New Project Progress

Between 3:00am and 5:30am I finished the center of this quilt top for the Beginner Quiltmaking class sample. I'll add an inner border using the multi-colored fabric, and an outer border of olive, I believe.

The tricky part of this quilt was figuring out dimensions so that each row was the same width. It turned out well, I think. In this quilt we have beginner practice for triangle-squares, 4-patches, and star-making using the square-in-the-corner method (see below)...

You know...place the yellow square in the corner, right sides together, and draw a diagonal line on the yellow piece, which will then become your sewing line. Jackie Robinson gave this tip for chain sewing blocks this way. It works very well.

Here's the Mary Ellen Hopkins tip (I love her!) on trimming only the extra yellow away, but leaving the blue so that the "true" size of the block is obvious when you sew. Of course, the next step is to press that yellow triangle toward the corner. The finished product is the star points in the first photo. If you'd like a closeup photo of the points in the stars, just leave a comment on this blog and I'll post one.

After going back to bed at 5:30 (my mid-life curse: up in the middle of the night, every night), I got up at 7:30 and spray basted this quilt together for the "Scrappy Bricks Quilt" class I'll teach in February. I'll hand this quilt over to the quilt shop tomorrow, so today will be a machine quilting day.

FYI, this is Patsy Thompson's method of spray basting a quilt on a wall. It's so much easier than doing it on the floor or on a table. The video directions for doing this are on her Fast & Free Volume 1 DVD, which is a wonderful machine quilting instructional DVD. Here's my tip: don't try to do this with wool batting. Cotton is best. The wool batting is too fluffy and won't adhere well to the backing. I've tried it twice, and (after a few swear words) I went out and bought some cotton batting last night. With the cotton batting and the backing pinned to the wall, I had the whole thing spray basted in just a few minutes. ***Follow ALL safety directions on the adhesive can. I wear a good painting mask and goggles and have a fan next to me and the garage door open.

Machine Quilting...The Novice Type

Okay, I've had this mid-arm machine for two months now, and my Patsy Thompson Fast and Free DVD's on machine quilting for longer than that ( www.patsythompsondesigns.com ). It's time to buckle down to practice my machine quilting. I am making a commitment to spend 30 minutes each day practicing. Here are my practice pieces for yesterday and today...

They're not pretty, but I'm feeling more control with the machine and my foot is getting the feel of the correct position for the speed I want. As you can see, I'm trying to quilt in designated areas to see what I can do with them.

Patsy DVD's really help because I can see and hear the speed of her machine and the movement of her hands. Patsy is very calm and encouraging and has lots of little tips that make the process easier. Anyway, I just feel better, and less critical of myself, after watching her quilt for a little while.

Fiber Arts Alliance, Asheville, NC

While I was in Asheville with my friend enjoying the Fiber Arts Alliance meeting, my husband was hard at work in the yard with his buddy. They were digging holes, planting things, ...and cutting the telephone line. ha ha He spliced it for a temporary fix while waiting for the phone company to fix it, but today it's raining and the phone line is already nearly out. I'm rushing to get this online before the computer connection goes too!

Patsy Thompson, a member of the FAA, gave a wonderful program on machine quilting yesterday. Patsy has wonderful DVD's that show you how to machine quilt without pulling out your hair. I can't explain why, but my confidence level with machine quilting went way up after watching her first DVD. On her website, http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/, she offers sneak peaks at her new DVD's, free downloads of ALL of her quilt designs on the DVD's, wonderful tutorials and more!

She also offers other wonderful tips; in her first DVD, she shows you how to successfully spray baste a quilt. The second DVD has wonderful directions from her husband on how to make a Plexiglass extension table for your sewing machine at a fraction of the cost.

Thanks, Patsy!