IQA Quilt Winners!

It has been announced! All the beautiful quilts I saw in Houston have been judged and the final winners have been decided! You can see the award winning quilts here. I saw the best of show winning quilt by Hollis Chatelain and it is so much more amazing to see it in person than what you are seeing on your computer screen! Enjoy browsing through these unbelievable quilts!

I have some things I want to share on some of the quilts I saw and some that won prizes, so stay tuned in the next few days!

Just a little from my trip to Houston

I had a wonderful time in Houston last weekend! I learned so many things and had such fun browsing through all the booths with vendors for machine embroidery, fabrics, patterns, notions and so much more! Plus I enjoyed meeting and visiting with fellow quilt shop owners and quilters!

It all started early Thursday morning when my friend Elsie and I drove to Oklahoma City to catch a plane to Houston. With just a few minutes to spare after arriving at the airport (actually more like 20 minutes - more than we anticipated!), we were on our way. Just a reminder: no matter how much extra time you plan at the airport, always figure in more time! You never know when road construction may block the road on the way to the airport! Let's just say I was more than relieved to be on the plane and up in the air! :)

Friday was a long, but information filled day! I attended as many schoolhouse lectures as I could, running from room to room every 15 - 30 minutes to get in on the next class. It was so neat to see all the latest notions and fabrics and take in all the valuable information given. I have notes upon notes along with fliers to sort through and recall all of the info I received.

Not only did I gain lots of useful information, but I also found some fun fabric goodies to take home before the day was over! I couldn't resist some of the beautifully arranged fat quarter packs from Moda and Benartex, batik charm squares and fun notions! When I returned to our hotel room for the night, my tote bag was much, much heavier than at the beginning of the day!

Friday night was a short night since it was after 10pm when we arrived back at our hotel room and were out of our room by 7am the next morning. Saturday was another exciting day! *Just imagine* being in a room filled with hundreds of quilts just waiting for you to walk up and down the aisles and admire each and everyone!

The Quilt of Belonging was fantastic to see. You cannot imagine how large and unique this quilt is until you see it in person! The Quilt of Belonging is a 120 foot long x 10.5 foot high tapestry displaying 263 blocks from every nation of the world. It was absolutely astonishing to see so many countries displayed with their unique perspective. You can see more photos and information here.

That was the first thing that greeted my eyes in the quilt gallery and just beyond the Quilt of Belonging was row after row of quilts and more quilts! It would take two days just to go through each and every exhibit and study every quilt detailed inside. Unfortunately I only had a couple of hours to browse through the award winning and exhibit quilts! But what I saw was absolutely fantastic and stunning!

The rest of the day I spent walking from booth to booth, admiring the gorgeous displays and what I needed to purchase and what I did not need. Did you notice I typed "need" in there instead of "want"? Difficult decisions awaited, but can you imagine the fun of being surrounded by anything and everything related to quilting, plus hundreds of other quilters??!! That in itself is just plain exciting!

I did have a list to follow and some booths I needed to visit. Walking down the aisles, I tried to keep my eyes looking for what was on my list and not let myself wander too far away, but was it oh-so-hard! My mind was running (and still is!) with fun possibilities, but my feet were begging for a break! After hustling from lecture to lecture on Friday, Saturday was even more exhausting, standing and walking, looking at the quilts and booths!

Sunday morning was filled with the last minute booth stops I missed the day before and then we headed back to the airport for the flight home. I was never so glad to board the plane for our flight home and to see the lights of Dodge City greet us Sunday night! And you know what was even better? Being able to drive on familiar streets without traffic weaving in and out on my way home! Let's just say Houston traffic is something I am not used to!

I have lots more things and photos to share with you and I will over the next few days! But right now I am back to catching up on things in my sewing room...

Roll that quilt!

If you are like me, you have many quilts, but only a few beds on which to put them. Or perhaps you have many wall hangings and change them frequently according to the season or holiday. The extra quilts or wall hangings have to be stored or put away for a time until you are ready to use them again. How do you store them? There are many ways the experts say to store your quilt or wall hangings for temporary or permanent storage, but here is what I do!

My quilts and wall hangings are stored temporary; I am getting into my collection of finished projects every few months. With my wall hangings I do one of two things, depending how often I use the project and what it is. If it's something I change frequently and is lightweight and small, I will use straight pins to hang it on a hanger. Then I will store it in an extra closet and drape muslin over it to keep it clean. The finished project needs to be lightweight and small, so there is no stress on the pins as it is held to the hanger. Also, these wall hangings are on and off the hanger 4-5 times a year, so there are frequently being pinned and unpinned, so it will not leave permanent pin marks.

