Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

Marguerita’s Blog

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! 🙂

Quilt Confession …

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I have to confess ….. I buy quilt blocks and quilt tops on ebay.  There.  It’s out.

Sarah recently gave me back of pile of blocks that I had dumped on her, after deciding I’d never do anything with them.  Does that make them double UFO’s?   RUFO’s – Returned Un-Finished Object?  WIHIMMBGTSE – Works I Had In My Mind But Gave To Someone Else?  🙂  I could go on forever…

So, back to the drawing board – and glad I am!!  Guess what – I needed them back!  I want to make a video of using regular quilt blocks, done with our quilt as you go technique, and I was actually looking for more blocks to buy on ebay!!  She just saved me money!  (Don’t tell her, she’ll want a cut of it!)

Check back soon for how to finish your UFO quilt blocks using quilt as you go, with videos and all, so go find those blocks, and we’ll get them quilted together!

(Okay, DON’T tell Sarah, but I just bid on some more blocks on ebay!   Ssshhhhhhhhhhh!)

Bunny Update

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bunniesMy friend Ferne reminded me that I haven’t posted about the bunnies lately – thanks for the reminder Ferne!

We have more bunnies.  Our neighbors called a few weeks ago and said that they were rescuing some baby bunnies that had been separated from their mother by someone who traps the rabbits and takes them far away and releases them.  This jerk (I wrote dumbshit but took it out) took a female rabbit 10 miles away and a few days later found out that there was a litter.  She just figured on letting them die.

My neighbor Jean decided otherwise.

Jena called Tom and I to ask what the baby bunnies needed to survive.  We gave her some supplies, lots of advice and offered to help.  Jean kept them for about 5 weeks and then ran out of room and time (travel away from home) so we took them in.  Tom build a pen in the back yard, away from the roof construction, gave them an old truck canopy to hide under, and they have been in bunny heaven ever since!  Bunnies LOVE dandilions and rasberry leaves and they have been pigging out on that plus pellet food, frolicking and playing, hiding and sleeping.

Jean still visits them and brings them treats  🙂  There are three white ones and one tan one.

And, such a happy ending, I recently bumped into my two favorite tan bunnies on 4th Avenue as I walked to work – it was such a treat to see them again because I had not seen them for 3 weeks and I was afraid that they’d been trapped or killed AND last night my favorite black bunny (he’s very old and not healthy) stopped by for some carrots and pellets!  What a great day.

doneOh, and the roof is DONE!

Mystery Donor

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You angel! Thank you for your donation to Charity:water!

I am working on 3 projects that I want to use to both provide new products to quilters AND to generate revenue to causes that I believe in: water and micro-loans.

I have been investigating Kiva.org and I love what they are doing, however I would also like to participate in either a women-only micro-loan program or a United States based micro-loan program.  I intend to tie my future quilting endeavors to those programs, but I want to chose several projects to invest in.

Do you have suggestions on which ones you prefer or recommend? I would love to learn more and value anything anyone has to say!

New Roof for the House!

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tom-on-roofEver have a project that you’ve known you had to do but dreaded, for years? Today’s the day for the house and for Tom. He’s postponed, drafted re-designs, fixed leaks, patched bad areas and finally, today, the roof is coming off and new one going on.

He’s been gathering materials for months, cutting wood, ordering tin and other materials, organizing tools and agonizing over the re-design. There’s a design flaw which lead to a lot of leaks and frustration for many years and today it is going away!

destruction-1He’s got his brother, friend Jeff and Jeff’s helper, and all four have been pounding, banging, ripping and destroying the roof for a couple of hours now. I’ll take pics as I can, but mostly I am staying outta the way!




noon-day-2Here’s the progress at noon the next day. Some of the new trusses are in place and it’s scorching hot outside! They guys are still hard at work 🙂

At the end of day four, the new roof is on and secure, the entire roof is sealed against the weather and all but 5 sheets of metal are in place!
day-4

Our Art Quilt Project

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audrey-fabricsHehehehe.  A baby and a bucket of fabric scraps.  I’ll be picking them up for the next month!  What was I thinking!?

Well, let’s just say I was rushing things a bit.  The technique worked well but the materials I chose didn’t (not their fault, mine) and the child doesn’t quite have the attention span yet for a project this size.  I’ll try again, but smaller next time  🙂

We played outside for a while but after I took her home we both came down with colds  🙁  Oh well.  We are on the mend!  As I was leaving Audrey at home with her parents I was cooerced into taking one of Sarah’s quilts.  I have no idea why she wants ME to quilt this – she’s quilted several in the past few months and done just fine.  Another “oh, well”.

sarahs-quiltI hope to quilt this (and a few more) and make videos as I quilt them.  I love machine quilting art quilts (maybe that’s why she gave it to me to quilt?) and I now have the space to both quilt and take video, so these few that are waiting will be the test.

The red flowers are texured heavily, they are a product of Bella Nonna and Sarah just loves them. She has made several of their quilts. In fact, if you like it I think you should stop by Sarah’s Blog and tell her to make a video of her making one! Doesn’t that sound like fun?!?