Roses and Arrows Quilt Along Starts January 16th

Right on the heels of the launch of my new ruler line, The Low Curves for domestic sewing machines, comes a new quilt along where we will work through some good, basic use of ruler work on a panel quilt that mimics pieces blocks.

It uses a minimum of rulers if you just want to test the waters of ruler work. As I've said before, you only need a couple of basic curves and a straight ruler, plus a little creativity to make numerous quilting designs with rulers. But I heartily recommend ordering the Classic Set of Low Curve Rulers as I have found them to be invaluable in doing my own ruler work across many sized blocks and shapes. They are so versatile! Read my recent post about the Low Curve Rulers.

The Roses and Arrows QAL kits are now available on my website in two versions, the white one shown above, and a version using the same print on a blue background (below) for the borders.

Along with a backing kit, I've also listed the companion prints I have of this line in case you want to make substitutions or make your quilt bigger.

I have plenty of kits at the moment, but once they are gone, there will be no reordering of this fabric so don't delay it you want one. QAL starts January 16th, but piecing instructions will be released sooner.

The Quilt Along will consist of twice weekly videos done live via the AmyQuilts Facebook page. Can't join in live? No worries, the recorded video will be posted for convenient viewing. For those of you who don't do Facebook, I will eventually post the videos to the blog. (You can see most of the Boho Owl QAL videos on the blog now.)

The instructions for assembling the panel into a simple top will be given here on the blog as well. You do not have to buy the kit to benefit from watching the free QAL, but I encourage you to quilt along with me.

It's going to be a lot of fun!

Amy's Low Curve Rulers

Introducing Amy's Low Curve Rulers

I am so stinking excited to let you know about my new domestic sewing machine quilting rulers! For years, I have loved guiding my free motion quilting along the QP Curves and have been blessed to have a high shank machine that has plenty of room for these thick long arm rulers.

Amy's Low Curve Rulers, full set!

But plenty of my quilting students have low shank machines or an integrated walking foot that didn't give as much space around their ruler foot, especially around the back of the foot. This meant I had to recommend different rulers for them and those rulers had different markings and shapes. This made it harder for people to follow along and recreate my designs.

I'm not one to say "You must have this ruler to make this design," and I often list alternatives, but giving multiple options can be confusing when you are new to ruler work. My style of quilting is based on using basic shape rulers too, so it's fairly easy to adapt a design for a different sized basic curve most of the time, but again, it can be confusing as a beginner to have too many options.

So in collaboration with Linda Hrcka of the Quilted Pineapple, I now have my "Low Curve" rulers. Same shape, curve, and markings as her long arm rulers, the QP Curves, but in a thickness of 4mm, suitable for ALL domestic sewing machines, high or low shank.

With these gentle curves and the same curve on the concave and convex sides (Inner and outer curve), they will work even on the very small percentage of low shank machines that have very little clearance behind the foot as there's no need to wrap behind the foot.

They are smooth-sided, well marked and feel good in the hand. As a bonus, the thinner acrylic makes them more affordable than thicker rulers.

Low Curve Combo

Above is the Low Curve Combo Starter Set, which is what I will be using in my Roses and Arrows Quilt Along launching January 16th on my AmyQuilts Facebook page. Pair these two rulers with a straight ruler (I prefer the QP Edge #12, or the Westalee 12" Arc/Straight) and you've got the basis for a whole lot of designs!

Amy's Low Curve Classic Set

Since these rulers are made for domestic sewing machines, including low shank machines, and not all machines have the space to use the long #15 and #20, we also are selling these rulers as a "Classic Set" which includes all the curves except those two long ones.

The design possibilities have me so excited! It has been so frustrating over the years to answer someone with a low shank machine with "Well, you'll have to substitute a different ruler and it will be somewhat different than my design."  Plus the price of these rulers makes it more affordable to those using a domestic machine. Win-Win!

These are currently being sold as pre-order as they are a brand new product. So don't delay in getting your order in. I'll be placing my first order for the first batch next week.

Stay tuned for more quilting with rulers inspiration!

Upcoming Events at AmyQuilts

I just finished the live Facebook quilt-along for the Boho Owl free motion quilting project and other than sharing some finished photos of it soon, it's time to move on to the next new thing. If you've missed any of the videos or "don't do Facebook," you can see most of the videos here on the blog in the post: Boho Owl Quilt-Along: The Videos.

I've realized that these twice a week videos has made me neglect the blog a bit as I usually share what's going on through these FB videos and forget to share anything here.

So what's coming up?

