Using a Camera in Your Quilting
and October Free Quilt Block Patterns

 

 

Greetings -

 

Border for the Halloween Quilt

 

Fabric shopping is complete - I think - and hopefully borders will be added in short order!

I found this fun shingle-looking fabric in a weird shade of greenish-brown in my trip to the fabric store. It seemed perfect for the outside of a quilt named Trick or Treat at the Haunted House.

My stash contained a basket-weave type fabric in black and brown, so that is now slated to become a narrow border between the candy corn and the shingles.

Decisions made, time to get sewing!

You can get the patterns and instructions showing how to sew the blocks together:

Trick or Treat at the Haunted House Halloween Quilt

Even in this economy, business is great, and I am needing some help in getting things done.

Below you will see a description of some of the things I need help with. To date, I have been doing all of these things myself, and have been somewhat disappointed that I haven't had time to develop more information and conduct more webinar training for you-all.

The addition of talent to help in these specific projects will enable me to devote more time to the creation of something brand new! More about that when I get some helpers ;-)

Happy Quilting!

Master Quilter

m mouse is getting ready for Halloween - not to worry, the hat is just a figment of his imagination

 

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Are You Ready for Halloween?

Now You Can Make a Fun Halloween Quilt That Will Have Your Family and Friends Asking Where You Bought It.

This Quilt is So Easy to Make, It Can Easily Be Finished
Weeks Before Your Trick-or-Treat Doorbell Rings.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.

I'm not sure whether it's the notion of dressing up and pretending to be something different, or watching while others get roudy and have fun.

I'm certain it isn't the candy. A trick I learned from my mom - put the candy in the freezer and wait for the kids to ask for it. (After they enjoy a few pieces after the Trick-or-Treat adventure.)

In any case, to me Halloween is just fun, and a great excuse to make a kind of goofy quilt. (Not in the Disney sense.)

When I finally decided to create a Halloween quilt, I chose a bunch of different blocks, made them, and then realized that they weren't the same size.

Some were 9 inches, some 8 inches, and one or two were 12 inches. Thus, the challenge of putting them together into a quilt.

After some consideration, I decided to put them together by adding fabric on two sides, thus creating an Attic Windows effect, and the Haunted House idea.

Now, you can get the instructions for making each one of the blocks, adding the window frames, sashing and candy corn borders.

This is an easy quilt to sew together, and it makes a fun wall hanging or quilt for a sofa - it's about 40" by 60" without and additional borders.

Here are the blocks, and as you look above, you can see how they are sewn into a quilt.

Check it out: Halloween Quilt

This is on sale only during the month of October!

 

Popcorn Quilt Block	Candle Quilt Block	Cats and Mice Quilt Block
Broken Dishes Quilt Block	Ghostwalk Quilt Block	Snail's Trail Quilt Block
Spider Quilt Block	Pumpkin Quilt Block	The Bat Quilt Block
Witch Quilt Block	Crowfoot Quilt Block	Toad in the Puddle Quilt Block

 

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A Camera for Quilting

We all have our own favorite items in our sewing boxes. Some might favor a particular thread or needle. Others might have a favorite lap quilting frame. While you may not always keep it inside your sewing box, you may already have an important tool on hand and not even know it.

Do you own a digital camera? If so, consider it a quilting tool!

Why?

Cameras are a great way to catch a mistake in your quilt top. For some reason, the camera “sees” things we don’t with our eyes. Maybe it is because we have had the pieces of fabric in front of us so much that we know how it is supposed to look and just don’t notice that we have got two blocks exactly alike in right beside each other our sampler.

I encourage you to utilize your digital camera as a tool to help you catch mistakes. Lay out your quilt top on a bed or on a display board if the quilt isn’t too large. Step back or step up (on a step stool) and snap a picture of your finished product. If you can’t see it all,  photograph it in sections, then examine the sections together on your computer screen or print them out and view them together. This is a great way to make sure you have sewn the pieces together correctly following your color scheme and pattern.

Of course your digital camera is an even bigger necessity if you sell your quilts online. Taking a photo of your quilt to advertise on your craft sales website is a great idea. No one likes to buy without seeing something first. Your digital camera gets your products out there in front of your customers very quickly!

If you make quilt patterns to sell, your digital camera double duties as a how-to camera. By snapping photos as you work through your piecing and or quilting process, you can include helpful pictures to share with your students or anyone who purchases your patterns.

