Julie Stocker Quilts Weekend Workshops Register Now!

Julie Stocker Quilts Weekend Workshops

Two Part Workshops held at my studio

in Gnadenhutten, Ohio

Group I: Classes on Saturday, September 19 & Saturday, October 3, 2020

9:30-12:30 All seats filled

Group II: Classes on Sunday, September 20 & Sunday, October 4, 2020

1:30-4:30     All seats filled

$15 per class    Limit of 6 per class

The kids are back to school, and it's time for you to learn some new skills, and sharpen some old ones. It's ME TIME again! Hurrah!! Think you know how to sew a straight line? Great! I'll help you take it a big step forward. You're a seasoned quilter with a few quilts behind you? Feel confident you'll leave the class a much better quilter as I introduce more advanced options for you!

Class I will include:

· How to choose, read and decipher a pattern

· How to choose and prepare your fabric for this quilt

· How to sew a consistent ¼” seam

· How to cut and sew a log cabin block accurately

· Pressing for accuracy

· How to read and use a ruler

· Squaring up blocks

· Options for designing your own colorway for a unique quilt

· Pattern, additional printed support materials, coloring & planning pages, etc.

 

Class II will cover the garden variation of the 8 pointed-star, and use the Two-Peaks-In-One ruler by Creative Grids. I will cover additional design layouts, borders, and tips and tricks for assembling your quilt.

These relaxed Saturday classes are perfect for beating back the Covid blues. If the weather is warm or mild, the large canopy door will be open to provide maximum airflow. It’s like sewing on your porch so you might want to include a hoodie with your supplies.

·  Work in a large, bright, open space at your own 6’ table with ample spacing between tables. One floor layout with restroom. Coffee, tea, water and packaged snacks provided.

• 12 ½”Creative Grids square ruler for the session will be provided and available for sale
• Ironing station will be set up with 2 irons or bring your own set up
• Bring your own sewing machine, notions, rotary cutter, ruler and mat, and fabric to experiment with. Ask me for more details when you call to register.

  Register with your own small group for more fun! Future dates will be added.

 

Email me at julie@pinkdoxies.com for more information or to reserve your spot. Let’s get back to quilting!

 

On and Off the Longarm: Custom and E2E

Custom Quilting for Lynn Caley's Original Design

Teaser pictures only for this quilt today because the maker has plans for it, and I don't want to get in the way of anything. If you plan to publish a quilt, there are often rules in place that the quilt may not have been shown in its entirety. And because I am delivering it today, this post needs to be short. How about I just say, "It's a gorgeous quilt! Great work, Lynn."

Creative Quilt Play

Flower Child

September moved in almost without incident last week. My work flow has been steady, and I have a routine. I never thought I'd be in favor of life in a pattern, but it feels better than all the craziness we've been through. I had a couple small quilts that were E2E with long stitch outs, and that gave me time to continue my studio revamp. Sorting bins and fabric is therapeutic to some extent, but I came across a jelly roll pack I had bought a year ago. The colors were bright, and I craved a creative fix. 

Custom Quilting Goose Tales

Original Quilt Design by Stephanie Metz

Goose Tales Fabric Line by 

J. Wecker Frisch

Produced by Riley Blake

I will admit to being a little biased about quilt panels. They're not the first thing I run to when I visit a quilt shop, and I'm not sure I've ever bought one myself. But when this quilt turned up a few weeks ago, I was gobsmacked. I understand that Halloween themed fabric isn't everyone's love, and this runs on the cusp of Halloween and horror, but it's technically a fairy tale-themed fabric with utterly fantastic graphics. Awful and lovely faces that make you look at them.

Photo Roll of Longarm Quilting by Julie Stocker

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts and More Quilts!

One evening as I sat contently reading a book, yes, about quilting, my husband turned to me and asked, "Don't you ever get tired of quilting?" I didn't think that deserved a reply other than the look I gave, but I did think about it for a few days. I never tire of the world of quilts. I love it, and I love what I do. I like old, torn, well-used quilts as well as crisp new ones. I love simple designs as well as complex, and all the technical jibber-jabber as much as talking about my favorite new fabric lines. How does one get sucked in this deeply? Again, a rhetorical question which should not be considered too deeply. I just accept that quilts chose me, and not the other way around. 

Enjoy the montage. Owners/makers and some information may be listed as I remember, but this is all for your eyes more than your brains. This work started sometime in late June, and doesn't include everything I've done. I've been busy, but very happy as my husband will attest to.

