Applique...for the rest of us

Here is a step-by-step accounting of how Sandy goes about doing fusible applique.

Step 1: Trace my daughter's artwork onto tracing paper. Check.
Step 2: Redraw the tracing with a sharpie so I can see the lines better. Check.
Step 3: Figure out which order everything would need to be fused in so the pieces end up in the right order: mark pieces accordingly in traced drawing. Check.
Step 4: Give myself a serious pat on my back because everything is going along swimmingly. Check.
Step 5: Tape traced drawing down onto my plexiglass "light table" and trace drawing onto fusible. Check.
Step 6: Fuse all white pieces onto right side of white fabric. Oops.
Step 6 (take 2): Toss out fused white fabric. Find more white fabric in scrap bin. Retrace drawing onto new piece of fusible. Fuse onto wrong side of white fabric. Check.
Oops.
Step 5 (take 2): Toss out fused white fabric. Flip drawing over so it's in the reverse. Trace drawing onto fusible again, in the reverse this time. Check.
Step 6 (take 3): Fuse all white pieces onto wrong side of another scrap of white fabric from scrap bin.
Check and check.
Step 7: Fuse all orange pieces onto right side of orange fabric scrap.
Oops.
Step 7 (take 2): Toss orange fabric scrap, retrace drawing onto new piece of fusible, fuse onto wrong side of new orange fabric scrap.
Check.
Step 8: Fuse onto wrong side of yellow fabric. Give myself another little pat on the back for getting it right this time. Check.
Step 9: Fuse onto right side of purple fabric scrap. Really? Again? (Gutteral growl heard here.) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: Oops.
Step 9 (take 2): Toss out purple piece, retrace drawing, fuse onto wrong side of new purple fabric scrap. Check, for pity's sake.
Step 10: Align traced pattern, no longer in the reverse, under the applique pressing sheet. Set up all the fabric pieces in appropriate locations to check for setting. Check. Another pat on the back. Check.
Step 11: Start to pull all the stinking paper off the back of the fusible with no fingernails to speak of. Find a sharp pin to score paper to give me a fighting chance. Finally get all the paper off. Check.
Step 12: Pull paper scraps that fell on the floor out of the mouth of doofus Golden Retriever. Check. Throw doofus out of the sewing room. Check.
Step 13: Fuse pieces together on applique pressing sheet. Check.
Step 14: Cut a piece of black background fabric to size. Check.
Step 15: Carefully peel applique unit off pressing sheet--only almost losing one piece. Check.
Step 16: Align applique unit on background fabric. Fuse the darn thing once and for all, with flair and flourish, and a bit of a happy dance that--despite all the errors along the way--it's looking pretty dang cute at this point.

Check.

Machine Quilting with Alex Anderson: 7 Exercises, Projects & Full-Size Quilting Patterns by Alex Anderson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Machine Quilting with Alex Anderson is a good companion book to Beautifully Quilted with Alex Anderson. (See my review.) In Beautifully Quilted, Anderson teaches the reader how to create quilt designs from scratch--which is very useful, although the designs she presents are much more easily suited to hand quilting, which is her first love. Machine Quilting deals with this issue, albeit briefly, with a short section on adapting hand quilting designs to machine--continuous line--quilting.




As always, she begins with a brief description of equipment needs--partcular features that are helpful, although not strictly necessary, on a sewing machine; consideration of needles and some troubleshooting tips here; considerations for threads, marking tools, and gloves or other helps in free-motion quilting, pins, and basting.




The next section is entitled "Preparing the Environment," and has a lot of really good information on ergonomics, lighting, and other things to keep in mind to set yourself up for better success. I wish I'd known some of this when I first started out--I learned some of it the hard way!




Following is a section on "Preparing the Quilt," which discusses marking, the adapting of designs for machine quilting, and basting. Next, there is a section entitled "Getting Started," which addresses machine tension, planning your stitching strategy as she terms it (what direction you're quilting in when), handling the quilt itself as you maneuver it through the machine, starting and stopping, anchoring your stitching line, and a short section on troubleshooting. Finally, there is a section addressing "Techniques and Practice Exercises" to get you rolling before you tackle a first project. The exercises take you through grids/straight line quilting, curves, echo quilting, following the fabric motif, stipples, and so forth.




