Just in time for the holidays, I thought I'd share some of my favorite sewing tools and why I love them. I'm usually a fairly skeptical gadget-buyer, so I really have to believe in something in order to recommend it. Note that I get a small commission if you use these links to purchase, but that's not why I'm giving you the list. It's just a perk. :-) In fact, if you have a local quilt shop that you frequent, you should definitely get these items there first. Call them and ask if they have them, and if not, you should ask them to special order them, because they'd probably be happy to. Go ahead. Do it!

1. Wonder Clips

These handy little clips are a life-saver when I do my costume sewing. They hold thick and slippery fabrics much better than pins do. When I was first introduced to them, I was told they were useful for bindings, but I don't even use them for that. I use them to hold fabrics together when I use my serger. Imagine trying to pin through mesh -- it just doesn't work! 

2. Brother PQ1500

First of all, I think you should buy a machine from a sewing machine dealer. There's many reasons for that: better service, often dealers have a different model than is available at big box stores (or online superstores), and you should support local. But if you don't live near a sewing machine dealer, this is pretty much the same machine that I do probably 95% of my sewing and quilting (not including costume stuff) on. Mine is a BabyLock Quilter's Choice Professional, but this is pretty much the same exact machine. It's fast, it has a huge throat space, and it's a workhorse. Note that it only goes straight -- no zigzag, no utility stitches. But if you want an affordable quilting machine, this is what I'd tell you to get. You just have to keep something around that zigzags, too. 

3. Pellon 906f

This is what I use almost exclusively when I make t-shirt quilts. It's lightweight and doesn't change the hand of the shirts too much. It's easy to machine quilt through. Seriously, I buy it by the bolt.

4. Machingers Quilting Gloves

Hands down (get it -- I crack myself up) the single most important tool when I'm quilting. I don't even want to do demos during classes without them. They're thin enough to take out safety pins yet grippy enough to give you some hold on your quilt. 

5. Free Motion Quilting Idea Book by Amanda Murphy

I love this book because it gives you quilting ideas on actual blocks. There are tons of quilting books out there with doodles and designs, but this shows the same block quilting several different ways. I love it.

That's enough for tonight. I'll post more in the next few days. Happy shopping! 

For the first time, I had a booth at Quilt Expo! In fact, this was the first booth I've ever had at any show -- talk about jumping in with both feet! It was a huge undertaking, but I had a lot of help!

The people I need to thank the most are my husband, RT, and my friend and fellow TuffetSource affiliate, Meg McKinney. Meg is a fantastic photographer -- you should really check out her gallery. If you see good photos in this blog post, they're probably hers. She came up from Alabama to help me out with the booth and her assistance was invaluable. 

​Here's the booth:

And a few closeups:

Did you miss Quilt Expo? You can still take advantage of free shipping if you visit my store and use the code QUILTEXPO2017 through tomorrow!

I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the blog hop for Susan Emory's new fabric line for Michael Miller Fabrics, titled Hello! The main print in the line includes individual letters, ransom-note style. Here's a link to the line on the Michael Miller site.

Check out the main print!

As in previous blog hops, different designers are invited to make something out of the fabric line. I choose to make a monogram pillow. I used the fancy ampersand from the ransom print.

And a few more shots:

I used the gathering foot on my machine to make the ruffle. It was so quick!

If you're not familiar with Susan's fabrics and patterns, you should check them out! If your shop doesn't carry them yet, be sure to ask for them!

We had a big class at Quintessential Quilts in Madison this spring. Check these out! (Pssst... I'm up to March now!)

Hey, did you know that I'll run private tuffet classes? This one happened to be at my house, but I now have a space in Madison where I can teach small private classes! So if you have a group who wants to make a tuffet, contact me! This particular group is a craft collection of moms from my daughter's school.

Hey, I have finally reached the current year in my tuffet post backlog! Time to celebrate! (woohoo)

This post is brought to you by Quilt Play in Grayslake, Illinois. Yes, this Cheesehead made her way across the border, and not for the first time! Quilt Play is an awesome, modern shop and I want to buy everything there. 

Last December (yep, I'm still catching up on tuffet posts), I visited Attic Quilts in Beloit. We had a fantastic class and made a boatload of tuffets! Since I was there, Attic Quilts has moved to a new location across the street, and I can't wait to visit their new shop!

