|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quilters
Threads Newsletter
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Announcements |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SALE
|
The next classes start March 7. If you have signed up, you will receive an email with class access directions March 5. Please follow all the directions to prepare for class. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sign Up For Our New Classes |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
OUR NEW CLASS WEB SITE IS UP AND RUNNING. CHECK IT OUT Quilters Keep Learning The March and April classes are listed below as well as on our site. We may add a few more classes in the April time frame. I am very pleased by the caliber of teacher that we are attracting and feel confident that our classes are excellent learning experiences. Artful Creations with
Angelina - $40 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hints From Diane |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Here a few more computer hints for you. I am teaching a class to show
you the basics of getting around on your computer, what word processors,
spread sheets and graphics programs can do, and some generic operations
in these applications.
I am assuming that the student can get on the computer and send email.
After this class, you will have a really good foundation for moving on
to doing new things on your computer. There is a key on many keyboards called the Windows Logo Key - it has what looks like a flying 4 paned window on it, Here are some hints using this key : •Windows Logo Key : Start menu (brings up the Start Menu) To use the following shortcuts highlight what you want changed. If
your text is already bold, for example, using Ctrl-B will take the bold
away. And don't forget about right click. Right clicking on many objects brings up a menu of choices. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Featuring Three of Our Teachers Sherri Dodds Class: Dollmaking and Embellishment |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Liz Kettle Classes: Passport to Sewing with Specialized Threads |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Liz has been playing with fabric and thread for over 25 years. While she
has made many traditional quilts (and still does on occasion) she began
exploring collage and mixed media approaches to her fiber art 5 years
ago. Liz loves thread almost as much as fabric. During the quest to
learn more about the fabulous specialty threads on the market today Liz
and Debbie Bates (partners in sewing crimes) developed the Passport
system to teach other sewists all they ever wanted to know about thread
and more. With this system they start with some important basics and
once those are mastered they invite you to explore the possibilities
that all those yummy threads have to offer. Liz and Debbie are the
authors of Stitch Journeys your Passport to Sewing with WonderFil
Specialty Threads. While this book is specific to the threads from
WonderFil the lessons apply to all threads. Liz lives in Colorado, in a world of happy chaos with her 3 boys, 2 cats, 1 husband and 1 dog. She homeschools, reads and chases pocket gophers out of the garden when she isn’t in her studio. Visit her web site http://www.goddesswithindesigns.com to see more of her work. Do you hear
the siren song of all those fabulous specialty threads urging you to
take them home to play with? Do those same sexy threads leave you
frustrated and annoyed? In this class we will start with some basics
about needles, threads and stabilizers, learn how to tame the dreaded
tension issues that cause those threads to make us want to tear out our
hair. Once we have mastered the basics we will get start to play! Learn
how to use those heavy threads in the bobbin and in your quilting. You
will create a reference sample workbook that we call your Passport. This
delightful little fabric book is a tool that you will find yourself
referring to again and again |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liz at Wonder-fil booth in Houston | Liz' Houston Quilt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Changes by Liz Kettle |
Liz with grandson Kris |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liz's Alzheimer's Quilt | Liz's Alzheimer's Quilt Detail | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| If you are quilting or embellishing a fairly large quilt. Tie some thin ribbon in a bow onto several safety pins. When you make a mistake that you want to come back to, pin a bow on the spot. This makes it easier to find. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
More Hints From Diane |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I recently submitted this as an email to a yahoogroup I am on. It is
about getting started with freemotion quilting. We do have a basic
machine quilting class and an artistic free motion quilting class
available in our online classes if you need further instruction. The secret is to free motion quilting is practice. We have an excellent online class for free motion quilting (Artistic Freemotion Quilting) which even includes a couple of video clips to clarify techniques.
If you
are not going to take the class, or even if you are, make yourself a
practice sandwich about 14" square. Pin it together with a few
safety pins. Freemotion quilting is like drawing with a pencil,
except that since the machine needle is the pencil you have to move
the fabric around instead.
Use a
ruler and divide the surface into about 9 areas to start.
Freehand draw or trace a simple design in a couple of the squares. I
do not lower my feed dogs but most people do. Using a free motion or
darning foot, stitch as close to on the line as you can. Do
not worry about not staying right on the line, you will normally
washout the lines so there is nothing to show that you strayed. If
you really go out of the area you wanted to be in, then stop, move
back to where you wanted to be and take several small stitches on
top of the correct line and then continue on you can take out the
mistake later. Don't get discouraged. In my opinion this is the
hardest type of quilting to follow a line.
Start
or stop the stitching by taking a few small stitches, not quite in
place, but close together. If you take them in place, you get a
knot.
After
you do that then try to write your name by stitching in another
square . The reason for this, is
that it is mentally imprinted in your brain, so your brain knows the
motions. Now on a piece of paper draw a design like puzzle pieces
with one continuous line. Go over the line with your pencil several
times, now try the same design idea with your machine and fabric.
