Really nothing. Maybe running water and a bathroom.

QJ: Why did you choose an APQS machine?

Chris: I first had a Handi quilter I purchased in 2004. I hated it. I have since given it away, and help them quilt. But I love APQS. Ease of use. Consistency. Support. The helpful quilt community on Facebook.

QJ: Do you have a computer on your machine? 

Chris: No.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter? 

Chris: Study. View videos. Take lessons. Practice on a simple quilt, not just muslin.

QJ: What quilt project are you currently working on?

Chris: A wholecloth quilt that Karen McTavish helped me design. Quilting quilts of valor for our quilt guild.

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style? 

Chris: We do a lot of English paper piecing. I like difficult quilts that challenge me. Quilts that give me a lot of negative space to work in. 

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread? 

Chris: Quilter’s Dream. Since I used to live near Superior Threads in Utah, I use mostly So Fine and Bottom Line prewounds. But access is getting difficult. I’m considering switching to Glide and Fil-tec bobbins.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget?

Chris: For quilting, rulers of all shapes and sizes. For sewing, probably my rotary cutter. The most used tool in my sewing room

QJ: Do you quilt for others? 

Chris: Mostly friends, charity quilts and family.

QJ: What are three things you’re loving that you’d recommend to your bestie?  

Chris: Find things you love to do. Study. Practice. Find like minded friends. And don’t compare yourself to anyone else. I’m into sewing and quilting. Knitting. Crochet. Bird photography. 

Thanks again to Chris for letting us look around!

Here is a renter round up of some of the beautiful quilts that we saw this year. If you don’t see yours here, just know that it was impossible to pick my favorites and there were just way too many to share in one post.

Christmas Sampler between friends

     This is either Jennifer or Anna Maria’s quilt.  These ladies are best friends and often come in together to quilt.  So who ever made it, you did a great job!  This is a fun Christmas sampler quilt. All the blocks are from Lori Holt’s  Vintage Christmas book, but Jennifer had fun playing with the border a little by adding the trees around as well as the bow on top.  She quilted it with the Holly Ribbon Pantograph.  It is a great holiday panto that is quick to learn and easy to go on.  Definitely a holiday favorite this year.

Judy’s Addition to the Renter Round Up

This is the quilt from Judy Pope.  I’ve looked all over for the pattern name, but couldn’t find it.  It’s so pretty in its simplicity.  I love the pastel colors that match that border fabric so well.  I also like the quilting pattern she chose to use.  It’s one of my favorites.  It is called Keryn’s Bellflower.  I feel it’s whimsical and classic at the same time, sort of Pennsylvania Dutch.  

Two Tone Easy Hunter’s Star

This is called an Easy Hunter’s Star by Spruce Crafts.  It was made by Diane this last fall.  There is something to say about two color quilts.  The lines come out so crisp and clean.  It makes for a very attractive quilt that is not too flashy.  She quilted this with a great panto called Calder.  It is a little bit modern and easy to learn.  

Look at all the points!

Our Renter Round Up wouldn’t be complete with this one. It’s from Cheryl.  I believe she said it was a block of the month she did a long time ago.  We all have those projects that hang around a little.  It’s a beautiful Civil War era reproduction quilt.  Look at all those Half Square Triangles.  This would have been a real challenge to complete.  It is very lovely though, and Cheryl did a great job.  She quilted this with the Intelliquilter.  She chose a design called Chocolate Leaves which has some lovely swirls mixed in with the leaves.

Soft and Cuddly for Christmas

This last quilt is the most recent.  This was made by Sherri from a kit called “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.  It is using the flannel line of fabrics Bonnie Sullivan created for Maywood fabrics called Snowy Days.  Isn’t it cute?  And cuddly!  It is flannel front and back.  Sherri quilted this with the Holly Ribbons panto.  It turned out great and will be a fun addition to her Christmas decor.  She’s keeping this one which is a unique thing for her.  She gives away most of her quilts to her children and grandchildren.  I have a feeling, they may ask for it anyway if she’s not careful.  

That was the Rental Roundup of last year.  As you can see 2021 did have some upsides if only with the quilts that we got to see this year.  Keep them coming ladies and gentlemen.  We love to see all the creativity and skill that our renters have. And from all of us at Quilted Joy, we wish you a prosperous and joyous new year.  May your bobbin ever be full and your rotary blades stay sharp!

Of course, they could be used in small sewing projects but I was interested in how I might be able to use them in more unique ways.

APQS asked me to write up my top 10 ten ways to use up leftover batting scraps and then featured it on their blog.

How Do You Use Your Leftover Batting Scraps?

Take a look and let me know if there are any other ways to use leftover batting you’ve thought of as well!

How do you choose what batting to use for your quilt? During our monthly Quilted Joy Clubhouse Livestream we took a look at all the things to consider when choosing batting. Take a look at this video where Angela walks you through it!

If you are looking for batting for your next project, don’t forget that our Quilt Fairies have gathered all of our favorites over in the Quilted Joy shop!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to machine quilt grid designs with a floral theme. Watch the video below to see Angela’s floral grid designs, and so much more!

Grid Designs for Floral Quilts

During this Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting, we looked at two floral grid designs. The first flower grid fits within groups of four. Each flower will have four petals with a petal in each square of your grid. While quilting your petals, think of a flattened heart, a molar tooth, or even a four leaf clover like someone mentioned in the chat! We also debated whether we prefer a single vein or two. Most people seemed to prefer two. What do you think?

Our second floral design has a more baroque, old world floral look. Or as someone said in the comments, it looks like a gnome’s head! This design looks beautiful stacked up in a block or it can be adapted for a border as well. This is one that you’ll want to practice on paper a few times to make sure you’ve memorized the path before taking it to your machine.

Looky Loo Tour with Gail

We had so much fun in our Looky Loo tour with Gail Murray from Alberta, Canada. Gail’s quilting and crafting studio is set up in her basement. The first thing you’ll see when you walk down the stairs into her basement is her APQS Millie on a 12 foot table. Her machine is set up along the length of her basement and she has plenty of room to get behind it for loading and pantograph quilting. And who wouldn’t love the gorgeous wall of thread displayed behind her machine too? It’s hard to choose my favorite feature of Gail’s studio. It could be the baskets of fabric hanging from the ceiling, or maybe it’s the bookshelves on casters, or the peel and stick wallpaper on the risers of her stairs! It’s too hard to choose! You can also tell Gail loves organizing with all her bookshelves and labelled drawers. She also highly recommends a label maker for labeling all your storage too! Thanks again to Gail for giving us a tour of her fabulous quilting studio!

New Arrivals – Tula Pink’s Saturdaze Wide Backing Fabrics

How fun are these new 108″ wide backing fabrics from Tula Pink? These are the Saturdaze 108″ Wide Quilt Backing Fabrics by Tula Pink.

The yummy and bright colors are like candy and the fabric is silky soft. Don’t you love the playful pops of radiating rainbows? The Saturdaze wide backs are part of Tula’s new Daydreamer fabric line. Just like everything Tula, we don’t expect these to be around long. So don’t wait to order your Saturdaze backing fabrics!

How Would You Quilt It? Sheryl’s Scrappy Quilt

For this month’s How Would You Quilt It portion of our Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting, we looked at how Angela might quilt Sheryl’s fun scrappy quilt. Scrappy quilts and quilts with busy prints can be challenging to create a quilting design. Your quilting can get lost in all those colors and prints. Sometimes that’s exactly what you want, but if you’re custom quilting you don’t want all your hard work to go unnoticed!

Angela thought this quilt would be perfect to treat as a giant grid! Think of each block of the quilt as a section of your grid. You can fill it with any of the designs we’ve discussed during our 2021 Year of the Grid. During the meeting, Angela drew our baroque floral/gnome design from earlier in each block. Depending on the size of the blocks, Sheryl may need to fill them in a bit more with echoing, curls, or any other simple filler. This is a fun quilt and we can’t wait to see how Sheryl chooses to quilt it!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

Join Us Next Month!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be January 5, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be starting our Year of Rulers! If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Join Angela Huffman as she wraps up the Quilted Joy Clubhouse’s Year of the Grid! For our final program, we’ll look at lovely garden grid designs that are perfect for your next floral quilt.
• Take a tour of Gail’s quilting studio! Gail loves organization and even the least organized will be inspired by some of her space saving hacks!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday December 1, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the video’s comments too. See ya there!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to machine quilt checkerboard designs. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt checkerboards, and so much more!

Machine Quilting Checkerboards

In our last Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting, we learned how to quilt ghost grids. The first squiggly design we learned during that meeting is a lot like the checkerboard designs we learned in this meeting. What sets a checkerboard design apart from the ghost grids, and many of the other grid designs we’ve learned during our Year of the Grid, is that we’re always going to start by stitching out our grid first. So go ahead and grab your favorite straight line ruler when you’re quilting checkerboard designs!

During our meeting we looked at three checkerboard designs: a variation on the wiggly worm design we learned last month, the traditional basketweave, and a patchwork inspired checkerboard. With all of these designs, be mindful of where you begin and end in each square of your checkerboard grid so you can easily travel to the next space. Try out these designs on your next quilt and be sure to share pictures of them with us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or with #quiltedjoyfmq so we can find your pictures!

Looky Loo Tour with Chris Pigott

For our Looky Loo Tour this month we visited with Chris Pigott. She and her sister converted their oversized garage into their ultimate crafting space, decked out with two APQS longarm machines! Isn’t this the perfect shared quilting space? We have major storage envy for that long wall of shelves for all their crafting needs. And we loved Chris’s final words of wisdom from our tour “Find something you love to do. Study it. Learn it. And just do it and have fun at it!” It sounds like we need that quote printed and framed for the Quilted Joy studio!

New Arrivals – Gnome for Christmas!

Are you the type of person who starts breaking out the Christmas decor right after Halloween or do you prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving? For those of you who are ready for all the Christmas they can get, we have the perfect project for you! Take a look at this adorable Gnome for Christmas panel!

This fabric panel was design by Tara Reed for Riley Blake Designs and is a soft and cozy flannel! All of the little gnomes getting ready for Christmas are adorable with their long beards and big noses. We also have a Gnome for Christmas quilt kit featuring this panel and other flannel fabrics from the same fabric line. This quilt kit is super easy and perfect for a beginner!

How Would You Quilt It? Karen’s Lattice Quilt

For this month’s How Would You Quilt It? portion of our meeting, Karen’s quilt was our lucky quilt submission from the Quilted Joy Clubhouse group on Facebook! Karen’s quilt is a really lovely and very traditional quilt with the same block repeated throughout the quilt.

The fabrics in Karen’s quilt have lots of polka dots, and busy prints like this can sometimes hide the quilting. So Angela created a design that would add structure and honor all of Karen’s hard piecing work. Watch the video to see Angela’s full quilting design plan!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

Join Us Next Month!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be December 1, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at garden grids! If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Our Year of the Grid continues in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! Learn all about checkerboard grid designs plus more as Angela continues exploring different tips & tricks in her Year of the Grid series!
• Take a tour of Chris’s quilting studio! Chris and her sister converted their oversized garage into the ultimate crafter’s paradise!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday November 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the video’s comments too. See ya there!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to machine quilt ghost grids. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt ghost grids, and so much more!

Machine Quilting Ghost Grids

We’ve looked at a variety of grids throughout our Year of the Grid. Some have been super forgiving while others need a little help from a ruler to maintain your symmetry. The fun of ghost grids is the grid structure disappears after quilting the design, so in the end all you need is the suggestion of a grid!

During our live meeting we looked at two ghost grids: a checkerboard ghost grid and a wavy ghost grid. To make the checkerboard grid, we’re quilting a wormy or refrigerator coil design in every other square of our grid. Watch the video above to see the path Angela uses for this design. Be sure to join us for the November 2021 Clubhouse meeting for even more on quilting checkerboard grids!

For our second swishy design, Angela used her magic rule of three for traveling. The rule of three means that if we echo a design three times, you’ll end in a different place than you started and it allows you to move forward in the quilt path. For this ghost grid, Angela quilted three headbands or rainbows in alternating blocks. Some of our live viewers said this design looked like bananas or even could become Halloween pumpkins.

Don’t the ghost grid designs look fun after Angela washes away the blue grid lines? Try these designs in your quilts and share pictures of them in our Quilted Joy Clubhouse group on Facebook!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy!

Halloween is right around the corner, so we were so excited for the arrival of our new Here we Glow Halloween fabric panel! This Halloween themed fabric panel features a haunted house and it’s spooky inhabitants of ghosts, a mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, and more. The best part of this panel is that the white areas glow in the dark! So all those ghosts, stars, the checkerboard border and more all glow in the dark. How fun! Wouldn’t this make a quick and fun Halloween project to bring out each year for the kiddos? You can order your own Here we Glow panel here. We only have a limited supply available, so be sure to order soon.

We love using panels to practice free motion quilting designs. This Here We Glow panel would be perfect for trying out some of the Halloween free motion quilting designs we’re currently sharing with our email subscribers. Click here to receive our 7 days of Halloween free motion quilting worksheets in your email inbox!

How Would You Quilt It? Charmaine’s Love Shack Quilts Mystery Quilt

For the How Would You Quilt It portion of our meeting, Angela shared her quilting plan for Charmaine’s quilt! Charmaine said this quilt was a mystery quilt designed by Love Shack Quilts. Angela was particularly drawn to the roman tile design of the quilt blocks.

Watch the video above to see Angela’s custom quilting design plan highlighting the secondary designs within the quilt. Thanks for sharing your quilt Charmaine! We can’t wait to see the completed quilt in the QJ Clubhouse!

Join Us Next Month!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be November 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at checkerboard grid designs! If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Learn all about not-so-scary Ghost Grids plus more as Angela continues exploring different tips & tricks in her Year of the Grid series!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday October 6, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the video’s comments too. See ya there!

We’re looking for part time Quilt Fairies to join our team in the Louisville, KY store! Your day to day tasks would involve helping our incredible customers pick out fabric, thread, and notions for their beautiful projects. You’ll cheer them on and celebrate their accomplishments as you ring up their purchases. If you already know about quilting… fabulous! But, we don’t expect you to know anything about longarm quilting. Click here to learn more and apply!

First up in the renter roundup: A Bright 16 Patch

This is a fun quilt by Leann. The bold gray lines behind the bright sixteen patches are what catch my eye. I love the effect. The contrast between the colors and the gray allow that secondary on point design to really pop out. Leann decided to quilt this with an all over meander. It is a great way to add quilting without fighting your piecing design. Great job, Leann.

One Block Wonder Snoopy Style

I’ve seen a lot of really beautiful one block wonders, but I’d never seen a truly cute and fun one before this walked in the door. Shawn brought this so she could quilt it with our Intelliquilter. The pattern is called Hippie love and I think fits the vibe of the quilt completely. One block wonders are often made of only one fabric, and this clearly had several. I love it when people take a block or concept and change it up to make something unique. Of course the panel in the middle is perfect. And to finish it off, the back was Snoopy flannel.

