Deb from New York asked:
Hi Renae, I am in the process of buying a long arm machine and frame. I already have experience with free motion quilting on my sewing machine, so I don't really need too much help with that. My question relates to the DVDs and CDs. How much of this will help me with getting some longarm experience? It appears that the DVDs demonstrate and focus more on the short arm machines, which I already know. I'm sure there are other tips in there as well, but could most of that be gotten from the books? What about the Design Builder Mastery and Skillbuilder Mastery? Do they have class instruction as well or just patterns? I'm just trying to find the best package for me. Thanks~ Deb

Hi Deb,

Given your experience I think the most helpful product would be Design Builder book, CD, and panel.  The panel does not have quilting design printed lines.  The different blocks, borders, sashing, and corner posts allow practice with long arm tools, techniques or free hand.  The book explains some techniques such as laser light, templates, and pantos.  It also gives twelve ideas for quilting each block and ideas for sashings, corner posts and borders.  The CD prints out the designs so they could be used with an upper or lower laser light, Golden Threads/Quilt and Tear paper, traced, or just used as a reference for free hand. 

Skillbuilder Mastery book might be helpful in selecting and creating different designs for squares, triangles, octagons, stars, and borders.  The CD rom prints all the designs on Skillbuilder 1 & 2 panels and in Skillbuilder Mastery book.  

You might also find Feather Fundamentals helpful for learning to quilt different feathers depending on your experience with feathers.  That information is the same for both systems.

Good luck with the long arm. I use both long arm and domestic but I have better control on intricate quilting with my domestic machine.

Renae

I'm excited about the upcoming HMQS class schedule. I'm teaching three different quilting classes on the domestic machine.  My classes are Feather FUNdamentals where we will quilt a table runner "quilt as you go style" with traditional, formal, and free form feathers.

I'll be teaching Introduction to Machine Quilting which does exactly what the name suggests. This class covers the basics to get quilting from pin basting to free motion technique using quilt sandwiches and Skillbuilder 1 practice panel.

Fills with Skill reaches beyond stippling by learning to quilt great fill designs. No marking is necessary this time and we will use Design Builder panel to fill elements, blocks, sashings and borders with a variety of fills. The small colored block is from the top of the quilt and the white is showing the back.

Loretta asked  - Is it possible to remove the printed designs on Skillbuilder panels after quilting the project?

No. The printed lines do not wash out on Skillbuilders. We do not currently have the ability to print both permanent and temporary lines. The purpose of Skillbuilders is practice so one suggestion is to quilt it multiple times with different colored threads.  You can also use a busy print on the back and then make a bag putting Skillbuilder on the inside (see the One Yard Tall Tote pattern in the Free Patterns and Projects tab). Because it is a learning tool, Skillbuilder doesn't have to look perfect and you don't have to keep it!

Thanks for asking,

Renae

HMQS Federal Feathers Pattern

Federal Feathers finally came to the top of my priority list since we showed and discussed it on QNNTV. I started this quilt months ago and made it for HMQS to display in the teacher section (see previous blogs). The pattern is designed with large areas for feather motifs or other quilting designs.  Easy and fast piecing leaving lots of time for free motion quilting!  Federal Feathers makes a great gift, table cloth, or center medallion for a larger quilt. It is now available on our website as a download pattern, paper pattern, or packaged with my QCI stencils. The border design is not a stencil but will be downloadable on the website.

Federal Feathers Pattern

Federal Feathers Package

With stencils, feather designs can be easily transferred onto the quilt. I used the blue marker on the cream and white chalk or Stabilo pencil on the black and red. 

QNNTV and One Yard Tall Tote

Last summer Jodie Davis, QNNTV Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show host, invited me to be one of the guests for the new series.  We taped the show in September and my three segments will be shown in December. The taping was completed in two days at Handi Quilter headquarters in North Salt Lake, just 50 miles south of where I live.  It was a little intimidating because the show was not scripted but Jodie is  a wonderful host and made conversation easy. It was fun to meet some of the other guests and visit with Vickie Hoth and the Handi Quilter educators. I'm not sure exactly what will be on  my segments because we taped much longer than the time segment. The recording was handed off to the editors but Jodie assured me that the editors are good to us, which was comforting.  One advantage of QNNTV is that all the shows, past and present, are available for members  to be viewed at any time day or night. The shows cover a wide variety of topics so there is  something for everyone. Becoming a member is easy just by going to QNNTV.com/join and signing up. Quilt It! is just on of the shows on QNNTV but it has great information for both long arm and domestic machine quilters. People ask what you can do with a quilted Skillbuilder panel. On Quilt It! we showed the One Yard Tall Tote for a Skillbuilder project. Choose a busy back for Skillbuilder and thread to match, quilt the lines on Skillbuilders 1 or 2 and make it into a tote. This is a perfect tote for the 24" ruler that falls out of every other bag and chips the corner when it hits the concrete (voice of experience). It is also great for carrying around bolts of fabric, although I might be the only person who does that. Skillbuilder 2 is on the "back" on the inside The top of the bag can be folded down in and the horizontal webbing is the handle for a  smaller bag. This is a great travel or shopping bag because it grows or shrinks. A bonus is that  the horizontal webbing fits over a suitcase handle. Skillbuilder 1 is the "back" on the inside I found the nylon webbing at our local Smith and Edwards hardware etc.store in the "rope room".  Their motto is "We have everything if we can find it." The written pattern is in my blog  Free Patterns and Projects tab and is also available on our website.

Patriot Dream for Josh and Quilts of Valor

Here is Josh with his new Patriot Dream throw. His deployment to Iraq was tough but the future is bright for his family. He and his wife, Kristy (my niece), are anxiously waiting the arrival of their baby boy in the next few weeks! It was fun for me to give Josh one of the quilts made from the fabric I designed with Quilts of Valor in mind.

Strips for Stripes Bag

I designed this Strips for Stripes bag as an exclusive for Bernina.  It is made with the quick "quilt as you go" or "stitch and flip" technique.  You can sew it scrappy with all different prints from your stash, coordinate and repeat fabrics, or use jelly roll strips. The handles on both bags are purchased but they could easily be stitched out of fabric.  The instructions are free and posted on the We All Sew blog.