TIPS AND TRICKS: My SUREFIRE, NEVER FAIL HST'S

Jacob's Ladder - jewelbox variation

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of my surefire accurate, neverfail HST's I want to tease your eye with a few more HST beauties. Please accept my apologies for the poor quality of this picture - it was taken while
I was still using a first generation digital, and colour trueness wasn't its strong point! This is a quilt I made for a lady in Washington state using scraps and fat quarters.

Set Sail 36x46 inches - shop model from a kit
I chose to show you this one because one of the first quilts I ever made for sale, entitled "Ship of Dreams" was a red, white, navy and ochre variation on this one, and at the moment I can't find a picture of it. I must hunt through my pre-digital albums and do some scanning.

Janet's Indigo Basket

Ah! Much better! One thing I've learned is to photograph quilts outdoors for best colour results. This is my Indigo Baskets quilt which, although it doesn't strike you immediately, is basically a half square triangle quilt on point, with appliqued basket handles. A great quilt with very little effort. It was so much fun that there is another in the works. I'll bring it out later in a tutorial I think.

NOW FOR THE NITTY GRITTY!!!

TODAY (right now!) I want you to get out your quarter inch grid paper or your gridded template plastic, or promise to be really really accurate if you don't have either. Find your mechanical pencil or your fineline permanent marker. We're ready to start.
 SIZE: We will be making templates for HST's to finish at 2, 3, 4,5.and 6 inches and maybe 7 inches too - why not go for all of them - I think I will. And the reason I will is that long ago I learned the lesson of scale being essential to a quilt's size.
For example, if I am going to make a baby quilt, which I tend to size at 42x54 or 42x60, I am not going to make it from large blocks - I am going to size my blocks at less than 6 inches square. For a lap quilt which I size at 60x60 most of the time, we can go for perhaps 8 inches square; and for a double queen, I usually stop at around 10. I am currently working on a 96 inch square pictorial applique and have stretched the rule to multiples of 12. If you make a lot of doll sized quilts, you can settle for blocks that are no more than 2 inches square.
MAKE YOUR TEMPLATES: in order to be able to build in complete accuracy you will make your template fininshed size + 2inches on each side.
For example, your 2 inch finished size will yield a template of 6 square inches.
2 inches cut template at 6 inches
3 inches cut template at 7 inches
4 inches cut template at 8 inches
and so on......
Make at least the templates listed above for starters. If you make larger ones, try taping the template plastic together as the gridded plastic doesn't come that wide.
When cutting on the gridded line, try to cut very straight and right through the inner edge of the line to allow for greater accuracy, as a pencil width mark will take up some room.
Now you are ready to cut out your squares!!!
Now either mark all your light coloured fabric using a mechanical pencil on the wrong side, or mark all your dark fabric on the wrong side using a piece of white tailor's chalk or a white chalk pencil. Make sure you keep the chalk or chalk pencil's tip sharp so as to mark a thin line.
You can vary the sizes or make a supply all the same size - it's up to you.
 BEFORE YOU CUT OUT YOUR BLOCKS: carefully mark a diagonal line from opposite corners. Then mark another diagonal line on each side of this one and in a quarter of an inch, using whichever marker you used before.
Now you can cut out the marked squares. Then you will lay them right sides facing, on top of the other fabrics (either lighter or darker) that you chose.

TOMORROW:we'll sew a few HST's together and take a picture or two!

See you then!!
Hugs!
Janet



EDIT!!!!!!! And the winner is.........
number 9 generated by Random.org
and that is....marie in oregon!!! who left me her email addy - I need you to contact me, marie, with your snail mail addy

and you'll have your lavender sachets before you know it!

AND!!!!!!  I did say I would award a second giveaway prize if the entries reached 125. Now they only reached 122, but that didn't stop me - gotta love Random.org!!
MY SECOND WINNER IS.........Teresa (Westherbee ;) of Renton, Washington who has just started a blog.
Both gals should contact me with their mailing addresses and I'll get those lavender sachets on the way out to you on the west coast the first of the week.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE, AND THANK YOU, DEBI, FOR HOSTING THE FALL INTO FALL GIVEAWAY - IT'S BEEN GREAT FUN!!

