Just Some Facts
Part 1
Buying thread by weight is just a waste of time and money. Thread manufacturers use different standards when they give thread a weight. All threads made 40 wt are not the same thickness. Neither is 30wt thread, 50 wt thread and so forth.
Buy your thread visually.
Take a spool of thread with you which thickness you like and compare it to the thread for sale. Quilt shops that carry multiple thread manufacturers are great places to see the thread weight disparity.
Buy your thread by visual size. Always place 30wt in the bobbin and 40 wt in the top thread; 40wt in the bobbin and 50 wt in the top thread; and 20 wt in the bobbin and 30 wt in the top thread.
Use 12 wt. on top with 20 wt in bobbin for thread sketching.
If you want to get real thread variegation, wind 2 bobbin spools of different color thread. Stack them on the spool rod. Use a 90/14 top stitch needle. Thread your machine one color at a time. Once the1st thread is threw,cut the 2nd thread end at an angle, hold the 1st thread end up against the top of the needle eye to the left of the machine and thread the next through the bottom of the needle eye.
In the near future, all thread manufacturers will label thread by tex. Tex is a weight measurement of how many grams the thread weights at 1,000 linear feet. Crazy but true. This standard will be the same and used throughout the thread companies, making it much easier to purchase thread and get proper tension.
Part 2
The endless journey on how to free motion quilt. There are so many quilters teaching free motion quilting and the group in the class walks away unable to free motion quilt.
Here's the big secret. Long arm specialists know about this.
Go to goggle or bing and type in Trillium House Publishing.
It will bring up,among various things, Deb Epp Handbooks.
Click there and buy her handbooks. They have all the meandering, filling, decorative and texture and landscape designs there are.
Then follow her simple instructions. Take 10 pieces of copier paper out and a ball point pen. Open her handbook find a design you like and draw it as Deb shows you how. Next, draw it filling 10 pieces of copier paper without lifting your pen off the page. Let your arm do the drawing so the mind can memorize your arm movements. Do not use your wrist or elbow.Then go to your sewing machine. Spray a cloth with Pledge and rub on plate and top. Wear gloves. Roll up sides of quilt and use a clothing pin to hold the fabric. Starting in the middle of the art piece stitch that design you have been writing down. You will do it automatically without thinking.
Finally, if your machine 's free motion foot has a spring with it. Lose it. Use your embroidery or darning foot.
Part 3
At the Asheville Guild Quilt Show on Saturday, I met very interesting young women. She is a terrific quilter and she runs a business on free motion quilting. She claims she produces one filler design per day, that's 365 quilting designs. She now has it on DVD for sale at $39.95 or you can watch her videos for free on You tube.com. Look for 365 days and Leah Day. Leah has over a 3,000 quilt followers.
Part 4
If you want to art quilt, the first thing to do is reorganize your sewing room for art quilt notions like 12w thread, stabilizers, adhesives, stencils, oil sticks, stencil brushes, colored pencils, charcoal pastels, mechanical drawing pencil, and most important a design wall. Tackle putting your fabrics in order of the color wheel with cool colors separated from warm colors. Example: Yellow is at the top of the color wheel followed by red orange then red.Pull and stack with folds out all your yellows with the darkest yellow on the bottom and lightest yellow on top. You will probably find that you don't even have yellow or enough of them to give you 7 values from darkest to lightest. You should have all the colors of the color wheel as a stash and 7 fabrics for each color stacked lightest on top to darkest on bottom.
It's common for quilters to have a stash of fabrics only in the medium and dark tones. So how are you going to design a quilted art wall hanging if you can't show sunlight, light blue water,or one of the colors of skin? Go out or look for sales on the internet, like Fabric.com, or Thousands of Bolts.com and start buying light tones in all the colors.
"The Greek mean"
In early Greece, mathematics and astronomy were studied
passionately. Today, if you have a design in mind but are not sure about the overall measurements, just use the Greek mean. That is, take the measurement of the width and multiply it by 1.2 to get the length and a rectangle in perfect proportion results.
Part 5
Making my first quilt was an emotional adventure.
An elderly lady who had been traditionally quilting for twenty-five years taught a quilting class in my city. I took the class. The choice of fabrics went well and the decision to make, right from go, two twin bedspread samplers seemed possible. After all, I had sewn for forty-five years. So, I listened, took notes, practiced and worked on making 24 different 121/2 " blocks. Now all that was left was to make the sashings and intersections to complete the top.
This is the emotional part. I tried to seam butt but to no avail. The seams did not line up. I reviewed my notes on seam butting ie. put right sides together, line up seams at top and pin to the right and left of the seams and sew. It did not work. I was at a point of dispair. I'll never be a quilter.
Then one day the light went on. You butt your seams where the stitch line falls. In other word, butt your two fabrics, right sides together. Pinch the fabrics at the seams 1''down from the tops of the fabrics and line up seams 1/4 inch down from the top and pin. Go ahead and sew. You will always butt the seams.
Part 6
Do you remember being told never to use your Olfa cutting mat as a means of measurement because the rulers' one inch square did not match up with the mat's inch square.
The fact of the matter is that a woman from the midwest about 8 years ago started a business that manufactured the Omnigrid rulers. These ruler measurements do match the Olfa cutting mat. The woman from the midwest made a lot of money!
Part 7
Looking at our gallery and seeing the encaustic art pieces, I know there is wondering how encaustic art could be used in making an art quilt.
In 2011, the guild members will get together to pick up their foundation sheets, fabric and thread to start making foundation pieced blocks in the form of marquee diamonds.
Come visit us in July to view the blocks and the added encaustic art. That's right an art quilt wallhanging with encaustic art.
