THANK YOU BLOGGERS!!

Look what I won…THANKS to YOU!!  Green Fairy Quilts was giving away a $30 gift certificate to the person who referred the most people to their giveaway.  So I wrote a blog about it…and YOU went and entered and told them that Sweet P sent you!!  You know what that means…WE WON!!  So what should WE buy??  I’m thinking a LAYER CAKE…what about you? 

Thanks Green Fairy Quilts…sew exciting!!  Now WE need to go shopping!  Decisions…decisions..?!

Some Quilting News~ Yesterday at Heritage Quilting they had stations set up.  Manning each station was an appliqué expert…lots of tips and techniques to enjoy!!  LOVED it!

At my first stop the quilter showed us how to get our fabric ready for needle turn appliqué.

She really knew her stuff!!  I could NOT see one stitch…and boy, did I look!!

She showed us how to use a plastic template or butcher paper and how to mark the turn lines by running little basting stitches instead of using a pen.

She also showed us how to make those invisible stitches when appliquéing.

I loved this little lamp/magnifying glass.  Eureka, I can see!

  She also showed us how to clip out the back so that the back print doesn’t show through…see the penguin, how it has black spots and would normally show through the white.  Not if you flip your block and cut out that part! 

This is the back cut out…Very clever!

At station #2 we received tons of tips to make appliqué a lot easier…

..Like how to use the double sided tape to hold the plastic template in place so that you could baste/mark around the stitching lines..See the purple piece of fabric…the plastic template is held in place ready for marking…quilters are SEW darn smart!

..and what kind of fusible webbing to use…Magic Fuser…or..

Steam-a-Seam2…(Magic Fuser was a little lighter than Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 but both were great in my books!)

She also showed us how to do blanket stitching by hand…

 

At station 3 we were shown how to do machine appliqué using the button stitch.

And at the final station Delores showed us how to Satin stitch appliqué.  She gave us a demo on how to go around curves and how to stitch corners correctly.

This was a runner that Delores appliquéd using the satin stitch and Sulky thread.  Delores also gave us a hand out on what kind of  threads to use ( use 100% cotton or rayon (Sulky) on your spool and always use regular thread in your bobbin) and what kind of needles (size 11 (Schmetz) (embroidery) for quilting cottons and use Metallica needle for metallic thread).

This is Delores’ favourite stabilizer…see all the holes…

…makes it easy to tear away when you are finished your appliqué…(sorry…I don’t know the name of it but it’s only $3 a metre!)

So I learned a lot!! 

Thanks so much ladies…next time I am going to take a pad a paper around so that I can write down NAMES…that way I won’t be calling you “the quilter” all the time…NOT that that is a bad thing! :o)  It is after all what we all strive to be!!  You can call me ‘the quilter’ anytime…just don’t be surprised if you get a “Who ME?”… followed with a dazed look…;o)

***Just found out the names of these wonderful quilters…Thank YOU to Joanne, Ruth, Susan and Delores!  You all did an awesome job!!

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!!~P