Tick tock tick tock...

Well dear quilters, I actually did some quasi-quilting this weekend. Is that gasps I hear? Yes, well, it's no wonder. I hardly remembered what I was doing. Mostly I spent the weekend trying to figure out our programs, breaking out in a horrible rash all over my arms and chest, panicking about said rash, and trying to get my house in order. I also tried and failed to sleep much. But enough of rashes and rubbish, onto the quilting!
It occurred to me, and has in the past that some things we quilter's take knowing for granted. I for example, have been shocked to find how many quilters don't know how to use a rotary cutter, ruler, mat combination properly. They use it, but usually in inventive ways. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just a chance for me, as an educator, to make their lives better.
As I was working on a project involving steam-a-seam2, my favorite brand of fusible web, it occurred to me that many quilters may never have used this wonderful substance. So here is a brief rundown of the first stage, which I will follow up on Friday (hahha, unless I go off the deep end). (Fusible webs are used primarily for raw edge applique).
SAS2 (as I will now abbreviate) is great because it has paper on both side, and both sides have a little stick before you fuse (aka iron) them down, making placement easier.
The first step is to trace your pieces...if it's a traditional applique pattern, you'll want to make sure and reverse it, but many patterns now are designed for SAS2, so they're already reversed. Then you just lay it on their (doesn't matter which side is up) and trace.

Hmmm...Not to leave you hanging, but the server is unable to upload pics right now. So the lesson will continue in the morning, when hopefully it will be online again.
Don't worry! I'll be back!

Too much to do...

Hello dear quilters,
I'm going to be boring again. The wedding crunch is finally bearing down on me. My mother has been a saint and fortunately is taking care of most of the wedding side of things, but I'm busily trying to prepare to be absent from the shop for two whole weeks since I'm going on honeymoon. That is the biggest stress for me. I finished the last quilt I had to quilt prior to the wedding yesterday and her sister picked it up this morning at 7:30 (I do water aerobics MWF, so I was in town anyway) on her way to her daughter's wedding which is also next weekend.
I haven't done any sewing since the dahlia; I've been working on my Saturday Sampler instructions, getting my crew lined out to run the website while I'm gone, and my mom is going to take over the books temporarily. So I've been staring at my computer screen a lot. Fun! Oh wait, the other thing...boring.
I have to go out of town this afternoon in search of bridesmaid presents and so Erik and I can indulge in one last Magic tournament before we have to do the wedding and honeymoon thing.
Anyway, dear quilters, I will try my best to at least do something interesting this weekend so I have more substance on Monday. My only weekend goal is to tan my feet as they have a ridiculous tan line from shoes I wore last weekend to help my mom spruce up the pond in her backyard.
Adios, dear quilters--8 days till the big one!
Hope you're all getting to quilt more than I am!
Happy quilting!

Finished, sort of...

Ta-da!!
Well, first I must apologize for not blogging on Friday, I had to go pick up my altered wedding dress and run many other wedding errands in Billings. They screwed up my dress, so I was fairly annoyed and stressed out about the whole incident and when I got home that evening, I completely forgot to blog. So, apologies. In exchange, I decided that I had better finish my dahlia, so I came as close as possible. It measures 53" across, which is one inch shy of what it's supposed to measure across. Whoopsy daisy. Oh well. It's relatively flat, but not perfect, and I couldn't stand the bulk that the center piece added, so I cut it out and pieced (not appliqued) in another circle using my mini Cut-A-Round.

