The Best Quilted Bucket Tutorial

Hello hello hello!!!! Long time no see right? I probably say that every time I try to post to my blog, I hear there is a resurgence in blogs. Hopefully, that is true, I remember the great days of the blogs and how much fun it was to read about everyone's crafty lives. Well, here we go. I have been making buckets! I hope you want to make some too!

I have been teaching Quilt As You Go both on the longarm and on the domestic machine and I find myself with a bunch of fun little quilted slabs, but I really don't need a lot of quilted slabs unless I turn them into placemats for the table, which is fun, but again I don't need that many. I do however need little containers to put stuff in. This is where my little quilted buckets come in. They are quite simple to make, especially if you have taken one of my classes (please take one of my classes so I can feel justified in filming more). 

I think these little buckets are really cute disguising a nursery pot for a new plant, or on the desk filled with pens. I use mine by my sewing machine and put my favorite machine feet in it. I also have one near my longarm so I can collect all the thread clippings from quilting and removing basting thread. It is fun to see in accumulating in this little bucket instead of on my studio floor or wrapped around the vacuum beater bar. Not only are these little buckets incredibly cute and useful but they are so incredibly fun to make. After you make your first,  I dare you to try to resist making many more. I like to use my Quilt As You Go slabs, but they are so great made out of some of my quilting samples after I have tried some new designs or even my tension tests. Really you can't go wrong.

Supplies:

• Sewing machine in good working order with a variety of different feet
• A quilted thing that is at least 9.5x14 inches
• piece of lining fabric 9.5x14 inches
• a strip of fabric to bind the bucket 2.5x18.5 inches
• Fabric marking pen or pencil
• Rotary cutter and self-healing mat
• Quilting Ruler
• Fabric scissors

*All seams are quarter-inch unless otherwise stated.

Step 1)  Cut your pieces

You need to cut your pieces for your bucket

Cut out a 9.5x14 inch rectangle of both the quilted slab and the lining fabric (a lining is not 100% necessary, but I like to add one to disguise the raw seams). 

Step 2)  Mark and Cut out your bottom gusset

Fold your quilted piece in half so the short sides are at the top. Mark a 2 inch square in both bottom corners. Flip it over and do the same thing on the other side. I recommend you use a fabric marker, I used a sharpie so it would show up in these pictures for you.

If done correctly you will have a 4x2 inch rectangle to cut out from both sides. Go ahead and cut them out. 

Step 3) ZigZag Stitch Around Your Quilted Piece

I think it is important to do some sort of Stay Stitch around your quilted piece. This prevents the quilting from coming unraveled at the edges. I use a simple Zig Zag stitch or the stitch that looks like a serger stretch stitch. On my Bernina it is #13

Step 4) Sew Up the Sides and Gussets

After you have stay stitched the quilted piece you can sew up the sides then the gusset bottom of both the quilted piece and the lining. I use my walking foot when sewing up the quilted portion of the bucket. You can see your little bucket coming together now. 

Step 5) Place the Lining inside the Quilted Bucket

Leave your lining inside out, but you will need to turn your quilted part Right Side Out at this point. Stuff your lining inside the quilted bucket. It is helpful to nest up your side seams and either pin or use wonder clips to keep the parts in place. 

Step 6) Sew Lining Inside Quilted Body of Bucket. 

This part is easiest done with the free arm of the sewing machine exposed. I almost always have an extension plate on my sewing machine, but when I have to put in linings I remove it so I can get this part done easily. Sew the lining inside the bucket. Sewing the lining in before adding the binding makes the binding part easier and Easy is good. I use my walking foot for this step and I use a scant quarter-inch seam so it will be hidden when I finish my binding. 

Step 7) Make and Add Binding to Bucket

I failed to take a picture of making the binding. I am sorry. I never like binding for some reason, so I blast through it. You will need a 2.5x18.5 inch piece of binding. I love a black and white stripe for my bindings, but use whatever you like. Press the binding in half down the length. Open the binding up and sew the short ends together with a quarter-inch seam. Finger press this open and fold the binding back in half along the pressed edges. At this point, if my words make sense, you will have a pretty ring of binding. Hooray!