How to Tie Comforters on Antique Quilt Frames

How to Use Vintage & Antique Quilt Frames to Finish Quilt Tops

Before I go further, I need to tell you the story behind this quilt. The center blocks were given to a friend of mine by a quilter who had to move to a care center. The original quilter is now 98. The quilter who received the blocks is a young 84. She carefully sifted through the leftover fabric stash sent along with several partial tops, and finished this design. She brought it our comforter frolic, and our small group tied it. Back home for binding, and then with some luck, the original maker will have a chance to see it finished, and ready for donation to MCC (Mennonite Christian Committee). Doesn't that just warm your heart? I love this scrappy, vintage-inspired design so much I may have to remake it for one of my own!

Now let's talk about the how-to stuff you need to know! I chuckled earlier this year when I read how a family had to teach their children to use a land line phone during the early Covid days. Today we're going to investigate quilt frames from the past century or so. Think of it as another form of 'quilt technology', and much the same story!

Freemotion Quilting Butterflies by Edyta Sitar

Happy Blogiversary to Pink Doxies!

Six years of color-filled posts shared with friends and family, laughter, tears, and lots and lots of love! Thank you all for being part of my world, and letting me into yours. I am truly blessed!

Combining Freemotion and Digital Design on Wool Applique Quilt

Wool Applique Quilt 

Made by Rita Darr

There are very few constants in my quilting business, and I think that's why it holds my attention so well. I love novelty! I see everything from one block charity quilts to intricate paper piecing. When this beautiful wool applique quilt found its way to me, I was intrigued. I'd done cotton applique before several times, but never wool. So I did my research, took my time to think about what would work, and practiced on paper. 

Judy Neimeyer Prismatic Star Finish

Prismatic Star

Judy Neimeyer quilts are iconic within the quilt world as complicated rights of passage into the upper tiers of experienced piecers. But like every new pattern we attempt, our first shot might not go as well as we wish. Learning is not always linear. That doesn't mean the quilt top is terrible, but that we would have a leg up the next time.  So what happens when we finish, and there is a little puffiness here and there, or a slightly wonky, wavy border, or the many other construction swamps we get bogged down in? It happens to me. It happens to you. But what can you do about it when it comes to quilting?

First, be honest with your long arm quilter, and have faith that, yes, some of it can be concealed with quilting.

Modern Heart Quilt & Bluprint

Piece & Love Solids Day Dream Quilt

I was saddened by the recent news that Bluprint would be closing in the near future. I was pleased with, and well served by the Craftsy company that later became Bluprint. In the past years, they offered a way for indie, or independent designers, to get their foot in the door by selling patterns through the platform. I watched some of these quilters rise up to greater renown within the community, and it was exciting. Retail stores compete with online quilting supply websites, and some are happy to see Bluprint go. But I worry that with our unstable economy in the light of COVID-19, and the number of companies filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is this a sign of things to come for our smaller stores? Many have been in decline, and the number of closures over the past decade is alarming. I'm not sure I want to foresee that future.

Surely thinking about all this spurred me to dig out a kit I'd purchased this winter from Bluprint. The Piece & Love Solids Day Dream kit by Cloth Parcel was bought with the notion it would be a quick make. It was, but I will be very honest with you--I was not happy with the pattern. 

Crosshatch Longarming a Wholecloth Quilt

Crosshatching Demystified

Laugh yourself silly, but I often find myself daydreaming about random things to do with quilting. Or in the wee hours of the evening, drifting to sleep, it hits me. Oh, where did that thought come from? But thinking things is a different animal than doing things, and often those worlds don't connect. Imagine when they do. 

Ideas for Working with Donated Quilt Blocks

Special Post from the North

Early last winter I received a mysterious package from north of our border. I recognized the addressee, a quilty blogger friend, Karen, from KaHolly. She had sent quilt tops in the past to be used in the Gnadenhutten Quilt Project, and those quilts were donated to a local shelter for families experiencing domestic violence.

Quilt for a Hard Rocker Finish

Quilt for a Hard Rocker

Done. I love that word right now. Along with the constant stream of customer quilts, I'm plugging away at ones I've promised to family. So with little fuss, here is today's finish sans tag, which will be added.

Custom Quilting Creative Borders

AKA When Things Don't Go As Planned

I never start a long arm quilting job without having a planning session with the maker, client, or client who is also a friend. Sometimes we talk on the phone, and other times in person. But this quilt and another were dropped off ahead of our meeting, and I had time to live with them. In the very beginning, this maker/client/friend thought this quilt should be custom or semi-custom quilted. I was on board with something a little more special. It had grown on me.

