A Quilting Math Lesson

Do you have a young quilting daughter or granddaughter who needs a practical math lesson?

Today I needed to figure out how much fabric I needed to cut for the 165 3.5" squares I needed.

Here are the steps:
1. I multiplied 3.5 x 3.5 to get the square inches of each piece = 12.25 inches.
2. Then 12.25 x the 165 squares I needed = 2021 sq. inches.
3. How many square inches in one yard of fabric? 36 l. x 42 w - 1512 sq. inches.
4. Divide 2021 (amount needed) by 1512 (amount in one yard) = 1.34 yards

But I messed up! I calculated 36" square, forgetting that the width is more like 42-43". Thus I cut 1.6 yards and got more than I needed.

Using a Cutting Machine for Fabric

Today I decided to go and use the new cutting machine Trish has at Sew Many Ideas. Yee-ha!THAT is a great thing! I needed to cut 165 3 1/2" squares for the Honeycomb quilt I've started cutting. The other pieces are all scraps so I'm cutting those at home,but the background square is all one color. So I took 1.6 yards with me, wound up with 191 squares in 15 minutes, for a total cost of $5.00 plus tax. I'm into saving time wherever I can in order to make more quilts!

If you decide to use a cutting machine, call beforehand to see if they have the template size you need and if you need to cut your fabric into strips before you go.

Embellishing with Jewels/Sequins and the Bedazzler

In the new quilt, Jewels in Batiks, I realized at the end that the center of the light squares needed a little pizazz. Since the quilting looked like a flower, it made sense there would be a center. I thought of the Bedazzler Stone Styler I had purchased but not used yet, and my small collection of jewels. It took a while to find them all--part of it here, part of it there!

I had used the jewels before but just with an iron--which does work. It is much easier with the Stone Styler however because the tips which are included fit the size of the jewels you are using. So you just vertically set it over a jewel, pick it up, let it heat for several seconds, then set it down vertically where you want it and hold for about 15 seconds. The jewels won't come off!

In the top photo you see I matched the jewel color to the block color. Last night with the light on overhead, some of the jewels looked like they were lit--kind of like tiny Christmas lights inserted from behind! A serendipitous ending to this quilt!

Using Fabric Markers on Quilts

Over the years I have accumulated a lot of fabric markers. I keep them in this plastic container which helps to keep them from drying out. I've used them in a variety of ways like adding shadows in landscape quilts. In this new quilt, "Jewels in Batiks", they played the purpose of shading down a fabric. This one square of fabric had a very bright orange in it in an area that was supposed to be dark. When I looked at the quilt, all I saw was this one block over-shining the "jewels." I got out the brown markers and went over this square. If you look at the post with the finished quilt, you'll see it's really toned down, allowing the "jewels" to shine!

Fabric markers are also great to color bright stitches that are showing up in your seams, but you have to use a very pointed end to just touch the thread.

This Week's Finished Quilt

In all these years of quilting, I haven't been very good about seeing a quilt in a magazine and actually making it. But while we were on our trip to CA. in April, I had mags with me, a limited amount of fabrics (well, that kept expanding along the way), and a limited amount of space. I did have my sewing machine and basic quilting supplies as well. Plus I picked up some used mags along the way and this quilt (top picture) was in it in an article by Nancy Elliott MacDonald (see QNM issue December 2001). I liked it because it was made of batiks, which I had with me, and it was a small piece and easy to do on the RV. I didn't like the kind of washed out look of the "tiles."

The bottom picture shows my finished quilt "Jewels in Batiks." It's brighter and I love it! I was going to name it Traveling Tiles but someone at Guild said it looked like jewels and I decided they were right. This was the first piece quilted with my Bernina Stitch Regulator and I 'm very happy with that! (see "machine quilting")

See Embellishing Quilts and Using Fabric Markers posts for techniques I used in this quilt.

I really like this pattern because it's simple but can look very different. In the article, Nancy has a series of quilts using this pattern and the others look like a bed of flowers in various settings.

Using the Blanket Stitch on Quilt Bindings

I had a small success today! For years I have always done my bindings by hand, even though it now is difficult because my fingers fall asleep (I'm sure I have carpel tunnel; I just try to manage it). Previous attempts at using my machine to straight-stitch down the binding didn't look very good.


