Quilters Threads Newsletter
September 15, 2007

http://www.quiltersthreads.com

Online Class Offerings Now Available for Registration

Quilters Keep Learning Program

In response to requests from our customers, we will offering a few select classes this fall. Classes will start October 12. Sign ups are available immediately The classes are 4 weeks in length and will cost $40 each. These classes are designed for the quilter who wants to learn a new skill. 

The classes being offered this session are:

Artistic Free Motion - Instructor Lynn Majidimehr- teacher and the owner/designer of LAM Designs

Do you ever wish you could free-motion quilt? Join my free-motion quilting class and learn how! We will work on large collection of quilting designs, from the simple stipple, to the fantastic feather. Each week you will learn more, and your confidence will grow as you practice your quilting. If you wish, you may also start a stitch sampler to use as a springboard for ideas when you are working on quilts in the future.

Beginning Machine Applique- Instructor Kris Jacobsen

Capturing the View in Fabric- Instructors Diane Harman-Hoog and Kathleen Headley of Quilter's Threads

This is so easy you will wonder why you have not done it before. It is so exciting to have a scene pop forth in fabric of a picture you loved. The Quilt of the Month in this issue was done by Kathy using these techniques.

Your First Quilt - Beginning Quiltmaking _ Instructor Diane Harman-Hoog

Even if you have made a quilt or two but would like some solid basic information on quiltmaking, or if it is your first quilt you will have no problem with this project. I will add some some more advanced techniques for those you are interested. This is a pieced quilt done in Diane's folksy style of teaching. No question is too elementary, and the quilt police do not pay visits.

Unlike the Quilt in a Day books promised, you cannot make this quilt in a day, but you can make a quilt in the month of classes. Makes a great Christmas gift or decoration for yourself if you want to choose appropriate colors for that holiday. Your choice of two easy patterns, or make them both.

I know that you will love all these classes. I learned to dye fabric from Cherie and what fun! Our goal as quilters is to make quilt addicts of everyone!! The first time I appliqued anything, I said never again. I cannot tell you how many applique projects I have made since that statement - maybe 200. The first time I paper pieced, I said never again, that is now my standard way of piecing. The difference is learning the right ways to do it, alternative choices to try and shortcuts. so sign up with us and explore!

Basting a Quilt

In the previous column in the last newsletter I covered several ways to baste a quilt. As my age and disabilities increased so did my pile of unsandwiched tops. And I love to quilt. It is my favorite part of quilting besides the design and color selection. Something needed to be done. I am going to describe the first thing I tried and then my usual method and follow up with a new to me method that was discussed on the Janome Yahoo Groups List. Now the only unquilted tops I have are those where I am still trying to make a decision on how I want to finish them.

Method 1 - Adhesive Spray

First I tried quilt sprays. I used the Sullivan's spray and then decided to use the more concentrated Sulky spray. These worked well for me.

Pros

• Did work as advertised to adhere the layers together

• Could pull it apart and reposition it as needed

• Provided a secure adhesion for many types of batting

Cons

• Spray is toxic and must be used in well ventilated area. The Sulky KK 2000 Temporary Adhesive Spray is less of a concern in this area.

• Still needed a larger area to work on requiring more stretching and standing

There is some disagreement whether to spray the batting or the fabric. I believe that the batting is the correct way to go. Spread the batting out flat with no wrinkles. Spray very lightly with adhesive spray. Lay a well ironed backing over it, smoothing out all wrinkles from the middle outward.

 Turn this assembly over and spray the other side of the batting very lightly, smooth the top over it. secure the corners and edges with a few safety pins and then quilt.

Method 2 - Basting on the Ironing Board with Fusible Batting - I prefer Hobbs, my second choice is Mountain Mist

This is the method I use most often. Before I start, I check to make sure the corner and edges of the batting are relatively square, either line up the corner and check the edges with some thing you know is square, like a table top, or use a carpenter's T-square. It does not have to be perfect, but rather you need to know that the edge does not veer in or out drastically as you may occasionally find. If it does, trim it with an old rotary blade. Basically I use a high stool or sometimes even a chair and adjust my ironing board to a comfortable height to work on. I spray starch and iron the top and the backing. Then I spread the top out on the ironing board face side down. At the wide end of the ironing board I align the batting with the top, extending the batting out about 2 inches further than the side. I smooth out the sandwich in the area that is on the ironing board and around it. Then I lay the backing face up on the top. It's edge matching the edge of the batting along the top edge and side. I Steam iron that area in place and work my way along the side and as far into the middle of the quilt as will fit on the ironing board and keep moving more of the edge onto the board as I iron, the quilt will start to pile up on the floor in front of you and you will have as much as as half of the width adhered when you get to the far end. Move your quilt so that the top edge is again on the ironing board and the next part of the width can be ironed. After I have ironed the whole thing, I turn it over and smooth out any wrinkles that appeared on the top. I re=iron those areas. Then I pin a few safety pins around the edges and corners.