With wall hangings that I do not use as frequently or larger and heavier pieces, I will roll up the wall hanging. I lay the wall hanging out flat on the floor and then roll it instead of folding it multiple times. Then I will put it and multiple other rolled up hangings in a clean pillow case. Loosely pack them together and store the full pillow case in a closet or dry, dark area.

For my quilts, I will do the same rolling technique. Lay the quilt out flat, roll it up and then fold in half or thirds depending on the size. Then I will insert the rolled quilt into a clean pillow case and store. Be sure to roll before folding as this will help to eliminate the folds in the quilt.

Many of my quilts and wall hangings are embellished with printed photos, machine embroidery, ribbon, buttons and other trims, so the method of rolling instead of folding works much better and reduces the folds in the fabric that can harm the embellished areas.

State Fair Parade 2 - Pink Nine Patch

Another project in the State Fair Parade! One of the reasons I like to enter different projects is to get a different opinion on my work. So I'm sharing with you what I sent to the state fair with the comments I received back - good & bad! Hopefully you will pick up some tips for your own projects!

This is a simple pink and white nine patch pattern I created a year ago as a sample for a class I was teaching. The pattern is from Alex Anderson's Start Quilting book. It was quick and easy project which I was easily able to finish in a day.

For quilting, I stippled in large, meandering loops over the entire piece. This was one of the larger projects I had stippled quilted as an allover pattern at the time. Little did I know at this point I would be hooked on machine quilting and start quilting larger quilts and different kinds of patterns.

The fabrics are created with Moda's Quilt Pink fabric line from a couple of years ago. Since Breast Cancer was the theme, I decided the label needed something special and different. It is an envelope label with machine embroidered lettering and the pink ribbon. It can be opened to reveal the information inside or shut to remain hidden.

No ribbon for this project, but I entered another 5 items in this same class, one of which received a blue ribbon, which means no ribbons for any of the other 5. But this was a neat project to stitch!

Here are the judge's comments:
Very nice job! Your solid pink doesn't go with your peachy pink. It would have been fun to use a darker pink like the star pattern in the print fabric. Love the label!!!

My thoughts and comments:

I agree; the solid pink and print pink are a little different color tones and are not the best blended together. My favorite part on this wall hanging - most definitely the label!

Embroidery Embellishments

Shhhh...don't tell anyone, but Christmas will be here before you know it and it's time to start thinking about some Christmas gift ideas. Here are some ideas on embellishing garments with your favorite embroidery designs!

Adding embroidery can turn a plain garment into an embellished item! Wonder through the stores or browse through catalogs and take notice of the many garments adorned with embroidery. Instead of buying these expensive garments, copy it with your own machine embroidery at a fraction of the cost!

Step 1. Hit the stores, browse through catalogs or search the web for embroidered garments. This will give you ideas of where to put your embroidery. Try areas such as fronts, back yokes, pockets, sleeves, cuffs, collars or plackets. If you are familiar with your embroidery designs, garments that contain similar designs will catch your eye.

Step 2. When you have found the perfect “example”, the next step is to find the blank garment. File through your clothing or shop sale racks to obtain the perfect “plain jane” garment.

Step 3. Sift through your embroidery designs to locate a replica of the embroidery. If you are stitching in multiple areas, use coordinating designs. Find a variety of smaller designs for collars, plackets, cuffs and pockets. Fronts, back yokes and sleeves provide a large amount of space for bigger designs.

Step 4. Once you have discovered some designs, it’s time to combine or change them to fit the garment. If you own computer software, the easiest way to create a combination is onscreen. Some embroidery machines will allow design combination onscreen. If you are not able to do that, you can pin design templates onto your garment in the desired stitching area. With computer software, you can also change designs to fit your purpose. Eliminate details you don’t need, pick out small designs within a large design or add little elements to make your design complete.

Step 5. Stitch the designs. Use a variety of threads–oliver twist, variegated colors, metallic threads and solid embroidery threads. Use the same threads in all areas of stitching to keep the designs coordinated. For items with stretch such as sweatshirts and t-shirts, use poly mesh (a cut away stabilizer). For woven items such as rayons, linens, denim or cotton, usually a tear away works well. On garments that have a pile, but sure to use water soluble aqua film on top of the design. This will keep the stitches from burying down into the fabric.

Step 6. After embroidery is complete, cut or tear off the stabilizer and clip all of the top jump threads. On the backside of the embroidery, clip any large jump stitches and leave short jump stitches. Wash garment if needed. Carefully press embroidery from the wrong side or with a press cloth. Add buttons, beads, ribbon or trim to enhance the designs. Be creative!! Now it’s time to wear your embellished apparel!!

