Reflections on QUILTsocial

I had a super fun day yesterday at Sew Productive. We made MONSTERS, which you'll see in a moment. 

I presented a couple of lectures on Husqvarna Viking accessories. I will give one more on Friday and a lecture on quilting at Thimble Quilts and Sewing in Lasalle, Ontario. 

I have written so much about Husqvarna Viking sewing and embroidery machines and almost all the accessories, and you have access to all that information. 

Where do you find it? Well, on QUILTsocial.com, of course. 

So here's the deal: I can't provide links to all the posts. But here are a couple of them and where you can find some of the other information.  

I started writing in June 2014, using the Husqvarna Viking H | Class 100Q. Here's the VERY FIRST blog post from QUILTsocial on June 2, 2014. 

Oh, what we didn't know when Carla asked me to write blog posts for her! And how the blog and I have evolved over the years. If my counting skills are on track this morning, I've reviewed 24 different HV machines. I've reviewed sergers, sewing machines, embroidery machines, and sit-down quilting machines. The machines have ranged from the basic machines like the H | Class 100Q to the top-of-the-line machines as they have been introduced! 

Not only have I chatted about the machines and their amazing capabilities, but I've also used many accessories in my blog posts and provided numerous tutorials. 

I can't even remember the frequency at the beginning, but I'm currently writing one set of 5 blog posts every two months, for a total of 30 blog posts per year. So let's take 9 full years at 30 posts per year - that's 270 blog posts. Then add in the ten I've already done this year, plus the ones from 2014, and some years, I wrote posts in back-to-back months, so I'm safe to say that I've written over 300 blog posts for QUILTsocial!!

Wow --- that's a wealth of information. It's like taking a brain dump and handing it off to you! And I must confess that I love to put in lots of pictures, and my posts are wordy! I hope they are not too wordy! 

All of the information is still valid today! How do you access the posts? Go to QUILTsocial.com and find this menu bar. 

Click on the MACHINES tab, and you'll find a list of all the Husqvarna Viking machines that I've reviewed. You'll also find a list of PFAFF machines that have been reviewed by other people (OH—I think I did the reviews on the sit-down quilter for PFAFF as well), and you'll find some machines by Brother. 

So, if you have a Husqvarna Viking serger, sewing or embroidery machine, or the sit-down quilter, click on the machine, and that'll take you to a list of five posts published in the same week. Sometimes, I've done multiple weeks on the same machine, so check out the "load more posts" at the bottom. Clicking on each post will bring it up, and the posts for that week should be linked to each other at the bottom. Monday will link to Tuesday, etc. However, the separate weeks do not link to each other if they involve the same machine. 

If you find that some posts within a specific week are not linked to each other, let me know, and I'll pass the information along. 

There are also tutorials written by myself and the other bloggers. Here are a couple of my tutorials for making quick gifts. You should never have to purchase a pattern for these essential projects, and you can embellish them however you wish! 

 Journal cover tutorial (follow the links at the bottom of that post to follow posts on more journal cover ideas)

Cushion Cover Tutorial (Part 1)

Cushion cover tutorial (Part 2)

Project Bag Tutorial (Part 1) Follow the links at the bottom to move to the next steps.

Tote Bag Tutorial  (I wrote this one when I was vacationing in PEI for a month in 2015!)

I tend to provide a lot of technical how-to rather than tutorials, so I'm sure I have more tutorials, but those four come to mind. 

Here's some of the technical stuff I write about. 

What's the perfect stitch length, and why? You would be surprised at how many people don't know this. Check the date on this! 

OH MY GOSH  --- You'll love the first picture in this post, which also reviews applique. I was sewing in the gazebo!!!! Oh my --- those ground cover bushes over the pond have grown significantly because the orange frog is still there, but he is now hidden, and I thought the other day about moving him. I'll get a picture today so you can see the difference.

And YES ---I harped about reading the User's Guide even way back then!

In the summer of 2015, I wrote a series of fun posts on what to do while on summer vacation. Here's the first of those! They were all quilt-related, and the pictures came from various trips that summer! 

Oh my --- I just led you down a rabbit hole, and I'm sorry! OK—I'm not! I definitely will go back and reread that series—the posts are short! It was so much fun! 

WAIT -- before I go, here's the picture of the monsters created yesterday. 

The monsters!

The ladies in the class had a blast making them, and part of the fun was choosing their eyes, nose, body shape, and mouth! There were loads of giggles, but it gave them an excellent opportunity to test out the Husqvarna Viking Designer Ruby 90 and the Husqvarna Viking Designer Sapphire 85. So thanks to you all for hosting and attending! And if you want to find out more about either of those two machines, you can simply click on the links, and it'll take you to some QUILTsocial posts I wrote. You can also contact your local Husqvarna Viking Dealer for more information. 

Well, that was a fun trip down memory lane and not what I intended to write about. Sometimes, my hands do not follow what my head says, but it was fun!

I would love a way to capture all the posts I've written. They are too huge to compile into a book, but perhaps I could come up with the best of them? I don't know, but it's loads of fun to check out the older posts. The information in even the first week is still valuable, as you can see if you check out the one with the stitch length information!

On that note, I'm out of here!! I have a "free" day today, during which I can answer some emails, do some embroidery, do more writing, and prepare for the next two days!

If you like ANY of those posts on QUILTsocial, share them with your friends, put the links in guild newsletters, or copy them to your blogs or other social media venues. We need to spread the word about the information in QUILTsocial. It's a hidden gem! 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!