Make a note of my sister site's URL - http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com/  vintage handmade household linens - because I'll be announcing a giveaway over there next week

TIPS AND TRICKS: HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES

                                       Janie's  19thc Churndash 2009

I just spent a half hour going through my saved images of quilts I have made and other quilts I would like to make.... I'm amazed at how many of them involve half square triangles and what a huge variety of quilts the lowly half square triangle can support.

TOMORROW we will start to work on making ourselves a supply of hst's to start quilt designing and quiltmaking with, so look out your favourite ruler, a permanent marker fineline  and some ruled template plastic or some quarter inch grid paper. That's available in pad form three hole or not, at Staples/Office Depot. Don't forget your utility scissors - cutting plastic is no good for your good dressmaker's shears - this is the time for the 'el cheapo' scissors!

TODAY your exercise is to go through your source of pictures, patterns, magazines and so on and bookmark quilts that pique your interest. If like me, you do this on your computer; it is easy to set up a file for the exercises you will be doing. If you work better with real paper, books, patterns and magazines, perhaps a clearly marked project box is called for. I often use the clear page protectors and keep my favourites in a three ring binder that can be put on the bookshelf with other books and doesn't add to the clutter.

Next go through your fabric stash and simply pick appealing fabrics at random or with a plan in mind. You can choose bits and pieces and ends or for a more unified effect choose a couple of pieces of yardage. Just make sure you choose some light and some dark, as contrast is part of what makes hst's so appealing.

                                             A MARCUS BROTHERS FREEBIE

As my major goal in any teaching I do is to empower quiltmaker's colour sense and designing skills you will notice I am leaving a lot of choices up to you - if you feel you aren't yet ready for this sort of independence, then just pop in a comment describing your current needs and I will address them either here in the blog or privately if you wish.

TODAY's major goal is to help you develop your ability to choose how you wish to go about the project - scrappy or colour co-ordinated? traditional or wild fresh colours? tone on tone or solids? batiks? Your stash will tell you a lot about your preferences as soon as you look through it. I know mine is short on the warm end of the spectrum (yellows. oranges and reds) and almost entirely lacking in brights and the more modern "retro" prints from the 50's and 60's which are popular right now - I'm trying to leave my comfort zone and try out some of these!
The above quilt top and blocks will look entirely different according to whether you decide to hang them on point or butt them  together in a straight set and with or without sashing and setting triangles, so start playing with your graph paper sketch pad and maybe even use some crayon or coloured pencils - I keep on hand an old set of both that my now 18 year old grandson abandoned here years ago when something better arrived under the tree - works for me! You may already be into electric quilt software and have the 2010 Stash software for all I know!
I want you to develop your colour and design sense to the point where you don't need these aids, but you need lots of practice before you get to the point where you can dispense with the preliminaries.

Spend the next day or so looking at as many quilts as you can - perhaps pulling the ones you choose together by printing off copies or just scanning and filing them together.

I'm interested to hear your comments after you've done that.
Talk to you soon.
Janet

TIPS AND TRICKS: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

I want you to start thinking outside the box that most of us 21st century quilters inhabit. This box has been made to look cushy and creative, but really is more about selling product than it is about creativity. I have nothing against any of the current trends but am concerned that when adopted quickly by beginning quilters these trends can stifle their creativity and lead them to believe that complex is difficult and fast is best.

Quilter unknown - not mine!!! Definitely lovely

Basically my feeling is that the more gizmos and machines you add to the quiltmaking mix, the farther away you get from the ability to see your quilt develop and make changes and improvements as you go along. I think most artists will tell you that is the creative process itself that is so essential to them, not the end product and personally I find that the less that is between me and the process of making a quilt, the happier I am and the more successful I am.
I want you to do this exercise TODAY: think about it first. Imagine you are going away to an isolated spot where you will spend an extended holiday - no shops and no internet although you can bring along a laptop with your notes and files.
You can bring only your basic quilting supplies - good dressmaker's shears, utility scissors, needles, thread and marking devices (mechanical pencil, chalk pencil, tailor's chalk and powdered chalk in a holder with wheel. You will be allowed to bring with you a selection of fabric cut into squares, rectangles and half square triangles and you can bring a bit of yardage too if you wish. And for patterns you will have some rough schematic drawings and some plain lined and unlined paper along with a favourite ruler and some template plastic, gridded and plain.
You will have to do lots of homework before you set off, so come along with me over the next couple of weeks and see what that will entail and what you may learn!!
START RIGHT NOW AND KEEP LOTS OF NOTES EITHER ON YOUR COMPUTER OR IN YOUR PROJECT BOX!!
See you soon!

