Dear Jane, SBS and Frienship Star

Message 32 of 1106

Hi All,

Good evening to everyone. Hope everyone has had a wonderful Saturday. I've had a great week. THE NEW YORK YANKEES ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS, AGAIN!!!!!! WOO HOO!!

Anyway, back to quilting. I've completed approximately 40 blocks on the SBS quilt. I've decided to paper piece the whole thing. No curves or appliques for me. Since Dear Jane has similar blocks, I've decided to READ the instruction book and figure out how to resize and print the patterns. I now know how to do this. I have been printing out patterns since Wednesday and I've run out of foundation paper. I'm getting a bit daring and I look through the blocks in the EQ Block library and I found the autograph star block that we are using for our exchange. Since it is a new month and I owe Ellen her block for this month, I decided to try paper piecing it. I have since looked at my list and I think I owe Cathy Burt her block too, so I'm going to do these two and then I think I'm done. If I have left anyone out, please let me know and I'll send you your block too. I'm trying to get all my swaps done soon, so I can concentrate on the Dear Jane and the SBS. I'm doing them both in pink/white with 6" blocks. The next two that I do will be a purple/black in 4" blocks, for the DJ and whatever colors the quilt shop sends in the block of the month for the SBS. I will be updating my album with all the new blocks, but I'm not ready yet to do that. (I really wish I could get rid of that blinking blue box on the bottom of the page, very annoying.)

So, that's what's new for me. Have a great rest of the weekend and keep the piece.

posted by Renee929

Renee,
I'm with you about the Yankees. I was so happy we won!

You sound very busy with Dear Jane and SBS. I'm making two SBS a month with another group. For most of them I'm still using the Anita Grossman Solomon strategy.

Last Tuesday, I took a workshop with Carol Doak who spoke at our guild. She is very funny and she gave us some great tips for making paper piecing easier. .

She suggests using a 90/14 and 1.5/8 sts to the inch, the 90 need makes a larger hole which makes it easier to tear the paper away. Of course the tiny stitch makes more holes too, another thing that makes removing the paper easier.

She also pieces assembly line fashion. That's for her patterns where you have to make four sections exactly the same and sew them together into the finished block.

For putting two sections together, she puts the two pieces together and taps the edges on the table asyou would with playing cards. Then she pins the top corners, pins next to "crucial" points that have to match, then 3 " away from that, and three inches away from them until the edge is pinned. Most people would pin in the middle but Carol says that that screws everything up.

It WORKS. really. I'll post a picture of my center block tomorrow.

Ginny

posted by Ginnymc
about 1 month ago

I have Carol's DVD that I watched after the fact. But I have incorporated some of her methods. And I'm using some of her blocks in my SBS and Dear Jane quilts. I've finished the first of the two paper pieced autograph stars and it came out great. I think I may have forgotten how to regular piece as I have been paper piecing for almost a month. Now that my swap requirements have been met for this month, I can finish my secret Santa swap for another group and then I can finish my birthday swap with the Carol Doak group. How lucky you are that you were able to take a workshop with her. I'm going to see if I can get my LQS to get her. I'll be up there on Monday and I'll ask. They had Kaffe whatever his name is, so it's not wishful thinking. We shall see. I think I will do the other block tomorrow and put them in the mail on Monday. Thanks Ginny for all your help with the SBS. I'm looking forward to getting my book sometime this month. I have plenty to keep me busy until then. Renee

posted by Renee929
about 1 month ago

Omigoodness! We went to a pre-wedding cocktail party last night and that ONE vodka and tonic must have scattered my brains!

I forgot the crucial point about the pinning. Carol lengthens her stitch to 3.5 and bastes at strategic spots along the seam - the beginning and end of course and any crucial joins [like points]. Then she checks the point to see if they meet the way she wants. If the join doesn't look right, she can just snip the threads there, adjust the pieces either up or down and then the join is perfect.

She showed us one pitfall when someone had a block that didn't match up. The press on one of the seams wasn't clean. It had left about a sixteenth of an inch of a fold at the previous stitching line. When you figure that the fabric was actually doubled, she had an 1/8" extra fabric. Carol smoothed the fabric over to the edge, rebasted and everything matched. It's interesting that Carol doesn't like the wooden presser or fingers because they don't give a crisp press and can flop away. She showed us the difference and it was very impressive.

Carol's pressing tips:
NO STEAM. It stretches the fabric
Press from the top
Nudge the iron against the seam line to push the fabric over cleanly with no overlap
Press down without moving the iron back and forth to set the seam.

It was so neat having Carol there. My friend who HATES paper piecing left a believer. She just loved her block.

posted by Ginnymc
about 1 month ago

I saw the bit about SBS on Sewing With Nancy and was so enthused I ordered and received the Elm Creek Quilting books and am so sold on them, except 1 book was sent in error, so we are exchanging the wrong one for the right one. My next to the youngest daughter just got married so I am planning the SBS for her, can't wait, thinking about colors right now.

Deb