Happy Thanksgiving!

Of course, we're going to have to take a brief break from our quilting rooms and sewing machines in order to cook massive amounts of food, but that doesn't mean we don't get a new quilting design today!

Here's Turkey Drumsticks!

Ha! I guess I'm mixing Thanksgiving with April Fools Day! No, this is not a real design and no, you're not getting a video of it!

But instead, you can enjoy a video of my most favorite holiday movie: The Family Stone.

Why do I like this movie so much?

Possibly because reminds me greatly of my own family. We're a strange bunch of slightly dysfunctional, overly honest, quick to temper people that can easily ignite a seemingly innocent occasion into all-out family warfare.

But regardless of our differences (and similarities), family is what it is. You can't pick em' and you can't change em' so you might as well enjoy em'!

I love this time of year because I love to cook, but with only half a kitchen, Josh and I are really taking it easy today. We're just doing a small turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie and whipped cream.

And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'd like to say Thank you for reading! Thank you for checking out this blog, commenting, and supporting the project with your time and attention.

I'm off to start on the gravy and I hope everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving today has a wonderfully safe, happy holiday!

Let's go Eat!

Leah Day

Sale and Fabric Give-a-Way

I'm very pleased to announce the start of the start of the:

Super Black Friday Sale
and Mega Scrap Stash Give-A-Way!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Check out the Super Black Friday Sale Now!

So just in case the video doesn't load here's the deal:

• Almost everything in the Day Style Designs Quilt Shop is on sale from Wednesday until Sunday.
  
  
• The sale will close at 11:59 pm on Sunday night, so make sure to check it out now if you're wanting to treat yourself to something nice for the holidays.
  
  
• For every $10 you spend in the quilt shop, your name will be placed in the drawing for the Mega Scrap Stash Give-a-Way!
  
  
• There will be 3 winners who will each win a big box of fabric scraps mailed straight to their door on Monday morning.

I'd also like to officially announce the release of Free Motion Fillers Volume 2 DVD and Downloadable Workbook!

This set comes with another 20 designs from the project and is being offered at a very special price during the sale of only $24.99.

For everyone that purchased the Free Motion Fillers Volume 1 Set at the regular price, please email me for a special deal on this second DVD and workbook set!

Thank you all for your wonderful support of this blog! I really had a ton of fun putting this sale together and can't wait to see who wins the fabric give-a-way.

Let's go quilt (after you check out the sale!)

Leah Day

Check out the Super Black Friday Sale Now!

Day 94 - Flower Ball

I'm so super excited about the Super Black Friday Sale and Mega Scrap Stash Give-a-Way starting today, but first let's get our new design out of the way.

It's not a fire ball, it's a Flower Ball!

Great news on the kitchen remodel! Things are moving quickly, the dishwasher should be put in tomorrow and by next week, I'll hopefully have the new cabinets installed. YAY!

Josh and I are still cooking Thanksgiving, but a very trimmed down version. Who needs sweet potato casserole and green bean salad anyway?

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Inspiration - I've said before that I'm not much for flowery type things. I wasn't the kind of kid that dressed in pink, no sirree.

But lately I've been looking at Chinese and Indonesian floral designs in a new light. I'm not going for a realistic flower design, but more of a sibilance of the design, almost like a cartoon version.

Filler Design Type - Center fill. You start from the center of your quilting space and work your way out with this design. It's pretty free form, so you can put it in the open, uncomplicated areas of your quilt and it will work just fine.

Difficulty Level - Beginner / Intermediate. The shapes of this design are not difficult at all and it really hides your mistakes well. That's always a nice bonus!

Directional Texture - Center Focused. This design is interesting in that the center is stitched quite densely, but the outer petals are not. If you wanted a more consistent look, you could also stitch the 2-3 lines within each petal.

This might be more time consuming, but it would also create a denser texture over your quilt.

Suggestions for Use - This design stands so well on its own, I really see using it over 4" squares or circles in a simple red and black quilt.

You could also use this as a special touch within the sashing cornerstones of a quilt. Really the possibilities are endless!

Back of Flower Ball
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and send in a picture to show it off.

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies needed for
beautiful free motion quilting

Day 93 - Space Star

Let's move on with some more terrific combination designs. This design is a combo of Pointy Paisley and Pebbling which forms Space Star:

Today I'm quilting the snowflake blocks for my Winter Wonderland quilt. It's funny, I've never been much of a fan of snowflakes or wintery themed things before, but now I really love them!

Here's the quilt itself with one block quilted. I'm trying this out both in black on white and white on black because I couldn't decide which I liked better.

Here's what the quilt blocks look like after the trapunto is applied.

Remember, this isn't applique! It's a new technique I'm playing with that I call reverse shadow trapunto. It's very easy. Seriously. If you can trim fabric carefully with a pair of scissors, you can do this!

Here's what the blocks look like after they've been quilted.

