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Quilters Threads Newsletter
January 1, 2008

http://www.quiltersthreads.com

Announcements

SALE- All Patterns 30% off. Use Coupon Code PS30 when you order to receive the discount - SALE

Over 100 patterns of all kinds on sale

Eldrid Royset Førde  became a grandmother for the second time yesterday with the birth of a new grandson, Hayden Benjamin. Congratulations to Eldrid and family on his safe arrival.

Sign Up For Our New Classes

Check out our new class website http://www.quilterskeeplearning.com Our classes are growing rapidly so I decided to develop a web site to present class information. The registration link still takes you to the store to checkout, but the site will give the teachers and I a place to present more information to you. Classes start January 18 and go for 4 weeks,

There are still some slots for almost all classes. Treat yourself to learning a new skill. You can go straight to the registration page if you wish.  http://www.quiltersthread.com/store/January2008.html or follow the links from the Quilter's Threads home page. See pictures of some of our teacher's work below in newsletter. We have classes for both the art quilter and traditional quilter.

  • Artful Creations with Angelina with Bente Nysaether Malm
    Artistic Free Motion with Lynn Majidimehr
    Bargello - Creating Colorful Curves with Eldrid Royset Førde
    Basic Machine Quilting with Sharon Baggs
    Beginning Electric Quilt and Beyond (EQ6) with Luann Bruce
    Beginning Electric Quilt and Beyond (EQ5) with Luann Bruce
    Capturing the View in a Landscape Quilt with Diane Harman-Hoog
    Creating Memory Quilts with Kids with Cherie Ekholm
    Color it My Way with Cherie Ekholm
    Fear No Color with Susan Sorrell
    Making a Patchwork Jacket from a Sweatshirt with Diane Harman-Hoog
    Think Like An Artist with Pamela Allen
    Which Way to Applique with Kris Jacobson
     

A new list of classes for March will come out at the end of January.

Hints From Diane

 
How do you cut binding for your quilt?

I typically cut 2 1/2 inch strips for binding. This gives me a double thickness binding.

Cut your binding the length of your fabric for almost no stretch to the binding.

Cut your binding the width of the fabric to give a slight stretch to your binding. This works for most purposes, including quilts with rounded corners.

Cut your binding on the bias for maximum stretch. This works for most purposes, including scalloped bindings.

Did you know that you can put rounded corners on many quilts and not have to miter the corners? My kind of binding!! Take a plate or other circle and mark a rounded corner. Use something to mark how you positioned the plate on your quilt. Tape on the plate to mark the plate edge intersection with the quilt edges works. Mark and cut all corners the same way. You should use crosswise or bias cut strips to go around the curves.

I cut my bias strips using the Shape Cut from June Tailor. Line the 45 degree line up with the edge of your fabric and cut multiple strips.

A Few Computer Hints for You
When I knew that I was going to be getting a divorce and would be needing to support my kids and myself, I went to graduate school at the University of Colorado to get an MBA in Information Systems - which basically was in computing systems. It was a really good time to do this as that was the year that the IBM PC came out, soon to be followed by the Lisa and then the Mac from Apple..

I worked in computing for about 20 years before having to retire on disability from Microsoft. I had no idea that I would so intensely be using my computing skills in this business. I have a teacher lined up to teach a computing class for quilters in March, but in the meantime, I thought I would share some things with you.

I find to my surprise, that a few shortcuts that I consider essential are unknown to many users today.

  • First of all to switch between screens, use Alt-Tab. This allows you to rotate between all your open programs.
  • Closely tied to that are Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V and Ctrl-X.
  • Ctrl-C copies whatever you have highlighted to your clipboard.
  • Ctrl- V pastes whatever you have in your clipboard to where you have your cursor when you use these keys
  • Ctrl-X is a neat combination. It removes whatever you had highlighted to the clipboard (it does not just copy it, it takes it out) and then Ctrl-V puts it  where ever your cursor is.
  • Alt-F4 closes the current window.

Let's put them together. I have an address in Document 1 that I want in Document 2. I highlight the address, use Ctrl-C to copy it, Alt-Tab to go to Document 2, paste the address in Document 2 with Ctrl-V , Alt-Tab back to Document 1 and close it with Alt-F4.

That is the first set of shortcuts.

