On the Go! FabricPlate FREE Webinar On the Go! with Janet Lutz of Row by Row Experience and Debra Gabel of Zebra Patterns
Join us for this FREE Webinar! When? Tuesday June 13, 2017 at 9:00 pm EDT Featuring: Michelle Umlauf, National Educator Representing Sulky of America, and Special Guest Debra Gabel, Owner of
Zebra Patterns and Art Director of Row by Row Experience Duration: One Hour Cost: FREE! Project Description: On the Go! FabricPlate Doorhanger In this FREE 1 Hour Webinar you will be walked through making a fun appliqued door hanger for your sewing area by Debra
Gabel featuring Debra s famous FabricPlates that have been collected by quilters all over the world! You will learn Debra s no trace and no reverse applique technique. You will be able to download a FREE Pattern for the project that you can print at home. This project is great for beginners and the techniques demonstrated may be new for the experienced quilter. Overview: -Meet Janet Lutz owner of Calico Gals in Syracuse and the Row by Row Experience -Meet Debra Gabel owner of Zebra Patterns and Art Director of Row by Row Experience -Brief shop tour of Calico Gals and explanation and facts and figures of RxR -Studio tour and explanation of the applique FabricPlate project Demo of Project, tips and techniques
Please Join Us! Tell your friends, too! After the webinar, until midnight get 30% off All Soft N Sheer Extra and Totally Stable Stabilizers. and more!
Can t make everything watch the anytime in it? You can still sign up and receive that s included with the webinar AND recorded webinar at your convenience the future!
Got Thread? FabricPlate made exclusively for Sulky! The Quilt Sandwich
Today is National Sandwich day, so I thought I would give you a couple of tips to improve my favorite kind of sandwich: The Quilt Sandwich! Just in case you are new to quilting, a quilt sandwich is what we call it when you have layered the backing fabric, the batting and the quilt top together. We do this in order to quilt the three layers together so it can, in fact, become an actual quilt. When I first started quilting, the only way to keep these three layers together was to pin (and pin and PIN)
so they would all stay smooth during the quilting process.
Now, however, I don t use pins (YAY!) I use Sulky KK 2000. It is a temporary spray adhesive that holds the layers together perfectly, but doesn t gum up my needle. It holds the layers together long enough for me to quilt, but dissipates after I m done, without any help from me. Or, if I want to hurry it along, I can use a warm dry iron to press the quilt sandwich. Or, if I m not as quick as I thought I d be, I can store it in a zip-lock bag to keep it stuck longer. If that wasn t reason enough to use KK 2000, it is also safe for the environment since it has no CFC s or HCFC s and is ozone friendly. It is also non-flammable and non-toxic so even my quilting friends who have asthma or allergies can almost always use the product. You may have noticed that it comes in a smaller can than some other spray adhesives, but did you know that there is actually 70% MORE usable product in the can? Since Sulky uses an environmentally friendly, heavierthan-air propellant, it takes up less room in the can, so there is a lot more room for the actual adhesive. When making my quilt sandwich, I spray the Sulky KK 2000 onto the fabric not the batting because it will dissipate more quickly on the batting.
Are you making a wall hanging and you want to be sure it will hang straight and flat? Try putting Sulky Soft n Sheer Extra on the back of your quilt top before you make your quilt sandwich and quilt through it. This great stabilizer will iron right onto the wrong side of your quilt top after you square it up and will really hold your quilt nice and flat. It gives just the right amount of stability without making your piece feel stiff. I hope these little hints are helpful! Happy Sandwich Day and Happy Sewing!
Making a Quilt Your Own Part 4 Note: This is the 4th post in a series. Read part 1 here, part 2, here and part 3 here. After I had all the building blocks ready, it was time to figure out how to put together the quilt. I laid out the backing fabric on my cutting table. I have a very large cutting island it the center of my sewing studio. I love this because I can lay out a large wall hanging like this quilt and walk all the way around it. It really helps me decide how I want things to look and where I want them to be. Sometimes just looking at something at a different angle is all you need to get a fresh idea. Some of my best ideas have come from looking at a quilt upside down.
Looking at this quilt upside down is what gave me the idea to make some of the flowers double stacked.
After I got everything where I wanted it, I look a picture (the picture that is above) and I walked away for a couple hours. I looked at the picture of the quilt with fresh eyes to be sure I was ready to commit to this layout. For this particular quilt, I did like this first layout but I have often changed a quilt over and over before committing. I take a picture because the picture gives me a new prospective of the quilt, just like walking around it on the cutting island does.
