Loopy Connections

We had a lot of fun at the zipper pouch class today. Several successful projects finished in a beautiful setting.

Would you like to know how easy it is to sew a zipper?

Then join us at our zipper pouch class on Sunday at the in Waukegan. Class starts at 1pm. Sign up via Dandelions web site.

All materials are included in the cost and you can use our sewing machines.

See You Sunday!

Summer Camp has started for the Boys and Girls Club of Lake County and Loopy Connections is teaching a sewing class.

Here are some of the pillows that were finished in class. The students were so excited to take home their first ever sewing project.

Text the Dandelion Gallery if you are interested in joining us: 224 440 8006

Our second quilt class is on Saturday in Waukegan.
We'll be learning all about half square triangles and making three blocks that feature them
Then it's on to the Waukegan Pride parade at 1pm downtown Waukegan. should be a fun day!

Our second quilt class is on Saturday in Waukegan.
We'll be learning all about half square triangles and making three blocks that feature them
Then it's on to the Waukegan Pride parade at 1pm downtown Waukegan. should be a fun day!

A successful first quilt class today.

We talked about fabric selection and all things colour related as artists from collective joined us for class.

We also talked about the best way to true up yard cuts or precut fabric and pressing blocks with both open seams and. Pressing to the side.

A few blocks were finished and we will be tackling half square triangles at our next class.

While it was a shame to be inside on such a sunny day, the fun and community made it well worth it.

Class 2 is on 1st June. Stop by and see us

Ready for our first quilt class today

We've been making samples for our beginner quilt class and you can see a selection here. More photos to come!

We'll be teaching the full quilting process from fabric selection and cutting, through piecing, pressing, quilting and binding.

There are 5 basic blocks that we'll learn in class and instructions will be available for a 6 inch, 9 inch or 12 inch block.

The blocks can then be made into a wall hanging, baby quilt or table runner. We'll have layouts for several different designs.

The first class is Sunday 19th May with remaining 3 classes held on Saturday 1st June, Saturday 13th July and 10th August and we are hosted by

We had a great sewing class this evening. Some lovely berry baskets were made in an inspirational setting that had great art work on the walls.

There is still time to join us for our Sustainable Sewing class tonight. We had 3 spots left.
Celebrate Earth Day by reusing materials from around the home to make reusable cleaning cloths, a scrubbie and a punnet style basket.
All materials and equipment is provided in the class
is hosting the class which starts at 6pm tonight.

April is Volunteer Appreciation Month and we'd like to say a big thank you to our volunteers who make such a difference in our community.
Each month the Loopy Connections volunteers can join us for a free sewing class. This month we learnt how to sew a button hole on the sewing machine. Next we're going to make a T-shirt.
If you are interested in volunteering with Loopy Connections get in touch by filling out the form on our web page.

Stop by the Waukegan Public Library in the next week for our annual Elementary Art Show. Attendees will have a chance to check out some amazing student artwork from all 15 of our elementary schools.
Read more here: https://www.wps60.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=18635742&pageId=37621694

Loopy Connections celebrated with the Waukegan Public Library last night for their 125th birthday.

The library is raising funds to build a maker space which will include sewing machines and other equipment.

We showcased the beautiful quilt made by the Waukegan community that is being donated to Legacy Reentry Foundation NFP

Join us for sewing classes this Friday at the Dandelion Gallery. Sign up at our web site www.loopyconnections.org

Fantastic Crochet!!

Our next session of sewing classes start soon.

We are being hosted by the on Genesee in Waukegan.
Machines, materials and lots of fun are all included in the class.

In our first class "sustainable sewing" we're making a basket designed to look like a fruit punnet, cleaning cloths and scrubbies that can be used in the kitchen or bathroom.

We'll also be showing you how to recycle materials at home to make the scrubbies that can then be washed at home to keep them nice and fresh.

Sign up available though our web site, link in bio, or via the Dandelion Gallery Web site

Cutting and sorting generously donated fabric for our upcoming sewing classes.
Sign up in the profile link for our sustainable sewing, zipper pouch or beginner quilt classes hosted by

We've already started our next must make quilt and had so much fun getting it started with everyone who joined us for .wauk at the in Waukegan.

We had so much support and the blocks that were made and colours chosen were fabulous. I see the makings of another awesome community quilt that will benefit someone in the Waukegan area.

is about Favorite Finishes today

This quilt I made for a and it's the first time I used mostly solids for a quilt. I love the 1920s feel that came from a simple foundation paper pieced block.

I've been meaning to make one of these for me I liked the way this came out so much. I'm not very good at making the same thing over and over though so I just admire the photos instead.

