Grip & Stitch Disks, BPQ Show and Giveaway!!!

These are the disks I love!  I always use them and now have 4 pairs, one for each machine station and another to keep in my class bag, because I love quilting with them and hate being without them.  They even help me grip and move the fabric or larger part of piecing and sewing projects much easier than my old way of grabbing  a handful of the fabric when I'm sewing.  If you've been to one of my quilting classes or free motion quilting demonstrations, you've seen me use these!  When I was at the Houston Quilt Market last year, a little video was made in the APQS booth when I was demonstrating quilting on the George (this is the long arm quilting machine I have - it's in a table, like my Bernina and Pfaff), and Clever Craft Tools has some U-Tube videos on their website.

Besides quilting and sewing, there are lots of other things I can see these disks being used for, such as when my husband is using his scroll saw.  Even though it's a saw, which is cutting the wood apart, instead of joining, the operation of the blade is up and down and the wood is moved like you move fabric when quilting, and I think it would give the woodworker an easier way to maneuver the wood they are cutting.  Now I just need to dream up a project that will get him to get out his scroll saw and try it.  Hmmm, I wonder if he will let me play with it?

Now here's the giveaway part.  I have a set of the newest version of the Grip & Stitch disks, which has even better quality foam and instead of the gray layer in the middle, it's now white.  Starting today, I'll be setting up my booth  at the Block Party Quilters Quilt Show with my booth neighbor, who is the manufacturer of these cool disks, Clever Craft Tools, and she has given me a pair to giveaway.  So leave a comment on this blog post and on Monday I'll use the random number generator to pick a winner!  

If you're local, come see us at the Block Party Quilt Show this weekend and say hi!  There will even be a machine so you can take the disks on a test spin.

(The fine print:  If you're the winner, I'll need a way to contact you or will have to pick a different winner if I am unable to get in touch with you next week.)

I'm on YouTube!

Not long ago, my friend recorded me doing a short quilting demo with her Grip & Stitch Quilting Disks. These are the disks I quilt with all the time - I've got 3 pair, because I really hate the idea of quilting without them!

If you can't see the video below,  you can also see it on the YouTube website HERE.

Demonstration at Gathering Fabric Scheduled

I've scheduled a demonstration at Gathering Fabric in Woodinville, WA from 10am until 2pm on April 29th.  Please plan to come see my quilting demo using these wonderful Grip & Stitch quilting disks!

Sew EXPO

I had so much fun, hanging out in the Quiltworks Northwest booth at Sew EXPO this past Friday and Saturday!!!  I signed books and demonstrated how to use the quilting disks that I use, called Grip and Stitch, from my friend at Clever Craft Tools, which they were selling in their booth (Gathering Fabric also carries these disks).   She has a new company, and is busy building the website, but you can drop her a line and I'm sure she'll get back to you, asap.  Here's a picture of them with the package cover:

I don't have pictures from the show (wish I did), but I did take some pictures of some things I purchased.

First off is Ricky Timm's hand dyed fabrics.  His fabrics are gorgeous, and although I do like to dye fabric myself (my boys now have their coffee maker and other food things in that room, so I don't dare get out the dyes for fear of contaminating their food), I'm happy to be able to purchase such beautiful fabrics!

Of course, I also bought a couple cotton batiks for quilting:

I even found a couple totally gorgeous rayon batiks in the Indonesian Batiks booth, which I plan to make either light jackets, or tops from:

Cheryl Kuzcak, owner of Paradiso Designs, was also in the Quiltworks booth this weekend, and her purse designs are all so beautiful, especially when you see them in person.  I had already purchased her Anna bag pattern at fall market, and added Xine and Carry-All to my collection.  As usual, they look much better in person, especially Carry-All, which I would not have purchased had I not seen the beautiful version she had in the booth.  In fact she sold so many that she sold out of that pattern on Friday and I had to wait until Saturday to buy my copy!  She uses faux leather and nice, heavy hardware, so I made sure to get some to make my bags.

I was happy to see the Carolina Handspun booth, because I bought a black / multicolor fiber batt from her when she was at Madrona Fiberarts, and spun it up into a beautiful corespun art yarn.  I wished I had more, and what do you know, but she had another in her booth, which I brought home with me:-)

Now I'd better get to work and make something!

Quilting Disks

On TheThreadSociety, I complained that I wasn't able to find my favorite tool, the Quilt Sew Easy Discs. Diane, at Quilter's Threads, said she was able to order them for me, so I'm super excited that they are still available!!!

What's so exciting about these, you ask? Well, I can't stand gloves, I've tried just about every kind, starting with the old bulky ones that look like jiffy grip with grippy dots. I guess I'm just not a glove person (unless I really need them to keep my hands warm). I'm a free motion quilter, and all I ever use to move the quilt with are these discs. The larger one goes on the left and the smaller on the right, under the arm of the machine (less space there, so smaller disc), without pressure, the discs grip the fabric and you can easily move the quilt (if I am having any difficulty, then it is always a matter of the quilt sliding off the edge of the table, or getting caught on something).