Meet Judy “Feathers” Allen whose love of feather designs was inspired by a picture in a magazine. Judy shows how easy it is to draft our own using various sizes of circle templates. She varies the sizes of the individual feathers to make the overall design more interesting. Judy demonstrates feather designs for every situation including straight lines, curves, mirror images, etc. Next, she’ll show how to place the design on the quilt.

Judy Allen has shown the easy way to draft beautiful feather designs. Now she puts the designs onto the quilt top. “I’m a chicken quilter” she explains. “I want to know where I’ll be going.” She uses a series of paisley shaped rulers she designed called Judalator rulers to guide her stitching along the marked lines insuring accuracy. A light shot of spray adhesive adds a better grip keeping the ruler from slipping as she constantly moves it over the design. Her curved cross hatching stencil makes quick work of filling various shapes with cross hatched curves.

Having created stacks and stack of feather designs Judy decided she wanted to learn to digitize her patterns for safe keeping. She discovered the Art and Stitch software program which allows her to draw from scratch or take a photograph and turn that into a design.

Jodie joins Judy at the computer to see just how easy it is to draw a pattern, make corrections, and play with the design. She teaches three- and five- day courses on this topic, so if you want to learn more, visit her web site.

Judy likes a quilt to have lots of open space to quilt. She uses Hobbs 20/80 batting so the intricate design pops out. Superior Thread’s Rainbow Series with multiple colors and shine are a favorite. Her book The Art of Feather Quilting showcases over 100 designs.

Quick Takes on Longarm Quilting with Vickie Hoth

How do we transfer Judy’s patterns for both garment sewing and quilts onto the fabric? Vickie shows Jodie a couple of ways to easily handle this task using Golden Threads paper. The paper is so see-thru it is easy to trace the pattern with a blue water soluble marker. Attach the paper to the fabric using the Dot Stamper and stitch right through the pattern. The second method uses the same paper to easily make a stencil. Simply trace the design, stitch the pattern without thread  in the needle, and use pounce chalk to transfer the pattern.

For information on what you see on the show, click here.

Mark’s door knock is with longarm quilters Wilma and Jim Cogliantry of Christian Lane Quilters. Jim joined Wilma in the longarm quilting business after being downsized, and they’ve never looked back.

Lisa and Jim Salonia of Lisa’s Clover Hill Quilts and Wilma and Jim Cogliantry of Christian Lane Quilters discuss with Jodie how and why their togetherness works. Then, Jodie and Mark are back at the quilt shop for the book reviews and show and tell of quilts from the books.

For information on what you see on the show, click here.

In the second segment, Patti shares a cute project to make for a graduate. The mini quilt is easy to make using Warm Bond batting from the Warm Company and is cleverly embellished with some simple embroidery stitches you can learn with Patrick. Watch as she shows Patrick how to embellish your quilts.

 In the third segment, Patti shows us another great little gift for a graduate (or for yourself!). Use iron-on vinyl to create a protective and attractive case for a tablet. Patrick also has a new pattern for the “Bubbly Butterflies” quilt you’ve been requesting.

Mark Lipinski and Jodie Davis open the show at Lisa’s Clover Hill Quilts shop in Berlin, Connecticut. 

Mark shows his Stars and Stripes the Quilts of Valor quilt. Jodie goes to the sewing machine to show us how a gadget that comes with most every sewing machine can make you an echo stitching star.

Mark’s door knock is with longarm quilters Wilma and Jim Cogliantry of Christian Lane Quilters. Jim joined Wilma in the longarm quilting business after being downsized, and they’ve never looked back. See how these couples are making quilting a family business!

Lisa and Jim Salonia of Lisa’s Clover Hill Quilts and Wilma and Jim Cogliantry of Christian Lane Quilters discuss with Jodie how and why their togetherness works.

Then, Jodie and Mark are back at the quilt shop for the book reviews and show-and-tell of quilts from the books.

 Watch Quilt Out Loud!

I met Angela Walters last fall at Quilt Market and knew immediately that she was going places. She’s a real doer, in a quiet but one-foot-in-front-of-the-other manner. She happened to pop me an email at just the right time, and we decided to take a chance on inviting her to be on Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show. She was wonderful. This gave me the opportunity to get to know her. There’s good reason she has become successful so quickly in business. She and her husband own several bsuineeses so she knows business!

So, I wasn’t surprised to discover that the girl made the news. Check this video out and do read her blog and buy her book. Oh, and watch her on QNNtv.com. She’s our June star! 

~Jodie

For information about what you see on the show, click here!

Click here for information about what you see on the show.