Repairing Quilting Mistakes

I've finally got a new video for you. One of my regular readers asked to learn more about fixing mistakes. She appreciated that I freely admit making them, and wanted to see how I fix them.

The video has the added bonus of letting you hear what happens when a bobbin isn't wound properly and the end comes undone while stitching. Operator error, most likely.

Here's the finished product. Can you see the repair? Me neither and that's with contrasting thread. I've also borrowed my 5 year-old's favorite new toy, a pointer finger on a stick. I think I might have to use it instead of my seam ripper!

Don't Compare!

I thought with our recent discussion about being our own worst critics (in the comments on this post: Working the Ruler Work and later on Instagram) when it comes to our quilting, that I'd share this today.

Please don't compare your anything with that of someone else's. Comparison is the thief of joy. What is important is progress. Your own progress compared to yourself of the past.

Don't forget, when stitching free motion quilting, with or without rulers, on a domestic or sit-down machine, don't judge your work with your nose practically touching the quilt!

I am reminding myself today not to compare my work (my crazy blend of quilting, teaching, Janome shop, my online shop, and kid raising) with that of some other wonderful folks.

That's all for today, my wonderful peeps!

Quilting with Rulers: Double Curved Crosshatching

Working on my ruler work sampler again, this time using the double 'S' curve ruler from Rhonda Beyer. This was actually my very first ruler purchase way back when I first decided to experiment with the Janome ruler foot.

Because of the asymetrical nature of this ruler, I marked the first two lines to make sure it was even.

Nothing like starting out with one of the more tricky rulers. This ruler has two different curves and they aren't symmetrical. I use a piece of tape to mark where I want to start or end my curve. Then when I'm ready to do the other side, you've got to flip it over to get the mirror image curve.

It's a great ruler, but don't set it aside mid-project as you might have a hard time figuring out the position to get the correct curve when you start back to it. Several minutes were lost today as I tried to remember which side I was using and which orientation.

Because of the asymmetric curves, sliding the ruler down or up along the line of stitching can throw things off. So you've got to be careful if you want very uniform spaced crosshatching.

But it does result in some very graceful effects. I'll be using this ruler in all four corners. I will be doing some variations in each corner too. I like how it turned out, even if doing these pretty formal feathers is a bit difficult to get fairly uniform.

Don't forget that Craftsy's got another great sale going on. You can use my special instructor link to get the best sale prices on ALL the classes.

I'll be doing a more in-depth post about using this ruler next week and maybe shoot a video. What rulers, if any, are you using in your quilting lately?

Love of Learning Class Sale

Craftsy's doing it again this weekend...offering a great sale on fabulous classes! My class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine, is even on sale for $20 (50% off) using this link.

Love how you learn with Craftsy:

1. Enjoy a front row seat. See every move clearly with Craftsy's high-definition video. Plus, rewatch challenging concepts until you get them right.
2. Kick up your feet. Enjoy classes anytime from the convenience of your home or even on-the-go with our mobile apps.
3. Conquer new concepts. Learn easily with helpful diagrams, engaging graphics and downloadable materials that take you step-by-step through each new skill.
4. Interact with me, your instructor. Ask questions and receive helpful answers. With one-on-one guidance, you’ll take your skills to new heights. (I love answering my student's questions on the Craftsy class platform!)

One of the fabulous perks of being a Craftsy instructor is the access to Craftsy's diverse library of classes. Classes that work especially well with ruler work are those by Kim Brunner, Angela Walters, Leah Day, and Eva Larkin Hawkins.

My daughter and I have started watching classes together as she's a crafty gal and loves to create with me, but sometimes she responds to the instruction from Craftsy teachers than her mama. *sniff* we've done Kim Werker's Crochet: Basics and Beyond and should it surprise me that when I suggested we check out some of the cooking classes, she wanted to do a class on tiny French pastries? Colette Christian is teaching us about Miniature French deserts. Confession time: I was just glad she chose that class before we got to the huge offering of fancy cake classes. I'm not a huge fan of cake (though I love , and make, a good cheesecake), our birthday cake expectations are currently thankfully low, and my hubby is diabetic.

I'm sure we'll move on to cakes at some point, but we also checked out Homemade Salty Snacks with Cynthia Nims. We plan on making cheese crackers tomorrow. 

I'm also hoping to make time to take some photography classes as I feel I could be doing much better with my blog and quilt pictures. Plus I have adorable kids who are growing faster than weeds! I've got to get better pics of them while I can. One class that has caught my eye is Mobile Photography which is about taking better pics with your phone's camera. Totally brilliant!

