The theme for this week’s quilt contest is Winter Landscapes. I’m pleased to introduce you to a new sponsor this week, Vicki Welsh who creates gorgeous hand dyed fabrics. It was Vicki who first introduced me to hand dyed fabrics; they are my all-time favourite!

Vicki has donated a Stash Pack of hand dyed fabrics containing 10 fat eighths and a Goddess Sheet Teflon pressing sheet from Mistyfuse for this week’s winner. Plus everyone can save using the coupon code below too.

Vicki Welsh – Hand Dyed Fabrics

Hi Everyone!

I’ve been a Quilting Gallery follower for a long time and love all the exciting things that Michele does for us. I am thrilled to be sponsoring some of the weekly quilt contests this year. Since I am new here, I’ll tell you a little about myself.

I retired from corporate America in 2010 after spending almost 30 years as a project manager in the financial services industry. It was a great life but I am lucky to now be able to devote myself to my passions: dyeing fabric and quilting! I’ve been sewing all my life and started concentrating on quilts about 12 years ago. I started dyeing fabric in 2007 and have been hooked ever since.

The most unique thing about hand dyed fabrics is that they are one-of-a-kind creations. That said, I have hundreds of dye recipes and can create (and recreate) custom colors. I am most known for my fabric gradients (5 popular ones are shown above). These fabrics blend colors from selvedge to selvedge. I also have fat quarter packs and one-of-a-kind pieces.

Additionally, on my blog, I have a Featured Fabric Palette of coordinated "solids" and gradient that is offered at a special discounted price for a limited time.

My goal is to introduce (or reintroduce) quilters and fiber artists to the world of hand dyed fabrics. Hand dyed fabrics have a reputation for not being colorfast and, therefore, many quilters avoid them. My fabrics are processed to remove all of the excess dye and you can use them in your quilts as confidently as you do commercially printed fabrics. You can read about my process for removing excess dye and the process is also effective with commercial prints that bleed. Recently, one quilter used this process on a finished quilt that bled and it got out all of the excess dye that had bled onto her white fabrics.

For up to date information on my new palettes, new products and special sales, sign up for my monthly newsletter.

You can find me in all these places on the web:

• Web store
• Blog (with lots of tutorials)
• Facebook
• Google+
• Pinterest

Let’s get to the prize!

I will give away a hand dyed fabric Stash Pack from my shop and a Goddess Sheet Teflon pressing sheet from Mistyfuse. The winner will get to select the Stash Pack of their choice.

Bonus savings for everyone: I am also offering a special 15% discount through to January 29. Use coupon code WINTER15.

Enter the Contest

Get your cameras out! To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EST). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – Check available dates – Need a sponsor next week

Last Week’s Quilt Contest

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s Black and White Quilts contest. Contemporary Cloth donated three $15 gift certificates for last week’s winners. Congratulations to the winners:

Angie

Ina van Engen

P Scoville

It’s voting time!! The theme for this week’s contest is Black and White quilts. On Thursday, I opened the contest up to include those quilts with a punch of additional colour too. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and a pencil to make note of your faves. You can vote for THREE quilts this weekend.

This week’s sponsor, Contemporary Cloth, have generously donated three $15 gift certificates. Plus everyone can save 20% off! Use code QG when you check out.

Now it’s time for you to vote for your favourites!

• Voting is open Friday – Sunday @ 11:59 p.m.
• One vote per person (based on IP address NOT email address), so have your family and friends cast a ballot for their favourite quilt (from home if you send it to coworkers)
• Winner announced Monday!

How to Vote:

• Review the photos and stories below… there are several, so you’ll need to scroll down to see them all. You can also click the link to the slider version to review the quilts in the large format and then return to this page to vote.
• Underneath the photos, scroll down, you’ll see the names of all the quilts with a square button** beside each one. Select the buttons for the quilts you want to vote for. You can select up to THREE quilts this week.
• Then scroll down, all the way, until you get to the bottom of the names of the quilts. Press the vote button.

** Note: If you don’t see the square buttons to vote, but instead see the voting results, that means someone on your IP Address already voted, or that the voting period has ended, or that you need to refresh the page to see the voting options. Shared IP Addresses are very common in home or work networks.

Slider version: To view the large photos to display all the quilts and descriptions, CLICK HERE. You’ll need to return to this page to cast your votes.