As it turns out, this made it less flat, as I was not very careful in cutting the hole. So it's a little lumpy in the center, but hopefully when I block it and quilt it, it will lay flat.
I'm not sure if you can see, but I cut the circle lopsided. Ooops again! Oh well. I still think it looks awesome, and I was hardly striving for show quality: just beautiful, and finished (eventually--at least at some point before I die.
So my next step is to piece together my background, and rather than applique the sucker down, I'm going to set it in, which means I have to cut a 52" hole in my background fabric. That will be fun. Have hope, dear quilters, the dahlia TOP (yeah, yeah, I know that's not really finished) may yet be done before the big day.
Happy quilting!!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Hello fellow quilters (though you'd never know I was a quilter the past couple weeks). I'm back from Denver and pooped. When my beloved sister Cary sleeps in, it usually means 5:58 instead of 5:30 in the morning, and I, the family night owl (or one of them at least) wasn't in bed before midnight most nights, so I'm tuckered, but with fancy hair :).
Friday I plan to do a little thing on long-arming, as many people have expressed curiosity about Miss Millie (my long-arm, an APQS). Which brings me to a story: I'm working on a very pretty quilt by Britney Talkington, a local highschooler (well, she just graduated, so she's a grown-up now) who took the fiber arts class. I've had a hell of a time with it, my thread breaking constantly, but it was Superior Rainbows, which I've used extensively. Well, after trying everything else out, I finally called them because I'd heard that occasionally you get a faulty spool/cone from any manufacturer and Superior guarantees every cone and spool that leaves their warehouse. They were so nice! They helped me troubleshoot, but immediately offered to send me a replacement at no cost! I just thought I would pass on that tidbit about their great customer service! I carry the entire line of Brytes (my favorite line), Rainbows, and Razzle Dazzle, as well as partial lines of the So Fine, King Tut, Halo, Masterpiece, Monopoly, and Vanish Water Soluble thread. There is also a new kind of thread called Sunburst that I ordered to try: it's a white, high sheen thread indoors, but there are six colors and when you take it out into the sun, it changes to that color--a cool thing to add some pizazz to some traditional hand-quilting, or a fun thing for a child's quilt that might regularly get dragged out into the sun. Anyway, you can special order through me: it's only on cones at the moment, but I'm sure it will be on spools soon.
Oh yeah, on our way up to Cary's place at Winter Park, we saw a bunch of big horn sheep on the side of the road, so I jumped out and got a couple pictures, but was surprised how well their camouflage worked for them.
As always: happy quilting!!

Woohoo, new hair!

Hello dear quilters, I'm away in Denver for the weekend, spending some quality time with my older sister and brother and getting a mini makeover (aka--a real haircut) prior to the wedding. For those of you who haven't seen me at all, or recently, I have short blonde hair, and I haven't found a stylist in Montana yet (mainly out of laziness, but I'm also a little gun-shy after a few horrendous cuts elsewhere). Since I moved to Montana, Erik or I have cut my hair, and by cut, I mean a military issue buzz (that's how short we're talking and how "stylish"). So, since my sister has very short, but cute and stylish, not cheap and homemade, hair I decided that I would come down to see her and go to her stylist, which I did today. I've been going crazy with my grown-out, self-done, buzz-cut, trying to be patient so she had more to work with, and I think it really paid off. So why haven't I been sewing or getting ready for Saturday Sampler tomorrow? Pure vanity, my dears. If a girl can't be vain for her wedding, when can she be vain?
Not the greatest picture, but also self-done (sister and brother in law are early to bed, VERY early to rise type people). In any case, I think I finally look like a respectable human being (as respectable as I'll ever look, I mean, just look at that silly smirk). It's actually warm in Denver, which I am quite excited about. Hope all my Saturday Sampler darlings can have fun without me, I'll be thinking of you, hope you enjoy all the new goodies that keep rolling in from Market!
Oh vanity, thy name is Lily!
Happy Quilting!

Weekend unproductivity

Hello dear quilters, I have once again failed to finish the dahlia. I did come a long way, with almost all my arcs done, but nothing near to a stage that I can actually show you any new tricks. I was out of town (again) this weekend at a big family picnic in Missoula where I got to see my stepmom and extended family, dad, and two sisters, and best of all my 14 month old nephew, Max.
Is there a cuter baby in the world? Well, I'm sure all aunts say that, but I'm right :), he is so stinking cute. I even got video of him dancing with his little fanny in the air. It was also nice to see my sisters, since come wedding weekend, there will probably be many demands on my attention. And it was really nice to see my dad and stepmom: Missoula doesn't seem that far away, but it's hard to get over there.
For now, I'll sign off, but I will get some quilting done by Friday.
Happy quilting!

