Happy International Women's Day

I've been thinking about this event all day and wondering about myself and the power I hold as a woman to affect the lives and careers of other women.  I have worked in women-dominated professions my entire life and sometimes I wonder if we, as women, understand the power we wield and the ramifications of supporting and encouraging other women. And on the flip side are we aware of the destructive, soul killing consequences of undermining another woman? 

A wickedly smart friend of mine created a little signal that we could give each other when we were subconsciously or even consciously undermining another woman.  It was supposed to be a "heads up," think about what you're saying signal. We've all done it.  We talk behind someone's back. We make negative assumptions of how and why another woman achieved notoriety or success. We say or do things to bring other women down. Does it arise from jealousy?  Are we trying to equalize power with women we are competing with? Read about "Dead Even Power," it's enlightening. Or, even worse, are we wired to be that way?

I write this as a reminder to myself. I try to remember that lifting others, especially other women lifts me. In 2020 I will visualize that symbol before I speak and not after.  I can do better.

WALK 2.0 Preview 2

WALK 2.0 begins with a chapter entitled "Walking Foot Refresh". Even I need a little brush up on skills and techniques every once and awhile and I'm always learning so there are a few new and improved ideas for you in this chapter along with a nice overview of what every walking foot quilter should know.  If you are a beginner or haven't quilted for awhile I recommend that you start with the "Walking Foot 101" chapter in the first WALK book.

The "Big Six"

I've created a set of skills that are the fundamentals for all walking foot quilters.  When you master these six you can tackle about any design.  The big six walking foot skills in order of difficulty are:

1. Following a marked line
2. Echoing straight and curved lines
3. Echoing with 90-degree and other angled turns without marking
4. Point to point lines with pivoting
5. Quilting in reverse
6. Gentle curves which includes arcs, s-curves and free form curves

In addition to The Big Six which I consider basics, I've added one advanced skill:

1.  Turning and quilt manipulation

While these skills aren't everything you need to know as a walking foot quilter, they will give you a firm foundation and the confidence to tackle more challenging designs and larger quilts on your home sewing machine.

The Walking Foot Refresh chapter reviews The Big Six and gives you hints, tips and techniques to master these skills. Chapter 4, which is the Rotational Designs chapter focuses on tackling turning designs and has lots of great information on how to adapt challenging turning designs to make them more continuous and easier to quilt on larger quilts.

Pre-order your copy  of WALK 2.0 today!

WALK 2.0 Preview 1

How about a little sneak peek into my new book WALK 2.0 More Machine Quilting With Your Walking Foot?  I'm so excited about the release of the new book.  The Limited Edition will be released at QuiltCon coming up in Austin in about a week and the regular edition will be available in April.  Both are available for pre-order, the limited edition from the Lucky Spool site for pick up at QuiltCon and the regular edition on Amazon.  As soon as I receive copies of the regular edition I'll have signed copies available for purchase on my website, so you can wait until then to get a personalized copy in case you won't be in Austin.  I'll announce when they are available.

Table of Contents

• Walk On
• Walking Foot Refresh
• 60-degree Designs
• Sashiko-Inspired Designs
• Rotational Designs
• Variations
• Quilt as Desired

The book has a walking foot technique refresh with some new information to support your development as a walking foot quilter, four chapters of walking foot designs, and an extensive chapter called Quilt As Go that explores design principles related to choosing quilting designs as well as a process to help you develop a quilting plan for your quilts, and plenty of examples to inspire you.  The quilting design chapters include:  sixty-degree designs, sashiko-inspired designs, rotational designs (linear and shape based) and an eclectic set of designs I call variations which are adaptations and extensions of designs found in my first WALK book. There are almost 60 new designs in this book.  As always, I'm surprised that lines and gentle curves can come together in so many unique ways.  

The 60-degree grid

When I wrote the first WALK book I shared several variations of grid quilting (crosshatching) which are lovely textural designs for your quilts.  But while I was using the 60 degree grid and designs based on this grid in my work, I neglected to include it in the book.  I'm so happy to be able to feature it in this book. 

This grid gets its versatility from the angles within the diamond, two of which are that magic 60 degree angle and the equal length sides that become the foundation for the designs in the chapter.  With one more quilted line a row of diamonds transforms into equilateral triangles whose three equal sides again support the addition of linear and curved elements that develop into stunning designs.

If you look carefully you can find the base triangles in this design.  The base grid of equilateral triangles requires marking two lines.  The additional point to point work requires marking, but can be accomplished fairly quickly with a homemade marking template.  Intricate designs require an investment upfront and in time, but for the right quilt are totally worth it.