Method 3 - Uses cut-up fusible "confetti"

Set up  with the regular batting on your ironing surface. Cut a light weight fusible into small pieces and sprinkle over the battling surface, you do not need too much. Spread your backing face up over the batting and iron. You will have to move the assembly around as you would have in Method 2, only using the fusible  pieces on the batting that is on top of the ironing surface at that time. When you have all of the backing adhered turn the assembly over and sprinkle your confetti over the batting as before and iron you top down.

I hope that these methods help someone else out. I mostly use Method 2 for large quilts and Method 3 for smaller ones.
 

Crater Lake by Kathy Headley

Kathy created this beautiful quilt from a photo of one of her favorite places, Crater Lake Oregon. It is a beautiful lake of an impossible blue that formed in the crater that was left when Mt Mazama blew its top thousands of years ago. At over 1943 feet deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in the world

This technique will be taught in the upcoming classes at Quilters Keep Learning see the listing above.

Kathy started quilting about 5 years ago. Her first major project was a handmade Dear Jane Quilt. She has since been busy providing her family with quilts. This is her first departure from the traditional  style.

Thus is a National Park picture of Crater Lake.

http://www.nps.gov/crla/

Impromptu Contest Results

Hints From Diane

Suggestions for what to do with the Magenta Mylar envelopes that we ship products in:
I open the envelope up and lay envelope templates down on it and make new envelopes. I usually have to paint the paper myself 1st, then once I cut them out, I stamp them and embellish them with things and use them to send mail to friends. Often referred to as mail art. 
If the envelopes are large enough, they can also be opened up and re-used as gift wrap paper for small gifts. 
They can be cut up or paper punched to use in scrap books or for kids art as well as adults. Lexy Tibbetts

I want to suggest a use for Mylar.  It can be used under embroideries with a low or loose stitch count.  Many designs are  digitized that way for effect.  What a nice surprise you get with the sparkle or shine of the Mylar surface peeking from underneath the embroidery.  Most designs have a dense enough edging that will naturally cut off the mylar  and it can be peeled away from the outer edges.   It stays fast under the stitching.  Just use a little caution when pressing, and press from the back into a fluffy towel surface (iron not too hot) the way you should press an embroidery anyway. Jean Beckstrom
 
 

Actually a hint from Marie. Instead of pin basting, Marie bastes with water soluble thread. This is an excellent solution of a quilt that requires a lot of intricate quilting and you want to be sure that you do not wind up with any excess fullness.
Marie, says that it is easier to thread baste at the point where the quilt goes over the edge of the table. She uses one of those long banquet tables.

My ironing surface is a large gridded mat. I put a piece of plywood underneath it and put the plywood on the top of a dresser that I use to store fat quarters.When I talk about basting on an ironing board, I actually mean a regular ironing board as you can adjust the height.

Use some of the Sulky KK 2000 Adhesive Spray to place applique pieces.

The way it was	The way it is	Mt St Helens

My husband, Carl and I took a week of vacation last week. We first went to the area around Mt St Helens which is about 3 hours from us. We camped at Iron Creek Campground which is a forested campground on a glacial river. It smelled wonderful with the pine, fir and hemlock mix we get out here. The next day we drove into Mt St Helens. It has been almost 30 years since its eruption and about 20 years since we had been there. We keep hearing how much the area has come back, but we were actually surprised by how little difference there was. When I went there a few years after the blast you drove for miles through this primordial forest and all of a sudden emerged into an area where all the trees had been blown down. This went on for miles and miles of desolation of trees all blown down in the same direction. The main difference is  that except in the Monument part of the State Forest the trees were pulled out for lumber. The picture to the right shows Iron Creek Campground which is what the area around the mountain was like. A picture below shows the downed trees that are still there. We drove into Windy Ridge which gives the visitor a view of the volcano up close, but not into the crater itself. You can see that Mt St Helens was giving us a view of the smoke coming out and that area it is coming from is the dome that has been rapidly rebuilding with in the crater. Throughout the monument there are small stands of fairly small trees. The tallest of these were seedlings at the time of the blast and survived due to shelter by the blown down trees.

We continued down through Eastern Oregon to Bend. My goodness, I was there in the early 1980s and the population was about 12,000 as I remember, now it is almost 100,000. It is in a beautiful setting with high mountains and lots of lakes and also lot sof lava beds. We were there the day after Labor Day and a cold fall like day was in store for us with all the tourist areas already shut down.

Mt Hood, Oregon	Smith Rock, Oregon	Fall Flower

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