A Moth in the Window Kind of Day -

My favorite place in Bedford – Mary’s Quilt Shop!

Bedford Pennsylvania has become a home away from home after the many summers of teaching here.  And seeing those who come and come again is such a treat!

I love catching up with what has happened over the past year in the lives of these folks who have become much more than students – but friends.

Grand babies are either being expected for the first time – or have been born over the past year.  Graduations, marriages, retirements, moving house (down-sizing or up-sizing or moving to the lake location of their dreams) sewing room renovations, new long arm machine acquisitions or vintage machine finds – it’s like old home week!

Busy shoppers petting the fabric!

Mary’s shop was open beyond our workshop time that was being held at the American Legion Hall a 10 minute drive away – so folks were making that beeline over to the shop right after class to make good use of Mary’s current 20% off “anything on the bolt” sale in celebration of the shop being featured in an upcoming issue of Quilt Sampler.  Congrats Mary!  We’ll be watching news stands near you to learn more about this fabulous shop and seeing the beautiful quilt the shop has provided for this issue.

Earlier – in class:

Moth in the Window from the Addicted to Scraps book was in full swing!

Stitching and cross-cutting -

Mixing and matching -

All in the company of wonderful quilters who had traveled in!

Friends Cathy & Pat from Illinois!

Accuracy matters!

The strip sets and units for this block need to reach “unit size” so they will easily fit together.  The only right seam allowance is the one that gives you the right unit size – this was a very happy quilter who learned how to adjust her seam allowance width to give her the size she needed. Quiltville Creative Grids ruler available in the Quiltville Store!

For those with a “drop in front bobbin” right in front of the feed dogs, here is a hint for you, no quarter inch foot needed:

Quiltville Seam Guide and blue tape to the rescue.

This little travel Brother machine is lightweight and fine to take to class, but it needed a few adjustments.

The whole plate around the bobbin area wiggled and jiggled giving our quilter different results with each seam – because it moved.  The tape to the far right is holding that plate securely so there is no more wiggling.

We placed the needle in the 1/4’’ hole of one of my Quiltville Seam Guides and then built up 4 layers of blue painters tape, trimming it to size and shape to just fit the BOBBIN COVER ONLY, and placed it next to the guide.

If you have a front drop bobbin, you don’t want tape going all the way down the front of your machine bed because – what happens when you run out of bobbin thread and you have to replace that bobbin?  You’d have to start the whole process again with reapplying that seam guide tape.

This way – when she runs out of bobbin, she just pops the bobbin cover off, leaving the tape in place, and when she puts it back down again, she is good to go.

After placing your tape down – still run a test seam as individual results may need to be fine tuned based on the thickness of your fabric, your thread, and how you cut that fabric.

Remember – the only CORRECT seam allowance is the one that gives YOU the unit size you need.

Happy little sets, waiting for the Moths in the Middle!

We got to the Moths, right after lunch!

And there were so many gorgeous ones!

And that goes for machines, too!

Switching up the colors and adding more!

We really did have a great time -

Well done, everyone!

(Love photos with feet!)

Thanks for a great day!

This was such a kick!

Click to Play:

And today we do it all over again - bittersweet! Sand Castles from String Frenzy is our last workshop day of our Summer Workshop Series, 2019!

Big sighs of relief and celebration!

Sometimes miracles do happen in the middle of the night! 

My website has been undergoing some maintenance over the past few days that I've been on the road. I know having my site inaccessible for a few days caused some of you some hiccups in printing class supply lists or PDF friendly patterns from the free patterns tab on the blog, etc.

Things aren't always easy to coordinate with support staff when I am traveling and teaching and having to work around my work day schedule, so much of our working on the website has been either early morning or later at night after my teaching day is done.

I am happy to report that things are back up and running and you should be able to access all of the files and links you need at Quiltville.com!

My thanks to those who worked so hard to help me with the revamping of my firewalls and extra security measures to keep my site safe while I was away.

And thanks for your understanding in my not answering ALL of the frantic emails and messages of "Did you know your site is DOWN!?" 

Yes. We knew. Maintenance and upgrades happen. Sorry for the inconvenience!  I simply did not have time (or energy) to reply knowing that things would be resolved as quickly as they could be.

But as the old sit com song goes..."Welcome Back......"

Quiltville Quote of the Day-

If you like fabric, we'll get along just fine!

Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!