Tutorial: Do-It-Yourself Quilt Labels

Here's a nice way to make a quilt label- quick, easy to do and professional-looking.

When I was planning this one, I knew I wanted a hand-written look for the title, but my regular hand-printing was not going to give me the neat and tidy appearance I was going for, as anyone who had tried to read my scribbly notes can tell you. So, I did a hand-written, scripty title in pencil (using a penciled-in bottom guide line), and tweaked it until I liked it. Then I went over it with a felt tipped marker.

Then I used the computer to type my name, city and year the quilt was completed. (Of course, you could use the computer to do the whole thing, including the title.) After that, I tried out different fonts and sizes to see which one I liked, then printed my favourite. You can tape your title to the computer-printed info and decide on your line spacing.


I pressed a big scrap of muslin for my label. Then I cut out an oversized chunk of freezer paper and pressed it with a dry hot iron to the back of the muslin, shiny side down. This keeps the fabric smooth, stable and flat so you can trace your lettering.

If it's daytime, tape your lettering to a window, then tape your paper-backed muslin on top and trace it. Or, do what I did (because it was evening and I didn't want to wait) and rig up an improvised "light table" with a cheap-o piece of picture frame glass and a table lamp with a lamp shade (to rest the glass on) and a fluorescent bulb.

I used a black Pigma Micron permanent pen with a 0.25mm line width.


When your ink is dry, peel off the freezer paper, cut to size, turn under your edges and applique to the back of your quilt!

Taming Your Selvages

I always pre-wash my fabrics before they enter The Stash, and sometimes I notice that the selvage will shrink more than the rest of the fabric. (This is one of the reasons to not use selvages in your patchwork!) Even after pressing, I end up with a gently curved edge along the selvage, which I don't want. I want a nice, straight edge to start with so all my long cuts parallel to the selvage are also nice and straight.

Now, if I just plunk my rotary ruler down and trim off that wonky curved edge as it is, I will end up with a cut edge that is curved in the opposite direction. Still not what I want.

To fix this problem, there is a simple solution. Snip into the selvage every few inches with scissors, for the whole length of the fabric edge. This will relax the shrunken edge and, after you re-press it, your selvage edge will lay straight.



Now you can trim off the selvage and be sure that your freshly cut edge is straight, too.

Un-sexy Scraps

Here is a confession. No. Strike that. A declaration- I do not have a gorgeously arranged, carefully organized scrap stash.

Why am I mentioning it at all? Just a little reassurance that beauty can indeed be made out of chaos. There are as many kinds of quilters as there are quilts, and some are highly organized, and I totally honour that. I am organized in my own way for the bulk (and I mean BULK) of my stash, but scraps? They get collected in a reusable shopping bag that hangs from the back of my sewing chair, and then sometimes, for fun, I dump them all out on the floor and sort by colour. Then they get stuffed back into bags (reused Ziplocs, old gift bags) that roughly represent a broad colour group and then they wait for me to paw through looking for a gem.

I have mentally established a minimum size that I will use to determine if a scrap is actually useable. That size is about the size of a playing card. If it does not meet this minimum size, out it goes. Will I ever use a skinny selvage that I trimmed off a fat quarter? Really? No, I won't. I'm all for frugality, but even my thriftiness has its limits. I don't want bags of miniscule scraps lurking around making me feel guilty.

And that is my highly specialized system for Scrap Management.

Stitchy

I've been on an embroidery rampage lately.

I got onto cross stitch a few years back, as my go-to stitching during times of "lost quilting mojo." It happens, and it seems to happen seasonally, right around the end of June and lasts until Labour Day. Anyway, feeling the need to branch out and embrace all that might possibly involve the use of embroidery floss, I've begun to do "free embroidery" or "surface embroidery."

I can tell you: it is a LOT of fun. The satin stitch, especially, is very gratifying, both in the execution and in the finished stitches.

This little hanky ended up with my mom. The design is from "Embroidery Companion" book by Alicia Paulson. Lovely book.

(I do some work as a custom framer, and any needlework that comes through the shop needing to be stretched and framed is referred to as a "stitchy/pin" on our work order sheets. So, this little embroidery is a "stitchy.")

Stuff With Scraps #6...

...well, not really scraps, but chunks of fabric that I still like, but I'm not in love with.

I am a major fan of the Scrappy Backing. I get to use up fabric that I already have, and create an interesting and unexpected back for my quilt. I dig around the Stash and find chunks that are sort of similar in overall colour and tone, and then I just cut the edges straight and sew it all together. I just keep on going until I can fit my quilt top on it with a little extra all around.

Do I measure it all out and meticulously plan it? No, I do not. I literally throw the fabric chunks on the floor, mix and match and start trimming and sewing.

Check out how many chunks of fabric I used up! And that, my friends, lets me buy more delicious fabric with a clear conscience.

