I'm pretty excited, because I was asked to be a sewer for the book, so the blocks in the book were made by me, and now I finally get to show you my Bella Beauties in a completed quilt!!  ​

Since I am also a long arm quilter, I got to have some fun with circles for this one!  All my circles here were quilted on my Handi Quilter Long Arm and they were all done freehand, so no pattern was followed.  I thought it looked great with the Ombre Confetti Metallic by V & C backing fabric, this quilt is just so innocent and fun, don't you think!!  If you'd like to use some of the Bella Solids that I used, here are the links... 
Pink Bella Solid Tea Rose
Yellow Bella Solid Goldenrod
​Geen Bella Solid Leaf 
Blue Bella Solid Seafoam 
Background Bella Solid White 

These blocks are really fast and fun, you could likely get these sampler blocks done in a weekend, if you set your mind to it.  I hope you'll try it!!

​Here's how it works!  It’s Sew Emma has created 16 fabulous quilts featuring the Perfect 10 Ruler from Creative Grids and the beloved 10” square precut, the Layer Cake. With full color diagrams and clear instructions, this book is truly a “Perfect 10”!  You can order the Perfect 10 Combo Pack to get both the book and ruler!

This sampler quilt is a beautiful combo of all the quilt blocks from the book, so it's a great way to try them all out!  Download out the full Fabric Requirements HERE  and the finishing pattern here!
We will be making blocks every Tuesday (#perfect10Tuesday) from October 9 to December 4! You will need the Perfect 10 book and Perfect 10 Ruler to help you complete the sampler quilt. Or you can get the Perfect 10 Book and Ruler Combo from The Fat Quarter Shop, it will get you all set up for the quilt along!

We’d love to see your Perfect 10 Sampler projects, share your blocks on Instagram or Facebook using #FQSPerfect10 so we can see!  You can also check out some other talented bloggers sewing along too, there are some fabulous fabric being used for this one!
Greg of Grey Dogwood Studio
Heidi of Buttons and Butterflies
Jennie of Porch Swing Quilts
Kim of Persimon Dreams
Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff
Pam of Pam Kitty Morning
Sinta of Pink Pincushion
Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts

Find me on social media, I'd love to see what you're working on! 
Instagram 
Facebook 

Happy Quilting!! 

Hey Y'all!  
I am so excited to invite you to come check out my next LIVESTEAM, Kimberly Jolly, owner of The Fat Quarter Shop will be joining me in my tiny little sewing room to do some FMQ (free motion quilting).  The live quilting fun starts at 9am CST Nov 29th, on YouTube or Instagram.  But, if you miss it, that's ok too, it will be on YouTube forever, and you can scroll down to the bottom to watch.  You should also subscribe to The Fat Quarter Shop's YouTube channel so you don't miss future updates, or become a paid member to get access to new top secret stuff, great discounts and lots of other goodies.  

The last LIVESTREAM we did earlier this year we talked all about quilting on a long arm, but many of us do not have the space for a long arm, so it's great to learn to quilt them yourself.  I quilted on my domestic machine for many years before I got my long arm, and it's a great way to really understand the entire process.  It's also really great if you are on a budget, or if you need to get a quilt finished in a hurry!   So put your feed dogs down, and lets get started!  

I always get questions about tension, and this diagram has always been very helpful for me as I sew.  You might like it too!! :)

The first thing we need to do after we have our quilt top and backing all finished, is to get the 3 layers basted.  The best way that I found to do this is on a tile or hard wood floor, or a large table if you have one available. 
​Here is what you will need....

I like the 505 Basting spray best, I have tried others in a pinch and nothing works as well as this one, in my opinion.  You can order it on Amazon or get it from Walmart of most craft stores, it's great because I have never had the needle get all sticky like other sprays do sometimes.  You will also need curved safety pins, and some duck tape, red is my favorite color so that's what I use. But, I hear Fat Quarter Shop is going to stock some snazzy colors soon, so you can get that when you order your safety pins, needles and Aurifil Thread.  OOOh are you getting excited?  

