Easy Fabric Resist Techniques: New eBook

To contact us Click HERE

Glue gel resist dyeing (detail)
by Cynthia St. Charles.

Have you tried batik dyeing to create new fabric designs?

"...Lisa Kerpoe applies corn syrup as an economical and easy-to-find alternative to sodium alginate, a thickener used as a resist with fabric dyeing techniques. You'll love this kitchen-shelf method of tile dyeing.

Once you download this free eBook, Easy Resist Fabric Dyeing Techniques for Batik-Style Dyeing and Surface Design from Quilting Daily, you'll be creating easy batik fabric in no time." Source: Quilting Daily 16 Jan 2012 (e-zine), used with permission.

QD: eBook has awesome ideas

To contact us Click HERE


Just received this notice from our friends at Quilting Daily:

"our new free downloadable eBook, Quilting for Beginners: 5 Easy Quilt Patterns Plus Lessons on How to Quilt for Beginners, is for you!"

SO I looked into it, and discovered some cute design ideas, and a few good hints. I particularly like the idea of "mini-quilts" to practice with color and design. They are a lot easier to complete than a larger quilt.

New Book: Civil War Quilts

To contact us Click HERE
Last year at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree we had the pleasure of hearing Don Beld speak at the Quilt Breakfast. Don, a popular speaker and quilt historian has a new book out with quilt historian Pam Weeks, entitled Civil War Quilts.

According to the publisher's website,  "With over 170 photos and an engaging text, this books tells the stories of fourteen extraordinary Civil War quilts and the women who made them." The book includes 45 patterns.

Having heard Don speak multiple times I imagine this is going to be a great book for those of us interested in the American Civil War and quilt history.

1812 Preserve the Pensions Quilt AWESOMENESS

To contact us Click HERE
Thanks to Gena Philibert-Ortega for posting this pic on our Genea-Quilters Facebook page.



Here's another view:



This is simply gorgeous. I am sure that it will make quite a splash at NGS Cincinnati, where the first raffle tickets will be sold to support the FGS-NARA 1812 Preserve the Pensions Project.

"The Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Archives, and the genealogical community have started a project to digitize the War of 1812 pension files—a fitting beginning to the bicentennial commemoration of this important war. These images will be available for free. Contributions to this project have already made these files available.
This initiative seeks to raise $3.7 million. Preserve the Pensions! seeks to raise the bulk of the funds before the bicentennial of the start of the war and finish digitization before the bicentennial of the war's end in 2015. With 7.2 million images in 180,000 files, there is much digitization to do."

Just 4 of over 200 quilts

To contact us Click HERE

Sandie Nagy writes
I've sent you just a few of the quilts my mother did.  She did all hand quilting, and the one called "Grandmother's Flower garden, she had to cut each piece separately and then sew brown paper to the back so in all reality she had to do each one twice.  


The Dresden plate was started by my Great-Grandmother (on my dad's side) in 1920's and then my mother finished it.  The quilt w/ the purple ribbon was the last one she did and she finished it 2 weeks before she died.  I had to have binding put on, but she had already made the binding.  I entered it in the Iron County fair, the year after she died and she had taken the top 3 awards.  They were Grand Sweepstakes, Reserve Sweepstakes (on the child's candlewick) and the Judges choice (on the Candlewick Xmas Tree Squirt.)  She was a woman of many talents.  

Too bad she didn't pass some on to me.  But she hated computers and wouldn't even use an ATM. She made over 200 quilts since 1980s.

Baby Blanket

To contact us Click HERE
As you know, my first grandchild - a granddaughter - is due to arrive in April. I started making this blanket at a retreat before I knew she was a she.  Frankly, I was still getting used to the idea of being a grandma.

Over the past several weeks, the blanket came together piece by piece and peace by peace.  There is definitely something therapeutic about making a quilt. As I was sewing along, I imagined the baby.  Her little lips, her little nose, her red hair - because in my mind she has red hair.
The baby, became a baby to me and no longer just the idea of a baby.  Does that make sense?  Aaron and Tasha's daughter.  Josh and Sara's little niece. Our granddaughter.
I added minkie on the back for extra cuddles and quilted it in a design that I had never tried before.  I don't think she'll notice my mistakes.
 The only thing left to do is add a label and the baby:)

The chair dominated the small room.

