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Feb
17
Pat Sloan’s OP Challenge
Filed Under Color, Designers, Fabrics | 2 Comments
Fabulous quilt designer Pat Sloan has put forth an OP Challenge.
What’s an OP? Orange Pile! Your pile of orange fabric from your stash! How fun.
Pat has already started putting up some notes for quilters who are participating in the challenge. If you’d like to join in the fun and “orange along,” just click the OP logo in the sidebar for all the information.
As part of the OP Challenge, Pat is hosting a virtual weekend retreat from Friday, February 20, through Sunday, February 22. There’ll be a blog hop with prize giveaways, a free block pattern, photos of work in progress, and a tutorial. It should be great fun, as it seems Pat really knows how to throw a party! I’ll be one of the bloggers on the hop and I’m already planning my prize giveaway.
Here’s my Orange Pile. I like orange. This doesn’t even show the orangey-reds.
Cheers,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Feb
10
Spotlight on Maria Peagler
Filed Under Books, Color, Fabrics, Spotlights | 3 Comments
Welcome to my stop on the Color Mastery blog tour! I’m Kay Mackenzie, an appliqué enthusiast and writer, and this is my blog devoted to appliqué — any kind! I’m privileged today to publish this interview with Maria Peagler, author of the new book for quilters, Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts.
Kay: Maria, we met by email through our mutual photographer Gregory Case. Then, amongst the throngs of people at Spring Quilt Market 2008, fortune put us shoulder-to-shoulder not once but twice. I so enjoyed our conversations, and marveled at your calm self-assurance at this huge project of putting out a book about color for quilters. Please tell us about the experiences in your life, both artistic and professional, that prepared you for this journey.
Maria: Color Mastery is my eighth book, and the second I’ve published independently. Because I’m a veteran at writing and publishing, the whole idea of giving birth to this wonderful book for quilters on color was thrilling, and I couldn’t wait to get started. My expertise in writing was instructional design and curriculum development for computer training companies, which basically means I developed classes for highly technical subjects, and made them easy to understand. So you’d come to my class and after one day, go back to work with skills you needed. I’ve taken the same approach to color: one day with me and you’ll really see color differently.
Art has been a part of my life from childhood. My mother was an artist and a musician, and I loved watching her hands with a paintbrush and playing the keys of a piano. I’ve always expressed myself with words and images, and really see them as connected.
Kay: From that background, how did you get started as a quilter?
Maria: I was quite fortunate to have a good friend, Debbie Gerbers, invite me to her quilting guild. Debbie and I both sewed and were newlyweds in our twenties, but I really had no interest in quilting. What I didn’t know is that Debbie belonged to the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild, a nationally-known quilt guild whose members’ quilts have been in Spike Lee films, the Atlanta Olympic Games, and is home to many professional quilters. So when I attended the first meeting with Debbie, I was shocked to see women who were artists. I remember thinking during the guild’s show and tell: I’m in. Whatever it takes to learn how to do this, I’m in.
Kay: That is so cool. I can tell that you found “it” that day. How was it that you became especially interested in color in quiltmaking?
Maria: For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved color. When I was a young girl growing up in the psychedelic 70′s, I loved all the colorful images around me, and I adored drawing and painting, and wanted to be an artist. My parents encouraged me to do something more practical, so I followed my other love of books and writing. When I became a quilter, it was really the color and gorgeous fabrics that appealed to me. I delighted in selecting fabrics and colors for my quilts, but was frustrated by my results. I would sit in my quilt guild meetings and be really disappointed that I couldn’t get the same outstanding results I saw from other, more accomplished, quilters. And so I tried to learn color theory and the color wheel, but I just didn’t get it. It was only once I became a watercolor painter that I understood color theory and how differently it applied to fabric and quilts.
Kay: How did all this come together to inspire you to write a book for quilters about color?
Maria: I was teaching machine quilting in a local shop in Dawsonville, Georgia, called Sew Memorable. Dawsonville is a gorgeous town near the base of the Appalachian Trail, and has many artists and crafters. The shop owner, whose favorite color is brown, was getting a lot of requests from quilters for a color class, and asked me to develop it. I wanted quilters to see color results in one day, without having to wade through a lot of color theory that doesn’t apply to us. I developed an entirely new kind of color class for quilters that was quick, immediately hands-on, fun, and at the end of the day quilters would have a finished quilt top.
