With only a couple of hours worth of time, I completed a set of dishtowels for a good friend and had enough extra time and fabric for a second set that I will put aside for a future time and need.
When you give just a little time, thought and effort, you can tell those around you that you really do appreciate them.
It is a message that we all love hearing.
One of the small gift ideas I like to give is a set of dishtowels. I told you that the gift didn’t need to be and should not be elaborate.
I often embroider store bought towels, but this time I am taking a few yards of muslin and stitching up the borders for a personal set for a good friend.
The measurements are completely arbitrary. A dishtowel can be functional or simply decorative. I prefer that my offerings are functional. So, I make them half a width of fabric and 20 or so inches long. Because I will be adding a colorful cuff, I only need to hem 3 sides of the towel.
My mother always told me to never show up at anyone’s home empty handed. That is a rule that I didn’t follow for years. But, I think that it is a good rule.
A hostess gift doesn’t have to be fancy. In fact, it should not be too elaborate. It is meant as a small display of appreciation for the effort the hostess put in. They could be a bottle of wine, a small plant or something homemade. All in all, small gifts as a way of saying thank you, or I appreciate you are too few and far between.
Someone with good sewing machine skills is particularly capable of putting together a token specifically designed for the recipient.
I have finished my exercise in QuiltSmart Foundation Piecing. All in all, it was a positive experience. The pieces went together almost effortlessly and the points were perfect. I did have one issue with some instructions that were not quite clear to me, but they were worked out quickly and with very little ripping out.
The larger take-away however, is that this was something that I had wanted to try for a while and I finally did it. There are so many new technologies, tools and techniques that it is difficult to get to all of them.
It is important to try new things. My list of quilt projects to get done is probably a lot like yours. There are more great ideas brewing than there will ever be time to do. I like to try out the biggest hurdle next. QuiltSmart was not exactly a large step out of the comfort zone. They pretty much walk you by the hand through some spectacular piecing, depending on the pattern you choose.
However, the key is to stretch a little bit with each new project. You will never know what you can achieve until you try.
Sewing quilt blocks are all about taking careful little steps over and over again. As technology improves, the tools to make those steps easier have improved.
One example of technology is the fabric in the foundation of the QuiltSmart templates. They have done a number of patterns including Lone Stars, Double Wedding Rings, and Medallions.
I am trying them out with what they call a Mondo Bag and so far it is as quick and easy as they promise.
The reason for foundation piecing is that the resulting quilt block has perfectly sewn points. Everything goes together pretty quickly and with a little care, every scrap of fabric is place exactly where it is supposed to be.
We have so many options for foundation piecing. There is paper piecing where you sew onto the paper and have to pick all of the little pieces of paper out afterwards. This is the paper piecing I usually do.
There is paper piecing where you fold back the paper and it never gets sewn into the fabric.
And there is the kind of foundation that never gets taken out. A company called QuiltSmart manufactures this third kind of foundation.
Here is my first attempt at QuiltSmart Foundation Patterns.
Starting the Mondo Bag -> http://youtu.be/3nu8eIcabyk
Let’s pretend that you have committed to labeling all of your quilts. I have promised that to myself often, but, sometimes I just forget, of don’t get around to it.
I like to write a recipient first, the occasion for the quilt, the date, and my name (my husband and my name if it is a gift from us).
There are many who insist that the name of the quilt be included and the names of quilt blocks used. That is really too much effort for me to make. I would rather be on to my next project.
I think that the important entries should really be the Date and the name of the artist. That way, in many years, when someone is admiring this antique piece of homemade art, they will know who and when.
And they will be able to pass along an important piece of family history.
Sandra asks about labels if you don’t hand embroider and you don’t have an embroidery machine.
There are lots of ways to make a quilt label. You can embroider them (that is my favorite) either by hand or machine. You can use permanent markers. You can use ink jet print on fabric.
Inspired by the likes of Leah Day and Susan Brubaker Knapp, I am going to attempt, for the very first time, to write a quilt label with a free motion foot on my regular machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCgcbNJUfVc&feature=youtu.be
Karen
Learn, Grow, Share – And most of all – Create!
After assigning all of the posts and images about quilts and quilt blocks a number and running the numbers through a random number generator, the number came up #1. What are the odds?
The winner is Linda Walling and she chose the neutral kit (rather than the pink one or the blue one).
It will be going out FedEx to her this afternoon.
Of course, the Baby Quilt Pattern is already in the Bed Quilt Library in Online Quilting Classes (http://onlinequiltingclassesmembership.ning.com/).
You can’t have the kit, but access to this pattern and many more is free.
Labeling your quilt adds that extra special finishing touch. Whether it comes in the form of a message to the recipient, a designation for a contest or just a note to posterity, a quilt label is sometimes the only way to identify the who, what and where of a precious heirloom.
There are almost as many ways of creating your label, as there are quilt blocks to make the quilt with in the first place. Permanent markers work, although there are dangers associated with them. Embroidered labels are my favorite. Printing a computerized version can create really unique label. Photo transfer supplies can be useful tools.
We are creating generational pieces of art. It would be a shame to have someone look at a quilt you painstakingly choose fabric for, piece and quilted, shake their heads in 50 years and decry that they really wished they knew who made it.
In the spirit of the current campaign to label quilts, the Online Quilting Classes Baby Quilt Contest will include a machine embroidered quilt label designed in accordance with the winner’s choice of wording.
Just go to http://onlinequiltingclassesmembership.ning.com/ and comment or post a photo to enter.
