What I'm working on...

I have had several very fun days filled with quilting. Some sewing, too. Here's a shared project.

Shared because I designed the pattern (Chill Pill), Debbie and I picked out the fabric (designed by Linda Hohag), she put all the blocks together, I added the borders, am halfway through the quilting and will teach it on the summer class schedule at Bear Patch. Debbie had intended to do the borders and binding, but ran into a time crunch since it needs to be done by Tuesday for display at the store along with a whole bunch of other class samples. So sharing is a good thing!

OK, all you quilters out there, I am trying out something that I heard about here to help stabilize the rulers that I use when quilting. These are not the same as the rulers used for cutting, but the same thing might work. It is called Grip Tape, and you will find it at your friendly neighborhood skateboard shop. In my neighborhood, that's Pinewski's in Anoka. I got just a little bit nostalgic when I walked in there, since it was the destination of choice for Dan many times when he was younger, and needed a ride. They are very nice people there, and that hasn't changed over the years. The young man gave me a large sheet of Grip Tape, normally used on the bed of a skateboard. It's kind of like black sandpaper with an adhesive back. I put a couple little squares of it on the ruler I was using and it made a noticeable difference in stay-put-edness. I think you know what I mean. Just a little bit about these rulers--they come in many shapes and sizes and are helpful to guide the machine foot as I am sewing along, so one hand has to hold the ruler with some degree of pressure to be stable on the fabric surface but not too much pressure to interfere with the movement of the machine. Kind of touchy, and something I am still learning. They are thicker than the other acrylic rulers that I use for cutting so there is not danger that the machine foot will go on top of the ruler, thus leading to something bad happening between needle and ruler. I have only a few in my collection.

Compared to my regular ruler collection--

Some girls collect shoes. I collect fabric, thread and rulers.

I've finished quilting another project for a new pattern designed by Stacy West for Buttermilk Basin and it is soooo great! If you like Halloween, you will be wanting this pattern! I would like to show you a picture, but will hold off until Stacy gets it published in time for Spring International Quilt Market in May. Lucky us, it is here in Minneapolis this year, so we can have the luxury of staying close to home while still enjoying all the fun that is Market. This is a trade show for the quilting industry, all the fabric manufacturers, pattern designers and notions distributors gather to show their latest and greatest to shop owners and take orders. You will be hearing more about this from me, to be sure.

I'm running into more than one deadline in the next few days, so this will be it for now, gotta focus on completing some tasks!