Angelina wings

Well, I still haven't finished my Dahlia, but hopefully some of you have! Instead, I have been working (in the loosest sense of the word, I've mostly been running around like a chicken with my head cut off about the wedding) on my Hungry Caterpillar quilt (the fabric still isn't here :( . This morning, after water aerobics (woohoo!), inspiration struck, and I thought: this quilt needs some Angelina!! So I chose lime green (big shocker, for those of you who know me) and a reddish pink crinkle cut. I decided to do the butterfly's wings, so I measured the general size of the wings (8"x17").
First I shred it up:
I wanted it loosely woven, so some of the color of the wings would come through. Then I added the pinkish stuff.
Then I spread them around together until I was happy with the density. Notice that it's just laying on my ironing board. If you've never used Angelina, or even if you have, you may not know, but it ONLY bonds to itself when you iron it. It won't bond to your fabric, it won't bond to your ironing board, or even your iron. You don't HAVE to use an applique pressing sheet with Angelina, but you should, here's why. Put your iron on the Silk setting (the ideal temp for Angelina), go ahead, stick it on some Angelina. It won't melt, but if you don't allow your brain to control your hand, you will burn yourself. Why did I just convince you to burn yourself you ask? Well, hopefully you'll read this whole post before playing with your own project. Angelina is very VERY high static, so it will cling, NOT stick or melt, to everything. What happens then? All the Angelina clings to your iron and without thinking, you go to peel it off before it gets "overdone" (it will change color if you cook it too long), and OUCH, you burn your hand. The moral of the story is: use your applique pressing sheet.

Once I've ironed the Angelina, it becomes a fairly supple fabric. The key to utilizing Angelina fibers is to remember they are just fabric waiting to happen. Angelina will also take on the texture of whatever you iron it on: remember that when you're pondering what to do with this vibrant fuzz. You can see above that the top where it was against my applique pressing sheet was on it is very shiny and smooth.
After I've made my Angelina fabric, I lay it on my butterfly and hold it down with one hand while trimming it to size and shape with my other hand. The finished product, I will fuse down with 606 spray fusible web, but I'm going to wait until I've finished piecing the top to fuse it down, but this is what it will look like:
Hope some of you will give this fun embellishment a try: I'm only just realizing the possibilities. Who knows what Monday might bring on the blog: I am putting multiple pieced borders on this panel, I have the Dahlia going, a table runner, a jelly roll quilt, and I've done the very early stages of an art/landscape quilt. Wishing there were more hours in the day.
Happy quilting!!!

Oh where did the weekend go.

Sorry dear friends, but the Dahlia just didn't finish itself this weekend. Unfortunately, I was out of town all Friday and Saturday (losing, for those of you who follow my card career, but next week's tourney is a new tourney), and didn't get even one stitch sewn. And then Sunday was beautiful, so I spent it planting flowers for the impending wedding. I also got a half-body sunburn, must've been the angle of the sun. But enough excuses, the point is, I didn't get it done. The closest I came to sewing was planning how I'm going to put together my Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt because the fabric is due any day now (woohooo!). For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, you need to go into a bookstore, walk to the children's section and find Eric Carl's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and read it. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is my soul mate because I would eat like him if I would turn into a beautiful butterfly.
New entertainment and destruction has started at my house. I like to open the windows by my sewing machine when it's nice, and my two kitties like to sit by the open windows. Then, without warning, a greyish black jack-in-the-box kitty pops up and clings to the screen. This is Charcoal Kitty, he's a feral tom that loiters around our house, and gets great enjoyment out of terrorizing our cats. Naturally, Possum and Medea are scared to death, scampering off my sewing table in a flourish of claws, flying pins, bobbins, and occasionally chain-pieced fabric. Ah, summer.
Happy quilting all! More pictures and dahlia on Friday.