November 16, 2020

150 Quilt Rerun Block 1

    Block 1 and the explanation for 150 Rerun cutting instructions are on the group page. To join you must have or can purchase the CD.

I still haven't figured out zoom through OBS yet so it is just a recording. Any questions, then email us, ask @ quiltnasium dot com.

Winter is staying at in the mountains so far and that it is where it should be. 



November 9, 2020

MIA Zoom

   
   So this was all weekend in the far south of Alberta, Lethbridge.

lethbridge show
And all this weekend not so far south in Alberta, Calgary. Ol' Father Winter let us know he was coming on winds of 85kg/hr = 55mph. Almost all the leaves are gone and the lake has a thin ice covering. As my dad used to say, 'Better put rocks in your pockets.'
Calgary snow

   Sometimes, it is bad getting old. Sometimes, it is hard to believe I worked in IT and knew all the latest technology. When the phones became smart phones, I didn't care and didn't want one. Since getting back into business in early 2000s, I've been playing catchup ever since. The ol' brain is slower and sometimes it likes to run backwards. 

But thanks to a young whippersnapper teaching an old fuddy duddy, we've finally kind of got the hang of 3 cameras, OBS and Zoom. So, for those of you that are registered on facebook with your pattern for the 150 Canadian quilt rerun we will be taking the first kick at a zoom meeting for cutting out the background and Block 1. 

For those of you waiting for the gypsy wife program to start it will happen in a couple of weeks.

We are almost finished with the roll over of Quiltnasium.com to another webhost and updating the blog look and getting the email operating again.

I'd like to thank all you for being extremely patient in waiting for these programs to happen.





October 12, 2020

150 Rerun Computers Ack!



   Did everyone have a full feeling Thanksgiving? The turkey was not the only creature that was stuffed.
 


   There was a time many decades a decade ago I actually loved computers. The internet, blogs, Facebook. I was even a programmer and beta tester at one time. The smarter the phone, tablets, ieverything becomes the more I want to go back to analog flip phones. The more the platforms grow the more they change. What I once followed is now almost impossible. Even the platforms are making it so that it is a problem to follow my favourite people and animals. They have even limited my favourite see firsts or all posts. 

I've been working on getting set up for online tutorials and classes. Unfortunately, the new laptop is not cooperating. Just when I've become comfortable being on camera, none of the cameras will work through the new laptop. Does the laptop camera know something I don't? It's probably one little box to check. What I learned as a programmer, the computer is only as good as the operator and the programmer who programmed it. What I learned as a beta tester, I can always screw up the program and the more it is to be foolproof the worse I manage to mess it up. They finally had to add something to follow my keystrokes to figure out what went wrong. 

  To join the 150 quilt rerun you MUST have the pattern. Many of you downloaded it a couple years ago. That's excellent. If not, then it is available in CD or PDF format on quiltnasium.com. Only if you have the pattern and answer the questions, can you join the facebook group, 150 Cdn Quilt Rerun.






September 29, 2020

All Trenched 150 Canadian Rerun

   150 Canadian Women quilt will rerun beginning the end of October, date to be determined.  This time around you have to have the pattern as we are only going to make the blocks online live. Join the 150 Cdn Quilt Rerun facebook page and follow along with us.

   Paper Sky block 4 is uploaded. Blocks 1, 2 or 3 are available for purchase.


   My mice domain is gone! Its gone from this perfect advantage point to

this mess,

and this dirt field. Now them meeces are gone.
Mom says I'll have to settle for watching the neighbours to the north. But they up and got a mouse exterminator. My life has been upended what will I do! Please send prayers. 



 

September 21, 2020

Border Fabric Not Long Enough?

      We can finally breathe again outside. The smoke has blown away. The sky is blue. So what did I do today but spent the time indoors putting a border on a table topper. Originally, It was going to grow into a lap quilt and then someone came along and said they thought it was beautiful and would go in their kitchen. Don't you just love when that happens. This saved me a whole lot of work in figuring out how to make it bigger. Plus, they will now get the placemats that came in a kit I won from P&B Textiles. Ain't life grand!

table topper

Oh no, I preshrunk the kit fabric and now the border fabric is wide enough for the sides but, not for the top and bottom borders without adding in 1" of fabric. What a waste of a strip of fabric and very time consuming. Plus, the fabric for the back isn't wide enough for a long armer to quilt it nor long enough put it on the back of the placemats. Crapola. 

