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3 – D Fiber Art and Spinning Stars

September 29, 2019 2 Comments

The small challenge in our ThreadBenders group this year was called 3-D Boxes with Covers. Here are the rules:

“The box may be any shape and made from any material. It must be no smaller than a 6″ cube and no larger than a 15″ cube. It must be able to stand on a table on it’s own. At least one side has to open and the inside must be visible. Some portion must be quilted (three layers held together with stitching).”

The resulting pieces are a fascinating array of unique containers made by a very talented group of fiber artists. You can see them all at: https://threadbendersblog.wordpress.com.

Making my “box” was an adventure and I’d like to tell you a bit about it.

I had no idea what to do at first, so I decided to go through my UFO bins and find an unfinished project that was yelling for me to do something with it. What surfaced was 4 “Spin Star” blocks made with a wild Jane Sassamann fabric.

I needed to make one additional “Stack and Whack” style block, leaving the bottom of the box available for a piece of the original fabric – so everyone could see what the blocks started from.

The rules stated that the box needed to have a portion that opens to reveal the inside. I decided to have an entire corner of my box open. This presented some interesting logistic problems. Three sides of my cube could be finished as simple squares before putting the box together. That would be the fabric on the bottom of the box, pictured above, and these 2:

The remaining three sides needed to be made as 3/4s of a square, with the last 1/4 finished separately so it could swing open.

To make the sides stiff I used plastic mesh canvas, batting, and Pellon Decor Bond™. I layered each block with the batting and quilted it first. Then I put the rest of the layers together and beaded through everything to hold them all in place. Once each side was complete I sewed it all together by hand.

Three flaps open in a top corner to reveal the inside. I found the box was still a bit wobbly at this time, so I glued in some wooden stabilizers (painted black).

The flaps struck me as boring, so I decided to make them more interesting by adding a portion of one of my favorite Scripture verses to each: “Ask and you shall receive, Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened onto you” Matthew 7:7. It fit well on the three “doors” of my box.

The closure was a bit tricky. I glued flat glass beads onto pins, stuck them into the edge of the flap, then I attached metal rings to clasp them.

The “doors” didn’t lay as smoothly as I had imagined, but it was my first attempt – and I can live with it ?.

I learned a lot along the way and love my new piece of art. Sommer and Trey keep wanting to fill it with toys, but that will have to wait until after our 3D boxes have been exhibited. If you know of a venue that would like to show all of our pieces, please let me know.

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Class update!

My Spin Star class has been one of my most popular workshops over the years. In it we make 4 blocks that can be placed in a table runner or wall hanging. And it’s amazing how different they can each be!

I’m scheduled to teach it again at Sew Much More in Waukesha on Friday, October 11th. Click here for all the details!

While you’re there, please check out my “Snow-people Topper” class too. I’ll be teaching it on November 22nd.

The batting in this project is polar fleece, and it peeks through to make the faces.

Quilting really makes me smile!

Squash Books

September 22, 2019 1 Comment

Wendy and I recently hosted a reunion for quilters who have traveled with us on any of our past eleven trips.

We asked them to bring along their projects and photos from their travels, and it was a lovely time for remembering.

One of the projects I taught for both our riverboat cruise through France and our bus tour of Ireland was something I call a squash book.

I had actually forgotten all about them, but when Nancy pulled hers out at the reunion – it came back to me. Then another Nancy asked for the pattern and I had to go digging. The problem was – I had written up a class handout, but there were no pictures or diagrams. At that point I knew I had another blog topic!

From the outside they look like a square, fabric wrapped package, but when they are opened the fun begins.

They are small photo albums! If you’d like to make your own, here’s what you’ll need:

To make the covers:

°Place 1 cover fabric, wrong side up on the work surface.

°Center a piece of cardboard on the wrong side of the cover fabric.

