Should there be "rules" for quilting? Lets bust myths!

   This past week I have spent a lot of hours working on the quilt that I am stippling. Machine quilting a king-size quilt is WORK! A couple times I had to take a break so I layered a baby quilt for my grand niece Hailey and have finished all the straight line quilting and I put borders on 2 charity quilts (and anyone who reads this knows how I  HATE to sew on borders).  Anyway, I had a lot of time to think about quilting and all the people I have learned from through the years and all the "rules" that I have heard. So I thought I would play Mythbuster (one of my favorite shows, by the way) and address some of the "rules" people are teaching out there and tell you the rules I always teach when I do a class.
    My first and foremost rule is Safety First. The rotary cutter is dangerous--not only is it sharp but can cause repetitive stress injury which I addressed in an earlier blog.
    One of my first "teachers" was the great Eleanor Burns. I never met her but watched her show religiously and bought several of her books and made several of her patterns. After making several of her quilts I realized that she should have had as a rule: Measure your borders and make sure tops and bottoms are equal and the 2 sides are equal. If you look at her older books she just has you cut borders and sew them on without any measuring. I don't know about other people but I ended up with waffling borders and one side an inch longer than another. From an earlier blog I told how I "measure" with the actual borders, not a measuring tape, and now I end up with flat, even borders.
    My only other hard and fast rule is to cut all loose threads as you go. I used to be less obsessive about this and I ended up having to go over the finished quilt to cut all threads that snuck out to the top and the worst was when I had pieced dark fabrics with dark thread (you have to or it shows) but they were attached to a white background. Those loose dark threads showed through the light fabric and I had to fish them out and cut them off. So please, cut as you go!
    So lets address some of those "rules" that are floating around out there that I do not consider "rules" but I do put into the "myth" category. I actually knew a teacher who said it was a rule to never use yellow in a quilt! Really! Now it is true that yellow does pop out in a scrap quilt so it is important to balance it. Too much yellow in one area can be a "galloping horse" so it is important to step back and balance the bright colors but NO YELLOW=MYTH.
    This same teacher also believed that all reds matched. Sorry, but I just can not put tomato red and burgundy red in the same red,white,and blue quilt. I can mix them all in together in a scrap quilt but in a red and white quilt they just clash to me so in my opinion  ALL REDS MATCH=MYTH. (This one goes back 25 years and still bugs me!)

This is my very first quilt wallhanging-all hand pieced
and quilted. If you look closely you can see how one
side is badly faded from sunlight. 

   A controversial idea is that quilts should be all cotton. I have a little issue with this one and can see both sides. It is important for a quilt that is being used daily to have fabrics that are going to wear and wash the same. You probably don't want one fabric to wear out before the rest, or stay shiny if everything else is dull. You just want a quilt that will outlast you! Polyester and Poly cottons are made to not shrink or fade and are usually shinier than all cottons. I never used them before because this was a "rule" so I had to bypass so many cute novelty fabrics. But then I looked at my much loved and much used quilt that my great grandma made me 50 years ago. It has flannels, corduroy, taffeta and cottons all mixed in together. It has been washed and used a lot and still looks good. As a kid I loved the flannels and corduroys because they were scraps from my clothes and I loved to rub them. On the other hand, I have made quilts of all cottons that have not fared so well. There is good fabric and cheap fabric and you get what you pay for, I guess. One quilt I made had one black print cotton fabric in it that faded and wore through just by having it on the bed.  I used this fabric in my quilted jacket and there are holes and faded stripes now! Another quilt was made from all fabrics from the same line and the same store and one of them bled and wore badly. Another one had one fabric that bled all over and when I tried to use the color remover the take care of the bleed that one fabric "bleached" out and nothing else did.  So what about quilted wall hangings? Why would you need all the fabrics to be cotton? You probably will never wash it so you don't need to worry about fabrics shrinking differently. In fact, an all cotton wallhanging is almost definitely going to fade from sunlight. So in my opinion the rule of   ALL COTTON=MYTH.
     All right, now I have to address the biggest myth of all out there and I really don't want to have to spend a  lot of time on this one because I am tired of arguing this point. That is the issue of prewashing fabrics. How many of you have spent hours washing and pressing fabrics before using them? Did you even question this "rule"?  I never really had until I took a class from the master quilter Harriet Hargrave. She discussed the reasons to wash and not to wash and I am enclosing this link from her book. http://www.denverfabrics.com/pages/sewinginfo/dfsewinghints/fabric-care-quilts.htm
From my own experience I never achieved anything from prewashing unless the fabric was obviously dirty and needed washing. The quilts mentioned in the previous section were made with prewashed fabrics and prewashing sure didn't help there. It has been liberating to not have to wash everything and now that I have to use a laundromat to wash clothes it is very welcome! So in my opinion PREWASHING FABRIC=MYTH.
     I am sure that before I finish quilting these large quilts I will come up with a few more myths to bust but for now "I reject your reality and substitute my own" (thanks Adam Savage for those words of wisdom).

