Thimble Pleasures ~ A full-service quilt shop

One of the things I love most about quilting is that there is ALWAYS something new to learn. I have always considered myself a “piecer”. The challenge of building designs in cloth with color and assembly techniques really appeals to me. Over the years I have met many wonderful quilters (fabric artists, really) and taken classes with teachers who use many, many different quilting techniques. I try to learn something new from each one of them and apply it in my quilting, so that I can better understand my own tastes and build my skills and knowledge. 

Recently, I’ve started thinking more about the actual “quilting” process. I am somewhat embarassed to say that after all these years, I don’t “quilt” many of my own quilts and when I do, I am not satisfied with the end result (sort of “OK, but not great”). I have always relied on my long-arm quilter friends and colleagues to guide me in design choices and I truly enjoy the benefits of their knowledge and skill. Yet, to really become the quilter I want to be, I know I need to understand the actual quilting process. So, I have been reading more about “quilting your quilt”. I’ll try to share what I have read and learned with you across several different Blog entries.  My plan is to post a “Quilting Your Quilt” article the first Saturday of each month.  ‘Watch for this series, new bloggers will be added, as I am not confident in all aspects of quilting your quilt yet….. 

How many quilt tops do each of us have that need to be layered with batting and a backing and quilted? Answer: too many! Why do we get stalled after the top is pieced? For me, it’s because I have yet to learn that I can have as much fun planning and doing the quilting, as I experienced when I pieced the top. Some quilters say that you should plan the quilting before you piece the quilt top. That way you can plan open spaces where quilting details show prominently, instead of getting lost in the details of the piecing and fabric. 

To test my ability to plan the quilting before I pieced the quilt, I chose a very simple quilt block that used only two fabrics. That way I wouldn’t get wrapped up in fabric selection and piecing and I could focus on planning open areas for quilting. I used a free quilt pattern that Julie has in the shop called “5 ½ yard dash”. The quilt is a gift for my sister-in-law, so I chose a blue theme – her favorite color. Using two complementary fabrics with light and dark blue and cream colors, the cream fabric allowed me to plan borders where decorative quilting would stand out. Believe it or not, this was the first time I had ever planned a quilt in this fashion and it was a very different experience. 

Again, I relied on my long arm quilter colleague, Margaret Reiswig at Three Bears Quilting, to do the actual quilting while I thought out the design. (One step at a time, I’ll get to doing my own quilting next time.) We used the flowers in the fabric to inspire the overall quilting design, but note, instead of being a true “overall” quilt design where the pattern runs across blocks, we used a floral design that was limited to each individual block. Nice – another quilt design first.

Then the cream borders, to make quilting to stand out we chose variegated blue thread with high contrast that varied from light to dark blue – like the fabric. For the 1.5 inch inner border, we chose a pretty scrolling, almost rolling, quilting design that would “move” your eye across the border. I LOVE it! So delicate and pretty – just like my sister-in-law!

 The outer border is 4 inches wide, so we needed a larger and more elaborate design. This pattern reminded me of a heart design and I loved that it flipped up and down across the border. Again, it was delicate and made the blue thread really stand out!

 Planning the quilting first was a new experience and made me plan this quilt differently. It also made me think about planning “open space” in my quilt, so that the quilting design could really standout. Importantly, the quilting really made for a very special quilt! I hope Ann likes it! Part 2 of “Quilting Your Quilt” will introduce the basics of quilting your own quilt……whoa boy! This is going to be a challenge for me…..but, one that will take me closer to being the type of quilter I want to become. 

Barbara

Thimble Pleasures’ blog “Hot Flashes” is the guest blog on the Quilting Gallery site this week (http://quiltinggallery.com).  Check us out!  Our favorite topic is discussed “Studio Envy”!

‘Catching up on my blocks from Annie Smith’s online quilting class on this snowy Saturday morning!  These are the Madison House and the Madison Tree blocks.  Class is going very well, good instruction, good videos, learning more precision quilting techniques! 

