Mastering the Art of Longarm Quilting

"Mastering the Art of Longarm Quilting: 40 Original Designs - Step-by-Step Instructions Takes You from Novice to Expert", by Gina Perkes, published by CT Publishing is a new free-motion quilting (FMQ)  book that will be released February, 2012.  While this book is focused on longarm quilting, it is also an excellent FMQ reference book for midarm quilters, as well as those on home sewing machines.

For the longarm quilter, this book provides you insight on stitch regulation, preload vs postload marking, rulers and gridwork, tension, threads, needles, quilt loading, and much more.

For any quilter interested in FMQ, this book is packed full of insights that will build your confidence and help you master beautiful FMQ designs with easy to follow instructions. 

There are 40 original quilting designs included that are excellent for the advanced FMQ quilter, or a very confident FMQ quilter that wants to push their skills to higher creativity.  But, as the book says, this book can take you from "Novice to Expert", you just need to practice!

Gina does an excellent job sharing insights on Quilt Interpretation, planning how to FMQ your projects, and tips are included throughout the book, providing something for FMQ quilters of all levels.  There are also many photos of inspirational quilts, many of which are award winning quilts.

This is truly an excellent book for Longarm quilters that want to pursue FMQ, but SewCalGal also recommends this book to those that want to do FMQ on a midarm, as well as a home sewing machine.

I hope you get a chance to check out this book at your local quilting shop, once it is released this spring.  Or, check it out online at CT Publishing's online store where you can also pre-order this book now.

Quilters Niche

On my quest to learn more about our world of quilting, I recently had an opportunity to meet with Georgette Dell'Orco,  who creates digitized designs for longarm quilters with computerized machines.  She sells her beautiful designs through her online business called "Quilters Niche".  I'm excited to share insights with you today about Georgette and Quilters Niche.

As I believe there are benefits for non-longarm quilters to also be aware of Quilters Niche, I want to clarify why?  If you are a quilter that sends your quilts out to a longarm quilter, you may find a design at Quilters Niche that you feel is perfect for your quilt and ask your longarm quilter to use it, to make your quilt more beautiful.  Many non-longarm quilters are familiar with longarm quilting designs, as they want to actively determine how their quilts will be quilted! 

Georgette has been a sewing enthusiast for many years, with expertise in making beautiful tailored clothing items.  She began quilting about 7 years ago, and soon afterwards started doing her own machine quilting, on a midarm machine.  This eventually took her down the road of longarm quilting, and ultimately digitizing longarm quilting designs, which inspired her to create Quilters Niche, where she can share her designs with longarm quilters all over the world, at a reasonable price. 

While Georgette is proficient in a variety of software packages, she uses Art and Stich for creating continuous line quilting designs.  These designs can incorporate an edge to edge technique, or a standalone design such as a heart or feather, that could be perfect for a quilt block.

When I asked Georgette where she finds inspiration for her beautiful designs, she smiled and politely shared "from all around us".  Her inspiration might come from a photograph, something in nature, or she may just start doodling on paper and come up with a design that works for longarm quilting.

In the six plus years that Georgette has been digitizing quilting designs, she has established a large customer basis that is very happy with her designs, and her customer service.  Every month, she will introduce ~10-12 new designs.  She also creates custom designs, for a reasonable fee, or if the  customers agrees to give Quilters Niche the rights to sell the design the fee is typically the same price for current designs of a similar nature.

I asked which of her designs are the most popular and Georgette shared that the new designs tend to always be among the most popular, along with feathers and her Storm at Sea design.  But her entire collection of designs is very popular,  and has even been recognized in a number of quilting books where Quilters Niche's designs were used on the quilts shown in those books. 

On the Quilters Niche website information is provided on which file formats are available, but the majority of longarm machines are supported with the formats available.  WMF (Windows Meta File) is not needed by all machines, but is included.  PDF files are also included with newer designs, but if someone needs a PDF and it doesn't come with their downloaded designs, they only need to ask Georgette and she will gladly give them the PDF for their design.

During my conversation with Georgette, she also shared a few insights for longarm quilting that I found interesting:
- Longarm quilting designs are created and tested for a certain size design.  While you can resize them on your machine, too much downsizing can make the design too dense and too much enlargement can result in longer stitch lines (stitch per inch can be set by the quilter).
- It is best to space rows with no obvious gaps, as even a 1/4" gap can stand out.  Some edge to edge designs neet to interlock (nest) for the best all over effect.

