Debbie H. and I are having a great experience of work with Fifi M. while she is learning to quilt. For years, Fifi asserted that she couldn’t sew even though her mother was a seamstress and her father’s father was a tailor. She came to the table with the sewing gene if ever there was one.

Right from the beginning she wanted everything to be perfect. She went so far as to rip out seams if her intersections were off by 1 or 2 threads. While Deb and I tried to get her to relax a little in her standards, she persisted in her strive for excellence.

Many people who come to quilting from having sewn think they will be excellent right from the beginning which isn’t necessarily true. My experience is that non-sewers tend to have relaxed standards thinking everything they do is perfect without being able to see the obvious imperfections.

I usually tell them  the “old quilter’s tale” if you can’t see the mistake while riding by on a galloping horse, that it was just fine to leave it the way it is. I use this with beginners so that they don’t get discouraged early on and decide quilting isn’t for them.

Fifi never bought into that saying. Much to our surprise, Fifi’s standards have had just the opposite effect. Both Deb and I are looking at our work more critically now. I think we will both be better sewers since Fifi started sewing.

By Dianne Springer

Reviewed by Sharon Darling

Every once in a while, I need to take a break from the serious business of quilting and just have fun making scrap quilts.  It’s even better when having fun helps me organize my life.  That’s what Dianne Springer helps me do in her new book of managing scraps: Scrap-O-Lator Quilts & More.

Scrap-O-Lator begins with a bright and colorful scrap quilt that helps me use up my scraps without being too serious about rules. Dianne uses strips of many sizes that she sews together 3 high and then cuts triangles. The hardest part of this quilt is matching the points for the center of the block. The sewing is easy enough for beginners because I just sew triangles together in pairs and then sew two pairs together using just one pin for alignment to make the quilt block.

Since none of the fabric strips have to be any particular size, they don’t have to match to each other in any way. This method appeals to me because I don’t have to spend hours cutting proper sized pieces and, subsequently, throwing out much of my scrap collection because the remaining pieces are now too small to use. I don’t have much free time so I want to make something creative besides cutting perfect squares.

Dianne has another quilt design that uses strips that are sewn together end to end making long strips which are, in turn, sewn together side by side. This is a perfect style quilt for group projects because it can handle everyone’s sewing of “1/4 inch” seams from scant to generous and anything in between.

Since many quilters do many types of arts and crafts, you might enjoy the other projects in this book. Dianne does home decor projects like cute placemats, lampshades, a rug transformation, a fabric clock and recovered furniture.

While I rarely do craft projects (mostly because of lack of time and focus,) others may enjoy the Mod Podge projects in Scrap-O-Lator that you can do with your kids. They look like so much fun. Confession being good for the soul, I ALMOST bought some Mod Podge earlier this week. I was tempted by the desire to play with my fabric scraps and to do something for myself for a change.

By Lynn Graves http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltsettings/a/settingtriangls.htm

Reviewed by Sharon Darling

I love quilts with quilt blocks set on point but I have been resisting making them because of the extra thinking involved in making the setting and corner triangles. At the end of the day, after work and household chores, I’m not ready to launch into projects that require math, rounding and double-checking my computations.

While it’s not rocket science, it does require paying attention. For those of you who have more stamina that I have, you will find a tutorial on this at http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltsettings/a/settingtriangls.htm.

For the rest of you who want “easy”, you can do what I do. Get the perfect tool for the job. I learned this from my husband who may have just been trying to get more tools but, in this case, I totally agree with him. The Setting Triangle Ruler is the right tool for the job and it makes things a lot easier.

To use this handy device, just look up the size of your UNFINISHED block along the side of The Setting Triangle Ruler and follow the line to the center of the triangle to find the correct strip size to cut. Cut a strip the required size, position The Setting Triangle Ruler so the line for the UNFINISHED block size lines up with the bottom edge of the strip and rotary cut the other two sides.

Because you line up the long edge of the setting triangle with the straight edge of the strip, the straight of grain will run along the border of the quilt making it very stable.  The other two sides will be sewn to the adjoining blocks which are on the straight of grain giving them the stability the bias edges need.

To make corner triangles, cut a strip one size larger that the size you cut for your setting triangles. Cut out the setting triangle then cut it in half. I folded the long edge of the newly cut triangle and creased it with my fingers so I could easily line up the ruler from the crease to the center point.

