Chatterbox Quilts News for September 2025

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Welcome to the September Chatterbox Quilts’ newsletter!

It’s official: Fall is here! We’ve been enjoying stunning weather for this time of the year and it’s sometimes difficult to pull myself back into the studio for some quilting but don’t worry, I’ve been working away on new projects to share with you.

What happened this month

I finished another project as an Island Batik Ambassador. The Threaded Chaos blog hop challenge had a crazy quilt theme and I created blocks using my embroidery machine. Lots of fun choosing fabrics and decorative stitches and threads to use in this project sponsored by Aurifil.

I attended the Layered and Stitched 2025 online event hosted by Creative Spark Online Learning (C&T Publishing). So many creative ideas for art quilts and the keynote speech by David M. Taylor was amazing! I love these events which feature different topics and, if you’ve never attended one, keep your eyes peeled for details on the next one coming up in November 2025. I’ll be an affiliate and you’ll save $20.00 off the enrolment fee when you use my affiliate code.

I also worked on lots of samples for YouTube videos and these will be rolling out over the next few weeks.

I’ve been deep into hand embroidery recently – you’ll have noticed some new YouTube videos on various hand stitching projects. I love the portability and meditative quality of hand stitching. I’m exploring new stitches and creating my own designs and I find it an embellishment that I can add to quilt projects. One of the biggest benefits of hand embroidery is that I can make smaller projects that finish up quickly. You can look forward to more hand embroidery tutorials on my Chatterbox Quilts’ YouTube channel.

On a personal note, I received my parent’s antique china cabinet that I shipped from Ontario to my home in Calgary, Alberta.

Since they recently moved into a retirement community and had to downsize significantly, I was fortunate enough to be able to bring this piece west. If you need to ship antique or fragile items in Canada or even to the US, I highly recommend (I used the Woodbridge office). They custom built the crate for this piece, packed it so well, and it arrived in perfect condition. If you’re a fan of “A Christmas Story”, you’ll appreciate the “fragile” sticker on the crate. 😉

Tip

You can never have enough sewing machines! I know that not everyone has more than one machine but it is helpful to have a back-up machine when your primary one has to go to the shop for repairs. While working on my Island Batik Ambassador project this month, my Janome CM17 decided it needed some spa time so off it went leaving my project partially completed. Fortunately, I also own a Janome M7 and 500E (embroidery machine) so I was able to complete the project on time. The next time you’re wondering if you should get another machine, I give you permission – it can really come in handy.

Recommended Tools

When doing hand stitching, a good quality needle is so important. I recently purchased some Milliners’ needles make making French and colonial knots. I’d never used these needles before and was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it now is to make these types of knots. I purchased Tulip brand needles in sizes 1 and 3 and love the quality of these needles. You can get your own needles here. You can also get other hand stitching needles and supplies online at the Shibori Dragon.

YouTube Videos

Here are the new videos released in September for your viewing and learning pleasure (just click on the picture).

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Coming Soon

In October, I’ll be on vacation for a few weeks but will still be posting YouTube videos for you to enjoy. I’ll also be working on a new Island Batik Ambassador project, one using a pattern from ByAnnie.com. Wish me luck and send me any tips if you are a bagmaker (I’m not). I hope I haven’t taken on too big a challenge but with Annie’s excellent instructions and video tutorials, I’m sure I’ll do just fine.

We’ll be starting a new project in The Quilter’s Way in mid-October. I can’t let the cat out of the bag yet but I’ll have details in a future email.

Take care,

Kim

P.S. Looking for an online guild/group presentation, check out my virtual offerings here.

*Note: I use affiliate links in my emails and, if you click on a link, I will receive a small amount of compensation when you purchase an item. It doesn’t cost you anything extra but does help me to continue to create helpful content for you.