Use my special discount link to check out the classes at Craftsy this weekend! All the classes linked above should still give you the lowest sale price if you click them, this link is just a general link that gives me an affiliate credit for any classes you might buy through any of the links here. (Yes, these are all affiliate links and the use of them help support the ridiculous amount of time I put into this blog.)

Have a fabulous creative weekend!

My Craftsy Class Winner!

Thanks for participating in my Craftsy class giveaway. There were gobs of people signed up and the winner was Craftsy user name; "Jeanquiltsnow"

Congratulations Jean! I'll be sending you an email with your code to take Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine for free. I think you'll really enjoy it.

That's a discount link above for the rest of you, with 25% off the full price.

I'm so happy to see good sales come through the store and have emailed customers back and forth to make sure they're getting the right products for their machine and the excitement they're conveying to me over this technique and their new rulers and supplies has been very satisfying.

I did run out of several products in my shop, Amy's Quilting Adventures early in the week, really within 36 hours of opening shop. I immediately got larger amounts ordered and in case you didn't see the announcement yesterday, most of the items are back in stock already.

I'm getting into a routine with ordering, shipping, and such, so I hope to get back to more quilting and sharing directly!

Working the Ruler Work and Working in the Shop

I'm doing some quilting with rulers on my ruler work sampler quilt and I'm trying hard to remember that this is a teaching sample and it's important that the stitching shows. Right now it's a struggle, because I started working on the navy blue fabric with my light turquoise thread. Every bobble shows.

Making the second pass around this shape.

But if you back off of the quilt...step away from the machine, folks...it's not so bad.

I've been reading this wonderful book called, Rising Strong , by Brene Brown. (There should be a little accent mark over that last e in her first name, but I have no clue how to make it. Sorry Brene.) She's big on self compassion. So be kind to yourself when you look at your quilting, especially if you are working on a new skill.

I'm only half way through the book, but I'm loving it. I might do a review of it when I'm done, but you can click on the link above to take a look at it on Amazon. I think it's great for anybody, but she really applies a lot of her research to creativity and to people who are artists.

I'm not sure I like how I've quilted with my ruler around this block unit. I'm not big on asymetric shapes, like the inner skewed diamond. Why did I do it that way? So I could quilt that section in one continuous pass. If I had decided what I was going to do with this block on my first pass of quilting (Stitch-in-the-ditch or SID) I could have started this design from the bottom center point instead of doing a 1/4 inch echo.

I also want to let you know that most of the items that sold out over the weekend in my shop have been reordered and are back in stock. I am so sorry to have disappoint those of you who shopped on Sunday and were unable to find the products you wanted.

I decided to link this post up at QuiltShopGal's Creative Goodness Linky. There's a lot of quilty goodness to be found there.

Quilting with Rulers: Measuring, Marking, Doodling, and Design

One of the things I loved as I learned to quilt with rulers, was that it was a great way to get straight lines and curves without doing any or much marking. I hate marking. Or rather, I hate doing a bunch of precise measuring and marking.

But as my skill grew, I found I was raising the bar for myself design-wise. My fills were denser and my lines and ruler work were more intricate. That meant if I made a mistake, it was harder to rip out the stitches.

I also was teaching the technique to others and many of my students found markings to be reassuring.

So I find myself doing more marking these days. I love my air-erase purple pen. I can mark stitch lines (or ruler placement lines) and tic marks quickly and they disappear without having to wet down the entire quilt. The typical air-erase pens are too thick for me though, so I use a nice thin pointed pen. (It's available in my shop here: Fine Purple Pen)

This is especially nice when making corners around a design or seam like the center of this star block. I've gotten pretty good at judging that quarter-inch spacing or multiples thereof, along side another line or seam, but when it's time to turn a corner, I've found it was easier and faster to go ahead and mark a turning point.

Not sure of my design, so I mark it.

I'm a big fan of doodling designs too and so it was a natural to doodle on my quilts at times to work out a plan for quilting. Sometimes I do it on a big piece of plexiglass, but lately, especially if it's ruler work, I find I like doing it directly on the fabric. If I don't like what I see, I can erase it with my eraser pen! (Many thanks to Karen McTavish who mentioned an eraser pen in one of her books.)

Clean up the marks with the eraser.

