Welcome Fall with Fun Projects

Posted on September 9, 2023 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in a pattern, Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, Classes, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, My micro-business, My Studio, Project Management, skill building, Videos, Wool / 2 Comments

I don’t know about you, but September always seems to be the beginning of the sewing/quilting season to me. I get kind of excited wondering what I can make and share in my studio.

I was looking at some of my already published YouTube projects, many of which also have workbooks and patterns available on my site store for little or no cost. There are several there that will make wonderful Fall and Winter celebratory additions to a home or to make as gifts.

Fall Table Runner

Last year, with the help of my family production team, I made a fall table runner, but we did not get it out until mid November, which was clearly too late. We realized it, but published it anyway for people to enjoy watching at least. This year, you might want to look at this, purchase the workbook/pattern/digital embroidery (all in one package) and make it for your Fall celebrations. It has three how-to videos linked below and the downloadable workbook package below that.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Workbook/Pattern Package

Machine Wool Applique Sampler

Here is the finished wool applique by machine sampler.

This is a fun little project that uses mostly circles and decorative stitching to make a little wall hanging using wool. It is very like what some of you may do by hand, but is all done by machine with some specialty threads. I had so much fun doing this and I think you would too. You can choose your own colors. It does not have a pattern, but if you watch all three videos you really won’t need one. You can probably tell it was inspired by Sue Spargo’s fabulous hand stitched wool pieces.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Kingfisher wool appliqued pillow (by machine)

This project results in a really delightful decorator pillow for your living room or bed room. It would make a really nice gift for someone. Truth be told, I made it with mostly the leftovers from the wool sampler above and a pillow I got from Amazon. It does have two how-to videos on YouTube and a downloadable FREE workbook/pattern on my website shop. Links of all below.

Part 1

Part 2

Workbook/Pattern

Sew I hope you will take a look at these projects and even make one or more of them. It would really help me if you subscribed to my YouTube and watched the projects. I don’t currently get any money from these on YouTube and very few people have gotten the workbooks/patterns. It would be fabulous if you did watch them all the way through and provided me with comments and suggestions. I will also answer your questions along the way if you decide to make one or more of these projects. Together they are like a virtual class where the instruction is free and the patterns are either free or modestly priced.

Some of my videos are simply sharing my work with you and are there for your viewing pleasure. I am working on one like that now where I am currently making a new show quilt and showing bits and pieces here and there as I do so.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio!

The Positive Value of Studying Our Machines

Posted on August 19, 2023August 19, 2023 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Design Work, Embellishment, Embroidery, feet, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, Making Clothes, My micro-business, My Studio, Tools / 2 Comments

Hi everyone! Today’s machines often have wonderful features that can advance our sewing and quilting in ways we may have wished for but may not even be aware we already have such features. Some of these machines, even the mid-level ones, require actual study, testing, and practice to bring the full capacity of what is available to owners of such machines. Such study, practice, and testing can result in wonderful pieces that can enhance our lives dramatically.

Now I retired at the beginning of 2012 to work mostly full time as a fabric artist/art quilter. Sew my nicely outfitted studio is a great joy to me. Remember as you read this, that I started with a basic machine I purchased from a hardware store and sewed on my kitchen table for years, but worked my way up over the decades. I am currently 76, have been sewing since I was about five, and plan on sewing as long as I am physically able, which may be many years from now. I know of a quilter who makes baby quilts for charities on her domestic machine and she is over 100!

I traded up for my Bernina 880 plus about three years ago and recently concluded there were things my machines would do that I did not know how to use sufficiently. Sew, over the past year plus I have spent a good part of my studio time in studying and testing the ins and outs of my sewing machines. Now I am a long time sewer, tailor, and quilter. I was a professional clothing designer/maker in my mid twenties to mid thirties, and have owned high tech machines for years. At first consideration, you might think I would not need to do this. I have had quite a few machines and worked my way up over the years to my current fleet with trade ins, sales, and so forth and now I have a great fleet, each of which have their own uses in my sewing life with a wide range of machine complexity.

NOTE: I will be talking about Bernina machines, since that is what I have, but I do know that other major brands have similar things available today. You need to look in your manual, check out available online videos, and consult your dealers to find these.