Fill up
the rest of the areas, with things like loops, stars strung together
by curving lines and the like. By the time you finish, you will have
enough of the idea to start. By the time you finish your queen size
quilt you will be really good.
If I am
going to use designs for my quilting, I draw or trace them on Solvy
stabilizer (which washes out) and pin them in place. Often you can
ideas from the motifs and echo the lines, or add to them (like
veins on leaves).
When I say to "puddle the quilt" I mean: You let most of the quilt just pile up and make an area like a puddle
that you are going to work in, instead of trying to quilt the whole
quilt at once. You just quilt a smaller area at a time and when you
move, you just smooth out the area you are going to work on and leave
the rest piled up around it.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I Was Thinking About This The Other Day | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
As some of you know we have 3 large retrievers. I love dogs, but not dogs that have a reputation for being aggressive or mean. The really fun thing about having 3 dogs is watching the interactions that occur between them, Our oldest dog, but the most recently acquired is Shasta who is almost 16. She is a lab cross. We got her from Petfinder.com I have a bad habit of browsing there and saw that this old, blind female dog needed a home. We were about to leave for Europe, so we decided that if she were still unadopted when we returned, we would take her. Her eyes were destroyed in a fire. When we first got her she got around extremely well. She loved to go to the beach and run where she knew she was not going to run into anything. We thought we would have her for a year or two and would make her last year happy. Well, 5 years later, we still have her. She is slower. Carl says he takes her out for a sniff, not a walk, her hearing is going, but she has a real joy of life. The exception is when Carl leaves for work in the morning - she is devastated. She cries and howls until she butts the door to the garage open and goes out there waiting for him to come home in the evening. She loves a good hug and the outdoors. Our middle dog, our beloved Golden Retriever, Jessie is 12. We think she may have cancer as she has an attached lump growing on her shoulder. Our plan is to just keep her comfortable as long as we can and love her. I got her as a puppy and introduced her to DH wearing a big red bow as it was Christmas time. She was all flop and a little pointy tail, She chewed every thing. She particularly liked cookbooks, So I have a number of cook books without a cover and with ragged page edges. Jessie is our peacemaker. The other two dogs occasionally fight and Jessie comes shooting in from her usual state of napping and breaks it up. My own personal dog is Margeaux. DH picked the name. His mother and I wondered if he met someone when he was in France! She is a gorgeous Chesapeake Bay Retriever. She "talks" a lot with all sort of sounds. She is insane over potatoes and will carry on like crazy until she gets one. I keep my potato cupboard closed with a rubber band securing the door because if she is mad at me, she goes and gets herself a potato. This is a breed that I was not familiar with when I brought her home from purebred rescue. We had her for several months before she barked at all. I had just decided maybe she couldn't but she barks from the tip of her toes with a roar. These dogs have a tremendous personality, but they do like to run the household. When my daughter's young dog is over visiting, Margeaux will not let her near Shasta or our cat, Jaxon. We have had two of these three dogs for a long time and it seems as if this is the way, life should be. But, we will have to say good bye to these fur children very soon. It is so sad that dogs come and make such an impact on our lives and then depart all too soon. This brings me to thinking about other dogs of my life. Our last one was Brandy. She was a Black Lab, Golden Retriever cross. She was an awfully good dog. She enabled me to get back into life when I divorced. I took her hiking and camping by myself and she was a watch dog for those nights when I was not used to being alone. She lived to be 16. She loved chocolate and when it was obvious that she was in the process of dying, I gave her a large candy bar, figuring she would just go off to sleep and die from it. It did not work that way, but she did enjoy the chocolate. My kids brought her home to me one Halloween when she was a tiny puppy. I had been very upset when the previous dog died and said I did not want another dog for a long time, but the kids kept asking what kind of dog I would like if I had a dog and I said either a Golden Retriever or a Black Lab, so they decided to get a 2 for 1. She got her name because when their father took them to pick her up and bring her home, they went to the pet store to get her a bowl and the liquor store was next door with an ad for Brandy in the window. So the dogs and grandogs have added up over the years. Spanky, Spanky2, Duke, Tammy, Chumley, Malcolm, Saber, Annie, Jazz, Amber, Bailey, Nessie, and more. I cannot imagine life without the "girls" as we call the three of them. But somehow they will pass over and we will move on to find other friends.
I want to include part of a blog from my friend
Catherine Porter
http://www.catyport "I was walking along,
taking pictures in the snow. Angel ran on ahead to the pond. I
looked, and she had gone onto the frozen pond, and I thought "that's
OK" because I had seen that the temperature was 17F and it had been
really really cold for a couple of days. But Angel went out further
onto the pond and suddenly the ice broke and she fell in. Out there
nearly in the middle. She swam but couldn't get out.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
You are receiving this email because you were formerly a subscriber to the webofthreads newsletter, subscribed via the Quilter’s Threads web site or are a friend of Diane . Please feel free to forward this newsletter to someone else. To subscribe to this newsletter go to www.quiltersthreads.com and click on the subscribe link. To unsubscribe reply to this email with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject field. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