Block Sampler for Quarantine

The last one I wanted to highlight is from Cindy. It is the Pandemic Sampler quilt the Busy Lady Quilt Shop in Mt. Washington, KY offered in 2020. I believe that Cindy used her stash and created this beautiful quilt. I’ve always loved scrappy quilts. They can be so much fun. This is one way to keep yourself busy during a quarantine! She quilted with a super fast and easy and oh so cute pantograph that we have here called Calder. I think the points and swirls look great.

It’s always fun to see what other people have put together. It can give us inspiration for our next quilt. And sometimes its just fun to see pretty things. That is why we go to quilt shows after all. Unless you’re like me and like to check out the vendors as well. You can always join us in our own online quilt guild called Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook. Or you can connect with us on Instagram and share a picture. We’d love to see what you’ve been working on. In the meantime, I’ll see you at our next Renter Roundup.

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to machine quilt clamshells. Clamshells don’t just have to be a series of arcs. Let’s look at ways to dress up this traditional design. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt clamshells, and so much more!

How to Machine Quilt Clamshells

In the August 2021 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting, we learned that a clamshell is essentially a half circle quilted on a grid. Those clamshells can be so much more than just those half circles! During our main program we looked at ways to “stuff” our clamshells with a variety of designs. You can put any design you love inside your clamshell’s body. In the video above, we looked at lollipops, snowflakes, curls, and more! Once you’ve chosen a design to fill your clamshell with, you’ll next want to consider how you’ll enter the clamshell. Some designs will look better entering from the top, while others will want to enter from the bottom. Play around with your favorite stuffed clamshells to find your preferred method!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy – Kimberbell Silky Solids Fat Quarter Bundle

Are you becoming a Kimberbell fan like we are? Kimberbell designs really gorgeous and fabulous machine embroidery patterns for quilts, home decor, and more. We recently added their Silky Solids Fat Quarter Bundle to our online store. This bundle comes with 12 fat quarters from their luscious Silky Solids fabric line. And because fabric just isn’t enough for us, there’s also a perfectly complementing Silky Solids Glide thread bundle too! Find these and all our other Kimberbell products in the online store!

How Would You Quilt It? Denise’s Modern Triangles Quilt

This month’s lucky quilt for the How Would You Quilt It portion of our meeting was Denise’s Modern Triangles quilt! I loved the almost ombre effect of her triangles changing from red to blue.

There were so many ways you could quilt Denise’s gorgeous quilt. Because of the way the fabric colors are changing throughout the quilt, I decided to treat each triangle individually with a lowercase “e” and s-curves. As you watch my design process, you’ll quickly see that I treated all those triangles as their own triangular grid!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be October 6, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at ghost grids – perfect for Halloween! If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

On Dec 28, 2019, I met my love on the top of a mountain outside of Asheville, North Carolina. We had a small gathering of family members with us for the big event and our children were our wedding party.

RocketMan played the guitar for my processional.

BirdMan walked me down the aisle.

GooseyGirl was my Maid of Honor along with my new stepdaughter. Let’s call her BunnyLady.

My new stepson was the best man. We’ll call him SoccerMan.

It was perfection and one of the greatest days of my life. I’m incredibly lucky.

To celebrate I decided to design a quilt that spoke to the special day and the special mountain top location. Meet Blue Ridge Love!

This quilt is made from a modified Delectable Mountain block. The difficulty with that block is that the block is a rectangle and not a square. I needed it to be a square so I could spin it and create the spiky star you see.

Melanie is our lead Quilt Fairy here at Quilted Joy and she is also the sewing specialist I turn to for help with difficult patterns and piecing. She is incredibly talented and she did all the math to figure out how to trim down the units for the Delectable Mountain block so it became a square! She is so clever!

Finally I added a machine applique curve to the “sky” side of the delectable mountain block to add some curves to all those straight/spikey edges.

And don’t miss the floating pieced border. Those are simply quarter square triangle units! That’s it! By having one of the triangles inside the quarter square triangle unit be the same fabric as the outer border… it floats! So very, very, very simple! Just my style!

Oh, and recently I went to the Kentucky State Fair and stumbled upon a smaller version of my Blue Ridge Love quilt! It knocked me over! I never expected to see one of my designs out in the wild like that. So FABULOUS!

Blue Ridge Love was in the January/February 2021 edition of Love of Quilting magazine. You can get the downloadable pattern here. And, here’s the preview of the episode from the Fons & Porter Love of Quilting Show!

How to Quilt Chevron Sound Waves

First, you need to break your border down into smaller segments. I used a chalk pencil to mark triangles, or chevrons, all along my border. You can use a ruler if you are more comfortable with that, or you can just wing it! Starting on the left side and moving towards the right, you want to fill the triangles you just created with squiggly lines. Start small, and as you move along to the top point of the triangle, your squiggles should get taller. Then shrink them down again to finish out the triangle. Keep moving along the border to fill in each triangle with our wiggly worms. Once you reach the end, head straight up the border to fill in the top spaces with the same spaghetti lines. Head backwards along your border to fill in the negative space, creating a fun chevron look on your quilt! When you are finished, make sure to erase your chalk lines. You are left with the whisper of a triangle as your waves move down your border.

Chevron Sound Waves can be anything you want them to be!

Just because I named this border design “sound waves” doesn’t mean that is the only thing it can represent. Worms, spaghetti, or anything else you can think of is perfect! I think this border would be so fun on a juvenile quilt, with monsters or aliens or other little creatures. This border would also be really fun on a quilt with bee fabric, as it resembles honey dripping down the honeycomb.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt Chevron Sound Waves, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Our Year of the Grid continues in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! Get to know the traditional clamshell design and how you can dress it up to make a quilting design that’s uniquely you.
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday September 1, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the video’s comments too. See ya there!

During our monthly Quilted Joy Clubhouse meetings I spend a few minutes sharing how I might quilt a quilt shared in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook. For our November 2019 meeting, I showed how I would quilt Barbara’s Tula Pink All Stars quilt. Watch the video below to see how I might have quilted her quilt and read on below!

Getting Started

I noticed that this raccoon was in the center. If I connect the dots so to speak, we can put a frame around the raccoon. I can then continue with that same idea and put a frame around the frame. Now I want to do some free motion quilting and need to have a space to fill. So instead of just simple lines to create the frames, lets use two lines to create a bar between the circles. This I would fill with some wishbone or ribbon candy.

Finding a path among the polka dots

When I first get started, I don’t worry about how to connect my lines. I just want to get the ideas down of what I want the finished product to look like. But now I can see a path. To go forward and not end right back where I started I need to go back and forth an odd number of times. Draw one line to a circle, trace around the circle to where the second line starts and draw that line back to the starting circle. Now do the ribbon candy back to the new circle, where we can go all the way around the circle this time.

Because of the limitations of the batting, there is a minimum amount of quilting that must be done. These circles need to have some quilting done inside because of their size. So I would then drop into the circle and outline the animal inside of it, maybe even some of the flowers, too. Just follow the lines on the fabric. But I would be sure that I am ending at the other side of the circle where I am now ready to create the filled bar to the next circle in line.

Make the corners pop

I still have to do something with the corners. So why don’t we draw some rays out from the polka dot in the center of my last frame. One of the things that you can do that will add dimension and can really make a pop is to add a design behind the piecing. What I mean is to draw the line to the circle, but then continue it on the other side without drawing it across the circle itself. You would also want to outline the circle as well as inside of it just like all the others.

So that is how I would quilt Barbara’s Tula Pink All Stars quilt. I like the frame of the quilting in contrast to the piecing that doesn’t have a border or frame of its own. Barbara actually chose to quilt it a different way. Her way is beautiful, too. Just showing that there are many different ways that you can quilt a quilt and one way may not be the “right” way over another.

Be sure to post pictures of your quilts in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse Facebook group. We’d love to see what you’ve been working on. And then your quilt could be picked to be the next “How I would quilt it” quilt.

How to Quilt the Seedling Border

Let’s play with leaves! To start your seedling border, swoop down to your border’s base. Swoop back up to make the first leaf. Once you get to the cleft of the leaf, or near the middle of your border, you want to echo the shape of your larger leaf inside the line you already created. This shape will make a little leaf. Mirror that motion on the other side to have a pair of little leaves. Head back up, then down to create your outside leaf. To connect your leaves, create a small peak at the base of your border. Onto the next one! Continue quilting this same design along the length of your border.

The Seedling Border is versatile!

The Seedling border is made with swooping leaf designs, which makes it a perfect match for floral or leafy fabrics. Try the Seedling out on a gardening quilt or an autumnal quilt. I think the pair of little leaves resemble maple seed pods as they helicopter down to the ground!

With a design like this, the Seedling can be whatever you choose it to be! Maybe you think it looks like leaves, and maybe you don’t – that’s okay! Another quilt where the Seedling would fit nicely is a themed Mardi Gras or New Orleans quilt. The design looks a little like a Mardi Gras mask – don’t you think?

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the seedling border, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to machine quilt clamshells. Clamshells are a traditional quilting design that you’ll find in both machine and hand quilting. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt clamshells, and so much more!

How to Machine Quilt Clamshells

Let’s take a look at a super traditional grid-based quilting design – the clamshell! Clamshells have been around for years and years and have deep roots in the hand quilting world. Clamshells easily move into the machine quilting world, and it’s a design I like to have fun with!

At their core, clamshells are just arcs that span across the width of two sections of your grid. To quilt the clamshells, you’ll want to grab your favorite circle and straight edge rulers – I like the ProCircle and ProMini rulers by Quilter’s Groove. I always start at the bottom of my grid and work my way up. Using my ProCircle ruler, I line up the center reference lines with the bottom of the grid and quilt a half circle across two squares of my grid. When you’re at the edge of your grid, grab your straight edge ruler and move up to the next row. Be sure to watch the video above to see how I travel through the grid.

In your quilting, you can use just the clamshell shape, or if that’s too simple there are loads of ways to dress them! In the video above we added cat whiskers to either side of the clamshell. Be sure to join me for the September 2021 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting to see even more ideas for how to personalize your clamshells!

Looky Loo Tour with Janet

Janet Selnes of Wisconsin was kind enough to give us a tour of her sewing and quilting studio! She set up her sewing machine, accessories, and APQS Lucey on a 12 foot table in a spare bedroom in her home. Her APQS Lucey fits perfectly along the length of her room. And we didn’t talk about it, but I love the big floor lamp she set behind the table to really light up her quilting space! Thanks again Janet for letting us take a peek into your sewing room!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy – Low Shank Rulers!

Machine quilting rulers can be a game changer for your quilting abilities! There are so many incredible designs that a ruler can make possible or easier. For stand up longarm quilting, it’s super important to only use 1/4″ thick acrylic rulers with your ruler quilting foot (on APQS longarm machines, the ruler foot is the foot that comes with your machine). The ruler foot paired with the thicker ruler will prevent you from accidentally sliding your ruler under your needle while quilting. And trust me, you don’t want your needle hitting that ruler. It’s not a fun sound or feeling!

Some sit down sewing machines aren’t designed to have a traditional 1/4″ high ruler quilting foot. Instead, they have what’s called a low shank ruler foot. If you have one of these machines, you’ll only want to use low shank rulers. And here at Quilted Joy, we’re now offering a selection of low shank quilting rulers!

Currently we have the low shank rulers designed by Angela Walters and Creative Grids. These rulers will help you quilt a variety of specialty designs. The Shelly Low Shank ruler can be used to quilt clamshells just like we quilted earlier in the meeting. Or the Elvira Low Shank ruler is great for quilting two inch continuous curves like we learned in the January 2021 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting. These rulers are a lot of fun, and we’re excited to see all the quilting designs our low shank quilters will come up with!

How Would You Quilt It? Joy’s Patriotic Quilt

I think the How Would You Quilt It portion of our Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting is probably the most popular among our Clubhouse members! This month we looked at how I might quilt Joy’s quilt. I had fun creating a design that added more structure and negatives space to her quilt.

Would you have quilted this quilt differently? I’d love to hear your ideas too! Join us over in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse to share your own design ideas for the unquilted tops posted in the group!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be September 1, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be continuing our clamshell quilting with more fun ways to dress them up. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

Layna’s colorful diamond

This is Layna’s quilt. I believe the whole quilt is nothing but half square triangles. I could see this being a great layer cake creation. What makes this stand out is how she arranged the the black halves of her half square triangles to create the radiating squares out from the center. I like how she grouped the colors as well. If they were more randomly mixed up it still would have been a striking quilt, but I think it would have had a more scrappy feel.

She quilted it with a paper pantograph called Turbulence. This pantograph is large circular swirls which really contrasts the straight lines while complementing the circular nature of the squares. I think it was a great pick.

LeAnn’s Grid of Grids

LeAnn made this basic patch quilt. They are 36 patches with super skinny sashing, but each block is only made with two fabrics. She quilted this with our meander design board to cover it with quilting. I like the uniformity of fabrics within the individual blocks, but I also like how a couple of them are just a little more complicated. Do you see that some of the little blocks are made up of more little blocks? Great job, LeAnn!

Tammy’s Design Wall Creation

This may be the simplest of them all. This is a large piece of white fabric with five sewn stripes on one side. She then appliqued large rounded squares with smaller squares appliqued in their center. The swirly batik material Tammy chose draws to mind gem stones. Tammy created a great balance of colors and the alternating angle of the squares themselves adds some movement and form to the design. She quilted it with a design board we just call Spiral. We felt it added a more circular feeling to a very squarish quilt. I also like the texture it adds with the tight thin quilting. It’s a fun design for a great quilt.

If you are still learning and practicing some of your piecing skills, have no fear. There are a lot of possibilities out there that will allow you to create really stunning quilts without really complicated piecing. But I would recommend a design wall. Here at Quilted Joy, we have two design boards that are just foam board insulation panels wrapped with flannel. The boards can have pins stuck into them to help hold your pieces if they are too heavy for the flannel to hold them up. Then you can lay out your pieces and get the exact arrangement that will make your design pop. When you are all done, share a picture with us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! We’d love to see what you’ve been working on.

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Our Year of the Grid continues in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! Get to know the traditional clamshell design and how you can dress it up to make a quilting design that’s uniquely you.
• Take a tour of Janet’s quilting studio during our Looky Loo Studio Tour.
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday August 4, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

Doesn’t Roger have a fabulous set up for his sewing and quilting room? I’m so jealous that he has his APQS Millie on a 12 foot table set up along his window. I’m not sure how much work I’d actually get done if I had that pond view out my window. I might get distracted every time a bird flew by! Roger also has so many fabulous storage and organization solutions. I’m still waiting for his offer to come organize my sewing room!

