Tag: Debby Brown

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

 

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

 

 

Back to School Blog Hop: Bury Quilt Thread

BTS 16 Teri Lucas

Welcome to the Back to School Blog Hop hosted by Sam Hunter (Hunter’s Design Studio). Thanks Sam! Thirty-two days of tutorials by quilters and sewists, ready to share their experience and tips. At the bottom of the tutorial are links to each of the other participants in the hop. So many great tutorials!

One hundred years ago, when I learned to machine quilt the teacher (Carol Brubaker Martin) taught us many ways to handle thread ends when beginning and ending machine quilting. I settled on, and teach burying the thread ends with a needle and thread. This method gets the thread out of the way so the quilting can progress merrily along. Eventually I will update the PDF on the Tutorials and Helpful Hints page.

bury thread step one start here
Step one, get ready to stitch. Get the quilt under the needle where you want to start quilting.
bury thread step two drop needle
Holding onto the thread, my hands are over there <—-, drop the needle into the quilt.
bury thread step three needle up bring up bobbin
Bring the needle up, and pull on the top thread to pull the bobbin thread to the top of the quilt.
bury thread step four drop needle hold onto thread
Drop the needle back into the same hole. I use the hand wheel for more control.
bury thread step five get started stitching
Get started stitching. Move far enough away from the needle to make room for your hands.
bury thread step six trim thread ends
Clip the thread ends to the same length. This makes the next few steps so much easier.
bury thread step seven thread the needle
I use a Spiral Eye Needle to bury the thread. The opening on the side makes threading quick and easy. Alternately you can use use a quilting needle (size 9 or 10) and a needle threader to thread BOTH threads through the eye. Make a loop of thread, and pull the needle through the loop to make the knot. Alternately wrap the thread around the needle three or four times near the quilt.

 

bury thread step nine heres the knot
Here’s the knot. It’s about one-quarter of an inch away from the quilt. I try to get it about that close so it’s near the quilt, and about that far away so I can easily bury it.
bury thread step ten needle in first hole
Poke the needle into the hole where the thread came from. Wiggle the needle through the batting, this will place the knot IN the batting and out of your way.
bury thread step eleven weave needle through batting
Come up about an inch away from where the thread started.
bury thread step twelve pull through and pop knot
Pull on the thread until the knot goes into the fabric. You may hear a satisfying pop. Unless of course, like me, the music is playing in the background.
bury thread step thirteen clip the thread
Now you’re ready to keep on stitching! Yes, you can stitch over the where you buried the thread! The knot is too small to do any kind of damage, or deflect the needle in any way..
bury thread step fourteen keep quilting
When you’re finished quilting bring the needle up.
bury thread step fifteen needle up pull thread through needle
Grab the top thread and give it a good pull, you’ll need the tail to finish the process.
bury thread step sixteen clip thread and hold onto thread in needle
Clip the thread and hold onto that tail!
bury thread step seventeen drop needle
Drop the needle back down where you took that final stitch.
bury thread step eighteen pull up bobbin thread and clip
While holding onto the thread bring the needle back up. This will pull the bobbin thread up.
bury thread step nineteen heres what the loop looks like
Give the top thread a pull to bring enough of the bobbin thread up to have a tail that you can bury.
bury thread step twenty pull long enough tail
Clip it and…

 

bury thread step twenty one spiral eye needle
Thread the eye of the needle
bury thread step twenty two make quilters knot again loop needle through loop
Make that quilters knot
bury thread step twenty three needle in last thread hole repeat way back
poke the needle in where the thread came up and weave through the batting
bury thread step twenty four pull knot through listen for pop
tug on the thread to hear that pop and pull the knot into the batting
bury thread step twenty five clip threads
Clip the thread and voila! Done.

Now, on the odd chance that the thread didn’t pull back into the quilt put your needle between the batting and the top of the quilt near the thread and sweep the needle. It’ll pull the threads between the layers.

Please visit the other blog hoppers and see what they’ve got goin’ on.

