As the summer winds down and the busy crafting season approaches, it’s a great time to brush up on some of your sewing skills and start making plans for future projects. 

Many of you know Joyce Beenes as our certified Kimberbell instructor, and she has made Thimbles a premier destination for Kimberbell fans around the world (you can read more about Joyce and her journey as a Kimberbell expert in her Staff Spotlight blog post). 

What you may not know is that Joyce runs a YouTube channel with informative, instructional sewing videos. Quilting Joy Designs hosts several tutorials that are perfect for polishing your skills, and Joyce is always looking for her next new tutorial (so be sure to let us know on Facebook and Instagram what you would like to see filmed next!).

We’ve compiled all of her latest tutorials into this blog. To make things even easier for our sewists, we’ve linked to all the tools used in her videos so you grab whatever you need to get started. 

One thing to note: Joyce inherited a pair of Fiskars scissors from her mother, but she also loves Karen Kay Buckley scissors so we’ve swapped those in as a recommendation! Each project also uses a tailor’s pen, and Joyce loves the Clover Air Erasable Marker. 

Let’s quilt with Joyce!

Creating a Zipper with Leftover Tape

Tools
Leftover zippers
Karen Buckley scissors

We’re starting off easy with this video. Joyce creates a zipper, dismantling leftover zipper tape to create her own zipper designs. We all buy zippers for our projects—and many of our projects don’t require the full length of zipper—so there’s no reason to let the leftovers go to waste. All it takes is zippers of the same brand, and if you don’t have leftovers at hand, we have a selection of zippers for you to choose from!

Zippered Pillow Back

Tools
Zippers
Kimberbell Fusible Backing
Fabric
Creative Grids Ruler
Karen Buckley scissors

For this fun project, Joyce took a 6.5”-square quilt block to use as a pillow front and a back fabric. She may have used the small quilt block as a sample for the video, but we love the idea of  creating a tiny pillow using quilt block samples—they’d also make great potpourri sachets!

Splendid Sampler 2 Sew Along

Joyce was a guest designer in the Splendid Sampler 2 book. In this video she walks us through how to create her gorgeous Estelle block, which she named after mother. Joyce also outlines why her chosen tools are so necessary for smooth and efficient quilting. For example, one reason she loves the Bloc Loc Ruler is because of the groove on the back, which rides along the seam allowance and locks the quarter inch seam in the groove.

Bernina Tutorials

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working on your sewing machine—there will be certain techniques that still feel intimidating and out of reach. Never fear, Joyce has a tutorial for that! (And if she doesn’t, please let us know what you’d like to see next!)

Pinpoint Placement Tutorial 

Bernina 790 Plus Embroidery and Sewing

With this tutorial, Joyce walks us through Pinpoint Placement on the Bernina 700 Embroidery Machine. Pinpoint Placement is a feature that accurately positions an embroidery design on your project. It’s great for creating monogrammed pieces and personalized sewing gifts (great for the upcoming holiday season!).

Creating Quilt Labels on a Bernina Embroidery Machine

In this video, Joyce teaches us how to create a quilt label on her Bernina 790 Plus Embroidery and Sewing machine. You might think you need additional software to create a quilting label, but Joyce shows us you have everything you need with your Bernina 790 Plus. With the camera fixed on her Bernina’s screen, Joyce takes you through the process step by step. 

Do you have other tutorials you’d like to see from Joyce? Are there features on your Bernina that mystify you, or projects you’d like to see created step by step? Let us know on Facebook and Instagram and we’ll have Joyce film a video!

 P.S. Kittywampus is slang for "disorganized; chaotic; poorly done." You may have noticed Joyce uses it quite a bit. While we disagree with that last usage definition (nothing Joyce does is 'poorly done'!) I think we can all agree that sometimes, as quilters, things can get a bit chaotic! Thank you to Joyce for these great videos and for reminding us about one of our favorite words!

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