Hi friends and readers,

My trip to Texas earlier this year brought exciting things….my first-ever Chick-fil-A! Okay, yes, we’ve had these in Michigan for several years, but I was saving this moment to have this American experience in Texas with my aunt. My Auntie Junie swept me up from the airport to fuel up before we hit the fabric stores!

In order to hit as many fabric stores as possible we got to shopping right away, checking out three stores before we even got home! Insanely inspiring. Can you imagine me gasping at every corner of this place!? Texas has so many great stores - I’m jealous!

Hello, future color palette.

We were feeling especially ambitious (or rambunctious depending on who you ask) to make a King sized quilt in a single weekend. This fabric ( Nantucket Summer by Camille Roskelley for Moda) is one of my Aunt’s favorites and she bought it last time she was in Michigan. We dubbed my time in Texas “quiltapalooza.” And boy did we sew…. and cut (and cut and cut and cut.)

We worked with several layer cakes, starting by cutting 5-inch squares. We created “no waste” triangles with white. The final size is trimmed at 4.5 inches.

Well over a 1000 squares later, needless to say, we need to take some breaks. My Aunt knows I’ve been wanting to try a long arm but I was intimidated to try it on my own. What a blast. I stuck to my usual “meandering shapes” and I was shocked at how easily this machine guilds along!

On a long arm like this, the speed of the needle is regulated which means the needle speeds up and slow down depending on how fast you are moving. This makes it way easier than free motioning on my domestic machine where you have to control your speed to keep your stitch length consistent. This quilt top I’m working on in the image below was pieced by my Aunt and color selected by my Mom. (Somehow I always get roped into their projects….. hmmm!?!?)

As much as I fight perfectionist tendencies, it was inevitable I’d have to rip out some mistakes. I made myself comfortable at least! All in all, if you are wanting to give a long arm a try - don’t hesitate!

Truly, I still love free motioning on my domestic machine but I sure could see myself renting time on my local long arm in the future!

Anyways, back to the quiltapalooza. Thanks to my aunt’s friend Margret (Hi, THANK YOU) we had two machines to sew on. There’s no way we could have gotten it done without two machines. Wow, these Bernina Machines sure do know how to throw a stitch. Definitely live up to the hype.

We WORKED. PJs and ice packs… arthritis be damned!

Inspiration kept coming to us.

A King quilt in a weekend…. it can be done. If you see any mistake please don’t tell us. My aunt is on her own to quilt this (luckily she has a fancy new machine to help her out!!) I hope to update with some better pics someday in the future!

Summer is here and hot! Let me show you what I’m working on!

Lately, I’ve been back to the basics, revisiting foundational studies. With my experience in drawing and painting, I’m realizing my mind is more “ready” to take on some of the nuances that went over my head during my art school days. Fighting the sunscreen, I’m working on the muscles of the face by the lake!

My recent research doesn’t stop at humans. Road tripping with my honey we made lots of stops to see some of the massive working horses that plow the fields. Nothing quite sticks to memory like experiencing what I’m studying in real life.

The horses weren’t the only ones we met.

Below a video of my favorite horse (AND HER BABY) we ran acorss in farm country. If it’s not working you can watch on my youtube channel. Link

Using what I learned in the field and some textbooks I’m commiting the anatomy to memory.

Let’s talk sewing!!!

My puff quilt is all done. This project was huge and HEAVY. I went wild with my colors (and antagonized for days how to arrange them. ;) Maisey has found herself quite at home on it, in fact, at home we fight over it!

I was first inspired by the “traditional” american style of quilting. The image below is one of my great-grandma’s handmade quilts. (Thanks for the photo Mom.) For my quilt, I altered the pattern to incorporate more machine sewing. Next time, I will try her way :) I’ll write more about making my MEGA PUFF in July.

This fabric below by Tilda took my breath away in the shop. While I woudn’t use it for other areas of my home it fits in perfectly to my eclectic studio. I was inspired by this pattern: Link It was simple to make, easy to follow and serves as a good “base” pattern if you want to customize it.

I decided to add free motion meandering to the bags before I put the lining in. I was delightfully surprised when it added some stiffness to the bag. I’m so addicted to free motion, I wrote a little about my (ongoing) journey with it in another post here.)

