Who is your Cheerleader?

Yes, you heard correctly! Cheerleader. We all need cheerleaders for different aspects of our life, so I am specifically referring to your quilting cheerleader. The person that pushes you just a bit past your comfort zone, lifts you up when your quilt didn’t turn out exactly how you planned and just in general is your quilting BFF.

Let me introduce you to mine… Barbara Persing. This past year with Covid and being recently divorced and living on just my income… it was a rough year to say the least. All of my teaching engagements were cancelled so there went almost all of my income. Barb was my rock through it all. I’m not sure where I’d be right now… well, I’d probably be working at a job I hate full time. lol Thank God for Barb.

She is a super successful quilter and business woman. Pattern writer, fabric designer, longarm quilter, teacher, and my official cheerleader! Here is her website if you want to check her out… https://barbarapersing.com/ . Follow her on Instagram as well. She has some exciting news coming soon…. see, I know this because I am her cheerleader!

Who is your cheerleader? Leave it in the comments! I’m always inspired when we lift each other up!

Ferns…

Love ’em, hate ’em… one thing is for sure… they are one of the easier motifs to quilt. You really can’t mess them up and they look pretty darn good!

Now to be honest… my go to motif is NOT ferns. But I’m fairly certain that those of you who have been following me for any amount of time know this… my go to is the feather. Surprisingly, not everyone likes feathers 😳. I don’t know what is wrong with them. But anyway….

My Heirloom Quilting Academy is in full swing and one of the students wanted me to give some more ideas on ferns. So I did a short video and thought that maybe you all would like to see it as well. So here ya go. Let me know below what your go to motif is?

Are you a planner?

Hi all,

When I ask if you are planner, I should say are you a planner user? I love planners but they have to be physical not digital. I need to be able to physically cross things off my list. How about you? Yes to a planner or no, you just wing it.

I have used so many over the years and I always start strong. Franklin Covey, Passion planner and Buller journals are just a few I have tried over the years. Each one fell short for one reason or another. When you are running a business though, I have found that I need a list each day or I tend to wake up with little to no direction.

This definitely doesn’t work for me. I need a plan for my day. So this past fall with all my spare time (thank you Covid) I discovered the Full Focus Planner. Wow! I love this planner. Best of all there are video instructions on how to use it! 😳 Yep, I said video instructions.

Some of the best features, in my opinion, are the Goal detail pages, daily rituals and the ideal week! You also get a weekly preview where you go over what worked and didn’t work for the week. So just a couple weeks ago …. I finally watched the video of the Ideal Week. OMG people!! what a game changer.

Of course, the ideal week is just that. It would be your best case scenario! But I will tell you, I have my ideal week mapped out and for the most part… I have stuck to it. I am so much more focused and am getting stuff done!

If you are interested in checking it out… click here. If you decide to purchase, you and I will get $10 off!

I have gotten the basic but they have different sizes and styles. I think my next one will have to be a purple one! I absolutely love mine! Drop me a note and tell me what you use or if you already use the Full Focus Planner.

Quilt Worthy?

We’ve all been there… you have worked your a** off on a beautiful quilt that you are gifting and it falls short when given. Whether the recipient doesn’t know how much goes into it or they aren’t into handmade gifts… it really doesn’t matter.

You are devastated because it took you forever to make it. I rarely gift quilts! and I mean almost never! I have found that the majority of people do not understand 1. how expensive they are to make, 2. how much time and effort it takes to make them. So how do you know if someone is quilt worthy?

That is different for everyone. I know quilters that give quilts away to all of their family members regardless. I love that but find it hard to part with my quilts. So for me…. my closest friends and family know how much goes into quilts and would care for and appreciate them. But other than that… I’m not so sure anyone else is quilt worthy.

Babyhood Pattern by Barbara Persing

For those people that may or may not be quilt worthy (you just don’t know) Barbara Persing has designed the cutest baby quilts. You can get the pattern which is only $20 for 4 patterns and do your own fusing or she has some laser cut kits as well. (if they aren’t there, they should soon)

Short story…. I was gonna make someone a quilt and stupidly mentioned to them. Next thing I knew… they were figuring out what pattern I was gonna use…. what colors and fabrics… I was like… wait… wait.. you fail to realize how this quilt giving goes. I make a pattern and choose the fabric that I think you will like and then I gift it to you. They were like… ah no… well, you don’t get a quilt then.

Am I the only one that needs to work with fabric that I like as well as a pattern that I’d like to make?

What about you? I am super interested in hearing your gifting stories. Leave them in the comments!

Tension…. It doesn’t have to Cause Tension

One of the most frustrating things in quilting is most definitely tension issues. It can cause the most patient person to loose their sh*t! So what causes the issues? The list is a little long! Thread, needle, fabric, batting, tension on the quilt top, the full moon, the half moon… 😂 ok well, maybe not the moon but sometimes it feels like it.