By making this cut, it gives you two straight of grain sides leaving a long side that is on the bias. The two straight grain sides make stable quilt corners while the bias side attaches to the straight grain of the adjoining block making it stable. The quilt corner blocks fit perfectly.

I won’t lie to you. It is possible to make a mistake by using the finished size of the quilt block instead of the UNFINISHED size which I did once. I looked up the block size of the block in Electric Quilt which automatically adds the seam allowances without making a big deal about it so I forgot to add the ½ inch to the block size when I cut my strip. The cut setting triangle was a little too small but all is not lost because I used my mistakes to make a pieced quilt backing.

The Setting Triangle Ruler handles blocks that range in size from 3-1/2 inches to 12-1/2 inches so I can use this tool for any size quilt except the large Baltimore Album size blocks. This will come in handy when making table runners since the quilt blocks are usually smaller.

Since The Setting Triangle Ruler is more of a quilt template than a ruler, I can fussy cut the exact fabric pattern I want in the setting triangles easily.  Now you know why the first quilt I made using The Setting Triangle Ruler convinced me to add this to my favorite quilt tools list.

Jelly Roll Quilt Magic

By Kimberly Einmo

Reviewed by Sharon Darling

With many quilters trying to reduce the cutting task in making quilts, the sale of precuts has steadily increased. Along with the increase in precuts packages of fabrics, books on how to use them are showing up too.  The challenge is to see how many ways you can use squares and strips without all your quilts looking exactly alike.

Kimberly Einmo used her many talents as author, designer, judge and teacher to bring you a book with 12 quilts that don’t look like they are made from precuts.  The designs she chooses are not ones you’d expect to see from precuts. She uses a technique of adding a background fabric and additional border fabric to extend the size. Then she carefully plans her selection of fabrics from the precut bundle to make the quilts look like she chose every fabric for her quilt individually.

My favorite quilt is the Lone Starburst which is reminiscent of a 1940s quilt I repaired this summer.  This quilt is made from diamond shapes which are sewn before they are cut making this quilt a lot easier to assemble.

Kimberly has created some borders that would work well on planned-fabric quilts too. The Starry Pines quilt uses a series of pine tree blocks that flip flop back and forth across the border.

Kimberly gives lots of helpful information in this book. She not only defines all the available precuts, she  gives lots of tips to make all your quilting easier including a tip using a lint roller.

Toward the end of the book, Kimberly gives you two more things to like. First, she tells you how to use of the leftovers of the precut bundles to make a series of quilts that measure 20 inches by 24 inches. In addition to being fun, these are quick to make and can be used as hostess gifts without a large investment in materials or labor.

Next she tells you how to run a Jelly Roll Round Robin. She did hers on an international level but you could do it within your guild or mini-group.

If you have made several precut quilts and think they are starting to look alike, this book is for you. If you have been seeing the beautiful packages of strips or squares but can’t figure out what to do with them, this book is for you too. Now is the time to jump into the precut waters and get your feet wet.

The AQS Guide to Quilt Care

Reviewed by Sharon Darling

Have you ever wondered what to do with those quilts or quilt tops that have been handed down through the family? Some are stained and dirty or yellowed with age but you just can’t bring yourself to throw them out. Good thing because some of these gems are hidden right in front of your eyes. Before you relegate the quilt to a picnic or beach blanket, give it a little TLC.

Four AQS Certified Quilt Appraisers collaborated in producing this small format 48 page book that tells you what you need to know to bring your treasure back to have a useful life. The experts include Bobbie A. Aug, Carol Butzke, Linda Honsberger and Gerald Roy.

The first section explains how to preserve, conserve and restore your quilts. They write about the effects of environment on textiles and how to avoid the big mistakes that sap the life out of quilts. In this section, they discuss how to use, lighting and storing quilts with the least amount of damage.

One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is how to clean old quilts. The AQS Guide to Quilt Care covers everything from vacuuming to wet cleaning showing proper methods for best results. This section covers tools you will need to do a good job and, maybe more importantly, what not to do.

The Appraisers give advice on finding a restorer to do damage repair and to finding an appraiser to value the quilt. They recommend insuring your prized quilts but you will need a professional  valuation for this purpose. You estimates are not valid because you have an interest in the outcome.

