Thimble Pleasures ~ A full-service quilt shop

‘Not long ago, I told you about visiting three quilt shops in Marietta, George using my GPS and my Quilter’s Travel Companion book.  Well, Chris and I recently drove to Crystal Beach, Canada on vacation and yes, we visited two really nice shops along the way!  Most importantly, I had my camera this time and took some photos with permission of the shop owners.

The first shop is The Mt. Pleasant Quilting Company in York, New York.  Barbara J. Miller is the owner of this adorable shop located between Batavia and Rochester, NY.  In the heart of dairy farm country, surrounded by fields and pastures, this shop started out as the attached garage to Barbara’s house and grew with an addition into the lovely shop it is today.  How nice to get up each morning and open the door to your garage and “walk” to work!  I LOVE, LOVE the fabric in this shop, along with all the great ideas!  (This s actually my second visit to this shop…….).  Barbara’s shop offers fun things for her customers, too.  There is a “shop hop” organized annually that takes a group of quilters by buss to three different shops in one day, starting with coffee and breakfast at Barbara’s, then lunch out and returning to The Mt. Pleasant shop for dinner!  New in the shop on this visit was wool felting kits – I bought several!

The second shop we visited was outside Pittsburgh, PA, in a lovely community called Allison Park.  ‘Having read about The Quilt Company and its owner, Karen Montgomery, in several magazines I had hoped to see this shop last year, but our travel timing didn’t work out.  So, I was determined to make it this year and we were not disappointed!  Karen and her husband custom designed this farm-house style shop.  It’s open, bright, and airy, with high ceilings for showing quilts and definitely a “destination” quilt shop.  Karen designs her own quilts and fabric.  She has a series of 10X16 inch pillow patterns that are seasonal themes and feature button embellishments.  This summer’s pillow is a beach scene with surf boards standing upright in the sand and the buttons are three pairs of flip flops!!  Too cute! The patterns include a snowman, firecrackers, etc. – all avaialbe on their website www.thequiltcompany.com .

 Karen’s Golden Triangles quilt had just been featured in McCall’s Quilting America Quilts Hometown Favorites (Spring 2010) magazine and was displayed in the shop with pattern and kits available.  Karen writes a blog off her shop’s web page and tells of her travels and quilt projects. She is the originator of the 9 Patch Project on Facebook.  There are nice places for lunch or ice cream near the shop and it’s located next to the golf course where the US Women’s Open golf tournament will be played. A lovely area just 11 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.  Put it on your must see list!

Importantly, support the independent quilt shops!  They keep our passion alive!

We are going to borrow an idea from The Quilt Company, a cute quilt shop outside of Pittsburgh, PA.  Starting September 1, we challenge you to make one 9-patch block per day for 3 months!  That’s right, 3 months or approximately ninety 9-patch blocks!!  We encourage you to send us photos of your blocks and keep us up to date on your progress.  We will give lots of ideas of how to make and design your 9-patches leading into the challenge in August.  We will also give you lots of 9-patch ideas on how to build your nine patches into a quilt pattern you will enjoy!  Most important, we will give a prize for the best 9-patch quilt design at the end of the challenge!!

You can use scrap fabric, cut into your stash, or put together an elaborate color plan (e.g. I thought about making my blocks with one uniting color – changing the second  color each month, so that I would have 30 blue and white patches, 30 blue and red patches, and 30 blue and yellow patches…….).  You could do darks and lights together or work in low contrast colors.  Whatever your heart desires!  What I REALLY need to do is get my scrap therapy boxes out and use all those 3X3 inch blocks I cut long ago…..!  You can make your 9-patches any size you like, most commonly they will be made with 2.5 or 3 inch square blocks, but it is completely up to you! 

Beginner quilters can do this and experienced quilters can do this – it’s for everyone!  So, start thinking about your color choices and mark your calendar!  We start September 1!!  The kids will be back in school, vacations will be over, and fall will be upon us – what a great way to get back into actively quilting every day, with a project that can be easily managed alongside your other quilt projects!!

Barbara

Two 90 degree triangles, or half square triangles (HSTs), are created when a square is cut in half diagonally. Cut in this manner, the short sides of the triangle are on the straight grain and the longest side of the triangle is cut on the bias, so attention is needed not to stretch or distort the triangle shape when you assemble HST. Sewn together, half square triangles create a square with color that varies along the diagonal. Knowing how to make half square triangles allows you to make many new patterns and blocks and opens up many new possibilities!