I also have a combination marker with purple on one end and eraser on the other. The eraser works on the blue and purple markers and I love it. It's not just water as some think, so it actually erases and it does it fast. I do find extra marks distracting as I quilt and it's hard to see how the stitching line looks with the marks right there, so erasing is fabulous. (What about dark fabrics? Chalk pencils are wonderful!)

I still wasn't sure about this design idea so I kept marking. Marking is so much easier than ripping out stitches. Especially on a project like this ruler work sampler I've been working on for what seems like ages. It calls for more precise and geometric work than my typical quilts.

I thought 'floating' the center square looked more interesting and it made it easier to quilt continuously around it. Sometimes it's not just how the design looks but also about how it stitches out. The fewer thread tails to tie off or bits to travel stitch, the better. It would have been relatively easy to cross from one triangle to the next if I had extented the square to touch the inner star points, but it would have been harder to work the paisley design into those corners.

Maybe most 10-year-old boys reach this annoying stage, but my oldest was being a real wise guy today, "You're still working on that?! What year do you figure you'll finish?" he quipped today. I gave him the look, you know it if you're a mom. "It looks great," he quickly said.

Above, I had missed my mark, or the mark was off. Too close to bother figuring it out either way. Below, I erased the marks. Can you tell if it's off? Me neither. It stays.

See how I could work those paisleys into the areas around the inner points? If I hadn't tried drawing out the design, I probably wouldn't have thought to make it smaller.

Take advantage of the 1/4 inch markings on your rulers to develop designs too. You can offset the ruler from a center point or corner to create designs. Below, I really started playing with my design and doodling with my purple pen.

I was having a hard time deciding what to put in the sort-of 9 patch blocks. Especially as I don't want to stitch continuously across that orange with my turquoise thread.

Then there were these spots above the double star points. I like the echo around the piecing and this loopy L design. I'm really loving this L design anywhere lately as I've seen how it avoids backtracking. I need to practice it more, and marking helps me keep it in a vertical fashion instead of an Italic L!

So many ideas and I don't think I really love any of them. It's kind of an odd shaped area to fill. I could have put more paisleys in these areas, but I didn't want it too dense. And I felt like any random-ish fill ought to have the 1/4 inch echo in those L shaped corners and that was just looking too awkward. I also needed to bring some feathers into more areas of this quilt, so I feathered my star.

Not sure if I like it and haven't finished it yet, but it's a good start. Besides, I've got to make sure my son knows I can finish my projects!

If you are on Instagram, and post any pictures of work you've done with rulers, why don't you tag them with #rulerworkonadomestic so we can share design ideas? #rulerwork is good too if you're using a long arm or sit down machine.

If you missed my big flurry of excitement Friday and Saturday, you might not know that my online shop is now open at Amy's Quilting Adventures! We started off with a bang and it was amazing. I have run out of several items and they are on order, so I hope I can provide you with a great resource for both learning about ruler work, buying rulers and templates, and the supplies to make quilting easier.

If you've left one of the wonderful and encouraging, complimentary comments I've been getting here lately, know that I read them all, but I haven't been able to keep up with replying back. I'm really really thankful for them and you!

If you follow my facebook page, you'll know that I had a huge operator error with this blog Saturday. I accidentally deleted the entire "Quilting with Rulers" page! I got all the content, pictures, and links back thanks to a recent backup. But the URL is different, so any links that went to that page are sadly broken. I'm keeping an eye out for those links on my blog, but if you linked to that page or pinned pictures from it, they're land on my blog, but with an error message. Thankfully, the new "Quilting with Rulers" tab/button is easily visible on the error page. Linking to or pinning from the current page will be most helpful.

Saturday Satisfaction

Happy Saturday folks! I'm sitting in the shade of my porch, accompanied by a skink, wren, and a horde of invading stink bugs. Enjoying the benefits of wifi, I'm basking in a feeling of accomplishment. As I've said when referencing how I got interested in quilting back when my kids were toddlers, I needed a feeling of accomplishment. Life was a series of things that didn't stay done; dishes, laundry, diapers. But stitching stayed done. Seems shipping out packages gives a great feeling too.

Today I sent two big totes of packages to the post office. My hubby pitched in and we enjoyed working together. Working together isn't new for us and we really enjoy it. My oldest son helped a bit too; trimming mailing labels, cutting tape. It is so satisfying to see the response the shop has gotten so far and knowing that I'm helping so many with their quilting and creativity.

This morning Patsy Thompson wrote a big review of my Craftsy class, Machine Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine (That's still a 25% off discount link), and was so complimentary I was blushing! She's pretty incredible too...and is a big reason that Craftsy contacted me.

