KathyQuilts.com under construction

If you ever get the chance to visit Utah, you will notice that there always seems to be some road construction going on. I heard someone say one time that there are two seasons in Utah, Winter and Construction. I am sure that there is lots of road work going on in other parts of the country, but it seems like there are frequent slow downs because of road construction when I need to be some place "RIGHT NOW."

We have some construction projects at our house. I have three major projects that I have been working on. We have a 10 by 30 porch that I needed to put sheet rock on the vaulted ceiling and a storage lean too, (not quite sure how you spell that) on the North side of our house. We also have some kitchen cabinets and trim that I need to finish up in our Kitchen.

I have spend a lot of years in the construction business, so I do most of this work myself. When I work on the construction, our business suffers. Conversely, when I work on our internet business, our construction projects get put on the back burner. I sometimes hate these home makeover shows where the get everything done is a couple of days. Kathy wonders why I can't get my work done faster. I guess I wonder that as well.



I wanted to post on our blog today to see what people think about quilting hanging shelves that I have made for around our house. I have friends and relatives say that we should be selling these. We have an older house where part of it is over 100 years old. Having some shabby chic type shelves seems to work pretty well. Here are some pictures of our shelves:






We will have these available in four and six foot lengths. Right the color selection is easy right now, white.

Help Sponsor Lynn in the Tour de Cure!

The Tour de Cure bicycle ride is fast approaching. On June 13th I will be riding the 104 mile route. I have participated in this event for the past four years. I am so excited to be a part of this awesome cause. I know many people, many of which are relatives, that have to live with this life threatening disease. I hope that you will be able to support me in my efforts to raise $1500 for the fight against Diabetes. Even if you can only afford a little amount, it will all add up. I have a long way to go to hit my goal of $1500. I want to thank you for your help.

Here is a link where you can sponsor me:
http://main.diabetes.org/goto/Sponsor.Lynn.Barlow

Thank you!

Lynn
KathyQuilts.com

Here is a copy of the route we will take this year if you want to see where we ride:

10 reasons you will fail with your machine frame

If you are looking for a machine quilting frame or have just purchased one I am here to tell you that you wasted your money! If you had a professional longarm machine quilter that you took your quilts to get them quilted, and not you think you will do the quilting yourself, then you are delusional. Do you really think that you can just get a machine frame and use your domestic sewing machine and do the same work as a professional?

These might be harsh statements, but there really is an element of truth in the previous paragraph. With what I have just said, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I know of many people that with the right training, were able to over come the stumbling blocks that kill any chance of successfully learning how to use a machine frame.

These are the top ten reasons that people fail when they try to get started machine quilting:

ONE: Quilting on this frame is a lot harder than the sales people made it sound.

TWO: How do I load my quilt on the frame?

THREE: I can't make the machine quilting frame do what I want.

FOUR: My thread keeps breaking

FIVE: What patterns do I follow to quilt my quilt?

SIX: I can't get my stitches even.

SEVEN: My quilt doesn't look anything like the pattern I followed.

EIGHT: What do I do in the borders?

NINE: Why do I have puckering on my quilt back?

TEN: How do I get started machine quilting?

These are questions that I answer everyday. This is why Kathy and I wrote Machine Quilting Magic. In a perfect world, everyone that bought a machine frame would be able to attain the level of proficiency that they envisioned when they first bought their frame. Since this isn't a perfect world, then you need to be taught or need to learn how to machine quilt. Classes are nice, but about 75% of what you learn leaves after the first day after the class. You ask yourself, "How did they do that again?" Books are nice, but it is really hard to find books that show the detail you need. We have found that eBooks are very good at helping people learn at a accelerated rate.

Check out http://machinequiltingmagic.com to learn everything you need to have your quilting experience be a happy one. I speak with too many people that are bummed out and want to throw away their frame. One reason they feel so much pressure is that they have spent a sizable chunk of money on their frame and they don't feel they are getting their money's worth. Not everyone will be a gifted machine quilter, but anyone that is persistent and has the desire can become as good a quilter as 70% of the professional machine quilters out there today.

Now it the time to get started. Visit KathyQuilts.com if you still haven't bought your frame, or visit MachineQuiltingMagic.com if you already have a frame.

Good Luck!

-Lynn
KathyQuilts.com

Calling All Quilters! New Ideas!! Emma's New eBook

Calling All Quilters! New Ideas!!


By now, most of you machine quilters have been practicing, practicing, practicing. If you're brand-new at quilting - take the advice to just practice, practice, practice. I promise that you'll get so much better!

Are you tired of the Loops and Stars? Tired of the old stippling? Are you stumped for new designs to quilt - designs that will help you stretch your imagination? Well, I would tell you to ALWAYS look at everything you see with the idea that it might be able to be used as a quilting design. Look at the tiles on the floor, and the pattern they make. Check out the old wallpaper in the restaurant while you're waiting for your food or visiting the bathroom (the bathrooms have the MOST interesting patterns on the walls and floor!) Look at the printing design on fabric or clothing. Always keep some paper to doodle your designs on, and save these in a binder for your future quilting use.

