Needleturn appliqué tip #1

If you are doing needleturn appliqué, and have a shape with an area that is cut out inside it, do not cut this area out when you are cutting out the piece initially. Wait until you have completely sewn down the outside edge before you cut it out. Then cut out a little bit (maybe one or two inches) at a time. This keeps the piece from wiggling around and going all "wonky" on you when you are sewing it down. You can see from the photo that trying to pin down this leaf – if I had cut out the center – would have been like wrestling a little snake!

When you do this, you do need to be extra careful that you do not cut through the background fabric when you are cutting out the inside shape. I did this only once (and decided that the piece really needed a little berry right over that spot!) Use very sharp, small appliqué scissors and you will not have a problem if you are careful.

In the photo above, you can see that I have completely sewn down the outside edge, and I'm ready to start on the inside edge.

This is a leaf from block 5 of “Bohemian Bouquet,” my Mystery Block of the Month pattern. I will be posting more of my tips for needleturn appliqué with each block I release this year.

For more information on “Bohemian Bouquet,” see my Nov. 19, 2007 blog post, or go to my website, www.bluemoonriver.com.

Tyvek again

The first photo shows a piece of Tyvek painted with Dye-Na-Flow paint and some Lumiere after it was melted; the "before" shot is second (I folded the strip and punched holes in it.) The third shot shows a piece that was folded accordian style and then slashed with scissor cuts before melting. I tried the heat gun tonight on sheets of Tyvek, but didn't like how it moved around and buckled up. I like working on sheets between my Teflon pressing sheet, with an iron. The last piece reminds me of a molted snake skin.

Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today I am celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. with some great quotations by him:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”

“The time is always right to do the right thing.”

“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

“I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.”

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

Tyvek Beads

I tried my hand at making beads out of Tyvek today. First, I painted Lumiere on a rectangle of Tyvek (a recycled U.S. Priority Mail mailer) and cut it into triangles about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide. I coated the back with a glue stick, then rolled the triangles around a wooden bamboo skewer. (See second photo.) I used a heat gun to melt them until they fused.


I think I'm going to try making them a bit fatter next time, and perhaps melting them a bit longer. They are still a bit "papery" on the ends. I'm also going to try allowing the Lumiere to dry longer, and lusing less of the glue stick.

Magic Sizing vs. Spray Starch

I have been experimenting with using Magic Sizing (Extra Crisp) instead of spray starch when I make circles to appliqué using Perfect Circles. (See my blog post of Dec. 5 for a description of how to do this.) And it works beautifully. Now I don't have to worry about moths and silverfish eating holes in my heirloom quilts! I'm a convert.

You may have to look around a bit for this product. I found it in an upscale grocery store, with the laundry products. I had tried several other discount and regular grocery stores before I found it.

A Dozen Hearts

Here’s a new design, a table runner with raw-edge appliquéd hearts. It’s easy enough that you can whip one up in time for Valentine’s Day. I'll try to get the pattern up on my website in the next 24 hours. It is 14" x 42", but you can make it any length or width that is a multiple of seven by simply adding blocks vertically or horizontally.

This little quilt also looks adorable hanging on a door.

Brag Book

Here’s another little book cover, made today. This one is pieced with hand-dyed scraps, then quilted and painted with Lumiere fabric paints. The closure is one of my daughters’ elastic hair bands and a button. This one is a small photo album ”brag book;" I’m going to put photos of some of my art quilts in it.

Address book cover

As part of my end-of-year organizational activities, I went through my old Rolodex to update and purge addresses and phone numbers. Seems like everyone I know is moving every few years or so, and I had a lot of work to do. I decided to give the updated information a new home. I purchased a binder-style address book, and made this quilted cover for it this morning.

I started with a piece of felt, covered it with fabric scraps, and quilted them down. Then I tucked under the edges, sewed them down close to the edge, and folded under about 3 inches on both ends to make the sleeves to hold the binder. Voila!