Amish Bright Quilt Finish

Amish Bright Finish

The garden is in! That's the excuse I'm giving for not paying attention to Blogland. I'm torn between the weeds that are growing exponentially, and my duty to keep up in the cyber world. I suppose 'weeds' grow here, too, but in a different sense. The one problem with being both gardener and quilter is both make hard use of your hands, and back back muscles, too. I've been fairly worn out lately, and note that I check the clock at dinner to see how soon I can head for bed afterward. Gosh, I think I'm getting old!

One Long Comeback

When Covid-19 stopped the world in March, I was already sick. One of our adult children came down with something, and I soon had it. My case was far lighter than hers, but her symptoms were more typical of what we hear with Covid-19. It went on for weeks for both of us. She was down, but I worked at home most days. What did we have? Not influenza A or B or strep or pneumonia, we know for sure. It was early on, and Covid testing was just becoming available for the very ill. Thankfully, we both got better, and no one near to us got the same thing.

Spin Drift: 13 From Quilts to Socks

Scattered, Yet Focused

Everyone is saying the same thing. "Focusing is hard right now, and I rip more than I sew." We sit down to do something, and our mind wanders. Is our family okay today? Should we check in with a friend we haven't heard from in a few days? Our phone pings. A text, an alert, a message about someone we know who might be sick. We want to keep on top of what is happening in the news with the spread of Covid-19, but we also need to stay occupied. Some of us have hopped on board with free quilt-alongs, but it's not for everyone. It's terribly hard to follow through, and even with a plan we feel lost in our typically sacred work spaces.

Spin Drift: 12 One More Day

The Marathon Continues

Custom quilting requires many times longer than an edge-to-edge, and at present I have stacks of quilts waiting. In spite of the back up in the quilt room, the pandemic took priority, and I took a few days off to get our lives in order. We have the things we need to keep us comfortable and safe, but we're not stockpiled. The kids have helped us find some alternative methods to buy food locally, hurrah for that, and I will say there is a momentary peace of mind of sorts. With that taken care of for the moment, I really want to get my quilt done and off. Today.

Spin Drift: 11 Custom Quilting

It's All About the Numbers
or
Custom Quilting Takes Forever
or 
The World Feels Very Crazy at the Moment, 
and This Project Will Never End

Nearly every quilt I look back on has some weird tangle of emotions and events. "Oh, that's the one I hand quilted through the winter when the power kept kicking off," or "I bought the fabric for that when so-and-so was with me." The whole quilt is a mixture of memories of fiber and thread, of people, and life events. I think it's glorious when they are happy memories, but it can ruin a quilt when it's something else. I don't want this quilt to become The Corona Quilt (even though they are very spatially similar). Therefore, I'm taking measures to keep my head and heart above water, and not bring the anxiety to my work space. And, I'm hurrying to get it done now. The clock ticks between things escalating on the world front, and how quilting much my darned tennis elbow will allow in a day.

Spin Drift:10 The Quilting Begins

Together at Last

The minute I had delivered the Bountiful Baskets quilt I was hard at work putting together the last blocks of Spin Drift. 

Bountiful Baskets Custom Quilting

"Bountiful Baskets"

There are more and more requests for custom quilting coming, and I always feel it's a great learning experience. When I was approached a few months ago about doing a quilt pattern called Bountiful Baskets by Pearl P. Pereira, I started doing my research. Planning how to quilt a piece usually starts with looking to see what everyone else has done. In this case, though, there was very little to go on. Next, I searched for applique quilts, and that was nearly endless. So I gathered my ideas, and met with this quilt's maker, Vickie Thomas. 

Spin Drift: 9

Reach In and Touch Them

Don't they look alive? Like you could feel they're cool, rubbery leaves if you swept your fingers across the fabric. I love this digital print! Maybe it has something to do with my fettish with succulents. They're like collecting Beanie Babies. Each slightly different, and low care. I find I can winter over dozens under fluorescent lights, and my world is still green on gray days. 

Spin Drift: 8

Cornerstone Dresden Plates

Shall I admit that I have rarely, if ever, made a whole quilt from a pattern created by someone else? As I sit up late at night writing to you--I slept for hours, and am now awake having thought street tacos were a good choice to eat late, I am working to remember. Okay, oh, yes, Moda Modern was one except in prints, and I believe two more patterns over the years perhaps. But none that I even loosely followed someone else's color scheme as well as the pattern. This must be my first, and admittedly, I have enjoyed following without leading. Not recreating the wheel, a friend tells me. There is joy in that when the rest of our lives are a bit helter skelter. Just follow the directions step by step.

