Quilting Tips & Tricks --- An Online Quilting Course

A lot of the quilts I'm going to make are in the stage you see above: fabric, ready to be cut and sewn into the wonderful quilts dancing in my head. My hope is that you are way beyond that and you actually have quilt tops ready to be quilted. You may have decided to quilt them yourself, but want to know how to get started.

I get questions all the time about the batting I like, how to pin, how to move the quilt through the machine, etc. Most of these questions would require too long an answer to stick in an e-mail. My answer to these questions is to send a link to the Tips & Tricks section of my website. There are a lot of answers there, so if you are stuck on a particular question about quilting or if you just want another opinion, this might be a good place to check out. Many people have e-mailed me back and said it's like getting a machine quilting course online.

You can read them, print them out and they are absolutely free! To access the Tips & Tricks, click here.

Batt Scooters Are on the Website Now

Dan worked overtime last night and got the Batt Scooters on the website and everything integrated with the PayPal shopping cart. He gets major Good Husband Points for that!

So that people only ordering a pair of Batt Scooters don't have to pay the $4.95 priority shipping, we established a $1.00 shipping charge per pair. That should enable me to ship a pair First Class. Of course, yesterday I went to the post office and the lady at the window charged me $.88 each; today it was $1.05.....same clerk, different scale. So we'll try to keep our sense of humor about this and keep the shipping at a buck....

Here They Are -- Batt Scooters! With a Special Offer on Shipping (offer good through October 15, 2010)

For all of the 20 years that I have been machine quilting, I have had a love/hate affair with gloves. My hands got hot, I had to keep taking them off and putting them back on to use scissors, clip threads, etc. -- it just wasn't working for me. Bare hands weren't quite enough, either, as the fabric tends to wick the moisture away from my hands so that they slip and I don't get the traction that I want.

I finally found a solution only to have the company go out of business a couple of years ago. So Dan and I sat down and thought about this, investigated different substances and cutting methods and then sat down with David and Shelley Hooke of LiTenUp Technologies in Chicago. Not only are they brilliant and full of good ideas, they own all the tools to make what I wanted! A few months after coming up with the basic design and jumping up and down with impatience, the Batt Scooters are here!

Above is the packaging -- yes, those of you who own my Fluff & Stuff DVD will recognize that picture of me. We decided to do that because in the video I was using a notion that worked in a similar fashion but is no longer made. Now we do have an available alternative that you would use in exactly the same way I used them in Fluff &Stuff. The idea was to link the DVD and the Batt Scooters so that people would know they work together.

Here's what they actually look like -- I love how the scallops allow you to get closer to the needle without having to move your hand position. The ones I used to use were oval and I had to lift my hands off them and re-position more often.

There are two sizes in each package: Baby Batt and Mama Batt. Baby Batt goes under your right hand where you have less room because the quilt's all scrunched up in there. If you are working on an extension table or have your machine sunk into a table, you have more room under your left hand, so you can use the larger one there and get a bit more traction surface. That being said, I have had people in classes just using the free arm of their machine and reversing the bats helped them hold onto the quilt better.

I place the batts on the quilt, pointy sides in, lay my hands on them with my thumbs on the quilt. Very light forward hand movement will help you scoot that quilt right through the machine. I use them for straight stitching, free motion and applique -- anything where I want to keep a firm hold on my work without exerting a lot of hand pressure. Using these also keeps your hands flat on the quilt, which I have found alleviates tendon and muscle aggravation in the wrists, elbows and shoulders.

I have also tried these while using the Free Motion Assistant, the Fabric Mover, FabuMotion and other systems that use a moving platform. The scooters help to hold the quilt taut over the open area, giving what I think is a better stitch quality.

The Batt Scooters information is not on my website yet, so you can't look them up and put them in your shopping cart. I know some of you want them now, so here's the deal: Once they are on the website, I'll be using the same shopping cart system and priority shipping rates that are in place for the rest of the merchandise. That is a $4.95 minimum shipping cost. However, if you want them before they go on the website, you can e-mail me at battlady@battsintheattic.com, and I will initiate a PayPal billing transaction to your e-mail address for the cost of the Batt Scooters -- that means free shipping!

A set of Batt Scooters is $14.95. If we do the PayPal billing direct as described above, I will mail them First Class and charge zero, nada, no shipping -- so e-mail me!


*** Free Shipping Offer good through October 15, 2010.*** 

Gourmet Dinner at Fay & Leith's

We suspended our gourmet dinners for the summer and had our first one of the new season last night at Fay & Leith's, who are co-owners of my local quilt shop, Bolts in the Bathtub. The other owner is Fay's sister, Dawna. Dawna and her husband, Robert, were also at the dinner.

The first course, pictured above, is beautiful! It is "massaged" kale with mango and pine nuts. I had not thought that kale would be tender enough to eat uncooked, but Fay explained that in this Food Network recipe, you coat the chopped kale with lemon juice and olive oil and massage it for a few minutes, then put it in the refrigerator where it will hold for 3-4 days, getting more tender as it waits for you to finish the dish. I have to make this salad for the visual impact alone, although it tasted as good as it looks....