I have purchased a small photo album "brag book" and intend to put photos of some of my art quilts in it. I sometimes meet people and end up talking to them about what I do, and a lot of them have absolutely no idea what an "art quilt" is. I figure a picture is worth a thousand words, so I intend to make a cool cover for my brag book and pop it in my purse, just in case I run into someone who is curious... or maybe someone who just happens to want to commission a large work ... :)

Making paper snowflakes

I grew up in Pittsbugh, Pa., where there never seemed to be a shortage of snow by Christmas time, but here in North Carolina (where it was 80 degrees several days last week!) we haven't had a decent snowfall in years. Gosh, I'm tired of dragging my kids around on their sled in the mud and about 1/4 inch of snow! So my daughters and I decided to make our own blizzard this weekend – with paper snowflakes.

We stuck them up on our front window using double-sided tape and now we feel frosty even when the thermometer is not!

Here are my directions for making them:

Start with a piece of white paper, the thinner the better. Fold up one end so that the edges meet along one side and you have a nice point at the corner. Crease very well with your fingernail. (Sharp creases and presise folds are the keys to making nice snowflakes.)



Trim the excess paper so you have a triangle (a square if you open it up).



Fold the triangle in half again and position your new triangle with the longest side down, so it looks like a little mountain, like this:



Here's the trickiest part. You now have to fold this triangle into thirds. Start on one side and give it your best guess. Fold it gently, without creasing, because you will probably have to adjust it a bit before you get it right. (Don't worry, you'll get the hang of this after you've done a few snowflakes.)



Now fold in from the other side. Inspect it from both sides. You should have it folded into thirds. If not, go back and adjust it. Then crease well. Make sure the point at the top is sharp and precise.



Here's how it looks from the other side (I think it resembles a rocketship):



Trim off the "tails" (or the flames, if you are envisioning a rocketship) so that you have just a triangle again.



If you open it halfway up, you can see how it is folded into thirds (sixths if you open it all the way up):



Now, cut your design. Use the sharpest paper scissors you have. You can also use hole punches to punch circles in the interior. Remember that the shapes you cut into the folded sides will be doubled (a semicircle becomes a whole circle). You can cut smooth curves, or sharp angles. Have fun and experiment. Here's my design:



And here's the most fun part! Unfold your snowflake and enjoy. Don't you feel the chill in the air?



You can do this activity with fairly young children. My seven year old enjoyed it, although she had a hard time cutting through all the layers, so we had her draw her design in pencil, and then I cut it out.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! pleeeeeeese!

Machine quilting motifs

Some of the students in my Beginning Machine Quilting class today asked me to post some of the free-motion quilting motifs I have used in my quilts. So here goes...

Here's a square spiral. I used a wonky variation of this in my quilt "Harbinger's Hope" (second photo).





Here's a meander:



A spiral:



A star:



A loop-de-loop:



Here's a list of some good books on the subject of free-motion machine quilting. These first three books are on my bookshelf, and I can recommend them:

Mastering the Art of McTavishing by Karen McTavish. A good book to read and study if you want to develop your own free-motion quilting motif for an all-over design to use in open spaces between appliqued shapes.

Coloring With Thread: A No-Drawing Approach To Free-Motion Embroidery by Ann Fahl. Great tips on threads and troubleshooting thread and tension problems, with an emphasis on art/pictoral quilts.

Guide to Machine Quilting by Diane Gaudynski. Diane walks you step-by-step through every aspect of free-motion machine quilting, with an emphasis on spectacular traditional designs (like feathers).

Here are some other books that were highly recommended on amazon.com that I'd love to add to my bookshelf, but have not yet read:

Machine Quilting Made Easy by Maurine Noble

Quilt As Desired: Your Guide to Straight-line & Free-motion Quilting by Charlene C. Frable

Continuous Line Quilting Designs by Pat Cody

Easy Machine Quilting by Jane Townswick

Heirloom Machine Quilting, 4th Edition: Comprehensive Guide to Hand-Quilting Effects Using Your Sewing Machine by Harriet Hargrave

Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques by Sue Nickels

Show Me How to Machine Quilt: A Fun, No-Mark Approach by Kathy Sandbach

250 Continuous-Line Quilting Designs: For Hand, Machine & Long-Arm Quilters by Laura Lee Fritz

DeLane's version

My friend, DeLane Rosenau, is making up my Bohemian Bouquet Mystery Block-of-the-Month blocks (see my Nov. 19 post) using different fabrics. She is fusing and doing satin stitch, instead of needleturn. Doesn't it look fabulous?