Another neat tool that many people do not know how to use is the Print Screen key (Prt Sc). Using that key on your keyboard copies everything on the screen into your clipboard. Then you can paste it into an open document and edit it, print it or whatever. A good use is to take a web page with information you want to keep or include in another document. Using Print Screen captures the information for you.

Always wondered how to capture that error message to tell the Help Desk about? Many times Print Screen will do it.

Now you know one of the reasons I am surprised when people tell me that they cannot copy or print information in my newsletters. If you for some reason cannot print the newsletter, you can always use one of the tricks I have mentioned here to capture the information.

Featuring Two of Our Teachers

Bente Nysaether Malm - Quilter and Mixed Media Artist

Class: Artful Creations With Angelina

Bente lives in Hardanger Norway. We were very fortunate that Eldrid Royset Førde had seen Bente's work and suggested that I contact her about teaching online classes. Bente writes me the following letter:

I live in Western Norway, with my husband and my dog. I have one grown-up daughter, she and her husband live in the neighbourhood. I have been quilting for nearly 20 years, but it “took off” about 10 years ago, and after that, I have been dependent on it.

Sometimes I like to do ordinary patchwork, but I have a lot of fun trying all the new stuff. And I really like to make new textures on fabric. There is not much support for this in Norway, so I have to find my inspirations on the internet and in books. One of my favorites is to make landscape quilts. I love to put tiny pieces of fabrics together and sew free motion on them.

I have a Bernina with BSR-foot, and love that for quilting, but when I do thread-painting  (drawing with threads), I prefer the ordinary darning foot, because I need to feel that I have the control, and feel that it’s me who does it…. (maybe that is because I used the darning foot for this for years before I got the BSR foot)

 When it comes to Angelina, I have used it in different ways, it has so many possibilities. I don’t like very shiny stuff (glitter and similar things), but Angelina is so much more. It is made of polyester, and melts when you iron it. It comes in a lot of different colors, and you may blend the different colours. The colour changes with different heat. You can make it shiny or old and matte. It can be added to other embellishments. It can stand water (handwash).

In this class we will make the portfolios in the three first lessons, and in the last lesson I will describe other ways to use Angelina and a short description  on Tyvek, and Tyvek beads. I will use my Flickr-album, and tell how I used the Angelina in different techniques. You may look in my album for a preview.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bentenmalm/  to the right on top of the page, you will find a set with a few photos for this class, and there is a set named Angelina. You may find photos of Tyvek and Tyvek beads with searching at top of the page.

This is Bente's first class in English and from what I see she is doing great. These multilingual ladies amaze me. I wish I had those skills.

 

Bente Nysaether Malm

Rose Wallhanging

 

 
This is the portfolio  that Bente is using as a class project. The cover is Angelina and wool fibers.  

Landscape

Wallhanging by Bente

Tyvek beads

Bente's Dog Peik

Hardanger Fjord in Norway

Some of Bente's Patterns that she sells

Cherie Ekholm

Classes: Color It My Way and Creating Memory Quilts With Kids
Cherie lives in Washington state, about 45 minutes from my house and less than 5 minutes from one of my daughters. When I first met Cherie, she was a quilter. She did beautiful fabric dyeing and was kind enough to teach me how. I have really enjoyed doing this, but thought she was losing her mind when she decided to dye fibers as well. All those fibers have to be unwound and rewound, which to me is a bit tedious. Now that I see her results, I know why she does this. They are incredibly beautiful! Cherie is allergic to many things including wool, so she decided on using many of the "green fibers". Renewable fibers like bamboo, banana leaves and silk. She also has some synthetics.

Cherie is a fun person to know. We always laugh a lot. She still works at Microsoft, whereas I retired from there in 1999. She is a testing program manager. She owns a wheat farm in Eastern Washington. This is a family farm that has been in the family for generations. She is spending the week there this week and having to melt lots of snowballs out of the fur of her 3 dogs. Cherie used to have one aging Bichon. She had that kind because of the allergies. Her dog is getting very old, so Cherie decided to get a young dog too. Then she decided to rescue one for her grandfather who said, no thanks, so now Cherie has 3 Bichons.

Cherie decided to also be a weaver and mixed fiber artist. I personally kicked the weaver habit in the 1980s. She sells her beautiful hand dyed fibers on her website Farm Fresh Textiles. Cherie can not only help you learn to dye fabrics with amazing results, but also how to use them. She will teach you how to use some of those great fibers as well as your hand dyed fabrics in addition to dying them.