 There are several methods to create half square triangles:

 1. Cut Then Sew:  With your rotary cutter and ruler, slice each square from corner to corner to make two triangles of each color.  Layer color 1 on color 2 with right sides together and stitch a 1/4″ seam along the long side.  Repeat with the second pair of triangles.  Press seam toward the darker fabric and trim points.  You now have two half-square triangles that measure 2-1/2″ on all sides.  They will measure 2″ when sewn into the block and then into the quilt.  This method works fine, but you do have to handle stretchy bias edges.  If you use this method and your half-square triangles turn out to be not exactly the right size, you might want to give Method 2 (below) a try.

 2. Sew Then Cut: You can make perfect half square triangles by sewing squares of two different fabrics together. The trick is to know how to calculate the finished size of the block.

     1. First, determine your finished block size. Then you add the “magic number” of 7/8″.

     2. If you want a 4″ (finished size) half-square triangle unit, you need to cut two squares that measure 4 and 7/8″ each.

     3. Place the two squares together and mark a line diagonally from corner to corner. Sew ¼ inch on either side of this line.

     4. Cut along the diagonal line and open the blocks and press the seam toward the dark fabric. Trim. Two nice half square triangles! Very quick and precise  and stretch along the diagonal of the triangle is minimized. (My preferred method!)

3. Diagonal (Bias) Method – makes many half square triangles quickly! This method requires a triangle ruler, worth the investment.

      1. Cut two layers of fabric into bias strips, using the size table below.

Width of bias strips (inches)	Finished size of square (composed of two half square triangles)(inches)
1.5	1
2	1.5
2.25	2
2.75	2.5
3	3
3.25	3.5
3.75	4
4	4.5
4.5	5
4.75	5.5
5.25	6

     2.  Without separating the fabric layers, sew a 1/4 inch seam along both outter edges of each pair of bias strips.

     3.  If your finished square is 3 inches, and using the triangle ruler, place the 3 inch line along the sewn seam and cut along each side of the triangle with your rotary cutter. Move from bottom to top of the strip, to minimzr fabric waste.

     4.  Open along the sewn line and press the seam toward the darker fabric.

4. Gridded Fabric: I just learned this method from Annie Smith!  This method involves marking a grid on the wrong side of one of the fabrics that you’ll be using in your half-square triangles.  Using a 2″ finished size for example.  Cut a 8″ x 12.5″ rectangle from each of the two fabrics that you will be using for your half-square triangles.  With a ruler and a pencil (or your favorite marking method), draw a line 1″ from the left short side.  Draw another line exactly 2-7/8″ from the first line.  Continue until  five vertical lines are drawn.  Next, draw a line 1″ from the bottom (long) side.  Draw another line exactly 2-7/8″ from the first line.  Draw one more line 2-7/8″ from the second one and your grid is completed.  Now draw diagonal lines through each square as shown below.  With right sides together, layer the marked fabric on the unmarked fabric.  Stitch a 1/4″ seam on both sides of each diagonal line as shown below.  Using your rotary cutter and a ruler, cut apart on the drawn lines.  Press the seam allowances toward the darker fabric and trim points.  You will have sixteen half-square triangles!

Wow! Impressive technique, right? Very helpful when you need to mass produce half square triangles.

To advance your quilting skills, try a quilt patten that requires HST to produce beautiful quilts! And for those of you who are “afraid” of stars, I suggest you push yourself to learn methods 2 or 3, because you need HSTs to make “stars”. You will be amazed how easy these methods are.  When you are comfortable with these metods, try methods 1 and 4. If you get confused, write the Blog or come into the shop, we’re glad to help!

Barbara

My quilt shop finder, also known as our GPS, is invaluable to me in finding new quilt shops.  In December’s blog entries, I told you about the Quilter’s Travel Companion, the book that lists 400+ quilt shops.  I recently visited my daughter in Atlanta and had one day to visit quilt shops on my own.   Now, Atlanta is a very big city and I don’t know my way around outside of mid-town or Buckhead, but with our GPS and that book, I visited 4 shops in one day!!  And they were all delightful! 

