Spring Fling Sales!

Spring has sprung and while many folks think about spring cleaning, I feel like the world is full of all kinds of growth and new opportunities, so don't miss any of the following opportunities:

We could all be cleaning, but let's have a little fun with some sales. Yes, that's plural. As in more than one sale!

Craftsy is no stranger to a sale and they are offering 50% off of their top classes through Saturday! Treat yourself to a new skill after you've done your spring cleaning or yard work. Did you know Craftsy even has classes on gardening? Don't forget outdoor photography. Maybe procrastinate by taking a class instead of cleaning. Those baseboards can wait. No judgement here regarding spring cleaning. Use my special instructor's link for this sale and put a little extra jingle in my pocket too.

I'm bringing in this big guy to announce my first ever sale over at Amy's Quilting Adventures. To celebrate the nearly here launch of my second class on ruler work with Craftsy, I'm offering everything (Everything!) in my shop at 15% off until May 15th. Use the code SpringFling15 at checkout to get the sale price.

If you've wanted to try ruler work but haven't yet gotten a foot, now's the time. I'm available to help you choose the right foot for your machine too.

If you've been wanting to expand your collection of rulers we can help with that too! 

You can get my first Craftsy class, Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine at 50% off here with my special instructor's affiliate link. Not only that, but when the new class launches (Monday sometime!), you can get it here only for a 25% discount right away!

So there's our sales, so now let's move on to a few giveaways!

I'll be drawing one winner for my copy of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting by Christa Watson and Angela Walters on Saturday. Enter here: http://goo.gl/forms/VX5MXlU3sE

Craftsy is sponsoring a giveaway for my new class, Creative Quilting with Rulers, More Techniques and Motifs and the winner will be announced as soon as the Class launches. Click here to enter! http://www.craftsy.com/ext/AmyJohnson_Giveaway

One last thing, I'm doing my own giveaway for the new class. Enter now with this link (one entry per person please) and maybe you'll win a code to take the class for free. I'll announce the winner Monday.

Oh! If you're even somewhat local to Lynchburg Virginia, my Janome dealer is having a fabulous sale on floor model machines. Seriously good deals.

The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting and a Giveaway

I've been checking out Christa Watson's new book written as a team effort with talented teacher and long arm quilter, Angela Walters. It's called, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting, Long-Arm and Sit-Down by Martingale Press.

With the tag-line, Learn When, Where, Why, and How to Finish Your Quilts, it's packed full of quilt projects with patterns, instructions, and more importantly how the quilt was quilted, and why. Christa and Angela each talk about their own quilting design choices in well-designated sections with each author's remarks on different colored pages.


Here's an overview from the publisher:

In this must-have resource, long-arm-quilting expert Angela Walters and home-sewing-machine specialist Christa Watson team up to provide the ultimate guide for machine quilters. Gain insight into long-arm quilting, as well as guidance on quilting at a sit-down sewing machine. Whichever machine you use, you'll find warm encouragement and expert tips to help you every step of the way.

• Find out why some designs and motifs are ideal for sit-down quilting while others are better suited to long-arm quilting
• Packed with tips, tricks, and advice on how to machine quilt better, you'll learn everything you need to know to get started confidently and finish strong
• Learn from the masters as you discover how to stitch a wide range of quilting designs, with instructions for 10 quilts

Angela Walters is one of my favorite sources of inspiration as she frequently uses rulers in her long-arm quilting. With my ruler work technique adapted to the sit-down and domestic machine, this book is a good source of design ideas. Christa even addresses the concept of using rulers on sit-down and domestic machines briefly, though she doesn't use rulers. She's a Bernina ambassador waiting for an official ruler foot.

The book addresses some necessary quilting basics of quilt assembly, basting, choosing designs, marking, and free motion fundamentals. It also features interesting and helpful tidbits of advice and information from both Christa and Angela.

You can get signed copies from Christa here: http://christaquilts.bigcartel.com/  Take the time to visit my quilty friend at her blog, Christa Quilts if you don't already follow her. Angela  is always up to something interesting at Quilting is my Therapy.

But before you do that, enter my giveaway for a chance to get my copy sent to you! Click here to enter: Ultimate Guide Giveaway. Please enter only once. Duplicate entries will not increase your chances of winning and will increase my irritation. This is open to anyone anywhere! A winner will be drawn Saturday, April 23rd.

Check it out! You won't be disappointed.

My thanks to Christa and Martingale for sending me a copy to review and giveaway.