Turn your bucket inside out and slide the binding onto the bucket with the raw edges together. Pin or wonder clip the binding in place paying attention to where the seams line up. I don't like all the seams to wind up in the same place. The bulk makes me crazy. Now use your walking foot and sew the binding to the bucket with a quarter-inch seam.

Step 8) Finish Binding your Bucket

You are so close to finished! Yay! Now you just need to flip your bucket right side out, fold your binding down over the edge and stitch it down. This is a great time to get creative if you feel like it. Slide some rickrack or Prairie points up under the fold and make an exciting binding, or hand stitch the binding down with fat embroidery thread, maybe add some wool felt to park your hand needles so it can become a sewing bucket. You are really only limited by your imagination. Go for it! Make heaps and give them to your friends and family! If you do make some and post them on IG please use the hashtag #tiacurtisquilts so I can see your fine work. Below are some that I have made and remembered to get a picture of before sending them off to their new homes.

Here are some that normally hold baby plants. 

One holds my binder clips the others will hold baby plants

This one is from a test quilting piece and holds my wonder clips

This was a QAYG piece and holds my thread clippings. That's a lot of thread folks.

This is my applique bucket. It normally lives by my seat on the sofa or in the car. I added some felt so I could park my needles

This one lives by my Sewing machine. It holds all my favorite notions. I would be lost without it.

OK, go forth and make buckets for yourself and all the folks you love. The world needs more quilted buckets! Also, leave a comment. Let me know you are here!

Cat bags and Octopi bags are coming soon!!!!

Hey there folks!!!

What do you know? I am typing a blog post. How wild. It is rather dusty around here. It has been so long since I have posted that the entire platform seems to have changed. Oh well onward and upward, right?

So, how has Covid19 been treating you? I hope you are doing well and are healthy and happy and have found some good things to keep your mind and body busy.

For those of you who have been long time followers, HI!!!!! I miss you all so much! For the newbies HI!!!! I am so happy to meet you. From 2006 to about 2013 I made bags. Camp Follower Bags. That was my gig. I made bags out of peoples uniforms and they were pretty cool if I do say so myself. I hear from folks every so often about how they still carry their bag after x amount of years and that they still love them. Those tales make me so happy.

Well, during this pandemic I have found myself going back to what I know. I have been making bags again. I have made some rather large and complicated ones and I have made some smaller ones that are absolutely charming. I  have been able to focus long enough to knock out a bag here or there and it is the little victories that have made me feel like I am getting things done. It makes me feel rooted. I first started sewing to feel like I had some control while my husband was deployed. I obviously need to feel some control again now that it seems like the world has turned itself inside out.

Well, I have quite a few ready to go onto their new homes. I have about 40 zipper bags of varying complexity and detail. Every single bag is a one of a kind. You will be the only human on the planet with that particular bag. Each one is a piece of art in its own right.

I know there has been alot of excitement and questions about when they will be available. Soon!!! I took so many pictures over the past couple days, but I need to edit them and upload each individual listing. as well as measure each bag so you will know what you are getting. 

The cats above are going to be available. They are so cute. I think there are 12 cat bags, maybe more? I painted all the ones above with fabric dye, washed and set the dye then used my long arm to do some free hand thread sketching of some cute little cat faces and quilted the backgrouds. The bags are quilted all the way through and with the exception of 2 bags all have metal zippers. 

My daughter Emma and I coolaborated on several bags. She painted pieces that I quilted and then I made them into bags. Notably the Octopus bags which I have not yet photographed. Yikes! I need to do that tomorrow I hope. Needless to say they are awesome and I kinda want to keep them all, but that is stupid, also She will be getting the money from the sale of her bags. College isn't free, and she wanted a creative job. I hear you kiddo. Me too!

I also made a TON of these Trixie Zipper bags. I cant tell you how much I love the design and individuality of these bags. If you sew, and have not made one yet, stop everything and go buy the pattern from  Sewing Illustration and make a couple. I have had alot of fun during this pandemic making these bags out of little quilts and samples I have made over the years. Seriously they are so satisfyling and her zipper technique is kinda brilliant.