And it worked! Quilters who were previously intimidated by color theory were having so much fun and finally understanding how color relationships work in quilts, they forgot all about being frustrated with color theory. I developed my own exercises and projects, but found I was spending a small fortune in paper, ink, and materials. So I decided it was time to put it all in a book. I knew I had something unique in the Color Mastery premise.
Kay: Can you describe what it has been like for you writing this book and marshaling it through the publishing process? How long from concept to print?
Maria: I published Color Mastery through my own “indie” publishing company, and was able to develop a really unique quilting book because I had no limitations on what I wanted to do. First, I didn’t self-publish; many self-publishers do everything themselves, and from experience, I know what I do and don’t do well. So I hired a photographer, book designer, illustrator, and two editors to be on my creative team. Second, I developed a series of exercises that allow quilters to use their own stash to really “see” colors in fabric the way artists do, and show them how to use that new color knowledge to design their own color palettes. Third, I designed quilts that really extended the book’s color exercises, but the projects don’t look like exercise quilts: they’re lap quilts, table runners, wall quilts, and doll quilts. All practical, and in a range of styles from funky, to feminine, to masculine. Fourth, I acted as the book’s sales and marketing team, getting the word out to the quilt industry about this new concept in teaching color to quilters.
The entire process took about 1-1/2 to 2 years, from concept to the book being in quilt shops.
Kay: How do your current publishing efforts fit in with family life?
I have two school-aged sons, and being a mother has been the greatest joy of my life. I don’t want to miss a single moment of their growing up, so I work around their school schedules. Sometimes when I’m gearing up for a big promotion or a deadline I end up working at night after they’re in bed, but my husband owns his own business and understands the life of an entrepreneur.
I’m also aware of being a role model, for not only my own sons, but other students in this area as well, as an author. I live in a rural county where most families live within severely limited means and college is a luxury. I never imagined when I was a child of being a writer: I didn’t know anyone who was a writer, and I’m the first person in my family to attend and graduate from college. I visit the area schools and talk to students about being a writer and getting published, and encourage them to follow their dreams. (Some parents attended these too – I think it’s the great American dream to write a book!)
Kay: You sent me an advance copy and asked if I would like to write a blurb. I was delighted to do so. Here’s what wrote itself, from the right side of my brain, without effort: “I’ve attended several lectures on the color wheel, but none of them made me start thinking about color the way that Maria Peagler’s Color Mastery did. All of a sudden I had fresh eyes, and looked at everything around me with greater understanding. This book is an instant classic.” I’ve been tickled pink to see my blurb appear on your Color Mastery blog and indeed on the Amazon.com detail page
Maria: Most color wheel lectures left me cold, with too much emphasis on rules and limitations of using the color wheel. I wanted to show quilters what I had discovered about using the color wheel, that it’s really a launching pad for unlimited color options and innovative color palettes. I stress how important it is for quilters to keep a color journal, where they start collecting images and ideas for color palettes they love (and those they don’t). Without knowing your own color style, color theory ends up making formulaic quilts. The most common observation I hear from my students is this: “I was making the same quilt over and over again. I didn’t realize what a color rut I was in!” Once you combine your own color vision with color theory, you’ve unlocked the door to endless color options.
I do spend a lot of time on teaching the parts of color theory that are essential to quilters, but I do it in a way that gets quilters working with their fabrics right away, so they can visualize color palettes with their own fabrics. I also stress using the color wheel as a tool: it’s not the focus of my quilts, nor am I a slave to it. I make the color wheel and color theory work for me in my style of quilts.
Kay: I have to tell you that one startling revelation in your book changed my fabric choices forever… for the better! My jaw dropped when I read that the Impressionist painters did not use black, brown, or gray in themselves. After that, I was making a wall quilt, and when I would have reached for gray (because that’s the true color of what I was depicting), I reached for blue-gray instead. It looked fabulous! Would you expound a little more on this topic?
