Last May something monumental happened in my life and I was suddenly engaged to a wonderful guy! Really, Luke did surprise me with the most wonderful of surprises by asking me to marry him on my birthday–the best birthday gift he could have ever given me! We set a wedding date for May 21, 2011 and the last few months have been filled with planning for that important date!

Not only will I be getting married in May, but also moving six hours away from where I am right now. In light of all that and with my second Latte Quilt class ending last fall, I decided to take a brief break from teaching during this time and wait to get back into the swing of classes in the fall of 2011. Soooo…..that’s where I am at right now! You may hear bits and pieces from me in the next few months, but it will be this summer before regular posts and activity in preparation for fall classes start.

For those of you who are wondering about the MarJen for Error and Latte Quilt dvds, they are in process. :) Those are two online quilt classes I taught over the last several years and my goal is to have them available to you via dvd. I’ve had such an overwhelming response to those classes and requests to teach them again, that I’m offering that way and then moving on to teach another online quilt.

As to when those dvds will be available? Hopefully this summer. If you would like updates and info into those dvds and classes, you can sign up for my class newsletter here, which will be sent out as things progress.

A new embroidered quilt?! Yes, that’s my goal! Starting next fall, I will start teaching the Floral Elegance Quilt. You can see some info here, but there are some changes I will be making to the quilt design verses the layout Judy has done with the original quilt! :) Coming this summer will be class schedules, supply lists and a few sneak peek block pics! Again, if you are signed up for my newsletter, you will receive updates and info as they become available! For those of you who have participated in my classes in the past, this class will be structured the same way with online videos and in depth written instructions as to how to complete each block. More info will be coming this summer!

Here’s a quick peek of one of the blocks I’ve embroidered…rich and luscious, is it not?!

THANK YOU to so many of you for your past participation in my classes and upcoming classes this year! My quilting/embroidery time has been limited and I’m eager to get back into the swing of teaching and stitching this summer!

You can see close-up photos here with details on the embroidery and quilting.

I’ve been hard at work this past week working on the new MJE quilt in a color shade of pink. I have a panel of embroidery finished as well as embroidery complete on all of the eight embroidered fan blocks.

But it took a while figuring out what fabric to use for all the fan pieces of the corner fans and dresden plates. But I am more than happy with what I decided on. Now just to decide on decorative stitches…the really tough part! :)

Neither of these blocks are completely finished as far as decorative stitches; they are currently works-in-progress to be completed in hopefully the next two weeks! :)

• Receive detailed instructions every month!
• Download videos so you can actually “see” how to do each technique!
• Email me at any time with questions or if you need any help with your quilt!
• Join our online classroom to chat with other class members, share ideas and upload photos!

More details here…

I hooped my stabilizer, noticing slightly that my hoop screw was starting get stripped and my stabilizer was not as quite as taunt as I like it, but deciding it would be ok to stitch one more design. I stuck my fabric down and started stitching my rose design.

The first couple of thread colors stitched and I noticed more puckers than normal in the fabric. I smoothed down the fabric eliminating a few puckers, saying to myself that it will be ok and I can press out those puckers that are there.

I’m on the 9th color and there are more and more puckers and ripples in the fabric. I’m now thinking, “It will be ok. I just have to make it to the end of this design.” Here’s a glimpse of the puckers and they are 10 times worse seeing the actual fabric verses a photo.

With each stitch the machine is taking, the inner hoop is getting looser and looser inside the outer hoop. I know what could happen and keep hoping it won’t: the inner hoop popping out of the outer hoop right in the middle of stitching!

Just completely ignore the fact that my sticky, dirty hoop
is in desperate need of cleaning. I can’t believe
I’m actually posting this photo!

I’m keeping an eye on it, checking it every few minutes and finally breath a sigh of relief when it’s on the final color. The last color outline starts on one rose and as it moves to the opposite end of the hoop it happens…

…the inner hoop slides right out of the outer hoop and the machine just keeps on stitching…

I should interject at this point and mention that this is the 9th design on this one panel of fabric that it has a total of 10 designs, so I’m almost done. And each design has over 30,000 stitches and takes over an hour to stitch. Ummm….there is no way I want to start over with this piece of fabric….

As soon as I saw it, I stopped the machine and knew at this point, it was not going to be ok. I had to do something. Ever so carefully I shoved the inner hoop with stabilizer/fabric back into the outer hoop ring, hoping it would somehow, be somewhat close to where it should be.

See where is started stitching before I
snapped the fabric back into place?

I was more than relieved to finally have the design finished, but knew some massive pressing would be needed to get the fabric to lay flat with all those puckers. As I started pressing, I soon discovered that I hadn’t cleaned my iron from my last project and now I not only have puckers in my panel of fabric, but also little brown marks – disaster #2.

