Quilt Chick Blog

I would love to point you all in the direction of a new and upcoming quilt blog called Quilt Chick. This happens to be one of our members who has decided to try her hand at blogging. She has a journalism degree, teaching degree, teaches various quilting classes and happens to be the president of our guild. In her first offering Kelly Kroon does a product review on this lovely gadget. So click on over to Quilt Chick and check it out.

Lurline's Dresden Plate Tutorial

Isn't this the most different Dresden plate block you have ever seen?  This was made by Lurline of Lurline's Place Blog in Australia.  She is one of the blogs we follow here at RAQG.  Lurline has given me permission to take a picture and send you on over to her place for the tutorial.  Thank you Lurline for your hard work and for allowing us to feature you.  I just love that block.

I was so taken by the colors and by how different this is from your ordinary, everyday Dresden plate block.  She has a wonderful tutorial on how to do this block.  It is really worth the click over there to see.  Click here to see the tutorial.  The tutorial is very well done with great pictures, instructions, and tips.  If you stop over there, please remember to thank her for her work.  She went through a lot of trouble to do that for us.  Also, please mention we sent you over.

This tutorial will be in our tutorial section for fast reference in the future.

Happy New Year everyone!   As we say/sing here at RAQG, "May You Quilt All Your Life".
Debbie

Piped Binding

Remember this quilt from our December meeting Show and Tell?  Kelly Kroon made this quilt for her brother.  She still was going to put a piped binding on it after the meeting

She did get that done and sent along the following two photos.  The method she used was taught to her by Marla Yaeger. She based her method on Debra Wagner’s method from the book “Traditional Quilts, Today’s Techniques.” The book is out-of-print, but is available on Amazon.  Kelly and all of us are looking forward to learning Susan Cleveland’s method and seeing the differences and similarities. The essential tools for what Kelly did were a #10 presser foot (Bernina), her stiletto, the binding tool she received from her lovely secret pal, Alice and a Sewline marking pencil.  Excellent job on your first try at this technique Kelly!

Tool Time Tuesday Blog and Tutorial

I have sent you this way before for the Bucket of half-square triangle tutorial.  Karen at Sew Many Ways has a post every Tuesday called Tool Time Tuesday.  She comes up with the most amazing ideas for uses of things usually from the hardware store.  Guess what she used this stuff for.

She uses it to help her get the perfect 1/4 inch seam allowance.  Please don't just take this idea and use it though without clicking over there to see her tutorial on setting up your machine.  She has some very good pictures and hints at setting it up accurately.  Plus, you are going to want to get this stuff off some day, and she tells you how. 

Merry Christmas from the Reedsburg Area Quilt Guild, 

Debbie

Christmas Party and President's Quilt

We had our Christmas party for the December meeting, and great food and fun was had.  These are such a great and talented group of ladies.  Friendships are growing.  I count myself very fortunate to know most of them.  As the years pass, friendships grow.  My heart is full from the love and support I get from many of them.

We finally finished and presented our 2008-2009 president's quilt.  Here it is along with past president (presentee), Sherri Enke and current president, Kelly Kroon.  It is a very hard job to keep 30 some women happy at the same time, and these ladies earn that quilt.  I have great admiration for both of them. 

Here is a close up shot.  Sherri's chosen theme was birdhouses.  We have some hand applique, machine applique, hand painted, silk ribbon embroidery, paper pieced, embroidered, and other techniques all represented.  Sherri's reaction was pure joy.  She sent the following response:

I just want to thank all of you wonderful and talented ladies for my BEAUTIFUL president's quilt. Words cannot describe how much being apart of this guild means to me. You have created an heirloom for my family. This quilt truely means a lot to me. Again, I must say thank you for teaching, guiding, and growing with me through this wonderful experience.

Sherri Enke
President 2008-2009

We revealed secret pals for the past year.  All were truely touched by their partner.  We had an exchange gift also for those who wanted to participate.  The food was heavenly.  Hopefully we will be able to get a few of the recipes on the blog for those asking.

Tip of the Month

Lucille Dierking brought in the tip of the month:  For an inexpensive cleaner for the bottom of your iron, heat up your iron and run it over a fabric softener sheet.  It takes the residue right off.  Thanks Lucille.  I am going to try it today.

Make and Take Project

Kelly brought scraps and taught everyone how to make yo-yos and gave ideas where to use them like pins, gift package decorations, and ornaments.  It was a very fun and quick project.  Thanks for the ideas and tutorial.

Show and Tell

Shirley Alexander made this wonderful quilt from leftovers from the Stars Across America quilts we all made three or four years ago.  Does Shirley have a good stash or what?  It was sheer genious the way she put this together and set it.  It was a really stunning quilt.

This was also a stunner.  Kelly made this for her brother, I think as a wedding gift if I got that right.  The colors were SO spectactular.  I will post a closeup of the inner part next to hopefully do better justice to just how beautiful this quilt was.

I hope this gives you a better picture of just how pretty this was.