The biggest thing is new quilting rulers! Yes, after using and loving the QP Curves made by the Quilted Pineapple, which are thick long arm rulers, I've convinced expert longarmer and ruler maker Linda to recreate her rulers in a thickness better suited to domestic machines. This means that I will have rulers with the same shapes and markings for whatever machine my students might use. More about these "Amy's Low Curve" rulers in a separate post.

This leads right into my next quilt-along, which will be for both regular free motion and ruler work. The free Roses and Arrows Free Motion Quilt Along will feature a beautiful panel and coordinating fabrics to lead you through basic ruler work and free motion fills. It will make a lovely wall hanging or small throw. The videos will continue to be done via Facebook Live, but will be posted here on the blog afterwards as well.

The panel that will be used in the next quilt-along.

Pre-orders of the rulers and the Roses and Arrows quilt-along kits will begin this Wednesday, December 12th. The quilt-along videos will start January 16th. This will give us all plenty of time to mail out kits and rulers, plus extra downtime for the holidays. Kits are limited to the fabric on hand.

This quilt-along has been so well received that I've ordered other panels that will work for future quilt-alongs and/or free motion quilting practice. Because we don't get better at this skill unless we practice.

Additionally, I've been wanting to host a few paid classes online. Just like the Boho Owl QAL was a way to test the waters for the QAL concept, I will be doing the same with a future QAL to test doing a paid class online that I host myself. I'm very excited about hosting my own classes so that I can teach the content according to my own (and students') needs. There will be more on this soon.

There's something else in the works too, but I can't reveal it yet! Let's just say I haven't been this excited about something since we bought our shop, and it will ultimately benefit not just my business and my family (as AmyQuilts.com and Sew Simple of Lynchburg are our sole income), but also allow my students, both online and in-person, to benefit in various ways. So excited! It's going to be very hard, but totally worth it if I can pull it off.

Boho Owl Quilt Along: the Videos

Have you missed seeing some of my Boho Owl Quilt Along videos? While the replays are available on the AmyQuilts Facebook page, they aren't all that easy to find, especially if you want to view them in order.

These are shot on 3 different machines, 4 if you count the Janome 9400 and 9450 as separate models. Most of it is done on a Janome with an 11 inch throat (9400/9450), then a standard sized sewing machine with a 6-7 inch throat, as well as the Janome Artistic 16SD, a sit-down style long arm.

While I still plan on editing them down and putting a good portion of it on my YouTube, it turns out that editing twice weekly videos that run for an hour each takes more time than I have available right now.

The first video is worth skipping as it's just a brief intro. You can see the information on piecing the Boho Owl project here on the blog. You do not have to do your panel the same way as I do, or even at all to glean tips from this series.

Please remember these were recorded live, so they are not "polished" and there's some sound issues in the earlier ones. This is as close to being right in my studio for a class without being in my studio!

The link to the actual replays on Facebook are given for each video if you want to see the questions and answers as well.

Week 2 Talk about basting and stabilizing the sandwich by stitching in the ditch. For this project, I used my built-in walking foot on the Janome 9400. Click to read more about quilt stabilization and walking foot quilting from this segment.



Week 3 We start with the free motion!



Week 4




First Saturday video, October 6th. Trying to move faster on this project so we can do more Quilt Alongs, each video will only be referred to by its date and they are being done twice a week. Stitched on the SD16, a sit-down style long arm from Janome.




October 10th First video with the new mic and the sound is much improved. Also on the SD16.




October 13 Starting on the background fills, using the Janome 9400.




October 17th Some sound issues on this one, the new microphone was confused and kept changing sound levels between the machine and me. Straightened it out for other videos.




October 20  This video was deleted as there was an uploading issue with Facebook. Sadly, I was quilting on the small Janome 4120 which is nice for those of you using a smaller machine. Th next video is done on a similar sized machine.

October 27th  Quilting on the Janome 4300, a smaller machine.




October 31  Halloween night. Quilting on the Janome 9450 and using the ruler foot. Doing a tiny bit of ruler work tonight, but most of the quilting was done without rulers.



November 3rd Fun mix of background fills tonight.




November 6th Starting on the sashing! 




November 10th




November 14th  Two more sashing designs



November 17th Part 2 While you can see the first part of this video on FB, there was a glitch and this one pretty much covers the whole of it. Doing a little detail work on one owls followed by the design for our larger sashing.



November 28th A design for the cornerstones and revisiting the wide sashing design.




Finally, the last full video, covering the border on December 5



I have really enjoyed doing this series and after getting our sound issues worked out, it's been a lot of fun and the feedback I've been getting tells me you are enjoying it too. I will be offering more of these in the future.