If you have ever visited my home, or even some of my blog posts you will find that I grew up watching Star Trek with my mom, married a guy who can quote the shows, and our enjoyment of the series bleeds over into home decor. As I busily worked on some laser crafted Christmas gifts this year, a few didn’t stay secret long enough!
I created some accessories from some of the transparent acrylic I have been using for quilting templates. The “Boldly Go” keychain insignia set features three of the original series insignia and the “Warp Speed” keychains feature an engraved starship paired with Star Trek insignia charms. I had some of the smaller charms left-over and my daughter suggested earings! Who knows, perhaps they will be a perfect pairing for planet comicon in March 2026 in Kansas City. I thought I read that William Shatner will be in attendance. Any other fans out there?
It was a productive weekend! I had several projects keyed up for a finish this weekend. A few were gifts, but one was selfishly a project I had been planning to try (just for me) for a while. I tried my hand at couching last year with some limited success with my mini Xmas trees. Couching is a technique where you incorporate decorative threads, cord, or yarn on the surface of a fabric. You stitch it in place with other finer threads. In my case, I feed my yarns in with my longarm when stitching a design. The first time I tried this, I used a crushed velvet yarn. I found it was a little finicky due to the nature of the yarn I selected. The velvety fiber slides right off of the middle strand, and would occasionally not get caught by my upper thread. While it worked, I did find I had to go back and manually stitch a few areas down. I don’t recommend using crushed velvet.
This weekend, I tried again with a different kind of yarn, Bernat Blanket. It still has a soft, fuzzy texture, but is more stable than the crushed velvet. For my spider web pillow project, I opted for a variegated. Using a the Spider Web E2E Simple, I fed the variegated yarn into my longarm. I tried two methods for feeding it. First, I looped the yarn over a hook behind the needle. This method was forgiving about where I had the yarn lying. However, it tended to let the yarn twist and resulted in a bumpier finish. The method that worked better was to just let the yarn feed dragging over the quilt. I am using pro stitch. The machine is moving by computer in the video, but you could also use this method with free motion quilting. The foot on my machine is one of the specialized Handi Quilter couching feet and is selected so that the hole in the foot is similar to the thickness of the thread. This keeps the yarn feeding directly under the needle.
Handi Quilter Amara – Couching with Bernat Blanket Yarn
I was very happy with the final product and made a few 18″ throw pillow shams and a mini quilt. The mini needed some additional detail. Normally, I would embroidery designs on my mini, but I didn’t think that the chunky yarn would work well for that, so I designed some new spooky buttons. I laser cut a limited run and have shared a handful in my shop in case you want to give this couching project a spin. Boo! Spider Button Set – Custom Halloween Buttons
People ask me, “How long does it take to make a quilt”? I usually respond with, it depends. This is true, and can be broken down methodically to size, number of pieces, complexity, etc. When I am making a quilt just for me, there is no deadline. The answer is simply “as long as it takes”. I wish I could use that answer at work! When I quilt for fun, I don’t rush. I don’t ever give up. I will work on it off and on as I feel like it. No deadlines. No pressure (though sometimes I get friendly encouragement from my quilty besties).
Eight years ago, around September 17th, my dear friend Kayla and I hosted our first quilting retreat together. At that retreat, she gifted me a book, 100 Modern Blocks by Tula Pink. My kiddos were in elementary school and just kicked off a new school year. It was the same year I fell in love with laser machines and set my eyes on eventually owning one. It was a hoot to look for images for this post. I saw all the fun things my family and I have done while I slowly rolled this colorful quilt. I’m not sure how it worked out, but Kayla also purchased the book and I think she suggested that we work on it together. (Spoiler, yes, this means there is another one coming from her soon!).
First the pattern. Then the fabric. What does one choose for a sampler quilt with 100 different blocks? Something about the Kinetic line by Windham fabrics caught my eye, so that is where I started. I added coordinating solids to a fat quarter bundle.
I completed the first block on Sept 30, 2017. But the second block didn’t get completed until October 2017. Dark times.