Having pressed the puckers and taken care of the brown marks, I decided that the worst was over and I could stitch the 10th and final design on this panel. I changed my hoop nut which was stripped and keeping the hoop from tightening as it should, hooped my stabilizer, stuck on my fabric and started stitching.

Oh…so much better without all those puckers forming with every stitch! The worst part of the day is over – hooray! Until I get to the 9th color and realize that I stitched the 8th color with the wrong color of thread – disaster #3. To make matters worse, I had already done that once earlier in the week.

Taking the hoop out of the machine, I ripped the tiny little step stitches of color 8 and started stitching that same color with the correct color of thread. I moved onto color 9 and disaster #4 strikes. With less than 1 minute left and only a small space yet to stitch, I run out of thread.

And the really sad part is that if I would have stitched color 8 with the correct color of thread in the first place instead of the thread for color 9, I would have enough thread! That’s the really disastrous part!

I hope, really hope, that there is not disaster #5 lurking about somewhere in the rest of the day.

So now that you’ve heard about my wonderful, disaster-filled morning, how was yours? Hopefully your day of stitching was not quite as eventful as mine! :)

Last October I started an online class of participants on the MJE quilt and we have had a wonderful time stitching together! Because of the large response I’ve received to start another class, I will be starting a new year-long class in April 2008! Thank you to all who started in October and have made this class so amazing enjoyable!

Join my MarJen for Error quilt class to create a unique heirloom!

This is a beautiful quilt that features luscious embroidery designs, fussy cutting fabric details and creative decorative stitches!This beautiful quilt features machine embroidery, fabric fussy cutting, decorative stitches and quilting techniques. Learn how to prepare and cut your fabrics for machine embroidery. You will learn hooping techniques, embroidery design stitching tips and helpful hints in stitching decorative stitches while at the same time completing a beautiful quilt!

I will be sharing my favorite products I use for machine embroidery and my own tips and techniques I have learned throughout my many projects. You will gain loads of information that you can use with so many other projects! I’m excited about beginning this quilt journey and I hope you will join me in this adventure!

There are several files with class notes, fabrics needed, supply lists and a video introduction to the quilt that you can download by visiting my class schedule page. Also, you may look at the quilt with all its detail by clicking here.

• Receive detailed instructions every month!
• Download videos so you can actually “see” how to complete each technique!
• Email me at any time with questions or if you need additional help with your quilt!
• Join our online classroom to chat with other class members and upload and share photos!

I’m looking forward to another fun class and seeing all the color combinations and creative ideas you all have to share! Don’t miss this quilt adventure!

The deadline to register for this class is March 17th! Class size is limited and I expect this class to fill quickly, so don’t miss it!

Read more details here…

Or drop me an email and I’ll send you a quilt introduction with full details on the class.

This beautiful quilt features machine embroidery, fabric fussy cutting, decorative stitches and quilting techniques. Learn how to prepare and cut your fabrics for machine embroidery. You will learn hooping techniques, embroidery design stitching tips and helpful hints in stitching decorative stitches while at the same time completing a beautiful quilt!

More details are here…

Take an exciting quilt journey with me and stitch the MarJen for Error Quilt! This is a beautiful quilt that features luscious embroidery designs, fussy cutting fabric details and creative decorative stitches!

This beautiful quilt features machine embroidery, fabric fussy cutting, decorative stitches and quilting techniques. Learn how to prepare and cut your fabrics for machine embroidery. You will learn hooping techniques, embroidery design stitching tips and helpful hints in stitching decorative stitches while at the same time completing a beautiful quilt!

I will be sharing my favorite products I use for machine embroidery and my own tips and techniques I have learned throughout my many projects. You will gain loads of information that you can use with so many other projects!

I’m excited about beginning this quilt journey and I hope you will join me in this adventure! There are several files with class notes, fabrics needed, supply lists and a video introduction to the quilt that you can download by visiting my class schedule page. Also, you may look at the quilt with all its detail by clicking here.

Please email me with any questions or comments! If you would like to join this class, please email me to register by October 1st!

I hope you decide to join me in this quilting adventure! I’m excited and look forward to seeing the color combinations and creative ideas you can create with your own quilt!

Hooray!! Hooray!! I have the quilt top finished!! I was so excited that I had to hang it up outside last week and get some pictures! The wind was blowing a little, so my quilt top looks a little wavy!

I did add an extra purple sashing right next to the outside border. The magazine photo does now show this border, but the fabrics and colors are different in it also. The main reason being that it needed a color change between the yellow blocks and the yellow background border. I’m glad I added that extra sashing – it really needed it to break up the yellow!

It looks really great and I’m ready to get the quilting done!