Road Trip

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another:  
What!  You, too?  I thought I was the only one.             

C. S. Lewis

I had to get out and see what was happening at A Scarlet Thread Quilt Shop.  I'd never been there but had wanted to go for several years. If the name sounds familiar it was featured in the May edition of Quilt Sampler.  You can read about it there or click on the link above.  It is about 25 miles from me and in a direction that I just don't normally have a reason to roam.  I found a few quilting friends to go with me and we made a day of it.  The shop was lovely and huge!

I have had a Block of Month Pattern that I really like since before I closed the shop and I have looked off and on, when I thought about it, for some background material for it.  I think I found some that will do and a few others for flowers and leaves.  They are all Batiks of course.

I really love Batiks!

The ones fanned out at the top are from a bundle of 1/2 yard cuts. The greens are a 5 yard bundle and then a few fat quarters for another project that's underway.  But they are all laying on 8 yards of such a beautiful blue!  Ahhhh!!!!  It takes me to 'My Happy Place'.  OK I know... but that's what my 26 year old says.

Who could resist?  Chickens and Chocolate!

Then I saw these fun pieces and had to have a little of them.  Some no calorie Truffles, they look so real that I want to go get some of the real ones (and there is a ice cream and candy shop on the square in town that sells them) and some chickens to add to a stack of chicken fabrics that may will become a quilt for a relative who is into chickens one day.
Then it was time for lunch.  We found a nice restaurant on the square in McDonough that was just right.  While there is was decided to go on to another shop that my friends had never been to in Jonesboro, Quilts and Fixins.  I had been there several times, Jean opened her shop a few years after I opened mine and we used to see each other at Shop Hop planning meetings.  She and her Mother would also visit my shop sometimes.

Can't have too many tools!

Since by then I'd had as much of a fabric fix as I could afford for the day I found some more tools!  I am something of a notions freak.  I found a 60 degree corner cut by Alicia's Attic.  It will help trim those triangle tips down.  I want to make a tumbler quilt (yes, I know I just quilted ONE but I didn't make it and I want to have smaller tumblers in mine) and I am a fan of Marti Michelle's tools.  I have a lot of them.  When I had the shop I ran several of her BOMs that used them.  I placed it on a sheet of paper so you could see it better.

After that stop, we headed for home.  Our newest quilting friend shared some wonderful blueberries from her yard with us. I made a pie with them last night.  DELICIOUS!!  It was a good day!  When you get a day to explore quilt shops what do you bring home?  Tools, fabric, books, patterns or something else.

Frayed Edges?

Ask the experienced rather than the learned.

Arabic Proverb

I hate to pre-wash my fabrics and end up with handfuls of threads, twisted, wrinkled and snarled fat quarters and a lot of ironing and snipping threads to clean up the mess.  There is a simple way to avoid it.

Quick and Easy Serging

Serge those raw edges before you throw the fabric in the wash!

What else do I use my serger for in my quilting?  When I finish a quilt top and give it a final press I serge the edges.  This locks all the seams on the outer edge of the quilt in case I didn't backstitch.  It also keeps the edges from fraying and releasing any more little threads that could show up in unwanted places.  When quilting on the longarm the line of serger threads at the edge give me a nice target area for when I'm stitching down the side edges of the quilt or along the top and bottom edges as I'm starting and finishing the quilting.

Edge Seam Ends Will Not Unravel

Here's a picture of the last one off my machine.  Maybe you can see the line of teal thread on the serger threads.  When the backing and batting are trimmed off the top edge of the quilt will be nice and neat.

There are a few things to remember when serging this way:

• Make sure that your tension is not too tight.  That can cause the edges to be pulled up.  Loose tension is better than too tight.
• If using cotton thread for serging it may shrink in the washer or dryer and pull the edge up or pucker it.  To correct this ( it will be obvious when you lay it flat on the cutting or ironing board) just use your seam ripper to cut the needle thread(s) every 3 or 4 inches and then pull the fabric taunt across the width of the seam.  Enough stitches will unwind to relax the serged edge.
• A curved surgical type cutter works better and faster to remove a serged seam than a seam ripper.
• Trim the 'tails' of the serger seams before putting the fabric in the wash, those can unravel and knot everything together making another kind of mess.
• Use either a 3 or 4 thread seam for either process.
• An exact 1/4" seam can be made on a serger by adjusting the 'cutter width'.
• Look for videos and tutorials on line or at Nancy's Notions if you need to brush up on your serger skills. Good books are available too, check your local library.

Do you use a serger when quilting?  I have made Log Cabin, Trip Around the World and Irish Chain quilts using a serger for the piecing. Sergers sew FAST!  This can really speed up piecing long strips.  Do you think you will give your serger some quilting time?

Linking up with Plum and June's Monday Link Up and
Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

One Thing Done!

The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly.                                                                   

Cecil B. DeMille

I finally got back to the longarm and finished the charity quilt I had started.  Where did June go anyway?
Oh yeah, three trips...  now maybe I can get another quilt loaded this week.
Here's a picture of the quilt.  I did not make it, I just quilted it for the charity group I'm going to.  Someone else will finish the binding after I get it stitched on.  I used it for some Free Motion practice.  It turned out OK I guess, not wonderful but not awful either.