Georgette also designs quilt patterns that are sold through Cozy Quilt Designs.  She has created far too many beautiful designs for me to list all of them, but here are three that I'm certainly looking forward to making in the near future and I wanted to heighten awareness of them with you today:

{above} Beach City Bloom, by Georgette Dell'Orco


{above} Evening Star, by Georgette Dell'Orco



















{above} Diamond Medley, by Georgette Dell'Orco

Clearly, Georgette is a very talented lady, and is helping to make our world of quilting so wonderful.  I do hope that you'll visit Quilters Niche to see her longarm quilting designs, and Cozy Quilt Shop to see all of her beautiful quilt patterns too.

Quilters Niche:

http://www.quiltersniche.com
Free designs:  http://www.quiltersniche.com/LinePages/Free.htm

Newsletter sign-up: http://www.quiltersniche.com/mainpages/newsletter.htm
Tel: 619-663-0320 (noon to 8 pm Pacific Time)
email:info@quiltersniche.com

Michaelanne Gephart at the San Dieqo Quilt Show

It was just about a year ago that I met and interviewed Michaelanne Gephart, owner of Flossie's Quilting. I was excited to see some of her work at the recent San Diego Quilt show and wanted to share some of them with you. She is a very talented quilter and longarmer.

Sorbet by Michaelanne Gephart

Blueberry Fields by Mary Ann Folsom, machine quilted by Michaelanne Gephart

Blue Moon by Marlene Keith machine quilted by Michaelanne Gephart.

“A Tad Plaid”  by Michaelanne Gephart

It was fun to see this quilts in the show and I certainly admired Michaelanne's longarm quilting skills, as well as her own quilts.  Just wish my photos could capture the true beauty.

Flossie's Quilting
Michaelanne Gephart
San Diego, CA
619-276-1658 
email:MGeph78025@aol.com

BFF School House at Cozy Quilt Shop

This past week Cozy Quilt Shop had a free BFF School House, where free demonstrations were given.  It was a fun way to get inspired, and I certainly found more exciting classes to add to my calendar for taking classes this fall.  I had so much fun at this event that I wanted to share my insights with you, but you can also find more info on Cozy Quilt Shop's website:  http://www.cozyquilt.com/ 

While I took a few photos, Daniela Stout, the talented owner of Cozy Quilt Shop, also created some fantastic YouTube videos for each demonstration.  You can also "subscribe" on YouTube to be notified whenever she posts future videos on YouTube.  And I highly recommend you do so, as they are all great videos.  I'll share more insights on how to do this, at the end of this post.

Linda Pohlenz gave a great demo on machine qulting and shared many tricks.  She teaches a "Whimsical Quilting" class at Cozy Quilt Shop, and many of her techniques are out of the book by Kathy Sandbach called "Show me how to Machine Quilt."

Georgette Dell'Orco, designed a really cute purse called "Take It Anywhere Tote" and the pattern is offered under Cozy Quilt Shop Designs.  Georgette gave an excellent demonstration of this beautiful purse, and of course, I had to buy similar fabrics that she used in her demonstration.

There was a nice demo on how to apply a Dritz Grommet, which was really easy and looked fantastic.  There were also several cute bags shared, that are designed to use grommets.  And, there was a great demo for how to add a zipper to the inside of a bag.  This was probably one of the best approaches to adding a zipper, to the inside of a bag, that I've ever seen.

And, the BFF School House at Cozy Quilt Shop had a fantastic display of purses and totes.  Cozy Quilt Shop has a BFF club, where a new purse or tote pattern is made every month. 

I recommend everyone visit Cozy Quilt Shops' online store.  They have all the patterns demonstrated, and on display, at the BFF School House, plus many more.  Plus they have an excellent supply of books, fabrics, and other items. 

Personally, I love all of the patterns shown and many more of Cozy Quilt Designs.  But, if you don't yet have one of Cozy Quilt's Strip Tube Rulers, I strongly recommend you pick one up soon.  I'm sure you'll love it!

While I'm looking at their online store, I've realized there are few more items that I really need to get.  You may be interested in seeing my "current" wish list for things to get at Cozy Quilt Shop:

Isn't this Buckeye Beauty Quilt Pattern absolutely beautiful?  Hard to believe it is a strip quilt pattern.  I can't wait to make one.

And their Twirling Quilt Pattern is also beautiful.

And this beautiful Stellar Splendor Quilt Pattern is another one of their beautiful strip quilt designs that I can't wait to make.

And, this fantastic book:  How To Machine Quilt, by Kathy Sandbach, would really help me learn better machine quilting techniques.