°Hot glue 1/2” area along one edge of cardboard and fold fabric up onto the glue. Repeat for the opposite side (this book has different fabric – and cardboard – front and back. Both made the step-by-step pics, above and below, the instructions are the same. I apologize if it’s a bit confusing).

On one of the remaining sides: glue the edge, fold fabric corners in and fold fabric up, onto hot glue “gift wrap” fashion. (in the previous photo the sides have been glued in place and the bottom has the corners folded and is ready to be glued in place on the cardboard)

°Repeat for last side (the top edge on the above photo). Then repeat all steps to make the other cover.

To make the pages:

°Cut all 3 card stock pages into 8” squares.

°Fold each page into halves and quarters, open and fold along 1 diagonal.

°Lay pages in a row with the 2 outer pages – points down, the middle page – points up, and the diagonal creases all going vertically.

°Nest the left square of the middle page over the right square of the left page (these squares have no diagonal crease). Glue together with rubber cement (I brushed rubber cement on both my green and white squares for a good bond)

°Repeat with the right square of the middle page over the left square of the right page. Let dry.

Putting it all together:

°Place the front cover against the square to the left. Apply fabric/paper glue evenly to the back of the paper page and center it on the cover. Press firmly for a few minutes to hold it in place.

°Carefully repeat these steps for the back cover (being sure the front cover stays in place), but add a ribbon to this cover by folding the ribbon in half to locate the center and placing this on the wrong side of the back cover, centered horizontally. Apply glue and position book pages on the back cover. Accordian fold the book together and place a heavy object on top while the glue dries on both covers. This image shows how the ribbons should be glued between the layers on the back cover:

Filling your squash book:

° Resize photos to fit and print them onto presentation paper (photo paper and cardstock are too thick to work well in these books). Cut out the pictures and glue them in place with a glue stick or other good paper glue. Pre-creasing pictures, and/or cutting off corners, will help them to fit over page creases. Here are a few snaps of my books to make this clear:

Ireland book – inside left cover (note the cut off corners and creases in some of the photos)

These books are great fun, and can be made for all sorts of reasons and occasions. I hope you decide to give it a try – and please send me photos if you do!!!

And just a quick note –

We still have a few cabins left for our Sew We Go riverboat cruise to the European Christmas Markets in December of 2020. Please be aware – it may sound like a sales pitch, but this trip is unique.

This cruise will sell out before the end of the year. Ama Waterways knows this and only gives us a small window of time to sell the group cabins we have reserved before they take them back.

You won’t be able to sign up at some point next year because our cabins will be gone. So if you are interested in going, please sign up very soon! We’d love to have you join us and we’d hate to give any of our cabins back ?!

For all the information and the application form click here!

A Sashiko Jacket

September 15, 2019 2 Comments

Last week I posted photos of my friend Evelyn and I wearing the new jackets we made together.

I promised the story – and here it is!

Evelyn has always loved Asian fabrics and designs. She has a wonderful collection. Years ago she made a jacket using a pattern by Bette Gant.

She covered it with exquisite machine stitched sashiko.

She loved that jacket – and she wore it out! From the stitching to the cuffs.

Evelyn’s friend Judy is a travel planner who was looking for a tour leader for a trip to the International Quilt Festival in Japan, and Evelyn gave her my contact information. When I signed on for this wonderful trip, Evelyn shipped an exciting package of goodies to me from her home in Arizona. It was filled with Japanese books, fabrics and stencils. Then, when she came back to Wisconsin for the Summer, we got together to make jackets: she needed a new one and I simply needed one!

Evelyn chose to put appliqué on the back of hers this time, and I dove into the stack of fabric she had sent me to fill the spaces.

As I cut and fitted the pieces together I mentioned to her how much I liked the two blue pieces printed with sashiko patterns. That’s when she told me those designs were marks to be stitched and they would wash away. Yikes! Time to learn to do sashiko! I stitched the dark blue area at the top with red thread, and the lighter blue area on the lower right with two different colors.

