Are You A Topper?

I recently had the great fortune to work with serger and sewing expert Nancy Bednar for an overlocker event at Quilters Quest in Woodridge, IL. During the event, she talked at one point about being a "Topper." You know, the person who loves to put quilt tops together but then send them out to someone else for finishing. I instantly thought about the stack of finished quilt tops in my sewing room, paired with a backing, ready to quilt. I wondered to myself, am I secretly a Topper?

I have no excuses really. I have a Gammill Longarm setup in my basement. But sadly, it is mostly used as a storage shelf for UFOs. The store where I work has a thriving longarm services department. One day I caught myself thinking, if I ever attempt to make a Judy Niemeyer pattern I would have Longarm Bob custom quilt it for me. Oh my, that's a slippery slope. I have all the tools at my disposal here at home. But do I have the patience, skill and creative talent? Can I overcome procrastination? Am I a Topper?

Are you a Topper? What parts of the quilting process to you enjoy most and least? Leave me a comment and we can support each other in self discovery. :-)

Participating in the the 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge! #31dayblogchallenge

Sew Together Bag Continued

This is as far as I got when a horrible flu virus took hold very early Sunday and has still got me in its grip. Not only was this NOT fun in any way shape or form, it broke my 31-Day Blog Challenge. Well sometimes life does indeed get in the way of art, so I'm not going to stress over it, but will commit to make up the days in January 2017. I'll be on a roll by then.

Not much more to do on this bag but sew the second side binding (I opted to hand-sew the second edge for a nicer look), and apply the long/top zipper. It's looking good - better and cleaner than my first attempt. Since I'm planning to use this in my purse or for travel and I am not inserting the pin and needle keeps. Actually the images below give you a pretty good idea of how the bag is constructed. Click on images to ENLARGE for better viewing. Fabrics are Cotton + Steel.

Participating in the the 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge! #31dayblogchallenge #cottonandsteel #sewtogetherbag

Sew Together Bag

This morning the ladies in my quilt bee are gathering for our monthly meeting and instead of us each working on our independent projects, we are going to all make the Sew Together Bag by Sew Demented. You can see many great examples of this bag here on Flickr. Here is a very helpful set of additional detailed instructions by the Quilt Barn which complement the pattern in a great way.

I decided to shop from my stash and pick out a bundle of Cotton + Steel fat quarters and the only thing I ended up purchasing was 3 of the 4 zippers. We have some homework to do before we meet to speed up the process, to have all the pieces cut, interfacing applied, and the outside of the bag pieced and quilted. You can see mine below! I have a passion for selvage edges and Cotton + Steel selvages are SO creative. so I decided to use one on the outside of the bag as a focal piece. Stay tuned for images of the final project! (Click on an image to ENLARGE for betting viewing.)

Here are some photos of my first Sew Together Bag. I just love this thing! It can be used for a sewing organizer, makeup, travel bag, jewelry, etc.

Participating in the the 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge! #31dayblogchallenge #cottonandsteel #sewtogetherbag

T-Shirt Memory Quilt Tutorial - Part 3

Most blocks will fit nicely in the 14" x 14" format. Some will not. There are many ways to build your 14" blocks using smaller images.



Sometimes a t-shirt is very small and there just isn't 14" of fabric to work with. In this case, I trim the image down to a nice square, then add a coordinating cotton quilting fabric on all four sides, then trim the entire thing to 14" square. Press seam allowance to the outside. Add it to your block pile!

Long, skinny images can be sewn together in a stack, and then trimmed to 14" square. Four chest sized logos can also be sewn into a square. I usually press the seams OPEN when sewing t-shirts directly to each other to reduce thick/difficult seam intersections.

At this point in the process I have a pretty good idea of how big the quilt will be. Generally I can get a nice sized lap quilt from 9, 12 or 16 blocks. A twin would be 20-24 blocks. Double, 24-30 blocks, and so on.



Once my blocks are made, I sketch out the quilt layout, determining the final size of the quilt and audition coordinating fabrics for the cornerstones, sashing, borders, binding and backing. This can be hand calculated on paper, or I use a program called Electric Quilt to do the same task on the computer. I'm able to enter my finished block size, and play with the size of the sashing and borders to build the quilt out to be the desired size, in this case about 50" x 70" a generous lap quilt. In EQ I can also play with color selections, but I usually do that by hand. I write detailed notes on the printed layout regarding how much fabric is needed, and how it needs to be cut.

