Category: Uncategorized

Embracing Quirk, and a new class

Happy Tuesday!

dupioni whole cloth playtime my brain on quiltingLast spring I asked a trusted friend what her impressions were: confidence was the number one take away from that conversation. Honestly, I like that she picked up on that. It’s taken a lot of time to become confident at the machine, moving the quilt under the needle and watching the quilting motifs become what I see in my head. There is often a lot of frustration leading to getting what I see in my head on fabric. When it happens though it’s so cool.

So January 20th I’m teaching at the Quilt Basket in Pawling, NY, so I offered Go With the Flow. Funny thing is, they have a Cutie Pattern with that same name by the FabuLuxious Debby Brown. So they asked me to change the name. I proposed something on fb that made sense, starting to capture the class. For the most part it was met with enthusiasm. Some of the suggestions made sense, however don’t fit my quirky nature. So this really amazing friend shared this: Brain Dump: Stitch the Stuff of Your Dreams (Release the Kraken). It’s like she gets me or something. Weird, right? So that is the name of the newish class. Here’s the class description:

Let’s get the quilting we see in our heads out onto fabric by exploring what we can do with thread, batting, and needles. You’ll stitch on a small whole cloth based on a quilt block, or a fun design using a variety of thread. We’ll explore the differences in cotton, polyester, silk, in a variety of different weights to see how thread weight and color will do lot of work for you.

Kits available.

This will soon be listed on the Lectures/Workshops page.

There’s still time to sign up for the classes at the Connections Quilt Festival in Nashua November 9, 10, & 11. This is a direct link to the classes.

November 4 & 5 I’m shadowing at a Floriani Event hosted by SewRight in Queens. Check out the event page for more details.

Then there’s Quilt Market, and Quilt Festival. I’ll be helping Maria Tamaoka in the Pinwheels booth at Festival. Stop by and see us…there’s FABRIC in the booth.

F – A – B – R – I – C

I’m off to finish a couple of quilts for Cheryl and Tracy and do some embroidery.

Happy Quilting,

Teri

International Quilt Market & Apple Pie

I’m honored to share my years of experience working and teaching in quilt shops, teaching nationally, talking with shop owners, and working with Generation Q Magazine in each one of these talks. Join me at International Quilt Market. Check out Ebony Love, Cheryl Sleboda, Tracy Mooney, Maddie Kertay, Heather Kubiak, Pepper Cory and so many other presenters in ways that we can grow our businesses. Cheryl is offering business consultations with special Quilt Market pricing.

Reminder: Ebony Love is nearing the end of the Kickstarter Campaign to make new Sizzix dies for cutting some amazing quilts. Anything from sharing the post to $1.00 on up is a great show of support. Kickstarter campaigns are All or Nothing Events. If she meets the goal, she gets the money to make the dies, if not she doesn’t the opportunity to do this. Think of this as buying stock in a company for their growth and development.

Bonus! I’ll be staying through early Friday morning of Quilt Festival. I’ll be in the Pinwheels booth with Maria Tamaoka. She sells Daiwabo and Oakschott Cotton. Hooo baby let’s pet some fabric.

I made this deliciousness yesterday: Caramel-Bacon Apple Pie
2 crust pie crust (medium flake: a mixture of butter and shortening for the fat rocks it) I use the King Arthur Flour Recipe and add cider vinegar to the water.

1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
6 T butter
1/4 c water
2 t Cinnamon
8 strips precooked crispy bacon chopped up

Cook this in a skillet til it boils on medium heat. Reduce heat and let simmer for 10 more minutes. Set aside to cool

preheat oven to 400

a whole bunch of apples (4 – 6 cups)
slice or chop ’em your favorite way and place in a honkin’ big bowl

once the caramel mixture is coolish, pour over the apples to coat them completely

roll out bottom layer of pie crust layer in pie plate

dump the apples in crust
add apple mixture

roll out top crust

place over top, trim and pinch to seal the edges.

put pie plate on baking sheet and place in oven
reduce heat to 350
bake for an hour

take out of oven
cool
eat
enjoy

 

Embracing Quirkiness & Connections Quilt Festival

and a Reality Check

Live your brightest life 1One of the reminders from my time at the Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show is that I’m quirky. Shocking! I love being quirky.

Embrace quirk, let go of seriousness. Seriously.