And here’s a close up of before and after stitching:

I found this stitching very addictive and decided to stitch it onto the sleeves too!

I covered the “seam” lines on the back with bias strips of the blue denim fabric and decided to keep the jacket front simple.

It took three lessons to complete my jacket, and I love it! I’m sure it will come in quite handy in Japan, since it will be winter there. Praise the Lord their winters are milder than ours are here in Wisconsin.

Thank you Evelyn! For your generosity, teaching skills and friendship!

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I’m about to send out my pre-trip, “let’s get excited”, blog posts to the quilters who have signed up to travel with me to Japan. I’ll be sharing information about the things we’ll see, the food we’ll eat, and the projects we’ll create with them via a special blog over the next few months. There are still a few spots left for my trip to Tokyo this January. Please click here for all the information!

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Upcoming Class Corner

As many of you know, WCTC will be discontinuing their Adult Enrichment Classes after this semester. I’m sad that it will be my final semester after 22 years, but excited about the workshops I still get to teach! My Open Labs are full, as is my Goose Tricks class. I still have openings in three Friday workshops:

Compass Capers is this coming Friday, September 20, 2019, from 9 – 2:30. Sorry for the late notice, but I do have 4 spots left, so if you’re available – I’d love to have you join me.

Seminole Sampler is on October 18th from 9 – 2:30. This class needs 2 more students to run. I already have 8 in the class so I’d hate to have to cancel them out, so please consider grabbing a friend and learning a bevy of fun border techniques. I promise – you won’t be disappointed.

Repliqué Joy is on Friday, December 13th from 9 – 2:30, and it also has 4 spots available.

For descriptions of all of these classes, and to register on-line go to: https://www.wctc.edu/, click on “Course Search”, type quilt into the course box and click on “Find Courses”. Click on the name of each class for a description to pop up. Then register on-line or call 262.691.5578.

Madison Quilt Expo 2019

September 8, 2019 5 Comments

It’s that time of year again! The night’s are getting cooler (at least they are here in Wisconsin ?), the leaves on the trees are just beginning to turn color, and the Madison Expo was a great success! And, just so you know, they announced they’ve changed the name of the show to the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show!

I arrived in Madison on Wednesday morning and helped to hang an exhibit of quilts by the ThreadBenders entitled Photo Inspiration: Door! We are a fairly new art quilt guild and it was very exciting to see our quilts hanging at this wonderful show.

We’d love to have you visit our ThreadBenders site and see each of these delightful quilts “up close and personal”. To do just that click here!

After hanging these quilts on Wednesday I went to visit my friend Evelyn and work on our Japanese jackets (There’s a fun story that goes with these jackets, but it’ll need to wait for a future post). We got them done in time to pose together at the show.

This was the 15th year of the show and I’ve been blessed to teach there every year, but this time was a little different as I didn’t have a class on Thursday. So I attended a great lecture by Deanna Springer on “Celebrating Nancy”. Then I took in the quilts, shopped the vendors, and had an all round wonderful day.

I stayed with my friend, Laura Krasinski, at the Clarion Inn attached to the convention center. This year we were on the 8th floor and the view was great.

The main portion of the Alliant Energy Center, where the quilt show is held, is on the far left. The Holiday Inn Express, where I taught my Friday workshop is the building on the right. The main structure in the center is the Colosseum (no part of the quilt show was there), but the arrow is pointing to our beautiful state Capitol in the distance. I couldn’t resist zooming in for a better view:

I entered two quilts in this year’s show and it was an honor to have them hanging with so many fascinating quilts.

I pinned most of my log cabin blocks to the above quilt so they wouldn’t walk away, but I left 4 tethered with ribbon in case passers-by wanted to try my modular technique. The quilt show volunteers are trained to not allow any touching of any quilts. It was a little disappointing, but I am very grateful to all the wonderful volunteers who make this show possible, and I understand that they have to follow the rules to keep all the quilts safe.

