Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims, and Me! / Beauties Pageant 305

Quilty friends, do I have a story for you ... I am going to be featured on The Quilt Show! (No one is more surprised about this than I am!) 

Last weekend, I traveled to Kentucky to meet Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims, and their amazing crew to tape multiple segments. We talked about my start with quilting, binding techniques, and of course, jelly rolls. It was a blast!

At one time, The Quilt Show taped in a studio and in front of a live audience, but the team now sets up shop at different locations across the US twice a year to film several months of show segments. So last Friday, I flew to Louisville and went straight to the venue with a suitcase full of quilts.

I wasn’t expecting to spend so much time on set before the crew would shoot with me, but it was helpful to see how things worked before it was my turn. Plus, I got to meet some of the other quilters who were also filming interviews and demos. The lineup included:

Audrey Esarey. If you have been to QuiltCon in the past few years, you know Audrey and her radial series. It was fun to see the team shoot her interview and demos.

Pat Sturtzel. A quilter and art therapist, Pat’s projects have brought communities together through fabric and art.

Judith Phelps. Judith’s expertise is thread painting. It was a luxury to see her art up close and in person.

Carol Ann McCandless. Carol’s longarming skillls have taken her on wild adventures, including orchestrating the creation of huge quilt installations in Nashville.

Nina Clotfelter. A multi-talented quilter, Nina travels far and wide teaching everything from free-motion quilting to English paper piecing.

Amazing, right? Meeting these talented artists sent my usual level of imposter syndrome to new heights. When it was my turn, though, and Alex and Ricky focused on my work, I was met with a humbling level of interest and admiration. In fact, the whole team behind The Quilt Show is fabulous, and it was hard to leave that little work family at the end of Saturday.

My show will not air until 2026. When I know more specifics, you will be the first to know! 

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The Five Little Ghosts Quilt-Along! / Beauties Pageant 304

You’re invited! Starting next month, we’ll be sewing a project from the pages of Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts together. Meet Five Little Ghosts, a cute pattern to sew with friends and jump-start your seasonal sewing.

This runner is a fast sew, and you likely already have all the fabric you need in your stash and scraps. If you’re looking for a bigger Halloween-themed project, however, this quilt-along will include a free expansion pack to transform your Five Little Ghosts table runner into a Five Little Ghosts and Friends throw quilt.

There will be YouTube videos, giveaways, and a small army of quilters to cheer you on!

The Schedule

Friday, September 12 (Week 0): Fabric Pull and Expansion Pack Release

Friday, September 19 (Week 1): Cutting

Friday, September 26 (Week 2): Sewing Ghost Blocks

Friday, October 3 (Week 3): Sewing More Ghost Blocks

Friday, October 10 (Week 4): Assembling the Top

Friday, October 17 - Friday, October 31: Halloween Parade of Blocks and Tops

What to Join the Fun? 

This quilt-along is free to participate. To sew the pattern, though, you will need a copy of Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts (available in quilt shops, online retailers, and my own pattern shop and Etsy storefront).

Weekly posts will appear each Friday in three places:

* On the From Bolt to Beauty blog 

* In the From Bolt to Beauty newsletter

* In the brand-new From Bolt to Beauty Patterns group on Facebook

I hope you’ll sew with us!

  

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
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Ornament Collection Quilt / Beauties Pageant 303

When I learned that one of my sisters-in-law likes Rifle Paper Co’s designs, I took it as an opportunity to—ahem!—buy some fabric. I chose selections from multiple lines to curate a collection of wintery scenes, Nutcracker motifs, and Christmas decorations. 



The oversize baubles and balls in my Ornament Collection quilt pattern were the perfect venue for these prints. I loved using big swaths of the fabrics to feature the sweet designs instead of cutting them into tiny bits. 

And I am smitten with the palette. There were so many colors in the fabrics to choose from. I homed in on grayish blue, orangey red, apple green, and forest green. I am a sucker for nontraditional holiday palettes!

My friend Ophelia gave this project her special panto treatment with a swirly holly-and-berry design, and I found the perfect striped fabric for the binding, one that plays off the grayish blue in the ornament frames. I hope I can get my hands on more of it because I have a bunch of fabric leftover, and naturally, I’m planning on a near-identical Ornament Collection for my other sister-in-law, who is also a fan of Rifle Paper. : )

We’re less than five months out from Christmas ... Is anyone else sewing now for the holidays?!
 

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I'm a Polyester Kind of Gal / Beauties Pageant 302

I don’t think much about thread. I’ve been buying the same brand and same weight for years, taking for granted that I could get what I wanted easily and for a fair price. How does the old saying go? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Then I heard news that Joann was closing 500 retail locations. So long, reliable, ubiquitous source of thread! Suddenly, I was open to other options. When Superior Threads offered to send me a few products to try out earlier this year, I jumped at the opportunity.*

So Fine!

One product I played around with is So Fine!, a 50-weight polyester product. I prefer polyester products because they make my machine happy. I sew on a Janome 1600P-QC, a super-fast straight-stitch machine, and she likes polyester. That preference is most apparent during free-motion quilting. For those projects, I often experience fraying and breakage with cotton thread, but polyester works without issues.

I’ve been exclusively piecing and quilting with 40-weight polyester thread for years and years, and I was skeptical of a 50-weight option. (Remember, the smaller the number, the thicker the thread. In other words, a 40-weight thread is thicker than a 50-weight thread.) I really liked it with piecing--the thinner thread made a difference! It wasn’t a night-and-day change, but I noticed that my pieces ironed flatter. 

I also quilted with So Fine! In the past, I’ve argued that a thicker thread is more forgiving, hiding the wobbles of my straight-line quilting better than a thinner thread. I sewed my latest Fire Truck Quilt with Sew Fine! in a pale gray (without marking a single line, I might add), and everything turned out beautifully. Go figure!

Sew Sassy 

The one exception to my long-held polyester-only rule was when I finished bindings by hand. For that, I’ve employed 12-weight cotton thread, and it has worked fine. I was surprised, then, when Sew Sassy, a three-ply 12-weight polyester thread was easier to use. 

With a cotton thread, I have to make sure I don’t cut off a piece longer than 15 or 16 inches: The more the thread is pulled through a quilt sandwich, the more likely the plies will loosen. That wasn’t an issue with the polyester. The integrity of the thread held up despite its travels in and out of the binding of my Windmill Weave project. 

I won’t toss my old cotton 12-weight, but from here on out, I’ll purchase polyester.

 

Metallic

I also requested a gold metallic thread. (How very un-Michelle of me!) When I went to QuiltCon 2025, there was a special exhibit of work from keynote speaker Tara Faughnan, and I was surprised to see occasional quilting lines of metallic gold thread in multiple pieces. I haven’t found the right project for the spool I have on hand, but you’ll be the first to hear about it when I do.

Are there any other polyester fans out there? I’d love to hear your thoughts on when you use different weights. Tell us all about it in the comments! 

* Please note: I received these product free. This post contains my own, unbiased opinion about them.

 

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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.

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