Tutorial: Tabletop Quilt Basting

When I have the time and I plan ahead, I have the luxury of basting quilts on the great, big, perfect-height cutting table at the workroom.

However, there are times when I want a top basted right now, and the tops are often too big to fit entirely on the surface of my dining room table. No matter! I baste it anyway and here's how I do it.

I put the extra leaf in my table; it's an old IKEA table that's been used and abused over the years. Though we still love it, it is already a bit scarred on the surface so I have no qualms about sticking in my safety pins and adding to the rich assortment of scratches that are already there. I'm adding "patina." See how that works?


So, I press my backing on a tabletop ironing board (handy!) and then I tape the backing so the length of my quilt will fit on my table, but one edge hangs over the side of the table. I tape the three sides of the backing, layer and carefully smooth out my batting, then layer on my quilt top. (I'm working with an Amish-style Bars quilt top that I just made. It will be quilted in red and blue, with a blue binding! Anyway...) I smooth out the top and proceed with the safety pins.


When my pins are all in, I thread-baste the one continuous long edge I have available to me.


Then, I untape the backing and simply slide the whole thing over so the extra un-basted part is now resting on my tabletop, and the now-basted part is hanging over the other side of the table.


I peel back the top and batting and smooth down and tape the backing on three sides.

Then I carefully smooth down the batting, and then unfold the top over it and smooth it down, too. (Did I mention the "smoothing" part?)



Now I finish up my pin-basting and thread-baste the other full side of the quilt sandwich.



Almost ready! Just untape the backing from the table and swing the whole thing around so you can thread-baste each shorter side in turn. Trim your batting and backing down a bit if you like.


(I have used this technique for even larger quilts, too. I do the middle third of the quilt, then do the outer thirds one at a time. Make sure that your quilt sandwich is supported on a couple of chairs when you do the outer thirds.)

You now have a fully-basted, smooth quilt sandwich that is ready for quilting! And you did it without killing your back by doing it on the floor (ouch!) and you didn't waste valuable sewing time waiting for the perfect basting table to become available.

See? You can do it! Now get quilting!

Tutorial: Using the Backing as the Binding

Sometimes you just want to get the quilt done. Here is a fast and dirty way to bind a quilt- just make sure that what you've chosen for the back will also look good as the binding, because in this method, they are one and the same. In these photos, I'm just going to show you part of an edge and a corner. Ready?

Cut your backing a few inches larger all around than the top, as usual.

Layer it up and quilt it! BUT, don't quilt past the edges of the top...

...because the batting gets trimmed away. With scissors, trim the batting so that it is flush with the edge of the quilt top.

Pretty already! Now, using a grid ruler, mark the wrong side of the now-visible backing with a line that is 1 inch from the cut edge of the top/batting.

Now trim the backing along that line. You can skip the rotary cutter and just use scissors.

Okay! Now take your quilt to the iron, and carefully press that little 1 inch wide exposed backing in half, so that the raw edge of the backing touches the raw edge of the top/binding. Just press the backing fabric; do NOT press on your quilted top/batting. See how I'm scooting the iron just along that edge? You don't want to compress your gorgeous quilting.

Press in half right to the end.

Now, you're going to fold that pressed edge over your quilt top, covering the raw cut edge. Pin in place.

Go ahead and pin the whole side to the corner.

Fold the corner down on the diagonal, like this...

... and give a little careful pressing. Don't squish your quilting! Now, fold the next section of raw edge backing in half again, and do the careful pressing along the next side.

Now again, fold this pressed edge over the raw edge of the top/batting and pin in place.

Look at that pretty little mitered corner! Nice! Now you can stitch down the edge either by hand for an invisible finish, or you can take it to the machine and edge-stitch it in place.

I'd be inclined to machine-stitch, since that would give you a nice stitched edge finish on the back as well. Plus, it's faster, and I just want to get this thing done! TODAY!

Kaleidescope!

Here I am!

How long has it been? Never mind...


If you're in the Toronto area before March 21st, you MUST see the "Kaleidescope" exhibition of antique quilts at the Textile Museum of Canada! I saw it (experienced it, soaked it up like a sponge) a couple weeks ago, and I must tell you: You will swoon. Seriously.

Victorian-era crazy quilts, mind-boggling English paper pieced masterpieces with thousands and thousands of patches, classic appliqued quilts- all lovely, all stunning. The quilts are grouped together by type, and there are really interesting and informative placards throughout. I liked the fact that laminated sheets with the details about each quilt were provided in each section. You can grab one and walk around with it. Nice!


In a section called "Variations" were a number of examples of the classic Log Cabin design. Americans associate it with American pioneer culture and call it Log Cabin, while Canadians also lay claim as originators, calling it Canadian Loghouse, etc... What I found particularly fascinating was, according the information presented with the quilts, there was a mention of the Log Cabin design in a publication from 1897, which suggested it might be more properly called "Egyptian" or "Mummy" since this lattice-like pattern is evident in linen mummy wrappings.