We wanted to get to know Roger a little more, so we asked him a few questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?

Roger: For about 35 years

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting?

Roger: I started in July 2014

QJ: What longarm machine do you have and why did you choose it?

Roger: I got myself the APQS Millennium. I did a lot of research and found these machines to be rated high. I met a dealer in my local area, and she helped me get the machine and to start learning to use it.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

Roger: Mostly by doing hands on. I have been spending a lot of time researching sites like Quilted Joy and APQS that have tutorials and forums. YouTube is a wonderful resource to learn techniques. I would really like to attend some classes when that becomes possible again after the pandemic.

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

Roger: In the beginning it was getting the tension right. Now I am trying to do more custom work and to integrate my own designs. A challenge is deciding what designs to use when looking at a quilt.

QJ: Describe your studio and how you organize your longarm studio.

Roger: I have my studio in my loft. It is approximately 550 sq ft. I have the machine near the windows for the best light. I have three other sewing tables and machines. There is also a cutting area and an ironing center where I made a large table extension on the ironing board.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter?

Roger: Practice, practice, and more practice. Also, use the free classes, blogs, and forums available. Join a guild if you can and get to know your local quilting shops. They are a wealth of knowledge.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget or ruler right now?

Roger: I have a lot of rulers but am just starting to use them on my quilts. I just must get out there and start using them and practice. I also love my red snappers quilt holders on my longarm, so I do not have to pin the quilt. I learned about these early in my longarm career.

QJ: You have a quilting business called Heartfelt Quilts. How did you get into quilting for other people?

Roger: Joined a guild and worked my way up to being the VP. I would travel to quilting shops, introducing myself and giving them my cards and brochures. From there, I built a large customer base by word of mouth.

QJ: What is the best thing about quilting for others?

Roger: To see how happy, they are with the finished quilt. And to see how much I have grown in my skills as a Longarm quilter.

QJ: What is something you wish you had in your longarm studio to make things easier?

Roger: I would like to have a computer set up on the machine. That way, I would be able to design so many other patterns.

QJ: What are three things you’re loving that you’d recommend to your bestie?

1. The overhead lights in my sewing room.
2. Red Snappers for loading quilts on my longarm machine.
3. Clear food storage containers for organizing my pantry.

Thanks again to Roger for letting us take a look around his quilting studio! If you’d like to connect with Roger and see what he’s working on, you can find him on the Heartfelt Quilts Facebook page.

Our main program for this month’s meeting was a grid quilting design that has our adventurous ladybug on a roller coaster. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt this fun and forgiving design, and so much more!

Grid Quilting – Ladybug on a Roller Coaster

Throughout 2021 we’ve gone on lots of adventures with our ladybug friend in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse meetings. She’s travelled around the rooms of our home, she’s done the hokey pokey, she’s jumped off the high dive, and more! Now, we’re following our ladybug as she takes a roller coaster ride in our grid quilting. Of course, I’m just using the ladybug as a way to make grid quilting more fun, approachable, and memorable!

For this design, our ladybug is hopping on the big adult roller coaster – like the ones you’ll find at Cedar Point or King’s Island. She’s not riding those silly kid coasters, she’s riding roller coasters with those massive first hills that’ll scare you to death! To quilt your roller coaster in the grid, you’re going to quilt a big hill and slide back in. The key is the tall first hill and sliding back down. When you take this design through your grid, you’ll follow the same path through your (grid)house that we’ve been following throughout our Year of the Grid. Draw a nine patch on some paper and practice this design along with me! Be sure to watch the video to see how I used this design in a nine patch and a border.

Looky Loo Studio Tour – Courtney’s Bonus Room Update!

Courtney M. gave us a peek inside her sewing rooms for our Looky Loo Studio tour. She’s set up in her upstairs with her sewing area in the bonus room and her APQS Lucey on 12 foot table in the spare bedroom. Courtney had lots of great sewing room “hacks,” like her back-to-back work tables from tractor supply as a cutting table. And who doesn’t love happy puppy dogs popping in to visit? Thanks again Courtney for letting us take a peek into your sewing studio!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy – Frozen Melodies 108″ Wide Quilt Backings

It may only be July, but the Christmas fabrics are already arriving! We just received the Frozen Melodies 108″ wide quilt backings in the shop and we are in love!

Aren’t these quilt backing fabrics fabulous?! These fabrics have a gorgeous snowflake and swirls print. We have these in four color ways – red, grey, deep blue, and frosty blue. I think my favorite is the grey color way, and wouldn’t the red version pair perfectly with our Santa & Sunshine Limited Edition Glide thread pack? No matter which ones you love, they all make me excited for some wintery quilting with a warm latte during a snowstorm.

How Would You Quilt It – Rhonda’s Medallion Quilt

Take a look at Rhonda’s gorgeous quilt! After the meeting livestream, she commented that the quilt pattern is Whispering Tulip by Diane Nagle from the March/April 2015 issue of McCall’s quilting, with a few modifications. I especially loved the colors and all the solid fabrics. If you want your quilting to show off, solid fabrics are a great choice!

Be sure to watch the meeting to see how I used the quilting to give the quilt a medallion look by breaking down the quilt into different sections and creating new shapes and highlighting the pieced blocks and applique. Thank you for posting this quilt Rhonda. We can’t wait to see how you decide to quilt it!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be August 4, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at how to quilt grid designs within the clamshell shape. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

How to Quilt the Boutonniere Border

The boutonniere border is a simple and elegant free motion quilting design. To quilt the boutonniere border, start in the middle of your border. Swoop down to your border’s base. Swoop back up to the top of your border then quilt a “v” shape. Swoop back down to your base. Now fill your rose with a little swirl or tendril. Continue quilting this same design along the length of your border.

The Boutonniere is Perfect for Borders and Blocks

In this video tutorial I showed how to quilt the boutonniere design in a border. But’s it’s also fabulous as an element in a block too! Take a look back at the July 2020 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting. During the How Would You Quilt It portion of our meeting, I shared my quilting plan for Jennifer’s Legendary Loves quilt. You’ll see I used the same rose shape from the boutonniere design within the blocks of Jennifer’s quilt! This single element will look beautiful in a variety of different areas in your quilt.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the boutonniere border, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

Marcia was played by Maureen McCormick who is now a fabric designer for Moda! Her debut line is called A Blooming Bunch (isn’t that perfect?) and it is full of 1970’s spirit! She’s brought avocado green, pink gingham and daisies galore into a fun fabric collection. When I saw it I couldn’t help but imagine a summer picnic on a hill somewhere breezy with a sundress and sandals!

I used her fabric line to create my Summer Saturday quilt that is in the July/August 2021 Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine. I have three patterns in this edition! You might be interested in the Shark Cat Bed (FUN!), or the All the Buzz quilt, too.

For Summer Saturday I wanted to use a single unit in two color ways to add variety without complexity. The focus fabric in her line has a pink version and a teal version. Perfect! The main block is alternated with a small print so the blocks float in the main portion of the quilt.

It was important to me to allow the on point block design that emerges to not get cut off by the inner border. So, I decided to make the inner border a bit chunky in order to accommodate one final flying goose unit so the main body of the quilt breaks through the border. I love this effect!

The outer border is one of my favorites. It is simply flippy corners on two different sized rectangles! So SIMPLE! I could see this border done in browns and greens to make a Christmas Tree border dance around a holiday quilt, too! If you’d like to get the pattern for Summer Saturday as a download, you can find it here!

I will say that having the Studio 180 Wing Clipper makes trimming those geese a breeze! And, I don’t know what I’d do without my Tucker Trimmer. It is such a GREAT tool!

This quilt was pieced by my good friend, Melanie Peterson, who is our lead Quilt Fairy here at Quilted Joy. I quilted it with an all over meandering daisy and I’m looking forward to having a picnic on a Summer Saturday with my quilt soon! If you decide to make this quilt, please send in a photo so I can see your hard work! I love seeing my patterns “in the wild”.

Our renters bring us all sorts of Christmas quilts all year long as well. Some are super early for the holidays while others are a bit late. I hope their quilts can act as inspiration for your own. If you start now, you’ll definitely be done by December… maybe.

Are the gifts on the placemats, or are the placemats gifts?

Barbara brought this cute top made with Christmas presents. This is actually four placemats that are all sewn together to make it easier for her to quilt all at once. Once she got this home, the plan was to cut it into four separate pieces to bind. She quilted it with Seamless, a great pantograph that our renters find simple but very effective. It calls to mind Christmas lights to me. These would make a great gift for someone seeking to expand their Christmas decorations.

Looking out at a chilly scene during our Sweltering Christmas

Laura used a Christmas panel to create this attic window quilt. Doesn’t it look like you’re looking out the window at a cute winter scene?

She quilted this with White Out, a great paper pantograph with snowflakes meandering across her quilt. It definitely plays well with the winter theme of the top, that is for sure. This would make a great wall hanging, as well as a snuggle quilt on the couch.

Judy was busy with lots of Christmas Cheer

One of our regulars, Judy, brought this cute top in. As adorable as it is now, it got better. She sewed on faux fur beards to the gnomes after quilting it! Judy quilted this free-hand with lots of swirls and curls. She did a really great job of keeping it even all over. And I love the wonky stars too.

This is also from Judy. There are three tops here, all wall hangings. I believe the two small ones are for a cabin somewhere, one for Christmas and one for the rest of the year. These are patterns from Annie Brady. She has a couple real cute animals in the same style. I like his slightly surprised mellow look. I suppose a bear would only be able to have a sweltering Christmas considering he’d be hibernating for the usual one. The bright reds and greens also look great against the gray taupe background. It really pops. She used Airborne to quilt these quickly. This pattern has a sort of faux feather feel that is quite lovely. It gives a great all over texture that is reminiscent of a much more complicated heirloom style.

Now those three bears weren’t the only thing on that backing. Judy added these adorable snowmen placemats onto the side of them as well. She chose to quilt them with her free motion swirls and curls just like the dwarf quilt from earlier. We agreed that it looked a little like wind blowing snow around on a blustery day.

Time to have your own Sweltering Christmas this year! It’s never too early to start getting ready for Christmas gift giving. Or just your own Christmas decorating. Check out the many different Holiday patterns that are available online and get sewing for the Holidays! Then check in with us on Facebook or Instagram. We’d love to see what you have been working on.

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Our Year of the Grid continues in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! To help learn our grid quilting path, we’ve followed our ladybug friend through the rooms and levels of our house. This time we’re taking our ladybug for a wild ride on a roller coaster.
• Take a tour of Courtney’s quilting studio during our Looky Loo Studio Tour.
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday July 7, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

Designed for quilters who do not currently own a longarm machine, this seminar includes valuable information about owning your first longarm.

• Discover resources for templates, batting, freehand instruction manuals, wholesale contacts, thread, etc.
• Find out where to buy pantograph patterns, books, and stencils to make your longarm quilting fun and hassle-free.
• Learn business philosophies, products and services, pricing, marketing, and income forecasting. You’ll even get a Sample Business Plan.
• Explore the differences between each APQS machine model and adding computerized quilting to a new or previous APQS machine.
• Learn which accessories are the “gotta haves” to make your quilting fast and easy.
• Learn how to oil, clean, and service you machine to provide years of quilting fun.

If you’re ready to purchase your longarm, we’ll be offering special deals on all machines.

The Road Show takes place at Quilted Joy, located at 10302 Bluegrass Parkway, Louisville, KY 40299 on August 14, 2021 at 12:30pm Eastern. This event is FREE! You can click here to register. Please register soon so we have a good idea of how many people will be coming!

Lately I’ve been fascinated by asymmetrical blocks. These types of blocks have the ability to make secondary designs where they come together and I love how versatile they are. Plus, for this quilt I chose to make BIG blocks! These are 16″ finished and when four of the blocks come together they create inset stars.

I wanted the All the Buzz quilt to be framed by a big border to show off the focal fabric while allowing the interior of the quilt to float into the outer border. I did this using the oh-so-fantastic flippy corner! The border is 8″ wide and is incredibly simple to make but so effective!

I must share a tiny secret with you, though. My original name for this bee inspired quilt was “I’ve Got Hives”. It makes me giggle every time I’ve thought about the giant brains at the Love of Quilting editorial meeting discussing which quilts to run in the magazine and “I’ve Got Hives” comes up in the meeting as a choice. Too Funny! I can see why they changed the title used in the magazine to “All the Buzz”. But, in my heart this quilt will always be “I’ve Got Hives”.

This quilt was also featured in the 3700 series of the Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting PBS show. It is always fun to quilt with Sara on set and show her my latest projects. I hope you are able to watch the episode on your PBS station. And, if you don’t get the show… call your station and ask them to pick it up as it is free for your local station to pick it up to air! And then, get your whole guild to do the same.

Here’s the promo video about the whole 3700 series. If you wind up making All the Buzz, or any of the quilts I designed for Love of Quilting, please be sure to send us a photo so we can see your hard work!

How to Quilt Treble Style

Doesn’t that design look fun? The core element of this design is lots of loops. To quilt Treble Style, begin at the bottom of your space. Swoop up and quilt a loop in the middle. This first loop should be in a sideways direction, pointing about parallel with your seam lines. Then swoop into another loop, this one pointing up towards your seam line. Now, swing down to the bottom and up around your first loop. That big swing creates a nice “belly” for the Treble Style. So keep swinging around that first loop and poke your belly! Quilt a gentle S-curve out and begin again!

Talk to Yourself While You Quilt

I tend to say a lot of silly things, like “poke the belly” while I’m creating these video tutorials. While I hope it brings you joy and entertainment, I do say these silly things for a very important reason! I need to have the design in my mind while I’m quilting. Otherwise, I’ll forget what I’m doing and quilt something completely different! Talking through the design helps keep me focused and reminds me what each step is. So don’t be afraid to talk to yourself while you quilt Treble Style. I promise it helps me a lot!

Where to Quilt Treble Style

Treble Style would be fabulous on a quilt for a music lover. Although it’s not a true treble clef, it’s certainly a stylized version of the design and many musicians would recognize its similarities. Treble Style also reminds me of an ampersand. This would also be fun on a quilt that uses wordy fabrics like some of these fabrics in the Quilted Joy shop. What better way to honor your favorite wordsmith than by quilting the symbol for “and” in their quilt?

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt treble style, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

The first thing that stood out to us about Jess’s studio was how bright and airy it is! And doesn’t the fireplace make it look so cozy? Jess set up her quilting space in a bonus room off her home’s living room. She has an APQS Millie on a 12 foot table and it fit perfectly in her space! She has her machine’s table set up the same way we like to – with one end of the table pushed up against the wall. Jess has an Intelliquilter computerized system attached to her machine, so she only goes behind her table to load her quilts. She gave herself just enough breathing room by the wall to sneak behind and load her quilts. Her room is also long enough to set up her sewing machine and computer desk at the farther end.