My Bernina 880 plus, one of the top of the line machines they have, has the reputation for being “finicky”. I disagree with this assessment though I understand it. I find it extraordinarily useful and easy to use now that I have spent the time to learn how. Does it require careful threading? Well yes, it does, especially the bobbin, but once practiced and learned it is not difficult. Do you have a multitude of things available so you have to sometimes look things up? Absolutely, but Bernina also has a lot of tools available to help with that built into the machine. Do you have to clean it and oil it carefully and on a regular basis? Yes, you do. Does it have many many feet that aid in doing things that require some learning? It does, and the more you can get the more you can do or more refined your results will be. And, in fact, Bernina has a book for that The Big Book of Feet. It also has many videos on YouTube available to show the use of these feet.

Why just this week I learned how to transfer stitches I found in the Bernina design software for in-the-hoop embroidery to be placed and used in the sewing side of the machine! I added a handful of additional stitches that look like hand embroidery. I plan on adding a lot more.

I very recently completed making a machine-embroidered central focus part of a new show quilt. I worked for about six weeks designing and digitizing the centerpiece of my current project and it took me a week and a couple of days to embroider it. I ended up with an interconnecting design that required six jumbo hoopings that had to work together to meet at all the right places. I was a lot nervous that they would not match when I started out, but they did!!!! All the embroidery is wonderful and the handful of in-the-hoop appliques also came out wonderfully. I concluded from this that the Bernina 880 plus (the only Bernina that uses the entirety of the jumbo hoop) and the pin point placement that it has is a great advance for high-end in-the-hoop embroidery. So the middle section is ready to piece in and I think it is wonderful. It is on black silk dupioni and I used 40 weight trilobal polyester for the embroidery. There will be beads and buttons on the finished quilt.

I also have a Bernina Q20 longarm machine set up as a sitdown quilting machine. I could put that on a frame, but I do not want to. I learned to free motion quilt on my Bernina 830, which I traded for the 880 plus, and I enjoy it. Plus I enjoy sitting down to quilt (I am, after-all, getting a little creaky now that I am in my mid 70s). Besides, I seldom make a quilt larter than 60″ wide or so. This machine is really a simple one designed for primarily being maintained by the owner. It is powerful and can use all the free motion Bernina feet available (so I can share them between the machines), domestic sewing machine needles (also shareable within the fleet) so you have many types for needles for various threads, and it will accept many types of quality threads. I use it for free motion embroidery as well as quilting so the thread acceptance is really important to me. I have an astonishingly large collection of quilting rulers…they just appeared in my storage drawers somehow LOL. I can’t imagine how. I think they must have had babies because the collection really grew over the past six years I have owned this machine. LOL Using rulers at this machine is a pleasure. I love this machine. It has two features that are particularly wonderful…a double built in stitch regulator, and an additional pinpoint laser light attachment that shows just where the needle will come down. It’s stitch quality is beautiful.

And I have a little Bernina 350 that is a basic machine and not too heavy. If I were just starting out and making mostly clothing, or looking for a machine to take to college with me, this little machine would be a very good option. I have used it for travel, but I also find it has exceptional value as a piecing machine with solid stitching and a smaller 5.5 mm width that makes it easier to sew more accurate quarter inch seams than my big wide 9 mm 880 plus. I also have several attachments I use exclusively on this machine…like a needle punch attachment that is remarkably wonderful for a fabric artist, and I don’t worry about the roving messing up its easy to clean bobbin area or my big machine. I also have a walking foot that came with it. These make it great for sewing and quilting retreats, or sewing in one’s hotel room when attending a conference, or just taking along on a vacation. I once used it to make a fast quilt for a member of my family that had unexpected surgery when my big machine was out for service. It was a lap quilt, and I would not have wanted to make a big quilt in it, but it did a great job with the lap quilt size.

