Michele, thanks for hosting me at Quilting Gallery for the fifth stop on my two-week blog tour! I’m Maria Peagler, award-winning quilter and author, and I’m excited to premiere my new video tutorial here and introduce my revolutionary new way of approaching color in quilting from my eighth book: Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts.

I’ve had a life-long love affair with color, but I was frustrated with my uneven color results in my quilts: I knew what colors I loved, I just didn’t understand how to make them work together in a quilt. And I didn’t know how to break out and use other colors. I had tried to learn and use the color wheel, but it seemed like a dull, academic way of selecting colors that sucked all the joy out of quilting.

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Hi,

My name is Kay Sorensen. I was honored to be invited to be a guest blogger. I began blogging in September to share my quilts with more people.

I don’t particularly like to write so didn’t think I’d enjoy it. I also thought you had to blog right away in the morning as that is what my friends do. I am not a morning person – never was, never will be! I’m an evening blogger!

I am thoroughly enjoying the experience. I also find it is a great way to document my work and experiences. I always include a lot of pictures. I try to include a JigZone puzzle of one of my quilts each day. I know many of you are addicted to them!

I share a variety of things on my blog, most related to quilting. Occasionally I include other important things: family, friends and my other artistic endeavors.

On January 25, 2009 my solo show opened in Kenosha, Wisconsin at the Anderson Arts Center. Quilts: Another Dimension includes my work as well as the work of 4 other talented artists. I am showing The Colors of My Life Series and my June series. I have 39 quilts in the show plus over 20 in the gift shop.

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My name is Tsoniki Crazy Bull and I have a crafty blog at me being crafty. I’ve been sewing and quilting since I was a young girl – sewing when I was very young and quilting when I got older. My Grandma and Mom taught me to sew and though quilting was hard for me to just jump into, that is what they both told me to do.

I’ve been making baby blankets for years now, both for myself and for friends, and only recently moved to making larger sizes. I’ve only ever machine quilted a really small blanket so my plans to do larger ones this year are kind of scary!

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Thank you for this opportunity to tell you a little about myself and my endeavors.

I grew up in North Carolina, went to school in Colorado, then lived in Los Angeles for a number of years. During all that time I had not one stitch of quilting heritage. I started in a beginning quilting class about 17 years ago after I got married and we were living in central Ohio.

When I told my instructor that I enjoyed the Dresden Plate the most out of all the blocks in the sampler, she told me, "You just might be an appliqué person." I still wonder whether that observation shaped my destiny, because it turned out to be so true!

From that class on I was gripped with the quilt pox. For a long time I made quilts from patterns or pictures. Then I began to branch out, modifying designs in some way. We moved to Santa Cruz, California, and I got my own computer. When I learned some skills in illustrating, I finally broke through to creating original appliqué designs of my own.

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As a new quilter, I have been plugging away with trial and error methods and have spent countless hours with Google by my side as I try to understand the ins and outs of quilting. Whether it be terminology, methods, patterns or even basic how-to’s, I’ve been stumped time and time again. But it turns out that as with any other hobby, once you understand the basics it’s really not as intimidating as you originally thought and is quite fun.

My best advice to a fellow quilting newbie is this: buy a 1/4″ guided foot for your machine! This foot helps create a consistently even seam allowance that maximizes your use of the material and helps your end product line up and remain square and even. Go buy a foot! Now. It’s okay, you can click away to search for one and order it. You really do need this. I thought I could get away without it. I finally caved in and bought one. It was as though the clouds had parted, the sun streamed down onto my sewing machine and the angels sang for joy. Really! It happened!

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Hi everyone! I’m Anne Sutton from Bunny Hill Designs and I’m delighted to be a guest blogger for Michele! Thanks to her, we have a site where quilters can all connect. For those of you who don’t know me, my passion is appliqué and embroidery. I’m a quilt and fabric designer. I love hand work and you’ll usually find me with a thread and needle every chance I get. To think I have made a business out of my passion seems just too good to be true.

Bunny Hill Designs started in a small 8′ x 10′ "extra" bedroom. I have to laugh because my friends would always say they were amazed that I could work in such a small space. Just put two people in that room, and you had a crowd. My design wall was a piece of flannel attached with Velcro to the top of the closet door! As my company has progressed so has my room!

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