Maria: Some of my favorite parts of the book are the artist’s secrets, where I show quilters how to use color in their quilts the way great masters throughout time have. While I love using black in my quilts, I never realized how much more colorful a quilt would be by using a darker color in its place, like dark blue. It really does work, and gives a quilt far more vibrancy than if you use a simple black. It’s also a great example of how you can use value to increase the color potential of your quilts. Most quilters think of value only in terms of light vs. dark, but it can have a far greater impact on the color in your palettes.
And if you dye or paint your own fabric, you can make a much more colorful version of black by combining dark red, dark green, and dark blue. While I don’t dye my fabrics, I use this technique often in my paintings and sketches, with gorgeous results.
Kay: It strikes me that Color Mastery is coming along just when we quilters need it more than ever! In light of our current ‘economic downturn,” your book helps quilters understand how to wring every last bit of color from, of their stashes. In addition, the exercises reveal what’s needed in the stash, so that the quilter can shop for fabrics wisely and judiciously.
Maria: The emphasis on our fabric stash in Color Mastery really resulted from a need. I wanted to convince quilters that outstanding color results were possible with everyday fabrics, and so I turned to my stash to prove it. I made all the quilts in the book from my limited stash, knowing that if I could develop innovative color palettes for gorgeous quilts using only fabrics I had on hand, any quilter could read the book and go into a quilt store and select fabrics with ease. And, I knew from my classes that using your own fabrics for color exercises helps quilters to better understand color, as they’re using the fabrics that have meaning for them. Looking at a mock-up block that uses someone else’s fabrics teaches little about color.
Kay: Maria has made a sample chapter from her book available for download! (One of the perks of having one’s own publishing company.) 
Visit colormastery.com.
Maria: Thanks Kay, for hosting me at your All About Appliqué blog on my Color Mastery blog tour! I so admire you and other women authors for the creative work they do. And I can’t imagine a better business than quilting in which to write and be an entrepreneur! I love the whole notion of quilts being an art form you can wrap up in and share with loved ones.
Kay: It’s been my pleasure. Readers, ask for Color Mastery at your favorite quilt shop, or order from Maria’s secure distributor AtlasBooks or from Amazon.
Also, be sure to also check out the guest post that Maria did here last October on “Color and Appliqué.”
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Jan
16
Appliqué and juried shows
Filed Under Articles, Baltimore Album, Broderie perse, Designers, Embellishment, Fabrics, Hand appliqué, History, Quilt shows | Leave a Comment
One of my appliqué idols, Jeana Kimball, has written a very thoughtful piece on traditional hand appliqué in today’s quilt-show climate. Jeana’s website is Jeana Kimball’s Foxglove Cottage (be sure to check out her books and patterns) and here’s the link to the article on her Sewing Room blog.
Dec
31
The roosters’ new clothes
Filed Under Designers, Fabrics, Patterns | 3 Comments
My pal Janet Locey, Head Chick at Henscratch Quilting, recently redid her Pecking Order quilt sample in fresh new fabrics from Maywood Studio.
If you like chickens, this is the pattern for you!
It’s available on Janet’s pattern page.
Be sure to bookmark Henscratch for all your Featherweight needs as well. John Locey, the Ruler of the Roost, is a specialist.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Oct
31
Pup Art
Filed Under Color, Designers, Fabrics, Hand appliqué, Quilt shows, Spotlights | 4 Comments
It was easy to choose my favorite quilt from all the entries at the recent Pacific international Quilt Festival.
Paws down, it was Pup Art by Nancy S. Brown of Oakland, California.
In the quilt description, Nancy wrote that she loves animals and they are almost always the inspiration for her quilts, and that Charles Schultz got it right when he said, ‘Happiness is a warm puppy.’
I contacted Nancy and she graciously sent me a little more information about this happy quilt. “I like to make animal portraits with hand appliqué but don’t get to use bright colors (which I love) very often in them. I have been telling my students for years that you can make animals in any colors as long as you keep the lights and darks where they belong. I finally decided to take my own advice. I chose puppies as a theme after making a baby quilt with a blue laborador on it and of course, I just love puppies. I dyed most of the fabric myself and overdyed some black and white prints to add some texture.”
Here are a few of the colorful pups from the quilt, which, as Nancy says, “celebrates those wonderful, bouncy bundles of joy.”
And, it wasn’t just me who was captivated by the puppies. I was delighted to learn that Pup Art won the 2008 PIQF Viewer’s Choice Award!
