Went to my first Quilting Guild meeting last night…
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Quilting for Beginners
So I ventured out to the local Coastal Quilters Santa Barbara Guild meeting last night. It was fun! I’m trying to get a temperature on the community to see if a quilt/fabric shop would work in my area. (I have a dream.) So I’m getting to know the local quilters and learning alot about quilting. [...]
Tags: block patterns, Quilting for Beginners, quilting guild, tips for beginning sewers
Find the right type of thread for your sewing.
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Quilting for Beginners, Sewing Fun, Tips & Techniques
So much thread to choose from. Various weights. Monofilament. 100% cotton. Metallic. Polyster. Rayon. Hand or machine quilting. Etc. Since I’ve been sewing now for all of 3 months, I’m definitely not the right person to ask about which thread to use for a specific project. But I’ve spent hours on hours choosing notions, fabric, [...]
Tags: beginner sewing techniques, Bernina Aurora 440, Gutermann, Isacord thread, Mettler, tips for beginning sewers, types of thread
Blog following… I’ve added a few to my quilt list.
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Blogs to Watch, Crafty Stuff, Quilting for Beginners, Sewing Fun, Tips & Techniques
Over the holidays it seemed that all the blogs I regularly follow were pretty quiet. So I had some great time to get my own sewing projects planned, read some great quilting books, and find some new blogs to start following. One of the blogs I found is Crazy Mom Quilts. I’m totally enamored with [...]
Tags: applique sewing, beginner sewing books, block patterns, fabric calculator, Free Motion Quilting, quilt blogs, sewing blogs, tips for beginning sewers
Quilt Ventura – a fabulous shopping (and learning) experience!
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Blocks & Patterns, Fabric Obsessed, Quilting for Beginners, Shopping Fun, Tips & Techniques
So I spent about two and half hours in Quilt Ventura yesterday – my trip was a huge success! First of all the owner, Joey, is delightful and very knowledgeable. The store is packed with all sorts of quilting fabrics (traditional to contemporary, to Asian-inspired, to modern and retro.) Very much a boutique fabric store [...]
Tags: beginner sewing books, contemporary fabric, easy quilt patterns, fabric stores, modern block patterns, Quilting for Beginners, tips for beginning sewers
Improvise with the Blind Stitch Foot for Quilting
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Quilting for Beginners, Sewing Fun
Today I learned alittle bit about presser foot improvisation. I’d been reading the Bernina Accessories book to figure out which presser feet to add to my collection when I happened upon the Edgestitch Foot. The description says that I can use this foot to “stitch in the ditch.” Hey – that sounds nice since I [...]
Tags: blindstitch, edgestitch foot, presser feet, quilt reference, Quilting for Beginners, stitch in the ditch, tips for beginning sewers, topstitch, walking foot
Thread tension not so fun?
Posted by Wendy Breakstone Ladd | Filed under Free Motion Quilting, Quilting for Beginners, Sewing Fun
I’ve been lucky enough to have not experienced the dreaded thread tension problems that so many people struggle with (to date). But given that I’m about to embark on my first free-motion quilting project for my son’s Thomas the Tank quilt (more later on my first quilt) I’ve been gearing up for the inevitable broken [...]
Tags: beginner sewing, Free Motion Quilting, thread tension, tips for beginning sewers