I’m sure the winning quilts from this year’s show will be posted soon on the show’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WIQuiltShow/

Each year I like to highlight a few quilts that didn’t get ribbons. These are pieces that really touched me (there were so many I liked, but I only have room to share a few). For those of you who couldn’t attend, I hope you find these quilts as interesting as I do.

Joan Beyerl Pierner from Suamico, WI made a fun version of Kim Lapacek’s pattern “Dresden Neighborhood” entitled “Outer Space Dresden Neighborhood Quilt:

I’ve seen many versions of this popular pattern and this one made me smile. Then, as I traveled along the aisles, I found a quilt that took Kim’s pattern to a whole new level. This is the “The Family Board Game Quilt” by Marcia Wachuta of Boscobel, WI:

Her description says: “…I wanted to make a quilt that was a game board for my grandchildren, with the Dresden as the center and all the little houses connecting with pathways to each one. Each house represents a family member’s home.” – how creative!

The next quilt was made by my friend and co-teacher Mary Alice Hart. It’s called “Roses For Caroline”:

It was quilted by Mary Francis and a portion of the description says: “This quilt, started after the birth of my granddaughter, was my introduction to hand appliqué.” It is very different from Mary Alice’s usual work, and it is Beautiful!

Skippers Friends is by Shirley Guier of Houstonia, MO and her description read “I started working with leather last year and wanted to try something of my own”.

I really wanted to know more, and wondered if it was truly a quilt (3 layers held together with stitches). A kind white glove volunteer was nearby and helped me to discover that the answer was yes!

Shirley had placed the batting and backing against the center of the back of the quilt and the stitching was very impressive.

This next quilt was made by Laura Sipes of Clinton Iowa, and is entitled: “Sunshine: Generation Quilt”.

It is more traditional than many that I’m posting about and I love it. The pattern, colors and quilting all work great together. Here’s a portion of the story: “One of four quilts made by three generations: myself, sister, mother and grandmother, made possible through a block exchange. Each quilt looks different regardless of the same blocks used!” I think it’s Delightful!

Another traditional quilt that drew me in was Scrappy Pineapple.

At first glance I commented to my friend “wow – look at all that paper piecing”. Then I read the card only to find the quilt was made by my friend Janell Weinberger of Sun Prairie, WI and it wasn’t paper pieced! Here’s what her description states: “Love the technique Eleanor Burns uses in her book. Makes the pineapple pattern so easy to piece! I did change the sizes of everything to make it much smaller”. She made the block much smaller – yes – but the quilt is bed sized! Another delightful quilt!

My vote for Viewer’s Choice this year went to Deborah Hyde’s quilt entitled “Persephone (Jenn)”:

It blew me away! Each piece is 1/2″ square and the mosaic technique not only perfectly captures the subject, but it does so while using a traditional quilt block pattern. And it’s quilted through every square! Here’s a close up:

The description states: “Inspired by Greek mythology, my lovely neighbor was the model for this work. The pictorial aspect of the work is complicated by the overall pattern in which it is embedded – the traditional Amish quilt pattern “Sunshine and Shadow”. I wasn’t surprised to discover that it had won the Viewer’s Choice ribbon for this year’s show. Congratulations Deborah!

It was a spectacular show – and that didn’t include the vendors, special exhibits, etc.. I’m so blessed to be able to attend every year. And to top it all off, I get to teach! As always, I had a wonderful time sharing with students through my lectures and workshops. This year my lecture was entitled:

I had great groups both days and we all learned and laughed together:

I taught a workshop on how to break through the roadblocks when it comes to choosing quilting designs, and I think I learned as much as the students. It was a great group – and I only wish I’d remembered to take a photo to share here.

This year I was able to attend a number of excellent lectures and my favorite was by Mary DeRay. Her topic was Sashiko

And her quilts were stunning.

Her work is a fascinating mix of piecing, applique and Sashiko stitching. And Mary is full of energy and inspiration!

