From UFO to Handy Tote

And this UFO is one I never planned to finish. Let me explain…..

If you remember, back in June, I took a workshop with Cassandra Beaver and ended up with this partially finished piece…..

Honestly, I was planning to just chop this up and turn it into dog bed filling…… BUT…..

Before our trip, I was contemplating our 16-hour flights to and from Johannesburg. I knew I was going to spend a lot of time editing videos, so I needed a pair of headphones. They arrived from Amazon with a thin paper case to hold them…..

After looking at the “case”, I decided that I needed a new one, so why not make one from the workshop UFO!!

I cut the case open to use as a pattern and placed it over one of the more finished areas of the quilt….

Once I knew which area I would be using, I added some loopy meander quilting to finish the background…

I cut out the pattern, making it a bit larger than needed….

I folded it, making sure that the headphones would fit well…..

I added binding to the top edge….

…..folded it over and added binding around three sides….

So fun…..

Folding the top over and adding a snap finished the bag perfectly….

It was such fun to reach into my pack and pull out my new “headphone case”!!

I am so glad that I found a use for this particular UFO.

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When you Miss the Ditch

There are times when stitching in the ditch is the best way to quilt a project.

You are happily quilting along, and then…….

….your stitching jumps right out of that ditch, and suddenly an ugly line of stitches shows.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I pull out a Fabrico marker….

….and color in those offending stitches…..

AHHHH….much better…..

And yes, I did get a slight smear of red onto the white fabric, but that shows less than the white stitches did!!

How do you handle this situation??

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Those Pesky Threads

I almost always wear quilting gloves when I am doing free-motion quilting and find them VERY helpful.

However, when I clip threads and try to dispose of them, they often stick to the glove, leaving me shaking my hand trying to dislodge them, while trying NOT to sling them all over the room!

Then I had an idea…..

What if I took an unused plastic box and wound masking tape around it with the sticky side out…..

….so that it looks like this…..

Now, when I have threads stuck to my glove, I can simply touch them to the masking tape and…..

…..OFF THEY COME!!

When I filled both sides with threads, I cut off the tape…..

…and tossed it in the trash!!

OH MY….this was SO helpful!!

BUT, then I got to thinking even harder…..

…. and wondered if a simple lint roller wouldn’t accomplish the same thing!!

And, IT WORKED.

Once the roller was full of threads…..

…. I simply tore off the sticky sheet…..

…and it was ready to go again!!

The lint roller doesn’t hold as many threads before it loses stickiness, but it is certainly easier.

Will you try either of these?

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On Tuesdays, I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!

My Quilt Guild Reminded Me of Something Important

As I quilted the flowers on the graduation quilt for Claire, I LOVED how they looked…

….giving JUST the right amount of color in the center of each white block.

THEN I HUNG IT ON MY DESIGN WALL AND STEPPED BACK FROM IT…..

From a distance, the flowers disappeared, and the yellow centers looked like blobs of color. It looked BLAH!

I went from YEA to UH-OH!!

That night was my quilt guild meeting, so I took the quilt to show-and-tell and asked their advice.

One suggested quilting another line or two on the outside of each flower to give it a bit more definition, and I honestly thought that was what I would do.

But then, two or three others said this….. “She is going to be using it up close, and THAT is what matters. Not what it looks like from afar!!”

Their words were the perfect reminder to me that this quilt was made to be used….not to hang as a decoration.

This interaction also reinforced how important our creative friends are to our craft.

I leave you with this thought….

Sometimes the quilt doesn’t need fixing. Sometimes the quilter just needs encouragement!

So, go forth….and be encouraged!!

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On Tuesdays, I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!

Almost a disaster…..

Last week I posted about making final decisions about how to finish the quilt that I was making for Claire.

I decided to go with the quilted flowers and had fun quickly adding them to the quilt….

As I was taking these photos, I noticed a fabric bleed (top right of the right-hand block above).

I looked more closely at other blocks and found several more areas where the colors had bled…

All of them seemed to be associated with one of the hand-dyed black fabrics.

I could only think……. “HERE WE GO AGAIN”!!

Fortunately (or unfortunately), this has happened to me SO many times that I no longer panic, but head for the bathtub!!

I grabbed my bottle of “Dawn Clear“……

….squirted a bunch into a bathtub of warm water, and added the quilt….

I let it soak for about 3 hours.

When I checked on it, I was appaled by how dark the water was, so I IMMEDIATELY pulled it out and took it to the washing machine. This time I added a bit of Synthrapol and several “Color Catchers“.

Imagine my relief when the color catchers came out CLEAN!!!

WHEW……

So, the MORAL of this story…..

Don’t Panic…..maybe you just need a quiet soak in a tub of warm, soapy water!!

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On Tuesdays, I provide a tip, technique, or product review. Please subscribe to the blog to ensure that you don’t miss ANY of them!!