Your digital camera can also come in handy for helping you create virtual “stash.” If you snap a picture of a flat piece of fabric, then upload the images into your computer. You can add that into your Electric Quilt (EQ) program or you can print them out and piece together a paper “quilt block” to determine which fabrics you want to use!

 

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Quilting Stitches

We love your questions, and it seems that this one in particular is a topic of great interest:

Q:  How closely should quilting be done on a quilt?

 

A:  One reason for quilting stitches is to keep the layers together:

This purpose dates back to when quilting began.  As you visualize two layers of fabric covering a piece of batting, the idea was to make sure that the layers traveled together, and that the batting inside stayed where it should be.

The quilters of yesteryear used cotton batting that was made without the benefit of needle punching or other manufacturing techniques that keeps the batting in one piece.  So, really, the only thing that kept the batting in place were the quilting stitches. 

The batting was likely to move quite a bit, so it was necessary to keep the quilting stitches close together – usually no more than 1” apart. 

There is probably some batting still available today that would require stitching that close together, although with the current processing, most readily available batting can be quilted much further apart.

Hobbs Heirloom makes several different types of batting, some natural, some synthetic; some blends, and has compiled a report about the different types of batting and how closely the quilting should be.  A quick click will get you to the report: Report on Quilt Batting.

In general, I have found that quilting stitches about 4” apart serve the purpose of holding the layers together and keeping the batting from separating inside the quilt, if you use batting that is bonded or has a scrim.

This quilt had to have quilting added after it was bound - because the layers separated.

 

That said, I ran across an interesting situation when I made a quilt that used one piece of fabric with some randomly-placed blocks that were set-in.  The quilt is actually a wall hanging, and measures 41” by 68,” and I used wool batting. 

Since it is a kind of space quilt, my original plan was to quilt the partial outline of a sun at the top, with sun rays extending down past the floating 3-dimentional blocks.  I used black thread to match the background fabric because I was more interested in having the blocks be the center of attention.

Once it was finished, I proudly hung it on my wall.  Much to my dismay, the places that weren’t quilted became like little tunnels between the stitches!

Needless to say, the quilt came down from the wall, and more quilting stitches were added.  It was then that I realized the dynamic of seams in patches and blocks.  It would seem that the stitching of the blocks together creates stability in the quilt top and apparently eliminates the need for extensive quilting.

Lesson learned.

 

Another purpose of quilting is to make a great design and enhance the beauty of the quilt

Given current manufacturing processes, this is more likely to be the determining factor when you decide how much quilting to put on your quilt.

My experience is that when you have a solid fabric or a relatively simple quilt design, having extensive quilting adds a lot to the quilt.  Once I did massive quilting on a fabric that had a very “busy” design, and none of the quilting was to be seen.  It would have been just as effective to stitch in the ditch every 4.”

If you have an interesting block design, or if you are doing appliqué, your quilting stitches can make something either stand out or fade into the background.

Applique quilt with quilting designs that enhance the picture.

One of my all time favorite quilts was made for my daughter, Stephanie’s, 5th grade teacher and her new baby.

Stephanie liked the picture on this thank you card, so we decided to make a quilt using the design.

The fabrics are mostly hand dyed, and relatively solid.  The pattern in most of the fabrics is created from the variation in the dying.  We used quilting stitches to get some texture and an idea of the various feathers, fur, spots, etc. on the animals.

Looking back at the space quilt, I used quilting stitches to make the blocks stand out, and the more intricate quilting stitches to make the rest of the quilt fade into the background.

This leads into the second question: What kind of stitching can be done on a log cabin quilt?

Like so much in quilting – you can do pretty much anything!  But, that’s not really too helpful.

The thing about log cabin quilts is that there are tons of patches – which means lots of seams, and usually fairly small expanses of fabric.  Generally the logs in a log cabin are 1- 1½” wide, which doesn’t leave much space for fancy quilting designs without crossing a lot of seams.

While stitching across seams is not difficult, sometimes it interferes with the flow of the quilting design. 

To keep it relatively simple, on log cabins, I usually stitch in the ditch.  Sometimes I have added a second row of quilting 1/8” – ¼” away from the first row.  Or, if your log cabins make a definite design, such as hearts, you could quilt around the pattern, leaving the actual pattern unquilted so it will stand out.  Then quilt fairly heavily between each of the patterns, so they recess into the background.

Hope that helps!

Happy Quilting!

Penny

 

 

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Help Wanted - Join the How-to-Quilt Team!

 

 

This could be a fabulous opportunity for the right person!