Stippling--Not for the Faint of Heart!

    I thought it was a good idea to check in here. Lately I have been working on my daughter's t-shirt quilt for her graduation gift but decided that was a story for another day since today's stippling about stopped my heart! I have made 3 floral "watercolor" style quilts which I hope to sell. I have started stipple quilting the first one which is king size. It is HARD pushing that thing into the machine. So today I came back to the stippling and my back and shoulders are definitely feeling it! There is something definitely wrong with my foot pedal and it only works fast for stippling if my foot is in the perfect position and when I hit that sweet spot I go as fast and as far as I can! So today I was zooming along when CLUNK the extension table fell off and scared me to death. Last time I worked on it the darning foot actually fell off mid-stipple and shattered the needle. I would say this is the only design flaw I have ever seen with a Bernina. Scary. Not for the faint of heart!

    I love to stipple and it is my favorite quilting technique. Sometimes I do a traditional round style and decide what size based on the quilt. I have also done what I call the "heart" where I do heart motifs as I go along, or the "flower" where I squiggle around and make flowers. I also do the "loop" where I loop over and under and another favorite is the square stipple like the block on the left. I love to use variegated threads and in this quilt I used the primary colored thread which really looked great on the black.
     While I am stippling I invariable crack myself up with the shapes I accidentally come up with. Most common is the heart but I can't believe how often I make Florida or Idaho and today I made a very cute ducky and a bunny but my personal "favorite" is when I accidentally make a penis! Always cracks me up and I have to just leave it there and hope no one else sees it! So Happy and Safe Stippling everyone!

Let there be light-in Super Bowls as well as quilting!

     Just sitting here watching the Super Bowl and quilting during boring parts and had the same thing happen to me that happened in the Super Bowl--the light went out! In the last couple weeks I started to notice that it wasn't as bright when I was sewing and at first just thought my old eyes weren't seeing so well. Then I realized that 1 out of 2 bulbs of the pole light that lights the area were out. The sewing room doesn't have a ceiling light (what's the deal with that!?!) so I have a 3 light lamp in one corner. One light exploded a few months ago, and now it is down to 2. Then I realized that I wasn't crazy as far as the sewing machine light went because as I was sewing it suddenly got bright again and then would get dim again. Finally today the light went out and I panicked. I've had my Bernina 25 years and have never replaced the bulb, don't know how to replace it, can't find the manual,  and don't know where to get another one. So of course I went online to order a bulb and research how to change it and discovered a tool for replacing the bulb. Turns out I have one of those in my tool box so I played with it and at the moment I have light. Yay!
    If anyone has any ideas how to get more light in a room with no window and no ceiling light I would love to hear them. I have a small Ott Light on the sewing desk, a clamp light over the cutting table, another really crappy clamp light over the ironing board and the 3 (now 2) light pole lamp in the corner. It is a mess of shadows and extension cords.  Please...let there be light!

Christmas sewing--wouldn't be Christmas without it!