Somewhere along the way, I knew I needed more fabric. I was in love with Kayla’s fabrics. I decided I needed to supplement mine with some Tula Pink, All Stars. This quilt is the first and only quilt I have used her line of fabrics in. They were so much fun! If you look closely at the finished quilt, you will see whimsical animals and bohemian designs. These are mixed with the kinetic shapes of the more geometric fabrics. Friends who saw me working on it would trade me pieces to supplement. One of my favorites random adds was the addition of a unicorn and the Loch Ness monster. (Thanks Chris!)
In the last 2 years, I went to Arkansas to visit Kayla. We quilted together. We also swapped fabrics from our collections. (Thanks Kayla!) We will each have some of the same fabrics in our quilts. Instant memories. The colors in the Tula lines mixed amazingly well with the Windham Kinetic line. This combination allowed me to expand the color range of the blocks. I kept track of how many blocks I had in each color family and tried to balance the quantity from each. It is far too easy when stitching samplers to navigate to your favorite colors all the time! Around September 2024, I finally finished all of the blocks, and had prepped my background for piecing. Random just didn’t work for me. I needed order. My inspiration for the layout started with the idea of a traditional log cabin. The heart (traditionally red) would be at the center. I then let the colors radiate outward in general wavelength order. Chromatic order to the rescue.
Somewhere in between the first four blocks, a career change, a “pandemic”, master’s work, a backyard construction project, a senior graduation, some fantastic experiences with my family and friends, countless trips to my favorite quilt shops, and two lasers later, I have a finished quilt. I think this one will get a label saying “Enjoy the Ride”.
The final layout was called “City Planner” and the longarm quilt design I chose was “Grid Lock”. Fitting for an 8 year journey! I chalk it up to a “block of the month”. It didn’t really seem that long. Time flies. Happy Quilting.
Over the last several months I have been experimenting with some new additions to my studio. Lasers! They don’t have names yet, but I am sure their personality will shine through soon. My love for leveraging this technology as a quilter’s tool started back in 2017. Over the years, I have occasionally used the Johnson County Library’s Maker Space. It was originally sponsored by Black & Veatch. My new lasers allow me to create custom laser cut applique and quilting tools on my own schedule. Meet my baby 20W diode laser and it’s big sister, a 55W CO2 laser.
.
I’m loving it! I’ve created some intricate layered laser cut appliques for quilts and I just finished designing some acrylic templates. While creating tools for my projects and organization, I also plan to make limited quantities available in my new shop. Grab them quick for fastest turnaround time! Today’s highlight is my new Binding Hive™.
It is a thick, slotted, acrylic base that holds two sizes of Ruler Reels—laser-engraved spools that double as measuring and cutting tools. One side of the 1/8″ acrylic reel has a regular ruler, and the other a zero center ruler. The base and reels fit neatly in drawers of my IKEA cabinets. They keep my binding upright, visible, and ready to roll. I look forward to getting my stash of binding leftovers visible and ready to use for some projects.
In late 2024 I participated in a quilting event associated with the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild. The ask was to create a house themed quilt that would be shown during a homes tour in Kansas City. One of those homes was of Mid-Century Modern design. When I was searching for inspiration, I came across a pattern called “Clerestory”, by textile artist Debbie Grifka. I found it in Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine in May/June 2016. She also published a book in 2016 called Lines By Design Quilts that contains this pattern. I knew instantly that this was the quilt I wanted to make for the event!
Growing up, my parents sometimes took us to the Johnson County Museum after my brother’s soccer games. The museum has visiting exhibits (sometimes quilt related) but ALSO had a 1950’s All Electric House that you can tour, complete with, you guessed it, Clerestory windows!! I bet you will start noticing them in other buildings now!
Johnson County Museum – 1950’s All Electric House
I certainly did not know the name of that feature until I made this quilt! The museum and house has moved since I was a child to the Arts and Heritage Center. That building used to be King Louie West, another architectural icon from the 1960’s. I have so many memories of ice skating and bowling there with family and friends! Maybe you have been there on election day? The museum is fun place to visit to learn more about the history of Johnson County.
