Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Liz Withers

Liz Withers of Lizzie's Quilting Palette and Floyd's Sewing Machines came as a special guest to our April guild meeting. What a treat! She taught us about the fine art of machine applique. She had a bunch of great tips for us and hopefully we all learned quite a bit.
She had the stitch numbers for different computerized machines that correlated with the stitch she likes to use when she machine appliques. If you don't have a computerized machine, you can use a blind hem stitch and "scrunch and shorten" that stitch to work. If possible, the best machine applique stitch is 2 running stitches then 1 jog stitch that catches the applique piece.

Liz also told us about a great product called 5 0 5 spray to use to tack your fabric down. Another thing Liz talked about is spray starch. She says she starches the background piece like crazy (10 times) so it is pretty rigid. She says she starches the applique piece 2 or 3 times also. She taught us that the trick to starching so much and not getting those little annoying white starch flakes everywhere is to rub the starch in as you spray it on. This little tip helps keep those white flakes from appearing.


Liz also told us about a great marking tool, the wonderful purple marker. It is an air erase marker that she loves and they sell at their store on Redwood Road.

This book by Harriet Hargrave is a favorite of Liz's. She loves this book and uses this book to teach applique classes at her store.


Liz talked quite a bit about thread. She said when machine appliqueing, use thread that matches your background fabric, since that is where your straight stitches are laid down. Liz said she loves Superior Threads mono poly for machine appliqueing. It comes in clear or smoke, so you can use either one depending on your background fabric color, light or dark. She said you should never use this kind of thread in your bobbin. It stretches, causes ridges in your bobbin, and messes up your bobbin tension. She doesn't like any clear nylon thread either, it melts and is too coarse. Liz suggests using a lightweight thread in your bobbin like Superior Threads Bottom Line or YLI's Bobbin Lingerie.

Liz told us that she uses a small and sharp needle in her machine while appliqueing. She likes a 60-8 sharp. She said the sharp is just enough sharper than the universal to make a nice little hole when appliqueing. She also said that you will probably need to adjust your upper tension when using this method of machine appliqueing. You will probably have to loosen your top tension and that means you need to move your tension to a lower number. If your tension is too tight, you will see dabs of your bobbin thread poking through on the top fabric.

What a great treat is was having Liz Withers come to our guild meeting. Thanks KayeDawn for arranging this meeting and thanks to Liz for coming and sharing her great ideas with us.

There are more tips she left us with, feel free to comment and leave the tips that you learned.

KayeDawn brought a quilt, Floral Rhapsody, that she made and won a few ribbons with using this technique that she learned from Liz. This gorgeous quilt won Sweepstakes at our very own Wastach County Fair last year and also won 2nd place at the Utah State Quilt Guild Festival in the Machine Applique division. KayeDawn took a 9 month class at Lizzie's Quilting Palette to learn all the fun techniques used to make this quilt. KayeDawn said that there may be another class offered this fall with a different quilt pattern at Liz's shop. Thanks for bringing this quilt for us to see KayeDawn, it is beautiful.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

April Sew and Tell

April's Sew and Tell was wonderful, just like always.


Twila

Beth


Tamera


Tricia's completed Lullaby quilt top!


Michele's retreat mystery quilt from 2006


Michele's retreat mystery quilt from 2007

Michele's applique pattern that Marilyn Toone taught us at last month's guild meeting

Cat


Liz's lullaby quilt blocks


Heather's cute heart wall hanging and her first ever in her entire life, machine quilting!


Barbara

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Charity Quilts

KayeDawn made a cute cute charity quilt and the only picture captured of it is of the back. The quilting is so cute KayeDawn! Good job.

Kathleen and Natalia put this charity quilt together. It was made using the instant blocks we made together as a guild last year. So very cute! Kathleen put it together and Natalia quilted it, and they bound it also. Thanks for your service!


Here is our Charity Quilt Thermometer. Crusan said she had to add a few names to it this month, but we are not getting too far. Talk with Crusan or Wendy if you would like to get a kit to make a charity quilt. You don't have to have a kit, you can just make a quilt and donate it also.



Thursday, April 10, 2008

Our Design Challenge for the month of March was to add embellishments, particularly beads to our ELEMENTS quilts. It was so fun to see what everyone did for their bead work this time around. Some people got really creative and they turned out great.

Connie and Michele, both of the element WATER


Jenny's of the element EARTH


Liz's of the element EARTH


Heather's of the element EARTH


Tricia's of the element EARTH

The next step in our Design Challenge is to quilt, bind, and label our quilts to prepare for the June 5th ELEMENTS Design Challenge Quilt Show! Hooray!

Thanks for the fun magnets Shantelle, they are so cute!

Remember the quilt show at the library in June also. It would be super if we could all display our ELEMENTS quilts together! Sherron is in charge of the library show, contact her with any questions.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

April cool tool and tip

Barbara had our cool tool and tip for the month and she told us about needles, what kind for what job. She had a paper to handout to everyone and if you didn't get one I am sure she has more. Using the right needle for the right job is key to get the best results in your piecing, quilting, appliqueing, or whatever else you may be doing.
Barbara also had some great prize drawings to go with it, thanks Barbara. Listen to Barbara, she said to change your rotary cutter blade and get some nice scissors too!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

April Queen Bee

Cathy is our April Queen Bee and she brought a few fun quilts to share with us at our guild meeting this month. This one has a fun story to it. She saw this quilt done in spring colors at a quilt shop and loved it. She pointed it out to her husband who was shopping with her and told him how pretty she thought it was and how nice that quilt would look in their camping trailer. They left the store but he turned sneaky on her. He called the store, told them that his wife loved one of the quilts they had displayed, which one it was, and had them make up a kit for her. He took pictures of the inside of their trailer, sent them to the shop and they made her up a kit with coordinating fabric, thread, and the pattern. He gave it to her as a gift, I think she said birthday. So very cute!! She said she didn't realize that it had flowers on it until she began making it. What a good guy she has!


This one is for her grandson, so very cute. The embroidery on it is darling.

This one is a Buggy Barn pattern, Crazy Goose Chase or something like that. The colors are beautiful! Cathy has her own long arm quilting machine so she quilted these herself, and they are all wonderful. Look at the links to the right to see Cathy's business information. What a great addition she is to our guild. Thanks for sharing Cathy! See our newsletter for more of Cathy's story.