Speaking of Craftsy, they're having some more sales this weekend with online classes up to 65% off in the following sub-categories:


•  Sewing: Bags
•  Knitting: Colorwork
•  Quilting: Big Quilts
•  Painting: Figures & Portraits
•  Drawing: Figures & Portraits
•  Cake Decorating: Sugar Flowers
•  Paper: Mixed Media


You can learn something new and achieve amazing results in a Craftsy class. Right now during Craftsy’s sale, you can use my affiliate link to save and support a craft you love. [Click here to use my affiliate link]

I don't think hubby really understood how much interest there was in ruler work, finding great supplies for it, and how wonderful my follows were until yesterday. He's very supportive, don't get me wrong, but he's a numbers guy and it just clicked for him. After a talk about social media, he asked the question, "What is the biggest thing that keeps people coming to your site?" I told him it was ultimately the quilting. I can't share it, teach it, or post, pin, 'gram it, if I'm not actually doing it! A wonderful conversation followed about delegation and shared responsibilities. Looks like I will get a little more time to quilt!

Poor neglected quilt!

That's exactly what I am going to do right now folks! I'm heading inside to stitch on my neglected ruler work sampler.

Get Your Rulers: Amy's Quilting Adventures is Open!

After receiving so many encouraging comments after yesterday's post, how could I not open my shop? You guys are the BEST! I hunkered down and the shop at Amy's Quilting Adventures is open.

It's not perfect, but it's functional. More importantly, I think the product descriptions on my offerings are the best out there. My knowledge and experience with the technique and products available will help you make your selections with confidence.

I'm sure I will continue to add pictures, content, and of course, more products as time goes by. Some of the links might not work yet, but everything important is there!

This is a huge undertaking for me. Not that I was concerned about making enough sales, in fact, I'm more concerned that I will sell out too fast before I can get my next orders of product in! I don't want to disappoint you with "Out of Stock" notices. That's the pits. And I hope I have everything set up correctly tech-wise.

Shipping is a bit scary. To have the USPS (or other carriers) integrated into the shop to calculate actual shipping costs as you place your order is hugely expensive, in fact many of the big shops out there don't do it. So it takes a leap of faith to determine shipping rates when starting out. I hate it when shops do the "we'll calculate shipping costs and get back to you" sort of thing.

So to simplify things for you as well as myself, I've set up a flat rate for shipping. If the order ships to the USA, you'll pay only $6. In Canada, it will be $14. Most likely this means we will be absorbing some of the costs of shipping for larger packages, and any packages to Canada. It is our hope that the sales from larger orders will make such costs worthwhile for us.This may not work out in the long term, as shipping seems to go up, up, up. But we'll try it.

I can hear you now, "But I'm not in the US or Canada!" I'm sorry, I really am. But I need to gain some confidence with the shipping process first before undertaking the more complicated aspects of shipping to other countries. We will most likely add shipping areas over time.

More importantly as I start this venture, I am so happy to be able to make getting rulers easier for my students and blog followers. I am amazed at the support and encouragement you give me and each other and I'm excited to see where this adventure will take me!

So now to announce the winner of my ruler giveaway! I've got 719 subscribers to my email list and the random winner is number 493! Let's see who that is......

Joanne Francis! I'll be sending you an email to choose your ruler shortly.

Thanks to everybody who has signed up for my newsletter. I'll be getting one ready to send asap to announce the opening of the shop. After that, I hope to begin sending a newsletter out no more than twice a month with news about the world of quilting, news about what I'm doing as well as some shop happenings, but also content that is interesting, useful, different than the blog, and not spammy. Hate spam.

Quilting with Rulers Giveaway

I wanted to post again about my giveaway as the announcement may have been overlooked as we hopped along with Christa's blog hop for "Machine Quilting With Style " yesterday. BTW, today's stop on the blog hop is a frequent reader here- Linda Hungerford from Flourishing Palms. Stop by and say "Hi!" and enter her giveaway for the ebook version of Christa's book.

Go here to register for a chance to win my class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine, free from Craftsy. The winner will be selected after noon September 23rd.

But the big news is my ruler giveaway! If you haven't already done so, make sure you've signed up for my email newsletter on the right sidebar. (This is different than the "Follow by email" option on the left sidebar that emails you each post as they're published.) I will choose one name from my entire newsletter subscriber list Friday, the 18th, at noon EST. That winner will choose one of the above 4 rulers. This giveaway is open to anyone anywhere that I can mail a package! Yes, really. Though if I have to hire a yak to get the package to you, I might reconsider.