The look is quite subtle. Can’t wait to stuff these with pens!

Let me leave you with one of my rununculous! Isn’t she perfect?! We got to enjoy them for only a short time before the bunnies got to them. SIGH*

We’ve been enjoying summer and I hope you have too. Until next time!

Kirbi

To me, free motion quilting is to me, one of the most artful and challenging quilting skills! When I first start practicing it was so discouraging. My thread was breaking! Nests of threads all over my work! To practice, I created a quilt sandwich. This image is from my organic quilt tutorial you can find at this LINK.

SIGH* This below was one of my more successful practice pieces, but still struggling so much to make stitches even. At this point I wasn’t worried about a pattern, I just wanted to create a line without any problems!!

I just hate wasting fabric but I knew I needed to try it on something bigger so I could really work on my stitch length and groove. A small quilt sandwich I’d finish in a few minutes. This quilt yellow, red and white quilt top was something I had laying around that I didn’t really have much of a plan for.

Working on smaller areas, like focussing on each triangle at a time drastically improved my work. I found that when you are ready to lay down your foot, take a PAUSE and know what direction you are going to go!! Heh, isn’t that a thought for life?

I worked each half triangle with loop de loops at first. I decided NO rip-outs, this is for practice!!

I have big illustration projects going on in the studio so I’m sewing in the kitchen. My kitchen table is the biggest surface in the house and I found it very helpful to have everything laid nice and flat. My Juki has a large, adaquet throat space but is not a long arm so more surface space is helpful.

Durring this time I focused on making sure the begining of the stitch was clean - no birds nests. This means bringing up my bobbin thread and holding any thread tails out of the way. Some triangles were a disaster and some I was seeing progress. Towards the end when I felt ready, I went for the meander, and I saw it start to happen! People, I squealed out loud with joy!

All my practice began to pay off and the meander was just HAPPENING! Flying high was an understatement and I was feeling confident enough to do a meander for a special quilt I was planning for my sweet cousin’s baby boy on the way.

This quilt is simple squares but by using a lot of different patterned fabrics it makes a “simple” quilt more elevated. The meandering will become more of the start of the show. Here, I’m using moda fabric. It isn’t cheap to make a quilt with a lot of variations but for this special gift, I had help funding this big project. Get this, the title of this fabric collection was called MEANDER! I believe in signs!

I should mention, I drive a JUKI. I love my Juki so much, my favorite aspect is the self-threading needle. It always works and is so quick, with a click of a button I’m off to the races. It has a lot of the fancier features of the very high-end and expensive machines but more affordable. I have an affiliate link to a very similar machine in my store if you are interested in learning more.

You can see the piecing coming together below. Trying to get each corner pointy and crisp. Most quilters work in strips but I find working into large blocks works best for me. When I sew long strips, I’m more likely to get an “off” corner.

One the quilt top is done, I sandwiched it up! I used two layers of batting for extra snuggliness. The top layer I used a lofty batting for extra poof. I’ve been into spray basting lately, (check out my store for what I use.)

Now, one thing I’ve learned about spray basting is that you need to let that stuff DRY for a day. Eager is an understandment for me, but that stuff will gunk up your needle and you’ll end up breaking thread, having wonky stitches - all the frustrating problems. It’s just pure torcher to let this thing lay here and not sew it. up!

I went for the meader, one square at a time. Once big sections started to finish up I couldn’t stop squealing! Ek! I’m really doing it! I left tails long so I could bury them later in the traditional way.

Even though I spray basted this quilt, I found the edges of the blanket were tough to meander as the fabric was wanting to flip on me so I ended up pining them down and that fixed the problem beautifully. I treated myself to these unicorns pins by Tula, because, well, unicorns + pink obviously.

The meandering turns this gingham back into something extra special. A pattern on the back also helps hide any oopsies - they happen!

The final touch…. a heart on the corner. To create this heart I used water-soluble paper and used ALL the tiny scraps from the project. If you’d like to create a signature detail like mine check out my tutorial how to make a heart like this! You can find the tutorial on youtube here.

May you find your own canvas to create on in the everyday things you do today. Have a great week.

xx

Kirbi