What's New?

My goodness! What isn't new? This is a catch-up post and I'm going to flit here and there to bring folks up to date.
QUILTS AT THE HARBOUR:What a weekend that was - catching up with old friends and meeting new ones while hosting an event which has become an annual must-do for local quilt lovers, and always a few tourists doing some early leaf-peeping come along too.
We had our most successful show so far with 4 major quilts sold and over $700 raised for the church as well. To this tiny community, that amount is remarkable and I want to thank all the people, exhibitors and visitors plus faithful volunteers (in particulart, Richard, Joanne, Kathryn and Grace) who are there for us each year. Word has spread too, about the quilters' gently used table and things sold so well that Saturday night I had to go home and raid my fabric stash for more items as the table was so badly picked over!!! I'm looking forward to next year already!!!

FALL INTO FALL GIVEAWAY BLOG HOP: Debi is hosting this blog hop at: http://www.fallintofall.blogspot.com/ if you haven't already been "hopping", hop on over and check it out - she has signed up over 150 blogs; each one of us is giving some lovely item(s) away if you sign up before October 15th, so there is still plenty of time to do some hopping. I'm thrilled at the number of people who have visited my blog to sign up for the set of three handmade lavender sachets that I am offering and if I reach 125, which is my goal, I will be adding a second prize of three more sachets. I've found so many new-to-me blogs that I want to follow that I know my winter will be a busy one!! Keep an eye on my blogroll for new additions. And thank you to the additional followers I have noticed signing up!

On the home front I'm plugging away at clearing all the summer accumulation out of my back porch so I can store my winter supply of wood under cover for those days when the wind blows hard and the snow falls deep. Slow work as I have two large and two smaller projects on the go for patient customers and those need to take priority. However, today I lit the stove for the first time this year and the warmth is lovely! Nothing beats heating with wood for surrounding you with  cosy comfort. And as they say, it warms you twice: while stacking and lugging, and while sitting cosy by the stove with a cup of coffee and some handwork.

And finally: QUILTING WITH JANET: GETTING STARTED: I haven't forgotten my promise to so many people that I will begin a programme of tips and projects and essays designed to help newbies with their biggest puzzles - I have talked to several other new and not so new quilters who are puzzled by such things as getting your corners to meet up, quilting across spots where several seams come together and things like choice of patterns and colours.
I'm debating starting with all the things you can do with half square triangles - see above! I have located some papers, workshops and lesson plans and will be adding content to the pages you see listed at the side of my blog. If you decide to become a follower, I will give you a heads-up when new content appears on those pages.

Now I really must make myself a hot turkey sandwich and while the gravy is heating up I will lug in  more wood.
See you all later.
Hugs, and warm wishes for a happy Canadian Thanksgiving
Janet

Announcing Fall into Fall - and my giveaway prize is!!

In order to have a very inclusive giveaway, I decided to give a set of three handmade lavender sachets filled with fresh lovely smelling lavender - because this gift can be packaged very small and therefore mailed very economically, I can include everyone, worldwide in this draw! So come along and join in the fun - just leave a comment on this particular post and I will include you for the draw! This is so much fun I think I will soon have a giveaway on my other blog soon too!

Because all the sachets I had for sale at the local Quilt Show and Sale last weekend sold out, the fabrics used might not be the same - and in fact perhaps you would like to choose colours - that's possible too as I am making more at the moment.

Giveaway will be drawn for at midnight my time, on October 15th - hope you win!!!

QUILTS AT THE HARBOUR 12th ANNUAL SHOW AND SALE

An overview of the  Sepember 2009 show

It's that time again!!! The last weekend in September is reserved for the Quilts at the Harbour Quilt Show and Sale and it's hard to believe that we are coming up for our 12th show!
This coming weekend:
WHEN: Saturday Sept 25th from 10AM until 5PM and Sunday Sept 26 from Noon until 5PM
WHERE: West Hall's Harbour United Baptist Church, 885 West Hall's Harbour Road - follow the road around through the Harbour, past the Lobster Pound and on up the hill on the paved road - the church is on the right hand side facing toward Sullivan Road coming in from the west.
WHAT: Quilts and Quilted items, gently used tables for quilters, bakesale table and free light refreshments
              In addition, an opportunity to view a small heritage country church and cemetery dating to the   
             1840's - original furnishings intact
HOW MUCH: freewill offering. All proceeds will benefit the church

Come and bring your friends - a great opportunity for Christmas shopping and for quilters to get new ideas. Buy local and buy hand made!!!!! Green is the trend these days.
                   