For my quilt, I pulled prints from Basic Mixologie by Studio M – 2015 and coordinating solids for the houses. The backing is from a more recent collection by Cloud 9 Fabrics, “March Balloons Frank Lloyd Wright”, in Brown. The quilting design is by Kim Diamond, Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio. One interesting feature about the construction is that the base of the houses are pieced and the roof is appliqued. I used the raw edge applique technique with Pellon 805 Wonder-Under® (paper backed fusible web). Did I go too low volume?
After you check out more of Debbie Grifka’s work head over to the Johnson County Museum and check out all of the fun built in features of the all electric house!
I recently decided (while spending several weekends cutting projects) that I needed to raise my cutting table. I use a wood gate-leg style table and I leave it set up all the time. This particular model is (9.5″W folded); 65.5″Wx36″Dx30.5″H. I think that it came from Crate and Barrel.
It allows me to use the Martelli X-Large 30 x 60 cutting mat, but since it is a standard dining table height, always felt too low when cutting for longer periods of time. I struggled to figure out a good way to raise it due to the center island with post swing supports. Recently I was researching and came across FurnitureRisers.com. They let you customize your risers from 5 different pocket types and many heights.
To raise the center section, I picked up four 4″ high – “L” shaped risers, and selected two 4″ high – “Square” risers. These worked almost perfectly. I forgot to measure the distance between the swing leg post and the first cross bar. It ended up being shorter than the inside top pocket for the square risers. However, since these are wood, I was able to get these sawed and sanded down to a shorter depth. The large L shaped risers fit perfectly at each corner of the center “island” of the table.
Note: Inside Top Pocket : The INSIDE pocket dimension. Pocket wall is about 1″ deep and 1/2″ wide.
It may have been easier / cheaper to buy a new table, but I like this one, so it was worth it to me. Now I just need to figure out how to organize some of the things I throw under my table better! Do you have any great ideas for miscellaneous elastic and zippers?
I was finishing up some quilts today and I want to highlight a couple of my favorite tools that I use when making quilt binding.
First, I LOVE my June Tailor Shape Cut Pro ruler. It is a monster-sized ruler at 20″ x 23″ and allows me to efficiently cut 8 – 16 (probably more) 2 1/2″ strips for binding at one time from my yardage without needing to continually adjust a ruler. It is also great for crosscutting squares of any size with 2 1/2″ increment measurements. I am so sad that it has been discontinued! I have been trying to find an alternative that will handle 1/2 width of fabric without luck. The Stripology rulers are nice, but I find myself falling back to this one when cutting a large amount from yardage. Maybe GE Designs or Creative Grids will fill this gap in the future. If you run across one of these anywhere, I highly recommend picking it up! Check out this video if you are curious about how it works.
The second tool I want to share is the “Binding Eaze” by Quilted Heartz. I love an inventor. It isn’t a surprise to me that they have come up with some tools to enhance the arduous process of prepping binding! This tool can be found at many quilt shops around the country, including one of my favorite local shops, KC Maker Studio and Fabrics. Check out this video. It really works just like she shows, so no need to remake the wheel here. If you have issues with the binding eaze sliding on you, the tip I have is to stick a few short pins in the corners. This gives it a little more stability.
It isn’t often that you get a call, and you immediately know the caller wants something, BUT, that whatever they are going to ask of you might actually be fun, so you let them talk you into a “Yes”. In this case, I became immersed in my first full T-Shirt quilt that I have dubbed “Decades of Decibels”.
I can’t claim design inspiration on this one as my uncle knew what he wanted. He had taken time to inventory and visually lay out the shirts he had collected from rock concerts over the years and had curated 30 black and white tee’s from his collection. I think allowing me to slice into some of these took some gumption. It was a pretty hard task not to try to convince him to let me keep a few to wear!
The original ask was to cut 25 shirts into rectangles, where none of the images would get cut off. However, I convinced him that it might be better and allow more of the shirts to make the quilt if we cut the shirts down to squares. A presentation given by Chris Jacobs, a member of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild, suggested that you would be surprised that you don’t REALLY need to the whole picture to immediately get the full idea of the design and memory. (I wholly agree and have experimented with it on some of my son’s old super hero tees.) In my mind, going square is similar to album covers, a fitting combination for bands who had their hay days in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s. This ruler from June Tailor, June Tailor – T-Shirt Transformation Ruler, was perfect for helping to size the shirts up. So that I didn’t cut off anything my uncle found important, I had him center the ruler on each shirt and take a picture that I could reference later in the process.