So, this weekend during the lecture “Surprise I’m a Free Motion Quilter” the end of the lecture came, as I made decisions about quilts to share I picked up Shine Your Light, my tribute Quilt to Yvonne Porcella as the last quilt. I started talking about Yvonne, SAQA, the inspiration for the quilt, and how Donna ice dyed the fabric that year that Eastern MA got over 100” of snow. There came a moment when I got choked up, heart in throat, tears welling in my eyes. I didn’t realize how much this quilt means to me.

color fix 3

In just a few short weeks from now the Connections Quilt Festival will take place in Nashua, NH November 9 – 11. The Generation Q Magazine Quilt as Desired Exhibit will be there on display with all of the information on each one of the quilts.

I get to teach three different classes:

Thursday – Beginner Free Motion Quilting/Permission to Free Motion Quilt.

Friday – Let Your Foot Loose be Fancy & Free/Intermediate/Advanced Machine Quilting

Saturday – Go Mini or Go Home – Lone Star

this outta be so much fun, and I’m can hardly wait to see you there.

I’ll be participating in a facebook live on the Connections Quilt Festival fb page at 10:00 Eastern this morning. Come join us! Here’s a link to the video 

Happy Quilting

 

Thank YOU!

There are many, many thank you’s this week.
First, Trish and the Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show Committee, it was an honor to be invited to be the Featured Speaker. I really enjoyed spending the weekend at the show, sharing quilting, and teaching each one of the quilters who attended. Our quilts are the story of who we are, stitched together with needle and thread.

Thank you Beth, Innkeeper of the Grand Dutchess Bed & Breakfast in Red Hook. You are a delightful hostess, and a good cook!

Gentle reader if you are in the area of Dutchess Community College there is an exhibit of quilts though October 22nd in the Mildred I Washington Art Building. Check their pages for times the exhibit is open.

Thank you Debby Brown for capturing images like this:

and this:

we had dinner with Paula Reid, Trish and Holly, a fun time was had by allp

and holding up quilts

and not eating my chocolate cake

and just being there.

Sometimes I think I’m horrible at taking pictures when I’m on the road teaching and this weekend I realized I’m in this moment talking quilts and being with my students.

I enjoyed the moments I got to spend in the S&S booth, talking about the BERNINA 7 Series machines. It’s no secret they are my fave.

As with any teaching trip there is always an adventure! Let’s just say that I ended up being able to rent a mini-van for the weekend, which made me silly happy because more people and stuff fit in a mini-van than a smaller car. YAY. I got apples too. There will be apple pie. YAY for apple pie.

I’ll be at the Quilt Basket on Saturday January 20th for an all day class. We’re still working on the what but it will focus on machine quilting.

November 9 – 11 is Connections Quilt Festival. I’m teaching classes each day and will have the Quilt as Desired Quilts on display.

I’ll be at Quilt Market, where I have two classes Creating Consumer Confidence – Machine Sales and Creating Consumer Confidence in the In-Store Staff. These are tips I’ve learned over the years working in quilt shops, and working towards becoming the national machine quilting teacher I’ve always wanted to be.

I’m staying over to work in the Pinwheels booth with Maria Tamaoka. Stop by the booth say hi! and adopt some Daiwabo, or Oakshott Cottons for your stash! I’m happy to help the adoption go through.

Watch Instagram today for apple pie pics. I bought APPLES!!!

Happy Quilting,

Teri

 

Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show – Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap for blog

My bags are nearly packed. One quilt is in the dryer for a final fresh me up. There are kits for Go With the Flow Monday, paper and color pencils for And Now What?! (Doodle Your way to Better Quilting) on Sunday . The Generation Q Magazine Quilt as Desired Lecture is ready to go. And giveaways, I have some giveaways for each event.

I’m honored and excited for this weekend. Honored because I get to do what I love. Excited because Trish, representing the Show Committee asked me over a  year ago to be the Featured Speaker for the show. This request arrived in my inbox right around the time that the store announced it was closing, so this little bright spot in that moment.

twilight with ribbon

On a hunch I searched my photos. Twilight in the Bronx won a second place ribbon way back in 2009. Serendipity is a good thing!

I will be demoing in the S&S Vac booth. Paula Reid will be in the Sew & Vac booth (ruler work on the home sewing machine). Debby Brown will be in the Quilt Basket Booth with the Cuties.

I’ll be doing a facebook live with Debby this afternoon. She may be behind the camera or in front…we’ll figure it out.

See you soon!

