Book Review: Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Machine Quilt

I've been catching up on my quilt book reading over the winter holidays and found one that I'm sure will be a big help for beginner quilters. It's always a struggle to learn something new, but with Pat Sloan helping you, it's a piece of cake.

In her latest book, Teach Me to Machine Quilt, Pat is helping you learn how to quilt on a domestic sewing machine. Learning to machine quilt is always a challenging technique for new quilters and can be quite intimidating. Pat takes the "fear factor" out of machine quilting. In Teach Me to Machine Quilt she explains the entire process: choosing batting, learning how to set up your sewing machine and how to actually quilt that top.

Photo courtesy or www.martingale-pub.com

I like how Pat eases you into this process. She doesn't jump into free motion qullting right off the start. She starts by showing you how to quilt using your walking foot and demonstrates the various quilting designs that can be achieved with it. This is a great place for a beginning machine quilter to start as it is similar to the piecing process: you're using the machine's foot to create the quilting design.

Photo courtesy or www.martingale-pub.com

Once you've mastered this technique, she gently guides you through learning how to free motion quilt. Again, Pat chooses simple designs to start before moving on to slightly more complicated quilting motifs.

Photo courtesy or www.martingale-pub.com

To make it easy to try these different machine quilting motifs, Pat includes patterns in the book and suggests which designs would work well with these projects. You get to make a new project and quilt it at the same time. No "quilt as desired" in this book (a term I really don't like).

Photo courtesy or www.martingale-pub.com

Watch my video review of Pat's book below or on my YouTube channel.

If you're a beginning quilter or a more advanced quilter who wants to try some different motifs, you'll want to add Pat Sloan's Teach Me to Machine Quilt to your quilting library. 

Creatively,

P.S. I am an Amazon affiliate and as such I receive a small amount of compensation should you purchase a product through a link in this blogpost. Thanks for continuing to support Chatterbox Quilts.

One World Quilt Along Block 5

It's January 15, 2017 and that means it's time for Block 5 of the One World Quilt Along. This is the first horizontal block in the quilt and will be below the previous four blocks. 

Keith's version of Block 5

I love the colours in this block and had fun picking blues and "fishy" colours from my stash. 

Waves done. Time to add some fish!

If you haven't joined the One World Quilt Along yet, there is still time to do so. Each block in the quilt is constructed individually so you can really start working on any block - you don't have to start with Block 1. There are two subscriptions to choose from: Quilter or Viewer. All the details can be found here.

If you are already subscribed in the One World Quilt Along, be sure to check out the videos that Keith and I have done for this month's block. As always, we provide tips and information to help you construct your quilt.

Have fun with this month's block and see you in February 2017 for Block 6.

Creatively,

Quilt Basting Spray for Digital Cutters

Welcome to another episode of Telecast Thursday. This week I'm taking another look at homemade quilt basting spray. I think I should start calling it "multi-purpose quilt spray" as I'm finding more uses for it than just to help in the basting process.

If you haven't already watched my previous videos on this quilt spray, be sure to check them out on my Youtube channel. You'll find links on YouTube in the Description area below this week's video to make it easy to find the previous videos about this spray.

I've discovered that this quilt basting spray also works to stiffen fabric and this is exactly what I needed to do to my fabric to make cutting it on a digital cutter much more precise. I use a Janome Artistic Edge to cut out my fusible appliqué pieces and have found that stiffening the fabric prior to cutting makes for more accurate cuts. 

I spray the homemade quilt basting spray onto the fabric, iron it until it is dry and can then proceed cutting out my appliqué pieces with my Janome Artistic Edge. 

Watch the video below for complete instructions on how to use the spray or watch it on my YouTube channel.

I hope you'll try out this homemade multi-purpose spray and let me know when you do. I'm sure you'll find it's a help in the quilt studio and economical as well.

Creatively,

Book Review - Moda All-Stars Mini Marvels

It's the first Thursday of 2017 and you know what that means: Telecast Thursday!

To start the year, I taking a look at a new book from the Moda All-Stars. It's called Mini Marvels and has lots of cute, little projects for you to create. To see some of the projects in this book and my take on it, please watch the video below or on my YouTube channel.

Receive automatic notifications when new videos are released by subscribing to my YouTube channel. Please feel free to share my videos with your quilty friends.

To purchase your own copy of Moda All-Stars Mini Marvels go to http://amzn.to/2iF62DZ.

I'm interested to know if you like to create large or mini projects. Leave me a comment below to let me know your preference. I read each and every comment and love to hear from my subscribers.

Creatively,

Telecast Thursday - Pressing Surfaces in the Chatterbox Quilts Studio

Last Thursday I showed you my favourite irons; this Telecast Thursday I'll show what I use with them: my pressing surfaces.

Like most quilters I started out using an ironing board to press my fabrics and this worked okay. Not great, but okay. Eventually I tired of putting up and taking down the ironing board every time I wanted to prepare my fabric. I wanted something large enough to spread out my fabric from selvage to selvage to press. Since I couldn't find anything on the market, I made my own board. And then made another one for travelling.

To see what I use as a pressing surface, watch the video below or on my YouTube channel. 

Subscribe to my YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new videos are posted. If you like what you see, please share my videos with your fellow creatives.

Do you use an ironing board or another type of pressing surface for your fabrics? Leave me a comment below letting me know your favourite pressing surface.

Creatively,