I love it when I get to share fun things with you all. And when I can offer them for free, that’s even more special! So next week I’m traveling to BERNINA headquarters in Chicago to film a free live event in conjunction with National Quilter’s Circle. I’ll be sharing tips & tricks showing how to make my Modern Table Runner shown below:

Click here to download my free Modern Runner quilt pattern.

All 3 versions of my modern runner were made with my Stitchy fabric collection from Benartex.

All the Juicy Details…

The free live event will take place online at 10 AM central time on Wednesday, May 24. It will be co-hosted by Colleen Tauke who shares lots of fun & inspiring videos every other week for National Quilter’s Circle. I’ll be showing how to get 3 different looks for the same project. Using different color combos makes it interesting, but I really enjoyed creating 3 different quilting plans, too. I love seeing how the same design will look quilted with straight lines, curvy lines, or both!

Click here to download the free PDF pattern, and get an email reminder about this event.

The event will take place live on their website and will be available to watch after the fact, if you can’t make it live. You all know how much I love my BERNINA and it’s extra special when I get to work with them on an event such as this. For the live presentation, I’ll be showing how to quilt on the BERNINA Q20 sit down longarm machine. It should be a fun event, and I hope you’ll join me!

Click here to join the fun!

Each time I release a new fabric line, I love including a free pattern to help promote it. For my most recent collection called “Stitchy” I made this fun & colorful quilt called Herringbone.

Click here to get the Herringbone quilt pattern emailed to you.

I love playing around with half-square triangles and fun bright colors. This quilt is simple to make: choose 5 fun colors with coordinating backgrounds to create a rainbow effect. For a limited time, you can grab the quilt kit to make this quilt.

I’ve also filmed a video showing how to make this quilt from start to finish. Click play below to watch it on my YouTube channel. I especially love sharing more details on the machine quilting so that you feel comfortable finishing this quilt yourself.

Free Patterns Galore!

In addition to Herringbone, I currently have 4 additional free quilt patterns that you can immediately download and get started on today. And here’s a heads up: I’ll have another one coming later this fall when my next fabric line releases, so stay tuned!

Click here to access all of my free pdf quilt patterns.
Click here to view all of my quilt kits.

Above is my free pattern called “Rainbow Taffy” which was made from my first fabric line, Modern Marks. Although that fabric line is long since gone, you can still create a fun, bright quilt using charm packs of ANY of my fabric collections.

Click here to view all of my designer precuts.

Hi all! It’s been awhile since I’ve been active online because I have sooo much going on behind the scenes right now. But I’m excited to be out and about teaching in person again. I get a LOT of requests to teach in my hometown of Las Vegas. Although that’s not on the schedule anytime soon, I AM teaching close by in St. George, Utah and also Provo, Utah – for both locations of Dave’s BERNINA.

I’ll be teaching a full day of machine quilting at both locations – Provo on Friday, May 19, 2023 and then in St. George on Saturday, May 20. You’ll learn my techniques for combining walking foot and free motion in the same quilt, along with ways to easily quilt your quilts and have fun doing it!

Click here to register for my machine quilting workshop at Dave’s Bernina Provo
Click here to register for my machine quilting workshop at Dave’s Bernina St. George

If you plan to attend, or have any questions, please leave me a comment. You can also click here to see my current teaching schedule for the rest of the year and into next year. I hope to see you in person at one of my events soon!

I was very pleased to see Laura Coia of Sew Very Easy demonstrating my new mini mat and ruler set a recent video tutorial. 

Together with my ergonomic rotary cutter, they are the perfect tools to keep next to your sewing machine. Click play below to watch. She always has great tips to share!

Previously, Laura had shared a video with bonus tips when using my machine quilting gloves. I’ve been wearing them in all of my videos, but she demonstrated extra ways to use them that I’d never thought of before. Click play below to check it out:

Have you tried my sewing notions yet?

You’ll be seeing them in more of the new videos I create, but it sure is fun to see other quilters using them “in the wild, too!”

Click here to view my sewing notions. They’ll make you a better quilter, I promise!

Did you attend QuiltCon this year? I did and it was so amazing. In fact, I feel like it was one of their best shows yet! Put on by The Modern Quilt Guild, QuiltCon has been going strong for 10 years now, and I’ve been a part of every single event! In years past, I’ve written blog posts about the show and shared a lot of real time pics on Instagram and Facebook.

This year, I made a 24 minute video sharing all about my experience as a vendor, along with over 50 of my faves from the show. Click below to watch:

Whether you were there in person, or watched from afar online, the excitement and camaraderie are unlike any other show I’ve attended. I’d love to keep the conversation going, so I’d love to hear about your thoughts. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Recap Below For My Previous QuiltCon Experiences:

Click each of the links below for previous blog posts. Most of them include more links to other thoughts from the show. So don’t be afraid to go down a rabbit hole to get the full experience from the last 10 years.

