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• Open Skies BOM Month 6
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• Open Skies BOM - Month 4
• Ruby BOM - Month 11

Recent Posts by Melissa

New Video Tutorials: Zipper Installation by Melissa on October 18, 2011 How to Install a Zipper: Invisible & Lap by Sue Terpin Installing a zipper is a piece of cake if you’re familiar with the methods involved. I want to take the mystery out of zippers by showing you two different types of zipper installations that often scare quilters: the lap zipper and the invisible zipper. First a little terminology: Lap Zipper A lap zipper is when a zipper is installed with a flap of fabric covering the zipper. It is used often ... Read more »

Chain Piecing Basics by Melissa on August 15, 2011 Most of you seasoned quilters probably chain piece in your sleep, but since we didn't have a full tutorial for chain piecing in our Tutorials section, I decided to write one up for newbie quilters. I know when I learned about chain piecing, it was like a lightbulb went on, and now I do it constantly! So if you're new to quilting, are teaching someone to quilt, or just want a refresher, read on... Read more »

New tutorial: How to Sew an Accurate Quarter Inch Seam by Melissa on July 18, 2011 This month our staff sewist Deborah brings us back to quilting basics with one of the single most important aspects of quilting: sewing that accurate quarter inch seam. Here's a link to the tutorial on our Tutorials Section for bookmarking. For those of you experienced quilters, do you have other tips or tricks for quarter inch accuracy?   How to Sew an Accurate Quarter Inch Seam by Deborah Sewing an accurate 1/4” seam allowance throughout your quilt construction is essential so that all pieces will fit together properly. First, select a seam guide and then test it for accuracy. The guide lines on the throat plate are not always accurate, so do not trust these measurements without testing first. Even a slight deviation will multiply with the number of pieces sewn together to make a quilt top. Read more »

How to Pick the Right Quilt Design for Your Quilt by Melissa on June 21, 2011 This week we continue our quilting themed tutorials with Mari's enlightening article. Mari is a longarm quilter who started out on her home machine, so she has a wealth of quilting knowledge from the perspective of quilting her own quilts and quilting for her customers. If you've ever felt daunted trying to pick the right kind of quilting design to finish off your beautiful new quilt top, read on. Mari's advice applies to those sending their quilts "out" to be quilted and those quilting at home. (And here's the link to the tutorial on our Tutorials page, for future bookmarking.) Inquiring minds want to know...Do you send your quilts to a longarmer or quilt them at home? What kinds of quilting designs appeal to you? Read more »

Quilting with Golden Threads Quilting Paper by Melissa on June 8, 2011 I was so inspired by Sharla's Machine Quilting Basics tutorial last month, that I decided to try the Golden Threads method for myself. I decided I would share my process with photos, so everyone can benefit! We got so much great feedback to Sharla's tutorial that it sounds like machine quilting at home is quite the hot topic for many of you. Did anybody else stretch their machine quilting skills recently? You can find my tutorial here, or read on below... Read more »

Learn to quilt with your home sewing machine by Melissa on May 16, 2011 One of our in-house pattern designers, Sharla, is a whiz at machine quilting. Many of us bring our personal projects to her for quilting because she does such an amazing job at making her machine quilting look like longarm quilting. Last year she made the Chubby Chicks quilt (which is no small quilt), and quilted the entire thing on her home machine (no longarm!)... Read more »

A Guide to Thread by Melissa on April 18, 2011 For our tutorial this month, Teri is back to explain how to choose the best thread for your project. I've included the full article below, or you can bookmark it on our tutorial page. We love hearing your feedback on these articles. What kind of thread do you use the most?  -Melissa Read more »

All about batting by Melissa on March 21, 2011 With so many batting choices in the market today, it's easy to feel confused and overwhelmed about which batting to use. Teri is here to enlighten us about batting to remove those clouds of mystery! Here's the link to the article on our tutorials page for bookmarking and reference, or read below. As usual, we want to hear your feedback too. Which batting do you use most and why? -Melissa Read more »

All about needles by Melissa on February 21, 2011 During one of our department meetings, we were deciding whether or not to pick up some new needles, and that opened a huge can of worms! We discovered talking to each other that most of us didn't know anything about needles or how to choose them, so we decided that our resident needle expert, Judy, needed to research the topic and write an article. I feel so much more enlightened on the topic and less intimidated about buying needles! Here are Judy's articles on Hand Sewing Needles and Machine Sewing Needles on our tutorial page, or keep reading below. We loved hearing your input on our January article about pre-washing, so I'm curious to see what kinds of needles you use. Read more »

Prewash or Not? by Melissa on January 17, 2011 It's the start of a new year, and in 2011 we're going to continue our practice of posting informative articles and tutorials for quilters and sewists. While we won't be posting a new tutorial each week like Karen did in 2010, we will definitely have at least one per month. Our staff sewist, Deborah, did some research on prewashing to kick things off. Do you prewash your fabrics? Leave a comment and let us know your experiences with prewashing... -Melissa Read more »