The Latte Quilt Lessons on DVD are up and coming! Pre-order now for a special discounted price of $129.99! Sets will start shipping November 1st!

The Latte Quilt is an embroidered quilt pattern that is a timeless heirloom with its elegant embroidery and decorative stitches. Although Kerrie Hay provides instructions in her book, the Latte Quilt, for completing the project, it’s always helpful to stitch the quilt as someone is leading you through it step-by-step. This DVD is an additional tool to her book to give you the confidence to complete this quilt. Every area of creating the quilt will be covered, from picking out fabrics to the quilting, binding and label!

Fabric cutting and preparation.
Print embroidery templates.
Easy hooping techniques.
Embroidery design stitching tips and placement.
Helpful hints for decorative stitches.

This series of 12 lessons consists of written handouts with clear illustrations in addition to step-by-step instructions on DVD to assist you in completing this quilt project! Plus revised embroidery designs with added placement stitches making it simple to stitch each block!

Anyone from a novice to advanced machine embroider will find it easy to stitch this quilt with these lessons! If you’ve found this quilt intimidating before, fear no longer! With Serena’s onscreen directions showing you how to complete each step, you’ll be stitching block after block in no time!

As an added bonus, discover Serena’s favorite products for machine embroidery and her own tips and techniques she has learned. You will gain loads of information that you can use with many other projects.

After teaching two online Latte Quilt classes and many requests from you, I’m making available to you the exact same lessons on DVD!! You will have access to everything on this series of 8 DVDs just as though you were taking the class! Plus you’ll also receive a bonus cd with ALL my written instructions that you can print for yourself AND my revised embroidery designs for the quilt with added placement stitches! In addition to all that, this set also includes Kerrie Hay’s Latte Quilt Book and embroidery cd! You’ll have all the tools you need to complete the quilt!

Pre-order now for a special discounted price of $129.99! Sets will start shipping November 1st! Order your copy before the November 1st deadline to save $50! Sets will ship in the order received.

Set includes:
8 DVD discs with onscreen videos
Bonus cd with written instructions & revised embroidery designs
Latte Quilt book & original embroidery cd

Get your Latte Quilt DVD set today and start stitching!

The solution: create it!

I sandwiched a piece of batting between two layers of poly satin. Using my software, I selected the one little flower from this OESD design. I then copied and pasted it multiple times on my screen to create an area large enough for my fabric.

Then (this is the really great part!), using my Bernina jumbo hoop for my 830, all I had to do was hoop the piece of fabric twice to stitch the entire 15″ x 20″ rectangle. Whoohoo!!! That makes it simple! I hooped the first half of the fabric and stitched it, then hooped the second half and stitched it.

Then my fabric was created!! Lovely!!

Then I could pin on my pattern and cut it out.

It’s simple to create your own fabric! Give it a try!

More on finishing this project coming next week…

New Diamond Layout – The new diamond layout is neat, although I’m not sure how much I would use it. Since I’m not a traditional quilter, but prefer to work with larger pieces and incorporate embroidery, I have used the square and on point layouts quite a bit. One item to note: A diamond and square on point look like the same shape, but nope, they aren’t! A diamond is a skewed square where a square on point is actually a square that has been turned 45 degrees, making it much simpler and easier to add pieces around it.

Block Editor – You can draw and create your own custom blocks to import into your block library. Cool feature! What can I see doing with this?? Paper piecing! I don’t do a lot of paper piecing but have done a little and created a couple paper pieced blocks for an embroidered project I taught. So I can definitely see using the block editor to create paper pieced blocks specifically designed with an open area for embroidery. Yep, I can see that.

One thing I do like to do is use the quilter program to bring in a design and place it in a border and resize the design so it will fit in the space I want it to. There are other ways to do this on the embroidery screen of the software, but if I do it on an actual border, it’s a bit easier to visualize and see what will and won’t work.

The basic key to Bernina’s Quilter program is that you can see it before you stitch it! If you are having trouble envisioning the fabrics together or knowing what embroidery designs to add in or where to put them, the Quilter program is a jewel to use because you can see it and play with it before you go to the work of cutting and stitching it.

This webinar will be available on Bernina’s website for about a week if you would like to watch it and they are always scheduling more webinars which are always informative! So be sure to sign up for them!

One of the next webinars I’m looking forward to is on the new CutWork Tool & Software. That will be neat to see!

I like the purple fabrics and threads, but really loved the flower once it was stitched!

And the teal flower was just as beautiful!

30 hours…606,045 stitches…3,312 yds of embroidery thread…24 bobbins…9 yards of stabilizer later……..all three center medallion blocks are stitched! Whoohoo!!!

Here’s a few of the pics of some of the designs I’ve stitched so far. My goal is to have three embroidered center medallion blocks stitched. And yes, that is LOTS of embroidery!

The start of the center appliqué design for the center medallion.

And I just can’t resist trying another color – purple! Love it!!!

Center appliqué design in the center medallion block.

It’s usually a good idea to completely cover the appliqué area with fabric. Works much better; trust me on this one! ;)

Ahhh….yes! Much better!

Looking wonderful!! Teal colorway for the quilt and this design is in the center of the center medallion block.

That where one of my favorite tools, the ballpoint awl by Clover, comes in handy. Most awls that you may have in your sewing room have a sharp point that is made to puncture the fabric. This is used for creating eyelets or other decorative uses. But with the ballpoint awl, the end is not so sharp as to puncture to fabric, but will work to help you dig out the stabilizer from the back of the design.