We wanted to get to know Jess a little bit more, so we asked her a few other questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?

Jess: I’ve been quilting for over 15 years! My journey started when my oldest son was an infant.

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting?

Jess: Since the summer of 2012, so 8 years now.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

Jess: When I was just learning to quilt on a domestic machine, I took in-person classes and also devoured any quilting book I could get my hands on. Practice was essential in mastering the free-motion quilting designs. I was curious and looked up blog posts and videos online to learn more over the years.

When I first “went digital”, Angela’s online course was so helpful in getting me started using my Intelliquilter. I’ll still search forums, Facebook groups, and other video tutorials to learn more.

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

Jess: Time efficiency! I tend to take my time. I’m always underestimating how long to allow for tasks.

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space? 

The windows and great lighting.

QJ: What would you change about your space if you could?

Jess: I’d make it wider with a wall of closets.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter? 

Jess: Jump in! You learn so much by doing. Don’t let any perfectionism hold you back from making progress.

QJ: What quilt project are you currently working on?

Jess: I have a quilting pillow project for a magazine that I’m currently working on. Otherwise, I’ve been spending time digitizing new designs – mainly pantographs.

QJ: What quilt project is on your bucket list?

Jess: I’ve always wanted to make the Single Girl quilt by Denyse Schmidt. With lots of negative space, they are fun to quilt.

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style?

Jess: Texture-focused. I love simple designs that are repeated to lend lots of texture. I like it when the quilting texture is a noticeable element of a top without totally overpowering it.

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread?

Jess: I love Quilters Dream and keep that stocked in my studio. My favorite is their wool batting. Magna-glide prewound bobbins are a must-have no matter what the top thread is. For the top thread, I either use So Fine, Premo-Soft or Glide.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget?

Jess: It’s probably the Soft Touch Thread Pic by Clover to “fish” stray & highly visible threads out from under a quilt top.

QJ: Do you quilt for others? If yes, what is your business name and where can people find you online?

Jess: I still quilt for others occasionally. My business is Threaded Quilting Studio. My main job now is running a membership site called the Longarm League. “Piecers” can find a network of longarm quilters to work with on our site from all over the US and Canada. In the Longarm League, we come alongside other longarm quilters who are growing their businesses. We provide education and ongoing support on the quilting and business side.

QJ: What are three things you’re loving that you’d recommend to your bestie?

1. Profit First by Mike Michalowicz! It’s a book about managing business finances that I’m telling everyone about. It’s been so helpful! 
2. Home Chef meals – my family gets a box of 3 meals each week and I never want to be without this service again. Wholesome meals with the ingredients & recipe/instructions sent automatically.
3. The Longarm League! It’ll only be applicable for certain quilters. Those who have digitized machines and who are interested in quilting for others as a business.

Thanks again to Jess for letting us take a peek into her quilting studio! If you’d like to catch up with her and everything she’s working on you can find her on Instagram, @threadedquilting. Or check out her websites, Threaded Quilting Studio and the Longarm League.

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt grid designs in diamond grids. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt these designs, and so much more!

Quilting Diamond Grid Designs

So far in our year of the grid, we’ve talked about quilting grids in backgrounds, blocks, and borders. Now, let’s change the shape of our grid and try quilting in a diamond grid. Specifically, let’s put those diamond shapes in a border. Before you’d begin quilting your grid based design, you will want to stitch out the diamond shapes in your border. You can do that a few different ways. A diamond grid stencil will be super helpful. But if the stencil doesn’t match the size diamond you want, you can always just use a ruler and fabric marker.

As you’ll see in the video, I shared several diamond grid designs filling the diamond grid with shapes we’re all familiar with like loops, curls, and straight lines! We were quilting these designs in a border shape, but you could easily adapt any of these designs to fit in a block or background grid too!

Kim’s Sprawling Basement Quilting Studio

For this month’s Looky Loo Studio Tour, we visited Kim Tocci of Quigley’s Quilts in Broomfield, CO. Kim has set up her quilting studio in her light and airy walkout basement. She said she’s a recent empty nester and has taken over her kids’ former play and hangout area. I’m so jealous of all the room she has to store her fabrics, threads, and quilts in progress! She even had room for a sitting area next to her APQS Millie on a 14 foot table! Kim has lots of great storage solutions – many of which she said she found at IKEA – to keep her space nicely organized. Thanks again to Kim for letting us tour her fabulous quilting studio! If you’d like to keep up with Kim, check out her Quigley’s Quilts website!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy! Circle Burst Essentials 108″ Wide Backing Fabrics

Our new spring fabrics have been arriving at Quilted Joy! We wanted to share with you the newly released Circle Burst Essentials 108″ Wide Back Fabrics. These fabrics have a circular motif printed throughout the fabric and they’re available in a variety of colors.

The circles remind me of a lemon or lime wheel, which also makes me think of fruity drinks by the pool. This fabric really is perfect for summer, right? I think my favorite is the Black Circle Burst because of the rainbow prints in the circles. But I also love the Teal Circle Burst fabric too!

How Would You Quilt It? Pat’s Modern Icy Quilt

When I asked for quilt submissions in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse for our “How Would You Quilt It” portion of our meeting, I was immediately drawn to Pat’s quilt. The blue and white color scheme reminds me of ice and snow. And the playful and almost improv piecing style is very modern and eye catching.

I shared two quilting designs for how Pat could quilt this lovely quilt. First, I wanted to lean into the snowy and windy feel of her quilt with simple undulating, serpentine lines. The lines wouldn’t and shouldn’t be echoed similarly, instead I want to add lots of variety of movement. The design is simple, fast, adds lots of texture, and has a windy feel to it. Alternatively, I created a large scale diamond grid using the quilt blocks as my guide for the diamonds. Then I filled some of the diamonds with an echoed line to create chevrons and other diamonds with the stacked curls and snowflakes we quilted earlier in the meeting. There were lots of quilty possibilities with Pat’s quilt, and Pat already finished quilting it! Join us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse so you can see which design Pat chose for her quilt!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be July 7, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be taking our ladybug on a roller coaster. Don’t know what I’m talking about? You’ll just have to watch to find out! If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

“Cora” a Laura Heine pattern

A popular collage artist that people are following these days is Laura Heine. Her quilts have gone wild and because of that they are fun to make and even funner to look at. Jane created Cora the owl quilt. She quilted her by drawing wood grain into the tree and feathers on the owl. The background was just a meander that covered the rest of the quilt with some lovely texture to finish. This fused applique quilt is not very soft or cuddly because of all the layers of fabric and interfacing. But what a fun wall hanging to have in your home. Great job, Jane!

A Not So Simple Panel Quilt

This is a panel quilt. Many fabric lines include one panel, a large single design that typically fills the fabric from selvage to selvage. This panel has gone wild with soaring bald eagles in front of snow capped mountains. But Mary Jane did a little bit more than just slap some borders on it and call it done. She has multiple borders that vary with fabrics and widths rather than the straight even borders we might be used to. I especially like the deep “V” cutting through the borders at both the top and the bottom. It adds a lot of interest to what might otherwise be a very simple top. 

And you may be asking yourself, “where’s the batting?” This is where she went wild! She quilted this with Star Dance on Cuddle Dot fabric without batting. This makes the quilt drippy and lovely and so much fun to cuddle in. I want to make one for myself now!

Gone Wild on the Beach

Michelle is a quilter that often brings in some wild designs. This is a quilt that was inspired by her and her husband’s annual trips to Hawaii. Due to Covid, they didn’t get to go that year, so she made a quilt of it instead. This is entirely her design. She sewed all the variations of the fabric showing us a sandy beach through to the white crest of the surf. Continuing up to the dark blue water and bright orange sunset horizon straight line. Above that the deepening purple of a night sky. The turtles are a nice detail, and the diver was actually an after thought.

She free motion quilted this, giving each layer of color its own filler and design. You can see the pebbles in the sand and the wavy texture in the water. It is a good thing to remember that when you can’t go to the beach, you can always make a beach that can come to you! And isn’t that 108″ wide Wave Texture backing fabric perfect for this quilt?

Quilting doesn’t always need to be the blocks and sashing of a traditional quilt. Sometimes you can go wild with your borders or fabric choice. Or maybe just go wild with your inspiration! After you’ve finished your next wilderness quilt, connect with us on Facebook or Instagram. We’d love to see your wild side and what you’ve been working on!  

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Our Year of the Grid continues in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse! To help learn our grid quilting path, we’ve followed our ladybug friend through the rooms and levels of our house. Now, let’s turn our house on its side and learn how to quilt in diagonal grids.
• Take a tour of Kim’s spacious basement studio during our Looky Loo Studio Tour.
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday June 2, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

How to Make the Lal the Lamb Dresden Quilt

My own love for the Susybee fabric panels really began because of the machine quilting possibilities! Panels like their Lal the Lamb Dresden panel are perfect places to practice your free motion quilting. You can treat that Dresden plate just like one you’d find in a pieced quilt, without having to make the Dresden!

You could just quilt one of these super cute panels (or any of the other Susybee panels) and have a great little sampler quilt of all your favorite free motion quilting designs. But, if you really felt like you needed to piece a quilt, Susybee has another great pattern to turn this Lal the Lamb panel into a quilt! You can get their free pattern here.

Supplies

• 2 Lal the Lamb Dresden Fabric Panels
• 1.5 yards of coordinating 108″ wide quilt backing fabric. Our favorites are the Emma Pink for a floral touch, Swirling Splendor Light Yellow for a little extra whimsy, or Blossom White/Black for a simpler backing.
• 6 yards of coordinating Pre-made Moda Bias Binding. Our favorites are Marble Bright Yellow or Bella Leaf.

Steps

Trim 1 of the Lal the Lamb panels to measure 28-1/2″ x 41-1/2″. Cut the other panel into equal quarters. They should measure 21″ x 14-1/2″.

Seam those quarters together so that the Dresden quarters make symmetrical cornerstones.

Stitch your top and bottom sections to the other panel. Now you have a finished quilt ready for quilting. Wasn’t that easy?

Machine Quilting the Lal the Lamb Dresden Quilt

We haven’t quilted our Lal the Lamb Dresden quilt yet, but I have lots of different ideas floating through my mind! This quilt would be a perfect free motion quilting sampler quilt. There are lots of different ways you could quilt each of the Dresden fan blades – I might look back to this Fan Dance quilt I quilted for a customer for a little inspiration. You could also adjust some of the designs we’ve shared in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse meetings to fit inside those fan blades. And all the negative space gives you lots of area to try out different filler designs. You’ll find lots of video tutorials for filler designs in our Quilted Joy Learning Center.

How to Quilt Ribbon Spades

To quilt the ribbon spades design, you’ll want to think of your border as divided in half with a north and south side. You don’t need to be precise, just an imaginary line will be ok. Starting in the middle of your border, quilt a curl towards the north side of your border. Really tuck the tail into the center of your curl. Exit towards the inside of your circle and cross over yourself to create that romantic ribbon look.

Travel back towards the center and quilt another curl on the south side of your border, a little offset from your first curl. Alternate your curls from north side to south side along the length of your border stacking and staggering as you go.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt ribbon spades, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

How to Make a Chenille Pillow with Susybee Panels

Have you tried chenille yet? It creates a fun, fuzzy texture on your projects. There are so many ways you can use chenille, and I thought you’d love to see how to make a sweet Lewe the Ewe chenille pillow! We tried it out and this is such a fun project you can finish in an afternoon!

Supplies

Here are the supplies you’ll need to make your Lewe the Ewe chenille panel:

• 1 Lewe the Ewe panel – You’ll need 4 identical repeats of this lamb, and the panel we have comes with all 4 in one!
• Thread that compliments your fabric – we used Premo-Soft White
• 24” ruler to mark your bias lines
• Blue painter’s tape
• Olfa Chenille Cutter
• Chenille Fluffing Brush
• 1/2 yard backing fabric
• Pillow form or poly fill

Steps

Cut your Lewe the Ewe Susybee panel along the white lines separating the repeats and remove any selvedge edges. Trim 3 panels all around to be about 3/8” smaller than your 4th panel. We promise this will be very helpful later!

Layer your panels face up, starting with the panel you didn’t trim. Try to align them so that your lamb is in the same position. To make this a little easier, we used a pin to “pin align” our panels. Choose any target spot on your panel, and push a pin through that spot on each layer of your panel. It can also be helpful to place a piece of scrap batting under your panels so you have something thick and squishy for your pin to stick through. Spray baste or pin baste your layers together.

With the ruler and blue painters tape, mark a diagonal line across the center of your stacked Susybee panels. We decided to go ahead and mark the diagonal lines radiating out from that point at 3/8” apart with a blue washable fabric marker. If you don’t want to mark all those lines, you can instead use your walking foot as a guide. You can also space out your lines more or less depending on how much chenille fluff you’d like on your pillow! We just recommend keeping those lines consistent!

Now it’s time to stitch your rows! Start from your center line and work out to the edges of your panels. Stitch each diagonal line, going back and forth, back and forth across the panels.

Next you’ll cut the top 3 panels between your stitch lines with your Olfa Chenille Cutter. We like to use sharp scissors to make small relief cuts at the start. This will give your Olfa Chenille Cutter a little more room to grab the fabric. Just be careful to only cut through your top 3 layers, leaving your bottom panel uncut. Since we left the bottom panel a little bigger than the rest, it’ll be easier to see and avoid that panel!

Finally, you get to chenille, or bloom, your Susybee panel! Grab a spray bottle of water and spritz your lambs with water. With the Chenille Fluffing Brush, brush your panels in a circular motion. The cut ends will start to shrivel and bloom, adding that fun fluffy texture!

Now you’re ready to turn this into a pillow! Be sure to download the full free pattern here where they describe the final steps to turning this into a pillow. For the back of our pillow, we used a complimentary solid green fabric we found in our fabric stash. But you could also amp up the snuggle factor with this lime green Shannon Cuddle fabric!

You can use this chenille technique and Susybee panels for so many projects! One of our Quilt Fairies here in the shop made a chenille play mat using the Susybee Zoe the Giraffe panels and a cuddly micro fleece backing that her grandkids absolutely adore! I also shared a few ideas in Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting episode 3612 Rockets & Widgets. During the episode I showed how I used chenille on my Susybee Zig the Flying Ace Dog panel quilt and added chenille appliqué to a quilt.

A world of Possibilities!

Are you super excited to make your own Lewe the Ewe Chenille pillow? Give it a try and be sure to post your pictures over in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook! And, if you’re looking for even more panel inspiration, keep an eye on the blog. We’ll be sharing another fun and easy project Susybee panels project soon!