With the salad, we had a Carnival 2009 French Columbard from California; the slight sweetness of this white wine complemented the mango very well. I will probably make this salad this weekend for some friends and I think a Reisling might work with it, too.


This was one of the dishes that Fay & Leith, who are the best cooks I know, served with the entree course. Mushrooms and peeled garlic cloves were roasted in a slow oven for hours; I have to admit that I was wishing for bread to spread that wonderful garlic all over! Now that I am thinking about it, this is probably the healthiest gourmet dinner we have ever had....that's a good thing!

Clockwise from the top of the plate: Chicken and lamb were marinated and slow cooked separately; root vegetables, including parsnips (YUM!) cooked along with them. My plate would have been more colorful, but I very selectively left the carrots in the pot. At the upper left are those yummy mushrooms....

The entree wine was a Levendi 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.


Ripe, succulent peaches are still very much in season here, so Fay baked peach cobbler and then gave us our choice of ice cream or Cool Whip -- I couldn't make up my mind, so had both! With dessert, we enjoyed a Rockledge 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from St. Helena CA.

We'll be at Dawna's house sometime within the next couple of weeks before I leave town on a teaching trip, and then next month will be my house. Hmmm.....it will be October....do you think a Halloween theme might be in the works?

Cowgirl Cookies -- Yum!!

Why the baking urge struck a couple of days ago on one of the hottest days of the summer isn't exactly a mystery -- I bought one of those small cookbooks at the grocery store and started leafing through it. Cowgirl Cookies seemed to be the order of the day. The recipe has a couple of healthy things in it, like rolled oats, pecans and an egg, but from there on the journey is definitely all downhill....

Besides the 3/4 cup of coated candies (i.e., M&M's), there was an additional 3/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips needed. Gremlins seemed to have gotten into my CC supply, so I raided my baking cupboard and found several little bags, each with just a few pieces in them -- little bits of chocolate chips, tiny peanut butter cups and some chocolate chunks. All together, I had just about the required 3/4 cup, so made the decision that variety was good.

These cookies are awesome and easy; the recipe directs you to roll the dough into 1-1/2" balls and place them on the cookie sheet. I used the smallest size of Pampered Chef dough scoop that I had; it was probably about that size. The recipe made 2-1/2 dozen cookies using that scoop. We shared a few with a neighbor, but have pretty much gone through the rest ourselves -- the picture above is all that are left!

This is the Betty Crocker book that the recipe is in -- it's one of the recipes from the lady pictured on the cover, who calls herself "Bakerella!" That name just seems to me like it should be pink and have sparklies all over it! I have found at least a dozen things I have to make from this little book, hopefully when it cools off a bit!

It's a good thing my mind is totally on food, because after a summer recess, the six of us are getting together at Fay and Leith's tonight for another gourmet dinner -- pictures tomorrow!

Super Duper Fall Color Extravaganza Quilt Retreat -- Mercer WI

An e-mail came in the other day with a pretty good suggestion. The writer said," You always tell us about the good stuff after it's over. Can you give us a heads up once in a while?"

So here's your advance notice about a retreat I'm teaching later this month. It's to be held at the edge of Spider Lake at Pine Forest Lodge in Mercer WI, which bills itself as "the loon capital of the world"! So if you are a bird watcher, this is probably the place to be! Actually, I think we picked the dates thinking that the fall colors would be at their very best and that it would be a beautiful place to spend a couple days making friends, sewing and having fun.....

Here are a few pictures of the resort:

It looks like such a lovely place -- I just can't wait to be there! And it is my understanding that I can even dress casually, rather than having to wear teacher clothes -- extra added bonus!

The cost of the retreat is $225 per person (+ tax), which includes lodging for Friday and Saturday nights, September 24th and 25th, all your food, and both classes that I am teaching. If you want to come up for a night or two before or after the retreat, extra nights are available for only $25, a special price available to retreaters.

Saturday's class is "Positive/Negative: Adding Color to Trapunto by Machine". For those of you who have been following my facebook thread on the sample lost in Chicago, this is the one that I am in the process of re-making. It is 26" square and features color in the foreground in two of the trapunto blocks; the other two blocks have the color in the background.

Sunday's class is the Halloween applique wall hanging shown above; we'll be doing faced applique, reverse applique and couching in this workshop. If you make this, you'll have something cute to display for Halloween!

The co-sponsor of The Super Duper Fall Color Extravaganza Quilt Retreat is Pamella's Place in Genesee Depot WI. Pam will be bringing notions, Bernina 440 sewing machines and kits to the retreat.

To get more information about the retreat or to sign up, you can call or e-mail Cheri Stratte at the resort: cheri@pineforestlodge.com (ph: 715-476-2241) or contact Pam at Pamella's Place.

Hope to see you there!

A Batik Quilt for Alex

This is a quilt top that Alex sent me earlier this year; the center is a combination of pinwheels and four-patches done in batik fabrics. The border, composed entirely of squares, shows off Alex's great sense of color. This is the second quilt I've done for her this year with the blue and coral color scheme and I think it really works!