Ok, so I lied, this part really isn't exciting, it kinda sucks, but it doesn't take that long, and you will be so proud of yourself when you are done!!  I never could afford to use a long arm quilter when I first started quilting, so I taught myself how to finish them myself.  I think it's important to do at least one or two quilts all the way through, just because you really get the feel goods when you can say you did it all yourself!  If nothing else, it will make you appreciate all the requirements that the long arm quilter has.  
​
***OK First, I put my quilt backing on the tile floor with the pretty side facing down, then I put my batting on top of that.  Make sure your backing and batting are at least 4-5 inches bigger on all 4 sides than the quilt top, because it will shrink up unevenly around the edges after you push it around the machine.  
***Next, you need to lay your quilt top with the pretty side up, in the center of your batting, and you now its time to watch the video.... 

So once you let your spray dry for a few minutes, you will then need to secure the quilt with the curved safety pins.  I put some on all 4 corners, then throughout the center in several spots, the more spray you use, the fewer pins you will need.  So here is what it looks like after I added my pins.  

Here are a few of the other items you will need to get started....
The Aurifil 50 Thread works great in my machine with the 90/14 quilting needles, so that is what I would suggest.  Fat Quarter Shop has a fabulous selection of quilting supplies with lots of new items stocked every day to help you.  The 80/12 needles are sometimes too small and I get skipped stitches or uneven tension.  But you might do some testing with your own machine and see what results you like best.  I also use painters masking tape when I quilt, it's great to lay from one side to the other to get straight lines with your walking foot.  The quilt clips here are good to hold the rolled side of the quilt while you work.  Then no FMQ (free motion quilting) is complete without some kind of quilting gloves or tips.  These will just help you get some traction when you push your quilt under the needle. Since you are moving the quilt not the needle, it helps to be able to get a good grip.  I hope you will check out my LIVESTREAM for all kinds of tips and tricks to finish your quilt on your domestic machine.  

When you need a quick quilt with a FREE pattern and video tutorial, a Shortcut Quilt is your best friend! And luckily, the Fat Quarter Shop LOVE Shortcuts! 
There are over 20 quilt patterns, click here to see some previously made shortcut quilts! 
But today, we are going to talk about the newest shortcut quilt, and I know you are going to love it!  It's call the Layer Cake Custard Quilt, and it's great for beginners, or quilt pros. 

​There are a lot of fun fabrics that would look great with this pattern, but since sofa snuggling season is upon us,  I decided to really dive into some fun fall colors for this quilt.
I really love fall, but only because I live just outside Austin Texas,  Fall around here is beautiful, we still get mostly warm summer like days, with a mix of a few cool ones here and there.  I hate winter, but I do love to snuggle up under a nice "krinkley" (I love that word ha ha) quilt, with my bulldogs. 

The great thing about these shortcut quilts is you don't have to worry about what to buy and how much you need, or if things are going to match.  These are very straight forward patterns!  When I first started quilting, I had a hard time deciding how much to buy online and sometimes after I got the fabric, it didn't look as good together as it did in my head. That wont happen with these shortcut quilts.

So here's what you need to do, easy peasy....
1) Click here to search The Fat Quarter Shop layer cake selection... 
2) Pick out your favorite Layer Cake, you'll only one.
3) From that same collection pick out 3.5 yards for the background fabric,
    7/8 yards binding, and 5.5 yards for the backing .
4) Peek out the window and watch for the mailman LOL :)

Best of all, you know it's gonna look great because there are several bloggers that did this same pattern, and you can go check out pictures by searching the hastags #layercakecustardquilt on Instagram!  Oh, and I hope you will follow me too @gina_tell_threadgraffiti
​I am a blogger, pattern tester, and long arm quilter for the Fat Quarter Shop, so I get to post so man fun new things, with a few bulldog pictures in between, come say hi! 

