Staycation Fun: Quilting with Catherine Redford

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Vacationing in the time of COVID-19 requires a total re-think of what, where, and when a ‘vacation’ can be. For me, staying at home is an economical and fun alternative!

Earlier this year, I gave a gift to myself: I took advantage of my time off to dive deeply into Catherine Redford’s video workshop Walking Foot Quilting: Beyond the Ditch! In the course, Catherine teaches six walking foot quilting techniques and uses a placemat as the ‘quilt’ you work on for each.

Catherine provides a pattern for the placemats but I decided to use up a stash of HST blocks I had on hand. Here are four of the six placemats I created for this class.

Before the quilting instruction begins, Catherine shares all of her knowledge and best practices for getting started including fabric and batting selection, machine set up tips, pressing choices, basting lessons, and more. Although I don’t ‘love’ pin basting, I was a dutiful student and followed Catherine’s instructions. I am more appreciative of what a good job safety pins do for quilt basting—even stopping to remove pins is a good lesson in learning control over your quilting.

Catherine is right—safety pins are great for quilt basting

I love the look of matchstick quilting—those very close-together parallel lines—but have never been patient enough to fully commit to all that sewing. However—did I mention I was trying to be a dutiful student?—following Catherine’s guidance and tips, I was very pleased with the results! The next two photos are sort of ‘before’—well, maybe ‘during’—and ‘after.’

Starting with wider lines of stitching and then filling in the spaces with more parallel stitching is the perfect way to created matchstick quilting on this in-progress placemat.

Voila, the finished matchstick-quilted placemat!

I spread the lessons out over the week so I could really delve into the techniques and styles of quilting. Every day I spent some time watching the video and practicing the designs and tips. Each lesson built on the skills learned before and it was so satisfying to work at it and feel successful.

Consider giving yourself the gift of this video workshop and take your own staycation. If you don’t have a full week to devote to a class, take what time you have and commit to this skill-building workshop. Like exercising to build muscle, practicing your quilting is the surest way to success and satisfaction. And creating great quilts!

I know you’ll enjoy Catherine’s friendly manner, supportive teaching style, and wealth of knowledge. And, in the end, you will have a beautiful set of placemats for your own dining table or as a gift!

Wishing you sew much fun,
Kristine

P.S. Check out my blog on Quilting Hacks where I share one of Catherine’s excellent machine quilting techniques from this video workshop!

Sign up now for Walking Foot Quilting: Beyond the Ditch! with Catherine Redford! This workshop runs from 12/4/2020 to 1/1/2021.

Quick + Easy Quilts magazine December/January 2021 features walking foot tips and a great tableware set by Catherine Redford.

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