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Sew Home Blog Hop! It’s a Twist table runner


Welcome to the next stop on the SewHome blog hop!  I am super excited to be included in this blog hop and can’t wait to share one of my favorite projects from this awesome book with you.  There’s also a giveaway (open internationally) hosted by each blog hop participant!!!  Instructions on how to enter are at the end of the post 🙂

SewHome by Erin Schlosser (photo by C&T Publishing)

Be sure to follow the other participants as they showcase some seriously amazing projects from Erin’s new book!


Wednesday, September 21 – Sew 4 Home & Jen Carlton Bailly
Monday, September 26 – Windham Fabrics & Rebecca at Bryan House Quilts
Wednesday, September 28 – Dear Stella Fabrics & Mandy at Mandalei Quilts
Thursday, September 29 – Erin at Schlosser Designs


Let me start by saying I had the awesome opportunity to quilt another project for SewHome, and so found out about this amazing book a few months before its release.  Erin is so talented and has thought of literally every project you could ever want to sew up to make a house your home.  

I am not as blessed as others when it comes to the interior decorating gene, so this book is a God send.  Erin even thought to include some design basics and clearly explains everything that needs to be considered prior to starting any project.  She has tons of suggestions on how to keep your projects cohesive, even discussing color and fabric selection.  I had the opportunity to preview this awesome book before it was printed, and had to purchase it myself to keep a hard copy on hand.  

It’s a Twist Table Runner (photo by C&T Publishing)

I chose to make the “It’s a Twist Table Runner” since my kitchen decor is a little blah…and I had never seen a design this unique before.  With summer fading and fall quickly approaching, I opted for a warm ombre color scheme to do my “twists” in, and chose the new Essex linen in yarn dyed metallic by Robert Kaufman so I could keep this beauty on the table from September through December.  

Warm ombre color scheme with Essex metallic linen

I had so much fun picking out my fabrics, and couldn’t wait to try the new Essex yard dyed metallic to keep the design warm and fall-feeling.  This project is so fun, and great for adapting to use up your scrap pile!  

You can see the tiny metallic detail in this close up of the sewn together table runner

Erin’s instructions are clear and concise, and I was able to finish this adorable project in under 3 hours.  The twisting technique is really simple to follow and gives such a great look when finished.  I’m excited to try this technique in other sewing projects, too!  

My finished table runner


I also loved that the table runner didn’t have batting in it and wasn’t quilted.  It seems like most table runner projects these days are of the quilted variety, and the “It’s a Twist Table Runner” has ample interfacing to give it a luxurious feel and weight.  It also made it a quick and fun sew.  

I was thrilled to participate in this, and can’t wait to make more projects from SewHome.  Thanks Erin for a delightful read!!!

To enter the giveaway for your free copy of Erin’s book SewHome, answer the following question by September 30, 2016 either in a comment here (on my blog), or a comment on my instagram post about this project:  What home decor item have you been dying to sew for your home?   Giveaway entries will close at midnight, central standard time 9/30/2016 and winner will be selected randomly.  If winner is domestic (US), they will receive a hard copy of SewHome, if international, the winner will receive the e-book version.  Winner will be contacted by me for shipping information.  

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I left my REAL job to quilt! My two cents…


Up until this past June, I was a full time teacher for 9 years (or all of my professional career, post college).  I’m not going to give you an earful about my experiences, but I will tell you that I taught agriculture science and was the FFA sponsor.  Also, not going into the details of that…I could talk for hours about what that job entails.  But I’m not going to.  

I am going to say that I think teachers are not supported in what they do (by lots of people).  I’m not going to be specific, but I will say that it only took 9 short years for me to become burned out.  In a job that I originally thought I would never tire of.  I loved my kids.  I loved them so much that I called them MY kids.  Years after they graduate, I still have many contact me around the holidays, when they are home from the military or just texting me to say hi (When you’re an FFA sponsor-all the kids have your phone number in case of emergencies with their livestock projects).  I’ve cried over sadness my kids have suffered, prayed for them, been happy with their successes, and some of them have impacted my life in ways that I can’t begin to describe.  I think there truly is no other profession where you become so invested in the lives of other people’s children that you are emotionally torn to shreds over decisions to move, accept another job, or leave the classroom entirely.  (With FFA, you keep the same kids all 4 years of high school.)