Then there are the requisite projects that all her books contain which help you practice what the book teaches. "Perfect Practice Placemats" give you a chance to practice every one of the techniques in a small and easily managed way. "Floral Fiesta" would be a quick quilt pattern to put together as the center section is simply a large-scale floral print that you then practice following with free-motion quilting. "All Geese A'Flying" is an adaptation of a flying geese block to give lots of room for grid and cable quilt patterns. "Scrappy Nine Patch" allows for more grid practice, but then the border is a cable which wraps around the corners, giving you the opportunity to practice measuring and connecting your border patterns. "'Round the Twist" gives large open spaces to practice motifs, and "Straight Furrows"--a log cabin setting--allows for free-motion straight line quilting. (I have more difficulty doing a straight line with free-motion than I do curves!)Finally, "Basket in Blue" is a wholecloth quilt which is a great final project to the book--wholecloth quilts make the quilting "the thing," so skill is important here.




The book also has a brief section on quilt labels and recommended resources, plus pull-out paper patterns with quilt designs she has used in the book.




This would be good for beginners to machine quilting--it takes you step-by-step through a process meant to build your confidence in this technique.




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Beautifully Quilted with Alex Anderson: How to Choose or Create the Best Designs for Your Quilt: 6 Timeless Projects, Full-Size Patterns, Ready to Use by Alex Anderson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I bought Beautifully Quilted a few years ago but just fell in love with it all over again as I pulled it off my shelf to review it. In terms of usefulness, I think this could easily be my favorite of the Alex Anderson series. I haven't done a lot with creating quilt designs that needed planning or marking, favoring free-motion quilting. But there have been plenty of times that I would have preferred to do something that required a little more forethought but wasn't entirely confident in my abilities to take it on. Now I see the possibilities in front of me and am hankering to take something on!




First is a section on "Tools and Terms," which describes basic tools that are useful in creating and marking quilting designes, from pencils and Sharpies to velum or tracing paper on a roll. I found myself making a list of tools I either didn't have yet or had forgotten where they'd run off to--and I'll note here that none of the supplies listed are particularly specialized. A plastic protractor like kids use in 6th grade math, butcher paper...easy to find stuff.




Next is a section on choosing quilting designs, discussing things such as filling the space, proportion, balancing the amount of quilting overall, background designs behind a main motif, and so forth. She also discusses ways to adjust commercial templates and how to transfer a design.




The next several pages are a wonderful gallery of quilts that highlight different quilting designs and shows how they add to the overall effect of a quilt. We all love the eye-candy, of course, but in this case it's very useful and educational eye-candy!




Following the gallery is approximately 20 pages of tips and techniques for drawing your own quilting patterns: grids, feathers, repeated motifs, and how to create a quilt design from an inspiration such as architecture or kid's drawings. Her instructions are extremely clear with excellent illustrations--it would be a very simple matter to take her information and create your own unique and original designs.




As with all of her books, there are several projects (five) that give you the opportunity to practice creating quilt designs. The quilt patterns are very simple blocks with lots of open space to highlight quilting, but that doesn't make them any less attractive.




That being said, I don't see myself doing the patterns in the book just to practice the quilting designs. Instead, the strength of this book lays in the 20 pages of techniques described in the paragraph again. I should also note here that the book does contain a tear-out section with full-size quilting patterns ready for use. But with her instructions in the book, I'm not sure I see the need for the patterns! I will also note that the designs she works with are more appropriate for hand-quilting than continuous-line machine-quilting, but with a little more thought and planning should be adaptable.




If you're not confident in your ability to draft your own quilting designs, I'd highly recommend this book.




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Kids Start Quilting with Alex Anderson: 7 Fun and Easy Projects, Quilts for Kids by Kids, Tips for Quilting with Children by Alex Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The concept behind Kids Start Quilting is an interesting one: write a book that gives a series of "workshops" that enable to reader to work with kids from ages 9-14 how to quilt. "Their approach to fabric and color was without the restrictions we adults seem to get hung up on. They were eager to get involved and learn. There were no gender boundaries....The kids were far more skilled and 'ready' than we had anticipated," Anderson states in her introduction. The book was based on real-life experience that Anderson and Liz Aneloski had in working with kids in this age range, so it's well tested.