In addition to her other talents, Cherie is also multilingual, having lived and studied in France.

 

Cherie Ekholm and Diane Harman-Hoog One of Cherie's 3 Bichon  kids , Sam

Onesies dyed by Cherie, she sells them on Etsy

Weaving a pillow top of fibers she dyed

Fibers dyed by Cherie

Cherie's farm in Mead Washington

Marbles (class project)

Color wheel


 
 

It Could Have Been Significant

I had cataract surgery on my second (left) eye about 3 weeks ago. The surgery went very well and I started to get decent vision in it within just a few hours. There was something that happened that I want to make sure you all knew about. The next day, I started being very nauseated and sick to my stomach. I just felt terrible, had aches, chills, was very, very lethargic and had an almost overwhelming feeling that something was wrong. I did not have a fever. Sometimes fibromyalgia has days where it masquerades as the flu. But this went on for 5 days.

I knew that these were the symptoms of heart attacks for many women, but I just kept saying, not me. I was afraid the emergency room would think I was being ridiculous. I did go to see the doctor on the 6th day when I woke up and felt much better. My doctor was quite upset with me. She said it could easily have been a heart attack. It turns out that when she checked they had used a different anesthesia and that was most likely what caused the problem. (She says that she calls the one that they used "barf city").

Anyway, I was lucky. I will not count on luck if there is a next time. These are often the symptoms that a woman is having a heart attack:

  • Nausea and or vomiting

  • Aches, chills

  • Cold sweat

  • Headache

  • Lethargy/Fatigue

  • A feeling of dread

Please do not ignore them as I did. If I had been wrong, you might not have been getting this newsletter today. If the ER laughs at you, that is their problem and they may be responsible some day for a woman dying of unrecognized symptoms. If you suspect something is wrong, take an aspirin and call 911. The aspirin is because it is a blood thinner.

While I am on this kick, have you had your mammogram yet?

Love to all,

Diane

New Informal Contest

I often put little lessons in these newsletters like the embellishment series. Please suggest other topics you would like me to write about. As usual I will send a small gift for the first person to suggest a subject that I use. Other winners have enjoyed their little surprises. Email me info@quiltersthreads.com.

Coming Very Soon

The New Year will bring:

  • a new website for class information (it's here!)

  • sale on patterns - 30% off this month

  • more new products - The Thread Box software which allows you to store thread information and substitute thread colors.

  • and new classes

Watch for these announcements
I Was Thinking About This The Other Day

I really miss having children at home. I had a very good time being a day to day mother which is very different from being the mother of grown children and the grandmother of many,

I do enjoy having more time that I can use for myself, but I would give it all up in a minute for those days of motherhood. I particularly enjoyed when my children were teenagers and had so many activities and friends as well as were good company to share life with.

I thought you might enjoy this funny story. I was a single parent for most of the growing up of my youngest daughter and she and I had a lot of adventures together. In the late 1980s, I bought a house in Kent Washington. It was situated on the lot so that the house behind us was only about 15 feet from the back sliding door. Most of the lot where we had a vegetable garden was to the side of the house. One year, I noticed bees going in a hole in the door off the patio to the garage. It was one of those hollow doors.

After watching it for a few days, it became obvious that we had a very big bee colony living in there and I was concerned about people or dogs getting stung by the bees. I found a product that shot a long stream of pesticide from a distance away that was designed to get rid of bees in this kind of situation. I knew that the best time to go after them was as it was getting dark.

I did not know what the bee reaction would be to the pesticide and so my daughter who was about 16 and I prepared to do battle. We put on our long heavy winter coats from our Colorado days, gloves and boots. We got our lace table cloths and draped them over our heads with a hat on top so that we were completely covered.

We then proceeded into the back yard to do battle. Just as we armed ourselves with the spray cans, a real estate agent decided to show the house right behind us so there we were about 10 feet away all dressed up as the potential buyers appeared at the window. I don't think she sold the house to those people.

We did get rid of the bees and I patched up the hole. I have since learned it would be best to call a beekeeper to come get the colony, but at the time it was the only option we knew and we have had a good time over the years relating the story.

A peaceful and healthy New Year to all!

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