That being said, I also think there are few careers where a person (in this pay grade) is criticized so much.  And called/texted at all hours of the day, night, and in between.  The expectation is that you are 100% devoted to that job 100% of the time.  Or that’s how I felt, at least.    

I made the decision to leave teaching (for now, at least) because I was truly unhappy.  I stuck it out for roughly 2.5 years of being unhappy.  I know that being happy isn’t everything, but I think your job shouldn’t make a miserable, bitter person out of you.  The only times I felt happy was when I was with family or when I was sewing.  I’m not going to talk about the MANY factors of what made me unhappy, but there was a limitless supply.  I did still love the kids, and that was one of the few reasons I stayed.  This post was originally going to be about what I do now-the custom sewing for others, longarm quilting, creating, making, etc. but I feel like that almost cheapens the decision I made to leave the classroom.  When I’m alone in my sewing room with the machines humming around me, or the music turned up as loud as it will go, my mind will frequently travel to the kids I spent so much time with.  I wonder about the choices they are making on a daily basis, if I even made any difference being with them in the classroom, and I hope for them and their futures.  I think about all the hardships those kids endured through high school, losing loved ones, being mistreated by parents, and all the other hard things kids go through.    

I don’t really know where I was going with this, just felt the need to get this off my chest.  And most days when I’m walking the short 20 yard walk to my sewing room to go to work, I have a smile on my face.  I’m not a miserable person to come home to anymore.  I’m able to spend quality time with my family.  I know that for now, I’ve made the right decision.  Just my two cents.  

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Graffiti Quilting workshop with Karlee Porter


This picture!!!  I had the awesome opportunity to take a 2 day workshop from THE Karlee Porter.  The workshop was in Castroville at the Quilt Shop, and I swear, it was one of the best classes I’ve ever taken.  Most of the time, when I take a workshop and the person putting it on says there will be about half a day of lecture, then we get to play… I’m usually a little dismayed.  But Karlee had an awesome program that I left with PAGES of notes and drawings for inspiration.  And it wasn’t like I was just writing stuff down to busy my hands.  I’ve referred to those notes and drawings at least a dozen times in the short weeks since I took that class.  

Karlee was so gracious in letting us ask unlimited questions, take pictures of all the samples she had, and she even did a trunk show at our SAMQG guild meeting.  This is one of her masterpieces–I  believe it’s called “Russian Mosque”, that literally takes your breath away.  

The principles Karlee taught can be applied to a domestic machine, sit down quilter, or longarm.  Since I started out quilting my quilts on a domestic, I liked that.  However, since I’ve been doing most of my quilting on a longarm in the last year, it took a minute for my brain to catch up that my hands were moving the fabric and not the machine 🙂

After Karlee taught us her important principles of successful graffiti quilting, she turned us loose and we were able to apply those principles to some small class samples.  This was the sample that I worked on, and although I’m not nuts about the thread colors I selected, I did like the high visibility of it.  

And of course, I had to include a picture of me and Karlee!  Not sure what I’m doing with my hand…is that a hook?  Anyway, I was seriously beyond excited that I had the opportunity to hear Karlee in Texas–and can’t wait to keep working on my graffiti quilting skills.  

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Anna Maria Horner Quilt and thinking about quilting design


Ahhhhh!  I’m dying a little bit over those Anna Maria Horner Pretty Potent prints.  This is a fabric line that I adore, but never ended up making anything myself with.  So it was a special treat to get to quilt this and ooh and ahhhh over the fabrics and quilt design.  

When I first looked at this quilt, I was literally stumped at what to quilt it with.  I knew it was going to be custom quilted, but couldn’t figure out what to do with all the negative space.  I loaded it on the frame and it sat for a week.  I sketched out ideas in my sketchbook and didn’t really have any great luck with inspiration.  Finally I decided on a simple outlined design with some ruler work, embellished with pebbles and other straight lines to fill in the gaps.  

This picture has a filter on it to try to high light the thread more.  It was quilted with Glide Cloud, so it doesn’t necessarily blend like white thread would have, but it doesn’t starkly stand out from the background, either.  If I could change anything about the quilting, I would go back and double batt the quilt or use a loftier batting.  


You can see here a little better that each print fabric was outlined twice with a small ruler.  Then pebbles were added, along with some straight lines for filler to add more texture.  