I hope you enjoied a bit behind the scenes here on the Curtis homefront. I am sewing like crazy. Still quilting everyday and dabbling in painting. If you have not signed up for my newletter please do. That is where the first announcement will go as to when the bags will be available in my shop. you can sign up over on the right hand sidebar or right as you open my blog a really annoying popup pops up. I swear I will never bombard you with spammy emails or nonsense. I don't have time for that.

*Also I can't find spellcheck on the new platform. I am going to go re-read this post. Hopefully it wont look like it was written by a bot. If it is filled with typos, sorry. Do not feel like you need to let me know.

I am so happy you came here to ready my blog. I miss you guys! Let me know in comments if you would be interested in a Zoom class on how to make your own cat bag?

xoxo

Tia

Quilting with curved rulers to make secondary designs

Make Protective Fabric Face masks with your Long Arm quilting machine.

Use your digital quilting machine to stitch out protective face masks. The digital pattern I designed is for use with the pleated Deaconess.com mask. It has reinforced 1/2 inch gaps in each of the four corners to insert either elastic or Cotton ties depending on availability and preference.



You can find my FREE digital patter HERE



Please let me know if you have any questions.

Studio Apron Tips with Tia Curtis

"A Lesson on Improv Curves" quilt pattern

Hi There!

I know it has been ages since I wrote an actual blog post. I like the idea of blogging, but finding the time is another story.

I showed up here today to tell you about my newest pattern. I have been playing with improv curved blocks for several years and I finally have it down to a fun technique that I can almost do blindfolded. 

This pattern is written like one of my classes. It is full of color pictures of step by step instructions to make both simple and complicated blocks. I love making curves so very much. Please give this pattern a look if you feel like it might be a technique you would like to add to your quilt making tool box.

I'm excited to present this pattern to you in PDF form on my website. And happily enough I am also running a Studio Sale to celebrate the reboot of my website shop. You can get 20% off orders of $25 or more, so you can pick up some lovely fabric and a pattern or two. Use coupon code STUDIOSALE at checkout.

I made the cover quilt with Wonder fabric by Katie Larson and PBStudios solids. I love this collection so much. The large scale prints are perfect for simple curves and the solids make such great companions.

I made this version with the Harriet companion prints that go with Carolyn Friedlander's recent collection. I love how calm this version is compared to the one above.

Now, this version was one of my first dabbles into curved piecing. I made these quilt blocks from the small inside curve out to the lager curves. I also cut my pieced curves in half and inserted narrow stripe strips before finally nestling the curves into their silver backgrounds.

This version had both large curves and small curves. I felt it needed more, so I inserted charcoal crosses.

This last version was made a couple days before the first time I taught this quilt at my LQS. I felt I needed at least one more sample. I wanted to work on a rather chaotic layout so after trimming up all the blocks I shoved them into a paper bag and sewed them together as I took them out of the bag. It made for really making a fun layout. 

I loaded the quilt up onto my Gammill long arm initially intending to quilt it very simply with an edge to edge design, but I lost control and filled the quilt up with custom quilting. My husband decided it should be named "Cruising Altitude" because it kinda looks like farm land when seen from above. These fabrics are almost all hand dyed by me from a dying jag I had a couple years ago. I like how soft and faded the quilt it. The back is a Silver Cotton Sateen that makes the quilt have such a lovely soft feel. This is the last thing I am going to say about the quilt before signing off. I used Bamboo batting from Winline. The batting is so soft and wonderful. I have wanted to add a good Bamboo batting to the battings I offer clients for some time. This one is just perfect. It is thick enough show off pretty quilting, but the drape is elegant.

Happy Quilting Folks!!!

Tia

Making Bias with the Oliso Travel Iron and Clover Bias makers

Hey there! I hope you have all been well. Autumn has descended on Eastern Kansas. It is absolutely beautiful outside with all the leaves changing colors. I have ben busy, but aren't we all? I have several blog posts in various states of editing going on about all the awesome trips I made this year to teach my love of quilting both with Gammill and on my own, but I start them and just can't finish for some reason.

Here is a quick video of how I make Bias strips for use in Appliqué. I keep saying Oliso incorrectly....Olisio...nope. And I couldn't remember that Soak makes Flatter spray starch. Dangit. Oh well, I am sure you know.