Some of the designs turned out pretty good.  The thread matched the darker prints so well that I had a hard time seeing where I had stitched which can be a problem.

I think I'll do swirls again but perhaps as an all over vine instead of off a stem like these were. I'm linking to Amy's creative side: One-thing-one-week-challenge since I got One Thing Done!

On the design wall there are some more triangle blocks.  It's growing and now I have it laid out the way the pattern showed not like I had it last week's post.  The blocks will be moved around a lot before it's together.  I was surprised at how much pink/mauve turned up in them.  Still have more cut out and will probably cut out some more.  So for I've just used the strip bins, fabric samples and a few scraps.

I have the border triangles for the Carpenter's Star together too.  Now to just get the borders on.

I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday check out what everyone else has up on their wall.

Hail to the Red, White & Blue

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word:  freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

Sir Winston Churchill

Here's the best Red, White & Blue quilt I have.  It was pieced by Dot Higbee, one of my shop teachers, as a class sample.  I quilted it a few years ago.  It is about 36" square.

I'm linking up to Sew Many Ways Red, White & Blue theme week.  Enjoy some colorful eye candy over there and have a great 4th of July!!!

Balancing Act

We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Samuel Smiles

Something new on the design wall.  Triangle blocks using a pattern by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr called Balancing Act. This is just a start, many more to come.  I think it is a good stashbuster, just three seams per block. I pulled some larger print strips from my bins and I am cutting up a few fabric samples and fat eights. Not sure how big it will grow yet.
 ** Edited note:  This pattern was in a Better Homes & Gardens American Patchwork April 2009 magazine issue but a smaller project with the same block pieces may be downloaded at all people quilt.com - Topsy-Turvy Triangles

Here's how I keep my strips sorted. Some in plastic shoe box size bins stored under my cutting table.

Some sorted in these cloth bins.  I found this in an antique mall booth several years ago.  I labeled the bins with index cards and was planning to go more subtle with labels from my label maker after I decided which sizes I was sure about.  Maybe soon I'll make up my mind.  I love that cool little machine!  It makes things look so official.  I have labels on my food canisters but I'm won't bore you with a picture of them ;-)  The index cards are kind of tacky looking.

I'm linking up with Judy's designwall-monday-july-2-2012 and Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day

Meet Dinah

Love is a great beautifier.

Louisa May Alcott

I'd like to introduce you to Dinah, she is my Ultimate XX APQS longarm machine circa 1991.  She has a 36" throat and a 14 foot table with a motor advance.  She is a real work horse but doesn't have the modern bells and whistles like needle down and stitch regulation - hence, a dinosaur of sorts, get it? Dinah. She runs well and doesn't give me too much trouble.  I've made a few modifications to her, added extra thread guides, a laser light, extra lighting, extra thread holder possibilities, new leaders and recently leader grips.

My Longarm 'Dinah'

Two of the things I add when quilting are wrist magnets.  I strap one onto the bar at each end of my quilt top to hold my thread snips.  I can always reach them and I don't have to worry about them getting rolled up or quilted inside the quilt. I didn't ever like wearing them on my wrists anyway so this puts them to good use. When I'm doing pantographs saving steps is important since I have to run around the 14 foot table so many times to get things done.

A Snip Magnet

This also helps keep the leaders rolled up instead of sagging and flopping. I have another trick I use on them too but will have to get a picture and share it later.

I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet browse around and make some new friends.

Keeping it Together

I never know whether to pity or to congratulate a man on coming to his senses.

William Makepeace Thackeray 

I learned a number of years ago that the best thing to do when a quilt top is completed it to put the binding material with it.  If I have the fabric for the backing it goes with it too.  The time and frustration this has saved me is great!  I have in the past few years been trying to match up backings with completed tops.  Recently I have added another time saving step.  I always have a top measured during construction - usually to do the borders, or I have the  pattern in front of me and it has finished size measurements.  Now I add a note to the top that includes the size.  The backing fabric usually isn't cut to size and seamed until I'm ready to load it on the longarm (in case I change my mind on the selection) and the batting also needs to be cut.  Having all these things done ahead saves more time.  Here's how I store it all:

Hang it all together with the size info

If the binding is cut I put it in a bag, cut a slit in the bag and hang it on neck of the hanger, strips are prone to sliding off the hanger.  The backing fabric and top are on the hanger.  If doing this you need to use the heavy weight hangers especially for large quilts.  Light weight hangers bend or break.  This is the top only as I haven't pick out the backing yet but the size is right where I can see it.  If using a straight pin to attach the paper to the quilt weave the point under the paper so it will not snag what it is hanging next to or your finger. Make sure your pin is rust proof or check them occasionally for rusting.  A safety pin would work well since they are mostly nickel.

How do you keep your tops and binding together?

I linking to Let's Get Acquainted! Monday at plumandjune.blogspot.com