Pincushions

This morning, I made this set of pincushions using a pattern in the December 2007 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. Stacked up like this, they remind me a bit of the holiday puddings I saw the Christmas I lived in Scotland, right down to the button cherry on top!

The designer of the pattern, called "Petal Pincusion Stacks," is Roseann Meehan Kermes.



Here are three more I made for some of my quilting friends:

Perfect Circles

I used to think my appliquéd circles were pretty good. Then I tried out a product by Karen Kay Buckley called “Perfect Circles” (about $12 retail) and discovered how much better they could be. The product consists of a bunch of heat-resistant plastic circles of different sizes (four of each size) and a metal ring on which to store them.



The first step is to find the circle the right size you need. Simply place the circles on top of your pattern until you find the right size.



Next, find a circle that is about 1/2 inch wider than the finished circle size you need (so you have 1/4 inch more all the way around).



Take this larger circle and place it on top of your fabric, and trace around it. I love using a quilter's sandpaper board (see photo above) for this step, since it holds the fabric in place while you trace around the circle.



I have tried a million different kinds of quilting markers. The ones I like best are shown in the photo below. All are mechanical pencils. The colored ones are by Clover, and are available at many quilt shops and online. They come with a set of leads, and you can buy refills once they run out. They are a bit on the soft side, and tend to snap easily, but if used with a gentle touch, they leave nice dark lines that are easy to see. And the lines are very thin, which is important for accuracy. The yellow and pink ones are marvelous for marking dark fabrics.

The one on the far right is a regular mechanical pencil with a 2B 0.5mm lead refill. 2B is the softest lead you can buy for mechanical pencils. It is hard enough that it doesn't snap, but it leaves a very dark, crisp fine line. You can buy the leads at office supply stores next to the mechanical pencils. If you don't use the 2B leads, you'll be frustrated with a regular mechanical pencil; the leads are too hard and they snag in the fabric and don't leave dark enough lines.



Now cut out your circles on the line. Here is a photo of the circle I used to trace (on the right) and the fabric circle with the plastic circle (the right size you need to applique) on top of it.



Take a fine needle and strong cotton thread (I use hand quilting thread). Thread your needle and knot the end. With the fabric right side up, sew a running stitch about 1/8 inch from the edge. Note: with the bigger circles, you can actually machine stitch with the largest basting stitch, around the edge.



Place the fabric circle right side down, and place the plastic circle in the center of it. Pull on the thread, until the fabric pulls up around it.





It should be very snug. I usually take a few stitches through the little pleats to secure it before the next steps.



Spray some Magic Sizing or spray starch into a small bowl. It is very foamy at first, but will eventually turn back into a liquid. NOTE: I do have some concern about Spray Starch, as I fear it might attract moths or silverfish, which can eat holes in fabric. Magic Sizing works just as well but does not contain starch.



Using a clean brush, brush the pleated surface with the Magic Sizing until it is wet.



Make sure the thread is pulling the fabric up tautly, into a perfect circle, and then iron it until it is dry. Use a medium high heat; if you are too hot, the plastic WILL melt. It is heat resistant, not heat-proof, I discovered!



When the circle is completely dry, use a seam ripper to cut some of the threads, just enough that you can get the plastic circle out.



Pin the circle down and appliqué it. Voila! A perfect circle.



I have been using Perfect Circles for my Bohemian Bouquet designs (see post below) and have been very pleased with the results. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Karen also has “Bigger Perfect Circles” with even larger sizes.

For more information about Perfect Circles, go to www.karenkaybuckley.com

Time to shop

My wonderful husband researched how to add a shopping cart feature to my website and helped me set it up, so I now have a way of selling my patterns online, in addition to the shops and distributors who offer them. Hooray! He is my favorite IT (Information Technology) guy.