Remember the Blog entry about Scrap Therapy? Well, one Sunday afternoon, I wanted to “free-style” a quilt block – you know, make up the pattern….. I pulled out my Scrap Therapy box and looked at what 2 1/2 inch strips I had. Lots of lights, bright greens, and hot pinks. I grouped them from lightest to darkest in each color group and I started to make a log cabin block. Turns out I used 6 different strips of each color grouping and produced a 16 ½ inch square block, using only the lights and the pinks. (I wanted a large light area in the block, so I could create open space for quilting to show prominantly.) 

I made four big blocks and put them up on my design wall. Lights in the center or pinks in the center? Pinks. What next? Needs more color and design punch….. Answer: pink and green Kaffee Fasset inner border to introduce more green. ( love my scrap box! It never let’s me down) What next? I had just purchased Sharyn Craig’s “Half Log Cabin” book, so I selected a block from it to make my border. NOTE: I actually picked the half log cabin block before I completed the inner border, so I could calculate what size the inner border needed to be to accommodate the half log cabin block, these are called “coping strips” (see example below). The half logs were lights and greens with hints of pinks. Since the quilt was square, I calculated 6 half logs to fit on each side. 

This is where I got lazy, the corner blocks needed to be filled in. I auditioned the half log blocks in the corners and they didn’t add much interest…..but, I really liked them in the border. So I made up a “block within a block” pattern using pinks and lights again to echo the quilt center and to keep the eye moving out from the center of the quilt. Voila! My Logs, logs, and More Logs quilt. I had “free-styled” my own quilt deisgn. Margaret Reiswig did the quilting and I LOVE her detail in the light areas! 

I sensed some confusion about calculating the size of the inner border to fit the half logs block strips…..this is called using “coping strips” – where the added border or strip allows you to build up the quilt center to fit the size of the next row of blocks. Let’s walk through that……

•  Each large log cabins measured 16 ½ X16 ½ inches, sewn together with ¼ inch seams in the center, to create a square that was 32 ½ X 32 ½ inches ( ¼ seam allowance remained on the end).
• The half log cabin blocks were 6 ½ inches square, unfinished. A row of six half log blocks sewn into a strip with ¼ inch seams, would measure 36 1/2 inches long (a ¼ seam allowance remained at each end of the strop). Eventually, this half log strip would be 36 inches finished.
• To fit this half log strip onto the quilt center, I needed to add 4 inches to the quilt center using an inner border. Its important to remember that, you will add the border to each side of the quilt center! So, to add 4 inches finished to the quilt center, I needed 2 inches finished on each side of the quilt center. Allowing for seam allowances (¼ inc on each side) , I used a 2 1/2 inch inner border.
• The hardest part of this process is to remember to add the ¼ inch seam allowance. I ALWAYS draw this out on paper and using the cut sizes and shading the seam allowance to be sure the measurements work out. The more you do this, the easier it becomes. 

Try it. Use scraps, it will open up your ability to design your own quilts. Work with round measurements – I don’t use 3/8 or 5/8 inch measurements this way, the math is too complicated!!

Barbara

Quilters, the program and registration materials for NC Quilt symposium (June 3 – 6, 2010) are now available.  Registration opens January 29!!  Send in your materials on time to be sure you get the classes you want!  ’See you there!

http://www.charlottequiltsymposium.org

Now that my studio has gone “techno” – with a laptop, printer, and wireless internet, I am taking my first online quilting class with Annie Smith because I wanted to see how much the technology had progressed and I wanted to learn from a “pro” about online instruction. (Annie vistis Thimble Pleasures often, even though she lives in California!) So, I registered for Quilt Making 101 offered on www.simplearts.com. This is a beginner 10 week class, with a new lesson posted each week. Annie’s class offers video demonstration, printed course materials and instructions, and a weekly online chat room where she will answer participant’s questions online. Students can post sample of their blocks online and watch each others’ progress throughout the class. I thought you might find periodic updates interesting…..

