Thursday, January 16, 2014

Give-Away!

Welcome!

It has been a really busy month for me, so let's celebrate with another Give-away!



  Vintage Modern Fabrics is sponsoring this month's Give-away.  This fabulous shop carries the brightest and best modern fabrics and patterns. 


Michelle has chosen to give away the awesome Steampunk pattern by Jenny Kingwell.

"Steampunk" quilt pattern by Jenny Kingwell


Isn't this a great pattern for the "Modern" quilter?  I think so.  I know all of you visiting from Fat Quarterly and Moda Bake Shop will love it!


To Enter the Give-Away:
  1. To get one entry, visit Vintage Modern Fabrics (on Etsy) and leave us a comment by clicking the red Google+ sign below and tell us what your favorite item is in the store.  Now this is important, if you are using the Google+ interface, you become a "no-reply blogger" and we don't have your email when you win!  So...leave us your email in this format so "robots" can't "read" it: (gsmower{at}netzero[dot]com), or switch back to the blogger interface.
  2. To get a second and even third entry  "LIKE" Vintage Modern Fabrics on either Facebook or Etsy .
  3. And of course...last but not least, you can always get an extra entry by Following my blog using Google, Google+, or Bloglovin'--just make sure to tell me in your comment what you're doing.  Thanks!
Good luck!  Due to postal costs, this give-away is valid to US residents only. The winner will be announced February 18, 2014 on this blog!

Monday, January 13, 2014

KISMIF #8--Curls & Vines

Welcome to my free-motion quilting (FMQ) weekly thread-path tutorial KISMIF, where we try to "keep it simple and make it fun"!

Also don't forget to enter my new Give-Away!

So, last week we talked about leaves and their variations.  Leaves really are a "basic" design, and I hinted that you can dress-up your FMQ by adding other elements such as ribbons and curls.  As a continuation of that theme, I'm going to teach start with the basic curl & swirl design then progress to the intermediate designs--more vines.  They look fabulous as borders or as basic edge to edge (E2E) designs.  I once thought about  dividing this post into Borders and E2E, but found that I interchange them all the time and decided to share the basic thread-path.  It is how and where that thread-path is used that determines whether it's a border or E2E.  I've noticed that these posts end up a lot longer than I intend them too.  Sorry about that, if you think they're too long, just leave me a note in the comment section.

Modern Tradition Quilts

HOW TO PRACTICE (If you're a regular reader, you can skip this paragraph. :)  As with all of my pantographs, the starting point is marked with a red star and the exit is marked with a blue smaller star.  Trace the panto in the order of the numbers following the direction the arrows indicate.  To practice them for long-arm style machine quilting, trace the panto initially, then repeatedly sketch until you're comfortable on a dry-erase board.  If you use sit-down or domestic style machine quilting, have someone hold a dry-erase marker vertical and in the same spot for you.  Then move the dry-erase board around repeatedly until you feel comfortable with the motif.

This quilt has a traditional "vine" border quilted one it as an E2E style.  It's thread-path is actually a swirl with feather plumes driven off it.  I'll have to teach that in another post.  I'm thikin' February should be dedicated to Feathers!

To begin this, I should tell you how to do a basic Curl or Swirl.  They alone make great back-ground fillers.

As a back-ground filler.


As a vine.









Do you have anything "Fun" in the home-arts to share?  Please share it with my readers using the following linky party.  Also, please visit one another and leave comments--after all that's what a party is for!  :)  See you Friday for the Give-Away!