Product Review: Get a Grip

Get a Grip + foot pedal
Get a Grip + foot pedal

Welcome to the underside of my sewing table.

I wanted to show you the Martelli No Slip Pad for Foot Pedal** in situ. This foot pedal pad really works! The location in which you see it is where it has been since I received it on Christmas. No joke. It has not moved at all as I sew.

The foot pad is made from the same materials as the machine pad. There is something hard and stiff in the middle. There is, then, a layer of some kind of non-slip rubber on the top and bottom, covering the hard surface. Product Dimensions: 9.0 inches L x 0.3 inch H x 9.0 inches W. The size on the Amazon description varies, FYI, so these are my measurements.

This is the first foot pedal pad that has stayed in place for me. Usually the foot pedal creeps towards the wall until I can’t operate the foot pedal. When the foot pedal ends up under those boxes (on the upper left), I can’t wedge my foot on the foot pedal any more. Then I have to haul it out, reposition it and start over. It is a small thing, but it makes me crazy.

Note: I have hardwood floors in my workroom and have not tried it on carpet.

I have the two previous pedal pads under my table ‘just in case’, but will be getting rid of them soon.

This is a Martelli product. I always thought Martelli only sold their rotary cutters at quilt shows. I went to their website and found they have an amazing number of products. Not only do they have their signature rotary cutters, but they have workstations, a subscription box, the Get a Grip mats and many other items. I wonder if COVID forced them to diversify?

Get one of these the Martelli No Slip Pad for Foot Pedal**. They are the best. They really work.

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

Review: Sew Tites EPP Palette

Sew Tites Palette
Sew Tites Palette

I received a Sew Tites EPP Palette** for Christmas from Julie. I wasn’t able to try it out until I was able to get back to the La Passacaglia border.

The package comes with 3 different palettes of varying sizes. They are a kind of kidney shaped and made from thin plastic.

Working on pieces using the palette
Working on pieces using the palette

There is a lot to hold when stitching EPP pieces together and it is very easy for the pieces to get out of alignment. I found that using one of these to start stitching is super useful. I have started to use it to anchor a few pieces in place while I get started stitching them together. Once I am about halfway through the seam, I take the piece off the palette and continue stitching. By that time, I need a little bit of play in the pieces.

Another benefit is the Sew Tite magnets have something on which to hold besides the EPP pieces themselves. You can see in the photo above that only about 2/3s of the magnet is on the EPP pieces. Without the palette, the magnets move around more.

This is a good tool and I am really glad I have one.

 

 

 

 

 

**N. B. : Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

New Turning Tool

The other day I talked about Modern American Vintage, a wooden tool small business. They describe their business as making heirloom quality quilting tools.

The Bernard
The Bernard

I am constantly on the lookout for the perfect turning tool. I looked at their website and bought a ‘Bernard‘. This is the best turning tool I have ever used.

It doesn’t show in the photo since I took the photo before I used it, but the small end of the tool got all of my corners poked out without going through the fabric. It also feels good in my hand. I highly recommend this tool, especially if you make a lot of bags and need to poke out corners.

Product Review: 28mm Rotary Cutter

Use 28mm rotary cutter
Use 28mm rotary cutter

One of the things that Latifah wanted us to use in class was a 28mm rotary cutter. This is used for the inset Clammy cuts, especially on the 8 inch Clammy, which are used to cut the arcs.

Of course, I have the Olfa version of the 28mm cutter**, but it has never been a favorite tool. since I took the Jen Carlson Bailly class, I have wanted to try the Clover 28mm rotary cutter. The handle is much more shaped than the Olfa version I have**. I see that Olfa has newer 28mm model with a much more shaped handle**.

I thought the class was a good opportunity to try a new cutter since I would be cutting a lot with the 28mm. The handle of the one I have isn’t comfortable so I shy away from it as much as possible. The new cutter came midway through class so I was able to try it out a little during class and a lot after class. I love the Clover 28mm cutter!**

Current rotary cutters of choice
Current rotary cutters of choice

The handle fits really well into my hand. It doesn’t have an automatic closing mechanism like my favorite 45mm rotary cutter**, but the closing mechanism is very easy and convenient to use. I am sure having a new, sharp blade didn’t hurt the experience either.

Clover has a 45mm rotary cutter** and I am tempted, but I like the curved shape of the Olfa 45mm. I’ll stick to what I have for now.

