Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my dear Quilting friends.

Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on all of our blessings. After watching the devastating wild fires in CA and knowing that my teaching friend Melinda Bula lost her home in the fire, it makes me happy to just have a house and a fully loaded sewing room. Melinda's husband was able to grab most of her award winning quilts, computers, meds, and photo albums. He had a 15 minute warning to grab a few things. What would you grab?
Knowing that so many lost their lives makes you treasure each day even more. We are waiting until Melinda finds a more permanent place to touch down to help her restock her studio. I will keep you in touch.

New Quilt
Those of you who follow me on Facebook have seen glimpses of my new quilt "Spring Harmony".
Now it is almost Christmas, but I did start this last spring when the cherry trees were in full bloom. This quilt was inspired by a family day at the Japanese gardens in Seattle. My initial idea was to have a border resembling the Tori gate  you always go thru to enter an Asian formal garden.  The red bridge is an iconic image symbolizing crossing/ transformation towards a sacred wisdom. After about 700 hours of work it was finally done!        
But I wasn't happy. It just looked mundane and not as compelling as the actual experience had been. So I took a rotary cutter and sliced it into three portions. Yup, just sliced it apart!

Sometimes you gotta be brave. Sometimes you gotta take risks.
Sometimes stepping off of the familiar path, brings us to new insights or opportunities. Borders can add so much to a quilt. I love innovative borders. They can add so many additional design elements.
               

For more exciting border ideas see my book Innovative Border Designs $15.99
 https://www.kathymcneilquilts.com/shop/Books-and-DVDs/p/Innovative-Quilt-Borders-book-x19637122.htm

Ribbons and things.

My horses got a pretty new Honorable Mention ribbon at the Houston show. As soon as it gets home, it will be shipped off to its new owner in Chicago. She is a private collector, who also owns a David Taylor quilt. I am thrilled it has found a loving home. How can I part with it? It was my 82nd quilt. Where would I put them all? 



My storage system.
I don't like to keep my quilts folded for very long. Seems I am forever steaming out those creases when they come back from shows. So I keep them rolled on dowels that have been painted with a poly-urethane to seal the wood.  Then they are covered with dust covers I made and pinned shut at the ends. The quilts are then stored on racks that hang in a stair well. Such a space saver!

Bruce wants to share his design with you as a little Holiday gift of appreciation for your continued support. Maybe someone can make this for your Christmas present.
Instructions and Materials.-https://media.rainpos.com/4826/instructions.pages
Pattern for racks -https://media.rainpos.com/4826/pattern.pdf

Teaching Tip.
A student wrote that she was having problems with skipped stitches while free motion quilting.  We went thru the usual list of fixes: new needle, correct needle for the thread, correct pooling of quilt under needle, support for remaining portion of quilt, time and experience - but the final solution was using a single hole plate on her machine when she was quilting. Yes, it really does make a difference. Yes, you have to remember not to raise those feed dogs and start zigzagging. A single hole plate offers more support to the fabric and increases stitch consistency.
I have gotten a couple of request to do my next DVD on - Free motion quilting on a domestic machine.  If that sounds of interest to you, drop me a note and I will put it on my to do list for next year.
Kathymcneilartquilts@gmail.com

Black Friday weekend RESTOCKING SALE
2 units of interfacing and 1 double glue pen refill. normally $21.25. Now $16.95 until Sunday at 6p.
https://www.kathymcneilquilts.com/shop/Apliquick-tools--supplies.htm

Due to increasing fees charged to us by Etsy, our Etsy prices are higher for Apliquick supplies than on our web site. Get them directly from us!

My final thoughts going into a new year.
We never really know from day to day how long we have, when life might take a drastic turn so....embrace opportunities, take risks, and take time to fill up your soul so you can spread kindness and joy into the world.
hugs Kathy


(We took this photo on a trip to an animal sanctuary on last summers Quilting cruise to Alaska.
 I have an Alaskan cruise and a Scotland/Ireland quilting cruise next year.) www.quiltcruises.com