Month: September 2022

Planning time….

Do you take time to plan your upcoming quilting?? I am trying to do that but am not having a huge amount of success!!

At our last guild retreat back in May, I spent some time in my “planning/sleeping” swing and came away with some good ideas.

But when reality set in I wasn’t consistent to stick with my plan!!

I can look back and see a number of things that I have finished since that retreat, including four tops for charity….

Quilting on two major projects….

….and made two small quilts from scratch….

And I have been working on two more tops.

Yes, I did accomplish quite a lot in the last four months, but much of it wasn’t in my original plans.

Is that good or bad??? I don’t really know!!!

So how do you do it? Do you plan months in advance or just let things flow as they go??

Why do we retreat?

I have been attending guild retreats for the past 10 years and have LOVED every one of them!!

In many cases over the years, I have headed to the retreat with the idea that I FINALLY had time to do some creative things. It was almost a sense of urgency that I HAD to be there!!

The last retreat, held in May, marked the end of my really busy work season and I arrived with a long list of projects that I wanted to work on.

But, in the 4 months since the last retreat, I have had lots of creative time, and I arrived at this retreat wondering if I really NEEDED this time away.

What I found was that, since I didn’t have a long list of projects that NEEDED to be finished, I was able to…..

After spending a few hours finishing up one project that has a deadline, I pulled out a circle ruler and learned that I CAN PIECE CIRCLES…..

Who knew???

I can even piece circles INSIDE of circles…..

I played more with bargello……

….and learned a bunch of new things!!

I spent some time in my planning/sleeping swing at the lake…..

I finished up the days by digging into my stash of 30-year-old marbled fabrics and coming up with a fun pattern!!

Now, could I have worked on these things in the comfort of my own home?

Definitely YES…..

….but I know that I would have been working on projects that I NEEDED to do instead of ones that were just fun.

Do you have trouble giving yourself permission to

Well, I am giving you that permission right now, so stop reading and get to it!!!!

Say So Long to Stiff Appliques

I love to do raw-edge applique and use Wonder-Under for the fusing process.

The problem is that when you have lots of fabrics appliqued on top of each other, the top gets really stiff!!!

Years ago I made this quilt…..

….and the bears were so thick with fused fabrics. I remember being very disappointed!!

BUT, times have changed, Wonder-Under has changed, and my technique is also changed!!

Let’s look at an example……

I am about to applique a Giraffe head and the first step is to draw the reverse image onto the paper side of the Wonder-Under……

….and then rough cut around the outline…..

Now comes the magic!!

Since I only need the outside edges of the fabric to be adhesive, I can cut out the inner section of the Wonder-Under…..

…leaving this outline…..

Sometimes the process of ironing this piece onto the fabric can be tricky…..

But, once ironed on, the final step is to cut it out along the drawn lines…..

Now my applique is ready to apply with only the edges beging sticky, leaving the rest of the head soft and supple!!!

I don’t use this technique for small pieces but have found that it works great for any larger ones.

And, as an added bonus, you can save the cut out Wonder-Under and use it in another project…..or for Giraffe spots in this case!!

I hope that this techique will work for you as well!!

Corner Inspiration

When I was walking in my neighborhood, I saw this front porch……

….noticing the sunray design in the railings!!

Then, a few hours later, I saw a photo on Facebook of a quilt using the exact inspiration in a fun way…..

Since I don’t know the maker of the quilt, I have cropped and blocked out much of the design…..

Isn’t this a fun way to turn the corners on a piano key border??