From the years 2019-22 I was a bit overwhelmed with blogging and mainly shared on instagram rather than as a separate blog post. So be sure to check out #quiltcon2019 #quiltcon2020 #quiltcontogether and #quiltcon2022 to get a feel for it on social media. The event was virtual in 2021 and then back in person in 2022.

• QuiltCon 2013 – The First One!!
• QuiltCon 2015
• QuiltCon 2016
• QuiltCon 2017
• QuiltCon 2018
• My Jury Experience from QuiltCon 2019
• My Excitement for QuiltCon 2020
• My QuiltCon 2021 Reject Parade
• Getting Ready for QuiltCon 2022

There’s also a great hashtag #tenyearsofquiltcon. If you have memories from previous shows, I’d love to hear all about them! Other than that, I’ll plan to be there again in person in Raleigh NC in 2024. I hope to see you there!

While I recover from QuiltCon 2023 and sift through all my photos, I thought I’d share a few videos showing how I made some of the quilts in my booth. Be on the lookout for my recap video soon!

How to Make my Bling Hashtags Quilt

How to Make my Charming Chevrons Quilt from 5″ Squares

How to Make My Charming Chevrons Quilt from 10″ Squares

How to Make My Blooming Wallflowers Quilt

How to Make my Color Weave Quilt

While I’m away at QuiltCon this week, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite technique tutorials with you. I’m diligently working on adding more videos to my YouTube channel in my hope of making quilting more accessible and less intimidating for everyone!

How to Spray Baste Your Quilt Using a Design Wall

By far, this is my most popular technique ever. Once you learn how to demystify the basting process, machine quilting is a breeze! Click play below to watch:

How to Build a Design Wall

I built my design wall before I started making regular videos. However, I took step by step photos of the process so that you can follow along. Click here to learn how to build a design wall.

How to Machine Bind Your Quilt

When I’m in a hurry, this is my go-to method for a fast quilt finish! Click play below to watch:

How to Hand Bind Your Quilt

I love hand sewing but don’t often have much time for it. So my favorite thing is to relax and watch a tv show or listen to an audio book while hand binding. Take a look below to see how I attach the binding to the quilt and finish by hand:

Any Requests?

Do you have a specific technique you’d like to learn? Or do you want more guidance on how to make a quilt from one of my patterns? Please leave a comment letting me know what you’d like to see more of! I’m happy to add it to the list!

Are you planning on attending QuiltCon next week? It takes place in Atlanta, GA February 23-26. I’ve attended every show since it’s inception in 2013. Sometimes I teach, other times I take classes or volunteer. But this time I’m doing something new: I’m super stoked to be attending as a vendor this time around!

I’ll be hanging out in booth 2508 and I’ll be bringing a whole load of my designer products with me! I’ll have my books, patterns, fabrics and threads on display and I can’t wait!!

It’s a lot of work to set up a booth, so I’ve been taking time this week to stage what some of my displays will look like. Figuring out where to get containers to hold my products has been fun. It makes me appreciate folks that do this on a regular basis!

I’m figuring out how much product I can bring and the best way to display it!

Fortunately, I have family who live in the area, so I’ve been able to have a lot of my things shipped to them ahead of time. They’ve also agreed to help me set up and man my booth, so I’m excited to make it a family affair!

Office supply stores have so many great display pieces that will really come in handy!!

Also, by a stroke of good luck, I’m returning to GA in April to teach for a nearby guild (The East Cobb Quilters Guild). So my aunt told me she’s happy to let me keep anything remaining at her home in the meantime.

I’ll be able to share the leftover goodies with the guild members when I teach and then (hopefully) bring anything extra back in my suitcases. Figuring out the logistics has been a TON of work!

I’m using cuter buckets than these, but this gives me an idea of visual presentation for my booth.

This will be a fun new experience for me as a vendor. I’m most excited that I’ll be able to hang out in one spot, chatting with folks all weekend. If you are there, please stop by and say hi! Now I’d better go pack!!!

Spray basting has really revolutionized my machine quilting process. It makes quilt basting faster and easier, and there’s no pesky pins getting in the way while you quilt! I’ve shared my spray basting technique many times, using my design wall to assemble the layers. However, lots of folks don’t have access to a design wall, so I put together a new video showing how to use my method using a table instead. Take a look below:

In my video above, I’m making a king sized version of my Interlinked quilt. You can grab the Interlinked quilt pattern to make one for yourself and it includes 4 sizes:

• Click here to get the Interlinked Quilt Pattern – Digital Download
• Click here to get the Interlinked Quilt Pattern – Physical Paper Booklet

In the video you also see me trimming the extra batting and backing using my Christa Quilts Batting Shears. These are a must-have in your sewing space! They are thicker and longer than regular scissors which more than doubles the cutting speed versus regular scissors. They really do cut through batting like butter!

• Click here to learn more about my quilting notions.

Now I’m curious to know – have you ever spray basted a quilt? If you try out my method, please let me know how it turns out!