The block is first covered with silk organza, then outlined and quilted densely with fillers.

I used Microstipping to fill the inside, tight portions, and Swirling Bananas to fill the outside.

You can really see the difference that the movement makes on the outside of the block verses the flat, static nature of the stippling within the tight areas inside.

I'm editing a video tutorial on regular Trapunto that I hope to finish this week and post this weekend. Even though it's one of the most traditional quilting techniques used for hundreds of years, it's rarely used by modern quilters.

I think this is a real shame because Trapunto adds so much to our quilt tops. With the wonders of water soluble thread, we no longer have to clip open the backs of our quilts in order to super stuff certain areas too.

Okay, enough about my love affair with puffy quilting, let's learn how to quilt Space Star!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Inspiration - I really like Pointy Paisley even though I normally don't like sharp angle designs. Pebbling is also one of my favorite quilting designs and together I think they make for a wonderful combination!

Filler Design Type - Stacking and Pivot. Because these are two such different designs, when you combine them, the design takes on characteristics of both. This design will work great in open spaces, but probably not so well in tight, complicated areas.

I definitely wouldn't choose this design to put in the center of my snowflake block, but I could put it in the background.

Difficulty Level - Beginner / Intermediate. The biggest challenge will be moving consistently from one star to another. Just keep the triangle shape of pointy paisley in your mind at all times and you'll do just fine.

Directional Texture - All Directions. Pointy Paisley is really an all-over design and still can't help be so when paired with other designs. Use this design in places where you want lots of eye poping texture.

Suggestions for Use - I believe I will use this Space Star in the background of my next snowflake block. The star shapes really remind me of snowflakes and I think they'll go nicely together.

Back of Space Star

Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and make sure to tell your friends where you learned it.

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies needed for
beautiful free motion quilting

Day 92 - Leaf Veins

With the leaves now almost completely fallen and laying in wet, soggy piles all around the yard, I'm suddenly feeling rather sad that they're gone.

While flowers and leaves have not played a huge role in my designs so far, I have a feeling that that will chance as we move deeper into winter. So let's check out the latest nature inspired design with Leaf Veins:

A funny thing happened today to jog me out of my normal routine email checking and blogging.

A reader from Australia emailed me with the question "What is Black Friday?"

I found this funny because I know for a fact that people from all over the world are reading this blog, but I'd totally forgotten that, to an Australian, Canadian, or Swede, the term Black Friday is probably as foreign and weird as Bread Pudding, Kangaroos, and Boxing Day are to me.

And when I talk about the upcoming Black Friday Sale, I'm sure it doesn't make very much sense!

So to explain, Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving in America. After we've filled our bellies full of turkey, stuffing, and enough pie to resink the Titanic, we work off our calorie surplus by shopping.

And it's not just any type of shopping - it's insane, over-the-top, mega shopping. The best deals, product releases, and sales always happen on Black Friday.

While it sounds amusing, the frenzy over cheap computers and TV sets is actually quite dangerous. A man was killed last year in a Walmart after a mob of crazy shoppers stampeded into the store.

I've shopped a couple times on Black Friday, but always found that the crowds and stress were just not worth it. The good news is you can now find even better deals all year around on the internet without the danger of getting trampled by an angry mob!

So with that American culture lesson out of the way, let's learn how to quilt Leaf Veins!

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Inspiration - I love the big, thick leaves of Elephant ear plants and Calla lily bulbs. Amazingly enough, I still have some Calla lilies left since the weather has been so warm.

I love the large, open spaces of these leaves and how easily the simple the vein texture looks over dark green fabric.

Filler Design Type - Stem Centered. This is a design where you first create the center vein, then you stitch the lines radiating off to form the texture. Because of the way it's created, this design will work best in the large, open areas of your quilts.

Difficulty Level - Beginner. These are just long, slightly curving lines that are very easy to quilt. If you're working to the edges of your quilting space, you won't even have to do much traveling to get back to the center leaf vein as you work.

Directional Texture - All Directions. Your eyes will definitely pick up the the center, stem shape, but because the lines are all radiating out in all directions, it really gives your quilt an all over texture.

Suggestions for Use - I like the idea of using this design over leaf appliques. I just recently checked out: Hop To It! Appliqued Blocks and Projects by Edyta Sitar from my local quilt guild library.

This is an awesome book, full of beautiful appliques that are slightly different from your typical applique style. The one thing that made me cringe a bit was the quilting used over the master quilt featured on the cover of the book.

This quilt is obviously a showstopper, no doubt about it, but there was little, if no quilting done over the appliques, and the quilting design used in the backgrounds of the blocks was disappointing at best and distracting at worst.

While this may seem like an unfair judgment of this book, keep in mind that the book wasn't written to teach quilting - it's written to teach applique! And from what I read, it's a wonderful book at that.

I just wish a little more time had gone into the quilting design because it's a gorgeous quilt and deserved a better quilting job.

Back of Leaf Veins
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and send in a picture to show it off.

