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Note: Posting this a day early in honor of Mother's Day. I am heading up to North Dakota for the weekend to spend some time with my Mom. This week I had an opportunity to work on a Minnesota themed quilt. To complement the Minnesota themed fabric, my customer wanted a north woods look to the quilt. So I had the opportunity to design a new pantograph. Pinecones and pine branches. This definitely says Minnesota north woods.  See how to draft the pinecone using Art and Stitch. Art and Stitch is digitizing software for quilters and embroiderers. You could also use the technique from this video to freehand the design. Would you like to try the software before purchasing it. You can download a trial version on Art and Stitch's website. You will not be able to save with the trial version -- but it is a chance to try out my tutorials and see if the software is for you. You can also purchase Art and Stitch in my store. Check out Beth Murphy's finished quilt with the Pinecost and Pine Branches pantograph.  Beth Murphy Minnesota Quilt with Pinecone and Pine Branch pantograph  Pine cone and Pine Branch Quilting Close-Up Silhouette EQ Block Exchange - Submissions Due May 13th
Featured Product - Pinecones and Pine Branches Pantograph or Border Pinecones and Pine Branches Pantograph or Border This pattern is an easy to stitch out design -- perfect for a masculine quilt or any quilt desiring a north woods theme. The rows would be best stitched out with a 18% offset. All digital patterns are available for immediate download upon purchase. Separate files included for all major embroidery and quilting formats. Embroidery size is 8.9" x 2.97". On sale for $7.50 (regularly $15). OR ---- Would you prefer me to quilt this on your next nature themed quilt? I am currently accepting quilting orders for pantographs and all-over quilting.
Are you familiar with the Victorian Table Runner? This pattern was created by Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs. Annette created the dimensional curves technique to simplify the process of piecing curved quilt block shapes. If you are not familiar with this technique you will definitely be interested in one of her books and/or patterns. Years ago saw one of these quilts at Quilted Treasures in Rogers and immediately needed to buy the pattern and make the quilt. I don't remember who the recipient of the gifted table runner was. But the table runner remains a favorite of mine. Click on the pattern to be directed to Southwind Designs to purchase a copy of the pattern.  Victorian Table Runner by Southwind Designs Fast forward to a week ago... a customer brought me her Victorian Table Runner. She wanted something "custom". This table runner can present a bit of a challenge for longarm quilters as problems can develop if you are not careful around the fold-back curves. Also - because of the nature of the fold back technique there can be some slight variation from unit to unit. Using Art and Stitch I created two major designs that complements the Victorian Table Runner. My Art and Stitch video tutorai will share with you my process for creating one of the designs - which I am calling Victorian Scroll. Here are some pictures of the finished quilt. This quilt was pieced by Carolyn Oakes and will be on display at the Forest Lake Quilt show today (April 19th). Thanks Carolyn for letting me share photos of your quilt!  Victorian Table Runner pieced by Carolyn Oakes and quilted by Kari Schell  Victornian Table Runner Close Up of Block and Quilting  Victorian Table Runner Close-Up of Corner Here is Annette's cover quilt from the pattern with the quilting designs super imposed on her quilt.  Victorian Table Runner - Sothwind Designs Cover Quilt (copyright by Annette Ormales). Quiting designs (copyright by Kari Schell) . Featured Products - Victorian Table Runner Quilting Designs
It was time! I am not sure why, but I had been avoiding getting back into working on my longarm. It might have been the "pain" when I tried do some some minor stuff too early on after surgery. Or just the challenge of getting back in the grove. However, I had a number of customer quilts that really needed to get done. So I decided to make last weekend a "quilting" weekend. It was fun seeing the finishing touches on some lovely quilts. Here are a few photos of the quilts I worked on. At this point I am focusing primarily on pantographs. It is really fun to select a design that will complement the finished quilt.  Quilt by Belinda W. Quilted with Animal Crackers Pantograph by Patricia Riter
 Winters End by Caroline Oakes  Winters End Close Up. Quilted with Spiky Spinners Pantograph by Jesica Schick  Snowflake Table Runner by Carolyn Oakes  Snowflake Table Runner Close-up. Quilting designs by Kari Schell and Barbara Becker. One of the quilts was a Storm at Sea variation. I really wanted to do some simple custom. No heavy quilting for me yet. It was also time for me to get back to Art and Stitch. Here is the full quilt layout with my designs. I liked the clean look and felt it complemented the quilt. (All of this was done in Art and Stitch.)  Storm at Sea Machine Quilting Designs by Kari Schell Here are a few photos of the finished quilt. Scroll down for the closeups of the quilting.  Midnight Mountain Moonlight by Carolyn Oakes  Storm at Sea Quilting Design by Kari Schell  Storm at Sea Border Design by Kari Schell For this weeks video tutorial, I will share with you the drafting of the block and sashing designs in Art and Stitch. I also showed how I used an image from Electric Quilt as a backdrop. Featured Products - Storm at Sea Quilting Designs
