Category Archives: tips

tip tuesday: from doodle to appliqué

Posted on by
3

Tiny doodles are not only fun to draw, they’re great for appliqué designs because when you’re drawing something very small, there’s not a lot of room for fussy details. That makes for easy appliqué. At left are several doodles I drew for appliqué blocks. You could fit all three of these drawings together on a Post-It note with room to spare.

When you’ve drawn a couple of doodles you like, just enlarge them to your desired size on the computer or a photocopy machine. I scan them at high resolution, then enlarge and clean them up in Photoshop, or sometimes use Illustrator and auto-trace them into vector artwork. Simple image-editing computer programs will do the trick as well. You don’t need the enlarged drawings to be picture perfect unless you are planning to publish the patterns.

After you’ve enlarged them to your desired size, you can print them out. If the lines are very pixelated or fuzzy from the enlarging process, use a lightbox or tape the paper to a sunny window and trace the design onto a new piece of paper.

If you are going to use paper-backed fusible web for your appliqués, remember to reverse the image in your computer program, photocopy machine, or flip it over and trace from the reverse side when you trace it onto a new sheet of paper after printing. That way the design won’t be backwards when you iron the fusible web onto your fabric.

Here are the results of the coffee cup doodles (I haven’t made any quilts from the cupcake doodle yet):

I Love You More Than … is based loosely on the small cup in the top left. I decided to simplify the cup even further by changing it to a straight-on perspective and added the stylized heart-shaped steam. The steam doodles are probably in a sketch pad or another computer someplace.

Latte is the pattern I made from the “large” coffee doodle on the right. I really like this cup and made quite a few variations of it. I seem to have forgotten about the swirly steam. I should make a block with the steaming cup. Maybe I could put the cupcake next to it.

The cup quilt on the left was probably supposed to be a cup of water. Come to think of it, that fabric reminds me of bubbles. It could be sparkling water.

The cup quilt on the right is A Cuppa Beads. Both of these cups are somewhere in my UFO hangar. I was using the cup of water as a demo piece for teaching bead embroidery so it’s not very far along, but A Cuppa Beads is probably ready for a border and quilting.

Below is a detail of the original Latte wallhanging. You will see more of this quilt in early 2010.
Happy doodling! =(^_^)=

tip tuesday: quilting design auditions

Posted on by
5

Ever finish a quilt top and wonder how in the world you should quilt it? Leah Day of Day Style Designs has some tips just for you!

For auditioning a quilting design, first draw the outline of the blocks onto a piece of paper. You can make copies of this paper so you can try multiple designs without having to draw the blocks a million times.

Next play with the design! It’s really limitless. Start with simple shapes like outlining the pieces several times (echo quilting) and move on to more complex designs that ignore the seam “boundaries” entirely. You might have a certain theme or symbols you want to use in your quilt like leaves, fluer de lys, hearts, or celtic knots. The sky is the limit, and no, you don’t have to be great at drawing!

If your design is repetitive, like the star shape, all you have to design is what goes inside 1 diamond. Fold your paper and use a lightbox or bright window to transfer the design to the other diamonds for a full star shape. Oftentimes I just start with drawing half of my design, then fold the design in half and copy over so that it’s fully symmetrical.

Always check how your design will look by placing it under your actual quilt on top of a lightbox. Once you have a design you like, transfer it to the surface of your quilt using a water soluble blue PEN. Do not use chalk or chacopel pencils – they’re very difficult to remove. If your quilt is dark, use a soapstone or ceramic pencil to transfer the markings.

If you really get into making your own quilting motifs, you should consider using trapunto to make them stand out. This is a process where make your motifs puffier than the rest of your quilt. It may take a little longer, but the effect is very beautiful.

Now how could I pass on such wonderful advice without trying it out myself first? I have to say this is a lot of fun. I could really get into doodling quilt designs … and from drawing quilt designs it’s just a short step to quilting them. Here’s my first sample design.

For free motion quilting design ideas to get you started, check out Leah’s blog, 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs.

tip tuesday: stop … step away from the seam ripper …

Posted on by
2

Put your hands in the air where I can see them. … Much better.

While there is a time and a place for perfectly matched seams, there is also an equally important place for moving on and getting those quilt blocks completed. Just keep sewing and with practice you can achieve those perfect seams one day. In the meanwhile you don’t want to rip your fabric (and your patience) to shreds. Quilt-making should be enjoyable.

If that mismatched seam intersection bothers you too much, try covering it up with a well-placed button or bead. This little trick can be so much fun that once you master your piecing you might not want to give up the embellishing!
Ric-rac embellished seams are another nifty option.
What are your favorite cover-ups?

fabric friday: fun with corduroy

Posted on by
3

Here’s a fun cotton corduroy I found in my stash. Although corduroy is most commonly used to make pants and jackets, it is a durable, washable fabric and adds great texture to quilts.