However, today I decided I would give it another try with my Bernina Artista 200E. I'd never used the blanket stitch on it; in fact, didn't know where to find it on the machine (this after owning it almost 5 years--did I say life has intervened in the process?)! It took a while to track it down (it's in the quilting stitches). I pinned down quite a ways on one side, put in some Sulky thread on top, and went to it.


It worked great! I did in 30 minutes what would have taken me a couple of hours on this smallish wall hanging. It's very flat, looks nice, and is very sturdy, which is good enough for me! I think I'll be doing a lot of mine this way, especially bed quilts.


This piece was also quilted using my Bernina Stitch Regulator. You can see the stitches are nice and even. I really love free-motion quilting.

Hanging My Art Quilts in My Studio

I wanted an easy way to hang my quilted landscapes so that I could change them out whenever I wanted. Here's what I came up with. The pieces can be hung just with needles. The secret is the kind of material that's used for the covered board.

Three years ago, I built a table for making window treatments. A window treatment table has to be pinnable. They sell a special material for this, much like cork, but lightweight. I had some pieces left, so I cut one (well, two actually) and covered it with lining material. The art pieces I'm hanging are lightweight; I just put the strip up on the wall with velcro.

Yesterday I was at Home Depot and saw that they had 2' square pieces of a similar material, basically drywall board, for $3.99. This would work because it's easy to cut and pretty light-weight and certainly pinnable.

If you want to hang heavier quilts on a strip like this, make it longer (mine are about 24") or use multiple pieces across; and find the studs and put in screws to hold your board.

I had mine up in an hour and have been very pleased with them.

A Favorite Quilt Artist Now Blogs Too

Some of my friends have lots of blogs they read and I happened on one yesterday by one of my favorite quilt artists, Melody Johnson. Melody has won many awards for her fused, bright modern originals (for example, "Hot Summer Fun" in about 1989). Now she's moved to Palmer, TN. from the Chicago area and has moved back into painting as well! (You also might remember that she was a former co-owner of Artfabr!k.)

You can view Melody's work at www.fibermania.blogspot.com or www.wowmelody.com. Plus, she has some instructional segments on the use of WonderUnder and hand-dyeing. She is an inspiration, so check her out! She also sells her paintings, if you are looking for an original art piece.

Great website for machine quilting videos

http://sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/free.html

Thanks to fellow Peace by Piece quilters, this is the address for free videos on machine quilting.

Sharon Schamber is the winner of several major awards and now she has her own Network for video instruction. You can register and access the ones she has free; they are very good! If you like to machine quilt, you definitely should watch them. They gave me some great new ideas, although I don't have a longarm. However, I have purchased the Bernina Stitch Regulator and it's giving me much prettier stitching than I was able to do before.

My Antique Store Find

My quilting friend Diann loves another blog which shows yard sale finds. I had an antique store find last weekend that you might like to see. . . .I found this interesting little statue at a reasonable price ($7.50). I think it's resin but it's nicely done. I bought it for a friendly reminder at my sink.

Let me tell you where it was--Tunica, MS. We went there to get the coach out for a weekend and because they have a nice RV park for the Harrah's casino. We aren't interested in gambling, but it was an easy 2-hour drive. Plus, they now have Paula's Restaurant there! We had a late lunch/early dinner there and it was really good. The mac and cheese was great!

However, it is pretty dull there other than the casinos. Miles and miles of flat land planted in crops. Plus it was hot as blue blazes! On Saturday, I decided to drive the 10 miles into Tunica since I'd never been there. And there isn't much reason to go there! The income from the casinos has upped the county's standard of living considerably and enabled the town to build some very nice buildings.

But most of the businesses haven't made it. There was only a combined drug/gift store open (where I found the Vera Bradley cookbook on sale 35% off) and an antique store, owned by the lady who formerly worked for the city for 30 years. She shared the particulars with me about the income to the city from the casinos, which is a very good thing because before they had nothing! It was very poor there. It's a little sad that the only way they could become successful was through casinos.

I guess it's a little ironic that I should find "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil," in the midst of Casino Land. . . .

Do You Like Beets?

In my continuing quest to include more vegetables in my diet, this week I tried BEETS. I've eaten the canned ones before and like them but I had never cooked fresh beets. Have you?

I checked all my cookbooks for recipes, and they are all pretty simple. I actually peeled mine, but the books say you can roast them without, then peel them afterwards. Anyway, you just wash the beets, trim the tops off, wrap each one in aluminum foil, place them in a shallow pan, and bake at 400 degrees for an hour and a half (yes, that long--they are really hard and dense). Then I sliced them into 1/2" slices. They are really tasty just like that because they have a slightly sweet flavor.

