I hope everyone had a great day quilting today!Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Happy St Patrick's Day!
Here is a link to this cute little St Patrick's quilt.
Moonlight Quilts has it as a free pattern on their website.
Moonlight Quilts has it as a free pattern on their website.
Happy St Patrick's Day!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
John Flynn Class
Wow, it has been a week, since I took John Flynn's, Storm at Sea class. It was a great class!He and I have the same opinion on cutting and sewing seams. I have always tried to instill in my former students, that if they cut accurate and sew accurate, they will not have to rip out or re cut. We tested the width of our machines by sewing 3 - 2 inch squares together. The center square was supposed to measure exactly 1 1/2 inches.
All machines are not created equal! Needless to say there was a lot of ripping and resewing in the class.
A few days later at an informal group I occassionally meet with, one of the members said: "I didn't take the class and buy the templates, because I can just rotary cut squares and rectangles". "Right!"
That may be true if the light is right, the moon is in the right phase, she had a good protein breakfast and no coffee!
OK OK, so I had my laptop and pulled up the photos I had taken in the class, and showed her the potential problem areas. True, there is a big Square with in a Square block and a little Square with in a Square block. Those aren't a problem to rotary cut and sew accurately. But the two rectangular blocks can be difficult, if they stretch they will end up "wonky". Sewing the four sections together and getting those little midpoint seams to align perfect on all four sections can be a challenge. John's templates have the dog ears cut off to help you line up the pieces up.
Then we get to pressing the seams. If you get into the habit of always twirling your seams in the same direction on every quilt it will eliminate lumps and belly buttons on your quilt. When you press, left points back or toward you and right goes forward or away.
Any one who says they have been quilting and sewing for years and there is nothing to new to learn, is delusional! There is always a chance of hearing something new or trying a new technique.
I heard several years ago, after sewing over 40 years, if you were having trouble threading a needle, if you turned the eye around the thread would more than likely slide right through. The eye in a needle is punched, when it is made. There are tiny burrs on one side, that you can't see or feel; but the thread can.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Embellishments
Tonya, at Lazy Gal Quilting, was a runner at a quilt show and one quilt was fabulous, but got marked down for having fur on it. How unfair!!! I feel fur should be considered an embellishment. Embellishments: beads, sequins, lace, ribbons, fur. That is, also, Chrissy's opinion and she sticking to it!Probably half the quilts would have had fur embellishments if the judge had looked closer. The quilter probably forgot to only quilt and cuddle with a coordinating cat, on that quilt. I guess I need to stick with the Amish quilt patterns for a while. Hmmm --- I have two Amish UFOs, I wonder where they are? They just needed quilted! Off to look, maybe I should have added dust as an embellishment; I will probably stir some up in the search.
Friday, January 29, 2010
History of Aprons - and memories
This was one of the dreaded email forwards, from my cousin Sharon. It brought back a lot of childhood memories.
The History of "APRONS" I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of second. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and then men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old time apron' that served so many purposed. Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons. Remember:Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.
Author Unknown
Think of all of the pieces of a quilt that were in the scrap basket after those aprons were cut out and sewn. I always loved the feel of my Mother's aprons, they were always so soft and comforting. Tears were dried with the corners of those aprons. Aprons smelled like your Mommy, home baked bread and fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies; when does it get better than that! Those are what I would remember as the "good old days".
The History of "APRONS" I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of second. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and then men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old time apron' that served so many purposed. Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons. Remember:Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.
Author Unknown
Think of all of the pieces of a quilt that were in the scrap basket after those aprons were cut out and sewn. I always loved the feel of my Mother's aprons, they were always so soft and comforting. Tears were dried with the corners of those aprons. Aprons smelled like your Mommy, home baked bread and fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies; when does it get better than that! Those are what I would remember as the "good old days".
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Inspiration
The FP&QG meeting had Pepper Cory, as guest speaker, Monday night. Pepper showed some of the quilts in her collection and gave her lecture: “How to Become a More Creative Quilt Maker”. Unfortunately - I forgot my camera "Aaaackkk!" I will add pictures later if one of my friends remembers to email them to me.
Tuesday Pepper gave her workshop: “Two Blocks are better than One”.
This is Pepper's sample block for the class.
Can you see the same block in the middle of the quilt?
It is so amazing how 18 or 20 quilters can cut the same size pieces and get totally different looking blocks. The supply list said bring a wide assortment of fabrics, leftovers from other quilts we had made would work. I grabbed 2 tote bags and stuffed them with bags of leftovers and inherited bags of fabric scraps. I had been sick all weekend, but was determined to attend the lecture and workshop. My energy and design "mojo" was pretty challenged by Tuesday afternoon. My scraps seemed to not want to play together and I really wondered if I was up to playing at all!
Tuesday Pepper gave her workshop: “Two Blocks are better than One”.
This is Pepper's sample block for the class.
Can you see the same block in the middle of the quilt?
It is so amazing how 18 or 20 quilters can cut the same size pieces and get totally different looking blocks. The supply list said bring a wide assortment of fabrics, leftovers from other quilts we had made would work. I grabbed 2 tote bags and stuffed them with bags of leftovers and inherited bags of fabric scraps. I had been sick all weekend, but was determined to attend the lecture and workshop. My energy and design "mojo" was pretty challenged by Tuesday afternoon. My scraps seemed to not want to play together and I really wondered if I was up to playing at all!
Friday, January 1, 2010
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