Sheesh.... I need to learn to line up my photos so the tiles on the floor don't look like our tuffets have been hitting the bottle...

We had a very nice class (including a mother-daughter pair) at Quintessential Quilts in Reedsburg. Here's what we made!

Last fall, we had a tuffet retreat at Jones Mansion in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Tuffet retreats are always a lot of fun and are a great way to get more than one tuffet made (within reason, of course). I don't have any retreats planned at the moment, but if you have a group or guild interested, please let me know via my ​contact page! 

We had wonderful food thanks to Trish...

And worked hard building our tuffets!

And what wonderful tuffets they were! Check these babies out!

Aren't they wonderful? I also took a stab at making a square ottoman. I need to tweak my measurements, but I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt...

Check out these great tuffets made at Patches and Petals in Belleville last fall. This is a great shop with lots of character. It's worth the drive if you haven't been there before!

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again: I'm terrible about updating blog posts! So right now i'm sitting in a Starbucks and will be writing several of them, posting every few days, to try to keep up with tuffet posts. I'm really sorry to those who have been in the classes and may have been waiting to see your tuffet featured. These posts are from a long time ago! So let's take a trip down memory lane.... We'll start with an October class at Quintessential Quilts in Madison... look at these beautiful tuffets!

I'm not sure why I don't have a top-down photo of every tuffet in this group. Mysterious. But they're all great!

Back in October we had a tuffet retreat at Prairie Star Lodge in Browntown, Wisconsin. The location is really nice. I'd recommended it if you're looking for a retreat location. If you're interested in attending a tuffet retreat, check out my upcoming one in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin the weekend of April 7 - 9. It's a great way to get one or more tuffets done in just a weekend!

We had a great class at Bungalow Quilting and Yarn up in Ripon recently. I love this shop. Have you been there? Judy, the owner, is a delightful person and a published quilt book author! Be sure to check out the last two tuffets in the photos -- they're made from wool!

We had a wee little tuffet class at Quintessential Quilts this past fall... just two people! But that didn't stop us from having fun!

I still can't believe how far behind I am on tuffet posts! Anyway,  way back in September, I visited the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and we made tuffets!

If you haven't visited the museum, you should check it out. There are some wonderful works there, and lots of educational opportunities!

I was thrilled to be invited to take part in the Coastal Mist Blog Hop! This fabric line by Island Batik was designed by Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis and it's absolutely gorgeous!

(Psst: Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for a giveaway!

For my entry, I chose to make a version of a pattern I'm working on called Organized Chaos. This version uses a bargello background. I really wanted to showcase all of the fabrics in the line. 

I started by making a bargello style strip set, and then overlaying another fabric. After stitching, I cut away the top fabric to reveal the bargello pattern underneath. Then I couched on some silk slub yarn I picked up at the International Quilt Show in Chicago last year. 

I hope you've enjoyed this project! I plan to publish instructions soon.

Be sure to visit the other blogs in this blog hop! If you haven't been following along, be sure to visit the previous blogs as well!

1/23/17  Tammy Silvers  Tamarinis
1/24/17  Jessica Stewart  Izzy & Ivy Designs
1/25/17  Susan Emory  Swirly Girls Design
1/26/17  Connie Campbell  Freemotion by the River
1/27/17  Katie Laughridge  Live Originally
1/28/17  Julie Stocker  Pink Doxies
1/29/17  Linda Pearl  One Quilting Circle
1/30/17  Laura Conowitch  LC’s Cottage
1/31/17  Cheryl Schenck  Unspooled
2/1/17  Marian Pena  Seams to Be Sew
2/2/17  Vanessa Fromm  Fabric Confetti
2/3/17  Ebony Love  Love Bug Studio
2/4/17  Erin Sampson  Aurifil

And finally, the giveaway!

My daughter is a figure skater and one of the things I have been doing lately is making skating dresses. I love doing them! They're a nice change of pace from quilts nad tuffets, and the fabrics are so fun and sparkly. I spend a lot of time making group costumes, but am wanting to do more individual costumes. Here's a simple black dress wth lots of Swarovski crystals. I have worked with crystals before, but not in this quantity. I have to say, it sure is FUN! This dress has cyrstals in clear, two shades of gray, and black.

Here is one of her skating; it's hard to get action shots with an iphone through smudgy rink glass! 