Teri

 

Cotton Cuts Charity Mystery Hop

Mystery Quilter logo

There is nothing like multiple deadlines all rolling into one really busy six weeks that says let’s get everything done all on the same day. Yesterday I mentioned I’d been sick, and sleeping was about all I could manage for the entire weekend. So, I slept.

Cottoncuts_color_white bg_small

You may remember a while back I wrote “caution opening box may lead to…”  I had the opportunity to meet up with Kim at spring market. T’was a delightful conversation filled with a few ideas. Including something like this blog hop/Mystery Quilt. Kim is something of a go-getter, took the fabric by the selvage, and started plotting  how this could work for Cotton Cuts – and here we are. I get the privilege of being Clue 3! Woot!

The clue arrived on time, as did a few other things in the works. Like a new job, things to learn, quilts to make for Market, my twenty fifth anniversary and getting ready for a quilt show where I have a boatload of work to prep. I took the aforementioned clue out of the packaging with pencils that have great quilterly sayings. What I didn’t plan on was getting sick right when the clue is due. Whoever expects the Spanish Inquisition._TeamZinnia (2)

With a few projects being worked on at the same time, the pieces were buried under a layer and a half of 2 1/2” squares for one quilt, and fabric ready to be cut into 2 1/2” squares for another project. After finding and sorting them, assigning the appropriate numbers for the fabric, the stitching began in earnest

cotton cuts 1

Oh, did I mention the epiphany I had while starting this project? No, hang onto your seam rippers, I’ll get there soon.

The first part of the clue has 2 segments, after sorting that precut pieces out I started stitching. Cool tidbit: no bunny ears on the triangles.

I’m using Superior MicroQuilter, a 100 wt (very fine) polyester thread for microquilting and applique, and I love it for piecing using a size 70/10 microtex needle, and shortened the stitch length to 2.25 mm.

Using a polyester thread also means I’m going to reduce the heat of the iron for setting the seam and pressing. This reduced heat means I’m not going to burn my fingers. I’m not particularly worried about the thread because I’ve been ironing cotton clothes made with polyester thread for years with no problems at all. What I do love about the 60, 80, and 100 wt threads, is the no bulk in the seam allowance.  cotton cuts 2

After piecing pressing with the finger pressing end of any multi-tool I have. Pictured here is the stiletto from byannie.com one of my faves! cotton-cuts-4-e1507162815600.jpg

I’ll be interested to see how the quilt comes together at the end of all of the clues.cotton cuts 3Because the color way is delightful.
So this Mystery Quilt has a purpose, it will be raffled off once it’s pieced and quilted, to benefit Valley Industries, the company that fulfills Cotton Cuts Boxes, this holds a special place in my heart for oh so many reasons. The raffle will remain open through the entire blogging event, tickets are $5.

Don’t forget to visit Cotton Cuts and read about their Mission.

July – Sheila Christensen (www.mysteryquilter.com) with guest blogger Kim Moos
August – Yvonne Fuchs (www.quiltingjetgirl.com)
September – Teri Lucas (www.terificreations.com)
October – Wendy Welsh (www.wendysquiltsandmore.blogspot.com)
November – Nicole Young (www.lillyella.com)
December – Chris Dodsley (www.madebychrissied.blogspot.com)
January – Amy Smart (www.diaryofaquilter.com)
February – Sam Hunter (www.huntersdesignstudio.com)
March – Cheryl Sleboda (www.muppin.com)

I don’t get sick often but when I do

"Twilight in the Bronx"It always starts out innocently enough. My sweetie casually mentions, “Hey I think I’m getting a cold.” Okay fine. I can deal. Innocently I pour tea from the half-gallon he brought home. You know the one he drank from. So guess what. Yeah. I got that cold. Only more. Like sleeping during the day, taking cold meds more. Like I’m not going to Church and sharing this with everyone more.

I’m fine now. Really. I am. *cough! cough!*

I’m a little behind but have a couple of days to catch up before the Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show. By the time you read this I will piece and blog for Thursday. It’s a Cotton Cuts Day, this is later than I intended but still on time because I didn’t reveal any secrets ahead of time.

Have you joined Debby Brown for Tuesday afternoon facebook live? She’s so amazing as a person, as a quilter. Debby is a prolific quilter with a precision and speed that comes with designing, testing, and making quilt patterns over and over again. Check out the vid (see link) then head over to her website to vote in Cutie Madness.

Have a Creative Day!

Teri