Edited September 18th: The ruler giveaway is now ended! The chance to win my class is still open and my shop is finally open! Yay! I did it! www.amysquiltingadventures.com

I'm frantically getting my shop ready for its opening tomorrow. And by frantically, I mean stumbling over my perfectionism, wanting to post stitched samples for every ruler (Wouldn't that be great?), and really just hiding behind my fear of changing things from that of sharing information with my wonderful readers and even students to selling a product. It's a big step. And just how much does yak-post cost?

I emailed one of my mentor friends recently and she wrote back, "Repeat after me:“My fans know I’m not perfect, especially when I tell them I’m not perfect, I make mistakes, and would you please bear with me while I teach myself how to do this.”

She also went on to remind me, "Believe me, quilters are very helpful and understanding. They will show unlimited patience as long as you let them know you are trying."

Once the site is open, and the bulk of the computer-based work (I am such a slow typer) is done, I am really excited about all the content that I will be able to share to help quilters make informed choices about rulers and to provide plenty of ruler work inspiration.

So, my dear readers: Is my friend right? Am I letting fear get the better of me? Are you really eager to have a shop like this available and I just need to git 'r done? I know from the comments and emails I receive that you are enjoying the heck out of using rulers for quilting and that you like what I've been doing thus far. You all really are the most encouraging people!

OK, back to the grindstone of data entry......

Machine Quilting with Style and More

Today I'm joining in with the fun Christa Watson is having with her blog hop to launch her book, Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking-foot Wonders to Free-motion Favorites .

Christa and I have been online quilt buddies for a couple of years now. Our styles of quilting are pretty different, but what isn't different is the love for teaching quilting and encouraging quilters of all kinds and levels. I think we both have that down-to-earth, approachable attitude as we teach.

 We both also like to finish our own quilts and like to encourage others to quilt their own quilts too! Her book is a great primer on machine quilting with both walking foot and free motion. Giving great tips along the way, it's her numerous quilt patterns within the book that are a true treat for the eye.

She's even got a survey running alongside the blog hop to choose the pattern that with be her next quilt-along in January. Click to go to the survey to vote. Not sure what quilt to vote for? Visit the other blog stop special guests to see the quilts they've made from Christa's patterns.

I might even get around to making a top from the Little Man's Fancy pattern for my niece! It's one of those huge one block baby quilts that can be so quick to piece and leaves great spaces for quilting.

Little Man's Fancy, pattern by Christa Watson, photo by Brent Kane/Martingale

Giveaway

To celebrate her book launch as I prepare for my own shop launch, I'm running two, yes, two giveaways!

Between now and next Wednesday at 12 noon, sign up here for a chance to win my class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine, for free!

Because I know from the many wonderful responses I've been getting, many of you have already bought the class, so I'm thinking a ruler might be a great prize....right?  So, for a chance to win your choice of one of the three rulers shown below, make sure you have signed up for my email newsletter list (on the right sidebar) and I will choose one lucky winner at noon this Friday, September 18th from all those signed up on the list since I started it last month. This giveaway is open to anybody anywhere I can ship the package. Hubby said so! (I'm not gonna lie, I am hoping it's someone in the US or Canada, given shipping rates!)

Edited September 18th: The ruler giveaway is now ended! The chance to win my class is still open.

This a selection of four different rulers by four different manufacturers of quilting rulers. I figure whoever wins won't have at least one of these lovely tools. I'll talk about these rulers in more detail on Friday when the winner is announced and I open up my online shop at www.amysquiltingadventures.com

I'm not the only one participating today in the blog hop; Leah Day is joining in too and Sharon at Color Girl Quilts is the official blog hop stop of the day.

So go visit, learn more about Christa, her quilts, and her fabulous book. It's been such a success that Amazon has temporarily run out of Machine Quilting With Style at last check, but you can still buy it from publisher Martingale or even get an autographed copy from Christa herself!

Edited to add: Anyone who is signed up for my email newsletter is eligible for the ruler giveaway! Even if you signed up last month when I started it. To be clear, this is NOT the "follow by email" option on the left sidebar. I can't access those emails. This is the actual email newsletter which has the sign up form on the right sidebar. If you are unsure, fill out the form. It won't let you subscribe twice.

Of Dahlias and Deadlines

Fall showed up yesterday and today has been absolutely beautiful! Seems like such a shame to spend any of it at the grocery store. But that's my usual Monday activity. I did get some stitching done as I worked to upload products into my online shop.