Day 1 – August 15 – Sam Hunter: How to spray baste a BIG quilt
Day 2 – August 16 – Mandy Leins: Thread Dread: removing stray bits after quilting
Day 3 – August 17 – Nancy Stovall: The Sweet Creamy Filling
Day 4 – August 18 – Ebony Love: 7 Indispensible feet for your sewing machine Day 5 – August 19 – Michelle Freedman: Machine throat plates
Day 6 – August 20 – Teresa Coates: Edge/Under/Top stitching
Day 7 – August 21 – Kelly Cole: Ten ways to regain your sew-jo
Day 8 – August 22 – Megan Dougherty: Choose to Fuse: tips for working with fusibles for applique
Day 9 – August 23 – Kim Lapacek: Tricks to being productive while hauling your kids around
Day 10 – August 24 – Yvonne Fuchs: Circuitboard quilting on Domestic and Longarm Machines
Day 11 – August 25 – Sandi Hazlewood: Chain Piecing Quilt Blocks Tips
Day 12 – August 26 – Juliet van der Heijden: Paper-piecing with children
Day 13 – August 27 – Maddie Kertay: Fabric folding for any storage solution
Day 14 – August 28 – Cath Hall: Working with Lawn fabric
Day 15 – August 29 – Tracy Mooney: Tips for the perfect seam
Day 16 – August 30 – Teri Lucas: How to bury thread
Day 17 – August 31 – Debby Brown: Securing machine quilting knots
Day 18 – September 1 – Flaun Cline: How to put some sparkle in your fabric pull (part 1)
Day 19 – September 2 – Jessica Darling: How to put some sparkle in your fabric pull (part 2)
Day 20 – September 3 – Trish Frankland: A bigger blade really IS better?!
Day 21 – September 4 – Robin Koehler Nestlings by Robin: How to travel with handwork
Day 22 – September 5 – Jane Davidson: How to make scrappy HSTs
Day 23 – September 6 – Linda Pearl: Low cost tips for organizing your sewing room
Day 24 – September 7 – Christa Watson – Top 10 tips for quilting on a domestic machine
Day 25 – September 8 – Sarah Nunes: To Starch or Not to Starch
Day 26 – September 9 – Suzy Webster: Testing fabric for bleeding
Day 27 – September 10 – Sarah Goer: Machine bind your quilts like a pro
Day 28 – September 11 – Vanda Chittenden: Beginner paper-piecing tips
Day 29 – September 12 – Cheryl Sleboda: Needle threading tips
Day 30 – September 13 – Kim Niedzwiecki – Different thread weights and when to use them
Day 31 – September 14 – Sandra Healy: Conquer Your Fear of Machine Appliqué
Day 32 – September 15 – Sandra Starley: The Basics of Antique Quilt Collecting

 

well, then there was the trip to Oak Ridge

But really I went to Knoxville.

2017-08-23 21.57.34
This so much because Bang Head Here.

Every once in a while, when I take a trip there is added adventure. Mysteriously my room was not available when I arrived at my hotel very late on Eclipse day. Knoxville was in the path of totality so many people added to the local economy staying in hotels, eating food, and being there. I’m sure the local quilt shops had a few more visitors. I like that part because employment is very, very good.

 

Every once in a while, when I take a trip there is added adventure. Mysteriously my room was not available when I arrived at my hotel very late on Eclipse day. Knoxville was in the path of totality so many people added to the local economy staying in hotels, eating food, and being there. I’m sure the local quilt shops had a few more visitors. I like that part because employment is very, very good.

20170823_155228
Quilters Select Thread 

So the very kind guy behind the desk found me a room in another related hotel chain, about one hour away in Oak Ridge, On the way to the new hotel, in something of a tired stupor, I’m trying to figure out how to get back to Knoxville in the morning. I had all kinds of things running through my brain including the 70’s on 7 music blaring so loudly I couldn’t hear the cab driver talk. Upon arriving in my room I scheduled a text to the educator picking me up and figured I’d deal with the rest of it in the morning. No…wait…in a few hours after a little bit of sleep. Because that kind of complex thinking needed a little something more than very tired Teri.

20170823_155251
Mat’s and Rulers Gotta Have ’em

The text went as scheduled, and I was picked up. Phew!! Hour long cab rides are um, long. The next two days of training went by quickly. I still have a lot to learn however, let’s just say that my mind was totally blown on stabilizer. Holy mother of all support goods! This is the stuff.

There’s more stuff to do before I start teaching on my own. I’m excited to get moving with this position. I’ll let you know where I’m going to be when I start team teaching and teaching.

Speaking of Teaching:

Sept 16th – Quilt Basket Pawling NY

October 7 & 8 – Dutchess Heritage Quilt Show

November 9 – 11 Connections Quilt Festival Nashua NH

See you soon.

Happy Quilting,

Teri

 

The Best Postcard EVER!

2017-08-07 11.59.47

Debby Brown and I started 1000 Postcards for Peace while at Quilt Market. Something challenging was going on in the quilt world, we wanted to, in our own small way, send some peace out into the world. Debby has since created a postcard centering tool, and put together kits with postcard making supplies. We’ve both been sending postcards, and sharing on the facebook page as needed. I have a couple to make very soon.

Much to my surprise I received a postcard from Debby. I laughed out loud.

2017-08-07 14.05.27So I posted this sneak peek the other day. It still makes me laugh out loud.

2017-08-08 21.19.30

Debby and I chat with each other on, and off all day in between the other things that we’re doing. Now mind you…there is a reason I said that to Debby in our chat. I really wanted her to make a postcard like this:

2017-08-07 14.02.22 (1)

You can read more about that on her blog.

This will occupy a special place on my inspiration wall. Thanks Debby.

Happy Quilting,

Teri

Coming right up!

BTS general

Sam Hunter of Hunter’s Design Studios gathered the teachers This is going to be so much fun. I do know what I’m going to do, and I know when I’m going to do it. For right now let’s just say I’m going to tackle a long standing quilting tip.

A friend of mine told this six minute story. I cried.

Check out this facebook vid by Sarah Fabian of the Quilt Basket. There are a few spaces left in “If the Foot Fits use it” I’d love to see you there.

Debby Brown has a new tool! Check out this Postcard Trimming Tool. Not only is this the right size. there are centering lines for the design.

So, do you follow me on Instagram?

Maybe you saw this:

Here's the next block #quiltedblockofthemonth

A post shared by Teri Lucas (@terilucas) on

or this:

Saturday is the day! Part one of the August block. I designed this block based on a window I saw somewhere in lower Westchester county.

And today, I’m grateful for friends.

Happy Quilting,

Teri