Additionally, I have a basic Baby Lock serger my daughter in law gave me. It does everything I need in the way of serging and completes my studio nicely. It not only serges edges and makes wonderful seams for stretch knit items, but since I purchased all of the four additional feet for it there is much more it will do. For example, it enables me to quickly make covered cords for pillows, bags, and other things. After watching some videos on serging on YouTube, I am sure Ineed to spend more time learning what I can do with it. It does not do a cover stitch, but if I use a double needle in either of my domestic machines that will take the place of a cover stitch.

Sew have fun in your studio and study your machine whatever level it is. Do some testing and make some samples. A stitch library of all the stitches it will make is a great idea and very helpful.

Pages of my stitch library

Working on an Embroidered Quilt

Posted on August 2, 2023August 2, 2023 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Applique, Design as you go, Design Work, Embroidery, High-Tech Studio, Machines, My Studio, Show Quilts / 6 Comments

Hi everyone! I have been sooo busy lately, and I have been having fun. I am working on an embroidered show quilt significantly inspired by Jacobean art from the early 17th century. It is also inspired by my quilt Canterbury Silk, although it is different colors, mostly different flowers, and mostly embroidered with just a few appliques.

Canterbury Silk

I worked for about six weeks designing and digitizing the centerpiece of my current project and it took me a week and a couple of days to embroider it. I ended up with six jumbo hoops that had to work together to meet all the right places. I was a lot nervous that they would not match, but they did!!!! All the embroidery is wonderful and the handful of in-the-hoop appliques also came out wonderfully. I concluded from this that the Bernina 880 plus (the only Bernina that uses the entirety of the jumbo hoop) and the pin point placement that it has is a great advance for high-end in-the-hoop embroidery. So the middle section is ready to piece in and I think it is wonderful. It is on black silk dupioni. There will be beads and buttons on the finished quilt.

The remainder of the quilt includes a gorgeous dark hand dyed green silk ribbon that is 2 1/2 inches wide and will be sewn in with quarter inch seams producing a 2 inch sashing dividing the centerpiece from the fairly wide black silk/cotton radiance borders. I have about three ideas on how to quilt and possibly also paint the borders, so I will be making two sample quilting sandwiches to work out which one is best. One will be divided in three border-like lines that I will work out each idea and one will be for working out how to deal with the border corners once I decide which border style I will use.

I had hoped to complete this quilt by mid August so I could enter it into the Pennsylvania National Quilt show but I instead have moved my deadline to January of next year for entry into the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show. This gives me enough time, I think, to take the time to make it truly a masterpiece quilt. It’s fun and exciting for me to work this way. I am videoing most of my work on this to produce a fun YouTube video that is not intended as a tutorial, but a look into the making of a show quilt for your enjoyment.

So what else am I working on? Well I have a handful of simpler, shorter, how-tos that show techniques and methods of working with advanced machines like my Bernina 880 plus, and my longarm Bernina Q20 sitdown machines. These will be a nice relaxing thing for me to work on once in a while for my YouTube channel and I think that people will get a lot from them too. My family editing team is also pulling a few shorts from my videos to highlight some of the nice things already out there.

I am having fun in my studio, and I wish you too will have fun in yours. Sew happy everyone!

Studio Fun Begins for 2023

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Food for Thought, My micro-business, My Studio, Project Management, Quilt Journal, skill building, Videos / 2 Comments

Hi everyone! I have been working hard lately on pulling together some projects for this year of varying degrees of complexity. I say “complexity” rather than “difficulty” because I have found over the years that many of even the most complex projects are not much more difficult than some one might call “simple” or “easy.” They may take longer, but it is mostly a matter of going one step at a time and continuing to move forward in carrying out the project. This is true for both making quilted fabric art and sewing or even tailoring complex clothing.

Of course, one does need to know what to do at each step and how to do it even for less complex projects. That can be addressed by reading pattern instructions, testing techniques and products, watching videos, taking classes, talking with other fabric artists, and not getting discouraged when you need more help.

This past few weeks I looked over my stash, and I then added a few pieces of new fabrics to my stash: a piece of silk dupioni and a piece of Kaufman Radiance silk/cotton to go with it. Then I also added several pieces of solid colors of Peppered Cotton–designed by Pepper Cory–for some experimentation, demonstration, and fun that go together but I haven’t quite figured it all out. I also have had to buy some batting for future projects for the first time in a couple of years. I guess I have done more quilting than I realized. I think I am pretty much swupplied for quilting for the whole of this year.