Three shops were in Marietta, a suburb about 20 miles from downtown.  The “Tiny Stitches” shop is similar to our Thimble Pleasures in fabric selection and quilt design choices.  They had just completed a customers’ quilt show in the shop and I got to see all the beautiful quilts from their patrons!  What a delight!  The shop was also featured in the spring edition of America Quilts magazine, as one of their 16 Hot Shops!  Owner Maetha Elliott was not there the day I visited, but I want her to know that her staff was friendly and inviting!  We chatted and they told me about their shop and helped me find the fabric I needed.  This shop sponsors lots of events and clubs that create a quilt community among their patrons.  I will definitely visit the again!

The second Marietta shop, Little Quilts, is located in a house and is very cutesy with lots of antiques and a large selection of wools and historic reproduction fabrics.  I found these wonderful towel kits in the shop (that I will tell you about in another Blog entry).  There is so much to look at in this shop; you have to plan lots of time for your visit!  They also carry children’s fabric, contemporary Kaffe Fassetts,  Moda, and batiks.  Again, the staff was friendly and chatty.  It was fun to look at all the “little quilt” patterns in addition to all the other quilts in this shop.  The third shop in Marietta, Red Hen Fabrics, is located in a red barn-like building near the historic town center.  The shop has one room with three long arm quilting machines that patrons can rent by the hour!  If you like to look at big, historic Southern houses, visit the Historic downtown area before returning to Atlanta!  Nice little places for lunch, too!

The fourth shop I visited was in Decatur (near Emory University), Intown Quilters, Inc.  One of my personal top 10 quilt shops (you know Thimble Pleasures is #1!), this shop is filled with brights and contemporary fabrics – boasting the largest selection of Kaffe Fassetts I have ever seen. There are always new quilts on display with seasonal themes…..last week the theme was summer with some very cute beach fabric! They also carry some beautiful French children’s fabrics, lots of notions (have you seen the jumbo rick rack??) and lots of great books.

All in all, a great shop hop day.  Remember to patronize the small independent quilt shops when you travel (and where you live).  Like, Thimble Pleasures, they offer quilt classes, a sense of community, and friendly service that you won’t find in the online shops!  P.S.  If you don’t have a “quilt shop finder” (aka. GPS) – get one and call ahead before you go to be sure the shops are open!!

Over four years ago, sisters Lynda Remmers and Annie Moody were at a sewing getaway with friends. While Lynda digitized a wall hanging for her family room, Annie worked on a crazy quilt pattern. Some late nights were spent discussing the possibilities of this new quilt technique. Lynda went home and began teaching the technique to her customers at Sewing Concepts in Woodstock, Illinois and Annie, an Educator with Janome America, Inc. began teaching it across the United States. Everywhere Annie went, her students wanted to know where they can get more patterns and Lynda’s customers couldn’t wait to see what she came up with next. Lynda and Annie decided these patterns needed to be shared with everybody and they were inspired to design more.

 Annie Moody, Co-founder

 Lynda Remmer, Co-founder

Several of us to took a fun class with Susan Powell recently, “Cityscapes” (also known as the “breaking the rules” class).  If you want a relaxing, fun  day – take this class! ’ Bring your Scrap Therapy boxes and your creative juices!  Some of us made cityscapes, some made tropical island scenes, and others made light houses…….everyone loved the freedom to to use color, texture, and imagination!  Susan is a supportive, encouraging teacher with a great art background to help you with composition and color.  Her attention to detail in her landscapes and buildings (she LOVES windows) really adds a special flare and interest to her quilts.  Susan is an accomplished local artist and  has done many public showings of her works! 

 ’See what we did……

‘Not all of you could attend, so I thought you might enjoy a brief look at “Sumposium”!

Thursday

4:00 We arrive at Johnson and Wales University (JWU) in Charlotte and check into the dorm. The campus and facilities are beautiful! Everything is new and clean!  We take a few minutes to meet our neighbors and unpack.

5:30 Dinner is served!  More chatting and mixing!

7:30 Meet the teachers and “show and tell”!  All the symposium teachers are introduced and show off the projects they will be teaching.  There are so many wonderful classes, how could anyone go wrong here?  You quickly learn that these teachers are  funny, funny people!  BIG joke the entire week-end, the size of one teacher’s underwear!!  Still laughing!

