There have been some updates recently to the Quilt Butler software and it has become near impossible to find where downloaded patterns are landing if you’re downloading directly into the tablet. Most users are now just downloading the files to a laptop and using a USB to transport the patterns, which is a waste of time if they can be downloaded to the tablet itself after purchase. Here’s a step-by-step that worked for me.

On the tablet itself, upon purchase, click the Download link or button for whichever site you’re buying them on.

When the download starts, you’ll see a downward pointing blinking arrow in the very upper left corner of your screen.

When the download is finished, the arrow will stop blinking and there will be a little line under it.

Once the arrow has stopped blinking, swipe your finger from the top black part of the tablet down to the center of the screen to show recent actions. You want to start your finger where there are no menus or any buttons. This is a swipe navigation action that is native to Android.

In the cascading bars, find your downloaded file and tap it. In my case I’m looking for “sea-creatures_1-3.zip”.

The file will open up in WinZip. Tap the My Files folder in the left menu to see all the zip files. NOTE: I have created another file inside of the My Files folder that is called Quilt Patterns. You will not have this unless you press/hold the My Files folder to get another menu that allows you to create a sub-folder to it. You do not need to do this step.

You will see a list of your downloaded zip files. Press and hold (NOT TAP) the one you want to unzip and a blue menu will appear at the bottom of the screen. If you only tap the zip file vs. holding it, it won’t work.

Touch the Unzip icon on the blue menu at the bottom of the screen.

A new screen appears with the unzipped files and it wants to know where you want to save the unzipped files. Click on the My Files folder.

Again, I have a sub folder called Quilt Patterns that you won’t have unless you create one. You don’t need a sub folder. Once you tap the My Files folder, a blue button will appear at the bottom of the screen that says Unzip here. Tap that blue button (or put them wherever you might want).

Then go back into Perfect Stitch and go to the panel in the Butler to the Pattern Import area and click Import.

Press WinZip.

Your patterns that have been unzipped will be seen here.

Double tap the pattern you want to open up to see the sub files within it. Tap the file you need (I use the .qli file type) and click the green check box.

All done! It will automatically be assigned a tag of Imported and will always be found in your Imported tab when choosing a design file.

WHEW!

Since we’re all quarantined at home, let me take you to a quilt show!

Hi friends!

I just want to give you a heads up that I’ll be doing a Christmas in July sew along using the Brother Scan N Cut and Simply Applique (much like I did last year with Howl-Lelujah). The pattern is by the same company – Urban Elements and it’s a precious Flamingo in wooly stockings. How fun!

Here’s the pattern by itself. You can source your own fabrics or shop your stash.
https://www.urbanelementz.com/warmest-wishes-quilt-applique-pattern.html

And here’s the pattern with pre-cut fabric pieces with iron-on adhesive on the back.
https://www.urbanelementz.com/warmest-wishes-quilt-applique.html

You don’t have to have a Scan N Cut to join in. I’ll be doing both quilts – one using the Scan N Cut and one without. So I’ll demo both. In fact, you don’t need Simply Applique software either! You can certainly sew down the applique pieces the old fashioned way, but using the new technology is so fun and you will absolutely love it. This program is very inexpensive so I hope you give it a try!
https://www.allbrands.com/products/65662-brother-sabessa-simply-applique-creative-embroider

Here’s a link to the Scan N Cut DX125. It’s perfect for this project.

Can’t wait to get started! We start July 6, 2020!

Vicki from Creative Notions was so generous to give away two of her 2020 Maker’s Planners with my viewers. On my most recent video, I offered them up to those who made a comment saying they wanted the “planner”. The giveaway closed at March 25, 2020 at 5:00pm CST.

There were 274 unique entries with the word “planner” in the comment. There were over 300 comments but some people didn’t want to enter the giveaway.

From those 274 entries, I chose two random selections using the YouTube Comment Picker.

Winner #1 – Robin Brown

Winner #2 – Fleta Hall

Winners, please email me at powertoolswiththread@outlook.com with your address! Congratulations!!

I’m in the middle of making a YouTube video showing how to make a mug rug for St. Patrick’s Day using Kimberbell’s Seasonal & Holiday Mug Rugs, Vol 2. I know many of my subscribers don’t have (or don’t want ‘gasp!’) an embroidery machine so I thought I’d share a pattern for those who just want to sew one. This mug rug is based on a traditional log cabin block and can be made for any season or event just by changing the fabrics. It’s super easy!

Here’s the pattern. Just right-click (Cmd click) the image to save it to your computer and then print it. The only measurement on the pattern is the width of the fabric strip. You’ll trim the length to match the side to which it is being sewn after you stitch it.

This pattern starts with a 3.5″ square for the center. If you want to add a seasonal applique you can add it here. I’m using a 4 leaf clover that I grabbed from Google Images and resized to be 2.5″ so it will center in the middle square. If you want to use this one, again you can just save the image and print.

I used the manual method to trace the image to an iron-on called Hot Fix Adhesive as a backing and then ironed it to the applique fabric. I was all gung-ho to use the Scan-n-Cut (SNC) however I’m writing this blog post from our coastal home and when I brought my old SNC down here, someone (not moi’ of course!) forgot to bring along the power cord. Note to self: Pack SNC power cord for next trip.

I laid out my pieces to get a general idea of how to piece them.

The log cabin method is so easy because you just have to sew on one side and trim to fit.

I continued to add the pieces according to the pattern. Once the top was all finished, I cut out some of the beer mugs and a lucky horseshoe from one of the fabrics and ironed them on. Then I layered the top, batting, and backing to get it ready to quilt.

I quilted using a simple serpentine stitch using the presser foot as a spacing guide.

I turned it over to carefully trim away the extra batting and trimmed the backing to within 5/8″.

I did a double fold for the self-binding.

What do you think? Works great!

My buddy Lisa and I and our husbands trekked up to Austin, Texas with “Media Creds” to check out QuiltCon 2020. QuiltCon gets its name as a take off from Comic-Con which is where all the comic book groupies join up for a comic book convention every year – usually in LasVegas. So QuiltCon is a quilt convention but it is the quilt convention for the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG). You can read about the MQG here. This year, there were 1,600 quilts entered into the show to be juried and 432 were chosen to be judged. Sorry about image quality throughout this post. I snagged the pictures as screen shots while editing the videos.

My previous experience with QuiltCon is limited. I’ve read about it on blogs over the years and have come across posts where quilters have had quilts accepted for judging. I was very excited to interview the Executive Director, Karen Cooper, and come to find out, we live about 20 miles from each other. From what I could tell, she did an amazing job and the show itself was very well-organized and flowed very smoothly.

I loved the Welcome Quilt.

We saw some very lovely work at this show. This quilt took 2nd place in Piecing.

We also saw some quilts that were designed to shock. I guess that comes with the territory of the modern quilting movement. There were political messages and other themed quilts that were very “in your face” about the divisive issues of our time regarding politicians, guns, oppression, political anarchy, immigration…you name it. We saw it all including profanity delicately hand stitched and pieced into fabric. Beauty and art is in the eye of the beholder.

Here is a glimpse of the Best In Show by Peter of Toronto, Canada. This is a screenshot of my interview with him in front of his winning quilt.

This one took Judge’s Choice.

There were also some we saw with no message but just a work of art.

So that’s a glimpse of what we did yesterday. Today we are off to another quilt show in Brenham, Texas that I’m pretty sure will lean more to the side of “traditional quilting”. Happy Trails!