Craftsy Sweetens Up My Life Blog Hop

OH YES, I'm taking part in another Blog Hop,

 this time with Craftsy and a few of my quilty friends.

logo courtesy of Craftsy

 A Blog Hop with great discounts and competitions. Check out the Craftsy website enter the giveaway "here".

When Sandra of Musings of a Menopausal Melon and Julie of Pink Doxies asked me to take part in the Craftsy Sweetens Up My Life Blog Hop, it was "yes" after a split second hesitation. The plan was to  review our favourite Crafty class. So here goes ~

Helen of Midget Gem Quilts Blog Spot features "Helen Goes Walking" in conjunction with Craftsy Sweetens Up My Life Blog Hop. And here's my very own button thingy m'jig to prove it.

My favourite class is the first class I took, Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot" by Jacquie Gering. Although I have been sewing off and on for many a long year, I was always more confident about the piecing. The actual quilting was always more of an endurance for me. Something to be got through to get the end result. A necessary evil so to speak. I needed help, others seem to enjoy the quilting as much as the piecing. Why wasn't I? So, back to basics and start from the beginning.

photo courtesy of Craftsy

Jacquie really did come to my rescue. She covers the basics, assuming very little knowledge of quilting. Perfect for the beginner. She explains the components of the walking foot and how to fix it onto your machine (more about that later). Although this may be teaching your granny to suck eggs in some cases, it is very important. If you can't attach the walking foot to the sewing machine, you can't use the walking foot. Yet Jacquie doesn't patronise or make you feel stupid. She's just a friend on your computer screen, reminding you how to do what you're pretending you've just forgotten.

photo courtesy of Craftsy

She also gives loads of tips on how to help make your quilt sandwich and baste it. No matter how accomplished you are its always good to be reminded of this. Last week I arm wrestled a quilt into submission and eventually got it basted. I was determined I was going to win the battle of the basting. Well, rewatching this class to write this review, I was muttering to myself "wish I had done this last week .... I'd forgotten to do that". Obviously I can't tell you and be responsible for spoilers. Everybody hates a  spoiler when watching the telly.

Having covered the basics Jacquie goes onto advice on different types of straight line quilting. I love straight line quilting. You would think you just quilt, straight. But ... there's an art even to this and Jacquie does a great job in explaining this. I followed her advice on my heart quilt, the photo in my header. It made all the difference. This pixelated heart quilt was manhandled on my old Janome machine and walking foot. Jacquie's advice made this go much smoother than my previous quilts. The shoulders were definitely less sore when I'd finished, though I may have not burnt so many calories in the effort!

At Christmas I got a new Pfaff Ambition 1.0 and began quilting my Modern Maples Quilt. I rewatched Jacquie's class just to refresh my mind with my new machine. I spent at least 10 minutes trying to attach my old walking foot before getting out the manual and realising it was built into the Pfaff. Always read the manual! Anyhow, Jacquie's advice still runs true.

Daft as it sounds, since "meeting Jacquie" not only has my quilting improved and become a pleasure, my swearing has improved or at least lessened. And, as I'm not quilt wrangling as much, my posture has improved. In fact, I HAD thought I had finished the quilting on the modern maples quilt, but having watched Jacuqie's lesson again, I have decided to over quilt with a diagonal flourish over the straight matchstick quilting. Just like this photo from Jacquie's class.

photo courtesy of Craftsy

Something I plan to master soon is this circular quilting with your walking foot. These two brilliant photos are from the class, not mine.... but watch this space for my circular quilting in a few weeks!

photo courtesy of Craftsy

So ........ do it........... buy a Craftsy class and change if not your life, your sewing. Make use of the great discounts in this blog hop. By clicking on this link you can get Jacquie's class at a discount of 50% valid until 17 February, midnight US time. And, Craftsy also sell great kits and fabrics, I feel my money burning a hole in my pocket.

And, having gone straight line with my quilting, I'm following after Sandra and trying out Angela Walters' "Machine Quilting Negative Spaces with Angela Walters".

Oh, one more thing, with the super duper Craftsy App you can flick through your classes whilst you are waiting at the bus stop, waiting for the kettle to boil, while you are pretending to be on FaceBook. Its good to keep at the Life Long Learning, it keeps the little grey cells working and keeps those circles of life, quilting or otherwise, moving. And we all need to keep our circles increasing not decreasing.

Don't forget to check out everybody else's blog posts. I have made such fun friends QBL, Quilting Blog Land, please do go check them out.

Wednesday 10 February
Judy at Quilt Paradigm
and MEEEEEEEEEE, Helen Midget Gem Quilts

Thursday 11 February
Cindy at Stitchin At Home
Vicky at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Friday 12 February
Zenia at A Quilted Passion
Jayne at Twiggy and Opal

Saturday 13 February
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Anja at Anja Quilts

Sunday 14 February
Beth at Cooking Up Quilts
Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts

Monday 15 February
Julie at Pink Doxies
Sandra at Musings of a Menopausal Melon


And what about these 3 great prizes? There are 2 free classes and 1 package of fabric. The fabric package is combined of the following
1 Boundless Solids Amy Gibson Crown Jewels Kit (kit)
2 Boundless Solids  Colour Theory 6 in Str Modern Brights (stripes)
3 Boundless Solids Colour Theory 10 in square Modern Brights (squares)
entries close on Sunday 21 February, midnight American time, whatever that is! Enter through the giveaway link "here"

Helen x


ps if you are looking for me, I may be hiding under the duvet

also linking up with Lorna and Lets Bee Social