9:00 Snacks, then back to the dorm to meet folks in the student lounges! We meet quilters from all over NC and beyond!

10:30 Bedtime, gotta get up early, classes start at 9:00!

Friday

7:30 We’re up and showering!  Gotta look good!

8:00 Breakfast

9:00-12:00  My first class!  Jenny Raymond teaches studio design!  (You already know I have “studio envy”!)  Jenny is a garment designer turned quilter who does gorgeous designs with appliqué……she is a frugal mid-westerner who has LOTS of studio ideas that I will share with you on the blog!

More than 400 quilters were registered for symposium and 270+ stayed overnight in the dorms. The combination of lectures and workshops allows for concentration on a topic and wide variety of learning experiences.

12:00 Lunch (Heaven forbid we don’t eat!)

1:00 – 2:30 A visit to the Symposium quilt show!  Wow! Lots of interesting quilts! We are seeing more and more bead work and embellishments in the designs…

2:30 – 5:00  Artisan bread making class with Chef Rineheart from JWU. Awesome!  We learned 3 different doughs and ate some great bread!  ‘Not quilting you say?  There was a long discussion about the use of contrast in baking – just like quilting!  And what quilter doesn’t like bread?

5:30 Dinner!

7:30 Vendor show

9:00 Snacks – make your own ice cream sundaes!  Delish!  (Are you getting the picture of how busy you are and how much fun this is?!)  Then back to the dorm, to chat with neighbors and see what everyone made that day…….truly amazing!  The learning never stops!  We met a neighbor from Greensboro and shared a glass of wine!

Saturday

09:00 – 4:00  I took an all day workshop with Jenny Raymond on “Magic Machine Appliqué”.  Look at these photos!  This technique is fun and I sewed with silk for the first time.  Of course, we had lunch at noon, but food wasn’t on my mind!  We were making tulips and embellishing them before putting them on the quilt!  Jenny is a fun teacher, organized, and gave us good tips and tricks!  Can’t wait to finish this when I get home! Afterall, this class was about technique! 

5:00 – 7:30 Dinner and a nice walk around campus.  The weather was great, warm and breezy!

7:30  Iron Quilter America Contest!  Two great quilt teachers pair off to make 3 quilt projects in 45 mins using 2 secret ingredients!  This was a funny show!   Here are the esteemed judges!

9:30 Snacks and more show and tell in the dorms.  Could symposium almost be over?  It just started! We met quilters from Pinehurst and had a great time talking abou their classes, their guild activities, and the quilt shops in their area.

Sunday

8:00 breakfast

9:00 – 12:00 I attended a series of three lectures while other quilting classes conducted their last session of the symposium.  The first speaker was Charlotte Angotti from South Carolina.  Charlotte showed us several of her quilts along her “quillt journey” and told many funny stories!  Quilters are a funny  bunch and love a good laugh! ( By the way, YES, Charlotte can appliqué!)  The next lecture was titled “All the bad qults” and that textile artist/quilter showed us how she completely changed her “ugly” quilts into works of art with paints, cutting, embellishments.  Finally, Laura Wasilowski told her quilt story using slides of her quilts.  Laura is a very talented fusible appliqué quilter and also a very clever singer and poet! I just loved this session with one of the top quilt teachers ever!

12:00 Lunch, check-out, and home to practice all the new techniques I learned from the great teachers and their students.  This was a wonderful week-end of sharing the love of quilting!  Put the 2011 Symposium on your calendars!!

Sewing with specialty threads

If you are sewing with specialty threads you will most likely have to adjust your needle and tension. Remember to always adjust the upper tension of your machine with the foot down.  It may not register the change if the foot is up.  Once you find a setting you like, write it down!  Then play with the tensions to see the different effects that you can achieve by “pulling” the bottom thread up to the top.  Many threads really perform better in the bobbin with a cotton or invisible thread in the needle.  If you like the effect, consider buying a separate bobbin case and leaving the tension set up for bobbin work.

Problems with fancy thread?  Try these suggestions and see if it helps.

• Slow down.  Speed and fancy thread don’t mix.
• Rethread your machine.  Experiment with not putting the thread through the thread guide that is just at the top of the needle.
• Change the needle. Are you using the proper size?  A too small needle will shred medium and heavy threads.
• Lower your tension.  When the top thread loops on the bottom, the tension is too loose 
• Try another spool of your thread or change brands of thread.  

