New Mini Quilt

The new flannel board is coming in really handy already. I started two new quilts yesterday and have the strips of fabric arranged in order for the almost identical quilts. These quilts are being made for a set of bunked doll beds I have had for a few years. Have pinned the pattern and the two blocks I have finished to the board as paper will not stick to the flannel but the insulation board and the foam backing on the headliner cloth makes it easy to pin.

I used EQ6 to design the quilt - see photo below. That is the plan to start with anyway. The colors on the printout from EQ6 are only an estimation to just give me an idea of what they will look like together. I don't worry about matching the exact fabric just use color to get an approximation. The second quilt will be pieced the same with the tessellated leaves but will have the fabrics in a different order.

I can only piece one block at a time to make sure to get the right colors in the right places. These blocks will finish .75" so am working with tiny pieces. It is slow going but that is OK. I may think differently when I get to the second quilt though - there are 40 blocks total in the quilts.

Will probably piece the background blue border in larger strips with the half square triangles but this is the only way I know how to do it when designing on EQ to make it come out looking right.

Might not get too much done on the piecing today as I think I had better bite the bullet and get outside and dig up the plants I want to over winter in the house. It is supposed to get pretty cold tonight and would hate to loose them. Saves money in the spring besides the plants are bigger to start out the spring.

Just spell checked this blog - thank goodness we have that option as there were plenty of errors. My spelling and typing can be bad at times! I try to re-read every blog to make sure it makes sense but can still miss some spelling errors.

One of my grandsons birthday is today - he is 6 and so excited for the birthday party for his friends on Saturday and his family on Sunday. Always fun to see the faces of our grandkids when they open birthday gifts and when we sing Happy Birthday to them. Can't wait to see all 4 of our grandkids on Sunday, it is always a fun time. We also want to see our daughters and husbands too, didn't mean to leave them out.

Lynn

Quilts in the Mail

I got the most wonderful package in the mail yesterday! It was from my quilt friend across the ocean in Romania. Her name is Georgeta Grama and she does wonderful shadow trapunto quilting. Visit her website to see more of her work. http://www.romanianquiltstudio.com/english/index.htm

Back to the package....Geta sent me two beautiful pieces of her work. One is a 6" square with the most delicate design and they other is a rose on a postcard. Both just take my breath away. I don't see how she does the intricate cutting to achieve her designs.

She prints her designs on paper then layers them between batting and organza. After stitching the design through the paper she removes it and cuts the excess batting away from the design. Lastly she layers it on a pretty fabric, batting and backing and machine quilts it. All I can say is "Wow" when I look at them and thank her so much.

Besides the quilts she sent 3 of her patterns printed out on paper plus some great clippers and a yard of organza. It is a lot stiffer organza than I have seen here in the fabric shops I have been to and am anxious to try her technique.

Geta was invited to have two of her pieces in Houston for the International Quilt Market and Festival and had one more accepted in the contest so if you will be there please look for them.

John has to be gone for the day to a meeting so I have a whole day with no interruptions. Want to get to sewing right away to take advantage of the quiet.

Happy sewing.

Lynn

Flannel Board & Pressing Board

Today my sewing room looks a little different. I have a new flannel board and a new large pressing board. Have had the supplies for a while but couldn't do it all myself and needed John to help me a little.

I had one of those Block Butler design wall systems but after a while it wouldn't stick to the wall and would not hold anything without pins. I rinsed it with water like the instructions to clean it but it just got worse. I had nothing behind it so all the pins were going into the wall and I sure didn't like that.

For those that don't know what a Block Butler design wall is, this is what I know. It looks like a flat batting but is tacky on both sides. One side is suppose to stick to walls, etc. and not fall down. To be fair, it did work great in the beginning. The front side is also tacky and it was to hold the fabric and blocks like design walls are supposed to. It held fabrics really well at first but always did have problems with holding blocks that were sewn.

I just got tired of messing with it so got a piece of rigid foam insulation and taped my fabric over the back with duct tape. I chose headliner fabric because I read it works better than flannel and besides I could not find any wide flannel and found this at a JoAnn's store. (Headliner fabric is used on the ceilings of cars.) This fabric has a napped front and about a 1/4 foam backing. Will let you know if I have problems with it.

I just pulled it tight as I was taping it - John helped me by cutting the 6" pieces of tape and having them ready for me to grab. We got it on the wall and he attached it with dry wall screws. We used 6 screws across the top and bottom and 7 along each side. So far things are really clinging to it. I have it about 3 feet behind my sewing machine so I can just turn around and place things or take things off when I am sewing.

The second project he helped me work on was to make a large pressing board. I followed Sharon Schamber's directions in the free video on her website and it worked great. Check out her other free videos while you are there too. http://www.sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/free.html

I was worried after I got the fabric all stapled on that it was too loose but then Sharon's instructions say to spray it until wet and it was like magic the wrinkles disappeared and it tightened up around the board. You have to use unwashed canvas for it to shrink so that is something to remember especially if you always wash your fabrics when you bring them home - DON'T WASH THE CANVAS!!