It has been quite a long time since I bought new fabrics…maybe three or four years. I used to have a very large stash, but have used up a lot in those years and also found places to give some of my fabrics to lower the volume. These are fabrics I am not going to use. Though I loved the fabrics I gave away, they didn’t fit my plans for the next year or so and I needed to empty some storage spaces for future projects. I gave them to my friend Anita who took most of them and made a beautiful quilt for the quilt drive for Ukraine. She has a new Bernina 480 and it is a bit small for a large quilt. The Lutheran World Relief, however, wanted a 60″ x 80″ quilt, which is really quite large for her domestic sized machine. So she made it by a quilt-as-you-go method, which gave a bit of relief on managing the size up until the last bit. She used the method described by Nina McVeigh in this little Bernina video:

Bite size quilting

The back of Anita’s quilt is as fun as the front

The front of her quilt has lots of beauty to discover.

This quilting method gave her the opportunity to learn how to deal with her new machine, practice both feed dogs up and free motion quilting, and make this big quilt. I understand the last bit was kind of tough to get it through the machine. It might not be big for some of you who have larger machines or longarms on a frame, but for her machine it was gigantic. She did a great job and shipped it off. Personally, I think it looks both interesting and comforting and whoever gets it will surely appreciate it. She decided she will probably make smaller charity quilts in the future for other organizations that can use them. But I believe she managed to keep some of those beautiful Japanese themed fabrics for projects of her own. Thank you Anita for doing this.

If you are interested in making and donating a quilt for this effort, here is the pdf file with all the instructions. They accept quilts of many levels, but they must be 60″ x 80″. Please read the instructions before beginning. 5708

Sew the first thing I have done this year is develop a list of projects I really want to do someday, but it was waaaay too long!!!! So I looked really hard at the list and knocked it down to a shorter list that is still too long. Then I concentrated on about four longer-project quilts getting all the pieces together drafting the patterns or guide sheets, digitizing some embroidery, and, if needed, drawing up some applique shapes.

I also have about ten short tutorial projects. All of these are for my YouTube videos. I am sure I will drop some of these as I work out the logistics and draft the patterns, but it’s one way I have to deal with my over-stuffed idea space in my brain.

idea space in my brain…lol

I also am calling on my talented daughter-in-law, Beth, to help me draw some of the landscape sketches I need for basing some of these. This should keep me busy for quite some time. LOL

I’ll let you know what they are when I get each one ready to go.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio in 2023!

Online Fabric Shopping

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Fabrics, My business, My Studio / 2 Comments

Hi everyone! Earlier this week Fabric.com closed suddenly. This was difficult for me because even though I have access to three more or less local quilt fabric shops that cover my quilting fabric needs, none of them carry things I use for abnormal quilting fabrics, clothing, very little for bag making and other assorted giftable-type items. Fabric.com was my go to for these things that I must order online if I am going to get them at all. It was an adjunct Amazon business and had a fabulous supply of fabrics at reasonable prices and great search engine to find them with. So this set me on a mission to find replacement resources. Here is what I have found so far, but I am still hunting:

I have yet to find a supplier that has everything they had and no company’s search engine is a good, though some have reasonably good ones.
Hancock’s of Paducah has a nice selection of about half of the non-quilt cotton fabrics, so it is a good place to start if you are on the hunt for certain fabrics. Besides, I have bought things from them for years and they are in my “trusted” category. I know from past purchases that they are a little slow in getting your order to you and aren’t particularly good about letting you know if they have something on back order until after you have ordered it. But besides that, I like them.
Farmhouse Fabrics fills in a lot of places when you are trying to get the supplies for something special like a Christening gown or a Victorian heirloom sewing by machine dress or blouse, for instance. They have exquisite fabrics, trims, and laces, though I think they are a little pricey. After this month’s Threads Magazine where they have cotton velveteen on the cover, and one of my best friend’s passion for velveteen I found that fabric almost impossible to find until I found it a Farmouse. I have used them in the past and they are fast and efficient.
Then there is Fashion Fabrics Club where one can often find a great bargain piece and they have a lot of fabrics. I have also used them for many years, and have sometimes gotten a great piece for a bargain price. The fabrics are normally wonderful, but occasionally, the quality is not quite as high as it should be, though this is rarely the case. The prices in general make up for that rare time though I think. I did not like some silk dupioni I once got there, and ended up using it only for practice pieces, but the wools I bought there are fabulous, and I have bought a lot over the years.
I have found that if you want a good quality denim, cotton twill, or something for draperies for instance you may want to take a look at sellfabric.com. I found this by getting in touch with Carr Textiles that manufactures a particularly nice brushed denim I sometimes want and used to get through Fabric.com. They directed me there for their fabrics. The shipping cost is a little pricey but since I was unable to find the brushed denim I wanted anywhere else after much looking, I think it is the only option at this point.
I did take a look at Mood Fabrics, and saw they have fabulous fabrics, though I thought the prices were a little high. I’ve never used them, but they seem to have some of the things I will miss from Fabric.com.
Then there is my good old friend G Street Fabrics, which I have used for decades, have some close friends who work there, and it is where I bought my Berninas. I love the store, even in its lesser version after it moved to the current place in Rockville, MD. It used to be so magnificent, but it is still the best fabric store around in my humble opinion. The problem for me has become getting there, because I have gotten a little older and the trip from here to there takes about an hour through rough dense traffic and I find it stressful, so I don’t go anymore. Nevertheless, they are offering a lot online of their exquisite, often out of my budget, fabrics. But take a look. You will enjoy seeing some of what they offer I suspect. Hint: One yard of something expensive but magnificent can go a long ways when carefully used or make you happy just to have it to pet in your stash. They also still have gorgeous buttons.
Amazon still has some of the fabrics and especially notions I like, but often precut into links or sizes you may not want. It says to me that it is likely someone who doesn’t understand our industry is now in charge of the fabric offers from or through there. It’s likely someone who is not aware how this is a living, growing industry with lots of interest by young and old alike.
And of course there is Joann Fabrics we all know. I have found they have the best prices on interfacings, especially Pellon brand. There are a few other things I like, but I am not a particular fan of their fabrics, which are quite frequently a lesser quality. You can still get some nice fabric there with careful shopping.

I am quite sure there are other places that some of you have found that are great I haven’t mentioned, or maybe you are one of the lucky sewers who have a great fabric store nearby or live within reach of a fabric district. But I think I know know where I can find most of the things I will be missing from Fabric.com.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio and have fun shopping.

Surprisingly Useful Studio Tools

Posted on July 27, 2022July 27, 2022 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in feet, My Studio, Tools, Uncategorized

Hi everyone. This past few weeks have highlighted some really useful studio tools…some I made myself, and some I purchased sometime in my long sewing career.

As I noted on my last article, I discovered that a persistent thread-breaking problem was not, in fact, my machine, my needles, or my bobbin. It was a burr that had developed on my 15 or so year old open toed embroidery foot that I had obtained two sewing machines ago. I could hardly believe it was so old when I added it up.

My 20D foot…where the burr was and is no longer.

So today I took out my little Dremel tool that I keep around for special things, and sand-buffed the foot. Then I tested it with multiple thread types and different stitches. It did not break anything! That foot sells for about $56 today. Nice savings. I had done the same thing to another foot last year that had developed a burr. It was an even older one that the one I fixed today! So the Dremel tool has more than paid for itself, and I have used it in other ways over the past decade.

Then there are two reference tools I made myself. One is the decorative stitch library I have been building over the past six months. I am working on a wool applique by machine project that uses some decorative stitches. I have done multiple lines of different stitches in different threads and written the stitch number, any changes I made to the stitch settings, and so forth. I now have about 10 large “pages” of these stitches. I was actually surprised how much I consulted them as I was working through the stitch embellishments to the project. It is very handy to see them stitched out! I am still working on this project and will somehow put them together when I finish.