This design pushes the limits and will challenge you, but I'm head over heals about it.  I love the movement of the curves and the stability provided by the base grid.  Can you see the equilateral triangle base in this one? Not all of the designs in the chapter are challenging.  There are simple designs too, and I give you ideas for adaptations that will lower the difficulty or support quilters with machines with smaller harp spaces.  You never know what you can do until you try.

I hope you're as excited about WALK 2.0 More Machine Quilting With Your Walking Foot as I am.  If you don't have the first WALK book, pop over and get it so you are ready to up your game with the next book.

WALK 2.0 Special Edition and Special Event Announcement

Many of you, like me are walking foot quilting fans and loads of you have used the first WALK book to enhance your quilting and add to your quilting design toolbox.  I'm so proud of that book, but I have to tell you I am thrilled about the follow-up to WALK, WALK 2.0.  It takes the basic designs of walk and ramps them up and there are whole new categories of quilting designs in this book. I'm also pretty stoked about the Quilt as Desired chapter that shares my philosophy and process for how to develop a quilting plan for a quilt.  We all need a bit of support in that area, right?

Lucky Spool, my awesome publisher decided to put this book out with a BANG!  LS is putting out a special, limited edition that will be available for pick up at QuiltCon 2020 in Austin.  If you're not going to be there find a friend who is and have them be your designated pick up person!  This community is awesome and we can support each other.

This is the slipcase for the book.

 Limited Edition: To celebrate the launch of WALK2.0, we are producing a Limited Edition available only for pickup or purchase at QuiltCon 2020

(no exceptions), two months before the general release of WALK2.0 this coming Spring. These will not be made available to the general public outside of QuiltCon 2020.

The Limited Edition WALK2.0 are hand-numbered and signed by Jacquie Gering on a custom signature page awaiting personalization to you by Jacquie at either the launch party at Central Brewing Company, Austin on Thursday 20 February, or the signing times at the Lucky Spool QuiltCon booth #125.

The Limited Edition also features a blingy silver foiled hardcover slipcase, blue dyed edging, printed endpapers and, best of all, includes additional bonus content!

Pre-order yours now for collection at QuiltCon 2020

Limited Edition WALK2.0 is $40 and is limited to 2 copies per customer.

This is the cover of the book inside the slipcase. You can pre-order here.  Get yours soon, there are only a limited number available.

We are also having a book launch party, trunk show/lecture and book signing in Austin on Thursday evening 2/20/2020 just a block from the convention center.  Tickets for that event go on sale this Thursday, December 17 at 9 a.m. Pacific time on the Lucky Spool website.  Again, a limited number of tickets available.  Watch my instagram feed @jacquietps or www.luckyspool.com to get yours!

I hope I'll see you in Austin and we can chat all things walking foot quilting.  If you're not at QuiltCon, the regular edition is now available to pre-order on Amazon, or better yet ask your local quilt shop to carry it and support our local quilt shop owners!  I'll have signed copies of the regular edition available on my website after the book ships.  Stay tuned for more WALK 2.0 news.  

Thanks for all the support you have provided over the years.  I couldn't do any of this without you.

Quilts With An Angle by Shelia Christensen

I met Shelia when I was teaching in New Zealand and I was so happy for her when she told me she was writing a book.  I was excited when her title came across my email from C&T Publishing.  I dropped her a quick email to say congrats and she asked me to participate in the blog hop for her book.  I had already perused the review copy and was impressed.  I always know I'm going to like a book when I find something I can use or things I don't know when I open a book.

I love how this book is organized.  It is everything you would ever want to know about using sixty degree shapes in quilts.  For each shape Shelia goes into great detail about the shape itself, methods for cutting, sewing, and being creative with that shape.  She has these great cutting charts for each shape which I know I will use often. She goes into detail about how to get the most out of your rulers.  I love when there is more than one way to do things and she thinks of everything in this book.

Of course there are great quilts in the book.  These are two of my favorites, Cosmic Rays made from parallelograms and Pot of Gold is in the sixty-degree strip piecing chapter.  

I know you all will love this book and when you get it you're going to learn lots.  I sure did. Go ahead and order it, but if you want to risk it Shelia and C&T Publishing are giving away an ebook.  If you'd like to win just leave a comment and you're entered.  I'll pick the winner at the end of the blog hop.  Please make sure you're not a no-reply blogger.  If you are, be sure to leave your email address in your comment!