From the back of the fabric, slide the end of the ballpoint awl between the stabilizer and fabric and gently pull the stabilizer away from the stitching. The end still could damage your fabric or stitches if you are pushing too deeply, so be sure just to catch the layer of tear away to pull it away from the design. This helps to dig out the stabilizer from those little areas instead of using your fingers or fingernails.

The next time you are struggling with getting out all those areas with tear away stabilizer, give this ballpoint awl a try! I’m sure you’ll love using it!

I pin-basted the layers together with a low-loft batting and was ready to start stitching. I really wanted to stitch with the suede side up since that was a solid and would be easier to see where I was stitching. The minkee fabric would be next to the feed dogs, but that would be ok. I raised my presser foot pressure just a little to accommodate the thicker fabrics.

Issue 1 – When stitching with suede, usually a teflon foot is needed and since I’m freehand quilting, that’s not an option. Even though my feed dogs were lowered and my foot was not exactly close to the fabric, it still tended to stick and not glide smoothly like it should for freehand quilting. Ok, raise the pressure foot pressure a little more so I have more space between the foot and the fabric. Nope! If the presser foot pressure is raised too high, the foot is higher which causes skipped stitches.

Ok, onto plan B…maybe I can sew on the minkee side and still see where I am going?! Maybe? I’ll try it. Now that was a challenge! Not only was it hard to see where I was going because of the print, but also the stitches tend to get lost in the pile of the fabric, which is just the nature of minkee fabric. It just meant I was stitching blindly. Not something I really wanted to do! Plus the suede fabric did want to hang up a little on the bed of the machine. Not too much to be much of an issue; the bigger problem was that I couldn’t see my stitches.

Back to plan A. Insert brand new needle after a 1′ section. Find the perfect balance of presser foot pressure and no skipped stitches. Sew for 10 minutes and then rest my arms/hand for 5 because manipulating those fabrics through the machine really pulls at those muscles. Go slow and keep on stitching! Finally…it was finished!

Minkee printed side

Suede solid side

It isn’t the most beautiful job of quilting I have ever done, but it did turn out fairly nice, considering all the trouble I had with quilting it. And once I finished the quilting, the binding was a breeze! And the most important thing – the little granddaughter for whom it was for and grandmother who brought the fabric to me love it!

Need some tips for sewing with minkee fabric? Look here for some helpful ideas!

Jenny Haskins has joined the online video community by offering her first Jenny’s Sewing Studio video clip. Take a peek!

Looking for quilting and machine embroidery classes that may not be available in your local area? Consider taking a class online! See my class schedule for details.

Need some sewing room organization ideas or quick tips to watch? Watch my YouTube videos.

I’ve been doing some cleaning and organizing in my sewing room and found three large garbage sacks of batting scraps. Yes, three very large, full to the brim sacks. The scraps range in size from 4-8″ wide and anywhere from 8-92″ long. Those sacks have been there for at least 4-5 years. And I haven’t once retrieved one scrap of batting from them since I put them there.

Why? I just have too many scraps I want to keep. I already have a small pile of batting scraps that I am pulling pieces from for potholders, pillows, small quilt wall hangings and other various projects. I will never use my entire stockpile of batting scraps.

So, I decided to take the plunge and toss them. If I haven’t used them in the past five years, most likely I won’t be using them in the next five years. I always like to keep batting scraps on hand to use for practice quilting sandwiches, little projects and even for picking up lint (works great as a cleaning cloth!). But I am also constantly adding to my batting stash with the scraps from large quilts and other larger projects.

It’s a continual cycle. I stitch a large quilt and my batting scrap pile is replenished. Gradually piece by piece, that pile diminishes and by that time I’ve stitched another large quilt and yet again added to the pile. The space I have that held the three large sacks of batting will be put to much better storage use (like fun fabric!) than just little bits of batting.

In my mind, I just can’t justify keeping that many little pieces of batting. Yes, I always want to keep some available for small projects and trial pieces. Yes, I will sew some larger ones together for a larger wall hanging or project. But there is also a time to just throw the little pieces in the trash.

My general rule is: If it’s at least 8-10″ square, I keep it. Many times I end up with strips that are 8-10″ wide by 80-90″ long, which is an excellent piece of batting to keep. By piecing one, two or three strips together, it would be perfect for a wall hanging, small quilt or lining a pillow or pillow sham. But if it’s less than 6″ wide, I toss it. Even if it is in a long strip. It’s just too narrow to do anything.

How about you? What do you do with all your scraps of batting? Do you keep every little piece or have a general rule as to the size of batting scraps you keep?

Stitching in the ditch is a machine quilting technique where you are stitching directly in a seamline. You use a walking foot to create long rows of straight stitching where the stitches are hidden in the seamline of the fabrics. The goal is to stay in the ditch and not stray outside of the seamline. Your stitches will be hidden in the seam, holding your quilt layers together. It’s a great supporting stitch for your quilts to really support and hold the layers together before other decorative quilting is done. If quilting is new to you, it is an excellent stitch to start your quilting.

Be sure that your seams are pressed flat to one side as this will make it easier to stitch. As you are stitching, be sure to watch your needle and guide your seamline to follow it. It does not matter where your walking foot is; it is more important to watch where your needle is stitching. If you gently glide your hands over the fabric, slightly pushing it away from the needle as you are stitching, this lets you easily see the seamline and helps you to stay in the ditch.

Many times stitching in the ditch is done with invisible thread to make the seam even less visible, but you can use cotton threads in various colors as well. Whatever thread you use, keep in mind that your stitching will be hidden in the ditch.