Pages of my stitch library

The second reference tool I used today when I got to the background quilting of my project. I am using a swirl and curl background, as I call it. That consists of stippling and curls randomly used together, which makes a nice background fill for this project. If you look on my YouTube channel, I have a short little video where I show the making of a stippling size reference piece. This is particularly good when you need to try to keep the stippling the same size throughout the piece, so I pulled it out and used it for this project. So handy! Here’s the link.

I think I should make more such reference aids, and I plan to.

Then there is my Clover ball-pointed awl that I used to hold the little wool applique and pointed pieces in place when they weren’t sticking so well while I stitched them down. I use that a lot when I am appliqueing.

The problem with the Bernina foot made me think how much I enjoy using all the different Bernina feet and how much easier they make things or make things come out better. I do love my Berninas and I have no affiliation with the company. I am just a fan. They are all three (B350, B880 plus, Q20 sitdown) wonderful machines (or is that sewing Droids? You might click on that link and see what I mean).

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studios and make sure your tools are organized and accessible.

Using Those Scraps of Special Elements in the Studio

Posted on July 7, 2022June 7, 2023 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, My Studio, Project Management, Quilt Journal, Threads, Tools / 8 Comments

Hi everyone! I have been thinking about my crowded stash and studio tools amassed from decades of professional and personal sewing and quilting. I want to make something special with a lot of them…or maybe strive to build more than one amazing masterpiece project using these wonderful elements.

A collection of beautiful threads from Wonderfil.

This idea has been growing in my head for some time now and I have recently had conversations with two fabulous important quilters about this that further encouraged me. When I couple these elements with all the interesting things I have been learning about what I can do with my machines, it becomes very interesting indeed. I haven’t fully decided whether this is exactly going to be a Victorian style crazy quilt or a somewhat different design of my own with a crazy quilt and Victorian steam punk slant.

crepe back satin from my stash

Over my many decades of sewing and quilting, I have accumulated bits and leftover pieces of silk palace brocades, satins and dupionis, batiks, velveteens, wools, small bits of fabulous laces, vintage handkerchiefs, pieces of crochet that my Mom left me, small leftover lengths of silk ribbons and other special trims, and a collection of beautiful threads of a wide variety of sizes, fibers, and weights. To helo draw all of this together are my Berninas…my little B350 with several special attachments, my big Bernina 880 plus with its embroidry module and nice set of feet, and my Q20 sitdown longarm.

Sew, what would YOU do with this collection of elements and tools?

Edna Mode, waiting for an answer as to what to do with all these beautiful scraps and threads and interesting machines.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studios.

Cutters for the Fabric Artist, a Review

Posted on June 13, 2022 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, My Studio, Reviews, Tools / 2 Comments

I used to think that cutters beyond scissors or rotary cutters were not a necessity in my studio. Indeed, I was a little snobbish about it. LOL But now I would really not like to do without them. I have both a die cutter and a digital cutter and use them both.

Some years ago I bought the Accuquilt Go! cutter and have slowly added the admittedly expensive dies to my collection over the years. Quilt shows often have particularly good sales for these dies. The most important use I make of them is to cut borders, blocks, and bindings. I can cut out a fast simple cuddle quilt in a matter of minutes, truly, and they are accurate and easy. It enables me to make a wonderful quilt in a couple of days, complete with quilting and binding. It helps me use up some of the fabrics I have laying around, thereby freeing up space in my stash. I also have a collection of fun shapes..circles, leaves, animals, flowers, and so on…that I have used a lot, particularly when I was putting together kits for teaching and needed a lot of them, and they make a nice addition to some of those fast cuddle quilts. You can cut layers of fabric at once in the Go! cutter and it is an excellent tool for quilters of all stripes. I wouldn’t like to do without it.

I got a Brother Scan and Cut 125e in March for my birthday and now I wonder how I ever did without it, especially for the kind of applique quilting I often do. The primary advantage of a digital cutter for me, of course, is that I can design my own shapes, or use published patterns, and don’t have to depend on the die shapes that are available or cut intricate shapes out by scissors. You can only cut one layer at a time, but it will cut paper, fabric of a wide variety, cork, vinyl, plastic, and so on. You do need several kinds of mats and blades for cutting all those things, and I did find it a little hard to figure out at first, but it is so easy to use now that I have. I have made several greeting cards for friend and family with it too. I suspect other brands work as well, and my library has Silhouette cutters available for public use, which I have used. So you might check at your local libraries.