Please Note: If you are not seeing all of the photos, check your browser settings. Go to view, and text size. Make sure it’s set at medium. If you need web sites to be larger so you can read them more easily, then use the browser’s Zoom function, not the text resize. You can also use the scroll bar above, beside the photos, to scroll and see the hidden ones.

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Next Week’s Contest

The theme for next week’s contest is Winter Landscapes. Get your cameras out! To enter the weekly contest, read the rules and guidelines, then submit your quilt photo by Thursday evening (EST). Voting will start on Friday and last until Sunday night.

Weekly Quilt Contest Links

• Guidelines
• Submit your photo
• 2012 Themes, Winners & Sponsors
• Sponsor a contest – Opportunities for 2012 now available

New Beginnings Mini Quilt Swap

Registration is now open for the New Beginnings Mini Quilt Swap. Join the fun today.

Please join me in welcoming today’s guest blogger, Melissa Stramel of Lilac Lane. She’s sharing some sewing and quilting tips with us. Be sure to also check out her basics of quilting series; it’s fantastic. Readers can also save 30% off Melissa’s patterns using the coupon code below.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much to Michele for inviting me to share with you all today.

Over at Lilac Lane, we’ve been spending the last couple of months learning the VERY BASICS of quilting. If you’d like to check that out, it’s there for all time, or until Blogger breaks down. haha Anyway, it goes through step-by-step everything you need to know to quilt. Everything from supplies to choosing colors and patterns and sewing.

As a pattern designer, I want everyone to learn how to sew! But not just so you can buy my patterns. I think there is such a sense of accomplishment when you create something yourself.

I thought today I would give you some tips that will help beginning sewists, but might also be new to more advanced seamstresses.

Irons

The iron is your very best friend in sewing. Until I figured that out, my projects were pretty cruddy. If you think about it, the iron flattens wrinkled fabric, turns back seam allowances, sets seams and does a myriad of other things.

Tips:

• Never iron with your iron. No, we want to press, a simple up and down motion. Ironing — moving the iron from side to side — can stretch your fabric.
• Use a lot of steam. Some will disagree, but I LOVE steam. It’s the easiest way to get rid of wrinkles. I love how it sets seams.
• Sewing is full of gunky adhesives, fusible interfacings, wonder under, etc. All of these things can really gunk up your iron. And that stuff can get transferred to your fabric. Take a dryer sheet and rub it on the plate of your iron while the iron is hot (I use an oven mitt) to remove all that gunk. It works like a charm. Just make sure to remove the greasy stuff before using it on your fabric again. I rub the iron on a scrap of fabric and then you’re ready to go!

Knits

I love knits. To me, they are the easiest fabric to make garments from. After all, you can usually skip the buttons, zipper and finishing seams. But there are a few tips to keep in mind.

Tips:

• Prewash! Knits shrink A LOT the first time you wash them. Wash exactly as you intend to wash the finished garment.
• Use a ball-point needle. They’re available everywhere and won’t snag your knits.
• I sew with a long, thin zigzag. Just enough so that you can barely tell it’s a zigzag. This allows the knits to stretch.
• While we’re talking about stretch, don’t forget to use polyester thread!

Cutting

Rotary cutters and rulers are such time savers for a quilter and for a garment maker. We’d be lost without them. If you’re new to quilting, you can get by with a good 6″ x 24″ ruler.

Tips:

• Keep your blade sharp. The duller the blade, the harder you have to push, which can lead to nasty accidents.
• Line your body up with your cutting table. It helps to put your cutting mat on a corner. Then you can always cut “straight on”.
• Keep firm pressure on the ruler with your left (right if you’re left-handed) hand. Try to focus the pressure downward so the ruler won’t slip.
• While we’re talking about slipping, always cover the fabric piece you are cutting with the ruler. If you do slip, you won’t ruin your good piece, just a bit of the extra — and it will be fixable!

My Number One Tip for Quilters:

Invest in a quarter inch foot with a guide along the side! These are usually fairly inexpensive and will make a world of difference in your quilting. After all, in quilting, size does matter. Of the seams that is!

And if you made it this far, I’m happy to offer Quilting Gallery readers a coupon for 30% off my patterns with the code QUILTINGGALLERY. Just visit my store at melissastramel.com. Coupon is valid for one month (until Feb. 19th 2012).

Love,

xoxo