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Free-Motion Quilting for Beginners & More
Free-Motion Quilting 101 Free-motion quilting is an often intimidating subject for many quilters. Just the thought of lowering the feed dogs of the sewing machine can put people in a panic! Read on to discover some great resources for free-motion quilting and have confidence to create your first free-motion quilt. WHAT IS FREE-MOTION QUILTING? Anytime you hear or read the term “free-motion,” this means you are moving the fabric between the presser foot and feed dogs. You are in control of the movement of the fabric, whether that is slow or fast, in any direction. Yes, any direction: side to side, backwards, forwards! The speed in which you move the…
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July 4th Projects to Sew: Décor + Wearables
July 4th Projects to Sew: Décor + Wearables July 4th projects to sew don’t have to be fussy or complicated. It’s all about showing off our red, white and blue, but there are a few fun things you can throw into the mix, too. Read on to discover some of our favorite patriotic projects and find a fun freebie for your embroidery machine. July 4th Wearable Projects Matching family T-shirts are fun ready-made items to embroider for photo ops, family gatherings and watching fireworks. Try Sulky CRY® thread (CRY stands for Coated Reflective Yarn), and sprinkle some into a fun design to make your thread reflect light. When the fireworks…
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Karlee Porter’s Favorite Threads for Quilting
Favorite Threads for Quilting by Karlee Porter Award-winning quilter Karlee Porter shares her favorite threads for quilting. Learn more about Karlee in our free on-demand webinar, Hand Lettered Quilting. And look for our Hand Lettered Quilting kit to make memorable postcards to send to loved ones. from Karlee: When I first started quilting, the first thread that I had on hand were these very old cones that were from Walmart. When it comes to thread, especially for quilting, you get what you pay for. Not only did I find that this thread didn’t hold up very well, but I often had tension problems while trying to quilt with it. On…
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Hibernating Hedgehog Cutlery Holder + New Thread Palette
Hibernating Hedgehog In-The-Hoop Project A Hibernating Hedgehog Cutlery Holder is just what you need for your fall tablescape! This in-the-hoop design is free with the purchase of our brand-new fall thread palette, designed by Sweet Pea. It’s designed for a 5×7 hoop. To make this project, you’ll also need either Sulky Ultra Solvy (my preference) or Tear-Easy stabilizer. You also need some batting and a few fabrics in the colors shown above (batiks work great!) for the cutlery holder front, back, lining and appliqué pieces. Fabric A –18cm x 23cm (7” x 9”) front of holder Fabric B –18cm x 23cm(7” x 9”)front lining Fabric C –18cm x 8cm (7”…
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Noel Door Hanger: Christmas in July Project to Make
Make a Noel Door Hanger with our free project! It’s less than 200 days until Christmas. Won’t it be nice to have a new handmade project done well in advance of the holiday season? This is why “Christmas in July” exists–to prepare us for the onslaught of all things holly and jolly. Even if you’re not even thinking about Halloween decor yet, our Noel Bell Pull project is easily completed with step-by-step instructions to not overwhelm you and gradually get you into the holiday spirit. Take it one step at a time and carve out some time as you have it in order to complete this adorable door hanger…
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Laser Cut Appliqué Wall Art Kits for Summer Décor
Laser cut appliqués are the coolest thing in appliqué! These precut pieces allow you to put together seemingly intricate appliquéd projects in a mere fraction of the time, cutting (pun intended) out the tedious cutting, trimming and recutting needed in most cases for a layered appliqué project, such as our Summer Simply Appliqué scene. HOW LASER CUT APPLIQUE WORKS This pattern comes with a layout sheet to aid in layering the laser cut appliqué pieces properly to achieve a beautiful end result. Use a nonstick pressing sheet to place each piece and fuse the layers in order. A lightweight table-top lightbox is also SUPER helpful for this process. Tweezers also…
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Wholecloth Quilt using Sulky Stars Quilt Block – Lori Kennedy
Wholecloth Quilt: Sulky Stars Quilt Block designed by Lori Kennedy Create a wholecloth quilt using this Star quilt block design by Lori Kennedy. Lori Kennedy is a quilt designer, author, teacher and blogger at Lori Kennedy Quilts (formerly The Inbox Jaunt). She loves personalizing quilts with machine quilted doodles. Lori is the author of Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 and More Free Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3. She takes the fear out of free motion quilting with easy quilting techniques and step-by-step tutorials to help every level of quilter find success with machine quilting. Lori is a BERNINA Ambassador, shares her tutorials in American Quilter Magazine, and has three Bluprint (Craftsy) videos on creative machine quilting. When she is not quilting or doodling,…
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Christmas Embroider Buddies
Christmas Embroider Buddies by Kelly Nagel Do you want to know a secret? I love being the girl who always gives the perfect gift. I especially like it when I give the perfect gift to a child. The look on their sweet face, the big hug and the look of envy from every other adult in the room just makes my heart happy. This is why I often give Embroider Buddies as gifts. An added bonus is these guys can be personalized, and if you know anything about me, you know I love to personalize things! Embroider Buddies are super easy to do machine embroidery on, but there are a…