I try to choose fabrics that tie together the various colors in the t-shirts so they blend somewhat. I tend toward choosing the brighter colors and so far this has worked very well! Tone on tone fabrics are also great if you have various shades in a particular color.

Next we'll piece the quilt top.

T-Shirt Memory Quilt Tutorial - Part 2

Let's get started!



One shirt at a time, trim off neck, sleeves with seams, side seams, bottom edge, to make a large, rough cut about 18" square.



Layout bolt of stabilizer on cutting mat with bumpy (fusible side) up against wrong side of t-shirt. Trim stabilizer to be just smaller than t-shirt.



Keeping the two pieces together, transfer stabilizer and shirt to the press or ironing board. Place press cloth over area to be pressed. Spritz with water from the squirt bottle. Press for 10 seconds, then move to next section until t-shirt is entirely pressed.



When ALL the shirts have been fused, use a ruler to find the shirt with the LARGEST image. Give yourself a little extra space around this image for seam allowance and find the next whole number. This will determine your block size! Most of the time my blocks are 14" square. I keep everything in whole numbers as this makes the assembly of the quilt top easier to figure. Trim all blocks to the same size. This is where the large square ruler really comes in handy. You can also place a mark on the ruler at the 7" (halfway) point to help center the image in the square.

T-Shirt Memory Quilt Tutorial - Part 1

What do you do with an ever expanding stack of t-shirts collected over the years from vacations, sporting events, gatherings, school, etc? When life gives you t-shirts, why not make a t-shirt quilt?

I make many t-shirt quilts every year for my clients through my company, West Branch Studio. This series of blog posts will take you through the process of creating one of these special memory quilts.

Tools needed to get started:
t-shirts or clothing to be used in the quilt
fabric scissors
rotary cutter (mine is 60 mm)
rotary cutting mat (mine is 24" x 36")
rotary cutting ruler (mine is Creative Grids 16.5" square)
iron or ironing press
large scrap of muslin to be used as a pressing cloth
squirt bottle with plain water in it
light to midweight iron-on stabilizer
sewing machine in good working condition with walking foot

I usually buy my stabilizer by the bolt and have successfully used Pellon P44F, P911FF, and P906F in white. If I don't have time to get it through my wholesale supplier, I will use a JoAnn's 40% off coupon and buy an similar bolt locally. I figure about 18" of stabilizer per shirt. In reality less may be used but it's always good to have enough stabilizer for a few extra shirts just in case.

A regular household iron will work just fine, but takes much longer than a press. My press is dry (no steam), so I use a squirt bottle to provide some moisture on top of the pressing cloth when I'm fusing shirts. I set the press to a little cooler than cotton, and I press for 10 seconds at a time. My machine beeps at 10 seconds so this is very handy.

Next post - prepping the shirts!

Bloggers Quilt Festival

The Spring 2010 Bloggers Quilt Festival is now underway, thanks to Amy's Creative Side. I stumbled upon her blog and have had a great time browsing all the blogs and quilt entries, it is truly inspiring! I have not posted to my blog in ages, and this was the perfect opportunity for me to update my look, share a quilt I made, and make a new personal resolution to write nearly every day (well try anyway).

The quilt I'm sharing was made in 2005, and because I'm so busy working, sewing and creating for other people, I rarely get to make anything for myself! This is one of two baby quilts I made in the same style and fabrics. The original was made for my husband's cousin who had a baby boy very prematurely. I loved it so much I made one for myself to keep. The fabric selection is also special to me, it reminds me of my Hilda, a smooth fox terrier who lived to be more than 15 years old. Hilda lived with me before I met my husband and had a family! She is still missed by all of us.

Head on over to Amy's Creative Side to see the rest of the entries in the Bloggers Quilt Festival!

Scissors Sharpening

Nice quality fabric scissors such as Gingher deserve a little TLC sometimes. In some areas it may be difficulty to find professional sharpening and repair for scissors. I recently read that Henry Westpfal & Co. out of New York City, as well as Gingher themselves offer mail in service for your shears at a reasonable price.

http://gingher.com/pages/repair-and-maintenance/4/

Henry Westpfal & Co.
212-563-5990

Some tips for keeping your scissors in good condition:
- Don't use sewing scissors to cut anything other than fabric, ever.
- Keep scissors away from moisture and humidity.
- When blades lose their sharp edge, use a reputable sharpening service.