Christmas Prize-ents!

Today is the day for giving away a lot of goodies! If you're not sure what that second word in the blog post title is, just pretend you're in the south (of the USA) and give it a good drawl...presents!

Many thanks to all of those who read and entered my giveaway! Many of you were so excited, you entered twice...thrice....or even four times. I guess I should have paid a little more attention to setting up my form to not accept duplicate entries and been clearer that this was a one entry per person contest. I did see a couple that looked like they had entered wrong and were just updating their entry. I deleted any that were clearly duplicates, to keep things fair.

Before I get to the random number generator, let me announce my winners from Craftsy! Yes, winners. They had 2 giveaways going on through this time one through the Craftsy Instructors' Blog Hop and another through their 12 Days of Christmas promotion. Craftsy winners are listed by their Craftsy user name so if you don't recognize yourself, don't worry, I've got your email and will be in touch soon.

Jan ("jfirstmat248351") won the blog hop giveaway and she's won a free class of her choice!

"Jane5" is a generous soul who won a free class by using one of my links to "Gift-any-Class" during the promotional period.

Now for the ruler goodness!

The first prize pack is for a Westalee ruler foot starter set in the winner's choice of shank height from my store! Renata is the winner.

The second price pack is 3 rulers (also by Westalee) from my shop! Debbie will get these rulers before Christmas!

In case you are wondering, the rulers in the giveaway are the Westalee 12 inch curves rulers #1 and #2 (I normally only carry #3) and the Westalee 8 inch arc, a very handy ruler. All are cut at 4.5mm but are easily used on low shank machines.

I'll be in touch soon via email for all of these winners.

This was my first time using Google Docs to accept entries and it was much more streamlined than checking a list of commentors (plus some readers have trouble leaving comments due to some Blogger issues). Despite having to remove 67 duplicate entries to bring the number down to 452 entries, I liked it. I'll know better next time.

Speaking of presents, how are your holiday preparations going? Whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus, or something else, most people are celebrating this time of year and I send you my best wishes for a fun, peaceful, meaningful time. As we prepare for Christmas, I might not blog quite as often in this next two weeks, though I've got quite a few things I want to share!

Eat a cookie for me!

A Little Quilting with Ruler Fun and it's Done!

All the quilting on my big block baby quilt is all done! Yay! I had to throw in a little ruler work and get a bit more detailed than I planned, But I love how it turned out!

Can't wait to trim it up (grab that Dust Buster for the minky fuzz!), bind it and send it off to sweet baby Abbie!

TopAnchor Celtic Knot templates will be available in the shop next week!

I also wanted to remind you that today is the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas promotion at Craftsy. Use this link to get some great deals on classes, supplies, and more.

Also, I'm giving away two great ruler work prize packs on Monday! Get yourself signed up here so you don't miss out!

Oh, Hoppy Day! A Craftsy Blog Hop

I'm cooperating with a lovely group of Craftsy instructors to spread the news about some great classes on the super convenient Craftsy platform and to also share a few thoughts on creativity.

In fear of making my loyal readers sick of hearing about my class, many of whom have already taken Quilting With Rulers on a Home Machine, I'm going to come at this post from a different angle than what might be expected.

 More than quilting, maybe even more than free motion quilting, I am passionate about encouraging a person's creativity. At some point in childhood most of us are told we aren't good enough to be an artist. But most of us go on to have a creative hole inside us that wants to be filled with creative activity of some sort. Depending on the paths we take as young adults, some find their creative side faster than others. But that childhood fear of "not good enough" can be hard to shake.

Here's the basic technique- a ruler foot, a ruler, and quilting!

The Craftsy platform is such a fabulous place for creative people of all styles and those in search of their creative side. When trying something new it can be intimidating to do it in the midst of a group of people, some or all who may be strangers. Craftsy allows us to take classes in the privacy of our own homes, maybe even in our PJs!

Rulers come in many sizes, shapes, thicknesses and types! I talk about them all.

I like to learn about creativity. In How to be Creative: 6 Secrets Backed by Research, the number 1 key to increasing creativity is to try new stuff. Nothing earth-shattering, but if you live in a small town at some distance from a large metropolitan area, trying something new can be a challenge.

Some are pretty fancy and make fabulous designs!

