Long Arm Quilting

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas finishes

Hey there and Happy Holidays! We are gearing up for Christmas here at my house. That means lots of cooking and lots of Christmas sewing. Let me show you some quick pictures of (SOME) quilts I have finished recently. It has been rainy and dreary around Leavenworth, KS and sometimes the quilts slip out of the studio and go on their way before I have a chance to take pictures of them. 


This first one is a T-shirt quilt I was commissioned to make for a fireman. This was a great client to work with. She sent me design wall pictures of what she had in mind and we collaborated together to come up with a rather unique T-shirt quilt.


I quilted it with flames of course and used Quilters Dream Cotton batting in select loft.


The back is my favorite. It is strip pieced and was really fun to put together.


Next is Lynn's sweet floor quilt. This on was really fun. I love the idea of a giant Dresden Plate


Sorry, these pictures are pretty rotten. I had her hold it up before she left the studio. The lighting is dreadful. The quilt is super cute though!


Next up is Cheryl's wonderful Chevron. I love chevron quilts. I think there are a thousand different ways to quilt them.


For this one I did Echoing lines in the white and bubbles in the colored bits.


I get a bunch of questions on Instagram about how I use my Channel locks to quilt diagonal lines. It is easy! I need to work up a tutorial I suppose. All the bubbles are freehand and were a blast to quilt!


I also finished this adorable wall hanging for Meri. She and her grand daughter worked on it as a block of the month. She said her grand daughter was more excited about it than she was so she wanted to give it to her as a Christmas present. I custom quite it to guide around all the buttons and ribbons.



I finished this Doe fabric by Carolyn Firendlander. I think I am going to give it to my son. It will get it's own post because it is awesome. I used some new super thick cotton batting on it and quilted it freehand to look like topography contour lines.


And I finally slapped a binding on this fabulous quilt. I intended to sell in in my shop, because frankly my house is starting to look like a quilt hoarder lives here. But sadly I can't because it has a big stain on it. I left it folded in a safe place until I had time to bind it, and someone trotted over and bled on it. I have no other information than that. I don't know what led up to the nefarious event, but it was something dastardly I am sure. It will be given to my daughter. She won't care a bit. Maybe I will applique something over the stain? If you look close you can see it over on the left hand side right by the mermaid. I washed this quilt already once. It didn't come out.

xo,
Tia

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Lots of doing not much blogging.


Hey there! Do you recall the good old days when I used to blog a lot? I do! Gosh I used to always have my camera handy and I took loads of pictures and as soon as I "did it" I blogged about it! Now I am so busy that while I have still been doing things (probably 5 times as many things) I take pictures with my phone and Instagram them...and they don't get blogged at all. So did they really happen? I guess so...my Instagram says they did at least. So please, if you want to be overloaded with quilting pictures follow me on Instagram. I am TiaCurtisQuilts there too! I am doing so many things I need to make a bullet list...
  • I have 40 bolts of Cotton and Steel fabric I need to list in my etsy.com shop
  • I have about 20 bags and quilts I need to list in my shop too
  • I am writing patterns
  • I am teaching classes - both private quilting lessons on the long arm and I am teaching in quilt shops
  • I am teaching Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival 2015
  • I am renting out one of my long arms for quilters who are near by and want to quilt their own quilts on my long arm 
  • I am being a mom, nurse to my 3 kids and various neighbor ones, house cleaner, wife, lover and personal cook to a household of foodies. Sometimes I am a dog walker and always a tea drinker. 
SO yeah...I am being a Doer instead of a blogger...and that is good for me and my family it is not so good for my online business. I do want to try to blog at least once a week...that should be a doable goal right?

I did whip out my camera a couple of times over the last two weeks...


The quilt possee met at my house. We worked on fun fast ways to make half square triangles. We had a couple drop ins and have to leave early so we just did really easy stuff.



My dining room is getting too small for everyone, we may need to expand to my sun room as well...some day hopefully we will swell out to one of the local shops. That would be awesome!


