My grandmother taught me to knit and my first project was a doll skirt. My first cross stitch project was a rooster on a red cloth with black floss. I embroidered a pillow case at camp. I made my first outfit in middle school (then it was called junior high)! And I made all my clothes when I went to college. And it didn’t stop there. I always had a project going my entire life and I still do today. But if you would have told me that I would become a designer with my own company because of a cat – I wouldn’t have believed you.

Twenty years ago we moved to Florida with our 2 cats. My family had vacationed there and I loved it. It was my dream to become a "little ol’ lady on the beach with lots of cats"! Be careful what you wish for! Thanks to a loving husband, I am living my dream!

However, one thing I didn’t anticipate was having lots of hurricanes (a few maybe, but not lots)! We evacuated many times. Not much fun, but very necessary. We always took our cats – there was no way I would leave them behind. But 20 years ago, not much thought was given to animals in emergency situations. Hurricane Andrew in 1992 changed all that thanks to the many animal agencies that responded to that disaster. Emergency Management officials saw the need, but it was a slow learning process. The issue was raised again with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and fortunately, since then, emergency officials have listened.

There was a little black cat that came into my life right before Hurricane Opal in 1995. Casey was a feral cat and I couldn’t get close to him when we evacuated, so I had to leave him behind. The next day when we returned (and that is another story) Casey ran to my arms. I became very attached and when he passed, I decided his little life should not be in vain. Read the complete story of Casey on my blog!

Because of Casey and my love of animals, I became involved with The Humane Society of the United States and was part of their Disaster Animal Response Team (DART). As a result I worked fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. I saw firsthand the need to get the word out about taking care of pets during disasters. Therefore I created The CASEY Plan (Caring for Animals Safely in Emergencies during the Year) in memory of my little black cat to help promote animal disaster preparedness.

And that is also when I created Purrfect Spots. Living in a resort area, I designed cross stitch patterns of local landmarks. A portion of my sales goes to The CASEY Plan which promotes animal disaster preparedness. My first effort was the Seaside Post Office (Picture).

One thing led to another and I started creating all sorts of cross stitch patterns and then added needlepoint.

Well it was only natural to go into quilting as a lot of my patterns worked beautifully as appliqué.

I fell in love with quilting and that is what I design today, both applique and pieced.

I love to hand quilt as I find it very relaxing and good therapy. It is one place in my life that I can make the pieces fit (if they are cut right). I am also the Marketing Director for The Quilt Pattern Magazine. However I still am very much involved in the promotion of animal disaster preparedness and safety. Casey’s legacy lives on! That is why I created this “Safety Tips for Pets” slide show for all my sewing friends with pets.

Give-Away

I have enjoyed being a guest on the Quilting Gallery today and I hope you have enjoyed the story of my journey as a quilter and animal lover. In appreciation of your visit, I do have a contest!

Leave a comment below telling me if you have a pet, (name & description) plus what poses a threat for them in your sewing room. There will be a random drawing for a special gift next Wednesday!

Thank you again for visiting.

For the animals,
Nan Purrfect Spots

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

Linzee Kull McCray, writer & editor

Hi! I’m Linzee Kull McCray and I’m so pleased to have a chance to visit with you. Like you, I love fabric (and yarn, and textiles of all kinds). And perhaps like you, I thought that the opportunity to write about those topics would be a dream come true.

Writing has brought me joy since I was a young, when I loved to pen fanciful stories (my mom still has one I wrote when I was seven called "Stan the Man"). I also loved to read, and so I studied English in college. But while fiction was my reading material of choice, I found that I most enjoyed writing about the people I encountered in everyday life, particularly those who are passionate about what they do.

Quilt with 561 squares/134 different prints for Etsy and Quilt Country

As it does, life kept me busy—I worked at numerous jobs including childbirth educator, gardener, bookstore clerk, child life specialist, and more, and with my husband raised two daughters. But the urge to write was strong. By the time I returned to graduate school to study writing formally, I was the same age as most of my professors and old enough to be the mother of many of my classmates.

Crochet & tatting story for Etsy

After graduation, I landed a job as the editor of the faculty and staff newspaper at the University of Iowa. I loved that it connected me to fascinating people who were obsessed with their work—my favorite kind of folks. Along the way a colleague taught me to quilt—I’d sewn for years, but never attempted a quilt—and I was hooked. That’s when the idea of writing for a quilt magazine took hold. I was fortunate to have a contact in the publishing world and sent her a query. As luck would have it, she was looking for a freelancer and sent me my first assignment: a profile of Amy Butler for the Summer 2006 Quilts and More magazine.

Melanie McFarland at retreat for Quilt Country column

Over the years, my business grew and I’m now a fulltime freelance writer and editor. I am a regular contributor to Etsy’s blog, Moda’s catalogs and blog The Cutting Table, and have a bi-monthly column in the French quilting magazine Quilt Country. I write regularly for Stitch magazine, Quilt Sampler, the French publication Magic Patch, and have written dozens of articles for American Patchwork and Quilting and Quilts and More. I’ve beefed up my skills as a photographer and take photos to accompany many of my stories. And I’ve taught magazine writing to journalism students at the University of Iowa.

Mary Lou Weidman retreat for Quilt Country column

If you’re interested in writing for publication, here are a few tips to help you get started.

1. Read! While you may not be striving to write for The New Yorker or the Los Angeles Times, you can learn a lot about putting together words effectively by reading top-quality writing. When you come across something profound (or funny or moving) in a novel, an essay, or even on a blog, stop and consider what the writer does that grabs your attention. Exposing yourself to good writing helps you shape your own.


Crocheted doily for Etsy story

2. Practice! Writing is sometimes compared to a muscle, and it’s true that the more you do it, the stronger you become. If you find yourself freezing up at the keyboard (or with pen and paper in hand), start small. Write a description of what’s on your desk or what the person across the room at a coffee shop is wearing. Write a bit every day—set a timer and write for 15 minutes or write 400 words—the topic doesn’t matter. Don’t overwhelm yourself by deciding to write the Great American Novel (or even a piece that you’re sure will be published) your first time out—it’s a sure road to discouragement. Even blogging once or twice a week provides writing practice (and you might even get comments from readers, which will inspire you to keep writing).


Younger women quilting story for Quilt Country column

3. Volunteer! While many writers say you should never write for free because it denigrates the value of paid writing, I think it’s a perfect way for a new writer to get what journalists call "clips". Clips are published articles that you can show to an editor you want to hire you, as evidence of your writing prowess. If you’re interested in writing about quilts, volunteer to write member profiles or book reviews for your guild newsletter. Write stories for your community paper about an upcoming quilt show. Blogging can show an editor you’ve got stick-to-itiveness—write a series of posts on your favorite quilt blocks or fabric designers.


Thimble holder for Etsy crochet & tatting story

4. Be yourself! This is one of the hardest lessons to learn. It took me a long time, but I’ve learned that if something interests me, there’s a pretty good chance someone else will be interested in it too. Trust your instincts when it comes to the topics you choose to write about for your blog. And this brings me to what I think is as important as good writing.


Sock creatures from my friend Todd's collection for Etsy story

5. Be curious! Ideas are a writer’s currency. Once you’ve worked for an editor, he or she will call you with stories they want you to cover. But until then, you need to snag them with fantastic ideas. Those many jobs I had before settling into my journalism career supplied me with lots of story ideas. So does staying abreast of current events, traveling, and simply taking an interest in people around me. Have a neighbor who is making a quilt in the shape of every state of the Union? Know some young women creating new quilts from recycled fabrics? Have a work colleague who teaches women in a shelter to crochet? When formulating ideas for stories, take advantage of the world and people you encounter everyday.

Michael Zahs with feed sack quilt for Etsy and Quilt Country stories

Writing can be a satisfying way to explore a favorite topic more deeply, as well as to share that fascination with others. If you’re just starting out, don’t give up your day job—I freelanced on the side for five years before I felt I had enough regular clients to give it a shot fulltime. But I haven’t been sorry. My only real complaint? I spend so much time writing about textiles and crafts that I rarely have time to sew myself!

Memory quilt (detail) by Janann Schiele for Quilt Country story

For more from Linzee on writing, sewing, and more, visit her blog.

Do you have an interest in writing about quilting? What kinds of quilting- and sewing-related stories do you like to read?

I’m using fusible web applique for my mittens.

The blocks are ready for machine blanket stitching. I love, love the fabulous colours in this fabric line. Now to decide what colour of thread to use for the blanket stitch .. red, black, white, gold. Thoughts?

Download the mittens pattern from Erin’s site. She’s included instructions for making a quilt of mittens and an on-point table runner too.

Be sure to check out Erin’s idea for squaring up the mittens block … it’s brilliant.

Updated Jan. 4, 2012 – My Smitten with Mittens Table Runners have been completed.

Hello everyone! My name is Jennifer Rodriguez and I blog over at All Things Belle. I have been sewing for over 2 decades, but it is only in the last 5 years that I’ve started quilting. Like most beginners, I struggled with the precision of the piecing. I began to move more into applique and found I enjoyed that with less frustration, but I missed the look of traditional piecing.

At the beginning of this year I finally tried paper pieced foundation quilting and fell in love! I was able to get exactly what I wanted with this technique. I Googled everything I could find on it and dove head first. There are several ways you can do it and I suggest you try a couple until you find what works for you. I have a very easy beginner tutorial here.

Paper pieced quilting does have some limitations, for example you will won’t be able to get a perfect curve. However, I personally love its distinctive look – it’s precision piecing without a lot of fuss. You don’t have to worry about the grain of the fabric and you can use such tiny pieces! One thing I’ve been wanting to do is piece with fabrics other cotton. Given the stability of the paper, you can easily quilt with silk, velvet, or denim. Time to get out those scraps!

Today I’m going to share a pattern I designed called “The Giving Tree”. This block can be scaled to many different sizes for a number of different projects, but today I used it as focus for a card. Making a paper pieced project on a smaller level allows you to get used to how it’s created, a feel for the colors you want to use, and maybe decide if you want to move ahead with it at all. Rather than tossing out the sample treasure, why not sew it on to a card for a dear friend? I would love to receive a miniature quilt in the mail and I bet you would too!

Download the pattern here [PDF format]. The pattern should print at 3.25″x5″.

Remember that your final piece will be the mirror image of how it prints on the paper. I also recommend printing 2 copies – one for working on and one to color, to assist with fabric color choices.

I hope you will try this out! For you experts out there this will be a cinch, but for you others like me that had been crying over imperfect matched seams – you will love this.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me!

See Part One: Two Hour Table Runner – Fast & Stylish Too!

Step 1: You’ll start with 5 fat quarters, one the focus fabric, 2 lights and 2 darks.

Step 2: Layer the fat quarters face up, 1st light fabric, 1st dark fabric, focus fabric, 2nd light fabric, 2nd dark fabric.

Step 3: Make only 4 vertical cuts with rotary cutter across and through all layers of the fat quarters. Make these cuts off centre on any angle that is workable for sewing together fast, try to vary the width of each cut, this is where it gets very individual.

Step 4: Start with the far left stack of slices:

• Take 1 top slice and move it to the bottom of the 1st stack.
• Moving to the right always, take 2 top slices and move them to the bottom of 2nd stack.
• Take 3 top slices and move to the bottom of 3rd stack.
• Take 4 top slices and move to the bottom of 4th stack.
• 5th stack, leave whole.

Tip: You’ll know you’ve done it correctly if you can see one fabric slice from each of the 5 fat quarters chosen. These will form the first block.

Step 5: Next, sew all the slices into blocks pieced together, working on only one whole block at a time. This prevents getting the blocks mixed up.

Step 6: Always stack the pieced blocks in the same order as they came off your table.

Step 7: Press seams at the end of completing each block, not during or after each seam, it’s unnecessary.

Step 8: Once all blocks are pieced and pressed, turn the blocks so that the seams are now horizontal to you.

Step 9: Cut another 4 cuts with your rotary cutter and ruler across the pieced blocks.

Step 10: Repeat the shuffling as done before to the stacks of pieced strips.

Step 11: Sew all the strips together once more and finish with trimming the blocks to a 16 in. square.

Step 12: If you can’t fit the 16″ square, don’t worry about it. Just square up and trim your blocks to a matching size.

I love a fast and easy way to sew strips and make interesting blocks. This tutorial is a short demonstration of how we can make the process of block building in a modern, fast way.

This tutorial will help you step out of the box of traditional thinking about always having everything straight and even and time consuming. This tutorial is just the beginning of using this technique to make fun bags, quilts, table runners and gifts of all kinds.

I’ll be posting more of these tutorials on my blog Blended Fabric Quilts and part two will be featured here on the Quilting Gallery on Thursday.

Step 1: Start with three fat quarters, don’t trim, just lay them on top of each other on a cutting mat.

Step 2: Using a long enough ruler to reach both sides of the fat quarters, make two off center kind of cuts in the way I’ve done in this photo. The secret to this technique is about going out of the box.

Step 3: From the first stack on your left, take the top piece and put it under the same stack. Then on the next stack, take the top two pieces and put them at the bottom of the pile. Leave the third stack intact.

Step 4: Sew the slices back together, press each seam and square off the pieced blocks.

Step 5: Sew the three pieced blocks together in whatever way you like. I chose to make the seams linear. You can turn them alternate too if you like.

Then machine quilt this as you desire. I made this long table runner from my stock of organic Cloud9 fabrics.

Pretty and simple, I made this quilted table runner in under two hours.

This simple tutorial is the first in a series of more tutorials on how to go far out of the box and laugh all the way to success in only minutes of your time compared to the cutting and arranging of most traditional block sewing that you might have started with in the beginning.

Next time, double cuts and then you’ll see the possibilities! Check back here on Thursday.

Let’s fast forward to, ya know, the current century, and take a look at Saral’s Wax-Free Transfer Paper. The folks at Saral were kind enough to send me a sampler package to play with.

In the sampler package comes 5 sheets of transfer paper, one of each colour: white, red, yellow, blue and black (graphite):

If life hadn’t gone a little crazy earlier this year, I’d actually have my bed quilt ready for quilting and could show you how the transfer paper works on an actual project. Instead, I grabbed a couple of scrap blocks to test with.

The transfer paper is pretty thin, not quite as thin as tracing paper, but thinner than regular printer paper and slightly delicate. I used the edge of a regular mechanical pencil to draw my lines. A ball point pen or an unpointed tool like a stylus would have been better. I had to press lightly with my pencil so as not to tear the paper.

I drew four lines on my dark fabric: white, red and two yellow lines. I wanted to test the smudge-ability and if the line erased too quickly just with handling. You’ll see the top of the red line and the first yellow line where I tried to rub it off, quite vigorously with my hands. While they are a lighter, they can still be seen quite easily. Very handy when machine quilting, as I hate when chalk products or disappearing ink vanishes before I can finish the project.

I did the same rub off test with the blue transfer paper on a scrap of white fabric, sorry the picture is a bit blurry:

The next test was to see how easy does it come off the fabric when I’m all done with it. Before I did this test, I heat-set with a hot iron and steam, as if my test fabrics were the background of appliqué blocks. I then used a moistened cloth and lightly pressed it to the lines. The blue fabric came out very quickly and the white just needed an extra rub to get the line to disappear.

I was impressed, especially that I could heat-set it and it washed out just perfectly. I’m really big into appliqué these days and this will be fantastic for drawing my placement lines on my background fabric. I also want to try back-basting appliqué and this will be really useful for that too. For me, it’s all about being able to wash away my lines when I’m done with them. Of course, I’ll be sure to test my actual project fabric, just in case.

I could also use it to draw my quilting lines and have the confidence that the lines are not going to vanish before I finish the quilt. Saral has a really useful web site, so you can read more usage ideas over there. You can buy economy rolls of the product too.

This is one product that has definitely improved since my high school years.

Now for the give-away! Saral has generously donated 10 sampler packages for my blog readers. Each package contains one 8 1/2″x11″ sheet of each colour as shown above. To enter the give-away, leave a comment below telling me creatively how you would use this product. Winners will be chosen next Wednesday.

QuiltAlbum Blog Hop

Don’t forget to visit today’s bloggers in the QuiltAlbum Blog Hop. Come back tomorrow for my special day!

• Linda lum deBono – Dzyning Things
• Vanessa Christenson – V and Co.

P.S. Facebook friends, you must enter on the blog post itself to be entered in the give-away. Click here to enter.

This is Alisa from Making More with Less and Rebecca from Our Busy Little Bunch and we’re here today to tell you about a quilt retreat we organized this past weekend. This was actually the third year for this retreat, but our first time organizing it. So how did we do it?

The hosts!

DATE and TIME. The past two years we had done an overnight retreat but due to costs and limited space, we decided to change things up this year and organize a Saturday from 9-9. This allowed more woman to be able to attend and opened up a lot more possible venues.

LOCATION. We were able to secure a hall in one of our local churches. The room had two full walls of windows so the lighting was great, and the kitchen was attached which made easy access for meals and snacks. And, since one of the ‘regulars’ at our retreat goes to this church, we were able to get this location for FREE. It also had a nursery, which was great for a nursing baby that came this year.

FOOD. We hired a family friend to take care of all the food for the day. She supplied plenty of snacks and drinks, as well as a cold lunch, and a warm dinner. She did a wonderful job, and even accommodated a nut allergy and a gluten-free diet from a couple of the guests.

COST. We kept our costs to the minimum, but made sure if was enough to cover the cost of our cook, the invitations and printing costs, and some fat quarters for door prizes.

DOORPRIZES. We contacted our favorite online shops that we’d purchased from in the past year and were able to come up with some amazing doorprizes. Thank-you so much to Pink Chalk Fabrics, Nuts For Bolts Etc., Hamels Fabric & Quilting, and the Fat Quarter Shop for your generous prizes! We also picked up some fat quarters from a local quilt shop, and went through our own craft rooms and donated some of our extra winnings and prizes we’d accumulated over the past couple years. We made a doorprize basket to pick from and pulled names throughout the day in addition to some fun games for the ‘bigger’ prizes. Every guest at the retreat went away with at least one prize.

GIFT PACKAGES. We put together some little gift packages for all the guests. We took disposable coffee cups that came free from a local coffee shop, and put in the instructions for a quilted coffee sleeve and some of our fabric and batting scraps to make it with. We also included business cards from our sponsors, and a card highlighting what we loved about our sponsors’ shops and some of our favorite online sites for free patterns and tutorials.

DONATION BLOCKS. At the past two retreats, we did a charm swap with a theme color. This year we decided to take a break from this and in the invitations we gave everyone the instructions for a rail fence block and asked them to make some donation blocks for a charity quilt (we chose the Pro-Life Society as our charity). We ended up with two complete quilt tops!

QUILT GALLERY. Everyone was asked to bring some quilts to display and we set them up in the adjoining foyer. It was a great place to take a cup of coffee and walk around admiring others work and being inspired!

The quilt retreat was a very enjoyable day! We were able to relax and get lots of our quilting done! We hope we’ve given you some ideas as to organizing your own retreat, and would love to hear about ones you’ve attended too!

Visit Alisa’s Making More with Less blog and Rebecca’s Our Busy Little Bunch blog.

I hope you’ve been having fun on this blog hop, collecting the Spring blocks that have been created and leaving comments for your chance to win some Irresistible Aurifil Threads.

Nine bloggers, nine blocks and 10 chances to win. Here are the other participants:

• Monday, Feb. 21st – Pat Sloan
• Tuesday, Feb. 22nd – Pink Chalk Studio and Lizzie B Girls
• Wednesday, Feb. 23rd – Erin Russek (Video Tutorial) and Thimbleanna
• Thursday, Feb. 24th – Stitchen heaven and ME! – Quilting Gallery
• Friday Feb. 25th – Sew Cal Gal and I Have A Notion

Be sure to leave a comment on each blog before Saturday for your chance to win the grand prize:

Share your finished blocks in the Flickr group.

Aurifil Threads are Irresistible.

Aurifil makes 4 weights of its 100% cotton Mako threads: 12wt, 28wt, 40wt and 50wt. The larger the number, the smaller the thread. I use the 50wt thread for all of my piecing. I love how thin it is and that it doesn’t add any bulk to my seams when pressed.

Pat’s done a great video on the different thread weights and how to recognize the spool colours:

I love how Aurifil threads have a tiny bit of shine to them and shimmer ever-so-slightly when the light hits them. Hopefully you can see the shimmering effect in this photo:

I love the subtle gradients in many of their threads. I have two nieces and these purple and pink gradient threads get used often.

I love that when I use the 50wt thread for hand appliqué, the stitches vanish right into the fabric.

I love that I can get gorgeous machine blanket stitch, accurate stitch-in-the-ditch and beautiful dense quilting with Aurifil threads. I’ve been using Aurifil threads for two years and not once has my thread broken.

For me, Aurifil threads are irresistible. They make my quilting life more enjoyable and beautiful.

Here’s my block: Hidden Star. Made up of simple half-square triangles and four patches. Don’t let the on-point layout scare you, it’s super easy to put together.

Download the block instructions here: Hidden-Star-Quilting-Gallery [PDF File]

Leave a comment below telling me what’s your favourite season and why? For me, it’s Spring, when the birds return and the flowers and trees awaken from their cold Winter’s nap.

Two winners will be selected to win a thread sampler pack containing one spool of each of the different weights of Irresistible Aurifil Threads. Winners will be selected on Saturday.

Today (Thursday) is the last day to enter your quilt in this week’s contest Colourful Modern Quilts. Check back on Friday for your chance to vote for your favourite.