Many of our renters are very dedicated quilters with a variety of projects going at once. A few of them, like our friend Bill, will rent a machine for the whole day and knock out two or more quilts in a day. Bill's first quilt was this adorable baby quilt for his coworker's newborn. What's great about this quilt is it's so big. That little girl will be able to use it and love it for years and years! Bill chose the Hearts Fancy pantograph, one of our most popular pantographs for baby quilts. Bill's next project was this T-shirt quilt. Take a look at all those shirts! It's always fun to look at T-shirt quilts and see all the things people have done over the years. We shared a laugh over his Richard Simmons shirt, sometimes it's just as fun to be reminded of the silly fads we were really into too! I've learned that with T-shirt quilts it's usually best to do a free motion meander. With all those different fabrics, patches, pockets, buttons, and so many other things that can appear on a T-shirt quilt you want to be driving the machine from the front. This allows you to avoid problem spots and really watch what you're doing. This was Bill's first time free motion quilting on the longarm and he did such an amazing job! If it's your first time making a free motion meander, I would recommend practicing the movement on a piece of scrap fabric first. This gives you time to feel more comfortable with the movement and let go of some nerves you might have before quilting your top.

Did you know we have a professional grade AccuQuilt fabric die cutter in the studio for our renters? This cutter is a great way to quickly and easily cut all the pieces you need for your next quilt top. Sonya drove down all the way from Cincinnati just to use our die cutter! She wanted to make a queen sized double wedding ring quilt for her sister. It's hard enough to piece together a double wedding ring, let alone cut all of those pieces. Because the die cutter allows her to cut up to 16 layers of fabric at a time, Sonya finished cutting all the pieces she needed in just a couple of hours. It's a handy tool, especially for those of us who can't stand cutting!