I really enjoyed the process this quilt took me through, and I hope to continue to better develop my quilting design.  Usually, I can load a quilt on the frame and I have at least 2 fairly decent ideas by the next day.  This quilt really gave me a run for my money, but all in all, I’m pretty satisfied with the results.    I really love the way a quilt looks finished when ruler work and free motion quilting are combined in the same top.  Sometimes the simplest design can work and really make the fabrics and quilt pop, and other times, it takes some work and elbow grease to figure out the best fillers and accents.  



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Finding time to give back #quiltsforpulse


 In the midst of tragedy, I am relieved that I belong to a group of people that goes out of their way to show love for others.  The group I’m talking about is the Modern Quilt Guild.  And even  more specifically, the San Antonio chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild.  The Orlando MQG organized collections to accept in progress quilts and completed quilts to show support and love for some of the people affected by the Pulse night club shooting.  I hate that I’m even writing a post about this, because it’s so disturbing the amount of violence we hear about on a daily basis on the news…but I want to focus on giving back and showing support for our fellow human beings.  



The SAMQG members are SO giving and generous with their fabric and time, that we’ve had a plethora of blocks constructed (most using the Heart pattern tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew).  A few charity sew-ins, and we’ve finished (I think) 5 quilts!  



I had the great opportunity to quilt a few of these, and wanted to discuss charity work in this industry.  I’ve done a little bit of charity sewing in the past, but not really donated much of my time or resources prior to getting my longarm.  And once I started donating my quilting, I kind of just rushed through the process, doing a stipple or some quick meandering design to get that top off my frame as quickly as I could.  But one night, I started thinking about the recipients of these rushed through pieces I had worked on.  Was I proud of the work I was doing on them?  No.  Absolutely not.  I was just FINISHING THEM.  There was nothing special or generous about what I was doing to add to the quilt.  And maybe those recipients don’t even look at the quilting.  But it really got to me that I was doing about 2% of my best work on something that was supposed to be making someone happier.  I decided to start doing my best work on every quilt top.  Whether it was a paying customer or not.  If I’m going to commit to working on something, why would I give anything less than my best?  And besides, if you want to look at it from a really selfish angle, it’s great practice and helps develop your skills even further.  


I really love the graffiti quilting style, and chose to do that on this quilt.  These blocks were pieced together by so many different people, with such love and compassion in their hearts.  It really does give me a little bit of hope for humanity.

Anyway, my two cents for the day is to think about where your heart is when you decide to do charity work.  If it’s in your heart, put your best foot forward and really give all you have.  Otherwise, what are you wasting your time for?  

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Back to school tutorial: Notebook / Planner cover


Everyone loves that time of year when it’s hotter than blue blazes outside, right?  That means summer is in full swing, and another favorite is right around the corner…THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!  Parents everywhere countdown the days to this landmark date like children do Christmas, and breathe a sigh of relief to have a bit of a break and shoo the kiddos out the door to start their education once again.

Many moms or dads may want to treat their kiddos to some personalized back to school handmade goodies, and I’m here to help with that!  

 Make some great customizable notebook (or day planner) covers by simply taking a few measurements of the kids’ existing school supplies.  My quick and easy step-by-step tutorial will help you create some great covers that will prolong the life of those school supplies and make the kids feel extra special on their first day back.  The tutorial can be found HERE so head over and check it out!  


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Free pattern! Water resistant pool tote


 If you’re planning a trip to the pool, river, beach this summer, you’ve got to whip up this painless pool tote lined with laminated cotton.  Throw your wet towels in and you don’t have to worry about them getting water spots on the car seats or even forgetting about them in the car (hey…don’t judge…we’ve all done it!)

Water resistant pool tote

The only thing extra you might want to pick up, as far as sewing machine accessories, is a teflon foot.  Teflon feet are absolutely amazing when it comes to sewing any sort of “sticky” fabric.  So if you run your hand over it with pressure, and it doesn’t smoothly run across the fabric, a teflon foot will easily sew it!  Some great examples are glitter vinyl, regular vinyl, oilcloth, and laminated cotton.  Any fabrics that look like they have a sheen or platic-y finish.  Personally, I love to sew with weird fabrics, so I’ve had a teflon foot for a while now.  But if you don’t stray from the beaten path very often, now is the time to stray!!!  You will love the teflon foot, and have so many more interesting sewing options.  

