Cathy Franks Stars on "Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show" in May!

Jodie Davis — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:32:00 GMT

“You Can Do That on a Longarm?”

Get ready to be amazed. Cathy Franks thinks outside the box when she steps into her long arm studio and proves that you can do way more than just quilt with these fabulous machines. In fact, she says anything you can do on a home sewing machine with a straight stitch you can do on a longarm, and she proves it!

In this episode Cathy shows how you can do many embellishing techniques that are simple and easy and add dimension and texture to all your quilting projects. Use bits of fabric, yarns and threads in her ingenious techniques: capturing, fringing, and flash and trash.

Segment One

Cathy doesn’t throw anything away and you won’t either when you see what art you can create so easily with pieces of yarn and “flash and trash.” Using a simple “roadmap” she sketches on her backing fabric, Cathy fills in her design with bargain bin yarn, then goes on to show other techniques - even how to sew borders to your quilt on the longarm!

Segment Two

Did you know you can create fringe on your projects using a long arm? Cathy demonstrates wrapping thread and stitching it down to create funky fringe. Then she shows how she uses nylon netting on her quilt to capture small pieces of thread, stitching them down to recolor and shade the design on a piece of fabric.

In this Short Takes on Long Arm Quilting segment Handi Quilter educator Vicki Hoth turns her attention to thread tension. She explains that it all starts with the bobbin, showing sewn samples of improper tension and the fixes for each.

Segment Three

Cathy transforms a large print fabric by painting it with “Flash and Trash.” She creates sheets of tiny fusible fabric snippets which become her paint. The fabric having given her the pattern, her finished piece includes threads and fabric snippets for a total fabric makeover.

~Jodie

QCA Community Blog : Cathy Franks

Cathy Franks Stars on "Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show" in May!