0 modern machine quilting {blog hop}

Hello, happy Friday to you all! Welcome to my stop on Modern Machine Quilting DVD blog hop.

I've long been admiring my friend Catherine Redford's quilting skills (we both belong to Naperville Modern Quilters Guild), especially her flawless spirals, and I was super excited when Catherine told me she was working on a DVD teaching walking foot quilting.

Walking foot is my best friend when it comes to quilting but I knew there was tons I could learn from Catherine. So, as soon as my instant download showed up in my Interweave account I watched the whole DVD and I was impressed. Even better, I was instantly inspired to give some of Catherine's techniques a try. Want to see?

I made myself a set of placemats and I went to work.

I could not believe my eyes how perfectly perfect my spiral turned out when I followed Catherine's directions. Seriously!!! I tried spirals before but my center stitches were never so beautifully smooth and perfectly spaced out.

I also did some simple straight line quilting. This, however, was the first time I dared to make stitches go in different directions. I was always afraid of all those stops and turns and how to bury the thread so it does not show and such, but Catherine explained it so well that I had no problems at all. 

In fact, I enjoyed this kind of quilting so much I did even more "stops and turns" on this placemat. 

I can honestly say that thanks to Catherine's wonderful teaching and expert advise I have been able to expand my quilting skills beyond simply stitching from one side of quilt to another :).

But the DVD is not only about straight line quilting. There are also tons of useful tricks and tips on square spirals, serpentine stitching, as well as advice on thread, needles, and basting the quilt.

So, what do you say? Are you ready to check out the DVD (or instant download) for yourself? You can purchase your copy here.

Also, Catherine is giving away two free copies of this fantastic DVD. Just hop on over to her blog and leave a comment.

Hope you'll follow along with other hoppers to hear what they have to say about Catherine's Modern Machine Quilting: Straight Lines, Spirals, Serpentines, and More! DVD (video class).

Monday, December 15th: Faith Jones at Fresh Lemons Quilts
Tuesday, December 16th: Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville
Wednesday, December 17th: Cheryl Sleboda at Muppin
Thursday, December 18th: Maddie Kertay at Bad Ass Quilters Society
Friday, December 19th: Svetlana Sotak at s.o.t.a.k. handmade
Saturday, December 20th: Julia Wood at The Hexie Blog
Sunday, December 21st: Laura Wasilowski at Art Fabrik
Monday, December 22nd: Pokey Bolton at Pokey’s Ponderings
Tuesday, December 23rd: Susan Brubaker Knapp at Blue Moon River
Wednesday, December 24th: Catherine Redford

Wishing you all a very lovely weekend. Svetlana

Detail: modern machine quilting {blog hop}

0 more placemats

My quilting mojo seems to have left me for the moment :( I was sure I'd make quite a few Scrappy Delight blocks for my son's quilt over the weekend but I simply did not feel like it. Instead, I did some small project sewing and quilting. Nothing too fancy or complicated, though.

 I decided to cut into this lovely cheater print by Suzuko Koseki and make some placemats for our new dining room table.

 I've been thinking about my quilting and use of color for quite some time and one thing I'd really like to concentrate on is using deeper, saturated colors more. It doesn't come easy to me, I must say, so using this mustardy yellow for the binding was a small step in that direction. Plus, there's some BROWN in Suzuko's print. I'm learning to embrace brown, too.

Do you have certain go to colors? Or some you tend to avoid? Do tell.

Detail: more placemats