Tag Archives: sewing

Feb4

RETREAT BEGINS!

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Well, here we are, only about one hour north of Houston, but out in the country. We have admired the Cardinals but haven’t seen the deer yet today. Everyone is hard at work after eating a fantastic lunch at the local Tea Room, and, of course, a visit to the local quilt shop.

Bonnie is working hard on a one block wonder quilt done in blues and neutrals. Sally is also working in blues and neutrals while Sandy, Linda and Elaine are working hard on Easy Street by Bonnie Hunter. Lots of fun and too much to eat. I’ll post more pics tomorrow so you can see more of the projects in process.

Back to having fun….

BE HAPPY…Karen

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Jan31

TESTING A MACHINE APPLIQUE TECHNIQUE

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I have been wanting to test this machine applique technique for a long time. I also have wanted to work on this quilt “Red Delicious” by Esther Alieu. It is all done in multiple red prints and I just love the finished product. That being said, however, I just don’t have the time to needle turn applique and have watched Sharon Schamber use this technique of applique on most of her award winning quilts. The pieces are prepared with a specific foundation and edge turned with Elmer’s Glue. Here is the biggy…using monofilament you machine stitch a very small blanket stitch around all edges. As a prep Sharon instructs you to wash all of your applique fabric but NOT the background fabric. After completing the machine stitching you soak the block – this disintegrates the foundation into a soft fibre – and let the block dry. The background fabric, because it has not been prewashed, will shrink just a tad and thereby pull the stitching under so that it is completely invisible. Thats how it’s supposed to work anyway. I will soak my block tonight and let you know tomorrow how it does. I hope the picture of the bird is close enough for you to see the stitching before it is soaked. On this bird I was experimenting with the stitching. I started with a simple zig zag stitch but wasn’t happy with the way the thread pulled to the top no matter what tension adjustments I made. I then changed to a very small blanket (1.0/1.0) and it looks lots better. We will see tomorrow…..

Meanwhile, off to lunch with some good friends and then to the local quilt shop to deliver a couple of quilts.

Until later, BE HAPPY!

Karen

Jan1

Project Bonnie–a mystery quilt from Quiltville.com

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I am having a great time working on my first Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt.  This one is called Easy Street and it is tons of fun, and very relaxing, just piecing away.  This is a block from the quilt that has some small “wasted” corners.  I have sewn an extra 1/4” seam and then cut the small finished 1” block off and put them in a baggie for later… Sew easy and lots of fun.  Here is a picture of the steps to completion – a 2 in 1 project for sure.  Hmmmm, I feel a miniature quilt coming on!

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Dec31

Welcome 2013! and the first post to my new blog!

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Karen The Quilter

Welcome to my brand new blog, hope you will bear with me while I learn how to drive this thing!  I feel like I have just gotten a new car with a manual transmission – scary stick shift!  I am hoping to be able to post something of interest each day – wow, sounds like a New Year’s resolution to me.  Because I am always running and multi-tasking I thought I might try to document some of my days.  Primarily my life revolves around quilting and making quilts, dying fabric and playing with design options for the hundreds of quilts I want to make.  My bucket list is way to long!  I love checking out new techniques, have almost all rulers ever invented (most of which I haven’t used much if any), and am overrun with patterns even though I want to design my own.