I'm a bit of a nerd and love depicting science and engineering in my quilts. The first quilt here is the fire triangle, the three things you need to be able to propagate a flame. I love the way the quilting adds to the foundation paper piecing and gives the feeling of flickering flames.
I also used folded fabric hexagons, felt and beads to show some of the chemistry going on in the flame with the individual molecules to soot particles.

I also love to embellish quilts and use a mix of textured fabric, cord and ribbon, beads and embroidery stitches as you can see in the other quilts. The play mat uses lots of fabrics and ribbons with different textures and I save the beads for art quilts that are intended to hang on a wall.

As a way to improve my embroidery skills I signed up for a block of the month wool quilt and had great fun learning different stitches by embellishing the snail in the last photo.

Here is my current work in progress (WIP). The quilt is sandwiched and pinned ready to be quilted.

There is lots of beautiful and .fabrics in this lovely. Two of my favorite fabrics.

The runner is called Mansfield and it's in book Tabletastic 3. I have all three of the Tabletastic books and they have great patterns and easy to follow instructions, a win win🙂

For simplicity we teach a self binding technique in our classes for beginners and I've found it also works well on small items. No more wrangling small ends of bias binding together to close the binding.

This method also gives lovely mitered corners and we've had students from as young as 9 be successful with the technique.

Self binding uses the backing of the quilt to make the binding. This means the backing has to coordinate with the front of the quilt.

Caution must be taken when cutting the batting away to not catch the backing. For small projects where the quilting is reasonably light and will not distort the batting too much I've started cutting the batting to the quilt top size before doing the quilting.

After quilting cut the backing to one inch wider than the quilt top on all sides.

If you swipe for the additional photos you'll see how to fold the binding to get a nice mitered corners.

I have a couple of table runners I'm quilting and I'm going to use this technique. It's going to look great, especially on the runner where the backing matches the border around the blocks. You will have to wait for the WIP update to see which table runner I'm talking about!!

Happy Binding

I've been very fortunate to travel to a lot of different places over the years. I love visiting new places and meeting people and if I can make a quilt connection all the better.

Sometimes I've made quilts of the places I've visited. The first quilt is a view of the Grand from Idaho. I made this for a friend who lived out west and boarded in those hills regularly on both the Jackson and Targhee side of the mountain.

Sometimes I've been able to sew while away. The second photo is when her studio was in Berkeley. I was able to sew while my husband was working in the area on 4th July holiday. Trisha now has a lovely sewing shop in Palm Desert that I hope to isot one day. The quilt is a quilt that was great fun to sew.

The third quilt is made with fabric I picked up on a trip to Sweden. I love to find fabric that will remind me of trips we've taken.

I've found a way to pass on my love of all things fiber and particularly sewing. This has meant learning the new skill of breaking down all the steps I take for granted or the tips I learnt over the years and apply seamlessly into a project.
It's been a lot of fun to look at a loved hobby in a new light and I have learnt so much from all the students who come to our classes.
It's again reinforced the need to take failure as a learning experience and grow from it. Such as my "bear" in photo number two that looks like a mouse.
I hope this is just one of many new skills I continue to learn and develop in the coming years as we should never stop learning.

Quilts and cushions in the wild, and being enjoyed by our extended family. Gadget really loves the rainbow cushion.

This quilt spends a lot of time on our bed and is loved by all the family. Flossy could not even wait for me to bind it before she claimed it as her own!

It's a simple log cabin design with high impact Kaffe Fasset fabric and I love the bright colours 🌞

I made this quilt in 2021 when as a safety professional my world was still a little crazy with COVId protocols. Not as crazy as in 2020, hence the time to make a quilt but the simplicity of the pattern made it manageable with everything else going on in my brain.

Don't mix simplicity with easy though! Getting nice even blocks when using large strips took some patience. Even with accurate cutting.

My favorite step of the quilting process is choosing fabric. I often find a fabric that I want to showcase and then dip into my stash to find complementary fabrics.
Sometimes I'll use a quilt shop's curated fat quarter stack or a line of fabric from a designer but I'll usually add fabric from my stash - even if I buy a kit.
It can take time to get the fabrics right which is part of the fun.
I usually take a photograph as the perspective is similar to the finished quilt. I'll also "call a friend" and sometimes send the photos to my party pals to get their thoughts.

The whole process takes a while as I'll leave the fabric out and look at it for a bit before cutting into it....

Unless...

I'm making a scrappy quilt and then I just go with what is on my scrap collection and don't think as much about how the fabrics work together. This is because the fabrics are often used in smaller pieces and it helps with the scrappy feel.