I love quilting, it really does make me happy. But there are certain things that I am yet to master. Or things that I really want to get better at.
I created this RU-vid channel to share my journey as I learn how to be a better quilter and how to work with and use colours more effectively. And hopefully you'll find something along the way that helps you.
When not producing content here, I am a singing teacher and director of an institute that trains and certifies singing teachers around the world.
Health problems are a bummer. 2024 will be my year for said issues. I’m slowly on the mend and can sew again which is great cuz it’s my therapy. Love your xmas quilt with the messy red backing. I’m interested in trying that kind of backing, guess you just have to accept the mess and clean up later. And I love both scrappy and striped bindings. 👍🏻💕
there is SO much I can relate to in this video! I will just keep it to one anecdote: when I first started quilting, my local store had a Wednesday night quilt 'club', where we'd pick a pattern and spend the month making the top. About 4 months in, someone chose a design from a magazine. It turns out it was the designer's first published design, and she had designed it in EQ6 or EQ7 (I forget and it was a long time ago). Well, talk about what looks cool in a digital design program vs what can be done in person! I could tell this person just went to town designing all kinds of elements that look very cool but are difficult to accurately sew. I had only been sewing for maybe 5 or 6 months. This thing had so many snowball/diamond rectangles/HSTs that it was almost impossible to get everything to fit together. It was essentially a 9-patch, but each patch was its own complicated design. When I put my rows together, my center row was a 1/2" short on each side. Thankfully I was able to trim down the blocks without too much angst, and I added sashing to help cover some of it (the original design didn't have sashing). That ended up being the end of our Wed night quilting club, because we kept extending additional months so people could keep working on it, and in the end, I was the only one who finished it. Others moved on to other projects and we just sort of drifted off to our own projects. :/
This is so exciting to me! I have not been brave enough to make a competition quilt and I have never made a collaborative quilt. But you and Kristin make it seem so fun and DOABLE that I am now very tempted to try both.
Hello Tom, thank you for this video - have been watching it again for inspiration and to get me sewing again when I can take my summer annual leave soon. Can I ask what are the colours you used for the chromatic crackle quilt please? I think you said one of them was pomegranate, but am curious what the yellow and blue colours were. Thank you!
Looking forward to seeing your quilt next week. I’m really looking forward to my first visit to festival of quilts and I’ll hopefully see lots of the people I follow on IG and YT. I like quilt maths too and everyone thinks I’m weird, but the design of a quilt is one of my favourite parts of quilt making. I’ve never done a collaboration on a quilt but it sounds like a lot of fun. Well done getting it finished in time.
You two are awesome and appreciate that you are being honest about your process - looking forward to your reveal❤ having only done a round robin (or two). Best of luck at the show
Hey Tom, I think it’s really great that you are branching out and trying new things, but I wish you would continue with your “behind the blocks season two”. Those of us who have bought all the fabric, cut out the blocks and started this project are waiting to get on with it and finally finish this project. It’s pretty discouraging to be left hanging halfway through like this. Please post the next block as soon as possible, or maybe just give us the rest of the instructions so we can finish on our own. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this (and your other videos in the series)! I've been getting bored of just quilting in a grid pattern, and it's so nice to have some alternative ideas. My little machine feels a lot less limited now :)
Hearing talk about color blindness makes me realize that my "disability" is sound. I work in silence by choice. I took out the car radio so I can concentrate on the road. Music in videos is so distracting I can barely process the words.... that likely ARE important. Seconds into video I hit mute. But the words are gone then too, and I click NEXT! Revelation )))
This is fabulous. I have spent weeks trying to find a quilting design for a 50 inch square fpp dog block. It has hundreds of random pieces at random angles, and this is the perfect quilting design for it. Will also assist in dodging those very bulky sections.
Loved your review of 2023. I'm like you I'm all enthusiastic to start a project and then when I get to a bit that I think might be difficult it goes in a box. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a pile of UFO's that only need quilting. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the rest of 2024.
Lots of UFO's but am concentrating on doing 3 at a time as I have 3 sewing machines. I just go from one to the other, enjoy each pattern, and don't worry about it. All of my UFO's will eventually get done. I am doing your BOM now and enjoying this but I am not calling this a UFO!😃🥰
3:00 You know, I think sometimes we are so caught up in finishing a project, we fail to enjoy the process. Pinning to ensure accuracy is sometimes part of the process. I really like that pattern, fiddly as it is.
I feel your pain. I have 2 finished tops rolled on pool noodles waiting to be finished for 2 years. I have everything to finish but ....... I will make it happen this year!
I feel like you just told the story of my life! :) I also have a tendency to work on something in stages and allow it to sit in a box for a while until I can face the next stage. I once had a quilted quilt sit on my sewing table FOR A YEAR because I couldn't face binding it... which, once I forced myself to do it, took an hour. :/ I just went to a retreat/class with a designer whose work I LOVE, but are very intense. I love the progress I made, but I recognize that I need a break. I also have boxes of things that were just stuff into them, and I periodically attempt to go through them and figure out something to do (often, it's putting everything back in the boxes and walking away...). I'm always happy when you put out a new video. You are so relatable.