Students will be able to enjoy class from the comfort of their own home. One of our fabulous quilt fairies will be monitoring a chat room to answer all your questions. And Angela will pause throughout class to answer those questions as well. We’ll also record the class, so if you need to rewatch later you’ll have access to that recording for a limited time after class.

Live, Virtual APQS Beginning Longarm Class, June 11, 2020, 10am-4pm Eastern, $200 or Free for new APQS owners

This class is for brand new longarm machine owners of any brand. It is a comprehensive class that covers multiple ways to load a quilt on a frame, how to set tension, how to use pantographs & line them up, basic machine maintenance (APQS specific), and how to choose threads and batting. It is all lecture/demo so be sure to have something to write with and a list of any questions you may have. It is FREE for those who have purchased an APQS new or factory certified used machine in the last year (contact us to register if you fall into that category). It is designed to help those who own their own stand up quilting machine- regardless of the brand.

Live, Virtual Introduction to Custom Quilting Class, June 12, 2020 10am-2:30pm Eastern, $125

This course picks up where the APQS Beginning Longarm Class stops. This class offers a broad overview of  custom quilting. During this lecture/demo class we will learn over 100 ways to custom quilt a block. Learn easy custom border/corner/sashing treatments. See how to “read” a quilt top and interpret a quilt top to select the best design and organize your inspiration. Explore beginning ruler work and learn how to safely use rulers with your quilting machine. This class offers the bird’s eye view of custom quilting so you are ready for more focused and rigorous classes. This class comes with an extensive handout.

Have a question about either of these online classes? Send us an email here!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt grid designs in borders. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt these designs, and so much more!

How to Quilt Grid Designs in Borders

So far in our Year of the Grid, we’ve looked at grid based quilting designs in a block. But our grid designs don’t have to be limited to three or four rows of our house. What if our ladybug lived in a ranch-style house with one story instead? We can also shrink and stretch our grids to make them fit in borders! With our border evenly divided into a one story grid that turns the corner, we can follow the same basic quilting path we started talking about in our January Clubhouse meeting.

But wait; there’s more! What if we take our rooms, and tilt them on point? Mark your border with a grid on point, and you can quilt your design along the diagonals of the grid. Again, we’re following the same path, it’s just been tilted at a different angle. I really love the look of the curled grid I demonstrated during the meeting. Isn’t it an elegant border?

I really hope you’ve been enjoying our Year of the Grid so far! Now that you’ve learned lots of grid designs, it’s time to start using them on your quilt. Don’t miss our new Grid Quilting Starter Kit that includes three grid stencils that will be super helpful for marking your grids. The kit also comes with a fabric marker and quilt pounce for marking your quilts. We also have a limited number of Deluxe kits with the book Making Connections by Dorie Hruska for even more grid quilting inspirations! I can’t wait to see all the grid designs you use in your quilts!

Deb’s Fabulous She Shed Studio

I had so much fun chatting with Deb Boucher of Tea Rose Quilting. When we called her up to record her tour, I was very surprised to see she was standing outside, but it all made sense when I saw her fabulous she shed! She and her husband did a lovely job updating and finishing the space for all of her sewing and quilting needs. Her APQS Freddie (who Deb has re-named Felicity ) on a 12 foot table is snuggly fit into the newer addition of her she shed. We were all dazzled by her antique sewing machines, teapot collection, and her two adorable pups! Thanks again to Deb for letting us peek into her quilting studio!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy – Love Lines Rulers by Bethanne Nemesh

I’ve been in love with all the amazing rulers created by Bethanne Nemesh, and now we have a whole new collection of rulers to love! Take a look at Bethanne’s new Love Lines Rulers!

You can use these rulers to make hearts, nested hearts, feather plumes, and feather spines. And I love that she added little conversation heart decals on these! Bethanne has lots of great videos showing how to use these and her other rulers. Check out her Youtube channel here to see all of her incredible work!

How Would You Quilt It? Linda’s Flower Boxes II Quilt

Over in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook, Linda shared her beautiful Flower Boxes II Quilt, asking for suggestion on how to quilt it. I was drawn to the beautiful applique in the corners and the rectangle “flower baskets” and wanted to share my own ideas for how to quilt her quilt.

Linda’s quilt is a perfect place to use the grid designs we’ve been learning during our Year of the Grid! You can break down the colorful strips into even grids. But I liked the idea of treating the long vertical strips as big “ballrooms” for my lady bug to travel through! This was such a fun quilt to make a quilting design for!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be June 2, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be talking about diagonal grids. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

I can’t wait for you to see all the quilts we have planned for Love of Quilting Season 3800. One of the quilts I know you’ll love is Songbird Stars. Take a look at that pieced outside border made up of 3″ finished Birds in the Air blocks. Now, before you fall out of your chair thinking about how tedious it would be to piece that many itty bitty birds…. you’ll LOVE the technique I share on how to make them FOUR AT A TIME! Whoop! Seriously…. we did a little dance here when we figured this out. You are going to be DAZZLED!

Oh, and I had some fun with funky improv string quilts. My triplets are graduating from college this spring and I wanted to make each of them a quilt to celebrate their accomplishment. Of course, making three quilts at once is a challenge but these string blocks are so fast to make!

I supposed if you pushed me to pick a favorite quilt this season it would be my Moonlight Mermaid quilt. It is simple, elegant and provides lovely space to play with the quilting. I even made a mermaid tail wreath with my APQS Quilt Path!

I can’t wait for you to see Love of Quilting season 3800 and don’t forget that all of the patterns for these quilts will appear in the Love of Quilting magazine over the coming year. If you decide to make one of my patterns, I’d love to see it. Post it over on our Facebook page or over on the Quilted Joy Clubhouse page!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• You can use grid quilting designs all over your quilt – even in your borders! Join us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse as we look at how to quilt grid designs in your quilt’s borders.
• Take a tour of Deb’s quilting studio! Deb and her husband converted a small cottage on their property into the perfect longarm quilting she shed.
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday May 5, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

How to Quilt Diamond Loops

Doesn’t that look like a fun design? Quilting the diamond loops requires two passes. We’ll start at about the middle of our border and swoop up to the top into a loop. As you exit the loop, swoop down towards the bottom of the border into another loop. Swoop back to the top of your border into another loop. Repeat this all the way through your border.

When you’ve reached the end of your border, stop and tie off your threads. You’ll go back to where you began quilting your diamond loops. This time, you’ll point your loops in the opposite direction. Because we originally started swooping up, this time we’ll start swooping down. By adding that second path, you’ll make those fun loopy diamonds!

A Fun and Relaxing Border Design!

Be sure to travel along your border as you swoop from loop to loop (that’s fun to say!! ). You might even divide your border into even spaces to keep the distance between your loops even. Or you can just wing it like I did in the video! Either way, you’ll have a really fun design that quilts up quickly and is relaxing to quilt too.

What kind of quilt would you use this design for? The diamond loops are so lighthearted and whimsical. I think it would be fun on a kiddo’s quilt or maybe a Tula Pink or Kaffe Fassett quilt? Really, any quilt that feels playful would be the perfect fit for this design!

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt diamond loops, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for longarm quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

Designed for quilters who do not currently own a longarm machine, this seminar includes valuable information about owning your first longarm.

• Discover resources for templates, batting, freehand instruction manuals, wholesale contacts, thread, etc.
• Find out where to buy pantograph patterns, books, and stencils to make your longarm quilting fun and hassle-free.
• Learn business philosophies, products and services, pricing, marketing, and income forecasting. You’ll even get a Sample Business Plan.
• Explore the differences between each APQS machine model and adding computerized quilting to a new or previous APQS machine.
• Learn which accessories are the “gotta haves” to make your quilting fast and easy.
• Learn how to oil, clean, and service you machine to provide years of quilting fun.

If you’re ready to purchase your longarm, we’ll be offering special deals on all machines.

The Road Show takes place at Quilted Joy, located at 10302 Bluegrass Parkway, Louisville, KY 40299. This event is FREE! You can click here to register. Please register soon so we have a good idea of how many people will be coming!

We are monitoring the ever-changing COVID-19 situation and are following guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Kentucky. We are taking extra precautionary steps to ensure the safety of our attendees including requiring everyone to wear a face mask, limiting the number of individuals in attendance, making sure social distancing is practiced, and ensuring a clean and sanitized environment. Click here for more information on the changes we’ve made to ensure the safety of our friends, visitors, and staff.

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt basic orange peel designs. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt these designs, and so much more!

How to Quilt Basic Orange Peel Designs

Before you tackle these fun orange peel designs, be sure you’ve watched our January 2021 Clubhouse meeting. During our main program for that meeting, we learned our ladybug’s path through the house that is the foundation for all our grid designs this year. That video will really set up a lot of the concepts we discussed during this meeting!

Our ladybug has been on many adventures this year – she’s visited our house, she’s written letters to her friends, she’s skied, and she’s roller skated. This time, she’s jumping off the high dive!

Hopefully she’s a little more graceful than that poor guy! To make our high diving orange peel design, we’ll have our ladybug take deep dives toward the center of each grid. I like to mark the diagonals in the grid with a chalk pencil so I have a place to aim where my ladybug will land. Follow our ladybug’s typical path through the house and you’ll make a whimsical orange peel design that looks a little like starfish!

The second design we looked at it is a little more traditional. To quilt this design you’ll follow a typical crosshatching path. If you’re not sure what the crosshatching path looks like, check out this article from my Rule Your Quilt series. For this grid design, we’ll use that crosshatching path but curve our design through each room of our house instead of going straight through.

If you haven’t already, be sure you’re signed up for our newsletter. We’ve shared worksheets for the designs we learned in the Clubhouse meetings as well as a few bonus designs! You can sign up for our newsletter here.

Mandy’s Bright and Airy Longarm Quilting Studio

For this month’s Looky Loo tour, I got to catch up with my old friend Mandy Applebee! Mandy and I got to know each other at the different quilting shows. She has an APQS Freddie on a 12 foot table and she recently moved it down to her bright and airy basement. Can you tell how much she’s loving this space where her machine isn’t on casters and she’s not doing the skinny shimmy around the table? I have a bit of storage envy for all the fabulous shelves she has. Thank you Mandy for letting us peek into your quilting space! If you’d like to see more of what she’s working on, you can follow her on Facebook at Yellow House Quilts.

Kimberbell Glide Thread Packs Have Arrived at Quilted Joy!

We always have lots of fun items walking into our shop and our newest additions have been the Kimberbell Coordinating Glide Thread Packs! Of course, we all love Glide thread as a machine quilting thread. But it’s original purpose was for machine embroidery. And it is perfect for all those adorable Kimberbell projects!

How Would You Quilt It? Gail’s Jamaican Stars Quilt

Isn’t this a gorgeous quilt? Each month in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook I’ll put out a call for unquilted quilt tops so I can design a quilting plan for the meeting. Gail’s beautiful batiks grabbed my attention right away! She said this quilt pattern is called Jamaican Stars.

This quilt was fun to design for! I started by stabilizing the quilt and adding some structure with a lattice like design following the diagonal outlines of the shapes. In the main blocks I liked a leafy design that pulls from the textures and designs in the fabrics. And it’s always helpful to see the designs we talked about in our main program be used in a quilt design too! Our starfish crosshatching was a perfect addition to the nine patch blocks. And our ladybug hopped through the large creamy snowball blocks and the border too. We can’t wait to see how Gail chooses to quilt her quilt!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be May 5, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at how to use these grid designs in a border. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

I Started with the Secondary Design

The first thing that jumped out to me was the secondary block that comes together in the corners of the blocks and sashings. Can you see the flying geese behind the sashing? I thought they should have noses. And this idea led me to the idea of playing with these shapes a bit more.

Often, I worry about the path to take after I figure out what I want to do, but this one became clear to me a bit sooner. If I trace the geese in a figure eight type direction, I can get all three. But I wanted them to pop a little more than that so I used stippling to fill in the center square and the outside corners. To do this in a continuous line without additional starts and stops, we’d have to fill it in as we outlined the geese.

Now the Main Block of Hometown Blooms

Now we need to address the main block. To make things easy, I like to find ways to travel between quilted areas without having to start and stop. So I look for “Magic Portals” that will allow me to drop in and quilt a new area before returning to what I was doing before.

So I create a little chevron in these rectangles around the block. I know what I want to put in these squares are the feathers I was discussing earlier in the meeting. But first I have to get there. So I put a leaf shape through the center of the square.

Finish with some feathers and crosshatching

So now I can jump to the corner, put a little leaf, and another in its opposite corner. This is a good place to start my feather in the square, going down one side and coming back to the same place I started. Now I can work my way around the square. I want to put cross hatching in these corner squares which means rulers.

It is always a good idea to stitch in the ditch to ensure that the quilt doesn’t get pushed askew when I use my rulers. The piecing gives us a great place to put the crosshatching, so no pre-marking is necessary. Once I make it all the way around, I need to be sure to finish that first leaf that I had only started and voila! We’re done.

I really love how the crosshatching in the corners really gives Hometown Blooms some solid structure. And the leafy design looks great with the fabrics Claudia has chosen. Of course you don’t have to quilt it like I have it designed. Take what you like, and add your own flare when you can. This is just what I would do, if this were my quilt.

So how did Claudia choose to quilt her Hometown Blooms quilt? She decided to follow a lot of my suggestions! She said the biggest change was the feather design in the center blocks. She chose a slightly different feather style. Doesn’t the finished quilt look beautiful? I especially love the way she staged it in her garden for the photoshoot!

If you are interested in learning more about cross hatching we have a learning center with a whole series of articles about rulers and crosshatching. When you are done practicing, post it and tag us on Instagram or Facebook. We’d love to see what you have been working one!

Rena’s Irish chain

Rena made this Irish chain with tiny little nine patches. Isn’t it lovely? I love scrappy quilts. The large triple border frames it all so nicely. I especially like the pop of red in the middle border. It really draws the eye, but keeps it contained to the interior.

Rena used a freemotion design on this that may look familiar to our Clubhouse members. She used Terry’s Twist which is a variation of the very classic Orange Peel or Continuous Curves. All this year, Angela is exploring different grid based designs, any of which would have looked amazing on this quilt. To finish it off, she put piano keys in the border. What a great job Rena!

Jennifer’s Modern Design

This is a nice bold design that Jennifer made for her friend. Look at how clean all her points turned out. Wow! The orange in the center corner stones brings your eyes to the center of the quilt. She also quilted this with continuous curves, but this time with the aid of a design board. I like how the grid nature of the pattern sets off the bold diagonal of the quilt design. It adds a great texture to the quilt. What a lovely gift!