To contact us Click HERE

I'm playing along with Jenny's Saturday Centus.  Melody passed the link along to me and I had no intention of playing along, but that first sentence kept swimming through my mind and I had no choice. I thought it was supposed to be 100+ words starting with "The chair dominated the small room." I didn't realize that it was 100 words plus the first six words.  I ended up at about 180 - oh well:)

So, here are my 100+ words:
The chair dominated the small room.  Vera was barely visible, slightly slouchedover the quilt that she was hand stitching. It wasn’t that long ago that she came to visit her grandma sitting in asimilar position, in a similar chair, in this very room.  She sighed deeply.
Ted was gone, had been for several years.  The kids were all grown and married, heckeven the grandkids were grown and married. They would call on holidays and come for a visit when they passed throughtown, which seemed less and less often. She couldn’t blame them, but oh how she longed for their company.Pictures lined the TV console. All those cute faces smiling out at her.  She was sure she could remember their namesif she had enough time. Time, that was a funny thing.  It had slipped away so quickly. Yet now, thedays, the hours, the minutes alone in this house, in this room, in this chairdragged on.
“Vera,” came the call from the other room.  She sat up a little straighter. 

Holy Snow Day Batman!

To contact us Click HERE
That's what a friend said when I called her this morning, and boy is she right!  Last night we had a huge down pouring of snow.

Speaking of weather, did you know there is 100% chance of seeing a rainbow today.
I don't know about you, but I can't think of a better way of starting a snowy day than with a little bit of sunshine and a rainbow. The March Block Block for the Hello Sun Quilt Along.

Everyone is doing such a great job getting their blocks done!  This month's give away is sponsored by Clothworks Fabric.  They have donated not one, but two fat quarter bundles of their Everyday Organic Solids. Perfect for adding to our blocks each month.  In fact, our finished quilt just might be designed with solids in mind :)

Since we have two prizes, I went to the Random Number Generator and ran it twice.  The winners of these lovely fat quarter bundles are....flolesage and swrobison!  Congratulations! Send an email with your mailing address to me and I'll ship those off asap.

Remember, there is always time to catch up with your blocks.  Any pictures posted to flickr between today and the end of next month will be entered into the drawing.  Only one picture of each block will be entered.

Have fun spending the day picking out the colors of your rainbow:)

March Winner

To contact us Click HERE
I'm a little late in posting the winner of our March drawing.  Each person that posted a picture in our Hello Sun Flickr group was entered one time into the drawing.

This month, the lovely Rachel Griffith from P.S. I Quilt has offered our winner the quilt pattern of her choice from her shop Rachel Griffith Designs.


These are just of few of the beautiful quilt patterns to choose from.
And the winner is...Cat Patches!Congratulations - I'll send you a message in Flickr with the details.

Winner - Geared for Guys book

To contact us Click HERE
A funny story...I was sitting around a quilting rack doing a little hand quilting with some ladies.

We were laughing, talking and getting to know each other a little better.  Annette and Sue found out that they were related and there was even some talk about match making a couple of the lady's 30 year old kids. Then Marion makes a comment to me, "Hey April, I really want Emily's Geared for Guys book so make sure I win your blog give-away" (insert wink here).  We had a good laugh.

This morning, I entered 1-19 (the # of comments on the last post) into the random number generator on line and it came up with 6.

I counted down 1,2,3,4,5, Marion.  No, it can't be.  I count again...1,2,3,4,5, Marion. Really?! I had an internal battle of "just run the generator again, she'll never know." Then ultimately I decided that I can not discriminate against her just because she is a friend. I promise, it wasn't rigged.  I have noticed on her blog that she has in fact won two other give aways recently - I think she is just one lucky lady.

So congratulations Marion! You can add winning give aways as another one of your super powers!

Pillowcase nightgown tutorial

To contact us Click HERE

They are so easy it’s embarrassing so I thought I would just write out what I did with some of my super fantastic hand drawn pictures instead of making you wait until I feel like making another pair, which might be until the weather gets a lot warmer.  A little lame but hey… here goes!

They are basically a modified pillowcase dress made out of knit. Easy peasy. The two I made were about a girls size 10 so my directions are based on that. Tweak away for bigger or smaller sizes. I made mine with my serger and my machine but I have made them with just my machine before. Use a ball point needle and you’ll be fine since they don’t need to stretch.

First I cut out 2 pieces of fabric for the back and front. I used the width of my fabric for the width and measured from the chest to the knee for the length.   So each of my pieces were about 55” wide x 30” tall. I know that’s a ton of fabric width wise but that’s what makes it look good, especially for knit. For adult sizes I would keep the width the same just adjust the length.

Grab one piece for your front and measure from the top down, on the fold, 1 1/2”. Cut from that mark up to the outside edge corner like so. You only need to do this to the front piece. The back should be straight across the top.

Now you mark the armscye by measuring about 2 1/2” from the outside edge toward the center and 5” down from the top. You want to round the bottom corner so it’s more of a “J” shape than a rectangle and cut through all thicknesses for the front and back piece.

*If you want to make ruffling easier you can sew gathered strips of 4” wide fabric to the bottom of the front and back pieces here and sew them together when you sew the sides up. That’s what I did but forgot and had to edit that in here.*

Now put the front piece on top of the back piece with right sides together and sew down the straight sides.