However, my husband needed "sweeter" so I made a sauce of about 1/3 c. white sugar (or use Splenda!), 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar, 1 1/2 T. cornstarch, and 2 T. butter. If it's too thick, add some water. Once it's cooked about 5 minutes and gotten smooth, add the sliced beets and turn the heat down, so they will warm but not keep cooking.


We ate them kind of like an appetizer; they were a little addictive! If you were going to use the oven anyway, they'd be great to add in a side pan and no trouble! Then you refrigerate them and use when you like. They'd make a great salad for lunch on greens as well. Plus they're that wonderful purple color!

What's on the Board Right Now

Here's a lap quilt I'm making called "Roses in the Woods." When Judy Snyder gave away strips, I was lucky enough to receive some of them, and I divided them into colors. There were quite a few greens and reds, which I have added to. I love red and green, even if they are Christmas colors! And I love log cabin quilts, so this is what developed. It's not original; I know I've seen this somewhere. There'll be a total of 24 rose blocks--4 wide x 6 long--with a green strip row around. The good thing is I can sit down and make a strip block in about 5 minutes and a rose block in ten, then leave it until the next time!

Also you might notice the "planning" board it's mounted on. It was easy and pretty fast! I bought a 4' x 8' piece of 1" thick styrofoam building insulation. I had them cut it into 3 pieces there because I needed to get it in my car. Unfortunately it was blue; I had to put two coats of white primer on it to keep it from showing through my flannel. Then I covered it with pieces of white flannel and taped with duct tape on the back. I mounted them on the wall with strips of Velcro. Since it's going to stay up there a lo-o-o-o-ng time, I wasn't worried about the paint job behind.

It's Thursday Already?

There is a problem when you are retired. You become aware that life is not forever. . . so everyday counts as to what you get done!

I keep wondering about how to earn money again with all these things I do. I really liked that part of working! The problem with earning money is that it requires some regularity of activity and I'm not very good at that anymore.

In retirement, my "Gemini" has really sprung her top. She has gotten the "gotta get this done, and this done, and this done before I'm gone" bug. I mean, we never know how long we have, right? So everyday I get up, determined to make a dent in all the things I want to do. Sadly, my energy gives out sometimes before my "want-to." The good thing about retirement is that you can take a nap and go again! Yes!

My days are full of jumping from one thing for a while to another. I do try to put some time in each day for the "necessities." My husband considers that to be cooking, so I do make that concession. My definition of "necessities" are quilting, reading, and right now, working on window treatments for the house. Granted, my definition changes frequently, but quilting is always in there!

This is my first post, so I'm not quite finished with set-up. I'll be doing pics and various things, but today one of our tasks is getting a scanner and different printer set up on my computer.

The Perfect Apple Pie. . . .

This week I made an apple pie and my husband said it was perfect! That's going a ways for him.
Here's the recipe--see if you agree. It's not hard; you can get one in the oven in about 10 minutes.

Perfect Apple Pie
2 refrigerated pie crusts (I don't make my own, but you can!)
7-8 large apples, mostly yellow delicious, a few tart like Jonathan or Granny Smith
1 1/4 c. white sugar
3 T. corn starch
2-3 T. plain flour (if you're making smaller, go with smaller amount)
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2. t. allspice
3/4 to 1 stick butter, cut in 1/2" sections

Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Use a large pie pan--I used glass. Place one pie crust in bottom and pat to remove air.

The secret I've learned is mixing up the type apple. It lends a lot of flavor to use two different apples. Peel and cut apples up into about 1" chunks and place into pie crust. (Some people mix the apples and dry ingredients in a bowl and then pour into crust, but it's not necesssary. You can also toss them in lemon juice, but if you work quickly in peeling, they won't turn brown.)) Mix all the dry ingredients together and pour over apples. Put dots of butter all over the top. Place 2nd pie crust over the top and pinch together the edges. Put a couple of slits in the top with a knife. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check with a knife at 45 minutes or so to see if the apples are soft enough; if not, bake longer. It should be really bubbling and seeping through the seam a little. If your crust starts to get too brown; put aluminum foil around the edges or one of those pie pan edge covers you can buy at a kitchen store. They work!

Note: If you are making a smaller pie like with 4-5 apples, adjust the ingredient amounts downward by about 1/4.