It was a spectacular show and I’ve already booked my room for next year!

Did any of you who went have anything else to share???

Rick-Rack Curves

September 1, 2019 3 Comments

I’ve discovered a fun new border technique that looks much more difficult than it really is. The secret is rick-rack!

It’s actually a lot of fun to make, especially if you put squares in the corners so you don’t have to figure out how to make the sides come together ?.

Here’s how:

Measure the sides of your quilt top and cut background border strips at this measurement by your desired border width (this is my pink fabric and the four borders were cut 18 1/2″ x 5 1/2″)

Next – cut a piece of freezer paper at this measurement and fold it in half, then into quarters, and continue until it’s at about 3″ or 4″ wide. Then draw an “S” as in the photo below and cut out along the line (be sure the line begins at the bottom left, at least 1/4″ from the edge for stability).

Cut along this line. Open the paper patterns out and lay each along a border strip to see which curve looks best. Iron your chosen pattern to the right side of the second border fabric, shiny side down.

Cut 1/4″ away from the paper the entire length.

Peel the paper from the fabric and lay the rick rack so the bumps are just touching the curved edge on the right side of the fabric. Stitch in place down the center of the rick rack. When using the standard jumbo rick-rack, this stitching will be 1/4″ from the edge. (My thread matched in my original image, so it didn’t show – I added the dotted line to the photo to make it more obvious).

Fold the rick-rack to the back along the stitching and press (I didn’t think the dotted line was necessary this time ?).

Place this piece along the long edge of a border strip, right side up, and stitch in the ditch, on the rick-rack, in a thread color to match the rick-rack.

Repeat for the opposite border and attach both to the quilt.

Make the borders for the remaining sides. Cut the corner squares at the same width as the borders and sew one to each end of these border strips. Then add them to the quilt top.

It’s all done by machine and I think this border adds a lot of excitement to the quilt.

Please try this technique and let me know what you think. I’d love to see pictures!!!

African Fabrics

August 25, 2019 8 Comments

My nephew Kevin and his wife Alex spent the first 2 1/2 years of their married life in Africa with the Peace Corps. When they returned home they brought me a very special gift – fabric! I was overjoyed at their thoughtfulness. This is a photo of 4 of the pieces I received, along the selvedges. Aren’t the colors delicious!?!

They married shortly before they left for Africa and now that they’re back we have the privilege of celebrating their marriage with them in November. We had a shower for Alex yesterday and as of Thursday I still wasn’t sure what I would get her. Then it hit me. I’ve been having a lot of fun with a new product line called “Quilt As You Go” by June Tailor™. They actually print the pattern onto batting and it makes the process simple and fun. One of their placemat lines would be perfect!

I’ll be doing a blog post about their products in the near future, but for now just know that it made a last minute project a breeze. This is the piece of fabric I chose to use:

And this is the project package insert with a few additional fabrics:

It may not be clear from the photograph, but the center area of the placemat in the pattern picture shows it being pieced on the diagonal in yellow fabrics. I took advantage of the stripes in the African fabric and cut the center section on the diagonal to get the same look. Next I quilted on the lines of the fabric before adding the side borders – quilt as you go!

The project took me 1 1/2 hours from cutting to binding. What fun!

I couldn’t resist “signing” both placemats with my initials and the year, in the lower right corner:

It was a fun way to repay their thoughtfulness to me – and a unique gift. But, it still wasn’t quite enough, so I searched through my cupboard to find a candy dish of my grandmother’s. Now I was happy. And, from the look on Alex’s face, I think she likes them (as you can see, I used a different African fabric on the back – making them reversible.

If you’d like to learn more about a variety of quilt as you go techniques I’ll be doing a lecture on this very topic at the Madison Quilt Expo, September 5-7.

It’s called You Can Quilt As You Go and I’ll talk about the June Tailor products, as well as many other tips and techniques for doing things quilt as you go.