I also used the design software EQ8 to visualize the completed project for him and suggested adding some interest to the blocks by adding drop shadow borders to two edges of each block. This wasn’t the final product, but you get the idea. He opted to have the same color for the edging of each block instead of switching between black and white as I show here. His quilt is also a little bit bigger!!
Each shirt took approximately 15-20 minutes to prepare. I started with the smallest shirts first. As you might be able to see in the pictures at the top, a few of the smaller baseball-style shirts ended up with the sleeve color included in my 15″ square cut. Since we were going for a checkerboard effect, I cut off the secondary colored corners and supplemented the square with the correct background color from the leftover pieces of the shirt.
Each shirt received the following treatment:
Using scissors/rotary cutter, separate the front of the shirt from the back and remove the sleeves and neck area.
NOTE: Don’t cut your T-Shirt down to size until AFTER stabilizing it!
Apply Pellon SF101 fusible interfacing to the backside of each t-shirt front that we wanted on the quilt.
Note: Pellon SF101 is available in both black and white. I used a Cricut EasyPress2.
Now, post-stabilizing, cut t-shirt front down to size using the 15″ square ruler.
Modify/supplement block corners on a few of the shirts.
Add borders to two edges of the block.
Checkered Album Quilt Specifications/Contents:
97 1/2″ W x 116 1/2″ L
30 T-shirts (5×6), interfaced with Pellon SF101 (Black or White depending on shirt color)
Northcott Moda Wilmington Prints Timeless Treasures – Grunge Basics – Metropolis Iron (Shadows)
Robert Kaufman – Warehouse District Wide Back – ANJXD-19798-2 Black
I love this edgy line of fabric designed by Leslie Tucker Jenison and have used it in several projects already! I think it was the perfect pairing for this quilt.
I’ll get better full pictures later when I get to make the final delivery to my “favorite” uncle. Who else would let their niece play games on their awesome computer and take them on rides in their snazzy car! It almost makes me forgive him for tormenting me like a big brother. 🙂 Cheers.
It isn’t the 1980’s anymore. When new albums come out, we have instant gratification from our streaming services. No more running out to the record store. No more sneaking in to get that cassette tape of the Damn Yankees that Mom and Dad certainly would not have approved of. Records, Tapes, CD’s? I don’t think my kids would even know how to use one.
Let’s see what AI has to say about this collection. I had ChatGPT create a poem from the first 5 bands on the quilt.
“In the land of dreams and wonder, Where the sky and sea meet yonder, The Moody Blues serenade the night, With melodies soft and light.
In the mystical land, Kansas reigns,
With tales of love and loss and pains,
Their music echos through the hills,
A symphony that forever thrills.
Bad Company roars through the land, With raw enery and power so grand, Their rock and roll shakes the ground, And leaves echoes that resound.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer take the stage,
With a musicality that’s all the rage,
Their fusion of sound and style,
Is a journey that goes for miles.
And last but not least, Rush takes flight,
With music that’s bold and full of might,
Their progressive rock leads us on,
To places beyond the horizon.
These bands of old, Their music true, Still resonates with me and you, And we’ll keep on listening, day, and night, To their magic, their power, their light.
Quilting Playlist: Curated from the bands represented on this quilt by the quilter, her “favorite uncles”, her dad, and some friends who may or may not have ever listened to some of these bands! QR CODE FOR AN APPLE PLAYLIST HAPPY QUILTING!
Remember when it was December 2019? Ah, those were the days!
In December 2019, the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild had a holiday party. One of the festive events was an Orphan Project Challenge. Members were challenged to have compassion for another person’s unfinished project and make it their own. If adopted, the project was supposed to be completed in 6 months.
