New Site and Blog!

All of my blogging (which will actually happen more, I promise), is now happening over on the blog on my website - please come join me there!   http://www.lovebugquilts.com/blog

Cheers!
Kathryn

SewMamaSew Pattern Giveaway!

Welcome to Love Bug Quilts and the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day!  This is my first year participating, and as you can see I'm just starting on my blogging and long-arm quilting adventure.  I'm excited about sharing my journey with you!

 

I love quilting, sewing, basically anything crafty!  So, on to the giveaway...

 



 

Two adorable patterns ready for a forever home! :)

 

 

So, to win these two precious patterns...

 

1. Leave a comment with your favorite holiday movie (mine happens to be Love Actually, I can and do watch it ALL year round!)

 

2. For a second entry, follow the blog and just leave a comment telling me how you're following (bloglovin, google +, feedly, etc.)

 

 

Winner will be drawn randomly and announced here.  Please leave a way to contact you!  I'll definitely ship internationally. 

Happy Blogging and Good Luck! :)
Kathryn



Cheap and Easy Design Wall...It Actually Worked!

So a few months ago I was watching Cindy Needham's Craftsy class, "Design It, Quilt It", and it included an awesome tutorial on how to baste a quilt on a table, without spending hours on the floor basting on your knees (which has always been my least favorite part of the entire quilting process).  She  recommends several ways of clamping your quilt to the table, including picnic tablecloth holders like the ones below. 

Of course, with my luck, the table I was using was thicker than the clamps so they didn't work.  (side note: I wound up getting the largest size binder clips from Office Max and they did the trick, they worked great!)  

Long story short... I had two packs of picnic table clamps and tablecloths that I never got around to returning.  Then, last week, I saw this video clip on QNNTV.com with Marianne Fons explaining how to make a design wall out of a picnic table table cloth.  I had the thought, "I should run get one of those" a couple of times before it dawned on me that I already had two tablecloths sitting about 2 feet from me!  And, it actually worked!  Within several minutes I had a design wall and was able to work on arranging fabric for the quilt I'm working on.  (which is a gift and still in progress so I can't show the whole thing!)

I was so excited when it actually WORKED!  Holla!  The only thing I had to pin that didn't really "stick" were the Printed Treasures pieces (i.e., the pictures)... all of the other fabric stayed on!  I love it when things work out :)

Click here for the QNN video showing how the fabric sticks to the picnic tablecloth if you're curious... it's a nice, short video!

Also, my long-arm machine is HERE and put together!  The only frustrating thing is that they sent the wrong handlebars (they're for an HQ Sixteen, not the Avanté), so even while it's sitting right here I can't use it.  Le Sigh.  Hopefully the right handlebars will be here in a couple days though, and then I can quilt my heart out and let the long-arm adventure begin!  In the meantime, here's the machine all set up waiting to get going, and also waiting for a name...

Quilt soon!

-- Kathryn 

Feathers

Since all the machine boxes aren't here yet (although I did manage to get the bobbin winder "put together"... I use the term loosely since it required screwing in a couple of posts, but whatevs.  I'll take progress in whatever forms it comes in :).... but yes, since all the boxes aren't here and no quilting can be done yet, I decided to take the advice of some of the experts (read: Angela Walters, Leah Day, etc.) and doodle & draw to improve muscle memory and practice how shapes flow together.  Angela Walters has a great class on feathers on Craftsy. 

After more than a few attempts at feathers that wound up looking more like a cross between a caterpillar and a millipede (see first picture), it finally "clicked" (see second picture).  Here's hoping it goes as well on the long-arm!

First post. . . and so it begins!

It seems only fitting to start my long-arm quilting blog with the anticipation and arrival of... the long-arm quilting machine itself!  

Unfortunately, only 3 of the 7 packages made it tonight, which will make it difficult for it all to be assembled tomorrow as scheduled.  Looks like the rest of the packages might be here Thursday (which was the originally scheduled date anyway, so instead of saying they're late, I'll just say the first 3 packages are early :)  Here's hoping the rest gets here soon!  I'm eager to get my quilt on!  (yes, I actually said that, but hey, no one's reading this yet anyway, right?)

Several thousand dollars worth of machine sitting on the front porch... no problem.