Practicing What You've Learned

As a quilter, we read magazines and books, purchase ever gadget that someone says they found helpful and watch ever video we can find.  Why do we do those things if we are not going to use what we've learned.

Recently someone posted a great YouTube video about making diamond borders.  You can find it at http://youtu.be/guTwc1GTNeU, by Judith Madaen of Green Fairy Quilting.  So I decided to give some new techniques a try on my AccuQuilt! GO! SunBonnet Sue Quilt.

First of all, I would strongly suggest following her directions and marking your top first (which I did not).  :)

As an after thought, I did decide to mark the center diamonds.  I pray this Crayola Washable Marker is indeed washable.

Not to bad for a first shot.  Lets see what it looks like after I finished.  I love comparing first blocks of new designs to last.

So here we are at the end...

The next new technique comes from an APQS video.  I absolutely love this pattern and do believe it is now my new favorite.

It is very easy and fast to do and I love the look of the echo hearts.  No reason you couldn't do this with other shapes as well.

I also found a spot to use my new Quilter's Groove Proline Ruler (which is currently on sale at my website www.stitchesnstories.com).

Ad the moment of truth...  It's bound and all washed up!

All the marker is gone, thank you Lord!  I think the quilting turned out beautiful.

So I encourage you to not just watch and read but put it in place.  You may be surprised at what you can do.

Let's GO! Quilting!

Custom Quilt Design

So I made this beautiful quilt top using the 12" AccuQuilt Mix N Match dies.  The original purpose for making this is to have a sample display quilt for my booth.

I chose to use the bright colors similar to what AccuQuilt using on their samples in order to draw attention to it.

After the top was finished, then comes how to quilt it.  I have watched some of Lisa Calle's videos on QnnTV.com and how she designs custom quilting patterns and so off I went.  This quilt now becomes a dual purpose... AccuQuilt Display and custom quilt sampler.  Now where to start...

Lets take the second block and I'll show you what I did.

Here is the actual block with actual colors.  

I then printed out a copy (or you can print a picture) in black n white so the colors didn't distract me from the design process.  

Using a piece of tracing paper laid on top of the printed design, I was able to do my outline or stitch in the ditch and then fill in each section from there.  Knowing what I know now, I should have done this first page in about four or five pages displaying a different step on each page.

After looking at the above picture, I still had some area that I wanted to add detail to.  So here comes another piece of tracing paper...

The purpose of using multiple pieces of tracing paper is to make changes easily without starting all over.  If I decided the feathers were to much, I would just remove those pages and go back to filling in the blanks on a new page.

So this is where I'm at today.  I will post as I start to actually quilt the blocks and share with you a great new ruler that Lisa designed that I am adding to my store.