Ah ha, as the gears grind to a halt, make a partial seam border. It worked. So the moral of this story is, next time you need just a little bit of fabric strip to make a border, try sewing it on with partial seams.

border corner

   Partial seams are when you sew strips of fabric around a center instead of sewing on the two sides and then the top and bottom. The first seam is sewn from the end A to 1/2. The second seam is sewn from B to C, The third from D to E. The fourth from F to G. Then close the first seam from 1/2 to H.

partial seam diagram
   As for the back I'm going to cut the back in half lengthwise and add a 10" strip down the middle. Then use the same fabric for the back of the placemats. 

Thinking now maybe it would have been easier making it into a lap quilt.😀


September 14, 2020

Just Around The Corner

   The last hoorah. 


   Turned on the furnace today. Days are shorter. Almost fall equinox. You know what that means. IT'S COMFORT FOOD AND QUILTING TIME. Turkey and gravy, macaroni and cheese. 150 Canadian Women rerun and Gypsy Wife.

Remember you've got to have the patterns to participate.

   Finally got a laptop with a camera. Am still waiting for webcams. Now have to learn zoom and the multi cam linking. Everyone says it's easy, but I've been computer challenged lately. The brain is not computing. So we'll work on zoom quilt days first then advance to the quilt alongs. 





September 8, 2020

Backs

    Isn't it wonderful that the fabric manufactures make the 108-110" wide fabric for quilt backs. It eliminates the time it takes to piece chunks of fabric together. Instead you just cut off a length and it's ready. My problem is now I have all these little scraps or chunks of fabric on the shelf or in a bin waiting to be displayed in a quilt. And we all know that most of the time it doesn't happen because we've bought the next latest and greatest fabric. 

As you know, just over a year ago the great clean up and organization began at the now home studio. OM goodness! I knew there was a lot of fabric, BUT, wow. Everywhere I turned and everywhere I looked there was more and more and more. It took 6+ months to get all done. It's both good and bad that Covid happened a while later, because a lot of fabric went to those making bags and masks. As much a I said oh yeah I will use this later, we all know that that was not going to happen. Enough of the rant.

Because of the quilt store organization of fabric I am now able to find chunks of fabric in the same colour family as the quilt tops that have also been sitting on a shelf for a long time. I'm a topper, and proud of it. It was fabulous being able to use up the fabric. Granted, sometimes it took a long time to make the back, but the fabric is gone. 

The following are some of the ways to create backs. I used to just put any old piece of fabric on the back, never muslin, instead a floral on the back of a kids quilt or a geometric fabric front. After my friends gave me heck and explained that since I've gone to all this work on the front I should be making the back just a wonderful as the front.  

You want to lay out all the pieces overlapping each other by one inch, square them up and piece together. Then square on the ends like you would on a regular length of fabric.

Purple: Summer: My pattern for a setting of twelve 12" blocks or a single scrappy quilt. The back uses three purples in the same colour family as the front fabric and a cream. I use the cream as a label and write on the fabric using a pigma ink pen (found at craft stores). Do not use a sharpie because over time it can cause a grease type stain on the quilt. The small white square on the bottom of the back is a piece of tape with the letter T for top. This way the quilter knows which way to load the back. I also mark a T in felt pen on the batting so that the quilter knows which way to load the batting.

Multi colour: The back for this quilt uses three fabrics in the yellow green family. Again, similar to the front fabrics. Instead of just piecing the two longer lengths together and the third put straight across, I choose to cut the smaller into two pieces and put one piece on each end. The two larger pieces could have been two different lengths and the smaller, yellow green, piece would have been cut accordingly to make each side equal in length. Because I do not have any more of the black for binding, and that the backing is way bigger than the front, I'm going to cut my binding from the back pieces that will be trimmed off.


Red: Created from scraps from the 150 Canadian Women quilt. The back is made from two reds and a small piece of white because I needed more length. The narrower red was cut into half on the lengthwise grain with the white inserted in between. It will also be used as a label.

