|
Hi Everyone, some of you may be wondering, "what is Robin up to these days?, she sure as heck is not blogging about it?!" I am always busy and I realize my whole life is consumed with making things because it fulfills me in a positive way. Even rainy/stormy days are not boring for me because there is always something to do if you are a "Maker". I am sure there are a lot of you out there who are never idle just like me. I truly believe that creating and staying busy is one of the keys to longevity, I guess time will tell!! I apologize for not getting back to my blogging. I have actually been very busy with class samples for new and upcoming classes. I have 3 new classes "Next Steps in Free Motion Quilting", "Explore Thread Painting" (New Samples) and an upcoming "Angela Walters Rulers Class" (Samples under development). Check out descriptions here or click on the "teaching" tab above or have a look at some of my photos below:  Explore Thread Painting (New Samples) Close-up of Flowers: The backs of my thread painted projects are shown below, I love how they turned out! Next Steps in Free Motion Quilting class samples shown below:  Samples for "Next Steps in Free Motion Quilting" Want to take a class with me? Check out the schedule for locations and dates at the top of the teaching page.
I would love to help you enhance your quilting and sewing experiences.... so join me as I share my knowledge with you. Stay tuned for the Angela Walters Rulers Class info, it will be posted very soon! Need more info? Feel free to contact me here Have a great Thursday!
0 Comments
Love to make things?
Obsessed with creative pursuits like I am? Cooking, Quilting, Sewing, Yoga, Dance, Gardening Photography, Art, Craft and so much more. I am thoroughly enjoying my free trial and now on to membership. Yay, Loving it! Bluprint is such a great learning platform for online classes and it will "Spark" your creativity for sure! Support and Inspire yourself as a "Maker" like I did by getting a Free 7 Day Bluprint Trial, you can do this by clicking on link below and enjoy! Happy, Happy Wednesday :) 
Summer Beach Huts (9" wide x 10" tall) Quilted with "heat" wave lines
For our August Monthly Mini Quilt, it's summer so I was thinking a summer quilt. Not to mention the fact that it was 30+c at the time I was making this quilt and we were having a heat wave ! I had the air conditioning blasting while working in my studio.
The blocks in the above quilt number 20 in total, the quilt measures approximately 9" wide x 10" tall and each block measures a mere 1.75" wide x 2" tall. They are tiny! 
Teeny Tiny Roof Flying geese units
all flying geese units for the roof
What I used to make the flying geese roofs, easy and accurate? Eleanor Burns' Quilt in a Day Flying Geese Ruler
I used the 3/4" x 1.5" finished flying geese portion of the ruler above
I designed this quilt in EQ8 because with each block being so small, I did not want to rely on my own math for accuracy. The key to working with minis is accurate cutting and accurate sewing.
Mini quilts in my studio---an expanding collection
The most fantastic tools for this Mini Summer Beach Huts quilt project?
 
&
 
= Success!
I hope you have a great wednesday! ❤️
I know crafters and DIY'ers are buzzing about why Craftsy.com is rebranding? I cannot answer this question and I do not have an MBA. I do believe maybe it's all about business and guess what?---- We all need to work , we all need to keep crafting alive and accept progress. So if Bluprint keeps crafting alive and thriving, so be it and I am all for it.
They are also expanding life style categories and allowing viewers to see a lot more cooking, BBQ, yoga, family, dance, fitness, yoga, home decor, entertain, wood working, jewellery making and so much more. What I do know is that with the internet being what it is, this is a way to stream all kinds of content, expand on content and get it out to consumers and that is a good thing. Sure beats TV to me!! Basically, NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment has a majority stake in Craftsy since May 2017. So the "Unlimited" portion or ongoing subscription portion of Craftsy.com will now be "Bluprint". Bluprint will also expand it's repetoir of classes, tutorials, crafting how- tos to multiple lifestyle categories and I believe this is exciting! Craftsy.com will still exist for "a la carte classes". Which means if you go to Craftsy.com you can still see individual classes and keep the classes you have already purchased. See a link to a great article about all of this re-branding here Also, there will be some new experts like Today Show's Dylan Dreyer, Al Roker and Padma Lakshmi from Top Chef as new talent showing their skills and this is certainly a very positive draw and very exciting for me! Have a Look at Angela Walters video all about the changes below:
You be the judge
Bluprint also has a great monthly offers available for a limited time if you are interested in more content for the whole family where you can learn a new skill, Craft, DIY, be engaged, entertained and pursue your passions check out the link below:
Have a great friday and a wonderful weekend❤️
 Hi Everyone, I hope you are enjoying your wednesday and I just wanted to share with you a really easy pattern for a crochet baby hoodie that is a great summer project because it's easy, fast to complete and a great mindless take along project for your travels. I actually made it last summer in anticipation of a "Baby" arriving in March and that baby just happened to be my grandson Eli :) Note that it is not in boyish colours because we did not know about his gender until his birth, hence I made it unisex. Bright and fun, with colourful buttons.