The book is actually written for the kids themselves, but it has tips in it for adults working with kids. Honestly, I don't see a nine-year-old sitting and reading the book her- or himself, but perhaps a 14-year-old would. That being said, the book starts with a brief description of what a quilt is, the blocks that will be covered in the book, a list of standard mattress sizes, tools and supplies, some information about fabric, fabric grain, and preparing the fabric, and then it launches into "The Basics." The section on basics covers rotary cutting, pinning, stitching, seam ripping, pressing, settings, borders, backing, batting, basting, how to tie a quilt, hand quilting (nothing on machine quilting), and binding.

Then follows seven projects, including a split-rail fence quilt, four-patch, log cabin, "secret" sawtooth star, half-square triangle quilt, and then a sampler quilt which includes each of those blocks. The final project is instructions for making pillows from each of the blocks.

If you have kids and would like some help in teaching them to quilt, or think they'd be old enough and interested enough to work through the book themselves with a little adult assistance here and there, I'd think this would be a good addition to your library.



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Hexies

I woke up this morning with hexagons in my head. I blame Jaye.

You see, Jaye can be a bit of an evangelist about hexagons. Really. Last night she and I got tweeting back and forth about hexies and she talked me into it. In 140 characters or less. Amazing. Granted, she caught me at a weak moment--it was closing in on midnight my time so my brain was beginning to get fogged with sleepy-time thoughts. I was in a suggestible mode, I suppose, while she was still cranking on all her west-coast-three-hours-earlier perkiness. But there it is, officer. I can blame no one but myself. I have agreed to allow hexies to enter my life.

When we finished our conversation last night, I was thinking a mix of scraps and fat quarters. But when I woke up this morning, there was a full-blown hexie quilt in my head in blues and creams/beiges. So I suppose it must be done. (To badly misquote the well-known baseball movie, "If you dream it, it will come.") It looks to me like I have sufficient stash of blue and neutrals to pull off the 30-or-so different fabrics Jaye recommended. Since some of those blues have been on my shelf awhile, it seems legitimate to scrap-ify them. I may throw in another color just for kicks n' giggles. We'll see what happens when I start slicing. What mood strikes. Or whether I'm designing when I'm on east coast or west coast time.

Jaye's introduced me to a fast way to cut hexies--looks like it can be attributed to Kaye Wood, given some of the links she's provided me. The cutting isn't actually what worries me. You see, this whole conversation began on the topic of Y-seams. Like, "Gee, Jaye, I've been quiltmaking for over 10 years and I've never done a Y-seam." "Easy-schmeasy," she replied, or something along those lines. (Ok, so maybe I've never heard the phrase "easy-schmeasy" come from Jaye's mouth--or, more appropriately, her thumbs on a cell phone keypad via twitter--but that's my east coast translation of her west coast philosophy.) She's promised to teach me her (once again) easy-schmeasy approach. I trust her. I think.

I'll let you know when I become awash in hexies. I may need someone to throw me a life preserver.

2011 Quilty Resolutions Check-In

Those of you who are listeners will recall that I encouraged everyone to make some quilty resolutions (or goals) for 2011. There was even a fabric give-away involved--yay! In any case, lots of folks did make their resolutions and I really enjoyed reading all of them. (For those of you who haven't heard it yet, here's the episode.)

It's not quite the six-month mark yet, but I thought I'd do a quick check-in with where I stand on mine so that I can assess what I've managed to accomplish and also remind myself of what I still have left to do.

I realized I actually had two sets of resolutions--one that I posted on the podcast page, and another I posted in a different quilt group I'm involved in. They overlap a little but not as much as I'd hoped. So here are both lists combined:

1. Use five days in 2011 as personal quilt retreat days.
Assessment: I've spent more time quilting on each of the two days I've had so far, but can't say I've been able to set a day totally aside as a quilt retreat day. I need to get more intentional about that.

2. Take two quilt classes (preferably in person) My other list only had one in-person class as a goal.Assessment: I took part of one online class through QuiltUniversity but let it slide halfway through. However, I do have an in-person class coming up this weekend at my guild quilt retreat--we have the opportunity to take a thread painting class during the retreat. I'm in!

3. Use or donate 5 books from my quilt library. My other list had "use two books from my library for projects."
Assessment: I've given at least 10 books away to other quiltmakers, and have a stack to take to my guild retreat for the silent auction this weekend. My MIL's "Floral Bouquet" quilt was made from one of the books in my library. So I've met one version of this goal and am halfway on the other.