I need help. After all these years doing my own web work and writing the quilting how-to articles, I am realizing how much more information I could provide to you, if I had some help.

I could just go hire a random web person, but I am hoping to find a quilter among us who can do the work.

And, if I could find someone who could write quilting how-to articles as well as post the information to the web, that would be fabulous!

Here is what is involved:

• writing 300-500 word articles demonstrating how to do specific quilting techniques. An example is this article about chain sewing blocks
  • articles could include experiences about quilts you have made or be simple demonstrations and explanations of a technique with photographs
  • topics could be chosen by you, or I can provide a list of possibilities - there is a wide range (obviously!), and I have a list of the articles I have already written
• writing 300-500 word articles about ideas for quilt tops. An example is this article about a Double Irish Chain quilt.
  • these articles can about your quilts, or other quilt designs. They need to be about quilts that are not copyright protected (patterns from books, magazines, or individual patterns you buy online or at a store cannot be used).
  • the idea with these articles is to give quilters inspiration for their quilts, and can include a general description of how to make the quilt, or something special about the colors or fabric in the quilt
• posting pages to the website - once the articles are written, they need to be posted to the website:
  • formatting the pages as well as articles that are written by others
  • adding search engine optimization per specific criteria which I will provide
  • designating the URL according to criteria which I will provide
• other website work - yes, there can be more! I have several auto-responders which could use some attention, and there are videos and articles to post in TheQuiltingCoach.com. That site is a template-based cfm site, making it easy to post.
• EQ6 or EQ7 - I am also looking for someone to create and post quilt block patterns for the QuiltBlockLibrary.com. This is very straight forward, and requires the ability to make multiple page pdf files.
  • each pdf file includes:
    • a color picture of the block (sized to fit on one page)
    • full-size templates
    • appropriately sized rotary cutting layouts
      

This work could be done by several different people - there is no requirement that one person be able to do everything!

And, if - for example - you are interested in doing articles about techniques but not about quilt ideas, just let me know; there may be another person who is interested in articles about quilt ideas but not techniques.

The web person does not need to be a quilter, but there will be some keyword research involved, so it helps to know something about quilting and quilters - and how they search for information online.

If you are interested in writing articles, please write one and submit it to me at: help-penny@how-to-quilt.com and put "Article" in the subject line. Of course, if you have a website you could post it to as an example, that would be excellent.

If you are interested in the website work, please send an email with a description of your experience and some examples of your work: help-penny@how-to-quilt.com. "Website Work" in the subject line.

If you are interested in the EQ6 or 7 project, please send an email with a quilt block pattern attached: help-penny@how-to-quilt.com. "Quilt Block Design" in the subject line.

 

Thanks and Happy Quilting!

 

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Postcard Quilts for the Troops

Christmas Roundup Next - Deadline November 18!

 

Home for the holidays?

Those soldiers who are still in the Middle East will be missing the holidays, and you can do something about it - create a tie to their homeland by making a tiny fabric quilt.

That's right a fabric postcard in keeping with the year-end holidays is all it takes.

A few minutes of your time can make a world of difference to a soldier who is hanging out in the middle of a foreign country.

Diane sends these cards to soldiers who don't get much mail from home, and they are much appreciated.

We want to keep Diane doing the Penny's Postcard Posse project, but she is terribly allergic to smoke. So, if you can be sure that your fabric postcards are smoke-free, it will be much appreciated!

Check out the postcard patterns on www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com I will continue to add designs, and patterns for the fabric postcards are always free.

 

To make the Holiday deadline, get your cards to Diane by November 18

Please send your cards to:
Diane Malaznik
14215 Westmore St.
Livonia, MI 48154-4149

 

Diane is doing a fabulous job keeping the pictures updated, and if you have sent cards in, let your friends and family know that they can see pictures of them here: www.Fabric-Postcards.com

 

Remember you can get FREE postcard patterns at: www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

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Last week, the Sugar Bowl quilt block pattern was left out of the packet - whoops! It's there now - so if you missed it, just click to download again.

These free October FREE quilt block patterns will make your summer quilting fun. These quilt blocks include easy blocks as well as some that are a little more difficult.

Click here to download your October FREE quilt block patterns

 

Basket Weave	Bat Wing	Crow's Nest	Duck Tracks
Fish Tales	Fox Chase Biloxi	Leap Frog	Pinwheel Square
	Spider Web	Turkey's Dilemma

Click here to download your October FREE quilt block patterns

 

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