Sandra’s Diagonal Lines

As bold as Jennifer’s throw was, Sandra just made one bigger. All the pieces of this quilt are large, so it would seem to be a simple thing. But it just looks complicated. One of the dangers of quilts like this is the bias edges. I always recommend stay stitching around the outside to help make sure the edges don’t stretch when you are quilting them. She used an edge to edge pantograph design called Periwinkle. This design added a little light hearted whimsy to the quilt that I find charming. You can really see the pattern on all of that solid fabric. She did a great job quilting it!

So you can see that diagonal lines can’t be classified as classic or modern, they are found in both. And why pick only one direction, do a little of both. Once you’ve completed your next diagonal quilt, share it with us. We’d love to see what you are up to. And check out the Quilted Joy Clubhouse, the first Wednesday of the Month at 1PM Eastern. You might find yourself inspired by the great grid designs we’re exploring this year!

Let’s take a look back at our Looky Loo Studio Tour with Julie McClannan of Quilting by Julie from October 2019. When Julie and her husband downsized to their current home Julie had one rule: her sewing room would not be downsizing! That’s a rule I can get behind! Julie set up her APQS Millie on a 12 foot table with Quilt Path in her spacious walkout basement. She has lots of room to spread out her sewing, cutting, pressing, and quilting spaces – and even room for a treadmill too! See the full tour for yourself in the video below!

Isn’t Julie’s basement studio gorgeous? My current home sewing space doesn’t have windows, so I’m very jealous of all the natural light Julie has. But really, my favorite part of Julie’s Looky Loo Tour was seeing all the storage pieces her husband built for her. Having a supportive partner is so important. Throughout many of our Looky Loo tours, I’ve heard lots of stories of spouses who helped build storage or who take part in the quilting process too and it always makes my heart sing!

I wanted to get to know Julie a little bit more, so I asked her a few other questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?

Julie: I started quilting in my old basement laundry room about 25 years ago.

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting?

J: I started longarming about 14 years ago.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

J: In the beginning I did lots of charity quilts freehand and with paper pantographs. I finally moved to a computerized system 5 years ago but I still do some freehand and ruler work.

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

J: It is developing a vision for the entire quilt when I am doing custom quilting for myself or a customer.

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space? 

J: I love having everything in one place and my studio is my favorite room in the house. I have a wooden sign there that says Welcome to My Happy Place.

QJ: What would you change about your space if you could?

J: I would enjoy having more storage space.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter?

J: Be patient with yourself. It takes time to develop your skills and your confidence.

QJ: What quilt project are you currently working on?

J: Besides having a customer quilt on the frame, I usually have 3-4 projects at different stages. I am always planning a quilt, piecing something, and quilting or binding something.

QJ: What quilt project is on your bucket list?

J: Someday I want to make a quilt using silk.

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style?

 J: I would call it traditional with a bit of whimsy.

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread?

J: I use 80/20 batting most of the time and my two favorite threads are Superior and Glide.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget?

I have scissors hanging from a lanyard around my neck. I don’t know how I ever quilted without them.

Julie recommends:

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
2. Amazing Grace hand and body lotion
3. My treadmill in my studio (When my computer is humming along on a quilt I can hop on and get a little exercise.)
4. My three dogs that I adore. Everyone needs a pet (or 3).

A big thank you again to Julie for letting us peek into her quilting studio! It’s a gorgeous space and she’s a very talented quilter. If you’d like to see more about Julie and her quilting, head on over to her Quilting by Julie website.

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• In January we learned how to quilt the orange peel design. Let’s tweak it a little more and look at how you can vary it and grow the design into so much more!
• Take a tour of Mandy’s quilting studio! Mandy recently moved her APQS Freddie from a small space to her larger and brighter basement. You’ll be sure to have a little storage envy too!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday April 7, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

Meet Bruce. We call him Bat Cat.

Have you figured out yet why his name is Bruce?

Bruce is our kitten and this photo sums up his typical day.

But, when he sleeps he sleeps like the dead. I wanted to create a special snoozy spot for him and that was how the Shark Bait cat bed was born! I have to thank my friend, Melanie Peterson. She did all the hard crunching of the math to determine what size worked best for everything. I couldn’t have pulled this off without her!

This is a challenging project but seeing the kitties jump into the mouth of the shark is so WORTH IT! Have you noticed the prairie point teeth are made from black and white kitty fabric? And the fuzzy lounging pillow inside the shark has catnip in it to increase the pounces!

Oh, and Bruce is willing to share his Shark Bait cat bed. Here is a photo so Noodles camping out in there too. Why do we call him Noodles? Ah, my quilty friend that is a story for another time.

I just LOVE this project! The day we recorded this episode for the Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting show I was nervous.

There is a LOT of ground to cover to make this and we only have about 20 minutes to get it in. Sara was so great helping sew everything together on camera. Have I mentioned how much fun we have together and how awesome she is? Here’s the promo for the Shark Bait episode.

You’ll find the Love of Quilting show on PBS channels coast to coast and Canada, too! It airs at different times around the country so check with your PBS station for the time in your area. And… if they don’t carry it… call and protest! All PBS stations are provided this show free of charge- they just have to pick it up so grab your quilty friends and ask your local PBS station to pick it up!

Shark Bait is a very big pattern so you’ll find part 1 in the May/June 2021 edition and the second half will be in the July/August 2021 edition of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine!

If you prefer more specific size recommendations for your quilt backing fabrics, don’t miss our quilt backing fabric estimations chart above. You’ll also find this chart with all of our backing fabrics in the online store!

Designed for quilters who do not currently own a longarm machine, this seminar includes valuable information about owning your first longarm.

• Discover resources for templates, batting, freehand instruction manuals, wholesale contacts, thread, etc.
• Find out where to buy pantograph patterns, books, and stencils to make your longarm quilting fun and hassle-free.
• Learn business philosophies, products and services, pricing, marketing, and income forecasting. You’ll even get a Sample Business Plan.
• Explore the differences between each APQS machine model and adding computerized quilting to a new or previous APQS machine.
• Learn which accessories are the “gotta haves” to make your quilting fast and easy.
• Learn how to oil, clean, and service you machine to provide years of quilting fun.

If you’re ready to purchase your longarm, we’ll be offering special deals on all machines.

The Road Show takes place at Quilted Joy, located at 10302 Bluegrass Parkway, Louisville, KY 40299. This event is FREE! You can click here to register. Please register soon so we have a good idea of how many people will be coming!

We are monitoring the ever-changing COVID-19 situation and are following guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Kentucky. We are taking extra precautionary steps to ensure the safety of our attendees including requiring everyone to wear a face mask, limiting the number of individuals in attendance, making sure social distancing is practiced, and ensuring a clean and sanitized environment. Click here for more information on the changes we’ve made to ensure the safety of our friends, visitors, and staff.

Back in October of 2019, I chose Athina’s Mama Gypsy quilt. Judi Madsen is a incredible quilter who designed this lovely quilt she titled Mama Gypsy.  Athina picked her own colors and created this lovely example of the pattern in reds, grays, and whites. Watch the video below that begins at our How Would You Quilt it segment. You can also click here to watch the meeting from the beginning.

A Quilting Plan for Athina’s Mama Gypsy Quilt

The corner shapes spoke to me first. We marked halfway along the sides and bottom and connected them to create a kite shape. This shape repeats in the interior of the design as well, which helps keep the overall feel cohesive. And while I don’t worry about the path of the design right away, I noticed that if I connected the points of this interior star shape, it would give me a way to travel between all of these kite shapes.

The next shapes to draw my eye were the on point squares in the center. These just needed to be stitched in the ditch, but the centers could be a great place for a feather spray. I repeated these feathers in the light colored diamonds that sit on the compass points of the design. The remaining squares, which had that great polka dot fabric, received a simple cathedral window or pumpkin seeds. This gives me the three motifs that repeat throughout the quilt, feathered sprays, long curved lines, and doubled diamonds.

I’m also beginning to figure out how all these designs begin to fit together into one continuous path. You just have to look for your Magic Portals. This is anywhere your designs collide with each other and allow you to jump between the different motifs. You also don’t want to be afraid of stitching right back on top of yourself on occasion when you need to.

Next I would fill those large gray areas around the edge of the body with more diamonds, add more feathered sprays into the corners, and add long curved lines with curved crosshatching in the negative spaces around the quilt. Click here for more information on how to add crosshatching to your quilts check out this post. The border is lovely all on its own, so simple piano keys quilts it without distracting from all your work in the middle.

Athina’s Finished Quilt!

You can see that Athina decided to follow my recommendations, but she also knew how big her quilt was and what was needed for its size. She quadrupled the diamond and added additional lines to the center frame. It looks amazing!

Athina did her own take on a feathered spray in the corners which is lovely. It allowed that curved crosshatching to really shine and the large space in the corner to blend a little better with the rest of the border than a large spray may have done. I think it was a great call. And to think this was Athina’s first time working with cross hatching! Wow! What an accomplishment. You did an amazing job, Athina!

Athina’s Mama Gypsy quilt was such a success, I can’t wait to see more. I hope that now that she’s tried the cross hatching she’ll be more likely to try it again. It’s my hope that as you all see the process, you’ll feel more confident as you design your own quilting plans. It’s not that hard, it just takes practice and time. When you’re done, connect with us on Facebook or Instagram. We’d love to see what you’re working on!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt spiked cathedral windows. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt these designs, and so much more!

How to Quilt Spiked Cathedral Windows

Over the last few Quilted Joy Clubhouse meetings, we’ve talked a lot about how to quilt the Cathedral Windows design. So during this meeting, we’re dressing them up a little bit with spikes! To quilt the spiked cathedral windows, we’re going to have our lady bug follow the same path we discussed in our January 2021 QJ Clubhouse meeting. If you’re not familiar with that path, be sure to watch the replay here!

In February’s QJ Clubhouse meeting, our lady bug went skiing between each hop. During this meeting, our lady bug does the hokey pokey between each hop! We’re creating spikes in each section of our grid by peeking in and out between each curve.

To quilt this design, you could quilt it freehand or with a ruler. Angela generally would quilt this freehand. If you prefer quilting with a ruler, you’d probably like the Quilted Pineapple BFF ruler and the Quilter’s Groove Pro Mini. We like the BFF ruler for the lady bug hops. Both sides of this ruler are the same curve, so you can use either side of the ruler with the same effect. The Pro Mini ruler is a nice size for these small spikes!

Adrean’s Fabulous DIY’ed Studio

We always look forward to sharing our Looky Loo Studio Tours with you, and we were especially excited to show off Adrean’s fabulous quilting room! Adrean has a gorgeous, large, and bright space that we are all super jealous of. She and her husband have worked together to repurpose furniture and build new pieces to perfectly fit her quilting needs. We always love to hear about the supportive partners who help to make quilting dreams come true! Adrean has been posting lots of great photos of her quilting in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse Facebook group. You can find out more about Adrean at her Especially for You Quilts website, or follow her on Facebook or on Instagram.

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy!

Our newest additions at Quilted Joy were some gorgeous 108″ wide quilt backing fabrics from Ruby Star Society. These fabrics are a luxurious cotton sateen that’s silky, smooth, and a little shiny!

There are three different prints with large scale floral designs. We love all of them, and it’s so hard to choose a favorite among them. The Whatnot Hana in Goldenrod immediately caught our eyes. It’s hard to find wide backs in yellows, oranges, and golds and we’re always excited when we find one! If any of these fabrics have stolen your heart like they did the ladies at Quilted Joy, you can find them in our shop here!

How Would You Quilt It? Sheryl’s Magnolia Quilt

We’ve been talking so much about grid quilting designs during our QJ Clubhouse meetings, but it makes all the difference to see how you can use the designs on a quilt! Sheryl posted this quilt, called Magnolia, in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook looking for quilting suggestions.

This quilt was the perfect place to use the curvy grid designs Angela shared during our February 2021 QJ Clubhouse meeting! Of course, at first glance there isn’t an obvious grid, or place for a grid in this quilt. But grid designs are truly the building block of so many free motion designs! Sheryl’s already finished quilting her quilt, and members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can see her completed quilt here!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be April 7, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at basic orange peel grid designs. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

Jennifer Conquers Flying Geese

Jennifer told me once that she hated flying geese. Then I noticed her bringing in a lot of quilts with these units. Her response to this observation, “I figured I needed to tackle this challenge head on.” So she decided to make flying geese quilts until she mastered them!

I like the use of only two fabrics for each massive block. It helps you see the real shape of the block and makes the lattice work of the flying geese stand out. She used Kashmir, a paper pantograph, to give this an edge to edge treatment that looks great on it.

Rebecca makes an impact with free-motion

Rebecca has been renting our longarm machines for a few years now, and for this quilt she was ready to tackle ruler quilting!

You can see the flying geese in the borders where she echoed their flight is the blank spaces around them as well. Add some continuous curves in the body of the quilt and viola, you have a masterpiece. And don’t miss the photo of her quilt’s back. You can really see all her phenomenal quilting there!

Falicia’s Fun Polka Dot Quilt is leading the way

This is a fun polka dot quilt that Falicia created for a friend. There is a great consistency with the use of all the colorful and yet similar fabric. With the arrows all pointing at the flying geese in the center, the design has a nice flow to it. She quilted this by simply turning on the electronic channel lock on the APQS Millie and sewing long straight lines longwise through it. 

And don’t you love that backing fabric? It’s a 108″ wide fabric called Be Mindful. It’s filled with heartwarming phrases about friendship and love. It was the perfect backing fabric for a quilt gifted to a friend. Great job, Falicia!

So you can see flying geese work great as part of a larger block or sashing, in a border around a quilt, or right down the center as the focus of the quilt. There are lots of ways to piece these little beauties as well as quilt them. What kind of flying geese quilt can you come up with? When you’re done, post it on Instagram or Facebook. We’d love to see how you are flying into spring with flying geese.

I think you’re really going to enjoy this Looky Loo tour with Liz Allard. I hear people say all the time that they couldn’t possibly fit a stand up longarm machine in their home. I know from experience that you don’t need to have a big, beautiful longarm studio with a lake front view. When I got my longarm, I was set up in my old basement, with those tiny basement windows and lots of wood paneling! It was not a pretty space, but it worked for me in that season of my life. Liz has an APQS Millie on a 12 foot table in her two bedroom apartment! Watch the video below to see Liz’s space for yourself! The video will start at the beginning of Liz’s tour from our December 2019 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting. You can also watch the whole meeting here!

I really loved this studio tour with Liz! Of course, I love that she’s doing so much in her 1100 square foot apartment. But she also has so many clever storage ideas! Who would have thought wine racks would make the perfect paper pantograph storage?

Let’s get to know Liz a little more!

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting?

Liz: Since the late 80s…when I was in college.

QJ: How long have you been longarm quilting?

L: I was in Angela’s second longarm certification class after she opened her studio in 2013.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

L: I take as many classes as I can, whether in person or online. Angela has great studio guest teachers at least once a year, but I also go to shows and other longarm dealers for classes.