Alex suggested that I just grid the center and do something fun in the border, but I was really resisting that idea. I wanted to do something traditional, but less predictable. I decided to treat this quilt as a medallion quilt with a quilting design in the center and the work flowing outward from there.

The first step was choosing a center design; the stencil at left is HH32-9 from The Stencil Company. The 9" size was a little large for the space, but I was repeating it four times, so I lined up the corners and let the pattern merge where it overlapped.

The 5" wide border design, LD21-5, is used twice; once to surround the center and again in the final border of the quilt.

You'll see the backing fabric in a moment; it is a dark batik print. I chose InvisiFil, color 410, for the bobbin. InvisiFil is a very fine 100wt polyester that comes in 30 colors and blends beautifully. I've used it for ditch stitching and I love it for the back of quilts that are very "printy" where I don't want a strong thread effect. InvisiFil is produced by WonderFil, a Canadian company. For the center design, I used Mettler Silk Finish 100% cotton thread in color 515, a medium tan.

I used the same top thread for the border surrounding the medallion, then stitched straight lines out to the inner border using Wonder Monofilament thread in clear from YLI.

Here's the back -- you can see the first border and the straight stitching.
I'm very happy with the way the InvisiFil looks-- it shows the quilting, but doesn't interfere with the fabric print.

A small zigzag design for the narrow inner border.....

Since the outer border was divided into two distinct colors, I used two different threads: The coral/yellow/purple variegated is WonderFil's Tutti, color TL106; the blue/green variegated is Rainbows, color 815, from Superior Threads.

Here is a portion of the border where the colors meet and you can see both top threads.

A portion of the quilt -- I took a couple of pictures of the whole quilt, but couldn't capture the quilting detail, but you can play Inspector Clue-Sew and figure it out, right?

Sometimes Alex tells me what is in store for a particular quilt: Whether it will be on TheQuiltShow.com or in Quilt Life Magazine, a gift for someone, or ? She didn't say anything about this one -- maybe she's keeping it for herself? Or publishing a pattern? We'll just have to wait and see!

Four Corners, NM & UT & AZ & CO

Four Corners Monument is an area where, for a fee, you can go see where four states come together and meet. We had been driving west through Colorado and were about to cross into Arizona, but if you go to the monument, you are actually considered to be in New Mexico. Go figure.....

The names of the four states are in their respective places with a medallion in the center....

...but there is a colored map if one still isn't clear on the concept!

I could see that there were vendor stalls for food and souvenirs, but we were there pretty early so nothing was set up yet.

Dan decided that his feet were big enough to be in all four states simultaneously.....

...while I opted for the "twister" method! Do you like my pink RayBans?

At one point, Dan said, "Look up!"

And I got the very best photo of the whole trip -- he just stuck it on my netbook as my screen saver!

It was a great vacation -- now back to work!

Vacation, Day 9 -- Purgatory CO

Somehow I managed to delete a computer folder, so a bunch of my vacation pictures were lost. Fortunately, they were the early ones, some of which have already been posted to the blog -- as for the rest? We'll just have to visit again!

On Saturday morning, after we went to the two quilt shops in Durango, we piled in the SUVs and headed up to Durango Mountain Resort in Purgatory. It was another gorgeous summer day!

There were lots of events going on -- it's a very family oriented place, so there were plenty of things for kids to do, as well as hiking, biking and riding the ski lift to see the sights.


Both the older kids went on the trampolines -- Vanessa jumped up and down, screaming and laughing!

Sid did a bunch of flips; he said it was a lot easier to do back flips than front ones, but he mastered them both....

After the kids got off the tramps, we went to find Zoe making friends in the little kids' playroom...

We rode the ski lift to the top; since Dan's initials are DMR, he and Vanessa decided to pose by the bus for Durango Mountain Resort before we got back on the lift for the return trip.

This is one of the pictures I took on the way down -- the scenery was just spectacular!

The girls got their faces painted -- Zoe wanted a butterfly....

...and Vanessa chose the Queen of Hearts!

We head home the next day, driving through the Four Corners area, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico all come together at a single point -- wonder what trouble we could get into there?

The Grape Escape -- Alex's Beautiful Quilt

This is the quilt that I was working on and photographing for the blog, but only showing small parts of it as a teaser. Alex had told me that she was making it for The Quilt Life and that she didn't want pictures to be published before the magazine came out. I did four blog posts on this quilt; to see the first one, click here.

When The Quilt Life arrived in my mailbox yesterday, I figured the wraps were off! The picture above is on page 77, followed by the directions for making this spectacular quilt yourself.

I really like the magazine -- it's good balanced coverage and advice for all aspects of our quilting lives. I especially liked the article on page 84 by Teri Lucas about all of the reasons why a quilter might want to join a minigroup. Twenty years ago, my best friend Mary Ponce invited me to a minigroup and I credit that talented group of ladies for starting me on my quilting path.

Another picture from the magazine, this one of pages 78-79. The whole pattern is printed for you, including tips from Alex on how to prep and applique all those grapes!

And don't forget to regularly log on to www.thequiltshow.com to see what's up with Alex and Ricky!