I always tend to enjoy more modern fabrics, and for this quilt I picked out
Meraki BasicGrey for Moda Fabric for my layer cake and backing, and I used some grey Grunge for my binding.  Meraki is a colorful mix of bright reds & oranges with some gold, blacks, and brown, and it all has great florals and shapes, it just screams fun to me! ​

Since I am also a Long Arm Quilter, I get excited about the quilting designs too.  I only do custom freehand work right now, so I decided I wanted a modern rounded square for the stitches, and I really like how it turned out.  I am alway up to take custom orders from new clients, so feel free to post a comment, follow me on social media, or shoot me a text.  :) 

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  If you want to make one like Kimberly made here in the video you can order the kit here.  We'd love for you to share your creations with us on social media, please tag us by using  #layercakecustardquilt and #shortcutquilt !!  

It's an exciting day, its Throw Back Thursday!   I got to show off the tote bag last year, and I think its equally great this year!!  The Jolly Braid Tote Bag pattern is available at Fat Quarter Shop and it uses one Jolly Bar Precut to make it, so fast and easy!  

The pattern is available from Fat Quarter Shop.  You’ll need a Jolly Bar package, yardage for the sides and liner, some Annie’s Soft & Stable, one-inch polypro strapping for the handles, and a roll of “Fat Jelly Braid” Triangles on a Roll paper.  

The Triangles on a Roll paper made it very easy to make the bag, it takes the guess work out, and it's a great technique if you have never made a bag.  I decided to use True Blue Jolly Bar by Zen Chic for Moda Fabric for the braid portion of the bag, and I used Fragile Mustard for the liner, because I love a pop of color, this collection is from last season, but there are so many new and fabulous fabric collections you can't go wrong, Fat Quarter Shop has it all!  ​I also made a little zipper bag to match since the pattern didn't add any inside pockets.   It was super easy to make, because I just added a few more strips to the "triangle on the roll" paper as I was making the main braid portion of the bag.  Then I used left over mustard fabric from the liner and added a zipper.  Super Cute!

I had some questions about the back of the tote bag on Instagram (follow me @gina_tell_threadgraffiti), and I wanted to let you know that the back of the bag is also braids!! The braid portion of the pattern is one big piece, so it folds and gives you braids on both sides.  You can really have some fun with the fabrics you use!

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The Fat Quarter Shop has a tutorial video to help you make your own bag!
​You can also find great pictures on Instagram by searching  #jollybraidtote and #jollybraidtotebag.  This is a great pattern that is easy to follow, and I look forward to making more!

Being part of the Fat Quarter Shop quilty friends is so much fun, and I am always so grateful and excited to start a new project with them!  I get the opportunity to work on so many amazing sample quilts and be involved in pattern covers, and new books, and perfect designer projects, it truly is my dream come true!!  I hope you will take a few minutes and click the link below to visit Longarmer of the Month blog and check out the interview we did.  I got to talk about how I got started quilting, share pictures, and tell some of my favorite silly stories. Thank you Kimberly, and all the talented staff behind the scenes at the The Fat Quarter Shop for inviting me to be part of such projects this year!!  

I came up with the inspiration to make this after seeing a small yellow barn quilt on an old country road in Iowa.  Ellen has always loved red, and she has 4 grown children and it seemed like those 4 stars represented her family becoming one in the center.  I had a lot of fun making this one, and photographing it! (her brother is behind the quilt and we laughed a lot that day dragging that quilt around a beautiful Catholic church in the rain LOL)
When I make quilts, it's not just fabric and colors, there is a lot of thought that goes into the fine details.  There are a lot of memories in those 3 layers for me, and I almost always shed a few tears when I make a special family quilt.  I have been in their family for many years now, and it hasn't always been pretty, but I hope she knows no matter where we all live in the world, we love all of them very much! 
Ellen and Nick, we hope you have a wonderful time in Vegas,
and can't wait to see pictures!!  
​
Pattern was my creation using simple half square triangles with
two red layer cakes from The Fat Quarter Shop:
Project Red Layer Cake Sweetwater for Moda Fabrics Moda-5680LCRed Carpet Essentials 10 Karat Mini-Gems Wilmington Prints Wilm-Q510-32-510

OMG Y'all!!!  I had the most amazing opportunity this week,  and I have been so busy I didn't even get the opportunity to make a post until now.  

