Sunday, July 10, 2016

New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop!


I am really excited to be a part of the 2016 Advice and Teach Help for New Bloggers blog hop hosted by the fabulous Yvonne (Quilting Jetgirl), Cheryl (Meadow Mist Designs), and Stephanie (Late Night Quilter)!  Thank you ladies!  I have learned so much.  I am part of Stephanie's group nicknamed the Hive Sewciety.




My name is Suzy Webster and I have been quilting since I was a little girl as I watched my mother sew and quilt.  I have been teaching my own son this summer and it's fun to pass on the tradition.  My favorite parts of quilting are applique, paper piecing, and free motion quilting.  I tend to make fairly simple tops that I can embellish with lots of quilting.  I do a lot of show quilts and a lot of smaller projects for my blog experimenting and learning new things.  Here are a few of my favorites.


Fantastical Deviations (above) was designed to be entered into the Young Designers category at the American Quilter's Society show in 2007.  I love to make show quilts and will spend years on them.  This one had a deadline of only 5 months and it's a good thing I didn't have children yet because I was a very busy bee.


This is the last pattern in my Flower in a Pot Quilt Along available free here on my blog.  I love playing with flowers and batiks.  I really like the way the rick rack trim turned out too.


Kaboom! is my newest show quilt.  It's been to two shows and soon ships out Hershey, Pennsylvania for Quilt Odyssey.  It took me a year to paper piece and about 2 years to quilt as my machine was in the dog house for awhile and I ended up getting a new Bernina 770QE which is amazing.


Prague Posy was designed based on a iron railing I saw when visiting Prague, Czech Republic last year with my mother and grandmother.  The quilting pattern in the border is one in Cristina Cameli's newest book.




I have also discovered that I love modern quilting and have been playing around with that too.  I recently did this Modern Checks quilt as part of an Island Batik Ambassadors challenge this month.

One reason that I started blogging is that was highly suggested as part of submitting a book proposal to the American Quilter's Society.  I'd worked on the proposal for over a year and finally submitted it last summer.  I was thrilled when it was accepted and my book will be coming out on August 30th!  I can't wait to start teaching from the book!


As a part of blogging and being an Island Batik Ambassador I have found myself playing around more and flexing my creativity.  I am doing quilts like my Modern Checks which I would never have imagined doing in the past.  It's a lot of fun and I am totally hooked on blogging!  I try to do something new or different with each quilt that I make.

As suggested by the lovely ladies coordinating this blog hop here are a few more tidbits:

Blogging Tip:  Post regularly and they will come.  This advice was given to me by my cousin Lisa when I started this blog and she's right.  I remember being excited about having more than 30 views in a day and now I am closer to 200.  Working ahead is also really important.  Yup, I've gotten up at midnight to write a post I forgot about.

Quilting Tip:  Try new things all the time!  You never know when you'll find something you really like.  I've learned a lot in the last year as a blogger:  I love rick rack in the binding, I can do a circular quilt and bind it, modern quilting is a blast, and even more!

Free Motion Tip:  Make a practice sandwich of the fabrics and batting you actually used in your quilt to test your threads on.  I find that different fabrics require different tensions.  For example, I recently used two gray fabrics as backgrounds in a quilt.  One was very tightly woven and the other was not.  I had to use a 4.5 tension setting on the tight fabric and a 2.0 on the looser fabric.  Because I had a sample of the actual fabrics in my quilt I was able to test the tension without actually stitching on the quilt.  When someone first told me this I thought they were crazy, but now I can't do without my practice sandwich.

Question for my readers:  What do you enjoy most about reading quilt blogs?  What makes you return to a blog over and over?  What is your favorite thread?  Why?

A few fun facts about me:
Favorite Vacation Spot:  Our Lake Property and the North Shore of Lake Superior.  I love to hike!
Favorite Book:  Mine!  Folk Art Quilted Traditions by Suzy Webster!  I am SOOOOO excited for it to come out!
Favorite Movie:  Star Wars or Star Trek.  I love them both
Favorite Solid Fabrics:  Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids
Favorite Batiks:  Island Batiks
Favorite Threads:  OMG, I love them ALL for different reasons!  I store my thread is drawers about the size of a sheet of paper and have about 25 drawers full.  It's a bit of an addiction really!

Be sure to check out the other ladies from Hive Sewciety sharing their 2016 Advice and Teach Help for New Bloggers on the blog hop today:

 Shannon@Shannon Fraser Designs
Tami @ Sew Much For Free Time

Kathy @ Kathys Kwilts and More
Olusuyi @Alice Samuel's Quilt Co.

And a final quilt, Harmony's Loop.  It's been traveling to shows for 2 years and is in it's final days traveling.  I can't wait to hang it on the wall when it's done!


I hope you find time to quilt today!
Suzy




34 comments:

  1. Wow!!! It's Quilts like yours that got me interested in Quilting in the first place. It really is amazing what can be achieved with fabric and thread. They are really lovely and congratulations on your book :) Kaboom is really phenomenal well done! I enjoyed reading your blog post and getting to know more about you.Great tip on blogging too...I am still in the range of getting excited about 30 views hahahaha

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  2. Suzy, your quilts are truly stunning. Beautiful intricate works! I would despair if I attempted that level of detail. I am very excited for you for the book that you are about to publish. That is a great accomplishment indeed. I am looking forward to reading more of your blog.

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    1. There's always more to see! I look forward to seeing you back!

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  3. Your quilts are exquisite and I am so happy for you that your book will be published. That must have been a lot of hard work. It's interesting to me that you call your quilts simple. They look very intricate to me. I like blogs where I can get a sense of the person behind the blog, although I'm not so sure that I am successful with that in my own blog. There are two types of blogs I return to . Those that inspire me with the work of the quilter and those where I have made a connection with the quilter. For example they may be struggling along with the same things as me, or I may like their sense of humour, or they may keep turning up on the same sites as me.

