MIA Zoom

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

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.'

   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.

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!

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.

   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.

   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.😀

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,

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.

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.

2:1 Rectangles Had a Mouse

   Rectangles can be a royal pain when you are trying to sew them to another unit and getting the 1/4" seams to match up. Most rectangles that we use have a 2:1 ratio. That is, for every 1 unit of finished width, the finished length of the rectangle is 2 times the finished width. For example, if the rectangle's finished width is 2" then the rectangle's finished length is 4". Because the seam line is not at 45⁰, the seam line is offset from the corners. But, the 1/4" seam line intersection will fall on the diagonal seam line.

   Click the How To to get the instructions for calculating and piecing rectangles that have a finished 2:1 ratio. These instructions may be late for you but they may be used for any future project as well as those of you working on the 150 Canadian Women program.

  

If you have any questions or quilting problems, please email us so that we can try to help you.

   Mom, why don't you let me keep the presents I bring you? You always say you're proud of me and then shoosh me into the house leaving my present behind. Oh, okay, good, I get it, you want to bring it in. That's ok with me as long as you don't take credit. Whew! Hey, why are you going upstairs? Did you not get it? Let me out, I'll get it. Hey, where did it go? I know it was here.

♫I'm not listening to you.♬

Office Wide Binding

   I'd thought I'd never say that I'd rather be cleaning than doing books. Whoa! Did the inner voice really say that out loud? Just spent 1.5 hours shoveling snow, it was snowing and blowing and freezing again, and the roads were the pits on the way to the shop.

Today, I'm tired of purging and boxing the office, it still looks a mess and I'd rather be doing books. Kitty loves it because she can hide on the empty shelves.

office to be fabric shopping room

   In between surges of reorganizing and books, quilts have been bound. I've discovered that I love a wide, 1/2", binding on quilts that have a simple outside border. Now, remember that the bindings are all machine stitched. No hand sewing for this kid. I have struggled with holding the fabric using both fingers and a wooden awl. The wooden awl was used to feel the ditch on the back side so that I could try to stitch in the ditch. Happened 75% of the time and I thought it looked messy on the back sometimes. The corners were a pain most of the time.

   The binding is first sewn on the back side of the quilt. The seam was originally sewn at 3/8" but now it is sewn on at just over 1/4", about 5/16".

See the yellow pin head, above diagram, at the grooved line on the walking foot. This is what I use for alignment. I use to use the edge of the open space on the foot where the pin head is. Be aware all

Escape, Harness, 13

   Ah, the 13th Splendid Sampler Free Block. Betty's Bloom by Carl Hentsch. We chose the Paperless Paper Piecing method because you take off the paper in one piece. The more we do this, the more enjoyable paper piecing is. You can find our tutorial here.

Enjoy!

   Brrr, it's cold outside and mom says I'm full of p--- and vinegar. The other day I managed to escape past mom. Ha, she thought she was being so smart at anticipating where I was going. We may be about the same age but I'm way faster. Well, you know I just had to snoop see what was on the other side of the neighbour's house. Rats, a gate. She didn't even give me time to investigate it. So, now I'm in harness again and having a sit down protest. Mom says okay by her. Ha, you know what'll eventually happen, freedom, because cats rule.

Ripped and Torn Fabric #12

   Meow first. Meow first. It's been a fantastic cat week. Even though my scratch pad throne is in the middle of the room and on the floor, all is good and I reign.

Tee Hee, even got mom trained to drag the ribbon beside the throne so that I only have to stretch out instead of chase and capture.

As you can see by all the little cardboard pieces around the throne I'm an awesome ripper and shredder. Just call me Shredder. 

   Here we are on week 12 of the Splendid Sampler II block. Free As A Bird by Irene Blanck of Focus on Quilts.

For the tree branch, we cut the fabric on the bias to make the curve smooth and pliable. What we did was: 

• cut a 1.25" strip, 
• folded it in half wrong sides together, 
• stitched it closed with an 1/8" seam, 
• rolled the seam to the back, 
• pressed the seam open, 
• decorative stitched on the edges.

We also used different stitches to give the bird a feather like appearance on the edges and made a Colonial knot for the eye.

   Many of us, including myself, have problems with people ripping instead of cutting our fabric. A friend rips the 108" wide fabric to find the true grain when selling as well as getting her back ready for the quilter while I shudder. Sometimes the fabric is up to 6" off grain.
This link to National Quilters Circle is worth a view and you can decide for yourself.

Flying Geese Space To Home

   As the saying goes, it's always great to get away but even better to get home. These past months, we've traveled through space, the final frontier, but even better the finality is here. Thank you to all of you who made the trek .

   How many of you have problems with flying geese like I do? Jacquelynne Steves from The Art of Home has created another technique to make flying geese.

   Yeah, we are at the halfway point of Splendid Sampler II's free blocks. Block 10, Around Four Corners, by RachaelDaisy of Blue Mountain Daisy. Rachael has a very clever way to make the four circles. I'm in awe at how easy it is.

The decorative stitches were stitched using two 50wt threads, yellow variegated  and orange, through one 90 needle. If the thread keeps breaking then use a 100 needle and or adjust your tension. I threaded one thread on each side of the first loop (very left side where the thread goes to that then runs along the top of the machine) then threaded machine as usual.

Remember to change the sewing feet before stitching.

The decorative stitching all continuous. I started where two circles meet and went around each, then regular stitched to the next circle along the edge and decorative stitched around the two circles in a figure 8 path.

   Training is coming along. It's so smoky here that we can't go outside and there aren't any birds to amuse me. Yawn.