Friends, I give you the cover of the November 2009 issue of National Geographic... Pet mummies!!


And more inside...


See there? How cool is that?!

I can't decide which is more fascinating- that this Log Cabin-like design existed all those thousands of years ago in pet mummy wrappings (which I never knew about until my issue arrived in the mail) or the fact that someone in North America in 1897 knew enough about mummy wrappings to draw the comparison! It's not like they could have watched a mummy documentary on the Discovery Channel! How did that little tidbit of Egyptology find its way across the ocean way back then?

Okay! Back to the present! By the way, there is an exciting event to go with this very special exhibition hosted by the workroom. Karyn has arranged for a private tour of the show, along with an exclusive peek into the Textile Museum's stored collection of quilts! I know!! Check out either the Textile Museum of Canada's website of the workroom site (click on classes). The tour is January 31st, a Sunday.

Go and see it!

Done!

"Her Sampler"! She is finished!!

Whee! A finished cross stitch always supplies a great sense of accomplishment. I think it's the perfect craft when you can only sneak in a few stitches here and there. (Or sit for hours hunched up in the corner of the living room in the wee hours squinting through reading glasses- you know, either way.)

A side note for cross stitchers, from my experience as a custom framer- please leave a nice margin around your images, say three inches or so. If you have your work professionally stretched and framed, the framer will LOVE you if you leave enough extra to work with around the edges. Also, try your best to keep your work nice and clean while you work on it, and press it nicely (from the back) before you take it in. I have seen some dirty, soiled embroidery come through the shop, and it's a real shame they didn't take the time to clean the work beforehand.

Onward! I'm working on stitchy gift for Dad, so I'll be taking a brief break from samplers, which I have decided that I adore. I have a number of them in queue after this- I'd better stitch faster!

Stuff With Scraps #5

I have been obsessing over finding the perfect snap coin purse for a long time.  I had a great one for a while- it was leather, the ideal size- but I lost it somehow.

Years pass.

I start teaching (and shopping!) regularly at the workroom.  One day...

"What's this?  Metal purse frames?!  I could make my own coin purse?!"  This idea cooked in my brain for quite some time.  This week, after realizing that I would not be able to attend Reva's Snap Coin Purse class, which I've been wanting to take for ages (drat!), I decided to take matters into my own hands.

It's not perfect, that's for sure, but look how cute!  I'm sure Reva has some tips that would make it all come out even better.  The hex patchwork is from a chunk of it I made last year.  The fabrics are all Japanese scraps leftover from when a friend was finished cutting out the pieces for her quilt. ("Umm, are you going to throw those out?")

I will now pay for all cash purchases with exact change just so I can show it off.

Just... one... more...

One more English paper pieced pillow.  Here's how it happens...

We plan a road trip that involves several hours in the car, followed by a few days away from the sewing machine, then several more hours in the car driving back.

I'm not driving.  My hands will be free, and not working on something during all those free hours isn't appealing.  So, I cut a whole bunch of papers, quickly pick out a batch of scraps from the scrap bin, iron the papers to the back, pack an abbreviated sewing kit, and I can be happily on my way.

This patchwork was started last month on such a road trip, and since I don't want to be a collector of (more) half-done projects, I made it big enough to be a pillow top.  I finished it up yesterday.  Yay!!  I had another pillow that was looking sort of worn out, so I ripped off the old cover and crammed the form into this new cover.  It was a tight squeeze, but I managed to get the zipper closed.  Yess!!

Busy Hands

Since I just completed (yet another) English paper pieced pillow top, I needed a new project to work on while waiting for kids at lessons.

I love love love Carriage House Samplings.  Their designs all have that early American, folky-but-not-cutesy look that I really go for.  Plus, I find myself very attracted to alphabet samplers, and they have lots.

My most recent major proud accomplishment has been getting my sister into cross stitch!!  She lives in Houston, Texas and given their crazy, tropical storm prone weather, I decided she needed to have a hobby to work on when the power went out.  So, I hooked her up with a pattern I knew she would love, and all the floss and everything, and now she's going like gangbusters.

Problem is, even in a huge city like Houston, she can't find a cross stitch and embroidery dedicated shop...  I KNOW!!  Needlepoint, no problem, but not cross stitch.  Go figure.

I, on the other hand, am spoiled for choice here in Toronto, with not one but TWO lovely stitching shops within 15 minutes of my house- The Sampler on Browns Line in Toronto, and Gitta's on Lakeshore in Port Credit.  I was in Gitta's the other day and called my sister to gloat, because I'm evil.

Anyway, new project, and I'm well on my way!