I know I will be asked, so here is the width you need to cut your strips

1/3 inch Clover Bias Maker cut 7/8 inch strips

1/4 inch Clover Bias Maker Cut 5/8 inch strips

If you are reading this I would love to know what your favorite notions are. I am planning to do a series of notion reviews and I am curious if we like the same thing.

Cheers!
Tia

Hi There!

Hi There! My friend recently took a couple head shots for me. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. I was told at a teaching gig recently that I don't look anything like my publicity photo. I assume that I am clearly more stunning in real life (just kidding, I know what I look like). My daughter took my other pictures right after going to the salon. I do love a blow out and I feel so fancy with straight hair...but in real life my hair is kinda curly. I never take any time with it. I guess I should look in pictures like I do in real life. Nicole did a great job with these pictures and she made me look skinny too. So now when you see me roaming around in the wild you will recognize me, come say hi.

Fall Fabric Sale!

Hi There!

As the days are cooling off and the leaves are changing all I want to do is sew! I figure I may not be the only one. I am running a sale on fabric in my ETSY shop. 15% off fabric sales of $25 or more use coupon code FALLFUN. Go treat yourself! 

I have several new prints including Akoma and Steno Pool. I am especially LOVING the new Front Yard Sunflower knit. I made a Montlake t-shirt and I just LOVE it!

Starting a Long Arm Quilting Business

Hi there!

What do you need to know before starting a long arm business?

I have been thinking about a post like this for years. I get so many questions about starting a long arm quilting business and I am almost always happy to answer your questions. But it would be nice if it was in an easy to find spot wouldn't it?

First off, I quilt with Gammill long arms. I LOVE them. Wholeheartedly and utterly, I LOVE my machines. The machine is so well built and the software is the very best on the market in my opinion.  I have quilted and taught on other machines, but I am coming at you from a Gammill perspective. I don't sell the machines, but I know who does. With that said this will not be a Gammill Commercial. Although I would love nothing more that doing Gammill commercials because I love the company, support and the fantastic machines they build.

This post is for those who want to start a business. It is for those of you who want to make money quilting for other people. If you just want to buy a long arm and quilt your own quilts that is fine, awesome. Do it! Stick around some of this may apply to you. 

Please ask questions. I am happy to answer them. Many of these topics are probably great for their own post, but I am just trying to be quick here. If I get questions I will address them in individual blog posts.

I am not a business advisor. I am a small business owner and I love what I do. I enjoy my work and I like to quilt for others. I truly LOVE to quilt.

In my opinion you need to like quilts and quilting before you begin this endeavor. People won't want you to work for them if you hate your job, or if you don't know how to do your job. Do some quilting for yourself first, get comfortable with your machine and your abilities and then start quilting! 

Wait a minute...maybe there is more to it that that.

1. Love to quilt.
2. You need space.
3. Purchase the best machine you can afford that can do digital Edge to Edge quilting
4. Take Classes on how to use your machine
5. Buy a machine that you can get support with.
6. Join Quilt Guilds
7. Be nice, organized and professional.

A long arm is a sewing machine on wheels that is on a big table. The ones I quilt with are massive. One table is 14 feet long the other is 12 feet long. Does your table need to be that big? No. I have only used all the space on the 14 foot rollers twice, but I like having the extra space so I can access my bobbin area and get to my machine easily. You will need a REALLY long room. I know it is hard to find a big space like that so you can fill it with and enormous machine. I looked at many houses in San Antonio (during our mock move this summer) and very few had the space that I required. When we bought this house in Kansas, a big open space was almost first on the list.

I have one machine set up in our lovely sun room. I love that room. It is so nice to be up in the light. my eyes like it too. it is easy to see what I am doing. My other machine is in the basement. I love that room too. It is dark and basmenty though. 

