Yours truly will be teaching this class on Saturday, October 14, 2023 from 10:00 a.m. – noon at the Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum in Carrollton.

We’ll be using the pattern Memi’s Lemons by Fran Gulick of Cotton + Joy to create our table runner. Class fee is $50.00 and a printed copy of the pattern (which includes templates) is included with the class. A supply list and registration details may be found here.

This class is for confident beginners and up. Skill levels and sewing speed vary widely; however, students should be able to complete 1-2 lemon blocks during class.

Curved piecing isn’t difficult with a few helpful tips and a little practice.

Come conquer your curved piecing fears once and for all!

Fabrics used in table runner pictured are from the designer’s Daybreak collection, background is Confetti Cottons in Riley White and binding/backing are a discontinued Liberty print from my stash. Machine quilted by me using Glide 40 wt. thread in Cream.

Hopefully, I can save you time and frustration.

I was trying to program my 8900 to make a single clasp stitch, tie off and cut the threads so my student could easily machine tie/tack her quilt. I dutifully followed the instructions on page 78 in the manual, but could not for the life of me find the L.S. stitch on the stitch chart across the top of the machine. (BTW pressing the tie off button above the reverse button didn’t work either when trying to program the stitch combination.)

It’s not there. Nor is it specifically mentioned in the manual where to find it.

However, take a look at Figure 3 on page 84 in the manual. The square represents a blank space and next to it is the elusive L.S.! You can find the L.S. stitch between stitches 143 and 144 using your jog dial:

The blank space and L.S. stitch feature can also be found right before the Utility, Heirloom, Quilt, Satin, Bridge, Long and Pictograph stitch groups as you rotate through the stitches using the jog dial. Again, it’s not reflected the stitch chart nor in the manual, but know that it’s there!

Here’s a screenshot of what my clasp stitch programming looks like. We found it’s easier to unplug the foot pedal and use the start/stop feature to make clasp stitches while machine tying/tacking a quilt.

You can bet I saved that stitch sequence to my machine’s memory bank, too!

Ten days ago, hubs and I left on our long-awaited trip to Alaska. We flew into Anchorage and traversed the interior portion from Seward up to Coldfoot by car, train, small plane and tour van. We caught a red-eye flight from Fairbanks back to Atlanta via Seattle. We arrived home exhausted, but the trip was MAGNIFICENT.

We were in Alaska during “shoulder season” – the period between Labor Day and October 1st. Crowds are fewer in number and hotel/excursion costs are a little cheaper. The trade-off is not every attraction will still be open the later in September that you visit. The sweet spot seems to be the window between Labor Day and the weekend closest to September 15th. We found this particularly true for Seward. The quilt shop was one of the few retail shops still open (meaning not closed for the season) and there were very few options open for lunch. Anchorage and Fairbanks still had plenty of dining and shopping options still open; however, several attractions were in the process of transitioning to winter hours. Tip: research activities you want to do FIRST, find out their season start/end dates and then plan your actual travel dates.

After receiving quotes from tour companies for the land-only portion of the trip, I decided to DIY our travel arrangements. Yes, Alaska is an expensive place to visit, but this is a prime opportunity to redeem any travel rewards and credit card loyalty points you’ve been hoarding. Our total costs for the trip were less than half of the amounts quoted by the tour companies. The bonus? We were able to stay in nicer hotels, discover great local restaurants AND travel on our own schedule.

Anchorage, Fairbanks and Seward all have at least one quilt shop. You’ll also find Joann’s and Michael’s in Anchorage and Fairbanks, plus a bevy of independent yarn, needlework and craft supply stores. Seward is a popular cruise ship port, so I wasn’t surprised to discover Sew’n Bee Cozy offers lots of panels, fabrics and patterns with Alaska themes. There’s a lot of merchandise in a small space! I only had time to visit two quilt shops in Anchorage. Cabin Fever offers lots of batiks along with the usual Alaska themed quilty stuff, but also curates a selection of fabric and supplies specifically made/designed by fellow Alaskans. The two ladies working the day we visited were so friendly and helpful. Seams Like Home carries a ton of Tula Pink and Sue Spargo merchandise, plus an assortment of Alaska themed kits. Hubs and I both admired the vintage sewing machines on display in the shop. My favorite of all four shops I visited was Northern Threads in Fairbanks. It’s exactly what I imagined an Alaska quilt shop would look like – modern log cabin – with all the current fabric designers I like and a curated selection of Alaska themed kits, fabrics and patterns. With all the shops, I was pleasantly surprised to find fabric priced very similar to what I pay in quilt shops here in Atlanta.

Not all shopping was quilty in nature. Of course, we brought home the obligatory souvenirs for Grandma and Poppy as a way to say thanks for keeping Big Girl while we went on vacation. Which leads me to this ask of retail shop owners: if you are very passionate about your politics and display multiple LARGE signs/banners around the shop supporting your position(s), are you aware this is probably a HUGE turn-off to about half of your potential customers? I may be a tad on a conservative side, but I do keep an open mind. I wasn’t the least bit bothered by the sign on your door or the rainbow flag display at the front. However, the more I saw as I moved about your space, the less I wanted to support your shop. That’s why I quickly left empty-handed. 😦