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies needed for
beautiful free motion quilting

Day 91 - Fossil Bed

So we were able to combine tree roots and circles for Sprouting Seeds yesterday. Now let's combine Swirling Bananas and Peppermint Candy to create Fossil Bed!

Today I'll be hammering out the final details of the Black Friday Sale and get the rest of the dishes and food moved out of my kitchen.

We're neck deep in a kitchen remodel, but it's really going fast and I'm so excited about how it's going to look afterward.

I've been snapping photos almost every day as our kitchen remodel has progressed. This was my kitchen early last week after we had moved all the food from this side and taken the doors off the cabinets.

Here is the kitchen now!

I've been planning and designing this new kitchen almost from the moment I saw our house. We have a big open room for the living and dining area, but the kitchen was always separated by this one ugly wall.

So you can see the giant hole and pass through door that have been cut into the wall. By next week this should be finished and new cabinets installed.

It just proves that you can do even major remodel jobs on a budget. We're keeping more than half of our existing cabinets and just having them refinished and stained. The counter tops are going to be laminate (no granite please!) and for now the new floor will be peel and stick tile.

Kitchens are often super expensive, but they don't have to be. I can't wait to have it finished because I think Josh will restart his online cooking show. Here's a link to the a video starring Josh and James making vegetable soup.

Okay, enough about cooking and kitchens! Let's learn how to stitch Fossil Bed:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Inspiration - I've really just been playing with a lot of combination designs lately. I figure, if 2 designs can stand on their own, they can probably work together nicely too.

It actually reminds me of a Kirby's Dream Land Video game where the character can gain different skills by swallowing different enemies. When you swallow 2 enemies, you get a combo of their skills. Pretty cool, huh?

Filler Design Type - Interlocking. This is definitely a unique design because the way you create the shapes is a bit different from all the other designs. I think this will work nice in big, open areas of your quilt, but probably not as well in tight areas.

Difficulty Level - Intermediate / Advanced. Swirling Bananas is a tricky design, but I honestly think it's easier to quilt when you place it in a circle like this. Just keep your shapes consistent and have fun with it!

Directional Texture - All Directions. The fossil beds are really attention getting! Be careful to fill the weird areas around the circular shapes with spirals so that the design keeps a nice consistent look.

Suggestions for Use - Again, I think this would be a cool sashing design, especially in cornerstones. If you really wanted to show off, you could also stitch it as your quilt background, but keep in mind that it's fairly time consuming!

Back of Fossil Bed
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and make sure to tell your friends where you learned it.

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies needed for
beautiful free motion quilting

Day 90 - Sprouting Seeds

I must be on a combination design kick cause I've just made several designs combining two earlier designs.

This one is a combo of circles (technically single pebbles) and Tree Roots. Of course since roots were involved, I ended up naming it Sprouting Seeds:

Today I'm working on the final details of our first

Mega Scrap Stash Give-a-Way
and Super Black Friday Sale!

From all the comments from my post about fabric organization video, I know most of you ladies can't wait to get your hands on my scrap stash.

I was going through it all yesterday and couldn't believe just how much there was. 4 years quilting really does produce a ton of scraps!

I've been debating and decided to also include the yardage that I'm purging from my stash. I couldn't even get it all into one photo!

What do you think: should I split this into 3 different stashes or combine it all into one?

Let me know what you think! I would never have thought of getting rid of all this stuff and I'm sure it will all be going to a good home.

I'll be announcing the details of the give-a-way and the super sale on Wednesday, so make sure to stop by and check it out!

Let's get back to learning how to quilt Sprouting Seeds:

Click Here if the Video Does Not Appear

Inspiration - Tree Roots has got to be in my top 10 favorite quilting designs invented during the project. I'm starting to use it just as much as stippling!

But I don't want to over use it either, so I've started looking for ways to combine it with other designs for a new look.

I think this design has some nice potential. You could do spirals in the circles, fill them with stippling, or leave them open like they are in my photos.

Filler Design Type - Interlocking. Each of the sprouting seeds is formed, then you branch off with your tree root line to form your next seed.

It's very free form and flowing and could likely be placed anywhere on a quilt.

Difficulty Level - Beginner / Intermediate. Tree roots is fairly easy. Quilting circles is fairly easy. Combine the two together and it's not going to be difficult!

Directional Texture - No Direction. Your eyes aren't really being pulled in any single direction, but the circles for the seeds are very noticeable. You could make them more like pebbling or fill them with spirals so they look a bit less like polka dots amid the tree roots.

Suggestions for Use - I personally keep seeing sprouting seeds being used in your sashing cornerstones. It will provide that nice little touch of texture in a place pretty much always ignored.

Back of Sprouting Seeds
Feel free to use this free motion filler designs in your quilts,

and send in a picture to show it off.

Let's go Quilt!

Leah Day

Click Here to find the tools and supplies needed for
beautiful free motion quilting