Big thumbs up to the Clover 28mm cutter**. Try it if you are in the market for a new 28mm cutter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

Simple Folded Corners Ruler

I bought Doug Leko’s Folded Corners Ruler** awhile ago but didn’t have a reason to use it until Saturday. I started working on the X Quilt last week. I was really struggling with the way the pattern was written. After reading a Bonnie Hunter post about Valentine’s Day where she mentioned this ruler**, I dug it out. I watched a video, started using it which resulted in the X quilt process moving along. I also felt happier.

Folded corners are often referred to as “flippy corners”. This ruler makes them easy. I was amazed to find that they sew up perfectly. I watched the Fat Quarter Shop video demo to get me started.

Two squares to join
Two squares to join

First you need the two squares indicated in your pattern. I used a 6.5 inch square and a 3.5 inch square. These sizes came straight from the pattern. These sizes were one of three pairs of sizes I needed to make the quilt. I used the same process on all the sizes and it worked perfectly regardless of size.

My smallest sizes were 3.5 inch square and 1.5 inch square (for the corner). I was concerned that the 1.5 incher would be too small, but it worked just as well as the others. N.B. I did have to make sure that the small pieces did not get caught in my machine, but it was made easier because there were no dog ears. Doug Leko does have a mini version of the ruler** I mentioned, but I don’t have it and didn’t’ investigate the differences. I also noticed that Creative Grids has a ruler that purports to do the same thing**.

Line up two squares
Line up two squares

Make sure right sides are together. Line up your squares so the corners are straight. You do not want to see the bottom square on the top or right when the pieces are lined up.

The above step requires fairly accurate cutting. By that I mean your square should be square.

Line up ruler
Line up ruler

Place the ruler** on the two squares. Line up the solid line on the left and the XX line on the bottom with your top square.

Lines to use
Lines to use

When you line up the ruler, there is a solid line on the left. It is the first solid line on the left and connects with the diagonal line. This is the line you place on the left side of the smaller square. The diagonal line should be corner to corner.

 

Cut on the diagonal
Cut on the diagonal

Cut on the diagonal. The ruler includes the diagonal seam allowance. This is a great feature of the ruler so you don’t have to guess where to sew like you do when drawing a diagonal line. Also! No drawing of diagonal lines. I have a lot of corners to add for the X quilt so this is a bonus. It saves me a little time.

 

 

Pin then sew
Pin then sew

I like to pin, then I sewed along the diagonal.

Press.

 

 

 

 

Perfect corner!
Perfect corner!

Perfect! You might think that I picked the most perfect one, but I didn’t. First, I didn’t know what was going to happen when I started taking photos for the tutorial. With very few exceptions all the corners came out lined up perfectly. Where they didn’t (1 or 2 only), I think it was because I didn’t press the fabric properly or didn’t cut accurately.

 

Whole Lozenge Block
Whole Lozenge Block

The whole block came out really well, too.

I love the idea of specialty rulers. I often buy them with hope and don’t take the time to learn to use them. Or they turn out to be not as promised- not as helpful, hard to use, etc. This ruler works really well. I am super pleased not to have to draw 2 zillion diagonal lines!

 

 

 

 

**I use affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item
when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost
to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your
clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

Rotary Even Foot :(

Janome Rotary Even Foot
Janome Rotary Even Foot

I had high hopes for the foot when I started to work on the covers for our dining room table leaves. I bought this foot when it came out new for my MC 9000.

Based on my reading, I thought this foot would help me put the binding on the covers evenly. I have never been adept at machine binding, but this tool seemed like it would solve my problems.

I started to worry, however, when I watched a few of the videos available on using the foot.  The videos I watched (4-5) did not show how miter or go around corners. The videos on attaching binding did not show how to start the foot and the binding nor did they say whether you needed extra at the end.  None of the videos showed a real project, only samples. None of the videos or the written directions talked about adjusting the pressure of the foot. I felt like the tractor foot wasn’t all the way down the whole time I was using it. I checked repeatedly and decided to leave it rather than getting out the machine manual.

Rotary Even Foot applying binding
Rotary Even Foot applying binding

I tried it anyway and determined that the foot might work well for machine quilting, but that my suspicions were true. The foot did not work well for applying the binding. It was hard to get the beginning of the quilted piece into the foot (not well documented in the videos or written directions). Once I was able to get the piece in, I found that the stitching line was nowhere near the edge of the binding, leaving a flap of fabric.  Once I fixed that, I found that the binding was not being applied evenly. Something was happening on the bottom of the piece (shifting due to operator error or machine error or foot error), so there were sections of the binding that were not sewed down.