Purchase the best machine you can afford. Seriously. You are investing in yourself and your business. If you are quilting for others you need to be able to quilt digital edge to edge designs. That is where the money is. The money is absolutely NOT in custom work. You need to be able to quilt quality work consistently. You are basically buying an employee. A robot if that is easier to wrap your head around. Hand guided machines are great, but you will wear yourself out pushing a sewing machine around peoples quilts over time. Machines with computers can do free hand work too. Some folks are under the impression that custom quilters are raking in cash. I sure am not with my custom work. Do you want to spend 3 weeks on one quilt and get paid $700 or do you want to quilt 21 quilts in that same three week period (with a very reasonable 1 quilt a day) and get paid over $2100. The answer is clear. I am just estimating each quilt will cost about $100. Clearly you can quilt more than one quilt a day but don't go into this thinking you will be able to quilt 8 quilts a day. Maybe I will get there someday, but I want to do good work, and I am still raising kids, going to football games, cooking, cleaning and all the others things that come with being a mom. You will have other obligations too. I make my best money with digital E2E quilting and traveling to teach quilting. My passion is custom quilting, but that doesn't pay for new carpet and plumbing. The digital E2E quilting does.

A computerized machine is expensive. I hear you saying that to yourself. I know that. Believe me I know that. It is probably not the answer you want to hear. But I have already done the research for you. I have quilted on my domestic Bernina sewing machine for years. Heck my first business was built with quilting from my Bernina sewing machines. When that got too hard I bought A Bernina 820 with its bigger throat space and a nice sewing table it made quilting even easier. Well, that came with its own basket of issues so I went on Craigslist and bought a used Gammill Supreme. These are pretty rare these days. It was a 36 inch no frills beast. I LOVED it. I started my quilting business with that machine and I did great work with it, but the Edge to Edge service I was providing was all hand guided, but I had to charge what the other E2E quilters were charging to compete. Crazy right? I was doing what is really custom work but only getting a fraction of what my time and skill were worth. I finally bought a second hand Gammill with a Statler Stitcher. It was my first computerized quilting machine. It came already loaded with a zillion digital designs and was in phenomenal condition. I was able to do so much with that machine and it could keep up with me. Everything I could think of that machine could do. Now I have two computerized machines and I keep them running. One for custom work and one for Edge to Edge quilting.

Take classes on how to use and operate your machine. When you purchase a machine it should include several classes. TAKE them! You can learn heaps on youtube and instagram, but you need to take classes to learn the minutia. The software can do SO much, you just need to learn how to make it do what you want it to. Learn how to do free hand quilting, I can't tell you how easy it is for me to whip out some pretty background quilting to make a quilt sing then make the machine do what I consider complicated or boring.

Go to shows and try out all the long arms. You will be able to feel the difference between them. Push them around, Get your hands on them. See how they work and what features you like. you don't need all the bells and whistles, but some things are important ( you want a stitch regulator at the very minimum). Ask about support. Who will be able to come out and fix your machine if something horrible happens to it? Are there videos somewhere guiding you through your own maintenance? Is there a support network available somewhere or are they going to take your money, drop off a massive machine and later out of your house so fast and never hear from them again? You are making a big investment you need a support network.

Join Quilt guilds! Quilting an be a rather lonely business. You spend your days alone quilting and listening to true crime podcasts (maybe that is just me???) you need to get out. Quilt guilds are my free time. I get to talk to friends, meet new folks and see beautiful quilts. I am currently a member of two guilds and both are awesome. Besides friends quilt guilds also provide business opportunities. All you have to do is bring a show and tell quilt and stand in line when the time comes. You hold up your work and say "I quilted this on my Long Arm" that is all you have to do! After that people will come up to you and ask if you quilt for others. Say "Yes" and the rest will be history. You will have plenty of quilts to quilt. You can also ask your local quilt shop if you can offer your business cards there. All local quilts shops work differently and have rules, ask and see if you will be a good fit.

You will need an intake form of some sort. I have a digital form I email to clients. It asks all the pertinent questions I have when I get ready to quilt a quilt. I want to know how they want their quilt quilted, what batting they want, what thread color they desire. I also have a little math problem for them to do so there are no surprises when they get their final invoice. They find the square inches of their quilt and multiply it by the price of the service they want. That gives them a good estimate of what it will cost. I might charge too much for some and that is fine. I like my customer base just fine. I always want new customers, but I will not work for free and I don't like quilting for folks who always "want a deal". I am a professional and I expect/deserve to be treated as one ( so do you ). There must be quilters out there who do not value their time or skill so the deal seekers can go find them. When I contract out work to a fellow professional (doctor, lawyer, dentist, plumber, auto mechanic, photographer) I anticipate that I will be paying them for their work and skill so I research and find who meets my needs and go from there. I assume quilt makers do the same when they come to me.  I have bills the same as everyone else and kids who want to have food to eat and clothing to wear. I have met quilters who only charge $50 a quilt no matter the size and I don't understand why they would do that. I am probably going off on a soapbox rant. I will get back on track.