When I visited Nancy’s website at nancybrownquilts.com, I was reminded of one of her earlier quilts that I had fallen in love with when I saw it at PIQF. Be sure to check out all of her incredible quilts, especially Sunday in the Park with Mittens and look for the papillon in the front row! (Little dog, big fluffy ears.) Unbelievably, Nancy tells me that the papillon in that quilt belongs to a friend of hers and his name is Willie too!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Oct
23
PIQF and Reno whirlwind
Filed Under Designers, Fabrics, Patterns, Quilt shows | Leave a Comment
Every year I look forward to the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. It’s less than an hour’s drive, and I’ve been so many times now that it’s like coming to see an old friend when I catch sight of the convention center.
There’s also a chess tournament in Reno that my husband likes to go to, and I love going with him. While he’s duking it out with worthy opponents over the chess board, I’m on vacation in a grown-up playground. Penny slots and the bingo parlor, so much fun! And, Reno has a fabulous quilt shop, Windy Moon.
Each year I hold my breath to find out the dates of these two events. They’re always close to one another, and sometimes they’re the same weekend. Dang! Just like the previous two years, they were at the same time this year too. I decided to split the difference and try to catch some of each.
So, on Thursday I dropped DH Dana at the San Jose airport, where he caught a quick flight to Reno. I continued on the short distance to the Santa Clara Convention Center and took in PIQF for the day. As always, it’s a wonderful show, very inspiring and full of energy. I took some pictures of a couple of appliqué quilts that I just loved, and hopefully I’ll be able to share them here on the blog if I’m able to get permission from the quilters. And, of course, I thoroughly tromped the vendor aisles. This year my mission was to find fresh fabrics for appliqué. I’ve been working on tons of new designs and was getting a little tired of rummaging through the same old same old fabrics in my stash.
Here’s my haul from PIQF.
The next day, Friday, I dropped all the animals at Bed & Biscuits and set off for Reno. Somehow I got there in less than five hours (I’m pretty sure that’s a record) and hooked up with the DH. We always stay at the Sands Regency ’cause that’s where the tournament is and they give us cheap rates don’tcha know.
The next day, Saturday, I set off for Windy Moon.
It’s not far away from the Sands… I just head for the Holiday Inn that sticks up and it’s on that same little street.
Here’s what you see when you walk in the door. A quilter’s delight!
Just one of the many nooks and crannies stuffed with gorgeous fabric.
I asked if they had any appliqué patterns from local designers, and the ladies directed me to a darling Snowman Advent Calendar from Cutie Patootie Designs.
Here’s my pile, under the famous speckled rock.
After my visit to Windy Moon, I set out south to hunt for another quilt shop that I had seen on-line: Going Batty. I found it with some good directions from their website.
A very pleasant, spacious shop with yummy fabrics.
My fabric finds from Going Batty.
So, it was a great, long, whirlwind weekend. I got to do everything I wanted and had a great time. Dana tied for second in his division and won some $$. If you’re interested in chess, you can read the whole story at Dana Blogs Chess.
And I was very happy with my fabric trove. It’s great to have some new pretty pieces to pull from.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Oct
4
Color and appliqué
Filed Under Color, Designers, Fabrics, Guest posts | 2 Comments
This is quite thrilling. Maria Peagler, author of the forthcoming book Color Mastery, has consented to do a guest post!
Our mutual photographer Gregory Case put Maria and myself in touch with one another, then we found ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder more than once at Quilt Market in May, where much chatting ensued. I was privileged to see an advance copy of Maria’s beautiful book and to write a blurb for the jacket.
Here’s Maria now to clue us in on how to begin our journey to appliqué color mastery.
I’m delighted to be with you here today at the All About Appliqué blog. Thanks, Kay, for inviting me to share about my favorite topic: color. I’ve been quilting for over 15 years, doing piecing and appliqué, and hands down my favorite, and most challenging, part of the process is selecting the color palette for a quilt. For too long, my color results were hit or miss, until I developed my own unique approach to color based on my experience in other artistic mediums, like watercolor (shown below) and colored pencil.