One of the things I figured out was that I can probably use the tractor foot without the binding or hemming attachment for machine quilting.  One of my issues with machine quilting is seeing the stitch line while I am stitching. I think with this foot I would be able to see the stitching.

Sigh. I ended up doing a normal machine binding and decided not to care as long as it looked relatively decent.

Useful Notion: Purple Thang

Not long ago I received another (yes, I had one!) That Purple Thang** in my Modern Handmade subscription box. I can always add extra tools to my Go Bag, but this was a tool that I never used – or didn’t remember using. I put it in my notions tub, right next to my sewing machine. Since I received it, I have found several uses for it, most specifically threading elastic through channels on face masks.

Purple Thang with Elastic
Purple Thang with Elastic

The video pattern I used last for face masks has a channel on the sides. The designer easily threads elastic through this channel, but I couldn’t keep it from bunching up. The Purple Thang has a large eye and is generally skinny, so I was able to use it. I threaded the elastic through the eye and then inserted The Purple Thang into the channel. It worked really well.

I also used it to poke corners carefully out in a gift bag I made.

So, I have found that, despite the stupid name, this is a useful tool.

 

 

 

 

 

**I use affiliate links. I may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.

Sew Tites and EPP

Sew Tites
Sew Tites

The other day I got an email from Culcita saying they were raising the prices of Sew Tites.

Like a sucker I bought more.

Sew Tites from QuiltCon 2018
Sew Tites from QuiltCon 2018

OK, I am not really a sucker. I like this product. I got my first three free at QuiltCon last year and I found them to be incredibly useful for bags and sewing with vinyl. These fill in the gap where WonderClips won’t work. I bought a 15 pack thinking I would disperse them around my various bags so I would have them handy when I needed them.

Sew Tites are magnetic and fall somewhere between a pin and a clip. One half goes on the top of your piece and one half goes on the bottom. There is nothing pointy or sharp which is why they work for vinyl. I think they would also work for something thick like Soft & Stable. I can’t remember if I have tried that or not.

EPP: 1st two half hexie legs
EPP: 1st two half hexie legs

The other night I was, once again, fighting to line up my half hexie EPP project. The tips need to be in just the right place. I remembered I had received the Sew Tites. I went up and got a few and tried them out.

I was putting half hexies together to make stars. I use a ladder stitch (or an approximation thereof). The trick is to keep the two legs next to each other in the correct position long enough to sew them together. This is really tricky since I only have two hands. I have been using WonderClips. They work okay but not great, especially for the inside angle.

The Sew Tites aren’t perfect either. They are a little hard to maneuver to get the pieces to stay where you want them. Still, once you get the Sew Tites in place, they stay put. Thus, your pieces stay put. The Sew Tite are kind of large, so I am only able to hand sew half of my seam before I remove the magnet. Half is enough to ensure that I can keep the two half hexie legs together the rest of the time needed to sew the seam.

EPP: 3rd half hexie leg
EPP: 3rd half hexie leg

The magnetic Sew Tite can also straddle areas of piecing where there may be no fabric or paper to which to cling. Unlike a WonderClip, which needs something on which to clip, the Sew Tite sticks to itself. In the second EPP picture you can see that there is a space on the inside angle where there is no fabric or paper. The ends of the Sew Tite are on paper and fabric while the middle sticks to itself. There is no problem and they still hold the pieces together.

There is a benefit as well. The farther down I can place the Sew Tite and still have it hold, the more of the seam I am able to sew without moving or removing the Sew Tite.

EPP: 2 halves make a star
EPP: 2 halves make a star

I have also been struggling with getting the centers of the stars to line up. Sew Tites work for this problem as well. Again, once the pieces are lined up, the Sew Tites hold them in place.

I have been wanting to tell more people about them in the Crafty Gemini Facebook Group, but there is a prohibition against talking about other products. Oh well, I assume people will hear about them eventually.

Check out the Culcita/Sew Tites website for videos and more information.

 

Saral Transfer Paper

I recently decided to try my hand at a whole cloth quilt project. Yes, I know it means diverging from my single-minded attempt to complete or make progress on many of the projects on the 26 Projects list. In order not to completely lose my mind and have fun, I diverged on to this project, because it requires me to engage in the entire process of quiltmaking from idea through design to stitching and finishing.

