Last Saturday, I was honoured to teach these lovely ladies free motion quilting at Hummingbird Sewing in Barrie.

 After some very minor machine issues, they all caught on so quickly
and the learning curve was steep but they all accomplished a lot of practise and learning.

​ I have asked them all to keep on practising and I am sure in no time they will be excellent free motion quilters.

 Thanks for attending the class Donna, Lois, Connie, Gwenda and Joanne.

You were all a joy to teach!

TGIF, Have a great weekend everyone! 😊

_I am excited to announce that I now have 3 new projects and  new classes in Thread Painting.  Check out the Shop page to see the new patterns and the Teaching page as well!

 If you look at the patterns in the shop page hover over the patterns and you can see the thread painting close up!

The patterns are available in PDF and hard copy format and ready to order.

These 3 patterns all describe in detail how to create free standing thread painted embroidered flowers to add to small quilts.

The patterns include detailed instructions, supplies required, a true photo of the flower and a design ready for you to trace and thread paint.

The workshop demonstrates first hand how thread paint. Depending on your learning style this is a great way to learn.  

It's a culmination of a lot of work, but a real labour of love.

 The flowers are of course a Hibiscus Flower, A Water Lilly (& Lilly pads) and a Gaillardia Flower.

Have a great Thursday!  

Nora is one of my students who has now taken 2 of my free motion quilting classes and one of my thread painting classes and has obviously been practising what she has learned.  

I emphasize when I teach that practising is the key to success with both quilting and thread painting.  I always say "if you take piano lessons, you need to practise to be successful right?"  The same goes with anything in life.  Skills require practise.

Nora just sent me a picture of her latest project and it is obvious to me she is both practising the skills she has learned and is successful! Check out her work below:

Nora consented to sharing her work with us, Thank You Nora!  

Happy Monday!😊

I taught a class that I call "Explore Thread Painting" at Hummingbird Sewing Center in Barrie this past Saturday and these ladies produced very nice work!

In the class, we were working with very small and fairly simple designs utilizing basic machine fusible appliqué and then exploring what it would look like to add some thread painted lines with decorative threads and threads to match the appliqués.  These ladies had all taken my free motion quilting class, so they were ready to give a more controlled technique a try and they excelled!!

This just in.... Nora sent me a pic of her finished quilt below, already thread painted, quilted and bound.  Not only did she get it done quick, she did a beautiful job!
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Thanks for sharing Nora!
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If anyone else in the class gets their project completed, simply email it to me and I will be happy to share your work. Everyone's work is always inspiring to others!

Recently I was teaching my neighbour Joan my Quilting Foundations Course.  This course consisted of 5 lesson with 4 classic quilt blocks, stitch in the ditch (walking foot) quilting and binding. I have to say it was very rewarding!

 I found  teaching this course rewarding because:

• It was a private lesson and so very peaceful and a great time to get all your lessons communicated effectively
• I got to play with and arrange someone else's lovely fabric (my fabric addiction at play!)
• I had the opportunity to revisit and have a refresher on the basic rules of quilting
• My enthusiasm for quilting is always at play when I am teaching and this is a very positive feeling
• I completed a tiny bit of research about the actual blocks we were working on and I learned some new tid bits.
• I am hoping I inspired a new quilter and have brought a new and enthusiastic quilter into the quilting world ( we can always use more quilters!)

but the most important reason it was rewarding is .....
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• I got to know my new neighbour a little bit better with each lesson

​and Joan is a lovely person!

Congratulations to Joan for "Graduating" from my Quilting Foundations Course!!!!  

See here final project below:

 I have been busy the past few days, travelling, taking an advanced heirloom quilting (2 day) workshop in Manheim and teaching a beginner free motion class in Barrie . I will have some pics of the Manheim workshop in the near future when my projects are done.

Below are some pics of the class I taught yesterday at Simcoe Sew and Quilt in Barrie to a class of 5 wonderful ladies who had the motivation to learn free motion quilting.  Let me tell you, they were wonderful!  They all caught on quickly and are well on their way to incorporating free motion quilting into new projects in the near future. 

Simcoe Sew and Quilt had a "helper" carry machines into their classroom in the morning and coffee, goodies and name tags all ready for me as I began the class and that was wonderful.  
I have to say they displayed first class customer service and they are a one-stop shop for Sewing and Quilting in Barrie, Ontario and have a fantastic variety of notions, threads, fabric, sewing machines and 16+ years in the industry ( they are not paying me to say this!).

​ If you are every in Barrie, check them out, they are located on Dunlop St in downtown Barrie.

Some additional pics below, a hard working, creative group of students!

Today Santa's little elves worked hard on miniature Christmas tree quilts made from folded 2 1/2" strips and lots of bling attached.  So much fun and each mini quilt made (4 of them between the 3 of us) were so different from each other.  Of course we just had to show and share them at Elmira Needle Sisters Guild.  I'm sure there will be more quilters working as little elves this coming season!

​Today was a scheduled day of pseudo teaching with my sister Alison and a good friend Linda.

​Between power sewing,
​some "reverse stitching", directional issues, lots of laughs and sharing of funny stories, we managed to complete 6 mini totes between the 3 of us. Some suggested uses for this tote: A handy tote for toys for children, craft supplies, sewing tools, a gift exchange for a quilting friend and a tote for hexies. 

We even tried a grown up and "quilty selfie" (who knew they even existed?) I think we invented it!!

By the end of this day, I can say that we were very productive, we learned from some rather funny mistakes, and best of all had a better sense of wellbeing because of it. 

Happy Monday, Share your knowledge with friends!

  

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​Recently, I was watching a video about The City Quilter (a quilt shop in New York City ) and they made a comment about young girls coming into the shop as a "skipped generation".

I know with the educational system as it is, we cannot rely on it to teach them any domestic arts.  I feel that as a result not only domestic arts suffer, but so does art in general.  Just my humble opinion.

Since my 2 girls were about 8 years old, I have been trying my best to insure they: 1) know how to sew and 2) are motivated to sew.
 
This weekend, I had the pleasure and honour to assist my daughter with her OCAD University (Ontario College of Art and Design) thesis project involving her study of changing domestic arts and it's affect on relationships.  

​Mallory's above art quilt was first printed on fabric and then some elements were removed to actually tell more of the story.  The bodies of the lady and girl are heavily thread painted and the aprons are stuffed to emphasize domesticity.  

The picture above does not show the detail. There is an abundance of quilting and thread painting on the piece and I am happy to say that Mallory only needed some guidance, she clearly has a grasp of her machine and  sewing skills learned a few years back.

If you have a creative skill, I encourage you to share with someone from the "skipped generation".

Happy Monday :)
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See thread painting detail below: