Newest Regular Quilt Pattern

This is "The Man Quilt."  It was designed for my son, Rick.  As he left home to serve as an LDS missionary for 2 years, I wanted him to take a quilt made by Mom.  We looked at quilts, and he told me what he did and didn't like, and with his help, this is the pattern we came up with.

This quilt is Rick's, and is the original "Man Quilt." 

This "Man Quilt" is for Joe and Nancy, who were married in September 2012.  

The fabrics are a little more feminine for Nancy.
(You can see another picture of it in a previous post.)

This quilt is my middle son, David's "Man Quilt."  
His quilt is the picture on the pattern.

Get the pattern at Craftsy or Etsy.

New Denim Quilt Pattern

I'm working on a new denim quilt pattern.  I think I'll call it Denim Waves -- it's a beach quilt. 

Strips of denim are sewn together to make several long strips.  Then the top edge of the strip is cut to look like waves.  Every-other wave is denim, then I've put a hand dyed fabric wave in between.  And just to mix things up, I'll put a couple wedge shaped pieces in.   It's got a sheet for the back (I know... I don't use sheets for anything but denim quilts that will be used on the ground), and a thin cotton/poly batting.  It's quilted as-you-go, and I think this would be a great quilt to do on a longarm.  If I ever get caught up with T-Joe, I want to go do it on the Handi Quilter at the store.

New Quilt Inspector

I have a new Quilt Inspector!  Her name is Sophie.  She's a "Brown Tip Siamese / Lynx Cross."  I love her tufted ears and big, crystal blue eyes.  She looks petite, but seems longer than a normal cat.  My Dear Husband and 3 sons rescued her from the Humane Society.  And yes, she's been spayed.  Not only is she cute, but she's gentle with her claws and has good manners.  The Guys think I'm crazy, but she walks differently than other cats.  She moves both right legs forward at the same time, then both left, then both right, etc.  She likes to play, and can be very acrobatic.  Her favorite toy is a shoelace with a gross-grain ribbon on the end.  We need to get her a scratching post -- soon!

Working Woman

My Dear Husband lost his job 2 years ago.  We're struggling financially.  The miracle is that we've been able to pay our bills and have "sufficient for our needs."  We've had a little help from family and friends along the way, which we are very grateful for.  And my health and mental state have never been better.  I've been strong and able to provide for my family.  I work 3 jobs.

Job #1 is working 4 full days per week at a quilt shop, which I LOVE.  I mostly work downstairs, where I get to help with sewing machine servicing and repair, and I do the shipping for Kathy Quilts.  Sometimes, I get to go upstairs and play with fabric, sell Bernina sewing machines and interact with the customers.  The people I work with are all really great people.  I feel privileged to be a "Bernina Lady."  Here's the store's blog:  Stylish Fabrics Quilt Shop

Job #2 is sewing pectus brace covers for T-Joe of Pectus Services.  T-Joe (Trainer Joe) LOVES the kids he works with.  He helps kids with deformed chests (pectus).  The way he does it is with a brace that he invented.  The brace, as you can imagine, is not comfortable.  When my son wore it, it really irritated his skin, and it got pretty stinky, pretty fast.  My solution was to make fabric covers for his brace.  It really helped his skin irritation and, we could remove the cover and wash it to keep it smelling better.

So, when we showed Joe the covers, he said, "I want ALL of the kids to have covers!"  I wasn't really interested in doing all of that sewing at first.  I even gave Joe the patterns and he tried to get a couple sewing companies to manufacture the covers.  It was a good thing they didn't end up being manufactured, or we wouldn't have the income that we so badly need right now.

When I say, "we," I mean our whole family.  DH and all 3 of our sons help with the production.  I still do most of the sewing, but our oldest son is using the sewing machine to sew Velcro on, and he's started to use the serger to sew the pieces together.  He's doing great!  The other Guys do the pinning, cutting, more pinning, singeing the threads and packaging.  We're very grateful to Joe for supporting our family in this way!

Here's the Pectus Services website:  Pectus Services  Check out the "before and after" pictures.

Job #3 is Quilted Sunshine.  I sell my patterns locally, and on a few websites as either pdf downloads or as paper patterns.  Check the links on the left side of my blog.  I also teach quilting and sewing classes.

I Love teaching classes!  There are a few classes that I teach over and over.  My Beginning Piecing Workshop is 4 days, and we learn everything from rotary cutting and scant 1/4" seams, to matching points and putting the borders on. I also regularly teach Beginning Binding and Sewing Machine Care and Maintenance classes.  I'd like to add a Beginning Paper Piecing Class, and a Fabric Selection Class.  I also teach my denim quilt patterns and all of my other patterns, whenever I can.

Here's the link to my website:  Quilted Sunshine  There are 3 FREEBIES on my website:  Binding Tutorial, Mitered Receiving Blanket pattern, and "The Simple Quilt" pattern.

Sewing Machine Maintenance for Quilt Guilds

I've been teaching sewing machine maintenance classes at the store, and last week got to teach it at 2 quilt guilds.  I think the ladies learned a lot, and it was very FUN!  I'm going to let other guilds know that I'm available, so hopefully I can do this class more.

The first guild wanted a hands-on class, so we had 7 ladies who participated.  They opened their machines; cleaned and oiled; polished hooks; learned how to check their needles, bobbins and thread; and then we did a sew-off sample to balance the upper tension with the lower tension.

The second guild wanted a lecture/demo.  There were about 30 ladies at this guild.  I brought 2 sewing machines (oscillating hook and drop-in bobbin) and demonstrated how to clean and oil, and went through a list of dos and don'ts, thread, needles, bobbins, burrs, etc.  And I talked about balancing your tensions.  We had a few ladies who wanted a closer look, so they were able to come up and get some personal attention.  It worked out pretty good!

I've created a "What To Check Before Bringing Your Sewing Machine In For A Service" page.  Click here for the pdf.

Check out my other blog, 

She's A Sewing Machine Mechanic 

for some sewing machine maintenance tips.

The Stone Soup Quilts Are Finished!

We have finished 3 baby quilts and 1 twin size quilt.  The baby quilts have gone to the Child and Family Support Center.  The twin size quilt will go to the LDS Humanitarian Center, and they will send it where it is needed most.

We still have rows out for another baby girl quilt and another twin size quilt that is done in bright colors.

Here's the back of a baby boy quilt.