Good Luck!!

Be sure to check out the rest of the tour and enter to win an ebook.

April 17 Wendy Welsh 

April 18 Shelia Christensen

April 19 Angie

April 20 Juliet van der Heijden

April 21 Kim Moos

April 22 Yvonne Fuchs

April 23 Aurifil

April 24 - You are here!

April 25 Shelia Christensen

The contest is closed and the winner is Linda H.  Congrats Linda.  Shelia will be in touch with your ebook.

Sulky's National Quilting Month Block Party!

Sulky's Block Party

I am thrilled to participate in Sulky's Block Party to celebrate National Quilting Month.  I had no idea what I was going to make, but when Sulky asked I happened to be experimenting with lines and trying to stretch how I use one of my favorite techniques, slice forward, insert backwards.  SF/IB is a slice and insert technique that allows me to create blocks with precise lines with no matching.  Who doesn't love no matching?  I created my Starline block to test the blocks for a linear star quilt that I want to make for my family room.  I made the test block 30" x 30" so that it would make a nice class sample and so the final quilt will finish at 60" x 60".

My Starline block is made up of four identical blocks and since they are symmetrical they can be rotated around the center to form the star. The diagram below shows the order for cutting and piecing.  I stacked four 15" squares and cut them all at the same time. I sliced the lines in order from one to seven and then inserted 1" strips from the last line cut (seven) in order back to one.  I pieced my block using Sulky 50 weight thread, perfect for piecing. This technique require precision and accuracy in piecing, but I love the challenge!

I am pretty happy with how the block turned out. The second photo shows the colors a little better.  I used two shades of aqua for the sample block.

           

I decided to quilt the block since I plan to use a quilt as you go method for the Starline quilt that will be composed of four Starline blocks.  I used a heavyweight thread, a beautiful Sulky 12 weight with a Sulky 40 weight in the bobbin.  With that combination I get great stitch quality and perfect tension.  The heavy 12wt thread gives the quilting stitches loads of presence on the quilt and look at that gorgeous chartreuse color!

I'm still in progress on the large four-block version in orange.  I can't wait to show you the quilt.  I love how all the lines come together and I think it has loads of potential for some color play too.  Thanks Sulky for the nudge to play and create something new! Have a great National Quilting Month!

Learn With Me in Kansas City

Reading a book is fine and an online class can be great, but there is nothing like learning in person!

Join me in Kansas City for a weekend of walking foot quilting. You will learn techniques, practice your skills and fill your quilting design toolbox. I'll begin by reviewing the basics and establishing a firm foundation for expanding and growing your skills with the walking foot.

You'll have plenty of time to apply that knowledge to learn and practice walking foot-friendly designs from simple to complex.  I'll teach strategies for managing large quilts and quilting intricate designs.  Together we'll explore how to analyze quilts to create quilting designs that will support and enhance your piecing.  You'll leave with a toolbox filled with creative quilting options and the knowledge, skills and confidence to quilt your own quilts.

Betsy, my event planner extraordinaire and all around good egg, and I have planned a fun and learning filled weekend.  Come and meet new friends, learn new skills, and let me show you a bit of my home and Kansas City.  

To see the itinerary, get more information and to sign up head to HelloVoyager.org.

Hope to see you this spring in KC!

(yeah, I know my name is misspelled on the graphic...glad you noticed too!)

A Mid Century Dream

In April we sold our condo in downtown Kansas City. I loved that place, but there were reasons we had to let it go.  It went fast and we were left without a home again. My youngest son was kind enough to let us move in with him and his girlfriend while we found a new home.  Cheers to living out of suitcases again.  I'm pretty good at it. It's weird how things happen and how this house came to us.

We bought and have now moved into this 1958 Don Drummond built mid-century home.  It's only about 15 minutes from our Westside condo, but it feels a world away. It is a Castillian model and was designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederik E. Emmons.  The top photo is our home this spring.  Below is a newspaper article from the 50's about the design of our home.  I love how it is described as having the "look of tomorrow".  It is a timeless, well-functioning design. It's post and beam construction with seven...count'em...seven sliding glass doors.  Talk about bringing the outside in!

I love my new home with all its quirks and originality from the 50's.  I am learning to understand it by living in it which we haven't done much since move in date since we've both been on the road much of the summer.  My sabbatical kicks in in earnest this fall and so I'm looking forward to spending time here and making it our own slowly, but surely.