This large pressing board sits on the top of the old kitchen island cupboard that we moved into the sewing room.

To keep it from slipping and sliding off the cupboard I had John put some 2"x2" pieces of wood along the sides.

As you can see from this photo of the backside the boards don't come all the way to the corners - they really don't need to. We set the boards in about 1/4" from the edge of the cupboard top so it would be easy to put on and take off but would still keep the board from getting dragged or bumped off. John used screws to attach the side boards and I had to check each one as he was putting it in since they were almost a little too long. I could feel the tip of one so had him back off the screw a little as I didn't want it coming through the fabric on the front.

The green you see is the felt that I spray glued to the backside to cover the wood and the staples used to attach the canvas. Sprayed the felt on some newspapers laid out in the garage then quickly brought it into the house and laid it in place. Didn't want any of the over spray getting on my floors or furniture. That stuff doesn't come off very good - at least my experience with sticky floors and kitchen cupboards one other time were a mess to clean.

This board is pretty heavy so don't think I will be moving it very often. I did have John cut 3 smaller boards 16" x 20" and round the corners. A couple of friends plan to come over and we will cover them for more portable pressing surfaces.

Now I need to get something "quilty" going so I can test out my two new things.

Until later....
Lynn

Threads Across Nebraska

I spent three days in Grand Island helping at Threads Across Nebraska this last weekend. My good friend was chairman again this year and I agreed to be her helper. She could have me fill in where ever she needed help so got to sell raffle tickets, sit with one of the premiere quilters quilts while she had a break to shop and study the rest of the quilts on exhibit. I also got to work at the front desk but high finances are not my thing! I took photos of all the quilts, details of a few plus overviews of the display area from above.

The event is held at a indoor stadium so it is great to take photos of the whole show from above. There were 30 something vendors situated in the center and quilts were displayed around the outside and one display hanging on the pipe and drapes behind the vendors booths. This photo was taken right before the show opened.

The featured quilters this year had such wonderful quilts to look at. This first one is Carol J.Falk from Nebraska City, NE. She does wonderful piecing, hand and machine quilting. I would say that most of her quilts are original designs or her own variations of traditional patterns. Carol has won numerous awards on her quilts. She is pictured with her quilt "Ocean Drift".

This is a detail photo of another of her quilts "Prairie Sky Diamonds".

The next quilter is Molly Anderson from Minden, Nebraska. Her quilts are wonderful pieces of art. She constructs the base of her quilts of hexagons then appliques, does embroidery, hand quilts and beads them. The quilts are all hand done, exquisite! She has started matting and framing some of her quilts now too. Molly is standing in front of "Pink Roses" and "Kitty on a Rug". Look for Molly's quilts in gallery showings around the country as she has done many and will probably be invited to have many more showings.

This is a detail photo of her "Pea Fowl" quilt.

Sharon Flueckinger of Kearney, Nebraska showed her wonderful hand applique and hand quilted quilts at Threads. Her work is so nicely done and very beautiful. She is standing in front of her quilt called "Circle of Flowers"

Detail of the applique on another of her quilts "2000 Millennium Grapes".

Another outstanding quilter featured this year was Sandi McMillan from Albion, NE. Sandy is a winner of many State Fair Champion ribbons as well as winning awards in national contests. She is a great teacher and has taught once at our guild but we need to have her come back again sometime. She hand and machine appliques and does the most wonderful machine quilting on a domestic machine. Quilts pictured here with Sandy are "Webster Garden" (the blue one) and "Sandhills Pride" that is a quilt that features cattle brands from her family and others.

Detail of "Folkart Sundae"

Paulette Peters of Elkhorn, Nebraska is next in line here. A lot of the quilts she exhibited at this show were pieced wallhangings - all her original designs. Paulette does wonderful applique and hand quilting as well as pieced and machine quilted quilts. She also has won numerous ribbons at the State Fair and has exhibited nationally. On the left in the photo is her quilt "Colorado Aspens" and on the right is "North Window".

The detail is of Paulette's quilt "White Poinsettias"

Another featured quilter this year was Stella Schaffert of Marquette, Nebraska. Stella does a variety of styles and types of quilts. She wins awards at the fairs and has taught quilting classes around the state. On the left is Stella's quilt "Country Memories" and on the right is "Starry Path".

Detail of thread painting in Stella's quilt "Nebraska the Good Life: Wild Flowers, Wild Life and Goldenrod".

Mary Sue Suit of Sydney, Nebraska was unable to attend the show but we are so glad her quilts made it. She does a variety of quilts and has hand and machine quilted them. She has won awards on her quilts many times. The one pictured below is "Star Bright".

This is a detail of Mary's quilt "Lazy Daisy".

Since it is a rainy day today we are not harvesting so John is playing catch up with other things and I get to spend the day in my sewing room. YeeHa!

Lynn