In this episode of the Quilting Central Podcast, Julie, Cathy, and Angie welcome special guest Karen Montgomery, an influential designer, educator, and industry leader in the quilting world. 🧵✨

Karen shares her quilting journey, starting with how she first learned to quilt and eventually opened her own quilt shop. She talks about the evolution of her career, including her transition into designing quilting patterns and rulers, and the inspiration behind her work.

Karen is the publisher of The Quilt Company line of books and patterns, and her designs have been featured in Quilts and More magazine, along with numerous quilting books and catalogs. Known for her practical and popular techniques, Karen travels across the country teaching quilt shops and quilters alike.

The conversation wraps up with an inside look at Sewposium, a unique quilting retreat and networking event for quilt shop owners, focused on education, collaboration, and growing successful quilting businesses.

🧵 In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• How Karen Montgomery got started quilting

• Opening and running a quilt shop

• Designing quilting patterns and rulers

• Teaching and traveling as a quilt educator

• What Sewposium is and why it matters for quilt shop owners

Whether you’re a quilter, quilt shop owner, or just love hearing behind-the-scenes stories from the quilting industry, this episode is packed with inspiration and insight.

👉 Be sure to like, subscribe, and listen to more episodes of the Quilting Central Podcast for quilting conversations, tips, and industry interviews.

Struggling with longarm quilting tension? Loops, eyelashes, breaking thread, messy backs? We’ve ALL been there! 😅
In this in-person episode of The Quilting Central Podcast, Cathy, Julie, and Angie are together in Texas to give a full, step-by-step lesson on how to adjust longarm tension for ANY thread, ANY quilt, and ANY situation.

Whether you’re brand-new to longarm quilting or you’ve been quilting for years, this tension tutorial will help you get smooth stitches, balanced tension, perfect “hills and valleys,” and beautiful stitch lines on every quilt.

✔️ How to set perfect bobbin tension
✔️ How to correctly perform the bobbin drop test
✔️ How to adjust top thread tension on your longarm
✔️ What ideal stitches look like on both sides of the quilt
✔️ How to make sure your thread loops in the center of the quilt sandwich
✔️ What “hills and valleys” mean — and why they matter
✔️ How to adjust tension for different thread weights
✔️ SPECIAL: How to quilt with metallic thread without breakage

Julie, Cathy, and Angie demonstrate everything in real time and share their shop-tested tricks for diagnosing tension issues fast.

• Longarm quilters of any skill level
• Domestic machine quilters learning tension basics
• Anyone struggling with looping, eyelashes, or broken thread
• Quilters who want cleaner, more professional quilting results

🔧 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:⭐ This Video Is Perfect For:

Trim the fluff and get those points perfect! ✂️ In this short-but-mighty episode of The Quilting Central Podcast, Julie, Angie, and Cathy meet in person to talk all about trimming and squaring up quilt blocks and quilts — the small steps that make a huge difference in your finished quilt.

What Angie shows & we cover:

• How to square up individual quilt blocks using different tools and rulers (why it matters for accurate piecing)

• When and how to square the whole quilt before attaching binding for a clean finish

• Smart fixes for wonky edges so your binding goes on straight — no wrestling required

This episode is a little shorter than usual, but stuffed with practical tips you’ll use the next time you press, trim, and bind.