I guess I have my Christmas wish list ready.  Isn't back to school fun?

Oh, before I forget.  If you are interested in joining the BFF club, or taking a class at Cozy Quilt Shop, you may want to check their class calendar:  http://www.cozyquilt.com/Aspx/Classes.aspx

While Daniela provides links in her great e:newsletter and website, to her videos on you-tube, you can also find them by going to http://www.youtube.com/ and doing a search on "Cozy Quilt Shop".  In YouTube, when you view these great videos, on the right side of the web page you'll see box that says "subscribe".  You simply need to click on the subscribe button and Youtube will walk you through the steps to become a subscriber to receive email notices when Daniela posts future video clips.  Very simple, but you do need to have a google account or crate and/or create an account on YouTube.  Well worth the few seconds it takes to set it up.

Flossie's Quilting - Michaelanne Gephart

Michaelanne Gephart is a very thoughtful, generous, and talented woman whom I find very inspirational.  She loves animals, gardening, and being outside.  She'll even describe the "healing powers" of being out in the yard. And you can see how she draws upon these areas in her quilting.

When Michaelanne was a young girl, her family would visit her grandmother Florence (Flossie) for the summer.  This is where Michaelanne gained appreciation for design and through her Grandmother she learned tailoring.

While Michaelanne's background in sewing, like many, comes from designing and sewing clothes, she began quilting by way of making baby quilts.  She has continued on with making a variety of quilts in different styles and methods, from pieced to applique. 

Back in 2000, Michaelanne apprenticed with Cindy Feagle for three years, where she learned the art of Long Arm quilting.  She also took a class in long arm quilting at The Quilted Rose.   It then became clear that she should open her own long arm business, which she decided to name after her Grandmother "Flossie". 

 Michaelanne volunteers to help quilt charity quilts for both Linus and Camp Reach For The Sky (CR4TS). She also belongs to a group of quilters, called "Champagne Quilters". The Champagne Quilters make baby quilts and adds them to baskets full of new baby items, for little boys & little girls. These new baby gift baskets are given to Operation Homefront, which shows supports to our troops by helping their families left at home. I hope to share more insights about Champagne Quilters in the future, as this sounds like such a delightful program.

Flossie's Quilting was born and Michaelanne's creativity as a long arm has continued to blossom. She can offer her customers various longarm pantographs quilting styles, but many of her customers prefer to have Michaelanne freehand quilt their quilts.

Here are a few beautiful quilts, that customers were kind enough to let me share with you. While they are beautiful quilts, the quilting is spectactular. I just wish my camera did a better job capturing the beauty of these quilts and the beautiful long arm quilting that Michaelanne quilted.

This beautiful quilt was made by Karen Shell and was quilted by Michaelanne Gephart.  The design is called "Criss Cross Applesauce" and was taught in a class by Karen Cunigan, through Point Loma Adult Ed in San Diego.  The long arm quilting style is freehand, with funky flowers and leaves.  The quilting design draws in Michaelanne's love of nature and the outdoors. 

This beautiful quilt was made by Charlotte Fortier in the 1980's, but not finished and quilted until this past fall.  Michaelanne quilted it freehand, with gorgeous feathers and swirls.  Charlotte and her husband used a picture of this beautiful quilt, as they were wrapped up in it, for their Christmas card last year.  I think this quilt would be beautiful throughout the year, but love the idea of using it in a Christmas Card.  Just wish I had received such a lovely Christmas card.

Here is another beautiful  quilt, which was made by Amy Sheridan and quilted by Michaelanne Gephart.  The design was taught in a class by Karen Cunigan, at Point Loma Adult Ed in San Diego.  Karen had shared the pattern with all the students, but the challenge was that everyone needed to make the house blocks their own.  As Amy loves dogs, she choose cheerful fabrics with whimsical dogs.  And, Michaelanne did a fantastic job freehand quilting.  You can even see in the rails words quilted that Michaelanne added, from verbage printed on some of the fabric:  "Beware of the dog woof", "Bark", "Stay, fetch, speak, bark", "Dog Bones & Kibble Yum", among others. 

I highly recommend Flossie's Quilting to anyone looking for beautiful long arm quilting to finish their quilt.  I'm sure you'll be as happy as I am with Michaelanne's work. 

If you are interested in having one of your quilts quilted by Michaelanne, you can contact her at:

Flossie's Quilting
Michaelanne Gephart
San Diego, CA 
619-276-1658
email:  mailto:MGeph78025@aol.com