Suddenly this page has been getting a lot of hits…and it occurs to me that it is somewhat out of date so…
I am a professional quilter in my early 50s. I live in beautiful West Michigan with my wonderful, handsome husband.We have one daughter who is about to get her master’s in Library and Information Science.
I have been quilting professionally for just over 8 years and in 2012 I was approached by Annie’s to do a beginner longarm online class –
http://www.anniescatalog.com/onlineclasses/detail.html?code=QCV01
A book by the same name is coming out in May 2013. http://images.anniescatalog.com/product/closeup/100814.jpg
I recently added an Intelliquilter to my quilting system and am learning how to incorporate that tool into my work.
Many of the photos you will see on the ThreadTales blog are client quilts. Occasionally, I get to slip one of my own on the machine and even more rarely I will write a post about something that is NQR (not quilt related).
Terri Watson
Threadtales - The stuff of Life (and Quilts!) 
I read that you went to Shipshewana. Do you live in Indiana?
Ruthie, I live in Michigan near Grand Rapids.
I love love love your blog header. I was positive that that lighthouse was in Nova Scotia Canada. But I see you are in Michigan. Nice..
And I almost forgot to say that I love all your quilting. Man, you take great photos of your work. I’m so inspired.
I’ve just recently found your blog & have been enjoying your sense of humor & quilting! I have an HQ16 & began taking client quilts in January… tho so far I’ve only quilted for the same client. lol Word of mouth has been slow.
Love your quilting! Are these pantos or freehand?
Your take on exercise is hilarious! I started to walk my 70 lb lab puppy recently, tho I do use the word “walk” loosely as he’s exuberant & it’s often more like an morning DRAG!! haha He’s sweet & it’s getting me outside a bit…
I look forward to reading more from you & getting to know you better 🙂
Take care… Denise
I love your work and look forward to learning lots from you! I want to see your piecing on the frame technique so will be watching for posts. Thanks so much for sharing with us.
Where are you in W. Michigan? Near Holland? We have a lake house there.
–Nancy
Yep, Nancy…I am in Grandville, Mi just a few miles from Holland.
Hi Terri,
I was cruising the blogs and suddenly recognised this wonderful quilt at the top of a page – you had shown it to me last week. As usual your beautiful freehand work leapt out at me. Your quilting always enhances, never takes over, and adds so much to our quilts. You are certainly blessed with a talent, and I am one of the lucky ones whose humble quilts have been given the magic touch of your skill.
You are far more than your 50 words – good grief girl!!! You are generous, funny, dry witted, unbelievably talented, loving, a loyal friend, and a hard working contributing member of the West Michigan Quilters Guild. I’m beginning to sound like a fan club here! Anyway Terri, you’re the best. Adrienne
Adrienne – you are too much! LOL Glad you found me! And stop putting down your quilts. They are bright and fun and marvelous!
Hugs
T
Hi Terry & Fellow Quilter’s,
I just picked up an old quilt from my mom.
She requested I “look at it” & see if I can “stabilize it”.
It has been in use for at least 70 years.
Its machine pieced, hand quilted.
The bindings are pretty much completely worn out as is much of the border.
The center seems to be in pretty good shape (for its age)
I believe it was created w all new fabrics, (as opposed to fabric scraps from used clothing).
It is dirty too. She was afraid to wash it, for fear it would fall apart.
I thought I would gently soak it in the bathtub w quilt wash, lay it flat to dry.
Then, I’m stuck.
Any suggestions?
Can I send photos?
Anne, you can send pics here:
threadtales@comcast.net
I would love to see this project…
T
FYI, I use the same wordpress theme. You can remove the search at the top of the screen. Go to your dashboard, then appearance, then theme options. The first option is to hide the search.
It drove me crazy until I found that.
C Harnisch
http://cquilts.wordpress.com/
Just relocated (retired) to Traverse City, MI … saw your link of Mary Quilts and followed it over. I’ve bookmarked your blog for the future ~ spending time reading your previous bloggings. Glad I found you 😉
Do you have a recipe for the cookies you show. They look like fun.
Ummmm, the pretzel thingys? I think I posted a link when I first found them…lets see…
http://griffithsrated.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentine-prezel-buttons.html
They are also on my Pinterest Holiday Food board.
T
Would like to have your recipe for your chicken noodle soup and the bread that you make.. they sound delicious…..