The project that I adopted contained the uncut fabric, and pattern called “Labyrinth Walk”. It is a quilt designed by Christopher Florence, aka “The Guilty Quilter”. I’d give you a link to his designs, but was unable to track down a recent web page. The patterns are available from many sources. This pattern is one that many of my friends and family had sent me as a picture of a “quilt I should make”. When I saw it on the table, I decided it was a sign. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I MAY have misjudged what the sign said, but c’est la vie.
Ok now, I remind you that today is September 2022. That is 33 months since the “adoption”. Somewhere in that time period, I lost my quilty mojo.
The assembly of the pattern was actually much more straight forward than I had anticipated. I really liked piecing it, and would love to try some of the other cool designs by The Guilty Quilter. The cutting for this pattern is a series of strips and the peicing can be done chain / assembly line style since the feature blocks are repeated four or five times on the quilt.
I even completed the top within that 6 month challenge period, April 2020. However, when it came to the quilting, I decided that it needed custom, like what the designer at Wasatch Quilting put together, to maintain and emphasize the 3D effect of the quilt. Somewhere between that daunting task, mask making, and other projects, the project languished. In hindsight (33 months later), maybe and edge to edge would have been the ticket!
I think the part that stalls me on custom computerized quilting is the repetitive stop and go nature of very small designs. Full disclosure. I loaded this quilt on my longarm around December of 2021. I had every intention to work on it, stop and go, while I was taking online classes. I think that I let my classes and family / work responsibilities give me excuses NOT to work on this!
But, finally, I buckled down. This quilt is completed! I used a batik backing to compliment the front colors and a lightweight batting (Hobbs Heirloom 80/20). This batting has become my go-to for most quilts. It really does look cool, and once I share it with my guild (albeit, a little late), I think I’d like to hang it on the wall in my entry, going up the stairs. It can be a reminder to not give up, even when you feel lost!
The next patterns I want to pick up are Passages, and Crescendo! I think both have a ring and vision to them that will be perfect for decorating in my music filled home.
Has there ever been a project or time that you lost your quilty mojo? How did you find it again? I learned that I am a SLOW quilter, a multitasker, and a finisher. In time, I get things done. I don’t like it when something is languishing.
Remember this? I needed to remove the entire hook assembly, and work at the rust. I have to say, I wasn’t sure how this would turn out in the end. There was more rust between the layers than I anticipated. It required several rounds of soaking in kerosene, some scrubbing, then some buffing. I needed to get it to the point that everything could move smoothly and thread wouldn’t get caught on rust or burrs when stitching.
This is a quick video of the first “movement” test. Keep in mind, at this point, the machine has not been oiled.
It’s Alive!!
Once movement on the hook assembly and bobbin case was tested, I cleaned the machine up. I needed to wait until the new belt arrived to continue working on the machine. The original belt was brittle and falling apart due to age. The motor ports didn’t appear to have any lubricant in them, but the carbon brush was surprisingly un-worn. My guess is that piece HAD been replaced at some point in time. I did remove quite a bit of thread that had wrapped around near the belt bushing / cap.
Fast forward to today. The replacement belt, the only non-vintage piece we ended up needing, came in the mail! It was time to oil the machine, lubricate the motor (no lubrication on gears for the white machine), and install the new belt. Now we are getting somewhere!
I was surprised by the noise that the machine made when the belt was not on the motor. I did not take the motor apart to investigate. However, after fully assembling it with the belt, the noise seemed to go away. If I was suspect of anything that might need additional work later, it will be this. However, It could be related to the lack of lubrication that has been in the motor for a long time.
Scary Motor Sounds
Final Adjustments: – Re-install the belt – Install the needle – Wind a bobbin – Adjust bobbin case tension – Adjust machine tension – Polish (because, why not!)
Listen to it hum! I am happy with these results. I managed to repair it with some kerosene, oil, motor lubricant, and a $10.95 part! With a little de-rusting and some general machine care, this machine is brought back to life. I’m sure with regular maintenance and use, she will last a long time. Now, it needs a name. Doesn’t every good machine? But, alas, I don’t get to keep her. This belongs to my friend. Hopefully, my friend gives her a great name and if he finds any other orphans at the antique and estate sales, he will keep me in mind! Featherweights are pretty fun to work on.
. 
