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Color Schemes for Your Quilts

Selecting fabrics for your quilts can be a difficult task if you are not comfortable choosing color schemes. Color schemes don't have to be difficult, even if you don't have a natural eye for color. One easy way to begin is to choose a color "theme." In this article, you'll get ideas about how to begin.

Quilting with Chenille

It's no surprise that the French word for caterpillar is chenille. Think about chenille fabric. The cords are fuzzy and tickly, just like a caterpillar.

Schedule of Events for the Quilting Bee

And the survey said - - - - that most quilters were interested in a 4 day event during the Spring. It turns out that National Quilting Day is the 3rd Saturday in March, which sounded like a perfect day to host an International Quilting Bee right here in San Diego - since the weather

Scrap Quilt Expert Bonnie Hunter - Eavesdrop on a Telephone Conversation

Quilts were made from scraps of fabric, whether they were clothes that had been outgrown or worn out, or curtains that had been taken down, or old sheets that had been replaced on the bed. And Bonnie Hunter has a system for using the same fabric sources in her quilts of today.

Snail's Trail Quilt Block

Snail's Trail Quilt Block is a traditional pattern that uses half-square triangles as well as quarter square triangles. Whether it is Halloween or not, Snail's Trail is

An Idea for those 4 inch Batik Squares

This quilt is made from small batik squares that many quilt shops sell in a pack. These were all cat squares. Each kitty square is 4 inches, and I surrounded it with squares and half-square triangles forming a type of Pinwheel Block. Then using the colors that were in the background

The Bat Quilt Block

This easy-to-sew quilt block could test your ability to keep your bias edges from stretching. Every one of the patches in this Halloween quilt block is a triangle and sewn on the bias. Yet, following the simple step-by-step instructions, you are sure to have success

Trick or Treat at the Haunted House

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I remember many Halloween evenings sorting through various candy treats. This Halloween, I decided to create a special quilt - Trick or Treat at the Haunted House.

The Shelf Life of Thread - with Bob Purcell, President of Superior Threads

Bob Purcell, President of Superior Threads, talks about the shelf life of thread and the wisdom of storing thread in the refrigerator or freezer.

How to Blindstitch

Watch to see how to stitch a label onto your quilt so your stitches don't show.

Lesson 11 - Planning Your Quilting Design

Planning your quilting design may be one of the most challenging aspects of making a quilt. Every quilter has their own idea of how to pick a great quilting design, and hundreds of books have been written showing thousands of quilting designs to choose from.

Lesson 10 -- Practice Machine Quilting

It seems that all good machine quilters agree -- practice makes perfect.

As I talked to expert machine quilter Pam Bauer, she said that she always machine quilts a practice square before she starts quilting a quilt.

There I was, it was 5:00 Saturday afternoon, and I did not have an extension table for my new sewing

It was an exciting day in La Mesa, California. I was able to visit my local quilt shop that usually has everything, JoAnn's, which has almost everything else, and my local Sew and Vac which should have everything that goes with a brand new sewing machine.

Lesson 9 - Layering Your Quilt

One look at the back of your quilt top with all of the seam allowances and hanging threads showing is enough to see that leaving it that way just won't work! In this step you will layer your quilt -- adding batting and a backing.

Lesson 8 - Adding Borders to your quilt

Lesson 8 will guide you step-by-step through the process of adding borders to your quilt.

Lesson 7 - Sewing the Quilt Top Together

The next step is to lay out your blocks as you would like to sew them together for your quilt top, and then begin to sew.

Sewing an Accurate 1/4 inch Seam Allowance

Sewing accurate 1/4" seam allowances every time will go a long way toward sewing square blocks that are all the same size. The time you spend now marking your machine or testing the measurement of your presser foot may save you time, frustration and fabric in the long run.

Lesson 6 -- Sewing Patches

Before I begin to sew anything, I lay out the blocks on my flannel board or a piece of flannel. My small flannel board is about 18 inches square -- large enough to hold the patches in a 12 inch block.

Lesson 3 - Color and Quilts

Color is one of the most challenging topics to quilters. For example, a search on amazon.com for books about color in quilts nets 1,182 results, indicating that there is no shortage of books written on the subject. Which translates into a lot of opinions and "expert advice."

Lesson 2 - Calculating Yardage with a FabriCalc

If you have a FabriCalc, the first step is to calculate how many of each shape you need for the quilt.