I was invited to be featured on The Fat Quarter Shop LIVESTREAM on Friday!  It was so much fun, I got to show my Handi Quilter Avante Long Arm machine, do a little quilting, and answer a ton of live questions.  I had a couple snags, but it happens.  I couldn't read some of my notes because I lost my glasses, ha ha but I tried my best to just enjoy the opportunity and share my love of quilting.  

If you missed the live video, you can catch it anytime on YouTube! I'd love for you scroll down to the video below and check it out, well at least a little of it, it's a pretty long video.  If you have time please give me a quick response and let me know you think.  Oh and feel free to ask any questions that I may have missed. There were several things I thought about later, but there is only so much you can squeeze into an hour.  

Anyway, we talked about some future ideas and maybe I will be invited back again someday, in the meantime, I am just thankful to be part of a great company!  I really enjoy blogging, testing patterns and quilting some of their sample quilts!  The Fat Quarter Shop has fabulous products, and amazing staff behind the scenes, I'm a lucky girl!!

Here is the quilt we worked on in the video, it's called "In Season" designed by
​It's Sew Emma, and available soon on Fat Quarter Shop website, and it even made it to the pattern cover!  

If you missed the livestream, you can catch it anytime on YouTube!
​Thanks for visiting!  

​Look what I’ve been making, yall! ❤️✂️
Jessica Swift has been hosting a Summer Tote Challenge with her new collection called Sirena for Art Gallery Fabrics, and I was super lucky to be chosen by Jessica to get involved! Check her out, she's got some awesome talent!
Woo Hoo!! I'm so excited, it's finally my turn to share my tote bag, and my little bonus zipper bag!  This fabric is so pretty and fun, you need it for your stash!! 😍

I used the Indigo Tote Pattern designed by friends at It's Sew Emma, if you wanna make one too, the FREE pattern and full fabric collection are available at The Fat Quarter Shop. ​

Sometimes the selvage on the fabric is totally fabulous and must be included in the project, so I included it on the exterior pocket, and I love it!!

There is a fun little hidden message here in this picture...
​The spiky plant down on the bottom right, is a pineapple plant!!!  I love to water-root starts after we eat the pineapple from the store.  Sometimes they even grow a new baby pineapple, if you are lucky!!  

Here are a few pictures during the making of my bag.  I used Pellon Naked Flex-Foam for the body of the bag, and I really liked how it turned out.  It gave the bag good body without being too stiff, plus it was easy to work with! 
**Bonus zipper bag: I used leftover strip pieces to make a 7x9 front and back with cotton batting, and two 7x9 pieces for the liner pieces, along with a 10 inch zipper.  These are fast and easy little bags that I make all the time!  Feel free to comment if you have questions or comments, I am happy to help!  ❤️✂️

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, hope to see you again soon!  
Happy Sewing! 
​Gina Tell 

Hey Y'all!  I'm excited to share my latest finish with you today. 
Often times I make quilts for books & pattern covers, or client quilts, and even fabric designer projects, but this quilt was made straight from my heart.  I have a beautiful friend that just found out she has breast cancer and I hope that she will snuggle up and know we are fighting with her as she kicks cancers ass!!

I purchased two Color Cuts by Moda Fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop for this project, one pink and one grey bundle, and I pulled the pattern from The Jolly Bar Book Vol.1 by It's Sew Emma.  This book is one of my favorite "Go To" books for fun and fast patterns!   

I picked the Hopscotch Quilt on page 18 for this PINK project, and I added one special heart from the Paper Hearts Quilt pattern on the next page to add a splash of love to the quilt front. I'm really excited how the color cuts fabric blended together to make such a pretty quilt!  
​
One of my favorite parts of making a quilt is the time I spend with my hubby looking for the perfect place to take photographs!  We found a tiny white gazebo not far from our house at one of our fishing spots, and it was perfect for this pink quilt of Love!  

