Simply Done
Yesterday evening I cut, pressed,
layered and pinned my quilt squares. (about 2½ hours)
This afternoon I added the decorative stitching (also about 2½ hours). I’m going to take a short break and then cut sashing strips.
I’m calling it Crazy Shortcake (so far) because I am using our Crazy Shortcut method on the Moda Layer Cake fabrics – Crazy Short-Cake 🙂
I am cutting fabric for a new quilt! Yayyyyyyy! I’ve been up to my eyeballs in html, webs, blogs, rings and mud (cleaning up electrons and rabbit ranges). Now, it’s Fabric Time. (say that like the commercial would say “Miller Time” – -lol)
The Fat Quarter Shop (I am still not sure if this is a good thing or a dangerous thing) had my fabric order to me about 20 seconds after I clicked “Buy Now”. Hehehehe
That Moda Layer Cake stack of fabrics has been sighing to me all week – “come quilt me” it whispers…”forget that computer stuff, come play with faaaaabbriiic”.
So, the ring is fixed, the word is out, the web is updated, the bunnies are taken care of and now it’s time to play. I know exactly what I want to do with this quilt – it’s partly tried and true with partly testing out a few new ideas too. My favorite!
Oh, and I know who’s going to get it too!! I just love that part, thinking about who I am going to give it to while I am making it. It makes me happy.
I have created a new blog ring for quilt designers and I invite every quilt designer, pattern designer, quilt book author and anyone in the business of quilting (who blogs) to join the ring and have some fun!
Go here and put in your blog address and then install the code in your sidebar and Whoopeee!!! We’re surfing again!
I am sorry to say that the blog rings on RingSurf are not working. I have been testing them on & off all day and finally have contacted them and am awaiting a reply. I know that the rings have been down for about a day so far and I can’t wait any longer for them to fix things without posting about it.
I love surfing the rings – I find some great blogs that way! Update: I created a tutorial on how to create a new blog ring here and here. It’s easy and I enourage everyone on ringsurf to change over and replace their ring on alt-webring.com Click Here
Audrey, my granddaughter, is back with me this weekend. I put most of the quilting stuff away and got out the camera. Knowing your priorities is a good thing. We’re going outside to look for some mud puddles to stomp in. See you later!
I am, at times, overwhelmed with what is available for free on the internet. Squidoo is interesting to me because they give you a nicely formatted place to share information on subjects that you are passionate about – and they give you a choice of donating any profits from the page you create to charity.
I am pretty passionate about some aspects of quilting and I like to share information for free and I am a firm believer in helping others. Squidoo.com looks like a good fit for me. Unlike a blog, where after about a week a post is lost in Label/Archive limbo – my topic is always there, easy to find and always available for anyone looking for it. That’s kind of neat 🙂
If you are passionate about a subject and you want to share it with the internet world, head on over there and create what they call a ‘lens’. Here’s mine on different machine quilting systems.
I received an email from my favorite marketing gal at Krause that the first shipment of the second printing of our book (Crazy Shortcut Quilts) is now in the warehouse!! Yipee!!!
I was having a heck of a time with my decorative stitching and thread backlash in the bobbin. I thought it was the thread (no) the stitch (no) and finally just assumed that the timing was off on the sewing machine (no).
I can’t say I know what caused the problem, but I do know what backlash is: bobbin thread whipping backwards in the bobbin case & either bunching up or creating huge globs of thread clusters on the back of the fabric or quilt or winding itself onto the bobbin spring and shredding.
I had read a while ago about a teflon ring that was being sold as a ‘cure’ for backlash and in desperation, I cut a corner off my teflon pressing sheet and trimmed it to fit the bobbin case and guess what? No more backlash and I have been happily stitching ever since! Now, cutting up the pressing pad was an act of desperation – the teflon rings are available at quilt shops and online at Keepsake Quilting. But, if you’re desperate for a solution and don’t want to wait…….
I just love anything that makes my sewing and quilting easier, and these 2 things do exactly that: Joan Hawley’s Tips DVD and Prym-Dritz curved nickel pins in a size 1.
The first time I saw Joan at Quilt Market, with her booth & business sign that said “Lazy Girl” I stopped in my tracks. Here was a woman I could relate to! I watched her Tips DVD yesterday and it renewed my respect for Joan and my love of her tips. This DVD is mostly about zippers (she uses them in quite remarkable ways on several of her handbag patterns). Lots of sewers are afraid of zippers and Joan removes all the stupid rules I learned in home-ec, back when girls had to take home economics and girls had to wear skirts and dresses to public school (I’m old!). Joan’s DVD shows how to put in zippers faster than putting on a binding, and easier too.
While I was watching the DVD I was also doing the boring task of pinning my squares for a new quilt. 
I had a few bad pins and I opened up a brand new package of Prym Pins. Heaven. Bad pins are worse than useless (into the scrap bin they went) because they pull at the fabric and distort the smoothness I worked so hard to get! These new pins were smooooooth and sweet and between them and watching Joan, made a boring task better.
BTW, if you like the background fabric on the pins photo, it’s Cherrywoods hand dyed fabric from their ‘Chestnut to Light’ colorway. That’s what I am working on now.
I just love the Jolly Jabber Blog by the Fat Quarter Shop. They are running a contest right now, using a Moda fabric called ‘Simplicity’. Very pretty (for a floral). Hehehehe. Although florals aren’t my favorite type of fabric, I really like this line and the contest pushed me over the edge on buying some. I have a new idea that I want to try and this will suit it perfectly.
Here’s info on the contest (click here to go to the Jolly Jabber Blog about the contest) and I have received notice that it has been extended until April 6. My challenge shall be to make a small quilt in a day, from start to binding, although I will admit that I bought the Layer Cake, so my first cut is already made. If they send the fabric completely flat then I won’t have to press it, saving another half hour or so. I will keep you posted!