One of the challenges I came upon very soon after starting was transferring my design on to the fabric. This is always a problem for me as I am pretty lazy when it comes to quilting and I have never found a completely satisfactory way to transfer original quilting designs.  I didn’t have a quilting stencil, because this was my own design. I didn’t want to do a free hand drawing on the fabric and I have never been comfortable with the wash away pens, so I was at a loss.

Saral Transfer Paper
Saral Transfer Paper

Quickly, though, a vague memory of Saral Transfer Paper leaped into my head. I think I learned about in the dark ages of my quilting career.

Saral Transfer Paper is described on the company products page as: “Saral® Transfer Paper is wax free transfer paper (also known as graphite paper or tracing paper) made for general and specialized use, which allows you to transfer your design from a sketch, pattern, template or free hand to any surface. It makes clean, crisp tracings that can be erased and painted over. It’s great for tole painting, fabric painting, fine arts and watercolor painting, quilting, dress making, commercial and graphic arts, architecture, wood working, ceramics, stained glass, metal working and it’s acid-free for scrapbooking.

The website goes on to describe the advantages and different uses: “ Saral Transfer Paper is wax free so it gives the advantage of erasing like pencil with no smear or smudge. It can be inked or painted over with no skipping or bleeding. The transfer lines can be sponged, washed out or brushed off of fabric, and a hot iron will not set them as will other tracing or transfer papers made for fabrics. Saral is economical and can be used again and again.

Saral Comes In 5 Colors

Graphite: The all-purpose tracing medium. Excellent for illustration board and all drawing papers, wood, fabrics, canvas and metal.

Red: Excellent for ceramics and china painting. The lines will fire out. Shows up equally well on light or dark surfaces and mixtures of the two, such as photographs and photostats. May be used on acetate overlays, plastics and enamel.

Blue: Non-photographic. It’s not necessary to clean off Saral blue when work goes before the platemaking camera. Ideal for key lines, mechanicals, paste-ups. For Tole Painters, it leaves a bright, easy to see transfer line.

Yellow and White: For tracings on dark surfaces. Excellent on dark fabrics, dark wood, metal, as well as dark painting surfaces. Tole painters find white especially useful. Yellow is best for work on clear or stained glass.

Saral is Certified Non-Toxic
All Saral transfer papers conform to ASTMD-4236 and are certified by The Art & Creative Materials Institute as non-toxic, so they are suitable for use by children, as well as adults.

I have used it before, so I went in hunt for it and was fortunate to find a flat pack of 5 8.5″x11″ sheets at Joann. I also ordered a roll, as is shown in the image, from Amazon. It is an old fashioned feeling product, but it works amazingly well.

My pattern is about 2.5″x3″ feet, so I stood at my cutting table and drew over my pattern through the Saral Yellow onto my fabric. I can easily sew over the lines and they brush off when I don’t need them any more. I use a Sewline pencil to darken any lines that may have gotten too light. I am really pleased with how this product works, because I was able to trace right over the original lines of my pattern.

Also, I only used one 8.5″x11″ sheet to transfer the entire pattern., so the website’s claims of economy seem to hold up to scrutiny.

Various & Sundry #9

I have re-enrolled with Amazon Associates. You should see the widget in the right sidebar towards the bottom. If you buy anything from Amazon, you can do so by clicking on the widget. This may be a duplicate of what you have heard on any number of other blogs.  It will give me a few pennies on whatever you buy at no cost to you.

I also have a Cafe Press Shop: www.cafepress.com/Artquiltmaker. Go buy stuff. Thanks.

What I am Reading: I am still working the Age of Innocence on my Kindle, but I am mostly playing Mahjong Solitaire on my Kindle and not reading! As I said before, I  think it might a better book to which to listen, which means I might jump to Creating Time: using creativity to reinvent the clock and reclaim your life by Marney Makridakis
Audiobook playing on my iPod: Beekeeping for Beginners, novella by Laurie R. King.
What I am Working On: Garden, and thinking about binding a table runner for my Grama. I may start putting the Infinity blocks together. I am also doing a lot of pressing and cutting of recently washed fabric

Fabric, Spools & Tools

I haven’t been using much DMC floss lately on the pieces that I embroider. I usually head over the Perl Cotton aisle. Mark Lipinski had a few things to say about a DMC floss color card he bought recently. Definitely Buyer Beware.