Watercolor by Maria Peagler
When I started as a quilter, I didn’t really understand how to use color effectively in my quilts, so I copied what other, more experienced quilters did. Here’s a block I completed in a Harriet Hargrave Machine Appliqué class. I can’t tell you why I chose these colors, because they certainly don’t reflect my style. I was simply doing what I thought appliquérs were supposed to do.
Because it didn’t reflect my style, I never did anything with it. I believe that’s why we as quilters end up with so many UFOs. We had a great idea that we didn’t quite know what to do with or it didn’t end up as we had hoped.
Fast forward ten years, and here’s my appliqué style now:
What made the difference? Two things really:
- Knowing my own color preferences and style
- Understanding the DNA of color and how to manipulate it for outstanding results
How did I get there?
It certainly wasn’t overnight, and I really had to find my own way. I tried many of the color books out there for quilters, but nothing struck a chord with me. They were beautiful books filled with gorgeous quilts, but I couldn’t relate to any of them. So I started my own color adventure.
First, I kept a color journal. I filled it with photographs of quilts, gardens, furniture, decorating, children’s clothes, artwork, and anything else that had colors that spoke to me. I needed to find out what I loved and why, and this exercise really helped me. I now have about five of these journals and I refer back to them frequently. Knowing my own color style gave the confidence to use a black background on this Christmas appliqué quilt.
Second, I begrudgingly learned color theory. That wasn’t my intention, but I took a watercolor painting class and quickly learned I couldn’t get the results I wanted without understanding the color wheel. It took a lot of practice and many color wheels for me to finally understand why the color wheel is important and how it is a visual map to how colors interact: the closer together colors are on a color wheel, the less contrast they have. The farther apart colors are, the higher their contrast.
For appliqué, contrast is important to make the appliqués stand out from the background and from each other. In the poppy quilt shown below, I used low-medium contrast to define the poppy petals, and high contrast colors (red vs. green, directly across from each other on the color wheel) for the poppy to stand out from the background.
My top three tips for getting outstanding color in appliqué quilts are:
- Start keeping a color journal to develop your unique color vision.
- Make a color wheel using your own fabric stash. I have a fun and easy tutorial on how to do this here.
- Play with appliqués made with colors in varying amounts of contrast to see which color combinations you like best and give your appliqués great definition.
My quilting style transformed after learning color theory, as I had the confidence to not only develop my own color palettes, but my own designs as well. Now that I understood how to marry my color preferences with color theory, I also included my love for drawing and sketching into my own quilt designs.
My background is in technical writing and instructional development, so after finally “getting” outstanding color in my quilts, I immediately thought, “Why hasn’t anyone ever explained colors to quilters this way? Quilters don’t need to know everything about the color wheel, just the stuff that applies to fabric!”
So, I wrote the book I had wished for as a quilter trying to understand color. It’s for experienced quilters who have a stash and like doing quilts that are stunning, but simple to construct. Focus on the color, not on complicated piecing or appliqué instructions. And it has a fun appliqué project I’ve done in two different color harmonies so you can see the stark difference a color palette makes in the same quilt. The book is Color Mastery: 10 Principles for Creating Stunning Quilts, and will be in quilt shops in February.
It’s been so much fun stopping by and chatting with you Kay! I look forward to your book coming out in March and it will certainly be in my quilting library.
Maria
Kay here… visit the Color Mastery website to read more about Maria’s upcoming book.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Feb
21
Sheer fabric elegance
Filed Under Designers, Embellishment, Fabrics, Guest posts, Threads | Leave a Comment
Syliva Landman Rassmussen has been working a lot with all those gorgeous, unusual fabrics and trims that we love, but our pocketbooks cannot always afford. If these luxuriant, spendy fabrics are calling to you, Sylvia has devised a solution with her SheerFabric Elegance kits. Here’s what she has to say about them:
“Do you enjoy the current fashion in embellishing clothing, quilts, and appliqué? My theory is that too much is…well, just wonderful! SheerFabric Elegance Kits make it easy and economical for you to create gorgeous, elaborately embellished designs on wearables, quilts, and needle work.
Hard-to-find sheer fabrics such as silk organza, tulle, lamé, laces, brocades, re-embroidered sheers studded with sequins, flower petals, leaves, shiny rayon floss, fords, threads, and woven trims are color-coordinated and packaged in small amounts. Avoid having to buy whole or half yards of these precious fibers in the few colors available in shops!
