For The Love of Quilting

 Fourteen quilts is my goal for 2014. I would like to make 14 quilts this year to improve and test my skills and because quilting makes me happy. This blog will be a place where I share what I'm doing, and hopefully post all the tips and tricks I learn along the way. I am a self taught quilter and am hoping to learn all that good quilty (I just added the word quilty to my dictionary) stuff I would have learned if I would have had an incredibly talented Amish quilting grandmother. :)

I'd love to have you follow along with me, share ideas and thoughts you have and especially make new friends in this awesome quilting world!

For starters ... this pillow I made with my craft group with the most amazing technique! I had seen it a tutorial for it just a few days before our group met and was excited to try it out.... it was so easy and I loved how it turned out .... I foresee doing and entire scrappy quilt this way... Oh, and I found a tutorial for it here at SewMamaSew

Here's my first two tips that I learned in a Quilt Academy class I just started at my quilt shoppe ...

Tip#1: Get a third yard of army duck to put on your iron. It absorbs the steam and helps press your blocks flatter! Love it!!

Tip #2: A thread catcher ... this to me was MIND BLOWING!! All it is is a bit of selvage that you run through your machine before chain sewing ... then at the end of your chain you sew a second one through, that you leave, just like this, on your machine. Why? Because it keeps you from having long threads at the end of your blocks!! And if your machine is like mine, it keeps the thread from pulling out of the needle in between sewings! I LOVED this tip!!

Anyhoo ... here is quilt #1 in progress. As of now, I'm ready to lay it out and get it pieced. I'm excited about it because I've loved this fun little line since the day it arrived in the shoppe. If you're local (Kaysville, Utah) you can get it at K&H Quilt Shoppe or if you're not you can find it at Pink Castle Fabrics here. The pattern I'm using is by one of my favorite pattern makers and quilters, Allison Harris of CluckCluckSew ... seriously ... I love every one of her patterns and am sure that many of my 14 quilts will be hers. It's called Chain Reaction and you can order it here. I actually am making it almost double the size (I like big snuggly quilts) and I can't wait to see it all together (hopefully tomorrow!!)

Thanks so much for stopping by!!