I will also be doing a 3 hour workshop on Friday entitled Road Block Removal.

This is a workshop for quilters who struggle with trying to decide how to quilt their quilts. I begin the class by sharing a trunk show of quilts displaying many different ways to quilt them, by hand and machine. Then we gather in a circle and I invite the students to throw the unfinished quilt tops they’ve brought in on the floor. Everyone in the group brainstorms how to quilt each one.

To register for my class and/or see all the other offerings click here. The Expo is also looking for volunteers and they asked me to share this:

It’s a wonderful show – it’s coming soon – and I hope to see you there!

Quilted Bible Cover – part 2

August 11, 2019 Leave a Comment

Last week I began sharing my “Book cover” adventure with measuring, cutting and stitching the words. Jackie commented that she wanted information on the Brother ScanNCut™. It’s an amazing electronic cutting (and marking) machine for cutting out fabric, paper, cardboard, etc.

I found a good video on how use the ScanNCut™ on-line. To access that video click here.

These amazing machines are available at Sew Much More in Waukesha. If you don’t live in southeastern Wisconsin, loads of info can be found on Brother’s website, along with purchasing instructions. Click here to link to it!

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And now for the step-by-step photos on how to make the book cover, once the outer cover is quilted. The measuring and cutting instructions were covered in last week’s post. Click here to access that information.

Press under a ¼” hem, twice, along one short edge of the lining fabric. Topstitch in place.
Iron the flap pieces (right side out) in half so they are 4” x the length.
Place the folded flaps on the right side of the quilted cover along the short sides, with raw edges aligned. (I didn’t take a photo of this step, but what you would see is the side flaps on both ends of the quilted front covered, with the cover showing through in the middle. In the photo below, the green area under the pencil is one of the side flaps peeking out from under the hemmed portion of the lining.)
Place the lining on top, right sides together. It will be short on one edge, and it doesn’t matter which. Pin. Stitch all the way around using a 1/4″ seam allowance (rounding off the corners is a nice effect).

5. Trim corners and turn right side out through the opening created by the short end of the lining.

6. Turn the side flaps to inside and press entire knife edge well.

7. Insert book/Bible:

And ENJOY!

This really is a simple project. I hope you have the opportunity to make one for yourself… or someone special!

Quilted Bible Cover – Part 1

August 4, 2019 7 Comments

Over the years I’ve made a number of book/journal covers, for various reasons. Most often it was as a project for one of Wendy and my Sew We Go adventures.

Recently I’ve been concerned because the large print Bible I purchased at an estate sale was breaking down on the corners.

This is the Bible I carry back and forth with me to worship services, and I didn’t want it to fall apart. Making a cover for it was the perfect answer.

I thought you might like to know how it’s done. I began by taking measurements:

From top edge to bottom edge plus 1” will be the length.

With the book closed, the width of the cover from edge to edge around the spine plus 1” will be the width.

Then I cut:

2 rectangles of fabric at this measurement – one for the cover and one for the lining.
2 pieces of fabric 8” x the length measurement for the inside flaps.
1 piece of batting at this measurement.

I smoothed the cover fabric, wrong side against the batting and pinned through both layers.

To stitch the words on the cover I needed a pattern. I got out my Scan n Cut™ and a roll of contact paper to create a stencil.

The contact paper allowed me to stick the stencil to the cover fabric. Then I threaded the machine with gold metallic thread, and free motion stitched the words in place, stitching a second time to make them stand out.

Here’s a view from the back side:

The hand marbled fabric I’d chosen for the cover was so beautiful, I didn’t want to do too much quilting on the rest of the cover. So I marked diagonal lines with a sliver of soap and stitched them using feed dogs and a matching thread.

I was pleased with the quilting and jumped right into putting it all together.

Covered Bibles, books or journals make great gifts. Would you like to have the instructions for making the actual cover?

Stay tuned for next week’s post ?!