Fold the armscye edges under toward the inside 1/4” and then another 1/4” and sew along the outside edge.

Fold the top neck edges down 1/4” and then another 1” and sew close to the edge for the front and back. Don’t sew the sides of that seam shut, this is the casing for the tie.

For the neck tie cut a strip of fabric the width of your fabric (55”-60” long) by 4” wide. Fold in half right sides together and sew along the open edges rounding the corners as you go. Leave a space open in the middle for turning. Turn right side out and sew the opening shut.

For the ruffle cut strips of fabric 4” wide and sew them together right sides together. The amount of strips you need will depend on how gathered you want it and how big you are making your jammies.

Sew the ruffle on the bottom right sides together then topstitch to keep it laying nice and flat.  Thread the tie through the casing in the neck and tie in a big fat adorable bow.

I’ll try to answer questions in the comments for all to see. Hope your Monday just got a bit better!

Pin It

Time Flies...

To contact us Click HERE
...whether you are having fun or not - Mary Engelbreit. So you might as well have fun, right?

This month has just flown by in a flurry of sewing, visiting and appointments.  Over the course of  five days, I was at the DMV three times - yes, three!  The first time was on a Friday.  We went to get Josh's license and Aaron's permit.  Apparently we looked at the date wrong and Josh couldn't get his license until the following Monday.  Aaron did get his permit, but barely passed the eye exam.  We squeezed in another visit on Monday, after school and before a dentist appointment.  While we were standing in line, Josh was looking at my license and realized that it was expired.  Since I don't carry my birth certificate around with me, I had to go back again the next day - Oy!

This week it's the dentist (again), the eye doctor and an orthodontist appointment.  It is a pain, but we have actually had a lot of fun visiting during the wait time.  It's one of those moments that you have them entirely to yourself. Plus they are a little nervous so they are chatty :).

More fun ahead - stay tuned for Spring Break 2012 - Wisdom Teeth Removal.  Good times!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with my go to baby gift.


Quick Receiving Blanket

One yard each of two different flannels.  Lay them wrong sides together, trim to 36" square, bind. No need to quilt, the flannel stays together.

These are great to whip up and take with you to bind while waiting at appointments.  Keep a couple on hand for those moments when your husband comes home and says his co-worker's wife just had a baby.

Two fer

To contact us Click HERE
Two sewing days this week and it's only Wednesday - now that is a good week!  Monday's sewing day started off as a birthday lunch for Sue.  Of course when you get more than one quilt maker together, it turns into a day of fabric and sewing.  We ate at a lovely little bistro that Emily blogged about here.  (Don't you love it when someone else does the footwork/blogging for you :)

On Saturday I had to come up with a quick birthday gift and remembered my Cathedral Window Tutorial. It was fresh in my mind because Sue just taught the class at our local quilt guild. So a trip to my local quilt shop was in order, naturally.
A few days earlier she mentioned that she wanted to make a quilt that was just blue and white.  After trying various blues together, I just wasn't feeling it.  Then it occurred to me that rather than try to coordinate a bunch of blues, why not try just one fabric.
 This table runner was made with 12 blocks - 2x6. It took just under a yard of the background fabric and about 1/4 of the blue fabric. I added the buttons for a little sparkle, and it didn't hurt that it covered up some of those not so perfect edges.  It finished up by the end of the day.
Yesterday, at the second sewing day, I was finishing up another one.  This just might be the gift of the year for me. A couple of friends have already given me a color preference :) While at this sewing day, I met this fun lady. I loved her right away, and it wasn't just because she just happened to be participating in the Hello Sun Quilt Along.  She was sweet and bubbly and talk about inspiring...she has only been quilting since January and has already sewn something like 12 quilts. In fact, she finished this one by the end of the day!  She also quilts them all herself.

Hello Sun Cancelled

To contact us Click HERE
April Fools!  Sorry, I couldn't resist :)

I have always had these grand plans for a really good April Fool's Day  prank, but have never had the heart to pull them off. It just seems mean some how.

It is gray and cloudy today.  The pink blossoms on the tree out front pop against the gray sky.  I can't think of a better day to introduce the April Block  for the Hello Sun Quilt Along.


You know what they say...April showers bring May flowers.

Geared for Guys Book Tour

To contact us Click HERE
I was so excited when Emily, over at Crazy Old Ladies, asked me to be part of her Book Tour. First of all let me just brag about Emily a little bit.  This girl is cute, fun, friendly and super talented! Have you seen her new fabric line?