Here are our finished blocks. Lemoyn Stars but crazy easy using half square triangles instead of Y seams. Mine is the dorked up one on the bottom right. It looks more like a mean transformer face. Oh well...I got distracted and the conversation and food was great so I don't really care.


I think I finished 10 edge to edge quilts over the last 2 weeks but only managed to take a real picture of this one. Edge to edge quilts are so quick! They are up and off my table in about 3 hours so I rarely get good pictures of them. This quilt pattern is named Board Shorts by Alex Ledgerwood and the e2e quilting design is Modern Maze 3.



Amy came over to rent a long arm and she quilted this entire t-shirt quilt in 3 hours. That is awesome! I charge $20 and hour to rent my hand guided long arm. You will need to take a quick class with me about loading up quilts and I teach some simple all over designs on muslin. Than you are off to the races. I rent out regularly to a couple ladies in ton, but I love having company down in my studio so please email me if you are Near Leavenworth, KS and want to quilt some of your own quilts. Save your back! Rent long arm time!



OK, that is it for today! I have quilts calling my name! I am taking the camera down with me too!

Have a great week!
Tia

Monday, November 17, 2014

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!


  1. Hey there Folks! I choose my winners. Thank you all so very very much for playing along and sharing your pet stories. I read all the comments. You guys have some great little critters out there to love.
  2. My favorite pet is our exotic short haired cat, Breezie. She is so sweet and cuddles just like a teddy bear. She is quiet, playful, and so cute. Wish I could post her picture. ;)




    I love your quilt and the funny story about your missing fabric. Thank you for the chance to win this great book.
    My favorite dog was named Muffin. She wasn't allowed to come into the house, so she would lay down in front of the door. When she thought no one was looking, she would stretch her front paws out and slowly creep forward. She would do this several times until she was all the way in the house. Of course, we would scold her, but she would look at us with her beautiful brown eyes and we would always relent. Who could resist her sweet antics?

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Quilted Zipper Pouch Class (Thursday 13, Nov 2014)

Hey there! I have one more class to announce. If you are here for the Blog Hop HERE is a direct link to that post. You are welcome to stay here of course and ready through. 


I am teaching my favorite Quilted Zipper Bag on Thursday 13, NOV at Meadows Quilt Shop in Leavenworth, KS. This is a really fun class where we will cover many simple techniques including machine quilting, improv piecing, hand stitched embellishment and simple zipper instillation. This is a great little bag that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as zipped bags go. I hope you join me, we already have a pretty full class, but I bet there is room for a couple more!


This is another class I am willing to travel to teach. It is such a blast! Please Email me if you would like more information.

Cheers!
Tia

Improv Piecing Workshop Tomorrow (12 Nov 2014)


Hey there! Tomorrow I will be teaching an Improv piecing workshop at 3 Ladies Quilt Shop in Leavenworth, KS. If you are ready to set yourself free with improv piecing but aren't quite sure where to start, this is the class for you. I will teach 8 of the most popular Improv quilt blocks and 3 fabulous borders.







This will be a great class full of fun and inspiration. Improv is my favorite method of quilt making. It was my springboard to truly LOVING quilt making. This method truly made quilt making therapeutic and thrilling for me. I hope to share my passion about this style with you. I think there are still some openings in the class here in Leavenworth. I am also willing to travel if you have a shop or guild that would like to have a day of really fantastic block making.

Cheers!
Tia

Blog Hop and Optical Illusions Giveaway



Hello and Welcome to my blog! If you are here for the first time or visiting from Mystarsblog, it is so good to have you here! I am a professional long arm quilter and pattern designer.

This is a great book filled with some really innovative designs. I love seeing different takes on a theme and reading a bit about the process that went into making them.

Today I will be giving away a copy of Optical Illusions Innovative Designs for the Modern Quilter. I will also sweeten the pot with a very sweet little pack of Cotton and Steel Fat Quarters hand picked by my daughter. So you have two chances to win on my blog. Cool, right?


