LOVE Quilt and Exciting News

First, the exciting news! Remember back in July when I posted this picture of four small quilts that might possibly be included in Jean Wells' new book?

Well, here's the exciting news ... a card from Jean:

Yippee! I cannot wait to see Jean's new book and am so honored to be a tiny part of it. She is an amazing teacher!

I just finished the class sample for "LOVE is in the Air", a class I am teaching this spring at the Pine Needle:

I love everything about this pattern (by Tula Pink), from the whimsical letters to the quilting and multi-color binding. I quilted it as shown in the pattern because I thought the quilting design by Angela Walters was fabulous. A collaboration between the two of them, the "rays" in the light gray areas were Tula Pink's idea and the pebbles Angela's idea. 

The quilt will be at the Pine Needle open house Friday and Saturday, January 13 and 14. Hope to see you there!

Happy New Year 2012 - A Year in Free Motion

A couple of exciting free motion projects are kicking off that I'd like to share with you ... so 2012 could be, if you are interested, a year of Free Motion! What a terrific opportunity to practice regularly. I am practicing too ... definitely doing the Free Motion Challenge ... once a month seems doable. I also plan to participate as much as possible in Leah Day's "Quilt Along". I know I'll be too busy some weeks to stitch them all, but knowing Leah's work, there will be tons of great information and ideas to inspire all of us.


Free Motion Challenge 2012


Arden sent me the information on the Free Motion Challenge 2012 from SewCalGal. Thank you Arden! Here is the description:

"Every month in 2012 a FMQ expert will share a tutorial with tips to help quilters learn and/or improve their free-motion quilting skills.  Insights will also be shared about this expert (e.g. quilting background, insights on books/dvds that they may have created, teaching schedule, etc.).  The focus is on inspiring others to learn and have fun doing free-motion quilting.  Each FMQ Expert  will also sponsor a giveaway whereby they may donate a book/dvd that they've created, thread, fabric, a quilt that they made, or some other item appropriate for a quilter.  Quilting participants that complete the challenge in the respective month will be entered to win that giveaway."

Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt Along


Each week in 2012, Leah Day is going to post a design that we can practice that week. The Free Motion Quilt Along is her newest endeavor. If you are familiar with her previous project, Leah embarked on a challenge to stitch a new design every day for a year. She has completed all 365 free motion designs complete with video and clear instructions.


The 365 designs are all stitched in a 4-inch square. Her focus this year to to quilt on a larger scale. I hope to stitch as many of these as I can!

I hope you'll join me in practicing free motion stitching this year. Best wishes for happy quilting in 2012!