If you are going to embroider with your machine, choose your thread weight according to the design.  Embroidery thread is available in sizes ranging from 30wt (heavier thread for lots of fill) to 60wt (thinner thread for more detail). Embroidery thread can be rayon, polyester, cotton, or silk.

• Rayon makes very shiny embroidery threads which are readily available in many colors.  However, they are not always colorfast.  Make a test piece to check for shrinking and color fading. To prolong the life of your rayon thread, keep it in the freezer. Be sure to bring the thread to room temperature before sewing. 
• Nylon (polyamide) thread will melt and fuse at a low temperature. Nylon thread goes brittle, yellows over time, and melts at low temperature.  Unfortunately, most invisible monofilament thread is nylon. 
• Polyester monofilament invisible thread does not go brittle, or yellow over time or melt at low temperature. Polyester embroidery threads are made of long stapled fibers with a silk like finish which are them durable and color fast. They will not shrink or stretch so your embroidery motifs will not distort over time.
• Cotton thread is available in weights from 30 to 60, and is usually a long staple thread with a high luster finish. It is most appropriate for embroidery on heirloom sewing, quilt embroidery, religious garments and altar adornments. The longer the staple thread, the better quality it is.  If the thread doesn’t say, assume it to be short stable.
• Metal/Plastic combination threads provide intensely shiny and colorful embellishments. They aren’t actually threads. They are made from thermoplastic with an aluminum coating which are then cut into thin strips with a laser and wound. It must be completely unwound to be used because of static cling.  It must be sewn with a metallic needle.
• Metallic thread is made from aluminum coated core thread which can be  cotton, poly-cotton, polyester, or paper.  Easier to use than the metal/plastic combination thread, it also should be unwound before it is sewn using a metallic needle. To prolong the life of your metallic thread, keep it in the freezer. Be sure to bring the thread to room temperature before sewing. If you have a lot of trouble sewing with metallic thread, loosen the top tension and/or use a thinner thread in the bobbin.  Make sure you are using the needle recommended by the manufacturer.  It may be necessary to load the thread in the bobbin and quilt upside down.

When in doubt about choosing thread, just ask someone in that cute little quilt shop in Chapel Hill!

There are so many different types of thread available!  How do you choose which one is right for your project?  After reading Part 1 of this series on Thread, start with the reason you will be using this thread and go from there.

Generally, a 20 – 30 wt thread is used for a heavy thread used for decorative stitches. 28 wt. or 30 wt. thread is used for in the bobbin for decorative work. 40wt thread is a quilting thread and 50 wt is a piecing thread.  50wt and 60wt can be used in the bobbin and is also good for appliqué. This is only a rough guideline, however, rules are made to be broken! (I think that is where “art quilting” starts). Experiment with what works best for you. 

To help you with your selection, read the end of the thread spool.  Generally, you will find information about:

• The manufacturer and brand of the thread
• The color number
• Its weight and the number of plies (strands) that are twisted together. This is usually referred to by a number that looks like a fraction.  For example, if you see the number 60/2 that means that the thread is a 60 weight 2 ply thread.  The higher the first number, the finer the thread.
• The fiber content
• Whether or not the thread is mercerized
• and maybe even the country of origin.

What is mercerized thread?  Simply put, mercerized cotton thread has been put through a series of processes causing the thread to swell, become round and straighten out. Any fuzz is singed off.  This increases the luster of the thread as well as improves water and dye absorption.  Since fine, long stapled fibers respond best to mercerization, it is usually those types of cotton (Sea Island, Egyptian, Pima) that are used.  Most threads currently manufactured are mercerized. 

When using your thread on a machine, be sure to put the top part of the spool up.  This isn’t always as obvious as you might think.  To determine which part of the spool is the top, hold the spool horizontally by the top and bottom.  Unroll about a foot of the thread.  If the thread hangs freely, you unrolled it from the top.  If it twists back on itself, you unrolled it from the bottom.

Again, don’t use old thread you find laying around just to use it up.  Give it the yank test.  If you can break it by yanking it off the spool, it will break in your machine.  Toss it out.  Do not save it for a craft project, put it in the garbage can and don’t look back.