Hi Tammy…I don’t really have a recipe for the soup…it’s a little different every time, but the basics are –
2 cups cooked chicken or turkey – can be left over or bake a couple of breasts
2 white onions chopped
3 or 4 ribs of celery chopped
2 quarts chicken stock or broth
1 can diced tomatoes (regular or petite)
half bag uncooked egg noodles
1 cup chopped carrots or baby carrots are nice if you
can get them.
Saute’ veggies in a little olive oil until slightly browned, add cooked chicken and broth and can of tomatoes. simmer until veggies are cooked through. Add uncooked noodles. Simmer until noodles are done. Salt and pepper to taste.
If you like garlic you can add a little chopped garlic while you saute the veggies. Just be careful that the garlic doesn’t burn.
Basic French bread
Two cups warm water
1 table spoon dry active yeast
4 cups flour (more will be needed)
1 table spoon sugar
1 table spoon kosher salt
Mix yeast and warm water…add on cup of flour. Mix. Add sugar and salt and another cup of flour. Mix. continue until all 4 cups of flour are added. Turn out dough onto heavily floured surface. Knead adding more flour as necessary until dough is smooth and springs back. Let rise in buttered bowl covered until double (about an hour) punch down and knead for a minute. divide dough in half and roll out into long loaves. Place loaves onto greased french bread pan. cover with plastic wrap sprayed with Pam or similar. Approx 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F and bake for 35 minutes.
T
Terri your blog is awesome!
Thanks so much, Carolyn1
T
You live in Grandville….SOOO close to me. I am looking for someone to make a t-shirt quilt. Is this a service you offer? If so, could you email me your information?
Sorry I missed your comment, Jules…yes, I make t-shirt quilts. Please email me here –
threadtales@comcast.net or call 616-257-0395 for more info.
T
Do you still quilt for hire?
Yes, Sharon. Quilting is my full time job.
🙂
T
I just found your blog this weekend and have enjoyed going through all the pictures. You have some amazing designs. I recently started using a long arm and I was wondering, for your border designs, do you flip your quilt so you can do the border in one long piece or just sew as you roll?
Hi Christina,
I have turned a quilt once in 10 years and decided it wasn’t worth it. I am sure there are others who feel differently.
Thanks for reading!
T
Could you please tell me the name of the quilt pattern on 12-29-2013. It has greens and oranges in it. I instruct at a quilt camp and am looking for patterns that would be good for quilts for beginners. Thank you!
Shirley,
That quilt is a client’s. I do not have a pattern name for it. Although, it would be fairly simple to recreate. 9 patch block, alt. block and sashing. You could draw it out on grid paper and make the blocks any size you wanted them to be.
Terri
Terri,
I just found your blog through pintrest. I am also a Michigander. I live up near Cadillac and I have been longarm quilting for 4 years. Most of my quilts come through the mail. I have quilts that I have longarmed all over the U.S. I love the diversity and I love my customers. I do mostly pantographs but love to do custom.
I am enjoying your blog.
Ruth
Thanks, Ruth. I am very familiar with your area of Michigan. My dad still lives in Marion. I also get quilts from out of state, but most of my clients are local. Last check I think I have quilts in 17 states 😉
Thanks so much
Terri
Hello, I just stumbled in your blog by following a link. I am in West Michigan also and very happy to have found you. I have hand quilted for about 30 years not as much as I would like do to cardiac issues holding me back. But I do love it, so! I hope to be able to contact you in the future about having long arm work done by you. I truly enjoy what I have seen of your work.
Marcia
Thank you, Marcia. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing your projects.
🙂
Terri
Terry, I have been hauling around a quilt top for a year, thinking I’ll bring it to u when I complete the other 4 I’m working on. I have since sold my house in Ada, & am living downtown. We have some catching up on to do. I’ll call later this week for an appointment. 😃
anne azkoul production manager AZKOUL, INC. 330 state st grand rapids. mi. 49503 1.616.774.0738 office 1.616.648.2129 cell Sent from my iPhone
Its nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice. Fred Rogers
Ann, I was just thinking about you and wondering what you have gotten up to…talk soon 🙂
Love you quilting and tips! I’m new to long arm quilting and am hungry for any bit of information I can get- thank you for sharing!
Glad you are enjoying my tidbits, Sue 🙂
Good evening, I am considering the purchase of a sit down long arm such as the Tiara II or the Bernena Q20. Do you have any experience or words of wisdom that you can share? Do you offer any classes for this type of long arm? I have quilted 11 quilts of all sizes on my Viking Sapphire and would like to “upgrade.” 😊 I have spent several hours on them at Lakeshore sewing and am now a bit overwhelmed … Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Sue,
I sent you an email.