Once I committed, I pinned and fused the pieces down (remember, I had Soft n Sheer extra on the back of the pieces). This is also when I determine the actual size of the quilt and cut the background fabric. I now layered the quilt top, the batting and the backing. I used Sulky KK 2000 Temporary Spray adhesive to baste the quilt layers together and I began quilting/appliqueing the pieces down.
When choosing threads for my quilting, I almost always use a variegated or Sulky Cotton Blendables thread. As David Taylor says, Life is just too short for single-color thread! I love the dimension that variegated threads give. I actually look at
color over type of thread as well. That means I often use a mix of cotton, rayon and polyester threads. For this quilt, I did the stems in Sulky 40 wt Rayon #2131 Vari-Khakis and the flowers in Sulky 30 wt. Cotton Blendables #4010 Caramel Apple. It is important to pull a fair amount of thread off the spool and lay it on top of what you plan to sew on to audition the thread. Threads, especially Sulky Cotton Blendabes Thread, often look very different off the spool. I used Sulky prewound bobbins in my bobbin for everything. It s nice to not have to switch out the bobbin thread even though the top threads were different weights. As you can see in the picture at the top, I left my flower points loose to add some extra dimension to the quilt top, but beside that, I just basically went around every edge.
For the rest of the quilting, I did echo quilting. I was afraid to do echo quilting for years. It just looked so hard. the truth is, with a walking foot and a little patience, it s a piece of cake! I used Sulky 30 wt Cotton Blendables thread #4040 Biscuit (my very favorite neutral thread!) and I just used the edge of my walking foot as my guide.
I am so happy with the final results of this quilt. I named it My Dresden Garden and it will hang in my quilt guild s quilt show this weekend.
Sorry, I couldn t get up high enough to take a straight-on picture of this, so it looks a little wonky, but it s the same size top and bottom, I promise.
Have you made anything your own recently? If so, what? Share by commenting below. Happy Sewing! Making a Quilt Series Part 3 Your Own Note: This is part 3 in a series. Read part 1 here and part 2 here. After making lots of Dresden Plate blades, and one full circle, I knew I wanted to make these into flowers. I didn t want to box myself into all the flowers being full circles, so I start putting together just twosies and a few foursies. (If you want to add the extra star point between your blades, I highly recommend the pattern Dresden Star by Edyta Sitar)
As I mentioned before, I had purchased a kit for this class, so I made all the blades that I could with the fabric I had. I figured I would probably not use them all but I would rather have them than not.
Once I sewed all the two s and four s up, I decided to figure out how to do the stem. I chose to make half inch bias tape for two reasons: 1. It seemed like a good proportion for even a two-blade flower bud and 2. I had half inch Steam-A-Seam 2 tape so I knew I could fuse it down easily at that size. I cut this on a 60-degree bias and used a Clover Bias Maker to make the stems.
Next I needed to figure out how to do the centers of the full flowers and the bases for the buds and partial flowers. For the centers of the full flowers, I used my Frixion pen, an old CD, Sulky Soft n Sheer Extra Stabilizer and a nice batik fabric. I traced around the CD onto the Sulky Soft N Sheer Extra stabilizer and the fabric.
Then I cut out the circles and put the bumpy side of the stabilizer touching the right side of the fabric.
Now sew around the entire circle.
Pull the Soft n Sheer Stabilizer away from the fabric and cut a small slit in the middle of the stabilizer ONLY.
Clip along the edges, taking care not to clip your seam, and turn the circle right side out. I use a chop stick or an unsharpened pencil to round off the edges.
Now the bumpy side of the Soft n Sheer Extra is on the bottom, which is perfect, because now you can iron your center in place. It will hold the center and the flower in place when you sew it down. For the quarter circles, I used the same CD and Frixion pen. I laid out a 4 blade flower sections and put some Soft n Sheer Extra Stabilizer on top. Since you can see through the stabilizer, I was able to place the CD and trace along the edge. I went about a quarter inch past the edge of the flower. I used a ruler to complete the wedge.
For the green bases of the 2 blade bud flowers, I just eyeballed the size and drew it directly onto the fusible web, then cut them out, but you could do those with Soft n Sheer Extra too if you want.
In Part 4, I will show how I decided on placement, and my machine quilting and applique method for these flowers using a combination of Sulky Rayon Thread and Sulky Cotton Thread. Happy Sewing!