• Try mixing fine wale corduroy (made with thin tufted cords) with quilting cottons in baby and kids quilts. It’s weight is close to quilting cottons and is easy to piece or appliqué. Machine quilting should be fairly easy as well on most machines. Make a sample quilt sandwich to test different threads, stitch lengths and tension. Stitch-in-the-ditch on the non-corduroy side is a good quilting choice.

• After you’ve tried your hand at thin wale corduroy, why not try adding some wide wale corduroy (made with thick tufted cords) in an art quilt to hang on the wall. Think ahead about the placement of the wide wale corduroy and the quilting. A sample quilt sandwich will help you see how your machine likes quilting over wide wale corduroy. You may want to stitch-in-the-ditch around the corduroy or simply tie the layers together in those places.

• Be careful not to crush the cords when pressing. Corduroy is actually a kind of ridged velvet. Use a pressing cloth and a light hand with the iron.

tip tuesday: prewashing fabric #2

Posted on by
4

Prewashing fabric smaller than 1/2 yard can be troublesome to say the least. I’ve been doing a little experimenting and here’s what I’ve learned:
Mesh laundry bags DO help when washing fat quarters and 1/3-yard cuts. The fabric stack on the left is fat quarters and 1/3-yard lengths washed inside a large mesh laundry bag. The fabric stack on the right is made up of 1/2-yard and 1-yard lengths. As you can see, the fraying and knotting is greatly reduced inside the mesh laundry bags.

1). Look for a large-size laundry bag and do not overstuff it. You want to leave some wiggle room.

2). Sometimes the fabric will ball up or twist while being washed in the bag. Take the time to open the bag and shake them out before putting the fabric back into the bag for drying.

3). It is VERY IMPORTANT to remove fabric in a laundry bag from the dryer while it is still damp. You can get away with forgetting to take out 1/2-yard and 1-yard lengths and they will usually be quite wrinkle-free, but fabric dried inside a laundry bag can often come out with very pronounced wrinkles.

4). Press the fat quarters or 1/3-yard lengths immediately upon removal from the clothes dryer. You can use your regular iron, but I prefer to press them with the long edge of my 6×24″ rotary ruler and let them finish air drying unless I am in an extreme hurry to use the fabric.

5). Cutting 1/4-inch triangles off all the corners of the fabric certainly doesn’t hurt and at the very least helps remind you which fabric has already been washed and which hasn’t.

Read prewashing fabric tips #1

tip tuesday: fabric shopping for those other colors

Posted on by
6

We all have our favorite colors that we love to buy fabric and make quilts in and those other colors that we just walk on by when browsing the aisles of our local quilt store. You know, the colors that are nowhere to be found in our stashes.

Taupe was one of those other colors for me. I usually gravitate towards bright colors and black & white prints. But when I took the time to look at the fabrics in the taupe section of different shops, I found that there were always some taupe prints that I actually liked. Now I love my growing collection of taupe fabrics and even look forward to shopping for them. I’m planning different ways to use my taupes in upcoming quilts. The Daiwabo print on the top of the stack is one of my favorites.

Here’s my tip/challenge to you: Whenever you go fabric shopping, wander through the section for one of those other colors and really look at the fabrics just like you would for your favorite color. Try to find just one print that you like and buy a piece of it, a fat quarter or maybe a half yard. Then go back to your favorites and shop like crazy if you wish. Put those other colors in your stash along with your favorites. As your collection of those other colors grows they’ll grow on you and you’ll see ways to use them, perhaps first with an old favorite or two and then maybe later on, shining in a monochromatic quilt of their own.

tip tuesday: hand quilting without a hoop

Posted on by
2

Today’s tip: If you don’t skimp on the basting for your small quilts, you should be able to easily hand quilt them without a hoop. Start with safety pins at each corner and the middle of each side near the edge. Thread baste an X across the entire quilt (stitch from the center to each corner), then make lines of basting stitches 3-4 inches apart both horizontally and vertically. You’re now ready to start quilting!

tip tuesday: box it up

Posted on by
1

It’s that school shopping time of year again, so while the school supplies are plentiful, why not pick yourself up a few plastic pencil cases. They’re great for storing quilting and craft supplies as well as taking projects on the go.

Quilting art postcards and all their embellishments fit just right in plastic pencil cases, ready for you to bring along wherever you might go. Why not keep several pencil boxes by the front door, each with a different project and its supplies in it. You can get quite a lot done while waiting here and there, and it sure beats reading old magazines in the waiting room!
You can also keep those wider spools of thread that don’t fit in the regular narrow spool case in plastic pencil boxes.

What’s in your pencil box?