I have found that the Scan and Cut will cut fabrics with precision in very detailed shapes that are hard to accomplish with scissors. This is especially good as my aging hands with developing arthritis find such intricate cutting to be harder to do otherwise. In fact even if you don’t find scissors cutting difficult, the cutter is still a fast and accurate way to cut your appliques. I keep coming up with other ideas for its use.

So recently, over YouTube I learned how to make a stencil with the Scan and Cut and I plan on making some for marking refined and delicate quilting patterns on quilts. I have not yet tried it, but that opens a world of possibilities for future quilting. I have gotten pretty good in free motion stitching with my Bernina Q20 sitdown longarm without marks, but sometimes it is important to have the quilt marked for stitching with attention to detail or when you need symmetry. It will cut stencil plastic easily, but I am thinking of trying a doubled layer of freezer paper for single or limited use designs and it could be ironed in place for Pounce chalk marking. If I create quilting designs that I think will be useful on multiple quilts, I will cut it from the stencil plastic.

As those of you who follow my work know, I use stitched, raw-edge applique quite a lot. In the past, I printed out the applique shapes onto printer paper in reverse, and traced the shapes onto the fusible web and cut it out with scissors. Now, I send the shape to the Scan and Cut, iron the fusible web onto the fabric wrong side, and send it through the cutter. I get it done in a third of the time or less and with greater accuracy.

But what if you wanted to do stitched turned edge appliques? For that, I turn to the expertise of Kathy McNeil where she demonstrates the method, but I add in the cutter to help out. She uses a very light weight fusible interfacing precut by hand in the shape of her applique and irons it to the wrong side of her fabric, then cuts around it a little less than a quarter of an inch from the edge of the shape. Then she prepares the applique using glue and appliquick sticks available in her web store. Here’s a video of that process. She sews her appliques on by hand. I would use the machine of course.

So if I start with the applique shape I have drawn or downloaded on my computer, and instead of printing it onto paper and tracing it to the interfacing, I can wirelessly send it to the Scan and Cut from my computer. The shape needs to be reversed for ironing onto the back. You can do that at the cutter if you want to before cutting. Then cut the interfacing pieces and iron them to the applique fabric and continue as she shows with the sticks and the glue. So if you have a bunch of these appliques, you can cut as many as will fit onto a 15″ x 15″ piece of interfacing (the size of the cutting mat) at one time. It’s quite easy to take the shapes and move them around once they are digitally in your Scan and Cut. NOTE: You need to use the low tack mat for the really light weight interfacing by itself.

Sew I have found that having both cutters in my studio is a really nice addition to the tools available for me and they each have their own use and don’t cancel each other’s usefulness out. They are separate tools with their own uses.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio!

Happy 2022! Looking Forward to a Good Year

Posted on January 2, 2022January 2, 2022 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Ancient manuscripts, Applique, Books, Deep space quilts, High-Tech Studio, My micro-business, My Studio, skill building, Techniques, Tools, Videos, Wool

We made it through 2021! Hooray! Happy New Year everyone! I am taking a positive approach for 2022…expecting it to be a good year full of light, love, peace, and productivity! So what’s first up for Betty Jo’s Fabric Arts?

I talked a little about this in my last blog post.

I will soon be presenting the first in a three-part series of videos coupled with the publishing of a workbook with pattern for the Two Birds Project. The first part is completely filmed and being edited, and the workbook is fully written and being edited. The two remaining videos are filmed all but the short openings and I need to record the voice-over scripts for them. It will be a fun set for my followers and I’m excited to get to this point.
I am working on putting together a wool applique by machine project. Wait until you see what can be done with these techniques and materials! It’s really going to be fun!
I have worked up a production plan for the first part of the year that includes show quilts (to fit within my architectural, ancient manuscript, and deep space genres), applique projects (both wool and other fabrics), and multiple shorter technique skill project videos that I think you will enjoy. There may be other things too along the way. Plus a little bit of clothes sewing.

