Category: Quilting By Machine
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Midarm Machine Quilting Class
I teach quilting on a midarm machine whenever I can and at the Valdez Quilt Festival I was invited to teach this class twice. I really enjoy showing quilters why I love this system more than the longarm 🙂 I’ve owned both a longarm and midarm system and quilted on the home sewing machine as…
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Stitch Envy
Whenever Sarah does a demonstration of our Crazy Shortcut Quilt techniques she mentions “stitch envy”. It happens during class when the students are quilting their squares using the decorative stitches of their sewing machines. They look at the quilters next to them and the stitches they have on their machines, and well, you get the…
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Quilt Room Photo
I just love having a cutting table that I can stand at and walk around! Sarah gave me this table and I use it all the time. The other thing that I really like is the pegboard that hangs next to it. I have the table shoved into a corner (no wobbling) and my rulers,…
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Bobbin Blowout
I can hardly believe my eyes, but I have a bobbin disaster. I am using a bobbin thread (new brand) and it is blowing out the sides of my bobbins. All of the bobbins in the photo used to be the same size before I loaded on this thread! I have a stand alone bobbin…
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Sharing Information on Squidoo.com
I am, at times, overwhelmed with what is available for free on the internet. Squidoo is interesting to me because they give you a nicely formatted place to share information on subjects that you are passionate about – and they give you a choice of donating any profits from the page you create to charity.…
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Cure for Thread Backlash
I was having a heck of a time with my decorative stitching and thread backlash in the bobbin. I thought it was the thread (no) the stitch (no) and finally just assumed that the timing was off on the sewing machine (no). I can’t say I know what caused the problem, but I do know…
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Quilting Tools that I Love
I just love anything that makes my sewing and quilting easier, and these 2 things do exactly that: Joan Hawley’s Tips DVD and Prym-Dritz curved nickel pins in a size 1. The first time I saw Joan at Quilt Market, with her booth & business sign that said “Lazy Girl” I stopped in my tracks.…
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Making cutting & pressing easier
As with my custom quilting desk I’ve improvised my cutting and pressing tables & surfaces. Here are the things I use and like, and why. This table (Sam’s Club $42) has 3 height settings, so I can sew on it (sitting down) or stand comfortably and cut fabrics and battings at it’s tallest setting of…
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Favorite Things
I am going to do the Martha Stewart thing and post a few of my favorite (machine quilting) things. I’ve been machine quilting (home machine, longarm & midarm) for 13 yrs and have been teaching for about 10 yrs. I’ve used a lot of products over the years and I have developed some specific preferences.…
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Sarah Raffuse Blogs!
My daughter and co-author, Sarah Raffuse, has started a blog. Hehehehehe. I knew that if I stole her pictures enough she’d start blogging herself 🙂 <—-happy mom smile! On her post today she shows off one of her most favorite quilts, made with the Bella Nonna pattern and silk flowers (check out their stuff here).…