SheerFabric Elegance kits are being offered at $25 or 2/$45, including postage, at a special introductory price, until March 1, when they will sell for $30 or 2/$55. See Sylvia’s Web site Order Form for details and to place your order at www.Sylvias-Studio.com.”
Hurry to Sylvia’s website to take advantage of the introductory special!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Jan
1
Wool appliqué
Filed Under Designers, Embellishment, Fabrics, Guest posts, Raw edge, Threads, Wool | 6 Comments
You won’t believe what a fantastic post I’ve got for you to start out the new year, courtesy of appliqué designer Kaye Moore!
I’ve met Kaye a couple of times at her booth at Pacific International Quilt Festival. (I joked with her that she’s one of the reasons quilters want to put an “e” on my name.) This last October, I was drawn into her booth once more by the beautiful appliqué samples hung everywhere.
Kaye works exclusively with wool now, and I asked her if she would be willing to talk about some of the wonders of wool for appliqué. Wow! Kaye, who admits to being “a little bit passionate about wool,” sent me a fabulous, info-packed article! Here it is, in her words. Take it away, Kaye!
“The discovery of wool is simply one of the most wonderful stitching discoveries I’ve ever made. Without a clue to the new path I was about to travel, I purchased a wool kit for a pennyrug at a quilt show several years ago. I completed it quickly and purchased another and another and so on.
I had been in the quilt business, vending at quilt shows around the country, but had not found my “niche”. Thankfully my niche found me. Very quickly my booth became an all-wool booth.
What’s so wonderful about wool, you ask? For starters, you can appliqué without turning the edges under as you must do in traditional appliqué using cottons. Since the wool has been felted during the dyeing process, the edges will not ravel.
What is felting? Felting is the process of washing the wool in hot water, shocking it in cold and drying it in a hot dryer. Wool from old garments or cut from a bolt at a fabric store can be felted using this method. Felting compresses the fibers, making them very tight, thus no raveling.
While many designers recommend fusing the appliqué pieces to the background, I do not recommend that. To me, that defeats the purpose of wool, which is supposed to be soft and easy to sew through. I simply cut out the images to be appliquéd, pin them to the background, and buttonhole stitch them in place. Details such as veins in leaves and flowers, French knots, etc., can be added using simple embroidery stitches.
There may be an occasion when you get a wool that is very loosely woven and no matter how many times you felt it, because of the way it has been woven, it will never felt to the point where it will not ravel. In that instance, I do apply a bonding agent to the back of the piece to be appliquéd, but then I do not bond it to the background fabric, but simply stitch it to the background.
I do tell my customers, however, that if they have used a bonding agent in the past and are pleased with the results, then by all means do so again. Purchase the bonding agent of your choice and follow the manufacturer’s directions.
The traditional stitch for working with wool is the buttonhole stitch, but a primitive overcast stitch can also be used. Wool appliqué can be done by hand or machine.There are a lot of threads available and it’s best to try several to see which one works best for you. I like to use a variety of threads, often mixing them on the same project. Perle Cotton No. 12 and DMC floss are my two favorite threads. Perle Cotton No. 8 works well if the piece you are making has a primitive theme. I think No. 8 is too thick for most projects that are a little more sophisticated. There are also some wonderful hand-dyed wool threads available, many that have been dyed to match the wool. You can also add beading and ribbon embroidery to your wool projects.
Using hand-dyed wools for the appliqués is a delight for those of us to are enchanted with wonderful colors, which vary in depth and hue on a single piece of wool fabric.
All the quilts I have designed using wool appliqué have backgrounds from flannel. My favorite two flannels are Marcus Brothers flannel and Moda’s Marbled flannel. I do not pre-wash the flannel as it often has a sizing agent in it which gives it good body and makes it wonderful to stitch on.
I use flannel for the background of my quilts for three reasons:
1. It is much easier on my customer’s pocketbooks than wool.
2. When you sew the blocks together, you have a traditional seam. With an all-wool quilt, you either have lumpy seams or you must butt the edges of the blocks together and zigzag them. Then you must find a way to cover up where they have been joined.
3. If this is a quilt you are going to hang, you do not have to worry about it sagging. An all-wool quilt can be very heavy and possibly sag with time if it is a wallhanging.
