Monday, Oct 12, 2009: Re-entry!!! This is what we call it when I get back from a trip and have to get used to the routine again. Each time is easier because I'm learning how to decompress and not expect to hit the ground running. Also, my office staff is doing an excellent job of keeping the orders processed, the events coordinated, and the projects in the forefront while I'm gone. I am thankful for the team we have. Each person brings her own talents to the group. We are all understanding of each person’s job and willing to pitch in when someone’s job requires extra effort. Anita has done such a great job to keep everything going while we hunted for a replacement for Alicia Sanchez for order processing. (Alicia worked with us for the last year until her family needed her back in Michigan. For a little while we did have an Alicia at Alicia’s Attic! In case you are wondering, I named the business after my grandmother.)
Alicia’s replacement is Rachel Hill. You may remember her because she was featured in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine when she won a blue ribbon on her first large quilt at age 14. She used the Not Your Grandmother’s Tumbling Blocks strip-pieced method which impressed the judges. We are so blessed to have her here working with us full time and enjoy the new addition to our team. When you call the office, more than likely, Rachel will be answering the phone.
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Sunday, Oct 11, 2009: Heading back to Denver / Fort Collins, I sat next to a gentleman who is an administrator for an orthopedic center in the Houston area. We talked the entire trip about jobs, children, and life experiences. He heard some of the details of my hip replacement, which was redone in June. Thankfully the new one is working perfectly. And in looking at the silver lining of the cloud, I realize it was a good thing that they had to go in again and change the angles. They found a condition called metallosis, which isn’t something you want to live with. The doctors were able to replace the metal parts with ceramic and plastic getting rid of that problem and rearranging the joint to remove the pain I had had for the last two years. My staff members heard me talking about these parts and they envisioned me being put back together with pottery and PVC. We had quite a laugh over that. At least now I don’t set off the alarms when I walk through the metal detectors at the airport!
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Saturday, Oct 10, 2009: Demonstrating in the Checker Distributors booth, I shared our product line with shop owners and teachers as they visited the booth. Some of the samples I handed out were from our Know Before You Sew series. About 3 out of 4 of the people I talked to didn’t realize that strips can be joined at any angle for binding or borders. When I shared this information from our Joining Strips reference card, they knew exactly when they would use the information. When making binding, sometimes the length runs short. Joining the pieces at a lesser angle will give the extra inches needed. The card also shows how to check to be sure the strip will be joined correctly rather than the short end to the long piece. They also received samples of Qtools Cutting Edge and Qtools Sewing Edge. We are working on putting a quick video up for each of our products so you can see how best to use them.
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Friday, Oct 9, 2009: Schoolhouse for our new book. After eleven years, Not Your Grandmother’s Tumbling Block book has sold 35,000 copies and we are out of print. Sara Nephew’s book Big Book of Building Block Quilts is now in its fourth printing and has been available for 8 years. We are merging the two books into one updated and revised book titled ABC 3-D, tumbling blocks and other 3D designs. For schoolhouse at International Quilt Market, we had lots of great response to the book. This book will be available in the spring. We'll keep you posted.
During the lecture, I shared some tips on helping select fabrics. From our many years of experience, both Sara and I suggest selecting lights and darks first then going back and finding the mediums. You’ll know what the limits are and find a best fit for the medium. You want to choose something that doesn’t blend into one more than the other. A medium needs to be half way in between if possible. However, if you can’t find the perfect one, know that those selections which are the best will carry those that aren’t optimal.
Here is an example from my first tumbling blocks quilt from 1987. The teal is the best choice. The pink and yellow have very little contrast between the light and medium. The blue and green have very little contrast between the dark and medium. However, overall the quilt works. The tumbling blocks look 3 dimensional. I really like the color wheel that we carry because it shows what light, medium, and dark are for each of the 12 colors on the color wheel. Dark yellow is a gold / brown color. I had no idea when I made this quilt what to choose for dark yellow. I looked at an antique tumbling blocks to see what they had done. These fabrics were all that I could find in 1987 in the Dallas area quilt shops. All in all, they work just fine, but I now know what to look for when selecting fabric for 3-D designs and can select them much more quickly. We also have such a large variety to choose from now....! |
Thursday, Oct 8, 2009: Heading to Houston for International Quilt Market. I met a shop owner in the terminal as we waited for our delayed plane to arrive. We started discussing whether to tear fabric or cut it as a shop owner. She prefers to tear the fabric because it gives a straight grain on the cross grain. However, she is tired of the customers who complain about the torn fabric. They think they are going to lose fabric, because they only know aligning the fabric with the selvages. I told her I would put together a video that discussed the different grains and how to use all of the fabric no matter if the shop cut or tore the fabric.
She also said they teach pressing fabrics with starch to stiffen them, whether they have been washed or not. She has found that this helps minimize the problems that quite often arise when quilters don’t know how to use their iron with steam. I’m not sure what amount of time this adds to her quilting process. For me, this would take more time than I can give to a project.
I have deleted steps that I was taught when I realize that the step does not diminish the quality I need. I determine what the project is for and what level of perfection (or non-perfection) that I require. Most of my projects are made as samples for a book. They are not used except to display at shows or at guild presentations. They are not washed very often and remain folded on shelves when not packed in suitcases for trips. I like the finish of unwashed fabrics for the quilts. They have a new look to them for longer. So my fabrics are rarely washed prior to cutting and sewing the quilt. This saves me time in getting the project ready for photography. However, I do wash flannels which I use quite often for backing. They are washed because flannels tend to shrink more than regular cotton fabrics.
I also realize that I risk having dyes running. If I have a fabric that has excess dye or unset dye, I will use Shout Color Catchers. (You can find them in the laundry detergent section of some stores.) I recently had a fabric that was running significantly and I kept the used Color Catchers to demonstrate the amount of dye that can be caught. Here are some photos of what happened with each wash. I have had a few projects where the dye was running. With Color Catchers I was able to get the remaining dye removed by washing several times with multiple sheets until the last sheet was almost clear.
The shop owner recommended Retayne, a chemical used for setting the dye. She said the Color Catchers do only that – catch the dye. The fabric may continue to bleed depending on the situation and Retayne will stop the running.
Try to determine what amount of time you want to spend on your project at the beginning or end. You can wash all of your fabrics, none of your fabrics, or anywhere in between. I recommend that you choose what works best for you rather than what I or anyone else says is THE RULE.
The shop owner also said she teaches stretching the fabric and pressing the fabric to have both grains aligned. I would be concerned as to what this will do to the quilt when it is finally washed, because from what I have seen, the fabric will go back to what it was originally. I’ll have to do some tests on this to see what the results might be. I’ll keep you posted on this issue.
I was taught to tear the fabric on the crosswise grain and align this for cutting strips. Most shops would tear the fabric because the rotary cutter was not available. Tearing was faster than cutting across with scissors. If the fabric was well made, both the crosswise grain and the lengthwise grain would be aligned. However, most fabrics don’t align that well. So you can have one grain or the other but most likely not both. The only benefit I have found for aligning the cross-grain, is that the strips do not ravel as much as I work with them as strips. Once they are cut into smaller pieces, the edge that is not aligned on grain will ravel more.
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