Spin Drift:7

A Friday Sneak Peak!

I just can't stand it any longer. I'm not really good at secret projects, and have been dying to show you how this quilt is coming together. Dang! Isn't this a fun quilt!? The litmus test is when you put a section together on the wall, stand back, and giggle. I've laughed out loud many times, and admittedly photo bombed several friends with this marathon project. My studio has been my happy place!

Spin Drift: 6

Mixed Media Fantasy

Have you noticed how many more digital prints your local quilt stores are carrying this year? They're everywhere now. I stood in a shop yesterday watching people's reactions as they walked by a long rack of them. Several quilters paused longer to look at them, but none reached out to touch them. Interesting, I thought, but why? 

Spin Drift: 5

How Tweet It Is!

We feed the birds throughout the fall, winter, and spring. Sure, on the edge of a large woods they can forage for food, and especially during such a mild winter as we're having, but we feed to draw them in. We want to see the red cardinals, graphic woodpeckers, little gray juncos and titmice, yellow-green false canaries, brown sparrows and wrens, and even those nasty blue jays color our world when most things are gray. It's been a green winter here, but still the birds add so much color.

Spin Drift: 4

Memories of My Garden

My garden is not particularly planned. It's more of a jumble of plants I've bought or been given. Many have to be heeled in quickly, and quite often I have to move one after the fact. It might not like the sun or wind in that spot, or maybe it spreads enough to block another favorite. It may appear messy to some, but most often there is a sense of order in my mind. It's controlled chaos at best.

Spin Drift:3

Oh, the Romance of Rome!

As they say, "All roads lead to Rome", but have you ever been to Rome? It was many moons past for me, but it is a city still etched in my memory. Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and a shabby pensione that overlooked a courtyard fountain. I was 16, and backpacking across Europe--yes, I had a young, daring spirit even then, not to mention trusting parents, and Rome was--hot. Don't laugh, but that was absolutely one of my most vivid memories. There was a heat wave, and I was carrying an overloaded pack. See how I can bring a romantic travel experience down to a base level?

Spin Drift: 2

Dresden Block #2

I decided to show you the blocks in the order I made them. It's interesting how we intuitively change our fabric choices as we progress with a pattern. If one block is high drama, the next might be toned down, and so on. While we can only have one princess at a party, quilts can handle more than one, but not all. 

Spin Drift: It Begins

Spin Drift

Pattern by Michelle McKillop 
for Jen Kingwell Designs

Are you ready for a few weeks full of quilter's eye candy? Then stayed tuned each day as I roll through all the blocks I've completed for this quilt. They are gorgeous because the pattern was made for the fabric! "What?!" you say. Well, this pattern was made especially to use those large scale prints we all love, and have to buy a little of, but struggle to use in our quilts. I was dying to get mine into a quilt so this was a heavenly match. It was like having the Oreo cookies, and finding cream filling! 

Vintage Drunkard's Path

Vintage Indigo Drunkard's Path

It's kind of funny. I often get requests for business cards, but stall to print any as I ruminate over what to put on them. Julie Stocker: Quilt Hunter, Quilt Detective, Quilt Rescue Society, etc. (And seriously I know I need to break down, and just get something printed, but I'm obsessive about this kind of thing.) For those of you who know me only as a quilter, I also love to discover old quilts and the stories behind them.

Quilt for a Hard Rocker

2020 Quilts for Family

I get requests for quilts fairly often, and I used to spend a lot of time asking what colors people liked, if they saw something on Pinterest, etc. It's led me down a few roads I'd rather not travel anymore. I've gotten smarter. If someone asks for a quilt, I get to pick it. That's it. My choice. 

Scrappy Trips Around the World Quilt with Borders

Scrappy Trips Around the World with Borders

It's time to pick up where I left off so here I am. I will tell you I sit down with the intention to write a beautiful post, and after taking care of other humdrum computer business I think, "Oh, it will wait until tomorrow." Well, it's tomorrow. 

Domestic & Long Arm Collaborative Quilting Process

Inspirational Embroidery

A very good friend of mine showed me this project in its earliest stages. She'd found this center block, a beautiful piece of vintage embroidery, from over the pond. She was working on a way to incorporate it into a quilt using some Blocks of the Month, and her batik stash. 

Digital Quilting Design #2: Ogee Bulb

Oh, Gee, Ogees!

Take 2 on my digital quilting design work. I think this new pattern was a great way to elevate a one patch quilt design to a fun, new level. It gave it great texture while still keep it soft and cozy, and added a lot of visual interest, too.