While it would seem logical that quilts made from hand-dyed wool can be washed, I do not recommend washing your wool quilts. Depending on how the wool was woven and how it was felted, there is a possibility it can continue to shrink. I simply don’t think it’s worth taking the chance of ruining your quilt by washing it.
So, how to you care for a wool quilt? About once a year or so I put my quilts in the dryer on “Air” to remove the dust and refresh them. Should your quilt become soiled, you can have it professionally dry-cleaned or use a dry-cleaner packet you purchase at the grocery store. Pennyrugs and table toppers can be spot cleaned. Wool naturally repels water, so a spill can often be blotted up before any harm is done.
Wool projects are great “take along” projects. If you are waiting at the dentist’s office or for a child at an after-school activity, working on a wool project is a great way to pass the time and when completed you have a beautiful gift or treasure for yourself.
If you have not tried working with wool, I suggest you purchase a small project that can be completed quickly – one that has simple details. Once finished, I think you will be anxious to get that second project. I often tell my customers wool projects should carry a warning label because working with wool is addictive. It has certainly proven to be true for me!”
Thank you so much, Kaye! This is great information and all of us appliqué fans appreciate it. Please visit Kaye’s website to see her wonderful wool designs plus some fabulous patterns by other designers.
Here on the blog, hover your mouse over the designers and pattern companies in the sidebars to see others who specialize in wool.
Until next time,
Happy New Year,
Kay
Nov
4
Color caught!
Filed Under Fabrics | 3 Comments
Yikes! I finished stitching the very last block of a loooong project, spritzed the back to remove the water-erasable pen that I had used to mark the pattern for the back-basting method, and left it to air-dry overnight. The next morning I wandered into the studio and was pretty aghast to see that the red fabric had bled onto the white background.
Here’s the back of the block, with the lovely embellishment that was completely underappreciated.
I always pre-wash my fabrics, but don’t generally test them for colorfastness. I’ve had no trouble to speak of with fabric bleeding in my quilting career… but there’s always a first time!
I drank my coffee and considered what to do. I knew there were products designed to pick up excess dye molecules, and I had heard of something called Color Catchers that you could get at the supermarket. I decided to give that a whirl. It would be a Grand Experiment.
I had to go to three places to find the product. I had no luck at the drug store or the supermarket, but found it at the hardware store.
Color Catchers™ are white sheets that you are supposed to throw in the washer with your loads of laundry so that excess dye from one garment doesn’t redeposit on another. I had no idea if it would help my situation or not but thought it wouldn’t hurt to try.
Starting with cold water, I soaked and swished the block in the sink with a Color Catcher and a little detergent. Nothing much happened that I could see. I repeated with lukewarm water, then on to hot tap water, soaking and swishing, soaking and swishing. After a good bit of soaking and swishing… yay!!! The excess red dye came out of the white background fabric and my block was rescued! And the Color Catcher was pink.
My Grand Experiment was a success, and now I don’t have to restitch the block!
Until next time,
Kay
Oct
2
Ultrasuede letters
Filed Under Blanket stitch, Embellishment, Fabrics, Fusible web, Raw edge, Words | Leave a Comment
This cutie was also made for the “Ways With Words” article (see previous post). In the article there are some notes about using Ultrasuede™ for making letters, but there wasn’t room for a photo example, so the quilt didn’t make it into the article.
It’s called “Peek A Boo” (as distinguished from my “Peekaboo” quilt pattern, which was named for a traditional quilt block).
The shy bear was needle-turned and then hand-buttonhole-stitched around the edges. For the letters in his sign, I used fusible web, being careful not to smash down the texture of the ultrasuede when fusing.
Ultrasuede is a slightly fluffy synthetic material that doesn’t ravel, so you don’t have to finish the edges. I used some embroidery floss in a running stitch to embellish the letters and to hold them in place permanently.
The frame and post of the sign are also ultrasuede, which I machine-buttonhole-stitched.
So, quite a mixture of techniques from my appliqué bag of tricks for this little quilt!
Until next time,
Kay
P.S. I got the ultrasuede scraps inexpensively on ebay.
P.P.S. If you’d like to see the other Peekaboo, you are invited to visit my patterns page at Quilt Puppy.
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