I got a fun addition to my studio for Christmas, a Brother Scan and Cut DX. I have been spending the last several days learning all about it and how best to use it. It adds lots of new possibilities and a great help for the applique quilts for sure, but I can also make some quilting stencils and other things I am thinking about. I now have both the Applique Go! with a nice collection of dies to help me cut multiple layers of fabric for snuggle/quick-to-make quilts and the Scan and Cut for cutting digitally created shapes for more complex individual applique designs among other things…how wonderful. Truly, except for wishing I had more space and storage (doesn’t everyone?), I have a marvelous studio for designing, quilting, and stitching adventures complete with the video equipment well set up for filming them. And yes, I also have significant help from my delightful family. Oh, and don’t forget, I have newly improved eyesight to help with all of this! I am totally thankful both to my kids and my Lord for all of this.

Sew I am making a kind of fresh move in my YouTube channel, pattern making, and books now at the beginning of 2022. Last year seems like kind of a rehearsal and learning period for me. So I’m excited. I hope to get a lot of new subscribers/readers and provide significant content you all will enjoy. I love sharing my work with you.

Let me know if there is a particular subject you want me to cover either in comments here or on my videos on YouTube. I will see what can be done.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studio!

Merry Christmas and New Adventures for 2022

Posted on December 19, 2021December 19, 2021 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Applique, Deep space quilts, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, Making Clothes, My micro-business, My Studio, Panel quilts, Project Management, Quilt Journal, Quilts for sale, Skill background, Videos, Wool / 2 Comments

I digitized and embroidered this star as an applique. It is on one of my Christmas quilts now owned by my church.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are already enjoying this wonderful season. It is one of my very most favorite times of the year. We are having a relatively simple celebration this year, but it is still joyous. Right now I have The Piano Guys YouTube videos of Christmas music playing while I write this. They are fun. Have you seen the one with the Christmas scene and all the cameras riding around in the little train, on the Christmas tree, and in the drone flying in the room? Here’s the link. It’s really fun. Or how about the one all done in legos. Here’s that link. So creative and beautifully performed.

Well, I finished the Two Birds quilt along with completing the filming of the videos. The whole stack of hours and hours of videos I made while I made the quilt, along with the voice over reading, and the intro and exits parts we filmed together last weekend are now being edited by my oldest son.

I have written the pattern and workbook that goes with it, and that too is being edited by the family team. I don’t know when we will get the first video of that project published but hopefully not long now. It’s a big job to edit such a tangle of videos, voice overs and corrections into three publishable videos that make sense and are also interesting. It has already taken much longer than any of us anticipated, but that was primarily due to my unrelated circumstances this year that delayed things, such as my cataract surgery among other things. But that is all behind me now and I greatly look forward to the coming new year.

I have every expectation that we will produce much more content for my YouTube channel at a bit faster pace and with ever increasingly interesting projects and building professionalism. I have gotten to where I don’t get bothered by the cameras, know how to set them up properly, and have lots of fun ideas for new stitching/quilting/videoing projects. I have learned that the videography is as important as the making of the fabric art piece to make it all work and find it also very interesting.

I still have only about a third of the subscribers and a fourth of the viewership needed to monetize the YouTube channel, but it is growing and I nevertheless enjoy being able to share my projects with my viewers. I hope you all enjoy the videos and will be happy to see them when a new one is published. We have several projects already planned for the new year.

First of all, I want to create some new wool applique by machine projects, because I think it is possible to make some stunningly beautiful pieces in this category that has hardly been touched in the quilting/fabric art world using the machine and my initial project was only a basic introductory layout of the techniques. It’s an adventure to see how far this can go.

Then I have three new show quilts in mind for 2o22 that I think you will all love or at least enjoy watching me make them. I hope I can succeed in getting all three made.

There will be a number of short and shorter videos showing techniques and use of tools.

And then I need to make some new clothes. I have everything I need for them and will try to spread them across the year so I have something new and fun to wear once in a while. I probably won’t buy any ready-made clothing this year just as a sort of challenge to myself for fun. I haven’t decided whether or not to video these projects. What do you think?

Sew happy everyone! Have a wonderful holiday season and I hope you also Have Fun in Your Studios!!!