     My goodness, I have not written much lately. I have been sewing a lot but with Christmas gifts and all I didn't get much quilting done. I did sew this year's Christmas ornaments for the kids and thought it would be fun to show them here. I have been making ornaments each year for the kids in the family. It started back in 1970-something with my younger cousins and has continued ever since as nephews and nieces have come along. They get cut off the list when they graduate from high school and you would think there would have been an off year but it seems like I have had to do a dozen each year!  My rule for myself is that I don't ever repeat and I try to do a different type each year. I have done everything from bread dough to shells to crafts to embroidery and this year I decided to try not to spend any money so I found a very old pattern, dug out some fabrics, and got by with only having to buy stuffing, a piece of felt, and embroidery thread so that was pretty good. Lambs? you ask. Well, they are wearing a tag I made that says "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". This was one of my few "religious" ones. I like to think of the kids sorting out "their" ornaments when they grow up and get move out on their own. I'm sure I take a little verbal abuse about the occasional weird ones but hopefully they have good memories to go along with them.

    The only other Christmas sewing I did this year was to make two Doctor Who themed pillows for Emma. I came across a great site for fabric designed by "real people" and found these fabrics. The site is spoonflower.com and I hit a fat quarter sale and couldn't resist. I love to go into the site and drool over the creative fabrics there!
      Now that Christmas is over I have started quilting again-January projects are coming along.

Eventually You Have to Finish

      I realize I haven't posted lately and that is because lately quilting has reached the "chore" stage for me so I have to really WANT to be in there and nowhere else. I know I have mentioned my least favorite step is putting on borders. Don't know why--it just is. So the other day as I was measuring and sewing border #1 on a quilt I thought I would share my border measuring technique and how it evolved from that first quilt to today.
     I learned how to quilt using a rotary cutter and quick techniques from the Eleanor Burns books and TV show. For a couple years I watched every week and sewed quite a few quilts from her books. And they all had one thing in common--the borders sucked! They rippled and puckered. Looking back, she had you cut the border the width you want and just sew it on and cut it off. Well, guess what. Side A border might end up a couple inches bigger than side B!  So after a couple "unflat" quilts I tried measuring first. Well, I have never had a large sewing area big enough to lay out the quilt to measure or a measuring tape big enough so that technique left me with pretty much the same results! Then I learned somewhere  to always measure through the middle of the quilt, not the edge, as the edges may be stretched. That was good advice and I stick with that on every quilt. However I soon realized that I really had no use for a "number" measurement for the border and if you measure the quilt and get a number you then have to measure the border to get the same number and that was a real pain. So I figured out that you can measure with the actual borders. I cut the borders the width I need and I use 2 border pieces (why measure one off the other when you can measure them both the same time--took me a few quilts to realize this!) . I pin them together and pin to one edge at the middle of the quilt. Since I don't have space, I smooth the top and pin every foot or so and keep going to the other edge. If it is a straight edge border, I just cut off even with the second edge of the quilt. A mitered  border is just as easy. Cut the first end bias cut and start pinning to the quilt, with the short edge (the part you actually sew onto the quilt--I can't think of a name for this) at the edge. Measure through the middle and mark the end spot with a pencil or pin to show where to start cutting the second bias cut (making sure to get it going the right way!) Bingo-perfectly sized, matching borders. And a bonus with mitered borders is that you can measure and cut all 4 before you sew--with straight cut borders you have to sew the first 2, press, and measure for the second set.
       Now that they are cut they have to be sewn on. Do not do it Eleanor Burns style and just start sewing! Fold the border in half and mark with a pin. If it's quite long, fold and measure the middle again. Find the middle and quarters of the quilt top also. Pin to the quilt at the ends, match and pin to the middle, and match the quarter measure if you need it. Holding the pinned places I shake a little and smooth and pin as many more times as I think I need. If it appears to need a little easing or stretching adjust between the pins as you sew and do not remove the pins until you are there. The rule of thumb with sewing is to put the larger piece on the bottom as the feed dogs will naturally ease a little, but if you are sewing a quilt top with lots of seams to a plain border you have to have the quilt top on top so you can get all the seams going the right way. As Tim Gunn says "Make it Work". Trust me, you will have a nice smooth top and the parallel borders will match.
     Well, now that I have stalled my border sewing by talking about border sewing I guess I had better go sew a couple borders before Hurricane Sandy hits and we lose power!