With all that said you may be asked to do charity quilting. Have a policy for this. You WILL be asked to quilt charity quilts. That is fine. We quilters LOVE a charity. You can do some, but choose which ones you want to do. Charity quilts are actually good to try new things on but be careful because after you let a couple in you might find yourself overwhelmed with how many pour in behind them.

Be friendly and professional. I like most people and I like their quilts. You are opening a business and you are the face of your business just like me. You need to keep a tidy studio. Mine is messy sometimes when I am in the midst of creating quilts or designs, and folks understand that. Most actually like it. They like seeing what I am working on at any given time and I am normally happy to show. If they are dropping off a quilt have them make an appointment. I have drop off times and drop off days. If people drop in anytime it makes it hard to get back to work. I get distracted especially when it comes to talking about quilts.

My last thing is social media. In this day and age we need to have some sort of social media presence. I am not a big fan of Facebook, but lots of folks love it so I am there. I really like Instagram and I have a website. The people need to be able to find you. It is best if you try to remain professional. Don't post your nude pictures, drunken rants or political stance. What is it they say not to talk about at a good dinner party? Don't talk about religion, sex or politics. I try to stick to that with my social media. You do you of course, I am just offering my advice.

OK...does that help a little? I hope so. Long Arm quilting is a great gig. I get to work from home and be around when my family needs me. I am my own boss and get to do what I love. I hope you do too! Please let me know if you want me to deep dive on any of these topics. I am sure money will be one and I am working on a blog post specifically about that. don't worry.

Cheers!
Tia Curtis

I'm Still here! Still quilting.

Hi There!

It has been a long time hasn't it? So much has been going on with my family and so much quilting has been going on as well. About May my husband decided to take a job down in San Antonio. Needless to say that meant a move, putting the house on the market, making renovations, selling the house buying a new house, packing all our stuff up, selling our absolutely awesome flock of hens, saying good bye to friends, making new friends, saying farewell to the best quilt guild in the world, and getting a heap of quilts quilted. Some of that did happen. Most of that happened actually. I did send my husband to Texas without me to try on the job and city and see if he actually liked it before moving us all back to Texas. We did make a ton of renovations to our house and we put it on the market. I packed up almost my entire studio and most of the house, sold and gave away so much fabric and sewing machines and just STUFF. I quilted my entire rack of client quilts, I wrote some quilt patterns, planned so many classes, trunk shows and workshops for next year and we said goodbye to dear friends. But.....then we didn't move. Turns out we were not fans of a massive city and my husband wasn't a fan of the new job, so we stayed in Leavenworth, Kansas. I got to experience all the emotions. I got to start taking a new blood pressure medicine. I can't find half my stuff that is still packed up in the garage and I am still trying to catch up on the whirlwind that was this summer. It was hot and stressful and so so so productive. If you follow along with my Instagram feed you will know some of the madness we have been putting on ourselves.

I am just going to show some pictures of the quilts I have quilted. Please ask questions if you want to see more of them...heck some of them I may have shown before. If so they are pretty and you get to see them again.

 I quilted this one to be cut up and made into bags. I made 6 bags out of it already.

This is Lori's version of my BOEOM quilt. Isn't it cute? 

One of my own quilts got in the mix. This is a class sample for a couple classes.

I really love this quilting I did on Konda's quilt. Sometimes it takes a long time to figure out what I want to quilt on a quilt, but this one was so fun and easy. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

Another or Klonda's quilts. I love this black on black quilting. so puffy and wonderful.

This was a neat one. I quilted the lyrics to a couple Wicked songs on this quilt. The texture of my handwriting makes a neat element.

And I have been raising these clowns. They have grown up so much. Seems like just yesterday they were little. I think they are my best work really.

OK, back to work! If you saw something you want more info about just let me know in the comments or email me.

Cheers!
Tia