Changes Coming - series of tutorials for confident beginners

You could make this quilt as your first big project!

Over the last couple of years I have had increasing numbers of beginning quiltmakers contact me about lessons and where they might find the support they need.

As I see it, potential quiltmakers fall into several categories and need programmes tailored to their specific interests and needs. The first and probably larger group is composed of people who want to make one or two projects that are easy and readily available. They want to have a social experience mainly and secondarily a quiltmaking experience, and are not too interested in going further into the tradition and becoming intensely involved.

The second and smaller group of potential quiltmakers will not be best served by a large, mainly social group such as a guild or a class at the local quiltshop. Instead they are ready to learn all the skills needed in traditional quiltmaking and want to do so from the ground up - and in an organized and detailed way while at the same time exploring their creativity, their access to all art forms and to the history of quiltmaking over the years.

The latter group is the group I am interested in reaching out to and I have given  a lot of thought to how best to serve  their needs.

As I age and as my own quiltmaking business expands rapidly, I have less and less energy to spend on the direct teaching aspects but have spent considerable time in polishing online lessons or tutorials and getting them ready to present to you, and am well aware of the need to provide feedback. This blog seems like the ideal vehicle to serve your needs and I will be interested in hearing from those of you who feel they would like to expand their skills at the same time as they unleash their creative quiltmaking "inner self".

Your comments will help me to gauge the need for this type of tutorial and what the content should include. Don't be shy, talk to me and I will respond to your comments.

Basically I am going to offer this as a free service but may expand to provide at cost simple fabric packs and instructions including templates for a limited number of projects.

See you soon!

Tutorial: Sea Creatures - Part 3

The above illustration is to help you in cutting and basting bias strips to represent seaweed for the sea creatures quilt - choose a fat quarter of muddy green, brown and/or dark plum print. Draw lines at 45 degree angles about three quarters of an inch apart on the wrong side of the fabric. Cut away the short triangle and set it aside.
Next turn over a quarter inch seam allowance and baste it. Then cut away the three quarter inch strip inch along the marked line. Do this until you have as many strips as you will need to make seaweed, and when you have enough, turn over all the strips another quarter inch and pin. Set aside.

Before you go any farther in cutting out fish, starfish, jelly fish turtles, etc, it's time to get a border around the inner part you have pieced. If you are using a print that is directional, as I did, you will first cut a top and bottom strip across the fabric. Each strip should be about 10 inches wide. Fold it over, wrong sides together and right sides outward, and then either drawing freehand or making a paper template, trace shallow a shallow curved line along the inner edges and then pin and cut along the drawn line. Set aside. Measure your side edges of the central piece and give yourself a little extra that you will trim off later. Cut two strips each about ten inches wide, then wrong sides together and right sides outwards, trace another curving scalloped line on the inner edges and pin together and then cut along line. Arrange the four pieces on your work table and carefully turn under scalloped edges and then baste down all four pieces along their scalloped edges.

First pin and then baste the side pieces, You will have first drawn a line on the outside of the pieces about 8 inches from the edges. Then turn over to the wrong side, baste checking that the scallops fit the central pieced section without gapping. Next arrange the top and bottom pieces to fit nicely and to make the edges all fit at 90 degree angles. (Again you can draw a line on the wrong side about 8 inches in from the edge). Baste and check by spreading out on the table and measuring to be sure the quilt top is square and all sides are equal. When you are satisfied, baste and set aside.

Next select prints you will use for fish, turtles, starfish and jellyfish.

I chose two shades of green for the turtle, a beige and a coral for two different starfish, a dark blue, a lighter green and a red and a mustard for fish and the same mustard for a jellyfish. These prints will be compatible with the "Nantucket" style print I am using for border.You can blow up and save to your computer the template drawings - then print them off and cut them out.

The dotted lines on the jellyfish tentacles show where they will be slid under the body of the jellyfish.

Next and last part of the tutorial will address arranging the appliques and sewing them down.