Panic? Don't Panic? Inspiration?

     Well, the weather is finally cooling down and I have gone back into the sewing room. Once again I have been tackling the piles and trying to finish SOMETHING. I was sewing more black and white blocks for guy quilts and had a new sewing experience (and that is saying something because I have been sewing almost 50 years and have had a lot of things happen!) I had changed the bobbin and started sewing and instead of the fabric moving nicely along and making lovely perfect stitches I was getting tiny weird stitches that would not go in a straight line! PANIC? Yeah, at first my brain went--oh no, what will I do if the machine is  broken? Who can fix it? How can I afford to get it fixed?  How can I live without a machine? And then I retraced my steps and took out the bobbin and put it back. Still bad. So I took out the bobbin casing, cleaned and oiled under there. Still bad. The feed dog didn't seem to be working--I popped it down and it didn't come back up. HUH??? Then I tried to raise and lower the foot with the knee lift and it didn't work. HUH??  Usually when that happens it means the knee lift is hitting the side wall so I moved the machine around a bit and got the foot to lift. I tried to sew again and YAY it was working. I think the knee lift was just enough off that the feed dogs didn't move. I was so glad I didn't stop at PANIC and kept trying to figure it out!
       On a totally different subject- I am watching Project Runway and they are doing the fabric design challenge so I got curious about what would be involved  if a "real person" wanted to design fabric and get it made. The first siteI tried was Spoonflower  http://www.spoonflower.com/shop?shop=fabric  and I was so excited to see Doctor Who fabric--300 of them! My daughter is obsessed with Doctor Who and my head is spinning trying to figure out something to make her without spending a fortune! My brain is in overload and I am excited. I am leaning toward a Tardis pillow for Christmas (I can say this because she NEVER reads my blog!). Emma is getting very involved with My Little Pony (Oh, yeah, vote for her pony to will the Bronycon contest! http://bronycon.org/vote/ ) and I am trying to think of something she could design and make to sell that would be profitable since the fabric is $18 a yard==bookmarks? This challenge will keep me going for days, I am sure. If anyone has any ideas, please post!

Sometimes You Just Have to Step Back

Novelty fabric strip border

      Well, I am back from vacation, the weather is getting a bit cooler (but it is still in the 80's in the house) so I decided to venture back into the sewing room today. I'd left it a bit of a mess so I figured I'd work on projects from the top of the mess down.

       First up-- sew the vertical seams on the X Marks the spot quilt to get that top done. Check. Next--figure out a border for it. Since it is a lot of novelty prints I went to the box of pre-cut novelty squares. (About once a year I go through my tote of novelty fabrics and cut 6 1/2, 5 1/2, and 2 1/2 inch squares of each fabric). I had done a border for something else using the 6 1/2" squares cut in half then sewing them together as a border and thought that might work. I had also done one with alternating strips made of 3 squares of solids and would have done that again but it would have required cutting those solids again and that was just too much work.

1 1/2 " strips used as sashing

       Then I left the room for some reason and when I came back in I noticed something that had been there literally hanging around for years--strippy borders. I make them quite often for borders for scrap quilts and the leftovers are hanging next to the design wall just waiting to be called up to the Big Leagues. The sashing on the quilt on the left is from the same strip piece that was hanging there. So I started making a border alternating the strippy piece with the novelty and I think it is going to look really good. (I did realize just how long those strips had been hanging there when I started sneezing from the dust--oops. Probably should put them somewhere else!) I also remembered something that always comes up when I use the novelties--most of them have black, white, or blue backgrounds so it is hard to mix it up so I went back into the tote and found colored backgrounds to use. I really need to keep that in mind if I get inspired to buy a novelty print.
        After sewing most of the border I attacked the mess pile and found the black & white check blocks to make into charity quilts for guys so I trimmed up and put it up on the design wall for the next time.
        I didn't have any idea what I was going to do when I walked into the sewing room but I am happy with what I came up with when I stepped back and saw what was hanging there all along!