Weeks Ringle talked recently about elastic thread on her blog. She gives some tips and tricks for working with it. Quick skirt anyone?

I had iron drama again recently. I finally got fed up with my iron leaking and went looking for a new one. Target had drastically reduced their choices, which is where I usually buy my irons. Mark Lipinski suggested I get a Digital Velocity iron, so I went looking for one of those. Joann has them online only, but you can’t use their coupons, except for the free shipping coupon and $165 is a lot to pay for an iron. I saw the other day that Bed Bath and Beyond had them also. They are $140 online at BB&B, which is a discount. Again, you can’t use the coupon online and I don’t know if they have them in store. I ended up with a Sunbeam Turbo Steam Master. It feels cheap, but isn’t leaking and has good steam. I’ll keep looking for a good price ont he Digital Velocity.

Doing Good

Princeton Public Library Block
Princeton Public Library Block

Nancy Zieman had a guest blogger talking about The Quilt that Build a Library. One block +$5=a library. Do your part! I made a block and sent it off. Yes, I used the same fabric I bought for the QuiltCon block challenge. I had plenty and it was at hand. After I made the columns, I thought I should alternate, but then I realized I put the greens and greys in the wrong locations and if I alternated the squares and rectangles, some of the contrast would be lost, so I left them. I hope the group likes the block. The information for size, where to send, etc can be found directly on the Princeton, Wisconsin Public Library website. This project goes on through 2013. I may do more and I got a lovely comment on my blog from the director of the project filled with praise for my blog, the block and my writing. We’ll see how many more blocks I make.

Space, Studios & Workrooms

Did you see the new studio that Olabelhe created out of her (his??) dining room? It was being pinned all over Pinterest at the beginning of June, because it is fabulous. It is fresh, clean, uses wonderful colors. Love it.

Creativity

You know I go on and on about developing a creative habit. Part of my solution is responding to the Creative Prompts I post on Fridays (most recent). I am not making this up. Creativity and developing a habit that allows you to call upon it at will is important. At work I get an emailed newsletter called HBR Management Tip of the Day. These are very short tips, literally taking 30 seconds or less to read. Normally, they are things I already do or know about. I was surprised to find one pop up about creativity. The tip was related to work, but I was reminded how a creative habit can help in various aspects of our lives. One of the tips within the tip (a subtip?) was “Let your mind wander. Studies show that day dreaming stimulates a unique mental state. You’ll connect dots in new ways when you allow your mind to roam.” Work or quiltmaking, it applies.

I finally went and watched an episode of The Quilt Show. I am so engrossed in audiobooks at the moment that I never seem to get to them. I would suggest that you watch episode #1013 with Susan Shie (pronounced shy). Yes, you will need a membership, or, perhaps, you can just buy that one episode. She talks about creativity and how to just do it, that your work is always good enough and to reclaim that 6 year old who wasn’t worried about what others would say. I really liked this episode and it gave me a creative shot in the arm. Susan does great work, which was an added bonus.

Other Artists

Lisa Call posted an interview about how she works. I love the reading these types of posts, because I like to compare them to what I do and think about the differences.

Lil Sissy is posting to her blog from Paris and I had to update some stuff for her. While I was nosing around, I noticed one of her links, Weekly Gratitude. The project was a one year project, but the closing post is really good. The author talks about how she will continue to practice gratitude and try to look at life from that angle rather than from the negative. I think that doing a project and then doing a “project wrapup” is a great idea. Many times work projects have this step built in, but we, as creative people, sigh with relief when a project is done and move on. This is a post that I might print as a reminder. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Have you seen Pam’s Pinwheels and Patches baby quilt? It is really pretty. Not in a sickly sweet baby kind of way, but in a sophisticated English Garden Party kind of way. Go take a look.

A librarian friend was laid off at the beginning of the year after 20+ years of service. Needless to say the library is going to hell in a handbasket and my friend is thriving. She is looking for a new job, but she has a bit of leisure because she got severance. She is really beefing up her knitting and dyeing. If you want to buy a gift, take a look at Marlowe’s Etsy Shop.

My sister put up A Day in the Life post on her blog. The post confirmed for me that we are actually related. Her day is like a lot of my days: crammed full of tasks that I just do one after another.