Amish Bright & A Gentle Shift

"Amish Bright"
26" x 26"

The New Year is knocking! Are you ready? Maybe you'll do the same thing I will, and greet 2020 with the first sunrise instead of the clock strike at midnight. Either way, Happy New Year to you, and a toast to our past, present, and future together! Julie Stocker Quilts at Pink Doxies is over 5 years old now, and ready for a shift. Notice I said shift and not change. Shift is my word for 2020. More about that to come. 

First Steps to Digitizing Long Arm Designs

Vinegar Fizz

A little restaurant at the Las Vegas Wynn, Parasol Up Parasol Down, has an intriguing draw. As you watch from the balcony, decorated parasols creep both up and down in rhythm while suspended from the ceiling. It's mesmerizing and calming--a change from the typical Vegas scene of lights and noise. I had the same sensation both designing this geometric pattern, and watching it stitch out. 

Digital design is a seductive blending of creativity, software design, and physical mechanics, and my tools to battle the dreaded meander. There are moments and quilts that a meander satisfies, but it takes such little extra effort to use a decorative edge-to-edge pattern. 

Long Arming Christmas Quilts

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

While most people spent the last months of 2019 thinking about how to decorate their homes for the holidays, my decorating thoughts have been all about how to finish my customers' holiday quilts! Stacks of quilts big and small passed through my studio these past 2 months. I felt like the Head Elf after so many marathon sessions, and all--but my own--were finished as promised. You know how the cobbler's children always go without shoes. Mine will get finished, but perhaps not in time for Christmas this year.

Would you like to see some of the Lovelies I've been working on?

Roll of Quilts & Shredding Thread

Fresh Off the Longarm

Things have really been moo-ving around here since I hung out my shingle as a longarm quilter. I'm learning there is a fine line between busy and swamped, and that can change in a breath if I'm not careful. With Christmas around the corner, I'm in the swamped camp with most other quilters. Time management is important, but I'm enjoying the pace. 

Blog posts have been few and far between, but I have dog sitting duty today, and thought I'd show you some of the fabulous quilts by customers brought to me for quilting. 

Update: 1930's Depression Era Quilting

 Quilting Revision

Imagine this: You're laying in bed in the middle of the night wondering if you should have added more quilting to a project. The batting package said, Quilt up to 8-10" apart. You wonder, "In every direction or does it count if there's 2" and then a channel?" The dog whines. You let the dog out, and you---dumb, dumb, dumb, you check your phone. And someone on your quilting list says, "I wonder if she put enough quilting around those plates?" That is cause for a hot flash, and you are wide awake, sister! Not to mention the quilt has already traveled half an hour back to the store for pick up for binding. Now aren't you glad this isn't you, but me?

Longarming a 1930's Dresden Plate Quilt

"Oh, What Shall I Quilt on Monday?"

Just a tiny tongue-in-cheek, but not really true in this case. I just actively began taking in outside quilting. Not enough to be bombarded, but figuring 15-20 hours a week would be a nice pace for me. It's been most enjoyable so far, and I've met some talented quilters. But the person who pieced this quilt top is gone, and she or he left behind a legacy for future generations. Lucky me, I was asked to finish it.

Fall Themed Charity Quilts

All the Colors of Fall Fabrics

The charity quilt tops I've pulled to quilt recently definitely have fall vibrations. I'm drawn to these earth tones! Rich burgundies, greens, and golds are mainstays of our fall palettes.

Machine Pieced Hexies Progress

The Final (Organic) Layout

In my free sewing time, I'm following along with Mary Huey's Scrappy Hexagon Quilt. Her method allows for chain piecing these bad boy angles, and makes it easy to whip up a crazy, difficult quilt in no time. (It's kind of like the magic of having an Instant Pot, ya know?) Last week's post had us laying out the sets we'd made. Groups of 4, 3's, and a few 2's. Then the border or edge pieces were cut, and the whole shebang laid out as one quilt. 

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

Hex, Hexe, Hexie: What's the Link?

My brain always itches to know the whats and hows and whys when I see possible connections--especially in the quilt world. This one didn't fail me either. There is one. I'll get to that in a minute. 

Vintage Feathered Star Scrap Quilt

Clean and Fresh

A friend of mine has a passion for antiques of all kinds. He's always on the trail for interesting textiles worth saving too. So when he called me about a local quilt he'd found, I first asked what the pattern was. He hadn't a clue. When I finally saw it the next day, he asked me. I hadn't a clue either. It was so scrappy, and so dirty, it was was hard to see the pattern. We could make out a star here and there, but what were the alternate blocks?