I chose the beginner class because I thought it might be easier for me to follow online and also because Annie offers techniques in the class that I haven’t learned yet. So far, I have completed Lesson One and Two. I have an entire week to complete each lesson and prepare for the next. I can do it any time of the day or night and I can retake the lesson as many times as needed during that week. There is a way to “make up” a missed class, but I haven’t needed that yet. I’ll tell you about it when it happens.

There are 3 – 5 short video demonstrations, lasting about 3 – 8 minutes each, in a lesson along with written instructions you can print and put into a class binder. The is a course book, “Quilts, Quilts, Quilts” by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes – which is quite good! Annie demonstrates different topics and takes you through the steps of making each quilt block. I like that I can watch half of them or all of them at a time, depending on how busy I am. I can also watch them while I travel for business. (P.S. I admit to watching some in my PJ’s with the cat on my lap!)

It’s early days with this class, but I can tell you, I really like what I see and I asked my sister to give it a try to get her impressions. I thought I might miss chatting with classmates face to face, but Thursday night was the first online chat room session and it was fun! There was Annie streaming live video from her studio and fielding questions that we typed to her via computer. She demonstrated things in answer to our questions and kept the chatter going with three of us for over an hour. ‘Talk about personalized teaching! She is amazing! So far, the technology has worked perfectly! Love my new laptop…..

I finished my block from last week’s lesson (below). Not my usual color choices, but the class wil produce a sampler quilt, so I chose “old timey” fabric.  Did I tell you that there are 2 students form Brazil taking the same class with us? Isn’t THAT cool!? Stay tuned for more about online quilt instruction….

Barbara

The Winter 2009/2010 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios features 20 artists who have got it all together! Some have large studios, some have small ones. Organization tips help maximize the space and add color and beauty to their work/fun place! ‘Get a copy when you are in the shop next time.

‘Since undertaking writing the Thimble Pleasures Blog, I have purchased a new laptop and ink jet printer for printing quilt labels. I initially kept the computer and printer in another room, but found I wanted to use both while I was sewing, so I moved everything to my studio. I now keep my digital camera in my studio, too, so I can easily take pictures of what I am doing and upload them to the laptop (one of my New Year resolutions). I also purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements – an awesome program for editing my photos and preparing them for web posting, not to mention building electronic photo albums. Notice, all this sits on my sewing table for now, BUT…..positioning it behind my Bernina keeps it out of my sewing space, unless I am machine quilting – when I have to clear the entire table top – hence, the laptop and not a desk top computer.

Wireless internet allows me to read emails, look at quilting websites, and to take online quilt classes (more on that coming to the Blog). I have created a Facebook page and I post photos of my quilts there, so my friends can see them. Fun, fun, fun! Santa Chris brought me EQ6 software for Christmas, so now I can design quilts electronically in my studio and blog about it (more on EQ6 to come, too!).

I don’t have the HDTV yet, so I can watch Food network while I quilt, but it’s in the planing stages…. I still have to go to the kitchen for coffee and snacks, but maybe that is a good thing, otherwise I might never leave the studio!

Barbara

Reprinted from the January 2010 Thimble Pleasures newsletter. 

Here is one of Diane’s methods for making a quilt sleeve to hang your quilt: 

1. For the sleeve, cut a strip of fabric 9 inches wide and the length of the quilt edge.

 2. Turn under the short raw edge 3/4 of an inch and then turn again another 3/4 of an inch.  You create an 1 1/2 inch hem at both short ends of the strip. Top stitch. Try a decorative stitch if your machine has one. Use one you’ve never used before. Be adventurous!

3. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, with wrong sides together. 

4. If you haven’t attached your binding, place the raw edges along the top edge of the back of the quilt and sew it 1/8 inch from the top. When you bind the quilt, your binding will cover the stitching on the top. This makes your sleeve a permanent part of the quilt.  If you only want a temporary sleeve, see step 7.

5. Make a 1/4 to 1/2 inch fold along the length of the sleeve to create a pleat. You can machine baste the pleat, to keep it intact and even.  The basting will be removed when you finish the sleeve.  Leaving the pleat intact, smooth the sleeve down across the back of the quilt and pin the sleeve in place. 