EQ Product Review

Am I in Judy Martin mode? Yes. I read her newsletter recently and found some great information, some of which I passed on in Various & Sundry #21. That post was getting too long, so here I am again.

I love her and would go to Iowa (not a bad state; been there at least 3 times, which is another story for another day) for a class with her in a hot minute. Her stars CD for Electric Quilt was awesome, but is now out of print. Lucky you, if you didn’t buy it the first time around, because EQ is bringing it back in a repurposed format by making many of her out-of-print star blocks available for download in their newly launched EQ Boutique site. They are taking the material from the Stars & Sets CD and putting it into what Judy calls families of blocks: Ohio Stars, Ornate Ohio Stars, Variable Stars, Compass Point Stars, and Spikey Stars (first five groups to launch). Others will follow.

According to Judy, the first five groups of blocks range in price from $8.99 to $11.99 and contain anywhere from 15 blocks to 22. Your first purchase comes with a free download of the software you need to play with the blocks.

If you already own the Stars & Sets CD, you do NOT need any of these collections.

Marsha McCloskey has also partnered with EQ in their My EQ Boutique. I have been wanting to make a Feathered Star block since I saw one made from dots in a magazine a few years ago. Now that I know the Triangle Technique and how to make different sizes of half square triangles, I feel more comfortable tackling that project.  I did actually buy her EQ Boutique Feathered Star collection, so I was able to evaluate the process.

After purchase, there is an additional piece of software that you download before you download the collections purchased. The software came with a collection of Rose of Sharon applique’ blocks. Too bad I didn’t know about that collection last week before I prepared Frances’ applique’ lesson! After installing and running the EQ Boutique software, I downloaded the collection I bought and it was difficult *for me* to figure out how to get the collection to show up in the EQ Boutique software. Finally, in tiny print on the download page, I read that you have to close the EQ Boutique software before you download the new collection. I did that, re-downloaded and the Feathered Stars showed up very well. Also, I really don’t want to learn new software when I am pretty well versed in EQ7. The EQ Boutique software has a great ‘Link to EQ’ function that shows up on your Start menu (windows) which actually links your EQ Boutique collections to EQ. I would rather just call it up in EQ7 and skip the EQ Boutique software step, but it doesn’t seem like that is an option. I also understand that not everyone owns EQ7 software.

Read more about the collections, the software, and the system requirements.

I do have to say that EQ is bombarding me with emails about new stuff every day and I am glad they were all at Quilt Market so I could get a bit of relief. I have just been deleting the emails. There is definitely a fine line between just right and too much!

Linda M. Poole Quilt Kits Queen

Like many of you, I often scan through the photos on a blog and move on when I am in a rush. Linda has once again demonstrated her generosity with a recent post on her “Birth of a Quilt Class Kit” tutorial. Take the time to read her tutorial, especially if you are tasked with putting together a quilt kit for the first time. She does the job professionally and tells you how to do it thoroughly.
clipped from lmpoole.blogspot.com


Happy Spring,A Tutorial on Making a Quilt Class Kit and Color Fix

So, this kit should be perfect for you to take on your travels too. It has everything you will need. I hope you enjoyed the “birth” of a class quilt kit!
Every quilt instructors kit will be different. We all have our way of doing things and put a little piece of ourselves into the kit. If you can’ take a class from me, “The Dolphin Dance” is also a pattern that can be purchased at my website…(fabric not included).

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Hanging Quilts

I was glad I stopped by melody Johnson’s blog today as she is talking about how she hangs her quilts. Very interesting!

I hang my quilts from a system that uses a shelving standard screwed to the ceiling, and S hooks and fishing line looped over the ends of the rod. Or in this case, actual picture hangers.I have to have a way to hang many sizes of quilts, and I change them out often. This system is hardly noticeable since the eye usually sees the quilt first.
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Electric Quilt Freebies

If you haven’t gotten on the Electric Quilt bandwagon, I suggest that it is time. Aside from the software being really useful with tools for making templates, creating rotary cutting directions, working out visual problems, there is a vast block library and GREAT customer service. They also have a lot of freebies and downloads on their website. One of my faves is their fabric library downloads. Each month they put up another group of fabrics for download. These virtual fabrics add to your collection of fabrics in the program and keep you in the latest virtual fabrics for your project. You can use these files in any of your EQ6 (and some EQ5) projects.Check it out.

Download the Fabric Libraries

click to return to the ElectricQuilt.com Home Page
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