Show 'n' Tell from my Inbox

I was so delighted when Doreen from Canada shared with me two of her quilted creations!

This is her version of The Color Purple in blue and white. She did not have the cd, but created the designs and embellishment without machine embroidery designs. It was a gift for her granddaughter and she name it so appropriately, "Blue Paradise". The color contrast and embellishment blocks are just stunning!

This is the Bible Quilt she made for her granddaughter's wedding. The blocks are stunning when arranged with the black background.

She also created a booklet that corresponded with the quilt. It has a smaller version of the block and tells the Scripture verses that apply to that block pattern. How inventive!!

Thanks so much for sharing, Doreen! Keep up the great work!

Now or Never Sale at OESD

It's a Now or Never Sale at OESD from October 17th to October 22nd! Choose from selected embroidery design collections now retired starting at prices such as $25!! But don't wait too long....once these designs are gone, they are gone.

So hop on over to OESD and check out the scary sale prices!

Update: As of Wednesday (Oct. 17th) afternoon, all the $25 collections are gone. There are still some great savings.....so check them out before they all disappear!

Catch the Color!

It's inevitable. It just happens. The fabrics are not washed before sewn together in a quilt or perhaps they were, but they still bleed a little when washed. Red, black, navy and denim are notorious for bleeding. The easiest way to prevent bleeding dark colors to lighter fabrics is to separate the lights and darks and prewash the fabrics.

But there is another solution if you've already sewn lights and darks together or if you are still unsure of fabrics bleeding. Try using Shout Color Catchers! Throw a color catcher sheet in the wash and it will catch the loose dyes and prevent them from spreading to other fabrics.

I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I first heard about these magical little sheets. If I washed a brand new dark red piece of fabric and a new bright white piece together, could I still have the white come out sparkling white as it was in the beginning? Yes!! I tried it out and it really works!

When I am prewashing fabrics, I still tend to separate my lights and darks and wash them separately. But when I have just a couple pieces to wash or have a quilt where I am concerned about the colors bleeding, I will throw a color catcher sheet in with it. Give it a try; it really works!!

Note: Not only is it great for fabrics, but also works with clothing! You'll protect some of your lighter colored clothes with these color catcher sheets!

Finding fabric designers online

Fabric.com has several links on their blog to fabric designers, their latest creations that you can view online and their blogs which feature a variety of things. Take a peek and visit these designer's blogs for the latest and greatest creations!

State Fair Parade 1 - Lady in the Grass

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing with you some of the projects I entered in the state fair. One of the reasons I like to enter different projects is to get a different opinion on my work. So I'm sharing with you what I sent with the comments I received back - good & bad! Hopefully you will pick up some tips for your own projects!

This is a sweet little wall hanging featuring Lady, our blond haired four-legged dog. At the time I stitched this, I was getting ready to teach several classes on fabric photo printing. I created multiple samples with different photos and this was one of them.

I printed the center photo onto pre-treated and pre-cut fabric sheets with my inkjet printer. Just as an added note - only inkjet and bubble jet printers will work to print photos on fabric because they apply wet ink to the fabric. Laser printers will NOT work because they use a dry ink that is set to the fabric by heat. (There are other kinds of paper that will not work on laser printers as I found out the hard way! :))

After printing, I let the photo dry and then rinse it under running water. Then I let it soak for 5-10 minutes in a Bubble Jet Rinse solution. The rinse releases any of the extra ink into the solution and sets the ink so it is permanent and won't bleed when it is washed in the future. Then carefully wring out the extra liquid and let dry. It becomes just like fabric and you can cut and stitch it in any way you desire. You can download some more information on photo printing and treating fabric here.

I added the toast marble fabric around the photo and then a floral fabric border. Then comes the fun part - adding embellishment! I found some cute little puppy buttons and paw prints which are scattered around. And of course, I just had to add some embroidered lettering above and below the photo! Plus it is bordered with a feather decorative stitch.

The quilting on this project is nothing spectacular - just a few random bubbles in and around the embroidery and buttons. It is just enough to hold the layers together.

The label on the back is also printed fabric. Only this time, I used the toast marble fabric, treated it with Bubble Jet Solution, ironed it to freezer paper so it would feed through the printer and printed the photo and lettering. Then I peeled off the freezer paper, set it in the Bubble Jet Rinse, let it dry, cut it down and stitched it to the back!

No ribbon for this project, but I entered another 5 items in this same class, one of which received a blue ribbon, which means no ribbons for any of the other 5. But this was a fun and quick project to stitch!

Here are the judge's comments:

What a wonderful quilt. Very original!