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I'm way behind on posting.... so with that said, way back in SEPTEMBER (yes, September), I visited Olive Juice Quilts in Onalaska, WI. What a gorgeous shop! If you haven't been there, you should definitely go! Lots of modern fabrics, tons of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, and a huge classroom/discount area. It's worth the trip, whereever you're coming from!

Here's a glimpse of students at work on day one...

And here they are with their finished tuffets! All of them came out so beautifully! I am often told by people that they didn't think they'd be able to make a tuffet; that it would be too difficult. I can tell you that they're NOT. Sure, there may be skills you learn that are new to you, but you CAN do it. As a teacher, I've seen students make hundreds of tuffets -- and do you know what? They all get done! The only time I've not had one get finished is if the student didn't finish their homework, and even then, sometimes we've been able to get them done. Don't let fear keep you from signing up for a class. 

As you may know, one of the things I do is making skating costumes. My daughter is on a synchronized skating team (what's that., you ask? Check out this video to see more!) and I have been making team costumes for the past few years. Usually it takes a good amount of the fall, but this year was especially difficult, so I haven't done anything but make costumes and teach classes that were scheduled. Sadly, this means blogging fell to the wayside. The good news is that I can now sit down and write up a bunch of backlogged blog posts and your tuffet itch will be scratched! So, for the next several weeks, you'll be getting regular blog posts every couple of days. I'll be honest, most of them will have been pre-written as I try to catch up, but there will be a few timely ones slipped in there as well. And a few skating costume posts. And quilts! Can't forget about those! 

In the meantime, here is a tuffet I made for my niece, who recently had a baby girl. Enjoy!

I taught for the first time at the lovely A Touch of Amish in Barrington, Illinois last month. The staff here is so friendly -- I really felt welcomed. And I have to say, if you use an Accu-quilt Go, this is the place to get dies because they have a ton of them! Wait, what? Did I get a photo? Well, shoot, that would have been useful. Oh well. Trust me on this one, though. 

Oh yes, we made tuffets! And check out the punchneedle button!

More tuffets! This time from Quintessential Quilts in Madison. Since I've brought them up, I just wanted to mention that Quintessential Quilts very generously offered to donate some backing fabric for the Madison Modern Quilt Guild's contributions to the Quilts for Pulse project. This happened months ago, and their generosity was mentioned at our meeting, but I wanted to personally thank them myself. Thanks, Quintessential Quilts!

Anyway, on to our small tuffet show. But hey, I remembered to take some photos during class this time! They're all of people stapling, but hey, it's a start.

Sorry. I am trying to catch up on blog posts and so I'm doing them all at one time (did you know bloggers can do that?) and I'm getting a little punchy with the tuffet post titles. Aaaaaanyway, another group of tuffets came out of Mukwonago in August. Quilt-agious keeps pretty busy with them! 

I had a wonderful time teaching tuffets for the first time at Attic Quilts in Beloit, Wisconsin, several weeks ago (yes, I'm behind on blog posts again). I have to tell you, I had no idea that downtown Beloit was so vibrant! The shop is right near the square, and there was music playing and the whole place just seemed so festive! And so were the tuffets!

I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Quilt-agious in Mukwonago was the first shop I taught tuffets at (in fact, it's the first shop I taught at in Wisconsin). So of course I love to go back there to teach. It's still a fairly young shop (a couple of years old) but you'll find a great assortment of beautiful fabrics if you go there. They have an especially great Kaffe Fassett collection, and lots of patriotic and modern fabrics. 

And of course, they have great tuffets! And great tuffet students. Here's the latest batch...

I've just scheduled two more tuffet classes at Quilt-agious this year, Sundays, October 16 and 23, and Thursdays, November 17 and December 1. Call them at (262) 363-3066 to sign up!

Every once in a while I get a request to make a custom tuffet for someone. Well, the client in this case sent over this adorable elephant fabric. This whole tuffet only uses three fabrics (four if you count the button), and they're a heavy weight, either outdoor fabric or at the very least, upholstery fabric. 

When it came to choosing feet, I didn't want to take away from the rest of the tuffet, so I asked the client if I could paint them. I happened to have a set of Stephanie feet with finishes that didn't match, so I sanded them and used chalk paint. I think they came out great! Since then I have added some unfinished feet to my inventory (I'll link them up as soon as I add them to the store), which I plan to use on an upcoming tuffet soon.