The balance of the book contains a great glossary that answers all your questions about quilting and fabric terms followed by quilt publications reference list that will help you learn all about quilts and their history.

All the information is this book centers around old quilts but The AQS Guide to Quilt Care provides great advice for care of any quilt including the one you finished yesterday. If you follow the principles outlined, your quilts will stay looking as new as the day you made them.

When I give a quilt gift, I usually include care instructions so the recipient can enjoy the quilt for a long time. Since everyone doesn’t know the value and significance of receiving a quilt, this list of instructions educates and creates the importance in the mind of the quilt receiver. I plan to give this $9.95 book with any major project I give.

OttLite LED Flip Light

What could be better than having an OttLite in your pocket?  Maybe an endless bobbin or free coffee for life but little else.  The natural lighting helps old or tired eyes to see the colors more easily and more accurately than other forms of lighting.

From my experience of selling fabric to quilt shops, I noticed that not all shops have enough light to see the fabric well. Many shops have fluorescent lights which give the fabric a slightly greenish cast. If you can get to the windows in the store, you have a chance to see the real color but if it is overcast or rainy, even standing by the window doesn’t help much.

I’ve often wanted to take my portable OttLight shopping with me but it is a little bulky and it needs to be plugged in. It’s great for quilting retreats but not good for shopping. When I spotted this mini OttLite, I fell in love immediately. It filled my shopping need well with its tiny size and light weight.

The Flip Light is less than 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches by 1 inch not counting the belt clip on the back – roughly about the size and weight of a deck of playing cards. When I work at the quilt shop, I carry it around in my pocket or clip it onto my waistband. It’s great when I’m helping quilters pick colors.

My personal favorite use is at the large Presencia thread display rack. Our customers are very particular about matching thread color to their binding color. Since Presencia has so many colors with slight variations, the Flip Light makes it easy to choose the perfect thread color.

The OttLite Flip Light is handy for applications other than quilting and sewing. I have a tiny squeeze flashlight which works for lighting up a keyhole but little more. The Flip Light really lights up the area. I’ve used it to go to the Chicken Palace (our chicken coop) at night to check on the girls (and one who turned out to be a rooster.)

The twelve LED lights are very bright and use only 3 AAA batteries which are not included with the light. This is stated on the package. It comes with a two year limited parts and labor warranty but requires a $10 shipping and handling fee should you have to send it back for any reason.

The Flip Light seems pretty tough but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice it by throwing it down a flight of stairs to land on the cement basement floor.  However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it held up just fine. I dropped my light on the mat at the kitchen sink this morning with no damage. The light flipped open and the light went on making it easier to find in the dark.

The OttLite LED Flip Light is a great item to add to your Christmas list or pick up with a gift subscription which you’d probably just use it to buy fabric. Who really NEEDS more fabric for their stash? The OttLite LED Flip Light is the perfect gift for anyone serious about color.

Scraptherapy Cut the Scraps!
7 Steps to Quilting Your Way through Your Stash
By Joan Ford

Quilter’s seem to be slowing the fabric collecting phase and looking into their stash for the fabric for their next project. More and more people are trying to be thrifty by using up their scraps for quilting projects. The last few decades will show quilts made with beautiful matching collections but this period in our history will reflect the economy with collections blended from different times and manufacturers.

I know that quilters won’t stop quilting but the quilters who started quilting in the prosperity phase may be wondering what to do with their stash. Scraptherapy Cut the Scraps! will help with that task.

Joan worked out a system that will help tame the pieces of fabric that may seem too big to throw away but don’t fit easily into a new project. She uses three sizes to cut all her leftovers that work well together. By making a 4-patch of the smallest size, she can use those with the medium patch. By making a 9-patch of the smallest size, she can use those with the large size patch. Clever system!

Scraptherapy Cut the Scraps! goes a step farther by including 20 projects made using the pieces cut using this system. Joan has designed a table runner, place mats, a tote and pouch along with quilts that range from lap to bed size.

The biggest benefit of using Joan’s system is freeing you from the clutter. You can reduce your bags or piles of scraps to a few stackable shoeboxes filled with neatly cut pieces of the same size just waiting for you to open and start sewing them together. While this may seem like a giant task, it can be done a little bit at a time.

The good news is that any new scraps you make, you can cut them to size right away and add them to your shoeboxes for the next quilt you make. You will never have to face the mound of scraps again.