Red also: Created from one piece of red. The white diagonal piece is the label. The corner was cut off at an angle and the white piece was then sewn to the corner. The red cut off piece was sewn back on. Then the fabric was squared off on the bottom.


Scientist: see NextStepQuiltDesigns.com My pattern for kids or even bigger kids, ie adults, that are into science. The back consists of four pieces of fabric that are cut in half lengthwise and pieced together. I think it makes the back a little more interesting than having them in four corners. Again, I'm going to cut the binding from the backing.

Twirl: see NextStepQuiltDesigns.com My pattern using fat quarters from light to dark: The remaining fat quarters from the bundle, a small strip of coordinating green and leftover pieces from the fat quarters make up the back. The larger pieces are on the outside of the back so that when you trim the quilt you are not working with a skinny piece on the outside. Putting a narrow row or column on the outside is a waste.

All of the above is also posted on the NextStepDesignsQuiltnasium facebook page.

   Winter is almost back and we haven't had fall yet. My dad farmed east of Calgary. Being a farmer, he used to journal the weather for each day over the years. He told me many many many moons ago, that it snows around September 5 and then warms back up. Over the years it may not have snowed but it has been cold around this date. Well this year was not any different. There was snow all around Calgary and very cold in Calgary. The mountains are already talking about early skiing. They've got a good base. Some crazy people were even cross country skiing in them there mountains. And already, my hockey buddy is talking about where we are going to watch the World Junior Hockey at Christmas time. Ugh and Burr. 

Until next week stay warm. 
Enjoy,



August 31, 2020

Rainy Days and Mondays

  never get me down. Ah it's Monday. We're off on another city hike, Douglas Fir Trail. Lots of up, trail and stairs. Many decades I've looked at this hill and never knew that you could hike it. Awesome view from the lookout.
Douglas Fir Trail hill

Up up and up

bridge over wash out

lookout

Down worse than going up

   Paper Sky block 2 will be up for purchase and block 3 will be up for free this week.

   Questions have been asked and comments have been made regarding the cutting out the fabric because most of the pieces we cut are irregular in shape. It is hard to gauge how to lay them out to get the best use of your fabric. I recommend that you print the number of pages required for each page. Cut out the paper templates. We have drawn some of the templates with two sections into one template. If you need to cut them apart then do so. Arrange the templates accordingly on your fabric to get the best use. We have given you a suggested layout that we used but it may not be the best layout for you. Each block that we cut, we have started where the previous block left off. So, if the previous block only used a portion of the width then we started where we left off. We try to keep it so that the fabric base line is straight, not jagged. As shown in the first photo below, we didn't cut the previous block in a straight line so the next block was arranged to use up the jagged base line.

 In the above picture, we used up the small piece that was left over from previous block.

If you are using one-way fabric then you can arrange the templates to get the direction you want the fabric to go. Note: that you will require more fabric.


August 24, 2020

Fabric Shadows

    We are always told to press to the dark fabric. But, sometimes pressing to the light fabric is the best. This is when fabric shadows occur because the dark fabric is wider in the seam than the light. That is the light fabric is narrower than the dark fabric.

shadow

To correct this so the shadow doesn't show, first place the ruler just on the edge of the light fabric. Then slant the rotary cutter to the outside. If using your right hand, and the fabric is on the right, slant the rotary cutter to the right. 

Trim the seam. Now the dark fabric is shorter than the light. 

If there is only a little part of the seam that will have a shadow then just do it carefully and slowly. Practice will give you confidence and make perfect.

   Our hike today was to Pine Top. It is a loop through a wonderful forest of different trees and creeks. The one most noticeable thing was that some of the scrub bush had already turned yellow. Does this mean that is was too hot and dry or winter is coming early. Yuck. Even my crabapple tree has some yellow leaves. Ugh.

  Remember to download Block 2 of Paper Sky.



   I'm asking the pets out there. Do you have problems with your slave wanting a piece of the bed? Meowsh. Mom expects me to move after I'm all settled in for the night. I gave her at least 1/3 what more does she need. Do you see the white cover on the right side and the white pillow thing on the floor, she says those are my beds. I say she sleeps on the couch. I got here first.

Nighty night.