Teflon foot for Janome

So let’s get down to the nitty gritty–This pattern was written for Janome exclusively for the Quilt views blog.  So you can grab the FREE PATTERN HERE

Hop to it and get sewing!  Make something cool this summer 🙂

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Gems in the Night Sky Quilt (Dear Jane-ISH Quilt)


I played with the quilt design for the Gems in the Night Sky Quilt in EQ7 for probably a week straight before I had my final layout the way I wanted it.  I changed the background fabric, moved blocks around, completely deleted blocks, changed color arrangement, the list goes on and on.  It’s funny how after you’re done with something, all the time you spent on it just kind of vanishes, and you don’t think about the labor of love you put into it.  


This quilt.  All the hearts.  I had the awesome chance to design and make this quilt for Janome’s brand new machine launch–the 9400.  I’m not going to lie, this quilt took FOREVER.  But packing it in a shipping box and saying goodbye forever was nearly as difficult as giving away your first born. 


And then I saw the picture of it on the Janome website once the machine was released, and it was like seeing photos of a long lost friend.  And I might have squealed out loud at the top of my lungs 🙂


So there were 81 blocks- with 9 different block constructions.  At first glance it kind of looks like someone took a Dear Jane quilt and dumped a bucket of modern over it (which is fine with me!), but if you look a little closer, you will see the blocks are just made with alternating colors and arranged in a way that it deceives you into thinking there are a lot of different blocks in this quilt.  


This was pieced with the Michael Miller Cotton Couture bundle that’s available at Janome dealers, and the background fabric is Anna Maria Horner’s True colors- filigree in dusk.  I think the combination is just dreamy.  


Sometimes I love the backs of quilts more than the front.  I like to press my seams open to eliminate a lot of bulk when I quilt.  


And then it was quilted with Stitch in the ditch around the bright colors and heavily quilted on all of the AMH fabric.  I had to keep this a secret for so long, that I nearly forgot about it once the machine was finally released.  So I’m finally able to share and show my little labor of love.  

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Free Quilt Pattern Alert! Super easy I Spy Quilt pattern to ease your pain on long road trips with the kids


How many times have you been in the car, loaded up the kids to go to grandma’s house, and heard that horrible, awful question…(queue the Jaws music)…”Are we there yet?”  or better yet…”I’m Boooooooored.”  

I Spy Quilt loaded up and ready to go!

I know we’re all super busy in the summer, and it makes finding time to sew pretty difficult.  But now you have a great reason to bust out the sewing machine–you’re going to cure the kids of their road trip boredom by making them an I Spy Quilt!  All you really need are some random novelty prints or scraps–even seasonal fabrics are great for this.  The great thing about this quilt is that NONE of the fabrics need to be cohesive for this to work.  You have a print with elephants?  Elves?  Pirates?  Cactus?  Ballerinas?  They’re all perfect!  The more random the assortment of your fabrics, the longer the kids will be staring at this quilt, absolutely stumped.  

Your layout can be totally random, too!  I tried to lay my squares out from dark to light,
but you can try grouping them by color, theme, etc.  



I had the privilege of teaming up with Janome to write this tutorial for American Quilter’s Society.  So follow this pretty little LINK and head over to get the skinny on how to put this awesome little lifesaver together!  

I quilted mine with some sweet little swirls that were fast and easy!  

Okay, so in all honesty, making this quilt won’t be the end of you ever hearing those two comments from the back seat again, but what the heck!  It’s worth a shot isn’t it?  ðŸ˜‰

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Love Patchwork & Quilting Nautical But Nice Quilt


So…There was this one time that I actually got to have a quilt in a magazine!  I collaborated with Stephanie Kendron of Modern Sewciety on this gorgeous ombre nautical themed quilt for Love Patchwork & Quilting.  I’m one of those people who already WAY over uses exclamation points.  But just prepare yourself for this post, because my excitement was ridiculous!
Seriously, pick up your copy of LP&Q-issue 36 (you can find it at Barnes and Noble), and you’ll see my ugly mug in there 🙂  
So, normally, this would be a post discussing the design elements and collaboration process, but this was my first ever time to be in a magazine–so far 😉  so I’m allowed to be a little excited, right?