Fun Quilting Dodads

This is the final post for the Road to California Quilt Show.
Between beautiful quilts and lots and lots of vendor booths,
there was so much to see.  Here are a few memorable items.

Rulers and Such

Part of learning to quilt my own quilts is getting nice designs.
I've seen several videos on YouTube using rulers and quilting templates for quilting at home on your domestic machine.



Quilter's Rule

There were rulers of all kinds every where you looked including rulers for quilting.  The process does seem a bit intimidating to me, but in time....

Here is a link to an interesting how-to video.
And, here.


If you live in Southern California, or are willing to travel,
Cozy Creative Center in El Cajon offers free FMQ* classes.

There were a number of vendors selling a product you paint onto your ruler

to keep it from slip-sliding away. 

This one is Ruler Magic.

Here is a YouTube video. 

Nancy of the Needlers** introduced us to another method for keeping rulers from slipping using shelf liner.  Watch a video here. It's cheap and looks like an easy solution to a slippery problem.

 
Tools
 

My favorite unsewing tool (seam ripper) is from Clover.
I buy them by the three-pack on Amazon because not only do I have many, many dates with Jack (the ripper), but I seem lose them.  I don't know where they disappear to, they must be off with my missing socks.








The Hot Hemmer and Hot Ruler were two more Clover accessories I think I could use.




   Here is a video.





Quilter's Paradise Slit 'N Sew Templates and software.  I have used Quilter's Paradise on-line calculators for years.  Fast and user friendly even from your phone when you are at the fabric store wondering how much of that perfect backing fabric you need.  Well now it appears they have developed software you can use for designing your own quilts.  Admittedly I have not looked at this very closely as I use Electric Quilt but It might be worth a look-see.  And it looks like it is free. Free is a very good price!
  
Patterns  Of Course there were loads and loads of patterns.  Here are just a few of my favorites.

Witches Quilt Amy Bradley Designs

Halloween is not my favorite holiday but I do like Halloween colors and fabrics.  

The kitty on this pattern attracted my attention.  I thought she was so cute.

Fiesta by Modern 180

The star design was intriguing.

I really liked this star. I wonder if I could recreate this in Electric Quilt?

The Pink Pump by Laura Heine is stunning in black.

The Pink Pump

There are a lot of video links in this post, more than usual, but I hope you find them helpful.
That's it for the Road to California for this year.


*FMQ:  Free Motion Quilting
**Needlers:  Our Tuesday night group