There are SO MANY better ideas that you can quilt than the old stippling. And if you want more ideas, you should check out the new E-Book on CD or Download that we have on our website. It's called Emma Rae Designs, and it's full of fun new designs that will inspire you to start more quilts!

I've been quilting for 11 years, and these designs are all new to me, so I was excited to try them out. What I like about the book is that there are some designs that are simple to quilt, and then, if you enjoy them, you can add to the simple design to make it a little more elaborate, or leave the design simple and quilt them over and over. There are flowers and leaves. There are swirls and flames. There are waves and spikes. And my favorite is a Party Swirl, with confetti coming off of the main stem. What a great idea!

You can use these designs as overall designs on a quilt, or as individual designs in a block, or even special designs quilted in the borders of your quilt. You can look at the designs, and you can quilt them as large or as small as you'd like. I just love it that Emma Rae has saved me the time of trying to think of different things to quilt, and these are very innovative. I'm always looking for designs to quilt on a man's quilt, designs that aren't too flowery, and there are several swirl designs here that I love for more masculine quilts. I had a great time quilting all these designs on a quilt of my own after reading the book.

Click here to read more about this awesome new eBook or if you go to our www.kathyquilts.com You can purchase the E-book on a CD to use with your computer, or as a download which goes directly to your computer. These books open by using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is also included on the CD if your computer doesn't have it. But most computers have it already installed.

I tested these designs, and love them. I hope you'll enjoy these new, innovative designs as much as I enjoy them. It just so fun to have something new to quilt.

Happy Quilting! (and remember - Practice, Practice, Practice!)

Kathy
www.kathyquilts.com

Moving past "Quilter's Block" - Motivation to Quilt

It is funny that sometimes Kathy finds it to be really hard to quilt. Kathy is a celebrity to many of us because of her years of quilting experience. We think that when it comes to quilting she walks a foot off the ground, and she never has any challenges. Surprise! She has trouble figuring out what to do just like the rest of us. Granted, she will take less time figuring it out than most of us, but she can sometimes get what I call "Quilter's Block."

Sometimes Kathy has a customer bring her a really ugly quilt. Wild colors, or really bad piecing, or sometimes they are just ugly. So what do you do? You just quilt it! I have seen quilts that were not very pleasing to the eye, that after they have been quilted, they are a 1000% better!

The moral of this post is to make sure that you quilt the ugly ones as well as the awesome quilts.

Don't whine - Just Quilt It!

Make sure you link your web site to http://machinequiltingmagic.com/
This is the web site for our new eBook Machine Quilting Magic. This really is a book that all shortarm and midarm machine quilters should read. There is something in there for everyone.

Thanks,

Lynn
KathyQuilts.com

New Quilting Web Sites

Hi,

Here are a couple of web sites that we are now running to help shortarm machine quilters and people with shortarm machine quilting frames.

http://shortarmmachinequilting.com/ and http://machinequiltingmagic.com/
are web sites where we will be working with people to help them become better quilters.

For right now these web sites have the same page, but we will add more content over the next little while. Please feel free to share these web site with your friends or anyone you thing might be interested in learning more about how to improve their quilting.

Thanks,

Lynn
KathyQuilts.com

Machine Quilting Magic helps readers learn machine quilting

Hi,

We released Shortarm Machine Magic last December, and has a really good response. There seemed to be a some confusion over what a shortarm machine was, so we have changed the name to Machine Quilting Magic. There are only some minor grammatical changes where I made mistakes. The focus is still on how people using any sewing machine or machine frame can get more out of their quilting.

Kathy and I feel that the quilting on your quilt should help to bring out the personality of the quilt. Unless you are doing a wholecloth quilt where the quilting is the most important thing, your quilting should serve to bring your quilt to life.

It doesn't matter what frame you have, we can help you to learn everything you need to get started machine quilting. If you have done a few quilts on your frame, but find that you are relying upon meandering or stippling too much, then Machine Quilting Magic will help you to learn more possibilities of what you can do.

Here is a link to get your copy of Machine Quilting Magic:
Download version:
http://www.kathyquilts.com/customer/product.php?productid=990

CD version:
http://www.kathyquilts.com/customer/product.php?productid=989

We also have a new Yahoo user group that is awesome because Kathy posts to that one. Here is the link so you can join our group:

Subscribe: Gracemachineframe-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Thanks,

Lynn

2009 is going to be Great for Quilting!

We are really excited with our new eBook that was released in December. We have received rave reviews and are so pleased with the comments. Quilting with Kathy - Shortarm Machine Magic, is a Quilting Class on CD.

You might be able to take a class from a local person, but after the class, how are you going to remember what you were taught? This new CD allows you to study concepts from the very basics of how to machine quilt, doing borders, quilting blocks larger than your machine, fill patterns, as well as other techniques you will need to help you become the best quilter you can. We show you how to do longarm quilting on a shortarm frame.

Click here to read more about this awesome new class that you can participate in by popping it into your computer!

With the success of this eBook, we are working on some follow up books for more advanced machine quilting topics, how to bind your quilt, and how to quilt on a hand frame or quilting hoop. We have a lot to share, so we want to help as many people as we can.

Please read through some of the old posts on our Blog. Our new years resolution is to post on a more regular basis on our Blog.

Thanks!

Lynn
KathyQuilts.com