Giveaways

Don't forget to visit the Giveaway Page to see all the fun quilt related giveaways that I find throughout blog land! Remember that you can always link up your own giveaways to get more traffic to your site.

~ Norma

Cyber Monday Sale

All of my Portrait Silhouettes are on sale for Cyber Monday. All day, November 26, 2012 Buy any 2 and get one free (of equal or lesser value.) I will create a digital file for you to use any way you like, prints, crafts, quilts, gifts etc. (Refunds will be issued via Paypal after order is placed)

 

I can make a wonderful silhouette of your children, grandchildren, couples, adults, or even pets! I have made hundreds of these silhouettes and have never received negative feedback. I strive for 100% customer satisfaction. Here are some examples of my work.

 

Visit the shop.
~ Norma

Holiday Lane

Today is the day I get to share my Holiday Lane pillow with you.

Grateful

Today I am grateful for so much more than I deserve. I could write a list a mile long for all the things I’m grateful for. At the top of the list are 4 very important people that are my world, my husband and 3 kids. I'm especially grateful that we are together because I can’t stand it when we are apart even if it is for just a few days, and even when it’s for something great (a wedding.) I can not imagine my world without my family. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Norma

 

PS I’m grateful it doesn’t snow (hardly ever) in the south. That picture was taken 1.5 weeks ago in Bountiful, UT. Just my husband and little guy went and I missed them to pieces.

Binding on the Back

During the 31 Days of Walking Foot Quilting I promised I would take some pictures to show you what the binding will look like on the back of the quilt.

1” Craziness

Working on…

I’m working on two projects right now. One for an upcoming blog hop so I can’t show it to you yet, but I will next week. The other is a Christmas Pattern I’m working on. I’m trying to get it done (yet again) in time for the Christmas season. If I don’t finish it up in the next week or so I don’t know if I’ll release it this year. It’s a small pillow or wall hanging so in order for it to be useful this year I have to make sure I release the pattern with enough time for others to make it. Maybe I’m just a super slow quilter! I kinda think it’s the kids, and the household :) Anyway, here is a sneak peek.

Yup, there’s a little bit of embroidery involved. Every once in a while I indulge in a little hand work, but don’t tell anyone.
~ Norma

Elephants

I just finished up another baby quilt. I am soooo in love with the backing fabric. It is fun, vibrant and girly (without being pink!)

Stats:
41.5”x32”
1 layer of Warm n’ White batting
Fabric: Kona Cotton “Snow” on front. A pink print for the name. Karavan by Valori Wells was used on the back (PWVW038Artisian.) Kona Cotton “Lime” for binding. 

~Norma

DIY Side Clamps

This morning I decided to make an improvement to my HQ16 to help me get better results for applying tension to the sides of a quilt. This could easily be adapted to other long arm machines or even domestic machines on a frame.
Two of these spring clamps came with my machine and frame:

I have a few issues with using these for side tensioning:
1) they are pretty hard to open
2) they are about 1” wide at the orange tip (not wide enough to provide even tension)
3) the machine only came with 2 (one per side) so no matter how you set it up you will get uneven tension
4) the Velcro tails provide no “give.” It made it pretty difficult to not over tension the sides of the quilt.

Binding with a Walking Foot–Part 2

(Day 31 of a 31 Day Series)

Well 30 straight days of blogging out of 31 isn’t bad. Let’s finish up out bindings!

… continued from Part 1

OK so once you have made it through step 10, our next step is to join the binding.

11) We are dealing with the 10-12” gap we left in the binding. Pull the binding taught so that the binding meets in the middle of your “gap.” You’ll want it to be pretty taught if it’s loose you’ll end up with puckers in your binding. Once your binding meets in the middle fold back the tails onto the binding leaving a small gap (about 1/16”.) Finger press hard down the width of the binding. You’ll need to be able to see those creases in the next step. The reason for that little 1/16” gap is that it will account for the stretchiness of the fabric. Just trust me, it’ll turn out perfect in the end.