4. Make two holiday projects sometime before the holidays so I have them in time to decorate (and not just on Thanksgiving day or Christmas eve!).
Assessment: not yet!

5. Use at least one jelly roll and one charm pack from my stash.
Assessment: I used one jelly roll in the "Floral Bouquet" quilt, so this goal is half met. I'm sure I'll use at least one charm pack since one of my holiday projects is likely to be a charm pack table runner pattern.

So--halfway through the year and I'm halfway through my goals! What about you? If you had submitted goals for my challenge, you'll probably find them here. (If you emailed them to me, they wouldn't appear in the comments. I did manage to get at least half of you connected to a spreadsheet I'd set up in Google Docs to help us all track but Google Docs was giving me fits and I was never able to get the other half connected. Sorry about that!) If you aren't a listener or didn't submit any goals but still have some of your own, let us know how you're doing!

Finish It with Alex Anderson: 6 Terrific Quilt Projects, How to Choose the Perfect Border, Options for Edges by Alex Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"In some ways, making a quilt is like parenting a child: your best intentions for them may not be the road they choose," begins Alex Anderson's Finish It with Alex Anderson. (Well, OK, it doesn't quite exactly start with that sentence, but the sentences appears within the first couple of paragraphs.) Her premise is that quilts often make their own decisions about how you should finish them, and she does outline some instances in which that happened for her in Finish It. If you're looking for some basic information on border treatments, this is a good resource.

The book begins with a section on basic quilting tools that are specifically relevant to border-making, such as a tape measure (which I don't use for anything else in quiltmaking, frankly). The other tools are pretty standard stuff--"Be sure your machine is in good working condition," "Use a quality cotton thread," and so forth. I don't know that the section was necessary--one would think by the time you got to making borders you already knew you'd need good thread and a working sewing machine. But for some reason all quilt books in the last decade include basic quiltmaking information, like a brand-new quilter might pick up a book on finishing a quilt before she'd ever even started one, and would try to learn how to quilt from it. Perhaps, I suppose. I would have rather seen that page used for something else, such as further discussion on allowing the quilt to talk to you in determining borders. (She started out in such an interesting way but then doesn't come back to that whole line of conversation much.)

Next, however, Finish It then moves to the crux of the matter: "Border Basics." Here there are sections on things to think about in terms of border proportions and other design matters, squaring up the quilt, measuring for borders, cutting and grainline, stitching borders, and border options (butted, mitered, partial-seam, corner squares, pieced borders, self-bordering quilts, and applique and quilted borders), with basic instructions or considerations for each. Good information, well presented.

The next chapter is "Edge-Finishing Basics," including a section about binding: straight-grain vs. bias binding, figuring binding length, double-fold, preparing the quilt for binding, squared corners, mitered corners, methods to end binding, and scalloped-edge binding. This chapter also includes directions for creating folded piping and prairie points.

For some reason, the book then has a couple of pages with "general quiltmaking basics." See my comments above on my thoughts on that in this case. I will say that some of the general quiltmaking basics here do specifically reference borders. And it's only two pages, so it's not overly prominent. But still, I'm just sayin'.

As all Alex Anderson books do, Finish It then uses six projects to give quiltmakers the opportunity to experience different border treatments. "Rail Fence" is a self-bordering quilt (in other words, the blocks themselves become the border by being done with a different color treatment). "Amish Baskets" is a medallion quilt which uses corner blocks in each of the borders: the two narrower inner borders just have a corner square of fabric; the main outer border has corners of basket blocks. Additionally, this quilt also uses piping along the binding edge--an opportunity to play with two techniques. "Unknown Star" has a pieced border of half-square triangles. "Irish Nine-Patch" has a scalloped border (on which Alex used a scrappy pieced bias binding that's quite cute). "Butterfly" has prairie points, and the final project, "Scrappy Triangles,' has a very lovely appliqued border.

There isn't a single Alex Anderson book that I don't like on some level. They're always well written, have easy-to-follow instructions, and they start with the basics and then challenge the reader to move just a little beyond. Finish It offers solid ideas and guidance for several traditional methods for finishing a quilt--it does what it sets out to do very well. In the grand scheme of reference books on border methods, however, this one doesn't stand out for me. It's good, just not great. Finish It with Alex Anderson: 6 Terrific Quilt Projects, How to Choose the Perfect Border, Options for Edges



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