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    1. I'm doing more simple things for the blog and intricate for my show quilts. It's fun to do both.

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  4. Suzy, Hi Heide here stopping in from, Miss Bee Hiving group. Your quilts are AMAZING and they travel more that I do...I am jealous, LOL!! The quilting is fantastic, I need to start practicing. I just have not had much luck, but I will not give up. It is on my list this summer to practice more quilting.
    Congrats on the book, I will be looking for it in Aug.
    Thanks for sharing. Hugs, Heide

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  5. I have also gotten out of bed to do something blogging related that I had forgotten until I fell asleep and had a dream about it! Glad to know I'm not the only one who does that. :) My favorite thread is 50wt Aurifil, but that is because I have a very finicky sewing machine and it is the thread I have found that she sews the best with. As for why I visit and return to certain blogs: it has so much less to do with the actual quilts or style and more to do with writing style and having a sense that I am connecting with someone. So having them respond back to comments and develop a connection means a lot to me.

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    1. Thanks for sharing Yvonne! I too look for connections

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  6. Hi Suzy - so nice to get to know you better!! And your Kaboom quilt is just amazing!! My favourite thread is 50wt Aurifil for piecing and I recently used 40wt Aurifil for top quilting, which I just adored for the larger stitch it created. As for why I visit a quilt blog, it mainly has to do with the projects they are sharing. I love hearing about what sparked the idea and seeing progress shots along the way. Good luck with your shows this season!!

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    1. I'll have to try 40 weight. I have a spool of it, but it's still int he wrapper. I too love progress shots.

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  7. Suzt,

    It was fun to get to know you. Your quilts are so pretty. It is fun to see the different quilts that we all do. Your quilts are gorgeous.

    Kathy

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  8. Hi, Suzy! So nice to meet you! Wow, you have some really great looking quilts that look like they've taken hours and years to make! I keep coming back to quilt blogs because of interesting and well-written articles on new ways of doing quilting things. I also enjoy seeing pictures of quilts and get lots of inspiration from them. Congrats on the book!

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  9. Wow Suzy your quilts are really amazing. Congrats on the book coming out. I will definitely look for it!

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  10. Your quilts are awesome Suzy but of course you already know that. Congrats on the book. How thrilling for you! I know what it takes to get a book out because I've written hundreds, but only one on quilting--the others are boring computer books. I really want to do another on quilt sometime soon because it was so much fun!

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  11. Congratulations on the book! Will be wonderful to see projects too. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. HI Suzy!! Your quilts are fabulous and your quilting abilities....oh my! Congrats on the new book!

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  13. Goodness! Your quilts are amazing! My reasons for following quilt blogs are diverse, let's just say I follow a LOT of quilt blogs, but mainly for inspiration. My machine likes 50wt thread and I tend to use Aurifil because of the colour range available.

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  14. A lovely and interesting post Suzy. Your quilts are beautiful and the quilting is superb. Good Luck with the book, are you doing a blog hop? What keeps me going back to blog? Interesting projects yes, a bloger who is interested in sharing, and not just selling definitely, I stop following blogs where the blogger is only interested in selling stuff. It is also the person behind the blog, a good personality and a sense of humour, someone who emails replies to me as an individual and refers to my comment, not just 'thank you please call again'.
    Smiles
    Kate

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  15. WOW! Your quilts are amazing! And I am so excited for you to have a book published! I will be looking for it when it comes out.

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  16. My word Suzy. Your show quilts are amazing. Not only is the quilting beautiful, but your color choices are spectacular.
    I think I return to a blog consistently when I feel some sort of personal connection to the writer. If I feel that I know the person, I am more likely to be interested in what they are up to. Especially with quilt blogs.

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  17. Hi Suzy! Gorgeous quilts! Such details, very inspiring. Congrats on your new book as well.

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  18. Suzy, great to meet you! And congratulations on your new book! That's awesome! Your quilts are so beautiful! I do exactly as you mention, I make a little sample of all the fabrics in a quilt and techniques and test out threads and various stitches.

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  19. Hi Suzy! WOW! I could look at quilts like yours all day! Your piecing and your quilting are fantastic! That's the kind of thing that keeps me coming back. Projects that inspire me and make me go WOW! I have been visiting everybody on the blog hop and realized that I had not "followed" you. I thought I had followed EVERYBODY on the blog hop. Well I fixed that! Congrats on your book being published! What a great accomplishment!

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  20. I enjoyed reading your introduction post and seeing your beautiful quilts. Your machine quilting is wonderful, and it's a skill that I admire. The blogs that I keep returning to have a quilting aesthetic that I like, or helpful hints and tutorials or a writing style I enjoy. I'll look forward to seeing more of your work!

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  21. Oops, still visiting from the Sewcial Network, and I forgot to mention threads. My favorite for hand quilting is Weeks Dye Works hand over dyed pearl 12 (their spelling) although it is expensive. My favorite for piecing is Auriful 50 wt for piecing and in my bobbin for machine quilting. I like to mix it up with my top thread for machine piecing.

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  22. Lovely post Suzy, great to get to know you better. My current favorite thread to quilt with is Konfetti by Wonderfil. Cheers.

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  23. Such beautiful work and OMG the patience you must have to construct and quilt such beautiful things.

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  24. Hi Suzy, it's nice getting to learn about you. Your quilts are beautiful, especially your free motion quilting. Congrats on the new book deal. Very exciting!

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  25. Suzy, nice getting to know you a bit. I am in awe of your quilting skills. Such beautiful work you do.

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