Since I am also a long arm quilter, I did some large scale swirls and flowers for the quilting and a few hearts blended in for fun!  Oh and I also painted my nails hot pink for an extra touch of love for my friend too!  Giving quilts to friends and family that I love has always been one of my favorite things to do, and this one is no exception.  I hope you will try out one of the patterns in this book the next time you need a special quilt.  

I have also made the Seas the Day Quilt for one of the sweet little boys in my life a couple years ago.  I used all Kona Solids for that boy quilt, and I guess the point is, no matter the fabric, all these patterns are simply adorable!  ​

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, hope to see you back soon!  
Gina Tell 
​Thread Graffiti 

When I got my first sewing machine back in 2003 I knew absolutely nothing about sewing,fabric, patterns, designers and all the rest of the gadgets that went along with it! 
I made myself one very horrible quilt with that machine, and I didn't get it back out of the box again for a couple years.  I taught myself during a time before YouTube videos and social media, so it took me a long time to really develop my skills and enjoy the process.  
I grew up in the floral industry pretty much my entire life, my Mom did it when I was kid, then I worked as a floral designer all though high school and college as I earned my degree in interior design. I even owned my own flower shop for a while before I decided to move to Austin, Texas.  So, it didn't take long after the move for me to miss creating colorful things with my hands.  I realized I was kinda lost inside, I realized that I had spent all those years struggling to get my degree in design for a reason, it's just who I am!  So in 2005 I got that machine back out and started making a quilt for my niece.  She was just a little girl at the time, and I knew she wouldn't care what it looked like.  That quilt was also ugly, but I enjoyed making it!  I quickly made two more for my nephews too.  They were all just scrappy squares and I didn't know how to nest seams or iron correctly, all I did know, I had just fallen in love with colorful things again.  By then, I had become a new Mom, and I quit my job as a bookkeeper to be at home with our son full time.  I loved being a Mom, I loved teaching and playing, but my mind missed being an adult out in the world.  So I pushed myself to really learn to quilt, I got myself a good Juki sewing machine and I set up a room dedicated to quilting, and me.  I started making things for everyone, every holiday that came up I made handmade gifts!!  Everyone in my family got a quilt, I still wasn't good, but loved it!

I got a few more machines and kept making all kinds of handmade things....
I had an opportunity to put a few of my things in a local craft show, but was required to get a sales tax number to reserve the booth.  So my BFF Jody, and I spent days talking about  business names, we talked about old times in college and laughed at the stupid things we used to do.  I had gone though some hard times personally and Jody helped me heal my wounded soul.  I battled several forms of abuse back then, and she would remind me to live in the moment.  She helped me grow strong and appreciate each day that was good and learn from the bad ones and move past them.  It was then that I learned what
​Carpe Diem meant, and it was something I held onto daily! 
So naturally as we tossed around name options this came up, we decided to name our little crafty team Carpe Quiltin'.  We decided we would "Seize the day, and put very little trust in tomorrow (the future)", because we never intended for it to ever be anything but fun.

But, as the last 10 years have passed we HAVE grown a beautiful small business out of our love for fabric and quilts!  I am no longer a damaged 20 year old struggling to find myself.  We are both happily married, with great families, living in beautiful places filled with positivity and love, and we have decided that it's time for a new fresh name!  

We still make unique gifts, but we now have a new Handi Quilter Avante Long Arm Machine here in the studio and we offer full custom Long Arm Quilting!  Full custom means that we don't offer pantographs or digital designs, all the quilting I do here is custom free hand quilting guided by my two arms, years of practice, and a lotta love for art and design!  We are now Thread Graffiti, y'all!!
I currently quilt many of The Fat Quarter Shop quilts that are featured on their new pattern covers, blogs and books, but I also welcome new clients too!!  So, if you have a special quilt that needs more than just a digital quilting pattern, I would love to work with you.  Maybe you have a quilt that you want to enter into a quilt show, like the client quilt I did in the picture.  I hope that you will continue to follow my blog and grow with me!  As we transition you will be able to follow me using BOTH CarpeQuiltin.com and
Thread-Graffiti.com  and we are also still available on Facebook and Instagram too, you will just notice some name changes, but it's still me! :)
Much Love, 
Gina