My thoughts and comments:

I was pleased with the way this project finished. It is a simple way to give photo printing a try if you have never done it before! Be sure to check out my tips for photo printing here.

Fabric box swap has made the full circle!

Can you believe it? For those of you have been wondering - the fabric box swap (second box sent out ;)) arrived a couple weeks ago! It has made the full circle of ladies, who took out the pieces they wanted and stuffed it again with pieces they were finished using. I'm amazed at how many yards of fabric can fit into that small box!

What a treasure of fabric to add to my stash of fabric! Take a peek at what is inside!

That's the end of the fabric swaps for this year - stay tuned for several new swaps starting in January! If you would like to be notified of our next fun fabric swap, sign up for my newsletter or email me.

I hope all you ladies had just as much fun as I did swapping fabrics and finding some new treasures!! :)

Fabric box swap update...

I'm a little late getting this posted, but Carolyn sent me a couple photos of the fabrics she received and what she sent on in the box! Looks like lots of fun treasures!!

This is the fabric bundle Carolyn received

What a treasure of ideas she sent onto the next person!

Another great fabric selvedge idea!

I received the following email from Kathie in regards to fabric selvedges and their uses. I found it useful and thought many of you would also!

Another terrific thing about selvedges is that they are soooooooo
strong. If you save them, you have a stash of material for tying up lots of
things: stacks of newspapers, plants, the kids... no just kidding...

I keep a few yards in my car so that if I stop by the home repair
center or the Christmas tree lot, I will have a way of securing the stuff on the
roof or keeping the the trunk closed.

Seriously, they are quite useful.

I agree 100%!!! Give those fabric selvedges a try for many different things!

"Rule" for Clipping Jump Threads

Do you ever wonder what the "rule" is for clipping jump threads on embroidery designs? Here are a few tips I recommend that you do:

Clip thread jumps close to the stitching on the TOP of your embroidery design. Clip those jump threads after each color change. This will keep your design neater so the jump threads are not covered with more stitches. It is much easier to clip the threads every time you change thread colors than having to pick out the tails after the design is complete.

If you have a jump stitch of bobbin thread on the BACK that is big enough in which to catch a finger or fingernail, cut it in half. If you can’t catch a finger or other item, the jump should remain in-tact. DO NOT cut close to the stitching. A ¼ inch or more of bobbin thread should always remain. This alleviates any threat of cutting out those valuable lock stitches. Avoid cutting the bobbin thread too close; you may have raveling threads on the top of your design.

Happy clipping!

Keep those fabric selvedges!

Every piece of fabric you buy has it - a fabric selvedge! That's the part of the fabric we immediately cut off and throw in the trash. Now, wait a minute - let's back up...did I actually say, throw in the trash? We as quilters, notorious for our creative uses of scraps (every little square inch!), actually throw a scrap of fabric in the trash? Yes, that's correct! For the most part those selvedges are worthless except for one really important reason! See why!

You bought a piece of fabric, positive that you have enough to finish your quilt or project. Several months later or several years later, whenever it may be, you are horrified to find out you just need three more inches of fabric! So you call the quilt shop from where you purchased the fabric (At least you think that's where you bought it from - you've visited multiple places in the last few months or years!) and ask if they still have some of that blue fabric with flowers on it. The long pause on the other end of the line tells you that particular piece is no longer at that store!

Or perhaps you've tried typing "blue fabric with flowers" into Google's search box and discovered that the 2,480,000 search results would take longer to browse through than starting and completing another quilt with an entirely different blue floral piece of fabric! You are frustrated and discouraged over spending hours upon hours looking for that last three inches you need, when it could have been a 10 minute victory if you only had one thing - the fabric selvedge!

The selvedges on fabrics contain some useful information. It tells you the fabric manufacturer and collection title plus the designer. Often the style number of the fabric and a website address will also be printed on the edge of the fabric. This is enormously helpful for you and others helping you when looking for that certain piece of fabric. And don't you think your search results will be much more encouraging when searching for "He Loves Me by Jackie Robinson & Maywood Studio"?

Not only do fabric selvedges contain manufacturer information, but also they contain little circles which are colors used in the fabric. These little color swatches can greatly help you looking for coordinating fabrics. You don't always need to take the whole piece of yardage when shopping for matching pieces, you can just take that little piece of your fabric selvedge.

Keep those fabric selvedges! You never know when you might need them! Plus those little bitty pieces of fabric could save you hours of searching!

Just for fun: At the state fair, there was a quilt that someone had creatively used all their fabric selvedges in creating the quilt top. The quilt contained only fabric selvedges. Large, small, short or long, but they were all selvedges. If for no other reason, keep your selvedges and create a quilt with them?!?! :)