We've done more than I thought in just over a month, but some things can't wait.  We've fixed some plumbing and electrical issues and I've even done a few changes like new wallpaper. I think I'll document those here so I'll share them in detail as we go along.

I want to preserve the historic character of this house.  It is a mid century treasure in Kansas City, but I also want to make it Jacquie and Steve's house.  It isn't a museum.  I can't wait to share more with you.  You can see a few more pictures on my Instagram feed, jacquietps, if you're interested, but for now enjoy the exterior!

Exciting Announcement

I'm excited to announce my first Kansas City based event, Composing with Line.  I'll be working with a small group of students to explore designing with line and I'm excited to share with participants a little bit of the city I love, my new home and our vibrant art community.  The details of the event are below, but know that my goal is to have fun, learn with you and help you leave inspired and with knowledge and skills that will support you in your own creative journey.  Register by July 15th to receive an early registration discount.  

For registration contact my friend Betsy at Betsy.Blodgett@gmail.com.  Betsy will help you get signed up and answer any questions you might have.  I look forward to seeing you in October in Kansas City.

Composing with Line Workshop

Weekend Itinerary Day 1 – Thursday, October 25 Explore the beauty, simplicity and complexity of line in this weekend design class. We’ll start with the basic principles of linear design and analyze quilts to see those principles in action. Jacquie will lead you through a series of exercises to ground you in the fundamental principles and as the weekend progresses you will apply those principles to create original designs. Students will work with Jacquie and each other in a fun, collaborative environment to explore linear design, piecing techniques and the elements and principles of design. Students will create one or more small pieces that may serve as seeds for further explorations and larger pieces. Composing with Line with Jacquie Gering October 25th - 28th 2018 Kansas City, Missouri $795.00* The weekend begins with a bus trip to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Here you will meet Jacquie for an evening of inspiration to kick off your weekend of creativity. She will guide you to her favorite works of art and you are encouraged to wander and find your own inspiration. Then, get to know the group at a fun and casual welcome dinner. Day 2 – Friday, October 26 Class with Jacquie begins on Friday morning, followed by lunch. In the afternoon, hop on the bus as we take a trip to nearby Lawrence, KS to visit the Spencer Museum of Art, home to a one-of-a-kind collection of Yoshiko Jinzenji quilts, followed by a visit to Sarah’s Fabrics. Friday evening, join Jacquie at her home for a private trunk show. Day 3 – Saturday, October 27 Spend a whole day exploring linear design with Jacquie. That evening, join Jacquie for an open studio tour. Visit and see the work of her fellow artist quilter Kim Eichler-Messmer. Day 4 – Sunday, October 28 Enjoy your last morning of classes with Jacquie, followed by a farewell lunch. Pricing & Inclusions Join us for the Quilting with Lines weekend workshop for $795.00. Included in the trip: Small Group for a fun, personalized weekend with Jacquie Gering 15 hours of dedicated classtime + opportunity to sew in the evenings Welcome dinner on Thursday, October 25 Lunch included Friday, Saturday and Sunday Transportation to and from the Nelson-Atkins and roundtrip to Lawrence, KS Deposits & Payments A non-refundable depost of $250 will secure your spot in this workshop, due immediately at signup. Balance due and non-refundable 60 days before the start of the workshop. Contact Betsy Blodgett at Betsy.Blodgett@gmail.com to register or for more information. *Register by 7/15/2018 and pay only $725.oo for the workshop!

Life is good in Sitges, Spain

Thank you for all your kind comments.  Life is what we make it and I plan to take more control over mine.  In addition to planning events in Kansas City which I hope you will attend sometime, I plan to use the blog to do some teaching as well.  It's been too long since I've had time to blog and share what I've been working on.

For now, I am in Spain to help with the Best of QuiltCon traveling exhibit and to teach classes at the Patchwork Festival in Sitges.  It is my first time teaching students who don't all speak English which should be an interesting experience.  I'll have a translator and I'm sure enthusiastic students.  I've already met some wonderful quilters from several countries.  With Google translate and my high school Spanish I'm getting by when I'm not with the lovely Amanda, the Member and Sponsor Manager for the MQG who speaks Spanish and has been so helpful and fun to hang out with! Check out our trek through the streets of Sitges with the quilts in tow!

In between setting up the exhibit, womaning the exhibit and prepping for teaching I've had time to explore the city, sample the food and drink and a do a bit of cultural exploration.  I never thought that quilting would provide experiences like this.  

The twin beds and the tiny room have been our biggest eye opener.  We feel a bit like Lucy and Ricky if know what I mean!

The journey continues...