Let's Make a Date: Patchwork Power! / Beauties Pageant 333

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How many times do I wish we could sit down and chat about quilts in person? Although I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many of you in real life, too many of you live in a different state or country! I think I’ve figured out our next-best option to grabbing a cup of coffee and gabbing about our latest quilting projects ...

I’ll be teaching at Patchwork Power, a one-of-a-kind virtual quilting event. My session is called Jelly Roll Boot Camp, and it’s all about making the most of those 2.5" strips with smart techniques and fresh design ideas. We’ll talk about:

    •    Precise strip-sewing methods for better results
    •    Ways to add supplemental fabrics with confidence
    •    Creative strategies for using leftovers
    •    New ideas, tools, and approaches for rethinking every jelly roll

This session is designed to help you see jelly rolls in a whole new way. I’ll be sharing practical methods and inspiring examples that show how versatile precut strips can be, so you can move beyond the basics and create quilts that feel fresh, striking, and uniquely your own.

Jelly Roll Are Just the Beginning

Patchwork Power is a live virtual retreat designed to help quilters sharpen their skills, refine their process, and build more confidence at every stage of quilting. The day includes expert-led sessions on precision piecing, ruler work, digital design, curves, wool applique, one-block wonders, and more! Presenters include makers whose work you likely already know, including Amber Elliot, Karen Montgomery, Carolina Moore, Geraldine Wilkins, and others.

This Event Comes with Lifetime Access

Patchwork Power takes place live on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 10 am PST / 1 pm ET. If you can’t attend the live sessions, recordings will be available after the event with lifetime access. Attendees will also receive bonus resources, a digital swag bag, and access to special event offers.

Use my code to save $20 on registration: PP26MichelleC 

I’d love to have you join me for a day of fresh ideas, practical techniques, and creative quilting inspiration.

"See" you in July!

Michelle

Register here! 

p.s. Want to see some of the quilts we’ll look at and talk about? Check out these beauties ...

Myriad

Pod Patrol

Meow Mates

Five-Star Experience

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Technique: How I Sew a Web and Save Time / Beauties Pageant 332

If there’s anything I’ve learned over the 13 years I’ve been quilting it’s this: What works for me works, and I see no reason to change my approach to cutting/piecing/pressing/quilting if it gets me the results I am looking for. But boy, have I been proven wrong recently!

When I am piecing blocks, it’s easy for me to lose focus just long enough to second-guess whether I’ve accidentally mixed up the pieces. To avoid confusion, I often resort to taking in-process pictures. That way, I have something to confirm that I am on the right track.

I recently tried the web-piecing technique I first heard quilters talk about at least a decade ago. (This is not the one where you use a thin piece of interfacing. I gave that technique a whirl years ago in this post.) With the web-piecing technique, I can keep my fabric—and brain!—in order without the need for pictures.

If you’ve never tried this technique, now is your opportunity! Here are the basic steps:

1. Lay out your patchwork block.

I used this technique on a 36-patch that I am sewing for the Falling Stars sew-along that has been released for Modern Quilt Guild members. (See my previous posts about this quilt top here and here.) 

I have seen some quilters use this approach for assembling an entire quilt, when all the blocks have been assembled and are being sewn together. I think that would be cumbersome. I prefer to use it at the block-piecing stage.

2. Sew the first two columns together without cutting the thread in between units. After the last second-column piece is sewn on, cut the thread.

I know it’s impossible to see on my white background, but in the picture below, the first two columns are now all connected. The four columns on the right have yet to be added to them.

3. Sew the third-column pieces onto the second-column pieces without cutting the thread in between units. After the last third-column piece is sewn on, cut the thread.

The result is that the unit on the left, below, has grown by another column. 

4. Continue sewing in this manner until all the pieces have been sewn.

The nice thing is that I often find myself stopping at this spot. Because all the pieces are connected in the correct order, it is easy to pick up the block again at a later date and continue sewing.

5.  Press adjacent rows in opposite directions, and sew them together.

This technique is not 100% foolproof, but it’s pretty close. I think I made 3 mistakes while sewing my 27.5 blocks and was able to remedy them before sewing the rows together. 

A few additional thoughts on this technique ...

• I found myself increasing the slack between units. Instead of chain-piecing one unit close to the next, I gave myself about a half-inch of thread, which provided some needed wiggle room when pressing the rows in opposing directions. It also helped in the final step—pressing the horizontal seams in the finished block—because I pressed those seams open.
• When I, say, ran out of bobbin, I would often resew over the last few stitches of the previous piece before picking up where I left off, just to keep things connected and orderly. 
• With these 36-patches, after everything was connected, I sewed the top 3 rows together and then the bottom 3 rows together. Then I sewed the top to the bottom. I wouldn’t bother doing that with a smaller block, but it helped in a block like this one with so many pieces.

If this is a new-to-you technique and you give it a try, let me know how it goes! 

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Take That, Scrap Bin! / Beauties Pageant 331

I am making good progress on my scrappy Falling Stars. I am even—ahem!—ahead of the sew-along schedule.

I’m past the halfway point of making blocks and couldn’t resist throwing some of them on my design board, just to appreciate the effect created by all that value play.

It’s pretty fabulous, right? What’s so much fun about scrappy projects is appreciating the overall quilt top and then getting really close and seeing the small parts that make it up. Take a look at these ...

 

There are so many low-volume prints in the background. Really, that’s what instigated me to embark on this project: I have a small drawer full of low-volume scraps, and this project decimated it. I managed to squeak out enough black prints to fulfill the pattern’s requirements, but I did have to purchase some of the brown-grays. And of course, cutting into them creates—you guessed it!—more scraps. Blerg!

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* * *

The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter