Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Marguerita

Outside work & inside retreat

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This weekend finds us outside finishing some work on the house before it gets too cold. Thankfully it’s gorgeous and warm and we hope to get a lot done 🙂

My friend Susan Round is having a quilting retreat on her blog this weekend. Stop on by and check out her group and their works and join in if you have time to quilt this weekend. Whatever you are doing this weekend I hope that you enjoy it to the fullest!

First Place!

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Our dear friend Kathy Harte mentors young girls in their sewing. Here’s her email to me from just a few minutes ago:

Hi Marguerita and Sarah – I’m so excited about some great – exciting fantastic news ! ! ! I had 5 students last school year who completed their wildly beautiful “Crazy Shortcut Quilts.” Two of my girls just called to let me know….

Tyanna Baker took First Place, and Grand Champion in her age group (12 years old) for the king size quilt she made ! ! ! ! !

Christina Baker took 2nd place in the 9 year old category for her lap size quilt ! ! ! !

The girls’ Mom will e-mail pictures of the girls with their masterpieces, and I’ll forward those on to you….

AND….. I’ve got everything documented from start to finish on my computer… if you like, I’ll burn CDs for you so you can see what all the girls did using your book as our guide.

I’m soooooo proud of them and am doing the happy dance ! Just thought you’d like to know 🙂 YAY YAY YAY

Love to you both,
Kath

I am so excited for these girls – to have won recognition for their hard work really is so wonderful and for Kathy to see their success, well, that is the highest reward for a wonderful teacher!

Exercise?

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Are you a member of a weight loss or fitness group? I have been watching my pal Laura and her progress on Spark People and I just joined today. I am almost obese according to their numbers but what’s worse than that is that I look and feel like blended Jell-O in stretched skin.

I’ve been sitting for too long (a couple of years) with almost no exercise and it shows.

So, I am starting the quest for better health and I wonder what my other pals are doing or using?

I am setting a low goal of going for a walk every day and no more whining about the weather unless it’s raining on ice, in which case I fall a lot, and that’s where I’ll be drawing the line.

Help me out and tell me what you do, what are your goals and what helps you stay on track, okay?

My New Pressing Board

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I created a huge pressing surface for myself, something I’ve wanted for many years! I used 1/2″ OSB (Oriented Strandboard), two layers of Warm & Natural Batting, some muslin and my favorite staple gun. To keep it from moving, I set a large piece of gripper pad (sold as shelf liner in department stores) underneath! Here’s the vid:

The Story of Penny’s Quilt

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Back in the mid 1990’s I started quilting and it didn’t take long before I fell in love with machine quilting. I machine quilted for Trish Stuart, who had just made the transition from making patterns to making self-published books. We made a great team! I went to Quilt Market a few times with Trish and meanwhile my friend Penny had started quilting – and Penny does everything GUNG HO!
PQsm
Penny and I decided to go to spring Quilt Market to help Trish launch her new book “Color Art” in 2002. The first day was a blast but that night in the hotel room Penny was sick. So sick that we had to take her to the hospital – and there she stayed for 3 weeks. It was incredible trauma for us all and for Penny, who is NEVER sick!

Trish made this quilt for Penny and I promised to quilt it for her but I’ve run into difficulty (as have Trish and Penny) over the past years – and with moving, giving the quilt back to her, moving again, getting it back and re-promising to quilt it, I am thrilled to say that Penny’s Quilt is quilted!

I made two videos to go along with it – the first one tells the story of Penny’s Quilt. It’s an important story to three people – me, Penny and Trish. Probably not too interesting to anyone else, but I wanted to make the video. The lighting isn’t good – I’m still learning how to judge lighting.

The second video is me doing the quilting. I use three different stipple techniques on Penny’s Quilt and I show each of them on the video. I just can’t tell you how wonderful it was to give Penny her quilt yesterday. We sat and talked for hours. She lives about 200 miles from me now and we don’t get to see each other much – but distance doesn’t alter friendship and Penny is a lifelong friend, one of my very best friends. She’s into beading now, as well as quilting, and she’s poking through her bead stash looking for a few sparklies to embellish her quilt with.

Here’s Penny’s Quilt Story:

Here’s how I quilted it:

Sashing Your Squares

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Hi Quilters! I get a few emails every now and then about the sashing on our quilt as you go style of quiltmaking, and I re-read the book (thanks to my friend Phyllis at Patchwork Plus in Virginia!) and I want to clarify something for all of you experienced quilters!

We use a “true” 1/4″ seam or even a FAT quarter inch seam when sewing on our sashing strips! Here’s a short video I made about it, with a little teaser at the end 🙂

Now, the reason I said “experienced quilters” is because of the precise piecing requirement of a scant 1/4″ seam that much of traditional quilt piecing uses. Beginners don’t know about this and they never have a problem, but experienced quilters will often use a scant 1/4″ seam out of habit, and then they are disappointed with how the sashing finishes up.

Of course, being experienced quilters, they quickly realize that a fast pass, with a wider seam, fixes everything and they keep quilting right along! Many, many thanks to Phyllis at Patchwork Plus for helping me see that this could be explained better! 🙂