I know! Like I said, super talented.  In addition to designing fabric, Emily has been designing quilts for some time now and has finally come out with her own book.When I saw the cover of her book, I couldn't have been more excited.  Geared for Guys is just what the quilting world is in need of.  All of the guy quilts that I've come across seem to be sports or tool related.  Not that sports and tools don't have their place, but as a mother of two teenage boys that are not interested in team sports or rebuilding an engine, I was thrilled!  They have both glanced through the book and have put in their requests :)
Speaking of glancing through the book, I was so impressed with the full photos and color instructions. One of my favorite parts of the book was the Color Theory section 
Emily has generously offered a free book to one of you.  Actually, to 30 of you, if you have been following along with her book tour.  One of those free books is up for grabs here.  Just leave a comment  telling me about one of the guys in your life that you want to make a quilt for and I will randomly select one winner.  You can also head over to Emily's Etsy shop and order your copy now.The winner will be announced on Friday. Be sure to hop over to P.S. I Quilt tomorrow, for another chance to win.

She's a (New York) Beauty!

To contact us Click HERE
I finished up this 20" mini for the Doll Quilt Swap round 12 on Flickr. And just under the wire, since mailing deadline for international parcels is tomorrow.  I had the top finished for a couple of weeks, but just managed to figure out how to quilt it this weekend.  Nothing like time pressure to crystallize one's thinking!

Here are a couple of close views of the quilting. This is easily the most ornate FMQ I've ever done.  It was actually quite fun!



This little gem finishes at 20" square.  I'm sending it off into the ether, and hoping for the best.  My partner had practically zero presence on the discussion board and in the comment threads, so I really don't know what she'll think of it.  Never mind, I'm hoping for the best.

Reduce and reward

To contact us Click HERE
Some of you know that I am perpetually waging a battle with avoirdupois, to put it fancily.  As fancy as you can get, it doesn't change the fact that I'm carrying around too much weight, and I'm getting to the age where it is beyond difficult to get it off.  I have come to the point where I feel it is my last chance to proact and take control of the situation myself, and if I don't, it will end in tears.  I have been working diligently at this challenge since Boxing Day, and I've been doing it the old fashioned way: physical activity and keeping my caloric intake under 1500 calories per day.  I've been using two main motivational tools to help me along the way.  The first is a Fitbit.  It's a fancy-pants pedometer that measures steps, of course, but also distance traveled, calories and, through the use of the internal accelerometer, flights of stairs.  It uploads data to a website where you can track your progress in a variety of ways.  For example, here is my record for today:

It also does some neat tracking of your sleep - yes, sleep! - you can read about that on their website.  I aim to reach 10,000 steps per day, and I have been largely successful. 10,000 steps is approximately five miles! It has been enlightening to see how much of an effort it takes to reach that goal on a daily basis.  I wore the Fitbit for about a week at my regular pace just to take a baseline, and found that I was mainly hitting around 3500 steps on a normal day.   I don't pay attention much to the calorie information on the Fitbit because I use another tool for monitoring what I eat: myfitnesspal.com.  There are many, many online nutrition monitoring tools, but I like this one for three reasons.  First, it has a very big existing database of food, including Canadian brands.  Second, it has excellent mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad, which allow for use of the built-in cameras to scan the barcode on the nutrition labels of food items and imports the information directly into daily food record, or into the overall database.  So if I have a piece of bread or a glass of milk, I just point my phone at the bar code, scan it, and the calorie and other nutritional information is instantly added to my daily record.  Third, it syncs with my Fitbit, so it knows that I have walked five miles, or however far it is for the day.  My calorie limit is 1500 for the day, but I get an adjustment of a few hundred calories based on my activity level.  I walked over 15,000 steps today, so my adjustment is actually about 550 calories.  In effect, it means that I can eat 1500 + 550 calories and still be on track.  Today I did not "eat my adjustment" - but I need to watch that I don't dip too far into deficit or I will trigger "starvation mode", which is counterproductive for weight loss.  (Everything I am saying here represents my best understanding, but I am not a doctor - well, not that kind of doctor - or a nutritionist, so you should listen to what I say from that perspective.)

If you are still here, you are probably wondering why on earth am I telling you all this! Partly, putting it out in public helps keep me accountable, but there is another reason, too. It is to explain why I have this in my hot little hands:

I have been working on this healthy living project since Boxing Day (December 26 for you non-Canadians or -British) and a couple of weeks ago I hit the milestone of 20 pounds lost.  I was casting about for something to reward myself with, and by chance Oakshott Cottons was having a free shipping promotion.   Add to this the 20% discount on the listed price for not having to pay VAT, and it was too good a deal to pass up.  Plus, I felt that I completely deserved this reward - don't you agree?  (If only I could say that I can stop at these 20 lb! Alas, I must keep going!) Many people have raved about this product, and let me tell you, one cannot overpraise this box of goodness. I do not yet have a project in mind, but one will come, I promise.  If you are looking for a reward, for reducing or any other virtuous behaviour, you could do worse than treating yourself to an Oakshott Colour Box!