Since I want to make sure my shop has the best info out there on a variety of rulers, I figured I better stitch out samples for some of the more unusual templates.

Here's what one full repeat of the 9 inch Dahlia template from TopAnchor Quilting Tools looks like, above. Below is after I've stitched the second set of patterns. This thing is fun!

I even shot a short video as I stitched. I'll get it edited and up later this week. Don't forget to stop in here Wednesday when Christa Watson's blog hop makes a stop. I'm doing a giveaway! Technically, I'm doing 2 giveaways. Here's her Blog Hop Schedule.

Now, one of the reasons I started blogging was to share the quilting I was doing, but another was for the accountability it gave me to finish projects. Completing what I start is a struggle for me and there's something about having an online community of friends to report to that helps me get things done. So many quilty ideas, so little time.

You've heard me mention my online store several times here and I have to admit, I keep picking away at it, but not pushing too hard. But I've also had a lot of good feedback from readers and students from my Craftsy class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine, that say they are ready to shop. That's a 25% off discount link, BTW.

So I'm putting my foot down and giving myself a hard, solid, deadline. With you all as my witness, I will open my shop Friday. Yep. Gonna do it. Maybe. I think I can, I think I can.

Honest Sewing Room

Just a quick little post for anyone who thought that the clean studio space I showed last month is how my space always (or even often) looks like:

I haven't even had a chance to try my new Panasonic cordless iron! You can almost see it, half way hidden behind a shirt that's waiting for me to mend it. But there's some encouraging things here in the clutter; 3 boxes of rulers for my shop, the iron, cashews that I have successfully hidden from my children, and my new book by Brene Brown, Rising Strong . Tomorrow after church I am going to snuggle down in my bed and finish reading it.

I hope this weekend that you get time to use your heads, hearts, and hands for those things that give you joy.

Free Motion Quilting Video: Quilting Around Ruler Work

I've finished up the sampler block I was working on and as promised, I shot some video of it. I love how this block turned out.

I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to fill in around this sashing area. Sometimes when you know a piece is to show your quilting skills, you want to get all detailed and creative with it, but if you go over the top, the buby-ness can obscure the very thing you are trying to show. In the video, I showed a little bit of how I play around with a ruler to help choose a design.

I also show how to tie and bury thread tails and share my favorite new marking tool. My BFF makes an appearance, the BFF ruler from Linda Hrcka, which I will be selling at  Amy's Quilting Adventures.

I'm getting a bunch of rulers from several different sources for my shop and I'm so excited to offer you a place where you can buy an assortment of rulers in one convenient location with my recommendations and detailed descriptions of the products so you're not left guessing. Sign up for my newsletter (over on the right sidebar of the blog) to be notified of the shop's opening and other good info. No spam, I promise. I'm planning on posting no more than twice a month but it will include info included especially for the newsletter recipients.

Have you seen Christa Watson's newly released book yet? Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking-foot Wonders to Free-motion Favorites has done so well in just a few days that Amazon is awaiting re-stocking! You can get it through her publisher or a signed copy directly from her. I'll have more on her book when her blog hop starts next week. I've got something special for the 16th!

Now back to my website design and a spreadsheet.....

If you want to learn more about using rulers to guide your free motion quilting, you may want to take my class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine on the fabulous Craftsy class platform. That's a link to get it at 20% off.

The Labor of Labor Day

I was able to get some quilting done this weekend. Cure choir of angels; hallelujah! I'm filling in around this frame design with a paisley fill and hope to have a video for you on it soon.

I was also able to finally recruit some 'staff' to help me with my web design and online shop creation. One was hiring a graphic artist to help me with a few little graphics. I decided while I could figure it out, it was better to hire someone else who could knock it out faster than me.

"I mustache you a question...How hard can it be?"

  The other was my husband who after hearing me moan and groan about getting everything linked up and entered in and quipping, "How hard can it be?" one to many times, is now working on the back end of my online store, so I can focus on the quilty stuff. He may be doing some groaning of his own now.

Here she is at 3!

Today is also my daughter's 9th birthday! I can't believe how fast the years have flown. Especially as a mom to 3, the days can be so looooong.

Don't forget, the Craftsy Labor Day sale is winding up soon, so click here and purchase that class you've been eyeing! The sale is also on their wide selection of supplies and material. I've still got this link here for my class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine, at a 50% discount until tomorrow! (Sorry, sale is over)