I think it is really funny that one of our favorite hens has her picture in the book too. This is Michelle. She is a very sweet Polish hen. She lays creamy white eggs when she feels like it and sometimes has her crown feathers put back in a ponytail. It is fun to watch her go about her business in the garden.


OK, lets get to my quilt. I made this quilt for the book based on an optical illusion I found on Pinterest. So many optical illusions are downright dizzying, I wanted to make something that had a touch of illusion, but also stay in the traditional wheelhouse. I used Carolyn Friedlaner's AWESOME Botanic fabric. * Funny Story - I made this quilt basically the day after Botanics was released. I literally opened my package of fabric and cut it up. The quilt went together really quick and quilting it was a breeze. Then I sent it off and over time and with projects piling up I kinda forgot about it. I am bad for squirreling fabric away and one day I decided to finally cut into my Botanics fabric...well, I couldn't find it anywhere! It was gone. I even went so far as to blame my daughter for taking it (she does that sometimes). Imagine how utterly stupid I felt when some memory in the back of my mind surfaced and I recalled that I had used all my pretty Botanics fabric in this quilt that was in a book! I still get a bit giddy about that.


That aside you should totally make this quilt! It is really simple, just being made out of half square triangles. The quilting was really fun too! It would probably be easier to quilt it this way on a domestic machine, but I used my Gammill. Each quadrant is quilted a bit different to keep me from getting bored while working on it.


OK, here are the stacks of fabric. Each pack has 5 fat quarters. Elizabeth (and pins ) choose the pack in the lower left, so you may choose one of the other packs if you don't win the book. The other two fat quarter packs will be available in my shop after the drawing.


To Enter is easy...just tell me about your favorite pet, just the name or a whole story. Leave you comment below. Make yourself at home! Animals are cool and so are you!

Good Luck!

Be sure to visit Elizabeth and Tammie today for more chances to win!

Thanks again for stopping by my blog. If you have a quilt you would like me to quilt shoot me an email, I do both hand guided custom quilting and Edge to edge with my Statler Stitcher.

Check out the rest of the blog hop for chances to win some great giveaways!
Nov. 7
My Stars on behalf of Mary Kay Fosnacht & Karen Hansen

Monday, November 10, 2014

Blog Hop Tomorrow!

Hey there Folks! 
Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is my day for the blog hop book tour for Optical Illusions. I have 2 Great prizes to give away!


Nov. 3
My Stars – Kick Off www.mystarsblog.com (book)
Deb Rowden www.debrowden.blogspot.com (BB FQ bundle)

Nov. 4
Angela Walters www.quiltingismytherapy.com (Athena bundle)

Nov. 5
Penny Layman www.sewtakeahike.typepad.com (book)

Nov. 6
My Stars www.mystarsblog.com  (book)
Melissa Corry www.happyquiltingmelissa.com (Oakshott FQ Bundle)
Lily’s Quilts www.lilysquilts.blogspot.com (3 - 5" Oakshott charm pack)
Fat Quarter Shop www.fatquartershop.blogspot.com (Naptime Bella FQ bundle)

Nov. 7
My Stars on behalf of Mary Kay Fosnacht/Karen Hansen www.mystarsblog.com (book AND Kona color card)

Nov. 10
My Stars www.mystarsblog.com (book)
Jamie David www.patchworkarchitect.blogspot.com (3 packs of charm squares from RK)

Nov. 11
Elizabeth Timmons www.andpins.wordpress.com (3 packs of skinny rolls from Robert Kaufman)
Tammie Schaffer www.craftytammie.com (book)

Nov. 12
Katie Larson www.thecraftingshell.blogspot.com (book)

Nov. 13
Jenifer Dick www.42quilts.com (book)
Trisch Price www.hadleystreetquilts.com (Kona color card)

Nov. 14
Jacquie Gering www.tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com (Kona color card)
Shea Henderson www.emptybobbinsewing.com  (A large and small Kaleido-Ruler set by Marti Michell)