Oh My Stars!

It's here! My Craftsy class covering my favorite piecing tricks is ready for prime time. Anyone who has been around me for any length of time knows that I have a passion for teaching. Almost every quilt I have designed has started with a list of concepts or tips I want to include in the instructions. I love learning, and I especially love skill building patterns and projects.

Oh My Stars is no different. Even though the blocks range from simple to complex, each one is chock full of hints and techniques that will apply to all of our piecing. I have been piecing quilts since 1975, and I have learned a lot in that time, especially what not to do.

I am thrilled with the details we can see in the close ups. I was concerned, as we were taping, that they might be lost, but Craftsy's commitment to creating quality videos shines through. Really guys, these are not You Tube!

Honestly, I have been addicted to Craftsy classes since the web site went live just a couple of years ago. They have a fantastic range of classes, from quilting to fine art to cooking.

And, just so I can share my addiction, click HERE to receive a 50% discount on the class fee! The discount makes it cheaper than most guild workshop fees, and you'll have me forever! The class never expires, I'm there to answer questions (well, technically, I'm here, but I'll answer questions there), and you can watch it on your tablet! See you there!

On the Radio!

To all of Pat's faithful listeners who have come to visit, welcome!

For my regular visitors, tune in (click HERE) at 4 PM Eastern time, on 11-19-12, to hear the broadcast live. It will be archived, and available for listening anytime.

Pat and I met very early in our careers. We started out just about the same time. I have enjoyed her sense of humor, talent and drive from the very start.

It's been fun to watch as we've each developed our styles and focus, criss-crossing paths every few markets.

Honestly, I have no idea how Pat gets it all done, but she does, and with great verve!

For those new to me, hi!

I'm the oldest of six girls, the mother of four boys and grandmother to two, a boy and a girl. And I'm a new puppy mom. But that's a story for another time.

I married my high school sweetheart as a sophomore in college, one year after I finished hand piecing and hand quilting my first quilt. My theory at the time was "the bigger the stitch, the sooner I'm done." I understand now that poor quilt was basted together.

It's always been my goal (even since I was a little kid), to do things as efficiently and effectively as possible. Perhaps my love of science pointed me that way. Sneaky Piecing is a compilation of all the tricks, tips and techniques I've discovered in my loooong, almost 40 years, (I started prenatally), quilting career.

For a nice little taste of some of my favorite Sneaky Piecing tricks, I've created a pattern for you to download. The block, called Christmas Star, was designed to illustrate more than a dozen different Sneaky Piecing tips. Yeah, this one block. (Imagine what you'll find in the book!)

To download the pattern, click HERE.

The truth is, I'm a teacher at heart. Or perhaps it would be better to say that I'm a pathologically curious student. Finding out how things are made is a joy for me, and then to teach it makes everything complete.

100 Blocks Blog Tour!

Welcome to Applewood Farm. It's so nice to see so many new faces here! It's my turn today to crow about having a block in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks series. (Check in with Quiltmaker to see all the cool designers taking part in this year's blog tour.)

This is my fourth time to have a block included, and it's still an ego rush to be part of the magazine. My name is on the cover this time, too. Double cool.

I'm amazed at the originality with these blocks. Some are lovely, some are graphic, some are silly, and others are just plain cool. Every issue contains interesting and appealing blocks, which tells me that quilters still have lots to say!

This time it's Little Red Posies from me. I love the polka dots, they are just so happy. For applique artists, perfect circles are just plain showing off. But with three simple ingredients, perfect circles are easy to achieve.

 

Gather up a glue stick, a circle punch (it pays to haunt scrapbooking stores), and a sheet of Wash Away Applique Paper. Well, and some fabric would come in handy about now. The circle punches come in all sorts of sizes from teeny-tiny to honkin' big. I find that I use the 1/2, 3/4 and 1 inch sizes the most frequently. The Wash Away paper punches most cleanly through two layers at a time.

 

Press the shiny side of the Wash Away paper to the wrong side of the fabric. The smaller the circle, the narrower the seam allowance needs to be. A heaping eighth inch is all we need for half inch circles, a scant quarter inch will make three-quarter inch circles a snap.  Use the glue stick to turn the seam allowance, voila! perfect circles!

 

Here are just a couple of layout suggestions for our Little Red Posies. Two blocks together make a darling table runner or wall hanging.

 

 

I totally am going to make this. Cut the green border strips at 2 1/2", we can get all four borders out of two strips, cutting a 12 1/2" segment and a 28 1/2" segment from each strip. I cut my bindings at 1 3/4" to 2" wide, we'll need two to three strips for the bindings. Cut the bias stem strips just a couple of inches longer to span from one block to the next to complete the inner circle. Shazam!

 

Isn't this darling? Just four blocks, rotated around the center and it's a nifty little wall hanging or maybe a doll quilt.

 

This is where I tell you to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of the latest issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks.  Since I'm feeling all Christmasy, how about you share your holiday sewing plans?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secret Sewing

The last month has lumbered along, deliciously slow and happily, lacking in much excitement. A body can only take so much excitement, you know.

I'm right in the middle of my three month break from travel. Entire weeks have passed by without leaving home. I've been keeping busy, for sure, but in a most restful, leisurely pace. Most of what I've been doing quilting wise falls into the hated "can't show you yet" category. Currently I'm working on a quilt for Quilters Newsletter's Best Fat Quarter Quilts 2012 issue that will go on sale in December.

I don't know what I was thinking when I designed this pattern. It's fantastically easy and fun to sew. But for some reason I decided to cut squares and draw the diagonal lines instead of just cutting them into triangles.

I hate drawing lines! But I think a lot of quilters perceive it as an easier technique than sewing triangles. That must have been what I had in mind when deciding on the method of construction. Drawing diagonal lines to follow adds time to the process, and, I believe, much less accurate than stitching a bias edge, especially when I'm drawing the lines.

I probably hate drawing lines because I'm not good at it. I'm constantly missing the corners, which broke my litttle perfectionist's heart. Since I'm most likely not the only one who draws skewed lines, here's how I solved the problem. (You long-time-line-drawers are surely sputtering now, but perhaps there are a few newbies out there who could benefit. It could happen.)

Working wrong side up, start by positioning the pencil directly in the nearest corner. Slide the ruler up to it, which compensates for the width of the pencil's lead.

Keeping the ruler tight against the pencil, gently rotate the ruler to position it in the opposite corner, making sure to offset it just enough to account for the width of the pencil lead.

For marking lines that will become cutting lines just a regular old pencil works great for me. It shows up on everything except the darkest fabrics. For those I use a mechanical white chalk pencil made by Bohin. Many chalk markers use wax to bind the chalk into leads. When pressed with a hot iron the wax can melt, binding the chalk to the fabric, giving us the dreaded permanent pencil line. The Bohin leads have no wax, and so far, I've never had them stick around past their usefulness.