QJ: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

L: Sometimes I will have a creative block, usually when a customer’s tastes are extremely hard to draw out.

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space?

L: It’s just the right size. Everything is right where I need it to be, and you sure can’t beat the commute!

QJ: What would you change about your space if you could?

L: I wish I had a better indoor space for photography.

QJ: What advice would you give a new longarm quilter?

L: Practice on paper and on your machine. Practice, practice, practice! You won’t be perfect straight out of the gate, and you will have times where you aren’t growing as fast as other times. Make sure, though, that you save your first quilt so that you can see how far you’ve come!

QJ: What quilt project are you currently working on?

L: I’m working on my summer block-of-the-week projects from Primitive Gatherings currently, along with a relatively simple lap quilt from homespun fabrics for this fall. I have 63 unquilted tops of my own and hope to make a dent in them during my creative break at the end of this year! I just finished a quick and simple fundraiser quilt for a friend’s cousin whose son has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a type of childhood leukemia.

QJ: What quilt project is on your bucket list?

L: I’d like to go back and restart the Conway Album quilt that my mom and I started right after the pattern was published in 1992. (This quilt hangs in the National Quilt Museum.) I’d like to use a black background and bright batiks, though, as color tastes including my own have changed over the years!

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style?

L: First off, I am completely hand-driven – no robotics. I love rulerwork and like to draw ideas from nature. I walk almost daily and always have my phone with me to take pictures for my next quilting idea.

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread?

L: Hobbs 80/20 or Quilters Dream wool over Hobbs 80/20; So Fine 50 with The Bottom Line bobbin thread. I wind my own bobbins.

QJ: What is your current favorite quilting gadget?

L: Oh, anything made of acrylic! Straight rulers, curved templates…

Liz Recommends:

• Walking to get out in the fresh air.
• Journaling about thoughts, faith, anything that is on your mind. Obviously this includes quilting ideas! I journal daily.
• I love my Quilta light! Good lighting makes all the difference in quilting and in so many other endeavors.
• Taking time to be creative and to use your mind in different ways.

Thanks again to Liz for letting us take a peek into her sewing studio! If you’d like to connect with Liz and see what she’s working on, you can check out her website, Custom Quilting by Liz, or follow her on Instagram.

Students will be able to enjoy class from the comfort of their own home. One of our fabulous quilt fairies will be monitoring a chat room to answer all your questions. And Angela will pause throughout class to answer those questions as well. We’ll also record the class, so if you need to rewatch later you’ll have access to that recording for a limited time after class.

Live, Virtual APQS Beginning Longarm Class, April 2, 2020, 10am-4pm Eastern, $200 or Free for new APQS owners

This class is for brand new longarm machine owners of any brand. It is a comprehensive class that covers multiple ways to load a quilt on a frame, how to set tension, how to use pantographs & line them up, basic machine maintenance (APQS specific), and how to choose threads and batting. It is all lecture/demo so be sure to have something to write with and a list of any questions you may have. It is FREE for those who have purchased an APQS new or factory certified used machine in the last year (contact us to register if you fall into that category). It is designed to help those who own their own stand up quilting machine- regardless of the brand.

Live, Virtual Introduction to Custom Quilting Class, April 3, 2020 10am-2:30pm Eastern, $125

This course picks up where the APQS Beginning Longarm Class stops. This class offers a broad overview of  custom quilting. During this lecture/demo class we will learn over 100 ways to custom quilt a block. Learn easy custom border/corner/sashing treatments. See how to “read” a quilt top and interpret a quilt top to select the best design and organize your inspiration. Explore beginning ruler work and learn how to safely use rulers with your quilting machine. This class offers the bird’s eye view of custom quilting so you are ready for more focused and rigorous classes. This class comes with an extensive handout.

Have a question about either of these online classes? Send us an email here!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Let’s dive into Grid Based Freemotion Designs! Watch as Angela demonstrates the spiked cathedral windows design.
• Take a tour of Adrean T.’s quilting studio! We had so much fun chatting with Adrean and you will love all of her clever DIY sewing room tricks!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!

Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world! No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday February 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

How to Quilt the Infinity Twins

Looks easy right? To quilt the infinity twins, you’re going to quilt an infinity sign over and over again. Start in the middle of your sashing. Swing up to the top with a loop and come down to the bottom with another loop. Swing back up to the top with a loop and on your way back down overlap with the previous loop. This is a really meditative design and I could have kept quilting that for a while!

Infinity twins is a little like ribbon candy, but it’s more forgiving! If your loops aren’t exactly the same size it won’t stand out because there’s so much movement for your eye to take in. Practice drawing the infinity twins on paper, then take it to the machine!

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the infinity twins, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for machine quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt curvy grid filler designs. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt these designs, and so much more!

Curvy Grid Fillers

To quilt our curvy grid fillers, we’re going to follow the same path we talked about during the January 2021 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting. If you haven’t watched that meeting yet, pause this video and watch this one first. Angela breaks down the paths for two common grid designs in that video, and we’ll be using that same path throughout our year of the grid.

This design looks a lot like the continuous curves we talked about last month. But we’re adding a fun curvy element inside our curves. Practice these designs on paper until you’re confident with the quilting path. And don’t forget to join the Quilted Joy Newsletter too. We’re sharing worksheets and exclusive designs with our newsletter subscribers!

We love these curvier grid designs because they’re so forgiving! With all the movement in the design, slight differences in symmetry or small imperfections don’t stand out like they would with continuous curves.

Looky Loo Tour of Quilted Joy!

The Looky Loo tours are our favorite part of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse meetings, and it finally hit us that we’ve never shown off our studio! So this month we took a tour of the Quilted Joy shop and showroom. We’re located in Louisville, KY and when visitors walk in the first things they always notice are our our pretty 108″ wide back fabrics and our 30 foot wall of machine quilting threads! And we hope you love our lime green walls as much as we do.

Beyond the shop area is our longarm studio! We have five APQS longarm machines that we rent by the hour to a gaggle of amazing local quilters. Of course, we have to have lots of quilts on display! We hang quilts from the rafters, right now we have Angela’s quilts from Love of Quilting TV, but we also love to show off quilts made by our friends and guild members too. We hope it was fun for you to get a glimpse into our world!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy

Some new arrivals here at Quilted Joy were a group of paper pantographs! If you don’t know what a paper pantograph is, these are the papers you use on the back of a longarm machine. They have a continuous line design printed along the length of the paper that you can trace with a laser light attached to your machine.

Our newest paper pantographs have a more modern feel that we think a lot of quilters are going to love! You can see these new pantographs and all our other pantographs in our online shop.

How Would You Quilt It? Cheri’s Celtic Crossings Quilt

Cheri posted this fun Irish Chain inspired quilt in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse asking for design ideas. The bold solid colored units really grabbed Angela’s attention, and it’s the perfect place to play with our curvy grid designs!

Quilting those curvy grids would add some softer, rounder texture to balance the sharp geometric piecing. Watch the video to see Angela’s full quilting plan. Cheri decided to quilt her quilt with an edge to edge design, we hope she posts a photo in the Clubhouse so we can see the finished quilt!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be March 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at spiked cathedral windows. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

1) Use a Binding Chart

Grabbing a calculator to make sure you have enough strips to make the right amount of binding is hard. Get your free downloadable binding chart you can print out. I like to keep mine under my cutting mat so I know right where to find it when it is time. This makes it so EASY

2) Trim the Secret Triangles in Your Binding Corners

After attaching your binding to the front of the quilt there is a secret little triangle to snip away in each of your quilts corners that will help your binding turn to the back square, flat and beautiful. Take a close look at step 5 in this tutorial to see EXACTLY where to find the secret triangle hiding in your corners. This is what needs to be snipped- not the entire corner. Did you know there was a secret triangle?  

3) The Best way to Join the Ends of Your Binding

This video tutorial by one of my quilt heroes, Dawn Cavanaugh, shows a foolproof way of attaching the beginning and end of your binding together so there is NO BULK! 

4) Prep for Binding by Squaring Up Your Quilt

For years I was terrified of squaring up a quilt after I’d finished quilting it but it makes a HUGE difference. It isn’t that hard and squaring the quilt makes it so much easier to pop those corners square and flat. Here’s a great tutorial on how to square up your quilt to prep it for binding.

5) Pre-Made 100% Cotton Binding by Moda!

Recently a new product was introduced that made me squeal. For years premade binding was of poor quality and was predominately polyester fabric. Then, Moda started making binding from their 100% quilt shop quality cotton and it is FABULOUS! Talk about a time saver. If you don’t like making your own binding be sure to try this. We have all the colors they make!

Whether you prefer to bind your quilts by hand or machine, these binding tips should jumpstart your next quilt finish! Do you have a binding secret you want to share with the world? Join us in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and let us know! We’d love to see what you’re working on.

Happy Quilting!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• Let’s dive into Grid Based Freemotion Designs! Last month we looked at traditional designs. Today we’re looking at curvy grid designs that are a little more forgiving!
• Who’s quilt did Angela select to design the quilting motifs for? Be sure to watch and see how she would quilt a viewer’s quilt if it were hers!
• Can’t join us live? Watch the replay on our YouTube channel whenever it works for you. We are just glad you are part of our quilty world!

No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday February 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

How to Quilt the Echoed Tulip Dance Border

You’ll love how easy it is to quilt the echoed tulip dance border! Before I quilted this design I started by adding a few registration lines in my border. This will help keep the tulips even across the space. The size of these spaces is up to you! I gave myself about 3 inches for each tulip. But you might want more or less space depending on the size of your border.

To quilt the echoed tulip dance border, we’ll start at the bottom of your border. Quilt a lower case “e” or a loop around the center of your marked space. Now quilt three tulip petals or leaves around that center loop. This brings you back to your center loop. Now echo back around your tulip petals. On your first and last petals add a curl for a little extra whimsy!

Continue echoing the tulip until you’re back at the center loop. Now you can travel to your next marked space to quilt another echoed tulip!

Now It’s Your Turn!

Now that you know how to quilt the echoed tulip dance border, it’s your turn to give it a try! I would love to see your version of this design. You can share pictures of your quilts with me at the Quilted Joy Facebook page, tag me on Instagram, or join the community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse!

If you would like to explore more tips and tricks for machine quilting, don’t miss the Quilted Joy Learning Center!

Students will be able to enjoy class from the comfort of their own home. One of our fabulous quilt fairies will be monitoring a chat room to answer all your questions. And Angela will pause throughout class to answer those questions as well. We’ll also record the class, so if you need to rewatch later you’ll have access to that recording for a limited time after class.

Live, Virtual APQS Beginning Longarm Class, February 12, 2020, 10am-4pm Eastern, $200 or Free for new APQS owners

This class is for brand new longarm machine owners of any brand. It is a comprehensive class that covers multiple ways to load a quilt on a frame, how to set tension, how to use pantographs & line them up, basic machine maintenance (APQS specific), and how to choose threads and batting. It is mainly lecture/demo so be sure to have something to write with and a list of any questions you may have. It is free for those who have purchased an APQS new or factory certified used machine in the last year (contact us to register if you fall into that category). It is designed to help those who own their own stand up quilting machine- regardless of the brand.

Live, Virtual Introduction to Custom Quilting Class, February 13, 2020 10am-2:30pm Eastern, $125

This course picks up where the APQS Beginning Longarm Class stops. This class offers a broad overview of  custom quilting. During this lecture/demo class we will learn over 100 ways to custom quilt a block. Learn easy custom border/corner/sashing treatments. See how to “read” a quilt top and interpret a quilt top to select the best design and organize your inspiration. Explore beginning ruler work and learn how to safely use rulers with your quilting machine. This class offers the bird’s eye view of custom quilting so you are ready for more focused and rigorous classes. This class comes with an extensive handout.

Have a question about either of these online classes? Send us an email here!

Then I found the snapping systems and I’ve not looked back! There are two on the market – you can install Leader Grips and Red Snappers. They both function essentially the same way but I found Red Snappers were too stiff for me and caused me hand pain. I switched to Leader Grips and I love them!

I can load a King sized quilt to my APQS Millie frame in about 10 minutes with Leader Grips. Shazam! If you are interested you can get Leader Grips for your quilter over in the Quilted Joy shop by clicking here.

Installation is super simple, too! And, my friend Tracey at Whirls and Swirls Quilting made a great video showing how to make the pocket on your canvas leaders you need to install the Leader Grip rods in the casing on your longarm. So AWESOME!

Blue, Black, and White

This is Karen’s tricolored longarm rental certification quilt. She pieced it overnight using only five fabrics. Isn’t it fun? Besides the simplicity of the color palette, I like the simplicity of her quilt design. She quilted this with Star Dance, a great pantograph design from Barbara Becker. It is a nice and open design for those that don’t like tightly quilted designs. The open nature of the design also makes it easier to quilt for those that may be new to quilting. Because there is space between the lines, being a little off will not make any visible difference at all. The stars make this quilt design very versatile to use as it looks great on children’s quilts, patriotic quilts, and many others.

Black, White, and Yellow

Brenda brought this gorgeous little quilt with fabrics from the “Bee Joyful” line by Deb Strain and Moda Fabrics. All the fabrics are black, white, gray, and yellow which essentially keeps it tricolored. Brenda chose to use our design boards or groovy boards. We don’t sell the boards, but we do have ten or so that our longarm renters can use. What you see here is the spiral board. Technically not circles, this would be very difficult to replicate with rulers and impossible to do without.  Because of the ribbed circles, they kind of look like the top view of old fashioned beehives, don’t you think?

Red, White, and Gray

Carol quilted this simple alternating nine patch tricolored quilt during her rental certification class. She came with a friend so they were able to take turns on each other’s quilts. Carol chose the spiral design board for her quilt and her friend chose a pantograph. By trading, they were both able to try two different styles of quilting, while only have one style on each quilt. I thought that was pretty clever!

Black, White, and Gray

Falicia wanted to make a gift for her brother who is a big Iowa Hawkeyes fan. The pattern of the quilt is simple, it’s her tricolored fabric that sets it apart. The back is also pieced to mimic the stripe that you see on the sleeves of the football jersey.

Falicia wanted a quilting design that would not add any distraction to the fabric, so she chose Square Spiral by Keryn Emmerson. This design has regular wavy lines that just add wonderful texture to a quilt!

I hope you see that simplifying your design by simply limiting your colors can be quite effective! I still love colorful quilts, but two or three colors really can be enough. What quilts have you made that were tricolored? We’d all love to see! Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram, or join our online community in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse. Hope to see you there!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was how to quilt two simple grid-based filler designs. Watch the video below to see Angela quilt continuous curves, a simple loops design, and so much more!

What’s Happening at Quilted Joy!