So let’s talk a moment about the stitch…. basically your top and bottom thread interlock and hopefully it is within the batting. Many times you will get something called the railroad… this is when the stitches lay on either the top or bottom of the quilt. If you are worried about your stitches on the back of the quilt, run your fingernail over the stitches… if it feels bumpy… you have a problem and you’ll need your seam ripper.

What to do when your tension is off.

1. Adjust your tension disk.
2. Rethread your machine.
3. Double check your bobbin tension, clean out your bobbin.
4. Loosen the tension on the quilt backing.
5. Put in a new needle (consider changing the size needle)

If these things don’t work… here are some things to consider.

1. What type of fabric are you using? Batik – consider using a ball point needle. Is it that white on white fabric? Sometimes you can use a silicone spray but your best bet… don’t use this fabric.
2. What type of batting are you using? If it is really thin… there is not a lot of room for the stitches to interlock. Is it a high quality batting… sometimes using the cheaper batting can cause tension issues or even thread breakage.
3. What type of thread are you using? Using high quality thread can reduce tension issues. Sometimes old thread can cause issues as well.

When all else fails… walk away. There have been times when I had tension issues… after spending way too much time trying to fix it, I decided to stop for the day. Came back the next day expecting the same issues… but alas, I believe a little helper came in the middle of the night and fixed it. Now that doesn’t happen all the time but sometimes walking away gives you some clarity.

It’s Done! Finally!

I feel like I have been starting all my blog posts with…. it’s been a while. I promise I will try harder to not let that happen!

Here’s what I’ve been up to!

The past 6 months I have been feverishly working on a comprehensive online course! And guess what??? It is finally done.

I had 32 fabulous students help me create this class and their input was invaluable! To all of you…. my biggest thank you!

The nerve wracking thing about creating the class is that as the students were hard at work on one week… I was working really hard on the following week. So I was only a week ahead of them. But I will tell you… if I had waited and created all the content before getting my beta group… the class would likely still be in my head. The process was very fluid which meant that if the students gave me feedback on providing more explanation… it was easily done.

This class took me out of my comfort zone which is something that I tell my students all the time. One of the aspects that I loved most about the class were the Zoom meetings. It was so great to see all of the faces and have productive Q & A’s! We became a little family. The students were super engaging on the private FB page. It was wonderful to see them supporting each other.

The great news is the lesson are prerecorded so you can learn when it is convenient for you! And the best.. you have lifetime access to the class.

Enrollment is now open, however, it is only open til March 28. As the first lesson is available March 29 and a new lesson will be available each week. If you sign up before Mar 22, you will receive the Perfect Plumes class as a bonus!

For all the details… click here! Don’t miss out, this is the only time the class will be at this price!

Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions

Whatcha Doing??

Well, we are flying into March and I’m not sure where January and February went! I have been diligently working with my Heirloom Quilting Academy (HQA) students! It has been so much fun and quite challenging as well. Lots of new tech stuff being learned all while creating the best online class with the help of my BETA group! I will be opening enrollment again soon for HQA, so if you are interested then make sure you get your name on the list! Here is a link for those that are interested in taking their quilting to new levels with personal help from yours truly!

I have also updated my website to a new fresh look! Check it out and let me know what you think! I have added information about Heirloom Quilting Academy as well as new video page which I am still working on!

I’m curious…. what have you all been doing? I’d love to see some quilts that you all are piecing, quilting, or binding! Send me some love!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Lisa

Is is Jan already???

It’s been a while. I don’t normally make New Year’s resolutions but I am determined to try and be more consistent with my blogging! So we shall see how that works out as the year progresses.

Currently I have my Founding members going through Heirloom Quilting Academy! They are on week 2! These very special people are helping me craft this course into something amazing! So I want to thank each of them! I will reopen this class for enrollment at the end of March/beginning of April! Stay tuned for more details.

I am currently working on a mini course as well. This is all about samplers and figuring out how to design the quilting. I use to hate getting samplers in but when I apply the same technique I use on all my other quilts… well, they turn out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. So stay tuned for the mini course… it’s coming soon….ish. lol

Here is a little sneak peak of the sampler I am working on right now. Just need to go in and finish the fill work.

Hope you all are staying safe!

Lisa

Founding Member Sale of Masterclass!

If you aren’t signed up for my newsletter you might just be missing out on a fantastic opportunity! Watch the video and then click on the link for more information!

Founding Member Information!

Looking for……

Hello all my lovely quilting peeps! As some know and some of you may not…. I am working on a class for January and it turns out I need some pictures that I think you all can help me with! Or at least I hope!

I am in need of pictures of quilt tops! I need busy ones, ones with open space… any and all! I am really in need of a sampler quilts! If you can help me out I would soooo appreciate it. They will be used in my design class.

If you are inclined to help and send me your pics….. email them to me at Lisahcalle@me.com

I would be so grateful!

Your needy friend, Lisa