Two other 'secrets' of creativity are to think like an outsider and to just keep trying. The former lines up nicely with try new stuff and the latter is easy to do with Craftsy's life time purchase of these classes. These two factors were instrumental to the development of my class's technique as I longed to create the smooth curves and straight lines that long arm quilters were able to stitch with the aid of rulers. I thought outside the box like an outsider and kept trying as I adapted their technique for use on a stationary sewing machine.

In my class I show how a special foot and thick acrylic rulers in conjunction with free motion quilting will help you create those smooth curves and straight lines on your sewing machine or sit-down long arm system. Sounds like an advanced technique doesn't it? The great thing is you don't have to be an expert at free motion quilting to do this!

If you've had enough experience with moving the quilt sandwich under the needle in free motion, you are ready to try quilting with rulers. In fact, my very first class review gave me 5 stars and said: "Great class. Made free motion attainable for the first time." 

If you are an experienced, even very talented free motion quilter, you'll love that this class will show you how to enlarge your tool box of skills and bring an element of structure to your quilts that allows your free motion quilting to really shine.

Additionally, if you are a traditional style quilter, rulers will help you mimic the traditional lines of hand quilted quilts with your machine accurately and without the turn and stuff of using a walking foot on a large quilt.

The exciting part about this class is that it's a great way to bring out the artist and engineer in all of us! You know, that left-brain, right-brain thing? I always forget which side of the brain is responsible for each aspect, so I'm going with the artist and engineer version. Both can be just as creative as the other, but in different ways.

All the quilting in this picture was done with ruler work.

I am an artist. Not in the hoity-toity art gallery sense of the word, but in the no rules, wing it kind of way. It makes me a great free motion quilter and a pretty brave project designer. It also means that I'm not such a great piecer. That's the domain of the engineer. Straight lines, measuring, and *shudder* math. Odd that I'd be promoting the use of rulers then, right? Ruler work helps me develop those engineer-like bones to my projects that allow me to show case my free motion quilting, but within a structure that helps balance the design of my projects.

Then I can go crazy with my free motion fills!

Many quilters are fabulous piecers. They have more of that engineer thing going on in their brains. Fabulous quilts with precise points and corners. But tell them to just quilt a random design in free motion and they feel a little lost. "Where do I go next?" they often ask. With rulers, the direction is clear; follow the edge of the ruler.

For more information about my class, head over to my class page where you can watch the free video trailer. In the class I give you the important basics of the necessary ruler foot, the wide diversity in rulers, the basic technique, and then we dive into some great designs with rulers.

Visit the participating Craftsy blog-hoppers and see what fabulously creative information and classes they have for you. The schedule is below:

Monday, December 7 

Jackie Kunkel  - Canton Village Quilt Works 

Kate Colleran - Seams Like a Dream   

Tuesday, December 8 

Wendy Gardiner - I sew  

Amy Johnson - Free Motion Quilting Adventures  

Wednesday, December 9 

Maureen Cracknell - Maureen Cracknell Handmade 

Thursday, December 10 

Jan Newton - Newton Custom Interiors  

Friday, December 11 

Laura Nownes - See How We Sew  

Saturday, December 12 

Kelly Ashton - Kelly Quilter  

Sunday, December 13 

Lindsey Stephens - Poetry In Yarn  

Edited to add: My apologies if anyone tried some of these links earlier and they didn't work. They work now.

What good would a blog hop be without a giveaway or two? In my case, how about three?

First, Click here to purchase any of the classes from any of the instructors on the blog hop and you will be automatically entered to win any other class of your choosing for FREE at the conclusion of the blog hop.  Winners will be chosen on December 14, 2015 and there will be one winner per instructor. That's the official Craftsy giveaway. Craftsy's got great prices on all the classes right now during their 12 Days of Christmas Promotion!

Now, I've also got two prizes to give away! The first prize is a Westalee Ruler Foot Starter Kit for those who don't have a ruler foot to try this class and technique yet. (I'll email the winner to find out the correct shank type.) The second prize is three rulers! I'll get a photo up of these rulers tomorrow (Wednesday) but there's an 8" arc, a 12" curve #1 and 12" curve #2, all by Westalee. 

Just fill out this form with your name, email, let me know if you've already got a ruler foot for your machine and also if you've watched my class already. 

A winner will be chosen for all three giveaways on December 14th and contacted via email. Winners are announced on this post.

Thanks for coming along on this blog hop and please take a little time to click over and visit the other stops! Leave me a comment and let me know if this class is brand new to you, if you've taken it already, or if you've been following along with my ruler work and quilting adventures for quite some time already.

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!

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.