We’ve got a lot of fun things happening here at Quilted Joy! We’re all looking forward to having students in our shop for classes again, but until we can do that safely we’ll continue to offer our classes online. Coming up in February, Angela will be teaching two beginner longarm quilting classes online.

On February 12 Angela will be teaching the APQS Beginning Longarm Class. This is a comprehensive class for new longarm machine owners. We’ll talk about machine maintenance, how to load a quilt, how to quilt with paper pantographs, and so much more. This class is free to folks who purchased a new or factory-certified used machine in the last year and it’s also open to those who own a different brand machine too.

Angela always follows that class with her Introduction to Custom Quilting Class on February 13. This class will give you a bird’s eye view of custom quilting. You’ll finish the class with dozens of free motion quilting designs you can take to your next quilt! Both the APQS Beginning Longarm class and the Introduction to Custom Quilting class will be taught online via Zoom video conference. We also record these classes so you can rewatch them later!

If you live near our Louisville, KY store, we do have an in-person APQS Road Show event coming up on Saturday February 6 at 12:30pm Eastern. This is a FREE event for folks interested in purchasing a longarm machine. You’ll learn about all our different APQS longarm quilting machines and we’ll have fabric loaded on each machine so you can test drive the machines.

Continuous Curves and Squeezy Daisies

The first step for grid filler designs will of course be to mark your grid! Depending on the size grid you want to quilt within, you could use a grid stencil and mark it with a chalk pencil or quilt pounce chalk. Or if you could use a regular ruler with that chalk pencil to mark your grid lines.

During this QJ Clubhouse meeting, we looked at two simple designs that will allow us to practice the path for grid fillers. First we looked at a super traditional design you’ve probably seen over and over again: continuous curves. You might have also heard it called cathedral windows or orange peels. Watch the video above to hear my tricks for remembering the path for this design!

If the continuous curves are too traditional for you, you might like the squeezy daisies better! This design follows the same path as the continuous curves but instead of hopping from point to point, we’re quilting lower case e’s. Try them both out on your next quilt and let us know which design you like best!

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy

It’s a new year, so we’ve got lots of new 108″ wide back fabrics arriving at the Quilted Joy store! At the start of the meeting Angela talked about how much she’s missed traveling and especially cruising to warm, tropical places. The Tahiti Dreams 108″ Quilt Backs are a nice substitute for sandy beaches until she can start traveling again. These fabrics are available in 4 different colors – pink, blue, light grey, and neutral. Which color is your favorite of the bunch?

We’ve also added a great fabric for a patriotic quilt or quilt of valor called Antique Constitution. This fabric has the Constitution printed across the fabric. It has an antiqued look and in some areas it’s clear while others it looks more faded. And everyone at the shop was so excited for the Dragonfly 108″ fabric to arrive. The colors are so playful and bright!

How Would you Quilt It? Darcene’s Starburst Quilt

Each month in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse, Angela asks members to submit photos of an unquilted quilt top for quilting suggestions. Darcene’s Starburst quilt was the perfect quilt to show how you can use a grid based design, even in a diamond shape!

Watch the video above to see how Angela adjusted her squeezy daisies design from earlier in the Clubhouse meeting to fit within Darcene’s diamond pieces. Watch the video to see Angela’s full quilting plan for Darcene’s fabulous quilt!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be February 3, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be looking at curvy designs on a straight grid. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

Meandering with Trina

Doing a meander on a t-shirt quilt is very typical. Often with memory quilts and the like, you have buttons or edges that can get in the way of the hopping foot. Whenever you have those types of elements, we recommend quilting from the front of the machine as opposed to the back with a pantograph. It’s easier to see what is happening and avoid those areas if necessary. But I think Trina decided to free-motion this quilt because meanders don’t add a distracting design when it is the t-shirts that are the stars.

This is a great gift from Trina for a friend who is an elementary school teacher. All of those shirts are from the same elementary school. Trina did a great job quilting this. You can see how even the quilting lines are. The back of the quilt is also super cute. I do warn you, though, that it is very hard to ensure a pieced backing like this ends up right where you want it. It’s still a fun way to use the last of the shirts in your quilt.

Continuous Curves with Erin

This is a quilt top made by Erin Harris, author of The House on Hill Road blog. She used fabrics designed by another fellow local Kentuckian, Melissa Mortenson. These were part of her Derby Day Fabric line. It’s a simple pattern but it works so well with the fabrics and how she quilted it. She just put some very intentional continuous lines in there and then crossed back across to create those oval shapes. You can see how she managed to cross her other continuous curves right at the seams. I think it works really well.

Straight Lines with Patricia

Sometimes free-motion does not mean without assistance or structure. Straight line quilting is also considered free-motion because it is done from the front and without a preprinted pattern.

This quilt is lovely! Patricia brought this ultra simple but super fun big block quilt. She quilted it with a minky backing, which is a great idea for a quilt. It makes it so cuddly!

She quilted a stunning geometric pattern with the channel locks on the Millie and a ruler to get the distance. In each corner she quilted echoed squares towards the center that meet perfectly in the middle. Because she made the quilt longer than it is wide, Patricia quilted the middle with just horizontal stripes. The over all effect was amazing and definitely something that I want to try on one of my own quilts!

Wavy Lines with Colleen

This last one was also a gift for teacher. Colleen made this super cute quilt of crayons with a black backing. It is a free pattern from Riley Blake called Color my World.

The bright colors on the black are so striking. She decided to free-motion with some simple wavy lines through the length of the crayons. It kind of reminds me of a child’s crayon scribbles. It was the perfect addition to the quilt, in my opinion. This now hangs in the teacher’s office for all the children to see, which is exactly where it should be!

So you can see that these free motion quilts were not overly complicated or difficult to do. With a little planning and some confidence you can put some very fun designs on your quilt without having to rely on a professional design. Let your imagination run free, then let us see what you come up with on Instagram or Facebook. We always like to see what you’ve made!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was about how to quilt the inside of a feathered wreath. Watch the video below to see Angela’s guide to quilting feathered wreaths and so much more!

Quilt the Inside of a Feathered Wreath

2020 was the year of the feather. We talked about feather spines, a variety of feather plumes, and fitting feathers into different shapes. To end 2020, we wanted to talk about one of the most challenging feathers – the feathered wreath. During the November 2020 Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting we talked about marking the wreath and quilting the outside of the wreath. So for the December 2020 QJ Clubhouse meeting we looked at quilting the inside of the feathered wreath.

Depending on your personality type, you might prefer to quilt your feathers freeform – just quilt them and see where they land – or you might prefer to quilt with registration marks to keep your feathers even. Either way, it helps to start by drawing or chalking a few feathers to get yourself into a feather quilting groove. If you need structure, add a few target marks that splits your spine into even spaces. Aim for the target marks as you chalk and quilt your feather plumes.

Give this a try for yourself! Start by practicing on paper and get comfortable with the shapes and direction. We can’t wait to see your versions of feathered wreaths, and any feathers you quilt! We hope you’ll post pictures of your quilts and machine quilting in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse Facebook group.

Audrey’s Quilting Studio

For this meeting’s Looky Loo Studio Tour, we visited Audrey Esarey of Cotton and Bourbon. Audrey is set up in her home’s basement where she has two distinct spaces. One space she dedicates mostly to piecing, with her sewing machine, pressing station, and two design walls. The other space is her quilting space where she has her APQS Freddie on a 10′ table. Her Freddie’s 10 foot table is the perfect size for her space with just enough room for Audrey to walk behind the table when she needs to. Thanks for letting us peek into your space, Audrey! If you’re not already following her, you can find Audrey on Instagram @cottonandbourbon.

New Arrivals at Quilted Joy

We always have lots of new items walking into the Quilted Joy shop, and this December we added four new holiday and winter themed paper pantographs!

Any of these paper pantographs would look fabulous on your Christmas quilts! We have two new holly themed pantos – Holly Ribbon and Winter Holly. Holly Ribbon has the holly leaves with twirling ribbons between the leaves. Winter Holly has a bunch of berries with the holly leaves nestled between swirls. White Out is a fabulous snowflake pantograph! Our APQS longarm machine renters have been using this one the last week or so and have really loved quilting those big snowflakes on their quilts! Finally we have Advent, our new Christmas tree pantograph. we love that it has ornaments and a star topper too! These are available individually in our online and Louisville, KY stores. Or you can get all four in our Christmas Paper Pantograph Package and get a big of a price break for the group!

How Would You Quilt It? Rose’s Spools Quilt

Each month in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse, Angela asks for submissions for our How Would You Quilt It? portion of the meeting. This month, Rose shared her sweet Spools quilt. What a fun quilt for a quilter or sewist and a great way to use up some scraps too! Angela wanted the quilting to enhance the idea that these are spools of thread, and designed the quilting plan around that idea. Watch the video above to see Angela’s full quilting plan!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be January 6, 2021 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be starting our year of grid based designs. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• It’s been the year of the feather! Let’s finish the year with the traditional feathered wreath. This month is part 2, how to quilt the inside of the wreath.
• During our Looky-Loo Studio tour we’re going to visit Audrey Esarey.
• Watch Angela’s design process as she shares how she might quilt a quilt.

No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday December 2, 2020 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!

Our main program for this month’s meeting was about how to quilt the outside of a feathered wreath. Watch the video below to see Angela’s guide to quilting feathered wreaths and so much more!

Quilt the Outside of a Feathered Wreath

We’re coming to the end of our year of the feather and what better way to end it than a feathered wreath? Feathered wreaths can be challenging, so take your time and be kind to yourself while you learn this technique! In this meeting we focused on how to prepare the space and quilting the outside of the wreath.

To prepare your wreath, you’ll need to add some registration marks on your quilt. Your markings should look a little like a bullseye. These lines will give you your spine and the boundaries for your feathers. Don’t miss my feathered wreath size chart here. This guide will make it a little easier to determine what size your registration lines should be.

To quilt the wreath, start by drawing a few plumes in the outside boundary. Drawing the plumes helps to get yourself into the feather quilting groove and the nice 45-degree angle for the plumes. After you’ve quilted a few plumes you can erase the feathers you drew on the quilt top. As you work your way around the wreath and come back to where you started, be careful about how much room is left for your last few feathers.

Spend some time practicing the outside edge of feathered wreaths on some play fabric. Don’t forget to join us for the December Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting when we’ll talk about how to quilt the inside of a feathered wreath.

Tamara’s Quilting Studio

Tamara Bobbitt of Foxtail Quilting let us peek into her sewing studio for our Looky Loo Tour. Tamara is set up in an expanded efficiency area on the first floor of her home. She has an APQS Millie on a 12ft frame that fits perfectly in her space for her to easily walk around both sides of her table. She added a bar under her Millie’s frame to store her batting which is such a clever use of space! Thank you Tamara for letting us peek into your space!

Angela’s Favorite Things – ProCircle Rulers

Keeping with our feathered wreath theme, Angela’s favorite things for this month are the ProCircle and ProPebble rulers!

Angela uses these rulers to mark her registration lines before quilting feathered wreaths. Remember, with the ProCircles the size marked is the size circle you can quilt with the ruler. So a 4″ ProCircle has an actual diameter of 3.5″, but when you add the quarter inch for your hopping foot your circle will be 4″. If you’re using the ProCircle for marking a circle, you’ll want to pair it with a Drawing Wheel, which will mimic your quarter-inch hopping foot.

How Would You Quilt It? Susan’s Striped Masterpiece!

Every month in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook Angela looks for photos of unquilted quilt tops asking for design help. This month she found this gorgeous quilt by Susan. We’re not sure yet what the pattern’s called, but we hope Susan let’s us know soon!

Didn’t Susan do an amazing job making this quilt? All of her striped fabrics are lining up so perfectly! For this quilt’s design, Angela didn’t want to distract from Susan’s fabulous piecing so her quilting plan involved lots of straight lines and geometric designs. We can’t wait to see how Susan decides to quilt it!

Show and Tell

We love to wrap up the QJ Clubhouse meetings with a little show and tell. There are so many talented quilters in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse on Facebook and they share lots of amazing quilts. It’s fun to put a spotlight on their hard work!

The Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings occur on the first Wednesday of each month at 1pm Eastern. Our next Clubhouse meeting will be December 2, 2020 at 1pm Eastern/Noon Central and we’ll be talking about how to quilt feathers on the inside of a feathered wreath. If you’d like to watch live, you can find us on Facebook in the Quilted Joy Clubhouse or subscribe to the Quilted Joy Youtube channel to be notified about our videos. Don’t worry if you can’t join us live. The video will remain available on both Facebook and Youtube afterwards so you can watch whenever you want!

Hope to “see” you at the next live meeting!

Throughout this year we have been exploring feathers during each month’s Quilted Joy Clubhouse online meeting. We have recorded each meeting so you can go back and get some feathered goodness whenever you like!

During the November Quilted Joy Clubhouse meeting we explored how to quilt a traditional feathered wreath. Specifically, we focused on how to mark a wreath and prepare a block for a wreath. Then, we placed feathers on the outside of the wreath. Our December meeting will focus on adding feathers to the inside of the wreath.

To mark the area in which you wish to place a wreath you’ll need to mark three different sized circles. The outermost circle and innermost circle are boundary lines to guide you in how far to extend your feathers.

The interior middle circle is your actual stitched spine for the wreath. But what size circles do you need for a block? I’m glad you asked. Watch the lesson and then refer back to this chart for the circle sizes you need.

The inner and outer circles are marked. The middle circle is stitched. Don’t forget that the ruler foot on your machine adds a half inch to the middle circle size. So, the middle circle listed below is the size template you’ll need to stitch with but the resulting middle circle size will be one half inch bigger.

Feathered Wreath Size Chart

Watch the November Quilted Joy Clubhouse for all the details on using the chart above and how to place feathers on your wreath!

You can watch the meeting in a few different places. Members of the Quilted Joy Clubhouse can watch the meeting in the Facebook group. Not a member of the clubhouse? Click here to find the group and request to be a member. You will need to answer a few questions about yourself, this is just so we can be sure you’re a human and not a robot!

Not on Facebook? Not a problem! You can also watch the meeting on the Quilted Joy Youtube channel. Click here to find us on Youtube and subscribe to the channel so you’re notified when we post a new video. Or you can watch it right here on the Quilted Joy website!

Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ll be talking about during this month’s meeting:

• It’s been the year of the feather! Let’s finish the year with the traditional feathered wreath. This month is part 1, how to quilt the outside of the wreath.
• During our Looky-Loo Studio tour we’re going to visit Tamara Bobbitt.
• Watch Angela’s design process as she shares how she might quilt a quilt.

No matter how you watch, we hope you can join us for the meeting on Wednesday November 4, 2020 at 1pm Eastern/12pm Central! Be sure to say hi and ask questions in the comments too. See ya there!