This might be a project you’d like to organize for your guild or mini group but even if you set off on this venture alone, you will be glad you did. If you own a shop, put this on your quilting class schedule.

Up until now I’ve been very happy with my quilting gloves.  You can read my review of them here:

I was working in the quilt shop a couple of weeks ago and had just finished sandwiching a placemat that I designed for a class. When I looked in my bag of supplies I couldn’t find my quilting gloves anywhere. Then I remembered that I had left them by my sewing machine at home.

I went to the notions wall in the shop and removed a pair of Machingers to do the stipple quilting on the placemat. I decided we could use a sample pair for people to try when they take machine quilting classes from us so I wouldn’t need to buy these if I didn’t like them as well as the ones I already had.

I sat down at the machine and began stipple quilting. Right away I decided to buy these wonderful gloves. They are lightweight breathable very-white nylon with a white Polyurethane coating on each fingertip that goes to the first knuckle. The Polyurethane coating goes all around the fingers and thumbs of the glove so that the gloves can be worn on either hand.

In addition, these gloves have light green wrist supports that not only help your wrists but keep the gloves securely in place on your hands for maximum control of the quilt under the needle of the machine.

Using Machingers, my hands didn’t get hot or sweaty and they didn’t get tired because I had great control over my quilting. My wrists were supported the whole time too. The best part is that I let a private class student use my gloves when she was learning machine quilting and she didn’t want to give them back to me.  She bought a new pair from the notions wall before she left for the day.

If you haven’t invested a few dollars in the great gloves, get some right away. You will be glad you did. These are my new favorite quilting gloves.

With the economy in this terrible state, I keep looking for ways to reuse, repurpose and recycle to save money without having a negative effect on my quilting. Fusible batting tape is just what I wanted.  It helps me use what I have saving me money. Yes, I do have to buy it but the cost is less than a roll of new poly batting.

Whenever I finish a quilt, I usually have a piece of batting left over. Unfortunately, it’s usually a long skinny piece that isn’t particularly useful. I found that I could butt the edges of two pieces of batting and sew them together. While I have done this before many times, I usually put off that task as long as I can. I’m not a fan of hand basting.

This task isn’t easy to do on the sewing machine either because the fibers in the batting keep getting caught on the feed dogs. Using the sewing machine makes an obvious seam in the batting which I can feel.

I have found a much easier and faster way to put batting scraps together using   fusible batting tape which works on either cotton or poly batting.

Heat Press Batting Together and Batting Seam Tape are two brands of this handy notion that I’ve tried. There is virtually no difference in the performance of these two and both work well. I cut  the edges that I want to join so they are even, butt  the edges together, cut a piece of batting tape the appropriate length and press onto the batting covering the butt joint.

Within a couple minutes, I have a piece of batting large enough to use in a charity quilt, wall hanging, or a gift. I just sandwich the created batting between the top and the backing and quilt as usual. The sewing machine doesn’t even know that the tape is on the batting.

If you are doing hand quilting, there is virtually no bulk or resistance at the 8 to 10 stitches per inch that I do.

Since the tape is made from a very soft100% polyester tricot knit with a fusible material on one side, it is virtually undetectable in the completed quilt. I spent quite a bit of time feeling the quilt trying to detect the batting tape but all I could find was  seams in the quilt and backing.

Heat Press Batting Together comes in two widths: ¾ inch by 10 yards and 1-1/2 inches by 10 yards.  I used the wider version for my tests.

For the price of a twin batt or less, I can purchase a roll of fusible batting tape. Now I can use all my batting scraps to make my charity projects feeling even more virtuous because I’m using things that otherwise would go to waste.

I’m in the process of repairing a 1940’s quilt by replacing some of the fabric diamonds that have disintegrated over the years. After discussions with the owner of the quilt, I am appliqueing diamonds over the warn patches.

When I first started pinning the patches to the quilt, I used the same pin that I use when I piece or sew. After a couple of patches, I started reducing the size of the pins I was using ending with tiny applique pins.

These small pins allowed me to pin under the seam allowance by using pins closer together making my sewing go faster. In addition, the patches lay flatter because the pins are tiny and don’t introduce extra space under the patches. I’m a lot happier with the look I get with the appliqué pins.

Tip by Sharon Darling