Sherri Enke made this quilt from Eleanor Burns called Day and Night.  This quilt was features just last week on her show on RFD channel.  It is a very difficult pattern that has been simplified by Eleanor.  VERY nice job Sherri.

I apologize for the blurriness of this picture.  This is called Origami Wreaths.  It is folded and tacked into place.  We will have a mini workshop on this at our next meeting.  Lynn Butler is again responsible for this unique project.  I don't know how she finds them, but she has a knack for locating them.  We look forward to this next month.

Tammy Scradel (forgive me Tammy for murdering the spelling of your name) made this adorable bear quilt.  It is totally hexagons hand sewn together. 

And this ends the reporting of our Christmas Party 2009.

Respectfully,

Debbie

Figuring out yardage for Quilt Backings

Today I am going to attempt to help you figure out how to cut and buy the correct amount of fabric for the back of your quilt.  This will be featured in the tool section as Backing Chart for quick reference in the future.

This chart assumes your fabric is 42 inches wide.  You will have to make adjustments if your fabric is a different width.   This first section will feature five different options for piecing the backing depending on how big your quilt is for the optimal use of fabric.  I did do the drawings below, but someone else figured out the math, and I am not sure who to give the credit to, as someone gave me these numbers.

These options will give you a piece big enough to back your quilt, but you will have to trim in most cases after putting the quilt sandwich together:

OPTION A: No piecing.  Just cut to size.

OPTIONS B AND C:  Cut the backing fabric in half crosswise (selvage to selvage), removing the selvage first and then sewing the two pieces together lengthwise on the long edges.

OPTIONS D AND E:  With this option you cut your fabric in thirds crosswise again, (selvage to selvage).  Sew the three pieces together lengthwise along the long edges.

Backing size  Option    Yards
28" x 28"           A            1
28" x 40"           A            1
34" x 44"           A            1 1/4
40" x 52"           A            1 1/2
42" x 56"           A            1 3/4
48" x 54"           B            3
48" x 60"           B            3
52" x 52"           B            3
56" x 68"           B            3 1/4
58" x 62"           B            3 1/2
60" x 72"           B            3 1/2
60" x 80"           B            3 1/2
62" x 86"           C            5
62" x 92"           C            5 1/4
66" x 105"         C            6
69" x 96"           C            5 1/2
76" x 110"         C            6 1/4
86" x 105"         D            7 1/4
86" x 115"         D            7 1/4
90" x 110"         D            7 3/4
96" x 110"         D            8
100" x 111"       D            8 1/2
106" x 116"       D            9
112"  x 110"      E            9 1/4
124" x 116"       D          10 1/2
 
Another method to cut a backing is diagonally.  This was first developed by John Flynn of the Flynn Frame Company while trying to help his sister. She had a piece of fabric which wasn’t quite long enough to cut in half and sew back together with a vertical seam to get a quilt back. Her idea was to cut the fabric into two big triangles along the diagonal, offset the triangles along the diagonal cut to get the width she needed and then sew them back together.  John, having an engineering background had a formula to help her.  John’s method for diagonally piecing a quilt back from one piece of fabric is the most efficient way to make the back whenever the width of the quilt back is one and a half times, or less, than the width of the fabric you plan to use. For example, if the width of your back fabric is 44”, use John’s method whenever the width you want your back to be is 66” or less. If you are using fabric that is 60” wide, use John’s method whenever you want your quilt back to be 90” or less.  This is explained at his site very well
here.


This formula is mathmatically complicated for my mind to grasp, but someone has taken his formula and made a tutorial and calculator to help you.  You will find this calculator and tutorials on different variations of the diagonal cut backing at:
 Multi-Patch.

I hope this was helpful to you.  Once again, you will find this permanently in the tool section for fast reference.
Debbie

Free Quilt Patterns at Quilt Patterns from Seattle

For those of you who are new to this blog, it is dedicated to being a resource for quilters throughout the world.  We try to feature things on the Internet that will help quilters do their projects.  We have links to everything in our sidebar from free half square triangle papers in all sizes to colorwheels and patterns.  This is a jumping off place to help you in all of the technical aspects of your quilting.

Today's post features Cindy from Quilt Patterns from Seattle. 

She has offered quite a few quilt patterns with nice pictures of each.  There are also some border designs available.  Most quilts have size options and color options with a downloadable pattern you can print out.  It seems like there are as many patterns for whole quilts here as on Bonnie Hunter's site.  Cindy invites quilters to come on over and use her patterns.  Please pay attention to the rules about selling her patterns or mass production.  These are common sense rules, but for those new to the Internet or quilting, we need to be careful about what we take from others.  This is someone else's hard work and creativity.  We need to give credit where credit is due.  We cannot sell other peoples pattern as our own. 

This is just one example of Cindy's designs, and there are MANY.  Check her blog out and enjoy what she has designed.  Thank you Cindy for all of your hard work.  We really appreciate it alot.  You are very generous.
You can find Cindy's designs at Quilt Patterns from Seattle.  We will have a permanent link to her designs in the Blocks and patterns section in the sidebar.

Enjoy,

Debbie