Creative Quilting with Rulers, More Techniques and Motifs

Wooohooo!!!!!! Today's the day, launch day, time to see what I've been working on for the last 4 months, the unveiling of my new Craftsy class. Can you tell I'm excited?

photo credit Craftsy.com

This is the perfect follow-up to my first class and a great class for those who have already begun to do some ruler work and want to learn more designs and gain understanding of how to work with the rulers you may already have to develop your own designs for your projects. I also use larger projects in this class to help demonstrate how to manipulate rulers and quilts together.

In lesson 1, I give a brief intro and a few quick reminders about using rulers safely and effectively before jumping in to how to decide on and develop quilting designs for your own projects.

Lesson 2 is all about working within blocks with echoes and block designs. I'll show you designs that are great for emphasizing piecing and for quilting large blocks as a unit, even when you don't have big rulers.

Then we head outside the block with the rest of our lessons. First there's sashing designs in Lesson 3 followed by working with rulers in the wide open spaces of negative space and background areas of both traditional and modern quilts. Then we take it to the border and look at three great designs for quilt borders.

Finally, we wrap up with Lesson 6 and get a little fancy while creating motifs using rulers not only for a simple block motif, but also for larger whole cloth inspired designs.

Here's the class trailer:

To entice you to go ahead and buy the class instead of waiting for those predictable Craftsy class sales, I'm giving you a special discount link to get my NEW class at 25% off!

Still Haven't Tried Ruler Work?

My first class, "Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine," has been incredibly well received with reviews like:

"Loved the class. This is exactly what I was looking for to go to the next level of quilting on my home machine. I do free motion quilting and now with the aide of rulers I feel like the sky is the limit."

 --- Pattimorrow.

"I have purchased over 30 classes on Craftsy and this is one of the best. Amy has clear, informative lessons and creative ideas. I love that I can stop, replay, go back to, and review all the lessons...forever! I have been watching Amy's videos on her blog for quite awhile, and was so excited she did a Craftsy class.
Thanks, Amy."

--- keynotegal

If you haven't taken it yet, this is a 50% discount link from me to you, so what are you waiting for?

Sharing the Ruler Work Love with a Sale

Because I want more people to enjoy the fun and creativity of using rulers to guide your free motion quilting, I'm also having a sale site-wide at Amy's Quilting Adventures! Until May 15th, take 15% off of your order with the promocode SpringFling15. Make sure to enter the code, I can't add it after the fact.

That makes it a great time to finally order a ruler foot for your machine or to expand your collection of rulers. There's a great selection of rulers to choose from and they're all rulers that I find most useful and more importantly, usable with sewing machines and sit-down long-arm machines.

Lastly, I've got some winners to announce!

The winner of the official Craftsy class giveaway is maddie90 and the winner of my own giveaway for the class is Pam A. I'll be emailing these winners shortly with a code for their free class.

Goodness! I think I'm more excited than I expected. I've got butterflies fluttering in my tummy. Let me know what you think of the new class in the comments.

Winner: The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting

Out of 506 entries, Kristin Clifton is our winner of The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting by Angela Walters and Christa Watson.

I've sent an email to Kristin and I'll be shipping out the book as soon as I get her address.

Many thanks to Christa for sending me a copy of the book to review and give away.

If you didn't win, check out Christa's blog for more information on where you can order it.

Don't forget to check out my last few posts for chances to win my new class with Craftsy which comes out Monday!

I'm also offering my blog readers a 15% discount to help you get a ruler foot or rulers or whatever at my online shop with the code SpringFling15. Make sure you enter the code or the discount won't apply.

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.