T
I want to thank you for the lovely quilts you share with the rest of us. I really look forward to seeing what you have done.
Thank you, Judy. Not being a show quilter I often wonder if there is much point in blogging, but I guess I am not the only one who appreciates simpler quilts. 🙂
I also am a professional quilter in Michigan. I’m in Northwestern Michigan. I really enjoy looking at your quilts and sometimes use them as inspiration for my customers quilts. Keep blogging. There are many of us interested in simpler quilts.Ruth Cook
Well said Ruth. Some of the patterns you show I already own but find out how much I like them when I see them on your blog. I only do edge to edge customer quilts, unless they are a special (very special) request.
Terri, I really enjoy your every blog post. As a fairly new longarmer, you have been a wealth of inspiration to me. I thought I had seen a quilt you did fairly recently using the Turkish Tiles design, but I can’t find it, nor can I find the search feature on your blog. I was wanting to look back at the finished design again before purchasing it. Did I imagine this? Thank you in advance. Cathy
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for reading! I don’t have a design called Turkish tiles. Perhaps you saw it on a different blog. If y do a Google image search for the name plus quilting design you might get lucky.
Thank you, Terri, for your quick response. Yours is the only quilting blog I follow, so I don’t know where I could have seen it. But the design does actually exist and is for sale, so I didn’t just dream it up. Hmmm.. a new mystery. 🙂 Please keep showing us your pictures. You really are an inspiration, particularly to us novice quilters.
Love your work! What thread do you use in the bobbin?
HI, Kathy. I use Bottom Line from Superior threads in my bobbin. It’s thin, strong and comes in colors that I can coordinate with my top thread.
You spoke at our long arm guild (NILAG) and I believe you mentioned some thread colors that blend over a wide range of fabric choices. I just made the quilt, Jungle Friends, by So Fresh Quilts. I used a light blue background it don’t know if a silver/gray would look good on the animals. I plan to do a pantograph on it. Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Hi Marilyn.
I have been looking at Google images for this quilt. If you have used similar colors for the animals I would audition threads that blend with them if possible. A light to med. green, (I like winter well Omni from Superior) or a dull gold/tan/taupe. I know this will show more in your background, but it might interfere less with the piecing in your animals. This is the best I have to offer without seeing the quilt.
🙂
Terri
I’m looking for a pattern for the quilt Christmas Mice. Is there a way to purchase it? TIA
Lena
I am afraid that was a client’s quilt. I do not have the name of the quilt top pattern.
Your quilting is fabulous! I looked at all the quilts on your site. The quilt tops were really wonderful and your quilting enhanced them. The ladies who made the quilt tops are all very talented. And they were wise to send them to you to quilt. I am in the Los Angeles area and women out here are few and far between when it comes to needle work. If I ever make a quilt top, you are my person. Linda
Thank you. You are very kind. I have not been to the Los Angeles area. I do know there are quilters in CA because the is a quilt show called Road to California. Terri
do you have any michigan state quilting patterns–I have 2 grandchildren going there and i need a pattern or kit–whatever–or where can i go top get one–thank you very much–xmas gifts
I don’t know of any patterns specific to Michigan State (although I do have a nephew going there now.) You best bet is to search for fabrics with the MS logo on them and use a simple piecing pattern.
here is an example from Joann’s – https://www.joann.com/michigan-state-ncaa-cotton-fabric/8257834.html
Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/MICHIGAN-STATE-FABRIC-100-YARD-MICHIGAN-20/dp/B004YWGSRO
I really enjoyed reading your quilting in one fell swoop and the section on what was she thinking. You were very clear with your instructions and I thank you. I do not quilt for clients. But I do a lot of charity Quilting . I very much like how you describe the kind of quilting you do I feel it is very much in line with what I do. I prefer to free motion quilt. And I would never Submit a quilt for a show. I’m going to try your method of quilting on the frame it looks to be fun. Thank you again for all the work you’ve put in to your website I really have enjoyed it thank you.
I found you on Pinterest
Thank you, Janet. I appreciate the kind words.
I am looking for a long arm quilter. Where are you located? Are you taking new customers?
Hi, Lynne. I am located in West Michigan. I am taking clients at this time. Please email me at threadtalesqw@gmail and we can have a more specific conversation.
Thank you, Terri