It is so easy that even as a beginner to crochet, I made this jacket in several variations last summer, literally in a few days! I just got this picture of Eli and it reminded me of what a great pattern it is and what a cute baby is in it! He's not smiling but I think he was focusing on something very interesting :) I'm sure with some cool summer nights in Kitimat, BC where my little buddy lives, it will come in handy! I am sharing the link from Bernat here . It's a free downloadable pattern. Happy Wednesday ❤️  Happy Summer! Doodling in colouring books is all the rage. It is said that colouring is relaxing and therapeutic. I think summer is not only a time to relax and reflect, but sometimes that reflection can lead to more creative, outside of the box thinking. So why not doodling by machine? I made arrangements with a friend (Marg) to get together and try a new technique that I am calling " Doodling". You could call it "Zen doodling" by machine (it was fun and zen relaxing) and then you add colour to it. This project has repetitive patterning somewhat similar to Zen Tangling in pen and ink. Today I am going to share what I did, see below.  Draw your thoughts /doodle, designs, daydreams on 100% white or light cotton "quilt top" using a frixion pen (it heat erases with the iron) Sandwich your quilt top with batting and backing at this point, make sure to baste your layers!  Free motion doodle on top of your drawn lines with a heavy weight (40wt or heavier) black cotton thread, Free motion foot on and feed dogs down.   As you can see some of my pen doodles I did not like so I did not doodle them in by machine **Caution -use removable ink like a washout marker or frixion (heat erasable pen) to mark doodles on your fabric  Black thread doodling completed! Time to add Colour!  I used fabric pens and intense pencils, check out the resource list at the end of this post for where to find supplies  more colouring...  Check out my crazy backing fabric. Its effective at hiding all the dense black stitching! So very recommended  I added a black binding as it frames all the crazy colours, designs and allows your eyes a chance to rest TA DA! My finished Machine Doodled Quilt!  "My Secret Garden" 18 x 21" Resources (what I used):
Black thread from Connecting Threads Inktense Pencils Aloe Vera Gel (to spread out the ink from the intense pencils (use small paint brushes for this) Frixion Markers (to draw the designs on the fabric) Fabric Markers 80/20 Batting (2 layers recommended but well basted, makes your project have great texture) 505 Quilt Basting Spray Additional Resources Needed: An iron (used to remove any unwanted Frixion Pen lines) A ruler for grid patterns in the background A Sewing Machine in good working order (feed dogs down) A free motion foot Some Free Motion Experience A creative mind Allow yourself the time to do this! In the end it was a very enjoyable technique and I am sure I will try this more. I hope you try it (if you do send us your pictures to show and share) and have a wonderful week! ❤️ Happy Thursday everyone! Yesterday I had the honour of visiting a new quilt/sewing/needlework shop (at least new to me). One of my local guild members recommended that I contact Stitch-It Central in London, Ontario about teaching and so I did and met with two lovely ladies Cindy and Maria yesterday. I have to say I am very impressed and of course I am going to tell you all about it. Who does not love another resource for our stitchery passions!  Stitch-It Central, 1161 Hamilton Rd E London, Ontario Stitch-It Central was located in Ingersoll for several years and recently re-located a few KM east off of Highbury Avenue in London. They specialize in Cross Stitch, Knitting, Crochet, Quilting, Tatting and lots of notions, decorative thread, beads, online sales and more. It is a big store as boutique style stitchery stores go including a large retail space and a large classroom. They also stock over 3000 bolds of luscious quality quilting fabric and an extensive line of Superior Threads, including King Tut (my personal favourite for free motion and thread painting). They also are wonderful with customer service and I witnessed Maria and Cindy in action and have very positive online reviews. If you cannot make it to London? Purchase items from them online --***Enjoy Free ground shipping on orders of $150 or more before taxes within Canada*** Check out their website here . Gallery of Photos From Stitch-It CentralGetting back to my title, New Teaching at a New Location, yes I will be teaching at Stitch- It Central!
I am very excited to be teaching:
I will show you my new samples as soon as they are ready on this blog. Hoping for the end of August, now I need to get to work! In the meantime, if any of my Southern Ontario friends from LaSalle, Windsor and Essex County (you know who you are) want to go on a shop hop this summer and meet me in London for a visit at Stitch-It Central? I am happy to do this and we can do lunch! I hope you have enjoyed this lovely day ❤️ Need some thread to get those quilting projects done this summer?
I know we are all in summer and holiday mode but this is a great time to get what we are low on as the price is right! With online shopping it is so easy to enjoy our vacations and shop without effort.
Wouldn't it be nice to come back from holiday with a colourful package of thread in the mail? Threads are on sale at Connecting Threads 100% cotton see details below: 
I hope you are enjoying the sunshine and enjoy a safe and happy summer vacation! Happy Wednesday☀️ A Domestic Engineer is the one who executes household chores; they are a member of the family that does this as a part of their responsibility. A Domestic Engineer can carry out anything from cleaning to doing everyday jobs for the family. (Source: www.bestjobdescriptions.com) Yesterday, I had to take a break from my quilting/teaching/blogging/pattern designing jobs to be a domestic engineer! But this time the "household chore" was jam making. I am sharing this with you because I can and because it was a fun diversion :) I have made lots of jam in the past and it was like getting back on a familiar bicycle. But wow, does it ever take a lot of sugar! I actually cut down a bit on the sugar and gave it more time to boil and gel set. This time of the year gets busy with holiday plans, family visits and our garden and we have tons of black raspberries. See a pic of some of them below:  Too many black raspberries what to do?  16 cups of black raspberries = one big pot of jam!  5 pints and 7 jelly jars! Enjoy all the fruits of your labour today and give yourself credit for all the work you do for your family whatever it may be!
Happy Tuesday❤️ |
Follow Me:
A,,, accu, fabricWelcome!Hi I'm Robin and I am a professional long arm quilter, pattern designer and teacher. I am passionate about all things quilty!     Categories
All
Sponsors
This blog contains affiliate links. This means that we endorse products.
We do receive rewards for these endorsements and this helps to keep this site alive and well. We support products which we believe are the best quality and to inspire your creativity! |
RSS Feed