See you there!!!!!

WHAT THE QUILTING INDUSTRY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW!

Okay - you've decided you want to learn to quilt - you've visited a quilt show or two and looked at a few sites online and the idea is very appealing. And why shouldn't it be? There are countless numbers of women and men too who are making quilts and supporting a multi-million dollar business in the process.
Just think of the number of fabric designers, quilt designers, sewing machine dealers, long arm quilting machine dealers and long arm quilters, the notions business, thread business, local quilt stores, quilt teachers, quilt retreat operators and on and on and you get an idea of what I mean.

My very strong feeling is that in the rush to get to something new, finish as many pieces as possible and take the next popular set of lessons, we have become driven by the industry's need to forever innovate and grow their markets, and our own creative processes have been left to one side while we are encouraged to follow te latest trend and do it "exactly as it is shown in the magazine".
.
Do we really need to have the latest sewing machine with all the bells and whistles that we may never use? Do we even need a sewing machine? Personally I have had a love/hate relationship with my two sewing machines - a 35 year old Bernina which was state of the art back when I bought it in the early 70's, and my chain store 'el cheapo' I bought when my Bernina needed service and we had no trained service person within 600 miles! Yikes! We do now, thank goodness for Jean Hunjtley the Bernina Lady.
I eventually came around to thinking hand piecing ,although slow, was the way forward to accuracy for me and in fact was a lot faster and more self-affirming than picking stitches out.

Do we need all the notions that are being pushed on us - special acrylic rulers for this and that with special patterns and instructions? What is wrong with one omnigrid ruler with some angles etched on it?
And what is wrong with making your own templates and marking and cutting pieces individually? I do have a rotary cutter and a self healing cutting board  but I'd be hard pressed to tell you where the cutter is right now - haven't used it in months!

Do we need the very latest fabric release?

In case you haven't been looking closely at what fabric designers are releasing, there seem to be a lot of copycat fabrics out there - what you need to do is be aware of what your favourite designers and fabric companies are doing, what colours you prefer and look really closely at their output - many fabric lines use the same basic hues and choices can be made among them interchangeably - for example Minick and Simpson's last three or four lines have been easily interchangeable with one another, so if you find full price hard to do you can look for 'remaindered' fabrics and buy on sale at a considerable discount - you don't have to have the exact same fabric as the pattern shows - the world doesn't end and actually no one will even notice if you don't. You definitely don't need "special occasion" fabrics - Xmas, thanksgiving, hallowe'en, patriotic etc your colour choices will send the message.

We do need quality though - some fabrics that are remaindered or end up in the chain stores are made from lesser quality greige goods - the undyed fabric - and are a poor choice as they become flimsy and wear out quickly once the sizing is removed by the first wash - so buy first quality but on clearance.

Books and Patterns: I have a stack of books as high as I am and a huge cache of patterns and yet I rarely open a book or follow an actual pattem.

Why is that?

For starters, when I began to make quilts about 20 years ago I bought one very good "how to" book - Fons and Porter's Quilter's Complete Guide which was written before all the innovations in quiltmaking happened so I was instructed on how to draft a quilt block, basic quiltmaker's math and basic handquilting - all skills that are now lost to many newer quilters. From this book I learned the particular hints and tricks unique to quiltmakers as I already had the basic sewing skills I needed. I have a few copies in stock - they are hard to find now - out of print.

I buy patterns every chance I get if they tell me something useful to add to my design skills but I seldom actually sit down and follow one pattern from start to finish - in this way my quilts never become just like someone else's. I am still stunned when I visit an online site selling high end quilts and see one made from a kit or a pattern - what's the point in that?

These are a few points I want to make to help you free up your creativity from the strictures of popular quiltmaking. I will be adding several articles shortly expanding on the topics discussed above.

<><><><><><>

<>

<><><><><><>

<>   <><><><> 

<>

<>

<><><><><><>

Minick and Simpson Stars and Irish Chain using their Wiscasset line

"old faithful"

Please accept my apologies for the repeat pictures and their poor placement. It appears Blogger is having some glitches. I will attempt to straighten things out later!!