 Applique Easter Egg by Kari Schell Do you dye Easter eggs? That was our family tradition for Good Friday growing up. Or are you interested in a quilting alternative? .Last year I did a few posts on creating Easter egg designs. I thought I would replay the video on drafting an applique Easter egg using Electric Quilt. I really wanted to sew that Easter Egg. Since I have been playing a bit with my Brother Embroidery machine, I thought this would be an opportunity to try an applique design on that machine. The new video covers the steps to transfer the design from Electric Quilt to Art and Stitch, Auto Tracing function in Art and Stitch, creating an SVG file (new with the latest version of Art and Stitch), and preparing the design for cutting in Silhouette Cameo. There are no videos of the stitch out, but it is pretty basic. Everything can be done in a standard 4 inch hoop. Art and Stitch provides three layers per design element:
The embroidery machine stops between each layer which allows me to add the fabric or change threads. Here is the finished design -- turned into a mug rug.  Easter Egg Applique for Embroidery and Longarm Systems by Kari Schell Since I was having so much fun, I decided to try a second egg with the zigzag and the circles as a fill stitch rather than applique.  Easter Egg Embroidery Plus Fill Variation by Kari Schell For the third variation, I decided to do a Redwork design. For this I used a bean stitch to outline all the elements. I am not sure I liked the metallic thread -- but this one stitched out super fast.  Easter Egg Redwork Variation by Kari Schell Do you want to try any of these designs on your embroidery or longarm machine. These designs are free -- my Easter gift to you. You will need to enter your contact information to check out -- but you will not need to enter your credit card (since the price is free). Purchase here. The Art and Stitch file is also included if you wish to play with other variations. Featured Product - Let's Go Fly a Kite SaleIt has been a bit chilly, but spring is just around the corner. And spring always reminds me of flying kites. This pattern has 20 pages -- so it chocked full of illustrations. You can choose to use the Studio 180 Design tools (which I love) or not. Either way the pattern will provide lots of information on how to piece this quilt.  I also simplified an edge to edge pantograph -- which will be super fast to stitch out on all major longarm systems.  Purchase a physical copy of the pieced pattern (mailed to you) here. On sale for $8 (regular price of $12). Purchase a digital copy of the pieced pattern here. On sale for $8 (regular price of $12). Let's Go Fly a Kite Digital Bundle (includes pieced pattern and quilting design). On sale for $15 (regular price of $27).  Happy quilting.
Kari Sign up for my newsletter to stay current on what's happening in my studio and learn more quilting tips. As a thank you, I'll send you a FREE pattern for this small maple leaf quilt. I am not Irish. But I love green. I also have a March birthday -- which meant that I always had shamrocks (or something green) decorating my birthday cakes while I was growing up. (So maybe there is a wee bit of Irish in me.) One of my first piecing patterns was a pattern that incorporated shamrocks, a Celtic Knot and Irish Chain blocks.  Smiling Irish Eyes Wall Quilt  Smiling Irish Eyes Table Topper I also developed a series of complementary quilting designs for the Smiling Irish Eyes quilts. (I got a little carried away and developed more designs than I needed -- but figured I could save them for a future quilt.)  Suggestions for Quilting a Smiling Irish Eyes Quilt For my video tutorial this week, I though I would share how to draft a Shamrock quilting motif using Art and Stitch. Art and Stitch is digitizing software for quilter and embroiderers. One of my first published videos was drawing a shamrock block. However, in reviewing the video I realized that my digitizing skills have improved. There were also a few changes in the most recent release of the software (free to all current owners of the software) that changed my drafting a bit. So consider this the new and improved video. Featured Product - Shamrock Quilting DesignsI am excited to announce the release of my complete set of Shamrock quilting designs. Many of these designs include multiple sizes (with one of the sizes conducive to the small 4" machine embroidery hoops). There are also both embroidery and quilting formats included with the downloads for these patterns. (No need to purchase separately.) All of these quilting designs are on sale for 50% off this week. Click on the photo to be taken to the store to purchase individual designs. There is also an option for purchasing a bundle of all of these designs plus my Smiling Irish Eyes piecing pattern for additional savings. For the bundled set click here.
 Shamrock Border  Shamrock Border Used as a Pantograph (30% offset for row 2 suggested)
Shamrock Digital BundleFor additional savings, purchase a bundle that includes all the designs listed about plus the pattern for piecing Smiling Irish Eyes table topper and wall quilts. Click here to purchase.  Smiling Irish Eyes Pattern Plus Digital Quilting Bundle Blog Pop Update
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