6. Hemstitch the sleeve to the quilt along the bottom edge through the backing and batting, making sure you don’t sew through to the front.* You may also want to stitch the short ends of the sleeve to the backing, as well, making sure to leave the pocket open for the hanging rod.  Remove pins. Remove the basting stitch that has held the pleat together.  The sleeve will pooch out a bit to allow space for a hanging rod.

 7. If you have already bound your quilt, complete steps 1 and 2.  Then, with wrong sides together, sew the long edges together using a 5/8 inch seam allowance. Press the seam allowance open and to the middle of the sleeve.

8. Center the sleeve along one edge of the quilt backing, approximately 1/2 to 1 inch below the binding, with the seam facing the backing. Sew the sleeve to the quilt through the backing and batting, along both long edges, making sure you don’t sew through to the front. (Don’t forget the 1/2 inch fold, that forms the pleat.)

 It is crucial that the quilt you enter into the Judged Show has a sleeve for hanging.  Follow the show’s rules for attaching your sleeve with the correct measurements.  Not all quilt shows are hung the same.  So pay attention to the requirements.  You would hate to go to all the trouble of entering the quilt and then not have it hung because the sleeve was wrong.  

*You may also want to stitch the short ends of the sleeve to the backing, as well, making sure to leave the pocket open for the hanging rod. This is the quilter’s traditionally preferred method. Textiles conservators, though, recommend taking a stitch through to the top of the quilt every so often so the hanging weight is better supported by the entire quilt and not just the batting and backing.

Diane Donovan

What inspires you to make your next quilt? Is it the fabric, the color, the theme, a fond memory, or the person who will receive the quilt? Are you challenging yourself to learn a new technique, or simply having “ a sewing moment”? My inspiration comes in waves…..and more and more I am trying to listen to my inner voice of self expression, to balance that side of my brain that wants to develop lists and check off quilt blocks “to do”. Here are is a recent example……. 

Two years ago, I found this adorable fabric on sale after Christmas at a quilt shop in California. The brown fabric (whoever thought brown fabric could be adorable?) had gingerbread boys in it. Now, my family has been baking gingerbread boy cookies for Christmas as long as my adult children can remember and I always use the same recipe. (Any attempts to try a different recipe were always met with “good, but not like the “real” ones”!) I knew I had to buy the gingerbread boy fabric and make a Christmas quilt.

I finally got the inspiration to use the fabric this year. Using my newly acquired machine applique knowledge, I decided to make gingerbread boy applique blocks. Our much beloved family cookie cutter served as the pattern and I traced it and increased the size by 150% using a photocopier, producing an 8 inch gingerbread boy motif.  

With the “boys” up on the design wall, I started to think about coordinating blocks. The matching fabric from the collection had “Merry Christmas” in it, so I made a center block for the quilt, and positioned the applique blocks around it. Then I designed the simple 9-patch blocks. Since so much of my inspiration for this quilt comes from the fun and tradition of making the cookies for Christmas each year with my children, I wanted some “love” in the quilt, hence the rows of hearts!

 I’m not certain what the final design of this quilt will actually be, but it will stay on my design wall as I think about the remaining design elements. I do know one thing, though, the label for this quilt will have the full cookie recipe on it along with a picture of our decorated cookies! That way, my family will always have the recipe and a quilt to remind them of how much making Christmas cookies together meant to our family! If I get lucky enough to have grandchildren one day, I’ll rotate sending the quilt to each grandchild, with his or her own gingerbread cookie cutter and we’ll bake the cookies together using the recipe on the back of this quilt!

 Write the Blog tell us about what inspires your quilts…..

Barbara

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the shop yesterday to make a pillowcase.  Little Gabi Ravi, age 7, was there with Jean Fetterman and made a gorgeous pillowcase.  Thanks, Gabi!  You have a great future as a quilter!

It was a lot of fun and I learned to use the “serger”, which made very quick work of assembling the pillowcases and finishing the edges so nicely.  ‘Hope to see even more of you next time!  This is a BIG goal and we need your help!

‘Some lucky child is going to love the moons on your pillowcase, Betsy!

Barbara